Episode 5
Jeon looked at the hourglass in his hand.
“What is this?”
His choice of the hourglass had been neither impulse nor coincidence. From the moment he entered the room filled with knickknacks, he had felt a strange pull. The source of that pull was this very hourglass. It was smaller than his palm and engraved with delicate patterns all over. Had the world not ended up in ruin, it would have been an item worthy of collectors’ attention.
Jeon turned the hourglass over. Fine sand began to trickle down.
“Roughly about ten minutes?”
That was how long it took for the sand to fall completely. Meaning, once flipped, the sand fell for ten minutes.
Jeon felt a strange vitality surging throughout his body.
“What the hell is this? Is it related to my Awakening?”
Jeon flipped the hourglass again. The sand particles fell once more. Come to think of it, the sand particles were exceptionally fine. They were finer and redder than the sand of the Red Desert that filled the world. He had never seen sand like this before.
Just in case, Jeon tried using his ability on the hourglass. He wondered if it would react somehow if it was truly related to him.
‘Move.’
He commanded the red sand inside the hourglass. But the red sand merely continued to fall indifferently. Jeon focused once more and tried to move the red sand. But the result was the same.
“Damn it! Was I mistaken?”
Irritably, Jeon pocketed the hourglass. It was an item he had traded for a precious mana stone, after all. He couldn’t just throw it away because it didn’t move as he wished.
Jeon thought the start of his day was truly ill-fated. But the real worst was yet to come for him.
When he returned to his quarters, a man was waiting for him. He possessed a massive build and a ferocious face. As if proving he had lived a rough life, scars covered his face and his bare upper body.
When their eyes met, the man opened his mouth.
“You’re the brat who came yesterday?”
“Yes! But who are you?”
“You little shit! Why didn’t you come to the mine this morning?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you came to work, you should’ve run straight to the mine. Did you think Park Manho would come all the way here to fetch you, you bastard?”
The man’s name was Park Manho. An E-Rank Awakened and the person in charge of the mine.
The mana stone mining city was largely run by two systems: the mine, the core facility, and the defense corps that ran and defended the city where the mine was located. Park Manho was responsible for operating the mine among them. He deployed miners into the tunnels and exclusively managed the mana stones they mined. He was one of the top five figures of power in the mining city.
Jeon made an excuse.
“It’s just that no one called me……”
“This punk is funny. Who do you think you are, expecting to be called? You came to work, so you should come on your own.”
“No, but still……”
“Enough. Just follow me, brat! Don’t get any ideas……”
Park Manho was a veteran of the mining city. Having met his fair share of people, he knew exactly how to control them efficiently. Handling a greenhorn like Jeon was nothing to him.
No, it wasn’t just him. Everyone in this mana stone mine was like that. They were a school of piranhas eyeing prey that had fallen into the water. When easy prey fell in, they would swarm all at once to gnaw it down to the bone. To them, a brat like Jeon was easy prey.
Jeon realized that fact as well. From Old Man Clexy to Park Manho, they were all soaked in greed. The problem was that there was no way to escape their hands right now. He couldn’t reveal the fact that he had Awakened, nor could he defy Park Manho’s orders. Above all, he wasn’t given time to think. They were all pushing him without giving him the leisure to even think.
Jeon thought he was trapped in a filthy situation. He wanted to hold out and not enter the mine, but Jeon knew well that it was impossible. Having entered the mining city, he could not defy Park Manho. Moreover, Park Manho was an E-Rank Awakened. The rank insignia on his wrist indicated that Park Manho was an Awakened.
Not only that, but a martial-class Awakened. They were the most common type, but that didn’t mean they could be treated lightly. They were the type who most efficiently utilized the strength they possessed. He was an opponent that the current Jeon could not handle.
‘Damn it! To think the mine supervisor would come looking for me personally.’
If the bus had arrived safely yesterday, this wouldn’t have happened. There had been many volunteer miners, so Jeon’s absence wouldn’t have stood out. But unfortunately, they had all died to sandworms, and only Jeon had made it in. Not standing out was now stranger than standing out.
When Jeon hesitated instead of following, Park Manho’s eyes changed.
“This brat really—!”
Thwack!
Park Manho struck Jeon.
“Kuk!”
Jeon was sent flying with a cry. Park Manho trampled all over Jeon.
“You bastard! I told you not to get any ideas, huh!”
Thwack! Thud!
Jeon was beaten without even being able to scream. Perhaps because he had Awakened, the pain was less than expected. He felt like he could retaliate if he wanted to. Still, Jeon endured. Now was not the time to resist. It was a time to endure and build his strength. Revenge could come later.
Curled up like a shrimp, Jeon endured all of Park Manho’s violence.
When his anger had subsided somewhat, Park Manho stopped beating Jeon.
“If you get any more ideas or talk back to me one more time, I’ll really kill you. Got it?”
“Yes!”
“If you get it, follow me.”
Without even listening to Jeon’s answer, Park Manho began walking. Jeon rose with difficulty and silently followed Park Manho.
Grind!
Jeon gritted his teeth. His face was a wreck, and bruises formed all over his body. Only because he had Awakened was he able to endure; in the past, he would have been bedridden for days.
Glaring at Park Manho’s back, Jeon thought:
‘I don’t know about the others, but you, I’m definitely going to kill.’
Park Manho didn’t care in the slightest about Jeon’s injuries. Here, miners were nothing but consumables. Consumables that could be discarded the moment they wore out or broke after being used to the fullest. There was no reason to worry about the safety of consumables.
Park Manho arrived at the tunnel entrance with Jeon. A miner was waiting at the entrance. Park Manho spoke to him.
“Issue this brat his gear.”
“Understood.”
The miner hurriedly handed Jeon a pickaxe, a hard hat with a headlamp, and a backpack with several days’ worth of rations.
Park Manho said.
“The cost of the pickaxe and rations will be deducted from your wages. Mine mana stones and put them in that backpack, then come out.”
“Is that all? Aren’t you going to tell me how to mine the mana stones?”
“Shit! Do you need to learn how to swing a pickaxe? You just strike down.”
Park Manho’s voice rose again. The miner who had handed Jeon the pickaxe and backpack shrank back in fear, distancing himself.
Park Manho’s nickname was ‘The Tyrant of the Tunnels.’ He would resort to violence at the slightest mistake. That was why all the miners feared him.
Jeon was dumbfounded. It was absurd enough being shoved into a tunnel blindly, but to not even be taught basic knowledge? This was no different from shoving him toward his death.
Park Manho spoke to the miner.
“Hey! Throw this brat into tunnel nine-hundred-seventy-two.”
“Tunnel nine-hundred-seventy-two, that’s……”
“Stop yapping and throw him in.”
“Y-Yes! Understood.”
As Park Manho’s voice rose again, the miner replied hastily. He grabbed Jeon’s hand and pulled.
“Hey, let’s go.”
“Huh? Yes!”
And so, without any preparation, Jeon entered the tunnel.
Park Manho shouted from behind.
“You, brat! Don’t even think about coming out before you’ve mined mana stones. Remember my words.”
Jeon felt something surge up from his chest.
‘That son of a bitch really……’
He vowed that once he gained power, he would definitely take revenge on Park Manho.
Jeon now clearly understood the nature of the mana stone mine. There were no allies for him here. The weak or those who looked easy were devoured. Everyone had to be considered an enemy, and he had to be on guard.
Jeon blamed himself for letting his guard down after arriving at the mana stone mine. With resolve, Jeon walked the tunnel.
Despite still being near the entrance, the tunnel was extremely narrow. Without the help of machinery, the tunnels had to be dug by human strength, so they were bound to be narrow.
Then the miner spoke to him.
“Think of it as bad luck. You just happened to get caught when the boss is in a foul mood.”
“What do you mean?”
“The boss lost all his money at the gambling den.”
“There’s a gambling den here?”
“Where isn’t there one? Prostitutes, alcohol, drugs—you name it, it’s here. I’m telling you this for your own good, but you’d best not get caught up in such places. You work hard only to make others rich.”
The miner had been here for five years now. The comrades who had come here with him had all either been ruined or lost their lives. No matter how firm one’s will was, getting swept up in the atmosphere led to ruin in an instant.
“If you want to save up and get out, keep your head on straight.”
“What kind of place is tunnel nine-hundred-seventy-two?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there.”
The miner hemmed and hawed. Jeon instinctively realized that the tunnel he had been assigned was no ordinary place.
‘Damn it!’
For a moment he considered fleeing right then, but he soon gave up. Endless desert stretched around the mining city. If he rashly tried to escape, he would clearly die dried up by the sun.
‘For now, growing my ability is the top priority.’
Events had unfolded too quickly, and he still hadn’t been able to gauge the extent of his ability. Once he was alone, he needed to check his ability first. Only then could he form a plan.
Countless forks in the road appeared before Jeon. The miner showed Jeon how to distinguish them.
“Look closely and you’ll see arrows carved at the forks. Red arrows point down underground, and blue arrows point up toward the surface. So when coming out, follow the blue arrows unconditionally. Got it?”
“Yes!”
It felt like they had descended at least several hundred meters underground. Only then did the guiding miner stop.
“This is tunnel nine-hundred-seventy-two.”
Jeon looked at the tunnel the miner pointed to. The deep darkness within seemed to waver, beckoning him to enter.
“You just go in and work.”
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Four people have already died in there. Be careful.”
“Died?”
“They’re dead, I said.”
“What?”
“No one knows why they died. Since everyone assigned here dies, no one wants to enter tunnel nine-hundred-seventy-two. That’s why the boss shoved a newbie like you in.”
“Shit!”
Jeon made a dumbfounded expression at the miner’s explanation. The miner looked at Jeon with an expression of understanding. He too felt guilty for thrusting young Jeon into this place. But there was nothing he could do. He was just another miner who had to do as he was told.
“Pray you come out alive.”
With those words, the miner headed toward his own tunnel.
Left alone, Jeon gazed at tunnel nine-hundred-seventy-two.
“You mean everyone died in there? And you deliberately threw me into such a place? Just because you were in a bad mood. Park Manho, you will definitely die by my hand.”