A strange world

Chapter 952 Section 183. Slave Miners

There is a coal mine in the mountains east of Ize Bay. The gangsters brought them here and sold them to the owner of the mine at a price of 5 copper coins per person.

Knowing that he was sold to the mine for only 5 copper coins, Little Smo struggled: "You sold us for 5 copper coins!? Don't touch Uncle Babu! He is too old to work!"

"I didn't expect you to be so strong, not bad." The foreman nodded with satisfaction, gave the gangsters an extra copper coin, and drove them away.

Little Smo still struggled, and was punched by the guards beside the foreman and fainted.

"Drag them away. Send the young one to Peter's Cave and the old one to the Bat Cave." The foreman waved his hand and said.

"Sir, can you allow me to say a few words?" At this time, Lame Babu spoke.

...

Cold, hard, the sound of wind passing through...

These elements constitute a deep nightmare, awakening Little Smo from his coma.

In the dark cave, there were chiseling sounds echoing from afar, and two faint voices not far away.

"I don't know when this damn day will end... Hush, the boy is awake."

"Who are you?" Little Smo couldn't see anything, either he was blind or there was no light.

"Like you, a poor guy caught in here." A young voice said.

"Where are the people who came with me?"

"No, just you."

"Impossible, Uncle Babu is with me... He is an old man."

"Old man?" The young voice exclaimed, "Either you are talking in your sleep or talking nonsense. Who would hire an old man--"

"I came with him!" Little Smo roared, scaring the young man.

"Child, don't get excited." A mature voice sounded, "There are more than just us in this coal mine, your relatives should have been sent to other mines..."

"Where?"

"I don't know, the guard threw you in and left."

Knowing that Lame Babu should be fine, Little Smo was relieved and asked what they were going to do.

Miners have to do very simple things: dig, exchange food, and rest. Now is the rest time.

"Will you live here?" Little Smo wrapped himself in clothes. Although the cave was not cold, it was definitely not warm.

"Live outside in this weather?" The young voice said unhappily: "You don't think the foreman is willing to burn firewood for us?"

Footsteps sounded from a distance, and there was light.

Several guards came with oil lamps and pushed the dining cart over.

Little Smo saw the other two people clearly. They were about the same age as the voice, but they were extremely thin, and they were covered with old clothes as beds.

The guard threw a wooden bowl at Little Smo's feet, and then filled it with a lump of porridge.

"This is your bowl. If you lose it, eat it with your hands."

He saw that the guard gave different portions to the young man and the man. The young man only had half, while the man filled the broken bowl in front of him.

The guard left with the light and the dining cart, and the cave returned to darkness with only the sound of breathing and swallowing.

Small took his share and poured it into his mouth. As for the taste... it's not that bad.

"Why did they hit me the most?" Small remembered the details he had observed before.

"Because you are new here, they will give newcomers three days to adapt."

"You two have different portions."

"Because I mine more than him."

Their food is determined by the amount of ore they dig every day. The more ore they dig, the more food they get. It is said that a lucky miner once dug up a gem. Not only was he rewarded with a large sum of money, but he also regained his freedom.

Small did not believe it. He would rather believe that this was a bait used by the mine to lure them and make them work hard.

"Have a good rest. No matter what you do outside, you are just a piece of firewood here." The young man's self-destructive words came out of the darkness.

"Firewood?"

"You will die after it burns."

He didn't even say his name, and soon he snored.

The man was still awake. He said his name was Jeremy, and he was caught and sold by gangsters like Small. The young man was called Rabbit. Unlike others, he came here on his own.

"On his own?"

Rabbit's snoring stopped.

"His mother was seriously ill and had no money to see a doctor. Rabbit heard from somewhere that the coal mine could make a lot of money, so he came here on his own a few days ago, and was caught."

Jeremy fell asleep soon, and kindly gave Little Small a "bed".

Little Small didn't sleep. He sat on old clothes and realized that everyone here was as poor as himself.

Francois's task was to find Elder and develop the Free Blade.

He and Babu were caught in the mine as soon as they arrived. They couldn't find Elder, but they could develop the Free Blade here...

A new day, or late at night, the guards knocked on the iron sheets to wake up the miners. Little Small relied on the free food for the first three days after he arrived, and ran around and interacted with the slave miners.

When it was time to rest, he divided his food into three portions and gave them to Jeremy and Rabbit.

"What are you doing for me?" Rabbit was stunned.

"Your mother is still waiting for you outside... Don't you want to get out alive?"

After a while, a sniffing sound came from the darkness: "Why not, but how can we get out... You gave me yours, what will you do?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Stop... You're lying, you're thinner than me."

Little Small didn't answer, but instead said, "Do you want to hear my story?"

"Aren't you like us?" Jeremy said.

"Earlier...at that time I was a member of the Xianyu Gang."

Jeremy and Rabbit listened carefully at first, but then their mouths grew bigger and bigger.

"Is this the story you heard from the bard?"

"No, it's all true. The old man I asked after I woke up was Lame Babu."

Rabbit became excited: "Can you really take us out!?"

"Why not? Our Freedom Blade can even occupy a city-state peacefully. But I need your help."

Rabbit quickly asked: "How can I help?"

Little Small imitated Francois's confident tone and said: "There are more than fifty people in this mine, and I want to unite these people."

…

Small's search for someone on the first day worked. When offered to come to their cave tonight to discuss how to mine efficiently, no one refused.

The guards left after delivering the food, not caring what the slave miners were doing in the mines.

Late at night, fifty-three miners came over in the dark, many of them. They may not be interested in what Little Small said, but they never want to be abandoned deep in the mine alone.

The gathering of so many people actually made the cave feel a little warm.

"We don't know each other yet, why don't we introduce how we got in? Jeremy, you go first."