Before he knew it, the Fire Crystal Ore in front of Yang Ling had been completely mined out.
He weighed the cloth pouch in his hand; he had made up for the half-liang that had been extorted from him.
Ten hours had passed by now, and the Miners in the ore vein were gradually leaving.
Every single one of them looked thoroughly exhausted.
After all, Fire Crystal Ore was too hard; every strike required all their strength.
Thanks to his Experience Points, Yang Ling had relieved most of his fatigue and muscle soreness, but he still put on a very exhausted appearance.
Hiding in the shadows, he indeed saw Fifth Brother looking around, seemingly checking to see if anyone dared to work overtime without a reason.
"I'll throw him off today so he doesn't keep his eyes on me day in and day out."
With that thought, Yang Ling immediately put on a tired expression and slowly walked toward the exit.
"Fifth Brother, it's that kid Yang Ling."
A lackey spotted Yang Ling and immediately pointed him out with a grin.
Fifth Brother nodded in satisfaction.
"The kid knows how things work now."
Handing in the Fire Crystal Ore was also a routine they had to go through every day.
As Yang Ling waited in line, he suddenly heard a burst of shouting and cursing up ahead, followed closely by pleas for mercy.
"Ten hours a day, and you couldn't even scrape together half a liang of Fire Crystal Ore?! You trash! Beat him!"
A steward was seen flying into a rage, ordering the Mine Guards to beat a frail young man.
The young man screamed and begged for mercy repeatedly under the blows.
Yang Ling glanced around and noticed that whenever something like this happened, most of the Miners present took pleasure in the misfortune.
"Damn it, you bunch of NPCs! You son-of-a-bitch 【Divine Realm】! Once I get out, I'm definitely suing you all!!"
Unable to endure the beating any longer, the young man lashed out, cursing loudly.
"What kind of gibberish are you spouting?! You still dare to curse at us?! Beat him! If he dies, I'll take the blame!"
The steward was beside himself with rage.
Yang Ling was slightly startled and immediately fixed his eyes on the young man.
Character: Zhang Wei
Class: None
Level: 1
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Spirit: 1
HP: 20
At this moment, Zhang Wei's HP was plummeting rapidly and would soon be reduced to zero.
"He has a Level and HP! He's not an NPC—just like me, he's a player?!"
Yang Ling felt a surge of pleasant surprise.
He was currently at Green Mountain City's Pyrocrystal Ore vein.
In the half-month or so since he arrived, he had checked the Attribute Panel of almost every person he saw, trying to find players like himself.
In the end, he had made no progress whatsoever in that half-month.
He never expected to bump into a player today!
After the surprise, however, Yang Ling felt a bit of a headache.
Given the current situation, Zhang Wei might very well be beaten to death!
"Alright, don't actually beat him to death. I won't take the fall if Supervisor Wu comes down on us."
The steward waved his hand.
Hearing this, the Mine Guards stopped at once.
Zhang Wei could no longer find the breath to curse, reduced to whimpering on the ground.
His HP had also plummeted from 20 points down to 1 point.
"These Mine Guards have a base Strength of at least 10 points, making them far stronger than ordinary people. But since they're NPCs and can't level up, they must have other ways to grow stronger."
"That's also the direction I should look into next."
At that moment, the steward looked down coldly at Zhang Wei and said:
"You couldn't even scrape together one liang of Fire Crystal Ore, so you don't get a single copper coin. Starve for today! If you still can't make quota tomorrow, you'll starve to death in a few days. Figure it out yourself!"
With that, he resumed collecting Fire Crystal Ore from the other Miners.
Soon, it was Yang Ling's turn.
"Only one liang today?"
The steward frowned slightly.
Then, seeing Fifth Brother and his bunch watching like hawks in the distance, he came to an understanding. He couldn't help snorting, then gave Yang Ling ten copper coins.
"Thank you, Steward Niu."
Yang Ling took the ten coins and thanked him at once.
Steward Niu's expression softened a bit:
"If every newcomer were as sensible and driven as you, I wouldn't have to waste so much energy."
Having said that, he waved his hand as if shooing away a fly.
Yang Ling tactfully left, supporting Zhang Wei as he walked away.
The nearby Miners shook their heads upon seeing this.
Even after ending up in a place like this, he still loved poking his nose into other people's business.
Outside the ore vein was a village built for the Miners to live in, fully stocked with food and drink.
Yang Ling brought Zhang Wei to his lodging—a crude wooden hut that leaked water when it rained and let the wind right through when it blew.
"Wake up."
He tried to rouse Zhang Wei.
Zhang Wei showed no reaction, seemingly in a deep faint.
"Do you pass out when your HP gets too low?"
Yang Ling fell into thought, then dug out a box from under the bed. Inside were over a hundred copper coins he had saved up during this time, along with a bottle of healing medicine.
He glanced at the healing medicine, and the Attribute Panel automatically popped up.
【Golden Wound Medicine (Defective): Restores 10 HP】
"There will be plenty more places to spend money later, but... I can't just leave him to die."
Yang Ling shook his head helplessly, then fed the Golden Wound Medicine to Zhang Wei, along with a couple of sips of water.
He watched Zhang Wei's Attribute Panel.
He saw the other man's HP slowly rising.
It increased by 1 point roughly every minute.
Once his HP climbed past 10 points, Zhang Wei showed signs of coming around.
"Even though the medicine is defective, the description said it restores 10 HP, and it actually did—at least it's straightforward."
"Ow, that hurts like hell... Did I log out of the game?"
Zhang Wei groaned and instinctively tried to sit up.
"You haven't left 【Divine Realm】."
Yang Ling said.
"Huh?!"
Zhang Wei's eyes widened, and then he exclaimed in surprise:
"Y-You're a player?!"
"Obviously. Who else but a player would bother saving you?"
Yang Ling replied.
"Quick, tell me how to get out of the game! I've been trapped here for half a month, and it's a living hell! The developers of 【Divine Realm】 are a bunch of bastards! Absolute bastards!!"
Zhang Wei grabbed Yang Ling's arm, shouting frantically.
Yang Ling's heart sank. So he has no way out either?
He said in a heavy voice:
"Calm down. I have no way of leaving this place either, and I was hoping to ask if you had any ideas."
"You don't have a way either?"
Zhang Wei was stunned, muttering to himself:
"What on earth is going on..."
Yang Ling didn't interrupt him. He turned around and began repairing his pickaxe.
He hadn't saved up enough money to buy a better pickaxe, so he had to use this standard-issue one carefully—it was his lifeline!
"It must be a bug. They're probably working on an emergency fix right now. Once it's patched, we can get out."
Zhang Wei seemed to have convinced himself. He looked at Yang Ling:
"Brother, what's your name?"
"Hm?"
A flicker of surprise flashed across Yang Ling's eyes.
"You don't know my name?"
Could he not see the Attribute Panel?
"Should I know your name? Are you famous around here?"
Zhang Wei was somewhat baffled.
Yang Ling's expression turned solemn:
"When you were mining today, did you notice anything off?"
He seemed to understand why Zhang Wei couldn't even scrape together a single liang of Fire Crystal Ore.
If he couldn't see the Attribute Panel, he very likely didn't have Experience Points either.
Without Experience Points to relieve fatigue and muscle soreness, how could an untrained person possibly mine Fire Crystal Ore?
"Off? Hell yes!"
"This damn Fire Crystal Ore is way too hard! I couldn't dig into it at all! That half-liang only came from me scraping like crazy!"
Zhang Wei's face turned green:
"The developers of 【Divine Realm】 are truly a bunch of utter bastards!"