"Move it!"
"Quit dragging your feet!"
"And you—didn't eat breakfast or what? My dog's more useful than you!"
The words barely landed before the whip cracked through the air, striking a ragged conscript laborer. A sharp snap echoed, and a bright red welt bloomed across the hunched figure's tattered clothes.
As if the sight of blood fueled his cruelty, the patrol officer lashed out a few more times, then strode forward, kicking the frail laborer to the ground. Fists and boots followed, the man's pleas for mercy growing shrill and desperate.
The other laborers nearby watched, fear etched on their faces, but none dared speak. Heads down, expressions blank, they kept at their work, terrified of catching the patrol officer's wrath.
Scenes like this were all too common across the sprawling mines.
Wearing the patrol officer's uniform was like being a god in this place.
Chu Mu wore that same uniform.
By his count, he'd been officially on the job for three or four days now…
ევ
"Three days? Or four?"
He glanced away from the scene, up at the cloudy sky, the question popping into his head.
A moment later, he gave a wry chuckle, took a deep breath, and calmed his face.
His expression was unreadable, like still water hiding his thoughts.
The brutal scene unfolded right in front of him, but Chu Mu looked through it like it was invisible.
The mines were vast. In his few days here, he'd barely scratched the surface of their expanse.
Stretching across the hills, some mines were open pits, terraced like funnels, while others were winding tunnels burrowing through the mountains like ant colonies.
Chu Mu stood in the A-Zone of the Nanshan Iron Mine, its only open-pit site.
From the hilltop, he could see the whole pit below, where countless laborers scurried like ants, digging and hauling ore.
Patrol officers like him were stationed around the pit or roamed in squads, keeping watch over the workers.
The shouting and whipping nearby? Just another day here. Chu Mu could spot a handful of such scenes in his field of vision alone.
The worst of human nature came out when people got a little power and used it to make others miserable.
In this era, there were no real checks on power, no consequences for its abuse.
In just a few days on the job, Chu Mu had learned one thing above all: human cruelty.
It was a world apart from the peaceful, modern society he'd known, where information and civility kept the darker sides of humanity in check.
But here, in this time…
The past few days played through his mind, and a quiet sense of relief washed over him.
He was lucky to have landed this patrol officer role right off the bat.
If he hadn't…
His eyes drifted to the laborers toiling nearby.
No famine, no natural disasters, just relative calm.
"Man-made disaster, then?" he muttered to himself.
A pang of gloom hit him, but after a few deep breaths, he buried the faint pity he felt.
A nobody like him had to know his place. Stick to what you can handle—anything more, and you're asking for trouble.
His thoughts churned as he started walking, patrolling his section of the mine.
The A-Zone was split into nine sections, A-1 to A-18.
Chu Mu's team handled A-1, the big southwestern chunk at the top of the pit.
Their job was straightforward: watch the laborers, make sure they worked, and stop any from escaping.
A-1 had about eighty laborers originally, but the county had recently sent thirty more.
Chu Mu's team, including their leader, was eighteen strong.
Eighteen officers for over a hundred laborers—more than enough.
More laborers were coming, but so was talk of expanding the Nanshan Patrol Office.
In these peaceful times, the patrol uniform carried real weight.
"Light the fire! Clear out, everybody!"
Chu Mu paused, eyeing the roaring flames nearby.
After a few days in the mines, he knew the drill.
It was just a mining trick—nothing fancy.
The method was simple: burn a big fire, douse it with cold water. The rapid temperature change cracked the rock. They called it the fire-burst method.
Compared to the heavy machinery or explosives of his old world, it was crude but a big step up from chiseling by hand.
"Could I whip up some gunpowder?" he wondered idly.
The thought didn't last. His knowledge of gunpowder was shaky at best. A lowly patrol officer like him was better off studying books or training with his saber.
Speaking of training, his eyes flicked to his team leader, a hulking figure under a tree a hundred meters away.
The man wasn't in his patrol armor. Shirtless, he threw punches that cut through the air with a whistle, his sweat-slicked muscles bulging like a lean bear under the blazing sun.
Chu Mu had never seen real martial arts in either life, but this guy? No doubt about it—this was the real thing.
One punch, and Chu Mu would be done for.
No exaggeration. On his first day, he'd watched this man punch a thigh-thick tree clean in half.
If a tree couldn't take it, a human body? One hit, and it'd be over—explosively over.
With real skill like that so close, how could Chu Mu not be tempted?
Back in his information-saturated world, what guy didn't dream of legendary martial arts?
And now, with it right in front of him, the pull was irresistible.
But it wasn't that simple.
Chu Mu sighed, shaking his head.
He wasn't the only one who wanted to learn. Patrol work was half-military; a bit of real skill was a no-brainer.
Plenty of officers sucked up to the team leader, and Chu Mu had even seen guys from other teams buttering him up, hoping for a lesson or two.
From what he'd learned, the team leader wasn't the only one in the Nanshan Patrol Office with real skills, but those others? They were out of his reach for now.
…
*(This chapter ends)*