### Chapter 401 – Room 206, The Curse Room – ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’ (3)
—
In the Mirconium Mine, there are 24 teams of miners, each consisting of a team leader and 20 miners.
That means there are 24 leaders and 480 miners in total.
Being a leader doesn’t exactly mean you’re higher in rank than the miners.
In fact, a leader is simply chosen from the larger, grumpier miners to boss others around.
Mine managers grant this grumpy jerk the power to control the miners at will.
And we all know how that ends.
The leader, being a total jerk, will abuse the miners and embezzle whatever resources or food they can get their hands on.
The miners are filled with rage towards their leader.
Once the Grade 4 citizens start fighting among themselves, the Grade 3 and above mine managers can just sit back and enjoy the show.
They simply have to discipline any overstepping leaders every few months or years.
The miners will express their gratitude for the “mercy” of the upper ranks that punished the corrupt leader.
There’s also a brutal law in place to control the mines.
According to Paradise’s special laws, if a leader dies underground, every miner from that team is charged as an accomplice to murder.
At first glance, it seems absurd to hold all miners accountable; however, digging into history reveals it’s quite an ancient practice known as “Oga Jaktong Law.”
This law prevents miners from even thinking of defying their leaders, forcing them to keep an eye on each other for fear that someone might harm the leader.
*
The whole ordeal started quite simply.
One early morning, Team Leader Peterson sprang up, infuriated when he found a sharp stone where he normally sat in the mine cart.
“Who the hell put a sharp rock in my seat? Who was it?!”
The miners froze in shock, no one daring to answer.
Of course, if Peterson was the type to calmly let things slide, he wouldn’t have been elected leader.
“Oh! So you all decide to keep your mouths shut! I’ll just smack one of you in turn, so step forward!”
Here we go again with this crazy bastard.
As the miners braced for the impending doom, a handsome young man with strikingly pale skin stood up.
“Peterson, are you being a bit unreasonable today?”
“What? You little brat Han Kain—”
In the next moment, something unimaginable happened.
As Peterson lunged to grab Han Kain by the collar, he suddenly lost his balance and fell!
The cart was moving fast down into the mine, creating a rather dangerous situation.
Stunned miners rushed to Peterson’s aid.
Even if the leader was a jerk, nobody wanted to be responsible for a death that could land them in prison.
At that very moment—
Peterson slipped again.
“Ahhh!”
And then—
“Eek! I lost my grip!”
Alongside the young man’s panicked shout, Peterson tumbled off the mining cart.
“Eeeek!”
— CRASH!
In just five seconds, before anyone had time to catch their breath, Peterson was dead.
Naturally, everyone in the cart was left dumbfounded.
“W-we killed the leader!”
“What the heck happened? How did this happen!”
“J-George!”
“What?”
“Didn’t you trip Peterson as he fell?”
“This bastard just—”
As the miners began to blame one another, a calm voice rang out.
“Calm down, everyone. Fighting won’t change anything. Whether George or James tripped Peterson, do you really think the mine manager will care?”
Everyone blinked in disbelief at the young man.
“This is a big deal.”
“…”
“Now everyone’s a murderer, right?”
“…”
“What should we do? If we report back about the leader’s death… We’ll suffer worse than dragging everyone into the underground prisons.”
“So, what do we do?”
“Suddenly, I had a thought. If one leader dies, twenty miners become murderers. Then what if….”
“… What if?”
“What if twenty leaders die? Will the managers still turn 400 miners into murderers then?”
Everyone stared blankly at the young man.
He looked solemn as he continued.
“Let’s steel our hearts. Don’t you think we all deserve to live?”
*
After the cart arrived underground, the pale-skinned young man carefully moved to the right team.
“Team Leader Lloyd!”
“What? You’re not from Peterson’s crew, are you??”
“Your memory really is sharp. Team Leader Peterson has a message for you.”
Wondering if something was amiss, Lloyd entered Peterson’s team area with a grin.
“Now, where’s Peterson?”
“…”
“Where’s Peterson, I said—”
— CRASH!
Immediately, a pickaxe came flying from both sides, repeatedly striking Lloyd’s shoulder and head.
Watching Lloyd turn into mashed potatoes, the white-skinned young man promptly moved to where Lloyd was.
“Miners!”
The miners of Lloyd’s team, swinging their pickaxes in frenzy, turned to look at the young man.
“Something’s happened to Mr. Lloyd!”
When Lloyd’s team heard there was trouble, they rushed over to the next room, only to find Lloyd’s body, now in six pieces.
“What… what is this!”
“Why the hell are you shouting?”
“Are you telling me you guys killed the leader? You crazy bastards—”
“This is a big deal.”
“What do you mean—”
“Our Team Leader Peterson is dead too.”
Lloyd’s team was struck with shock, their eyes wide.
“Now with two leaders dead, forty miners have become murderers.”
“How… how did this happen—”
“What do you think would happen if twenty leaders die?”
The miners’ eyes were now fixed on the young man.
He spoke with a somber expression.
“Let’s steel ourselves. Don’t you think we all deserve to live?”
Soon, madness filled the mine.
At some point, the miners stopped contemplating whether this was the right choice.
Perhaps they needed a “justification.”
A justification to kill the loathsome leaders.
*
One quiet afternoon.
Rupert, a Grade 3 citizen and manager of the Mirconium Mine, was leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee.
At that moment, shocking news reached him.
“What? What did you say?!”
“One leader has escaped, covered in blood! According to his report, the miners have gone mad and are killing the leaders!”
When Rupert, accompanied by a suppression team, arrived at the mine, the situation was already hopeless.
The miners sat around with vacant expressions, and over twenty leaders’ corpses lay scattered on the ground.
At that moment, the emotion Rupert felt was not sympathy for the slain leaders or anger towards the miners.
“This… this is a dismissal! My career is finished!”
In Paradise, the lives of Grade 4 citizens and laborers are insignificant.
A few miners dying wouldn’t influence Rupert’s career; it would be considered a “minor problem.”
…
But what if twenty leaders die and over four hundred miners are dragged into prison?
Tomorrow’s morning headlines would be set, and the wrath of mine owners would undoubtedly rain down upon Rupert.
Just as Rupert’s soul seemed to ascend, a calm voice interrupted.
“This is indeed a big deal.”
Rupert blankly looked up at the pale-skinned young man before him, who, in this chaotic scene of madness and corpses, seemed eerily composed.
“Twenty leaders have been murdered; nearly 500 miners at the scene are now murderers.”
“…”
“Oh dear! Twenty murder cases and 500 murders? Tomorrow’s news will cause quite the stir, huh?”
“…”
“You may face a terrifying responsibility, Mr. Rupert.”
“You little Grade 4 punk! Just—”
“What if we frame it this way?”
Rupert hypnotically nodded, already sensing that this man possessed something truly unusual.
“What if twenty leaders had a serious accident?”
“…”
“We wouldn’t even need to disclose that they were leaders, right? Just say that several Grade 4 workers died in a collapse in the mine?”
“… Are you suggesting we cover up the murders?”
It was madness.
But it was also logical.
Two types of news articles formed in his mind.
On one side was the sensational report of how 500 miners descended into madness and killed each other in the underground mine.
It was obvious that there would be city-wide chaos, and Rupert’s career would end there and then.
On the other side, there’s a simple report stating that during a mining accident, twenty Grade 4 citizens died.
“…”
With a solemn expression, the young man spoke.
“Let’s steel ourselves. Don’t you think we all deserve to live?”
As Rupert nodded in a daze, the young man added one more sentence.
“Oh, and one leader has managed to escape.”
“… You seem to be mistaken; all the leaders met with accidents. Such a tragic event indeed.”
Thus, the incident where 480 miners killed 23 leaders was spun into a tale of twenty miserable laborers who perished in an accident.
*
After resolving the incident, Rupert wiped his brow and reported it to his superiors.
A section of the mine collapsed, resulting in a few Grade 4 laborers’ deaths.
Surely, this isn’t too big of a deal, right?
As expected, the article about the Mirconium mine found in the morning news took up a corner on page two.
In Paradise, the “consumption” of Grade 4 citizens is truly a trivial issue.
However, the face of the miner who had calmly uttered wickedness in the mine filled with madness briefly flashed in Rupert’s mind.
Rupert had a thought.
“George.”
“Yes, Mr. Rupert?”
“What was the name of that brat who was blabbering in front of me yesterday?”
“It was that Grade 4 citizen Han Kain.”
“… I think we need to get rid of him.”
“I agree. He’s quite the irritating fellow, thinking in such a malicious direction. I’ll find the opportunity to deal with him soon.”
“Good. Oh, and there’s still no trusted leader in the mine, right?”
“We’ll pick a new one next week.”
Feeling that he had somehow managed to overcome a significant crisis, a smile returned to Rupert’s face.
Surely, the mine would return to normal.
Two days later, a shocking article appeared in the “Happy Happy Paradise News.”
“Shocking True Story! What’s Really Happening in Section 17’s Mirconium Mine?
According to our investigation, all previous reports regarding a ‘tunnel collapse’ are false.
So what exactly happened in the mine?
According to the heartbroken testimony of Grade 4 citizen Han, several Grade 3 citizens violently abused the Grade 4 workers—”
As Rupert read the article, he felt his soul leave him once more.
Somehow, this incident transformed into one where violent Grade 3 citizens murdered innocent Grade 4 workers—twenty in total.
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