Before he knew it, Yang Ling had hollowed out the Fire Crystal Ore in front of him.
He weighed his pouch — enough to make up the half tael that had been extorted from him.
By now five shichen had passed, and the miners were withdrawing from the vein one after another.
Every one of them looked utterly worn out.
The Fire Crystal Ore was simply too hard; every strike took everything they had.
Thanks to his experience, Yang Ling had shed most of his fatigue and muscle ache, but he put on a thoroughly exhausted act all the same.
Hiding in the shadows, sure enough, he spotted Fifth Brother looking around, apparently checking whether anyone dared put in overtime for no reason.
"I'll throw him off today, so he doesn't watch me day and night."
At that, Yang Ling put on a weary face and shuffled slowly toward the exit.
"Fifth Brother, it's that Yang Ling kid."
A lackey spotted Yang Ling and pointed him out with a grin.
Fifth Brother nodded, pleased.
"The kid's learning."
Turning in Fire Crystal Ore was another daily ritual.
As Yang Ling waited in line, he suddenly heard a burst of cursing up ahead, followed by pleas for mercy.
"Five shichen a day and you can't even scrape together half a tael of Fire Crystal Ore?! You worthless trash! Beat him!"
A steward, seething with rage, had the vein guards lay into a scrawny young man.
The youth screamed and begged as the blows rained down.
Yang Ling swept his gaze around and noticed that whenever something like this happened, most of the miners simply gloated.
"Damn you — you pack of NPCs, you son-of-a-bitch 「Divine Realm」! Once I get out, I'll report every one of you!!"
Unable to bear the beating, the youth cursed outright.
"What are you jabbering about?! Cursing your elders too?! Beat him! If he dies, it's on me!"
The steward was beside himself.
Yang Ling started, then fixed his eyes on the youth.
Name: Zhang Wei
Class: None
Level: 1
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Spirit: 1
HP: 20
Right now Zhang Wei's HP was plummeting; it would soon hit zero.
"He has a Level and HP!"
"He's not an NPC — he's like me. He's a player too?!"
Yang Ling felt a jolt of surprised delight.
He was currently at the Fire Crystal Ore vein outside Qingshan City.
In his half-month and more here, he'd checked the attribute panel of nearly everyone he saw, trying to find another player like himself.
Half a month, and nothing to show for it.
He hadn't expected to run into a player today!
But once the delight passed, Yang Ling felt a headache coming on.
As things stood, Zhang Wei might very well be beaten to death!
"Alright, don't actually kill him — I won't take the blame if Overseer Wu comes down on us."
The steward waved a hand.
At his word, the vein guards stopped at once.
By now Zhang Wei couldn't even curse anymore, only moan and whimper on the ground.
His HP had crashed from 20 down to 1.
"These vein guards all have at least 10 Strength — far above ordinary people. But they're NPCs; they can't level up, so they must have some other way to grow stronger."
"That's the direction I need to look into next."
Just then, the steward looked down at Zhang Wei and said coldly:
"You couldn't scrape together a tael of Fire Crystal Ore, so you don't get a single coin. Go hungry today. If you still can't manage it tomorrow, in a few days you'll starve to death. Figure it out yourself!"
With that, he went on collecting Fire Crystal Ore from the other miners.
Soon it was Yang Ling's turn.
"Only one tael today?"
The steward frowned slightly.
Then he saw the likes of Fifth Brother glaring from a distance, and understood. He gave a snort, then handed Yang Ling ten copper coins.
"Thank you, Steward Niu."
Yang Ling took the ten coppers and thanked him at once.
Steward Niu's expression eased a little.
"If every newcomer were as sensible and hardworking as you, I wouldn't have to bother so much."
With that he waved a hand, as if shooing away a fly.
Yang Ling took the hint and left, pausing on his way to help Zhang Wei up.
The nearby miners shook their heads at the sight.
Stuck in a place like this, and still meddling in other people's business.
Beyond the vein was a village that housed the miners, stocked with everything they needed to eat and drink.
Yang Ling brought Zhang Wei back to his own lodging — a crude little wooden hut that leaked in the rain and let the wind whistle through.
"Wake up."
He tried to rouse Zhang Wei.
But Zhang Wei didn't stir, as if he'd fainted dead away.
"So HP too low makes you black out."
Yang Ling mused. Then he dug a box out from under his bed; inside were the hundred-odd copper coins he'd saved over this time, and a single bottle of wound salve.
He glanced at the wound salve, and its attribute panel surfaced on its own.
「Wound Salve (Defective) — restores 10 HP」
"I'll have even more to spend on down the line, but... I can't just watch him die."
Yang Ling shook his head helplessly, then fed the wound salve to Zhang Wei, along with a couple mouthfuls of water.
He watched Zhang Wei's attribute panel.
Sure enough, the man's HP crept upward.
Roughly 1 point a minute.
When his HP crossed 10, Zhang Wei showed signs of coming to.
"The salve may be defective, but the description said it restores 10 HP, and 10 it is. No fudging there."
"It 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」 yet."
Yang Ling said.
"Hn?!"
Zhang Wei's eyes went wide, then lit up with joy.
"You — you're a player?!"
"Obviously. Who'd bother saving you otherwise?"
Yang Ling said.
"Quick, tell me how to leave the game! I've been trapped here half a month — it's worse than death! The developers of 「Divine Realm」 are a bunch of scumbags! Scumbags!!"
Zhang Wei grabbed Yang Ling's arm, worked up.
Yang Ling's heart sank. So this man couldn't leave either.
He said in a low voice:
"Calm down. I can't leave this place either — I was hoping to ask whether you knew a way."
"You can't either?"
Zhang Wei froze, then muttered to himself:
"What in the world is going on..."
Yang Ling didn't disturb him, turning instead to start repairing his pick.
He still hadn't saved enough to trade for a better one, so he had to treasure this company-issued pick — it was his lifeline!
"It must be a bug. They're probably scrambling to patch it. Once they do, we'll get out."
Zhang Wei seemed to talk himself into it, and looked at Yang Ling:
"What should I call you, brother?"
"Hm?"
A flicker of something odd crossed Yang Ling's eyes.
"You don't know my name?"
The man couldn't see the attribute panel?
"Am I supposed to know your name? Are you famous around here?"
Zhang Wei looked blank.
Yang Ling's expression turned grave:
"When you were mining today — did you notice anything off?"
He seemed to understand now why the man couldn't even scrape together a single tael of Fire Crystal Ore.
If the man couldn't see the attribute panel, he very likely had no experience either.
Without experience to ease the fatigue and muscle ache, and without any training, how could he possibly dig through Fire Crystal Ore?
"Off? Yeah!"
"This damn Fire Crystal Ore is way too hard — I couldn't dig into it at all! That half tael I scraped off with my life!"
Zhang Wei's face went green.
"The developers of 「Divine Realm」 really are a pack of dog-dicks!"