"Good skills!" The Flame Rat leader inwardly praised when it saw the scene.
It didn't sense any spiritual power fluctuations from the other party, and the stick in his hand seemed ordinary. Yet, to be able to locate and accurately kill small buzzing creatures by sound alone, in the lowly and weak ranks of humans, this blind man's combat ability was quite remarkable.
With his strength being recognized, the Flame Rat leader's intimidating power decreased sharply.
Jiang Yuan, having killed another small monster with his stick, slightly turned his head to remind, "Brother, if you continue like this, the few miners we have might be wasted. I hear he wasn't slacking, just got startled by these little things. Losing a miner for that isn't worth it; it'll delay the ore extraction."
Since the boss acknowledged his work ability, stepping in to assist had some persuasive power and might save a life.
"Yes, I wasn't slacking! Stop hitting me!" Wan Mingchuan, who had been diligently working, got whipped suddenly just for dodging a bat creature, and his back was burning with pain, nearly making him faint.
In the face of crisis, he couldn't care about anything else. His reflexes, honed by working in the wilderness, let him roll away to dodge a few whips, continuously using the pile of rocks to evade being beaten to death.
But evading indefinitely wasn't a long-term plan. Cornered with his life at stake, he heard someone speaking up in his defense and quickly chimed in, hoping to win a sliver of chance for survival.
In the few short days of captivity, he secretly inquired and personally witnessed only tragedies.
This spring, when the mine appeared near the village with the wilderness, the rat demons started venturing out nightly to capture mining slaves. His Riverfront Village, as a Level Two settlement, was protected by the Divine Statue of Goddess Nuwa and remained undisturbed. Other small, unprotected villages suffered greatly.
During captures, the rat demons selected and killed the strong for meat; even if brought back for mining, they purposely picked robust youths, beat them half to death, and dragged them out for feasting. To save his life, he diligently worked to avoid mistakes, as survival was the only chance of escaping the demons' clutches; once targeted and injured, death wasn't far.
Despite his patience, he got chosen, leaving him anxious, frustrated, and resentful but utterly powerless against the demons.
The whip cracked several times but mostly missed. The overseer was furious.
"Who do you think you are, daring to..." He wanted to find fault, beat this boy half to death and have a reason to drag him away for meat. To his irritation, the human dared to dodge. His rage clouded his mind so much that the simple-minded rat demon didn't notice its leader coldly watching from not far behind.
Turning and seeing an insignificant human daring to speak out instead of mining obediently, fury ignited, and it raised the Steel Whip's tail to strike.
While advising, Jiang Yuan didn't pause his work, pretending to listen closely but really targeting the hovering bat creatures in the ore pile. He deftly dodged the rat's whip and, with one swift stick strike, killed a small monster.
[Slime +1]
The bat fell, dissolved into blood, and vanished, finally yielding the first spoils of the night.
Noticing the overseer's threat level rising dangerously, Jiang Yuan knew he had to use external forces to protect himself, so he loudly reported, "Boss, our miner team is already few in number. If poorly managed, with too many losses, the workflow will halt. To avoid delaying progress, if miner numbers dwindle, supervising colleagues might have to mine together."
In everyday work, Jiang Yuan detested those who flattered bosses at the cost of others, acting as "green tea" colleagues.
Regardless of company size, there always seemed to be one or two troublemakers. Having been formally employed in eighteen companies and held nearly a hundred temporary jobs, Jiang Yuan was well-versed in dealing with such tricks.
However, he was different from troublemakers who lazed around and took undue credit. He aimed to courageously confront monsters and protect defenseless humans as much as possible.
Firstly, to openly fight monsters and accumulate resources by collecting slime;
Secondly, to negotiate for a better working environment for humans, ensuring casualties aren't too severe;
The third and most crucial point was that while others found that more effort meant more profit and company growth, Jiang Yuan noted that the harder he worked, the more unlucky his boss got, and the faster the company closed. He was trapped in a cycle of working hard, company closure, unemployment, finding a job with difficulty, working harder, and faster closure.
He hoped to wholeheartedly strive for more benefits for the Flame Rat leader, perhaps leading to its downfall and an opportunity for everyone to flee.
"Boss?" The overseer felt a jolt, turning to see the boss indeed standing by the mining area, hurriedly clasping his hands in defense, "Humans are lowly and sly, this guy was slacking, so I whipped him harshly as a deterrent..."
The Flame Rat leader coldly glanced at the trembling and injured youth hiding among the ore piles, gesturing for silence, and turned to the younger Lin Chunxi, asking, "Tell me, was this boy slacking? Speak truthfully!"
Standing at least 1.9 meters tall, its upper body was bare, showing lush fur and muscular build, while its lower half was clad in armored knee pads. Its claws emitted flames, and an immensely thick Steel Whip tail swayed menacingly.
"No, no one dares slack off!" Lin Chunxi trembled all over, hands shaking, even his voice quivering with fear.
Wan Mingchuan looked gratefully at Jiang Yuan for speaking up, frowning as he clenched his teeth against the blazing pain from his back and retorted, "We've been working diligently, never slacking. However, we're terrified of the bats. If bitten, we get drained of blood, but any attempt to evade gets us accused of slacking and whipped by the overseers. Many strong workers have been beaten to death!"
Jiang Yuan quietly rejoiced inside, thinking, "Yes, there are clever miners brave enough to fight back." He dreaded encountering dim-witted cowards who wouldn't even speak up for themselves, rendering his efforts less effective without good comrades.
As expected, the collaborative testimonials quickly darkened the Flame Rat leader's expression.
Jiang Yuan continued rhythmically beating small monsters, subtly stirring the pot, "Boss, I'm new and unclear about team management. May I ask, what happens to miners left severely injured or killed by beatings?"
"What else can happen?" The Flame Rat leader squinted, then instantly reacted, its tail flicking with a whistling sound, unexpectedly throwing the overseer rat three meters away. "Ha, I wondered why so few ores were mined despite capturing so many people. You've been treating miners as reserve rations, even getting picky about it?"
Its primary intent in capturing humans for labor was ore extraction, yet it found the lowly humans too troublesome to manage. It instructed its subordinates to beat those not working hard enough, with injured or dead ones being later given as rewards.
It previously assumed human laziness, slyness, and fragility led to high casualties, only to discover its subordinates exploited loopholes, fabricating excuses to fulfill their ravenous desires by purposefully beating them to death!
Realizing that the very obstacle between it and a long-coveted effective weapon was its subordinates, the Flame Rat leader's internal fury surged like never before, "Daring to deceive right under my nose. Are you secretly consuming those you can't capture while tricking me with lies?"