Chapter 9: Shots Fired - part 1

He ran towards Wuxing and extended his hand to grab the Ethernum crystal. The miner suspiciously watched smiling young man, but seeing no movements from his side, he grinned and got more confident. Unfortunately, just when his fingertips touched the purple crystal, Wuxing moved his hand upwards while sticking out his foot in front of the greedy miner.

The next sequence of events could be easily imagined. The miner tripped and dropped to the ground with his hands covering his face. Obviously, since the ground they were on was not made of sand or a soft soil that could cushion his fall, the greedy miner was bound to sustain an injury. Adding the momentum of him running, everyone knew it wouldn't end well.

"Fuuuck!"

The miner cursed, feeling an excruciating pain on his hands that took all the damage from the fall. Although he was wearing full-body work clothes, they didn't help him at all as they were torn right away by the sharp rocks. His wrists and forearms had large cuts which started bleeding the moment he tried to move.

"I'm sorry, are you okay? I guess I will keep this crystal for you until you get better. Should I call for a doctor?" Wuxing apologized with a worried tone. However, he had a smile on his face and he casually kept the crystal in his pocket, which told everyone how insincere he was being.

"Y-Y-You stole my crystal! Give it back!" the miner immediately cried out and rushed towards Wuxing without thinking. He worked too hard to get this crystal only to have it taken away from him.

The prisoners in the basic level, seeing the situation, especially those that were conned by this miner and needed to vent their resentment, couldn't help but laugh and jeer at him, which angered the miner even more. All of them stopped their work to watch this interesting show. They all wondered how the situation will unfold.

"Oh, here, take it. I was just playing with you."

Wuxing smiled and reached out with the crystal on the palm his hand. His arm was raised to the side, as if he was teasing the miner to come and grab it. Of course, the miner knew that something seemed wrong with this setup, but he was already blinded by greed and indignation.

All the prisoners here knew that this newcomer was just playing and making a fool out of the abusive miner. They talked between themselves as they watched excitedly.

"Ha ha, this new guy doesn't fuck with this miner. What a badass! Anyone knows who is he?"

"I know, right? I don't think anyone knows him yet, but let's not get close to him for now. The guards will probably show up soon."

"Right, that newcomer will definitely get beaten up."

Seeing the blood flowing from his hands and down his arms, the miner's fury reached top charts. Wuxing's sloppy apology triggered him even more and adrenaline started blocking his pain. He reached out for his small shovel that he keeps attached to his leg and quickly stood up before swinging the shovel at Wuxing's head.

He was crying out, "Bastard!"

Wuxing, who already saw the miner preparing for a swing, dodged it narrowly by tilting his head back as well as taking a step away from the crazy miner. After the first swing missed, the miner didn't give up and started swinging at Wuxing once again. This time Wuxing's anger woke up and he didn't dodge.

For the miner, all the movements Wuxing did were too quick to react as it only took around one second and seemed like a single action to him. However, how could a layman understand that for Wuxing, one second was more than enough to execute several sure-kill moves to finish a person?

Wuxing believed that revenge should be done on the spot, retaliation should be made as soon as possible, instead of putting it away for later. He would never allow someone to swing something at him two times in a row.

The young man moved forward, first giving the miner a very effective body shot to the liver with his elbow before grabbing his arm which held a shovel and hitting it with his knee. It seemed as effortless as if he was breaking a weak tree branch for a campfire. Everyone around them heard a loud crack of bones breaking. A loud forceful cry spread around the whole basic level. It would be strange if this time, the guards would not hear and react to this situation.

The miner dropped limply to the ground, hugging his arm which started to quickly swell. Fortunately for him, Wuxing had shown mercy on him and didn't use all of his strength in his attack, or else there would definitely be an open injury in his forearm.

"Holy shit."

"Damn! How brutal!"

The prisoners cursed seeing Wuxing's savageness and most unintentionally backed away from the scene. They saw how this newcomer didn't even hesitate to break the miner's arm, seemingly unafraid of consequences.

"What is going on here?!"

After hearing the pitiful cries of the miner, two guards finally came to the scene. Coincidentally, it happened to be the same guards who took Wuxing's first victim—the rude man behind him— away from the queue not long ago.

Seeing the miner rolling on the ground from the pain with his arms full of blood and Wuxing standing next to him without any injury, they instantly visualized the situation that happened.

With such a position, who would not think that this young man was the culprit that had beat up the miner?

The guards didn't hesitate to get their weapons from their holsters and aim towards Wuxing while ordering loudly, "It's you again! Get on the ground, now!"

The one with green eyes pulled out a short-wave radio and called out, "Basic level, one prisoner is revolting! We need backup, over!"

The mine was quite hard to guard as the manpower wasn't enough. They couldn't build facilities like automatic artillery or cameras since the tunnels weren't stable. To stop the prisoners from revolting or fighting against each other, the authorities just made it up with a number of guards assigned to patrol per level instead. Each guard had the order to shoot first and report later if someone was clearly revolting which could ruin the mine work.

Each guard had a gun with live ammunition, but that was proven to be dangerous. There were cases where one was caught off guard and had his gun stolen but fortunately, another guard was close and he shot the prisoner in time to avoid a tragedy. From that day onwards, the patrolling guards always kept a distance from the prisoners and had someone partnered up with them.

"Hey, it was he who attacked me first. I was just defending myself. He tried to hit me with a shovel."

Wuxing frowned and pointed at the miner's shovel on the ground in his defence.

The green-eyed guard glanced at the shovel next to the miner but still didn't believe Wuxing's words and continued to aim his gun at him before shouting again, "Like I would believe you! You beat someone else earlier too! Lie down on the ground with your hands behind your head or I will shoot!"

Wuxing didn't listen to the guard and just stared at him fearlessly as he said calmly, "Well, then shoot. I want to see what will the Chief Warden say when you shoot a Seven Stars Officer."

When the guards heard Wuxing's words, their hands trembled. For them, those two words 'Seven Stars' were like a trigger for countless conversations and dreams. But then, something occurred to the green-eyed guard. His eyes brightened for a second as if he realised something.