"Ugh... My head hurts so much..." Morgan groaned softly.
He tried to open his heavy eyes. His vision was blurry at first, then slowly became clear.
"Oh? Did you finally wake up? Hahaha! I thought you were dead."
A playful voice came from beside him.
Morgan was startled and forced his head to turn to the side.
There, he saw three burly men sitting on chairs, staring at him with mocking expressions.
"You guys…" Morgan was about to say something when he felt his hands tightly bound by thick, sturdy ropes.
He gasped in shock and struggled to break free, but he couldn't.
"Hahaha! Are you surprised?" The burly man in the middle laughed as he stood up and walked toward him.
Morgan frowned and glared at him.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" he said coldly.
"Oh? You dare to fight back, huh? Looks like the good days you've been having made you think everything was fine," the burly man grinned.
He clenched his right fist and punched Morgan hard in the face.
Morgan's ears rang, and his vision blurred again.
Excruciating pain spread through his body, forcing a groan from his throat.
Not stopping there, the man grabbed his collar and punched the right side of his face.
"Feeling pretty good now, huh!? Tell me!"
Bam!
"Where's your courage, huh!? Where!?"
Bam!
"You're just a weakling who means nothing to us! Feel this pain!"
Bam!
Bam!
Blow after blow rained down on Morgan's face from both sides. The pain was unbearable until he could no longer even groan.
The two other burly men didn't want to miss out on the fun. They joined in, beating and kicking him.
Morgan's helpless body was battered under their oppression.
After fifteen painful minutes, the three of them finally stopped.
They looked at Morgan's pitiful condition. His face was ruined, while his hands and feet were broken.
Several of his ribs were shattered, and his chest had caved in.
Red bruises covered his arms, legs, neck, and face. Blood flowed from his nose, mouth, and ears.
His breathing slowed, like a candle flickering in the middle of a violent windstorm.
"Is he dead?" one of them asked worriedly.
If he died, they would surely be severely punished—perhaps even fired by their superiors.
"Don't worry," the burly man in the middle snorted. "Even if he dies, so what? This place is the deepest part of the mine and has been abandoned for a long time. There's no way the supervisors will come here. Besides, this area is remote, and it would take a long time to find a way out. By the time they find him, he'll already be a corpse."
Hearing this, his two comrades breathed a sigh of relief, then exchanged glances and smiled.
"By the way, earlier I saw that kid get a lot of Arcanox. Let's take it and exchange it with Jack. We can use the money to buy beer at the tavern we usually go to," the burly man said.
The others were delighted. Coincidentally, tomorrow was a rest day, so they could relax until then.
The burly man in the middle glanced back at Morgan, who lay motionless, then spat on the ground before walking away.
The other two followed him and left without hesitation.
***
"Hmmm~"
At the counter, Jack hummed lazily while smoking.
He glanced at the clock, which was almost midnight, with a confused expression.
"What's going on? Why isn't that kid out yet?" He muttered in confusion.
Morgan was supposed to come out at exactly eleven o'clock at night. But an hour had passed, and the kid still hadn't shown up.
Just as Jack was about to go check on him, he heard footsteps mixed with laughter coming from inside the mine.
Three burly men appeared, smiling.
Each of them carried a bucket of Arcanox, except for the man in the middle, who carried two.
"Jack, exchange everything," the burly man in the middle said casually.
Despite feeling that something was off, Jack proceeded to exchange their Arcanox for money.
'A total of two thousand one hundred?' He was stunned.
Getting a thousand from just three people was already a lot, but this—two thousand one hundred?
"What's wrong? Why are you silent?" the burly man on the left asked impatiently.
Jack glanced at him indifferently, then handed over their wages.
After receiving the money, the three turned to leave, but Jack stopped them.
"Wait a minute."
They stopped and turned back, their expressions turning hostile.
"What is it?" the burly man on the right asked.
"Have you seen Morgan? The kid hasn't come out for over an hour," Jack said seriously.
"Morgan? I haven't seen him. Maybe he's still working inside. Besides, we're in different divisions."
After replying indifferently, the burly man on the right immediately dragged the other two away without waiting for Jack's response.
Jack stared at their retreating figures with a gloomy expression.
He realized the three of them were the bullies who liked to harass Morgan.
"I have to check on him," he muttered.
Without a second thought, he stood up and hurried inside.
***
"Hah... Hah... Hah..."
Morgan gasped weakly. His nose was broken, and his throat was filled with blood.
He struggled to breathe, and his chest ached with every breath.
"Am I going to die?" he wondered silently.
If anyone else were in his position, they would surely be overcome with fear.
No one knew where a person went after death. Maybe they would be reincarnated as someone else, or perhaps go to a place called the afterlife.
Morgan didn't know—and didn't care. He wasn't afraid of death at all.
Since losing his sister and Grandma Tina, he felt as though his world had already fallen apart.
His dream of a better life was nothing more than a fantasy.
"Melissa, Father, Mother, and Grandma Tina… we'll finally be together soon," he murmured weakly.
He looked up and saw a faint light, as if the four of them had appeared, waiting for him to join them.
"So, my time has finally come, huh? That's great…"
He closed his blurry eyes and waited for death to arrive.
But suddenly, he felt something beside his left side. When he forced his eyes open, he saw a golden plate at the far end of the cave.
"What is that?"
For some reason, a voice deep in his heart urged him to approach it. He forced his nearly paralyzed body to move.
Every movement was heavy and painful, but driven by sheer determination, he managed to reach the golden plate.
When they were only a few centimeters apart, the golden plate suddenly shot upward.
It exploded for an instant, then reassembled and rushed straight toward Morgan.
Dizziness and nausea mixed together. His blurred vision felt as though it were covered by a hand until everything turned dark and silent.