After a long time, Luo Kai tried his best to move his body. He lifted the floorboards and slid into the tunnel. What happened next made him panic. There was a large-scale collapse in the tunnel. The tunnel that led to Shui Sou's space was completely buried by mud and sand.
He hurriedly tried to dig, but the mud above his head kept falling. The collapse appeared again and almost buried him.
After digging for a while, Luo Kai gave up. He squatted in the tunnel and thought about what to do. Today, he looked at the layout of the prison. The death row prison he was in was in the northwest corner of the prison. The tunnel that was dug was in the southeast direction. If he wanted to escape through the tunnel, he would have to change his route. However, he might not be able to see Shui Sou in the future. Although Shui Sou said that he would never see him again, Luo Kai still had a glimmer of hope in his heart.
…
Time passed little by little. Luo Kai had been working in the mine for more than a month. There were three meals in the mine: morning, afternoon, and night. Every day, it was a stew of rotten fish and shrimps, mixed grain bread, and cornbread. Although the food was bad, it was much better than before. At least he could eat until he was half full. Unfortunately, the consumption of energy was also huge, so his body was still thin.
Every day, he engaged in high-intensity physical labor, causing his height to unknowingly grow by a few centimeters. Visually, he was about 1.8 meters tall. He had become thinner, and his lean body was covered with scars. Most of them were caused by the overseers, and some were caused by fighting with other prisoners.
The prisoners here came from all over the world. Some were prisoners of war, some were abducted slaves. Most of them came from a country called Star Horse. Seongma Province was one of the nine major countries in the Eastern Continent. It was located in the southeast of the continent. South Tooth Island Prison was the largest prison in Seongma Province. It was also one of the most important iron ore production areas.
The productivity of this world was very low. Although steam engines were used on a large scale, the large and bloated body of the steam engine could not work in the narrow mine. Furthermore, gunpowder was said to be very precious. They were only willing to use gunpowder in especially strong ore bodies.
This almost purely artificial mining caused the death rate of the prisoners to be very high. Over the past month, Luo Kai had seen at least a dozen prisoners killed or injured. They were either killed by falling rocks or slipped down the mountain path. Many of them were caused by internal fights among the prisoners.
Most of the prisoners here were brave and aggressive. They would often fight with each other. Sometimes, they would fight over trivial matters. The guards of the mine would turn a blind eye to it for a while. As long as no one died, they would ignore it.
Once they suffered a serious injury, it was basically a dead end. There was no one here to treat them. They could only pray to the heavens that their bodies could survive.
Where there were people, there would be underworld. All the prisoners in the mine had their own small groups. Above the small groups, there was an even bigger group, led by the five fiercest prisoners. They were the legendary prison bullies. No one dared to provoke them. They were the ones who bullied others.
The prison bullies did not need to work. Every day, they would find a cool rock to sleep under. Their work was done by their subordinates. The supervisors did not care about them. They even had a good relationship with some of the prison bullies. Sometimes, the prison bullies would even get a few coarse cigarettes to show off in the crowd.
Luo Kai and the other four prisoners on death row were special. They did not live in the mine but had to work here. Although they avoided a lot of trouble, they also had to abide by the rules here. If you did not join a group, you would be an outcast. Luo Yang contributed a few precious corn cakes he had hidden and joined a small group of yellow people. The other three also joined some small groups.
The only exception was the "mutant" with four arms. He was actually a deformed person. Deformed people were divided into congenital deformities and acquired deformities. Congenital deformities were said to be due to the high rate of deformities in human babies after the catastrophe. Acquired deformities were due to genetic mutations.
Most of these deformed people had some powerful abilities. For example, the four-armed mutant was much stronger than ordinary humans. He could do the work of four or five ordinary people. Therefore, the supervisors liked him very much. No one dared to provoke this kind of "non-human." Several prison bullies even tried to curry favor with him.
He was not the only deformed person in the mine. There was a deformed person with a long tail, a huge tumor behind his head, a three-legged deformed person, and a two-headed one, but the second head had shrunk and died … There were about a dozen deformed people in the mine. These deformed people formed a small group to keep each other warm. They were very reclusive and did not interact with other prisoners. Of course, no prisoners dared to bully them.
In this complex and dangerous environment, Luo Kai had to become as fierce as the other prisoners. Otherwise, there was no way he could get out alive.
For a month, he squeezed out two hours every night to practice the Flexible Body Forging Technique. Although his strength did not increase, his resistance to beatings was much stronger.
Once, Luo Kai fought with other prisoners for a bit of food. The prisoners here were not good people, and they had been doing heavy labor for a long time. They had rich fighting experience and great strength. Soon, they surrounded and beat Luo Kai to the ground.
One against four, Luo Kai did not know any fighting skills. However, he was very tenacious. He treated pain as nothing and exhausted the four prisoners. Since then, very few people had troubled him.
The reason why Luo Kai put so much effort into practicing the Flexible Body Forging Technique was that he finally discovered some magical effects of the Flexible Body Forging Technique. Every time he was beaten, his muscles would squirm slightly. Like a spring, it would remove part of the force. The elasticity of his muscles would become stronger, and his bones would become tougher. There was once when he slipped from a hillside. The hillside was full of gravel. He thought that even if he did not die, he would be crippled.
However, he only suffered minor injuries. This world worshipped personal strength. Moreover, life in the mine was very boring. The prisoners urgently needed to vent. Every once in a while, the mine would hold a gladiatorial competition. The competition was far more brutal than the boxing competition that Luo Kai had seen in his previous life. In the first gladiatorial competition that Luo Kai saw, three people were beaten to death.
The competition rewards were provided by the five prison bullies. Sometimes, the guards and jailers would also participate. Most of the time, the rewards were food or cigarettes. Of course, there was also a hidden reward. If you won many gladiatorial competitions, you would have the opportunity to challenge the five prison bullies. This was the only chance to fight one of the prison bullies.
The treatment of the prison bullies was really enviable. Here, they did not need to work. They could eat to their hearts' content. They could also enjoy the luxuries provided by the guards. There were even rumors that they could come in contact with the "consolation goods" of the local business groups. Other than the lack of freedom, this kind of life was like heaven even in a normal society.