Shackles of Humanity

After a long while, Luo Kai managed to move his body, lifting the floorboard and sliding into the tunnel. To his horror, the tunnel had suffered a massive collapse. The passage leading to the space where Shui Su was had been completely buried by dirt and sand.

He frantically began to dig, but dirt kept falling from the ceiling. Another collapse occurred, nearly burying him alive.

After digging pointlessly for a while, Luo Kai gave up, completely defeated. He squatted in the tunnel, trying to figure out what to do. He had seen the prison’s layout from the outside today; his death row block was in the northwest corner, while the tunnel he’d dug headed southeast. If he wanted to escape through the tunnel now, he’d have to change direction. ’But then I might never see Shui Su again.’ Even though Shui Su had said they would not meet again, Luo Kai still held on to a sliver of hope.

...

Time passed, bit by bit. Luo Kai had now been working in the mine for over a month. The mine provided three meals a day, each one a foul-smelling hodgepodge of rotten fish and shrimp, served with coarse bread and cornmeal buns. The food was terrible, but it was much better than what he’d had before. At least he could eat until he was half-full. Unfortunately, the physical exertion was equally immense, so he remained rail-thin.

The high-intensity manual labor had, without him noticing, made him grow several centimeters. He now stood nearly six feet tall, which only made him look more gaunt. His lean, sinewy body was covered in crisscrossing scars—most from the overseers, the rest from brawls with other prisoners.

The prisoners here hailed from all over the world. Some were prisoners of war and others were trafficked slaves, but most came from a nation called the Xingma Kingdom. The Xingma Kingdom was one of the nine Lordship Kingdoms of the Eastern Continent, located in its southeastern region. This Nanya Island prison was the kingdom’s largest and also one of its most important sources of iron ore.

Productivity in this world was extremely low. Although steam engines were in widespread use, the massive, bulky steam-powered vehicles were unable to operate on the narrow mountain paths of the mine. Moreover, gunpowder was said to be incredibly precious, used only sparingly on the most solid ore veins.

This almost purely manual method of mining resulted in an extremely high casualty rate among the prisoners. In the past month alone, Luo Kai had seen at least a dozen prisoners killed or maimed—some crushed by falling rocks, others slipping and falling from the mountain paths. Many injuries were also the result of brawls between the inmates themselves.

Most of the prisoners here were violent and pugnacious men who would resort to violence at the slightest provocation. They would often break into brutal fights over the most trivial things. The mine guards, for their part, simply turned a blind eye, refusing to intervene as long as no one was killed.

Sustaining a serious injury was basically a death sentence. There was no medical treatment available here; one could only pray to the heavens that their body was strong enough to pull through.

Wherever there are people, a pecking order forms. All the prisoners in the mine belonged to small cliques, and above these cliques were even larger factions, led by the five most vicious inmates—the infamous Prison Tyrants. No one dared to cross them; they were the ones who did the bullying.

The Prison Tyrants didn’t have to work. They spent their days sleeping in the shade of a large rock, their labor quotas filled by their underlings. The overseers didn’t bother them; in fact, they were on excellent terms with some of the Tyrants. Sometimes, the Prison Tyrants could even get their hands on a few thick, hand-rolled cigarettes, which they would flaunt as they swaggered through the crowds.

Luo Kai and the other four death row inmates were in a unique position. They didn’t live at the mine but had to work there. This allowed them to avoid a lot of trouble, but they still had to follow the local rules. If you didn’t join a group, you were an outsider to every group. Luo Kai had to contribute a few precious corn cakes he had stashed away to join a small clique of Yellow men. The other three had also joined small groups of their own.

The only exception was the four-armed ”Mutant.” In truth, he was simply deformed. Deformities were classified as either Innate or Acquired. Innate deformities were said to have become common after a great cataclysm drastically increased the rate of birth defects in human infants. Acquired deformities, on the other hand, were caused by genetic mutations from other specific triggers.

Most of these deformed individuals possessed formidable abilities. The four-armed Mutant, for instance, had Power far beyond that of a normal human. He could do the work of four or five men by himself, which made the overseers quite fond of him. No one dared to provoke this ’non-human,’ and even a few of the Prison Tyrants went out of their way to get on his good side.

He wasn’t the only deformed person in the mine. There was one with a long tail, another with a huge tumor on the back of his head, one with three legs, and even one who had two heads, though the second had already atrophied and died. In total, there were about a dozen such individuals. This group of deformed people formed their own clique, huddling together for survival. They were extremely reclusive and never interacted with the other prisoners. Of course, no one dared to bully them, either.

In such a complex and perilous environment, Luo Kai had to become as vicious as the other prisoners. Otherwise, he would never make it out alive.

For the past month, he had squeezed out two hours every night to practice the Soft Body Technique. While his Power hadn’t increased, his ability to withstand beatings had improved significantly.

Once, he got into a major brawl with other prisoners over a scrap of food. The inmates here were no saints to begin with, and long-term heavy labor had made them both strong and experienced at fighting. They quickly ganged up on Luo Kai, beating him to the ground.

It was one against four. Luo Kai didn’t know any real fighting techniques, but he was incredibly resilient and seemed to ignore the pain completely. He simply wore all four of his attackers down until they collapsed from exhaustion. After that, few people dared to cause him trouble.

The reason Luo Kai practiced his Body Techniques so diligently was that he had finally discovered some of their marvelous effects. Every time he took a blow, his muscles would ripple, dissipating a portion of the force like a spring. His muscles grew more elastic and his bones more resilient. Once, he slipped and tumbled down a slope covered in sharp scree. He had been sure he’d be crippled, if not killed, but he had unexpectedly escaped with nothing more than minor fractures and scrapes.

This world held individual martial prowess in high regard. Life in the mine was mind-numbingly dull, and the prisoners were desperate for an outlet. So, every now and then, the mine organized gladiatorial matches. These bouts were far more brutal than any boxing match Luo Kai had seen in his past life; in the very first one he witnessed, three men were beaten to death.

The prizes for the matches were provided by the five Prison Tyrants, though sometimes the regular guards and the Prison Guards would contribute as well. The rewards were usually food or cigarettes. Of course, there was a hidden prize, too. If you won enough matches, you earned the right to challenge one of the five Prison Tyrants. It was the only chance to fight them one-on-one.

The lifestyle of a Prison Tyrant was incredibly enviable. They didn’t have to work, they could eat until they were stout and brawny, and they enjoyed luxuries provided by the guards. There were even rumors that they had access to ”comfort items” from local merchant guilds. Aside from the lack of freedom, their life would be considered Heaven, even in the outside world.