Leo spat with contempt, lifted his head proudly, “You ungrateful pigs! If it wasn’t for our Headman Daoba, you all would be eating dirt and trash! Now you get a chance to eat steamed bread, you should all be grateful. It was all due to Headman Daoba’s hard work to convince General K to improve our diet. Contributing just thirty pounds of coins per day is nothing compared to the amount you had made. Now you are asking for fairness!? Just remember, nothing is ever fair in the Underground! You ask for fairness, who gives fairness to each of us! Whatever Headman Daoba is doing is for your own good, learn to appreciate it! You would never find anyone here like Headman Daoba who is strong enough to negotiate with the superior. Remember, nothing is ever fair here!”

One of the men in the crowd yelled back, “We want to see Headman Daoba! We want to see him!”

Leo was about to say something, when the older dude stopped him, “It’s not worth wasting time on these newbies.”

“You are right, Dax! Show them the fists so they would shut up!”

Rene hesitated, “We better let Zen know about this situation.”

Dax’s face twisted a little, and his voice was full of disdain.

“Is he your boss? Why do we have to listen to him? He is nothing but useless! If our Headman doesn’t always side with him, I would have taken him down long ago. That mouth never spits out a damn word, and always looks down on the bros. Don’t let me catch his tail, otherwise I will surely kill him!”

“But----------” Rene was interrupted by Leo.

“Cut it out Rene, Zen had only been here for a few months, how much do you know about him? He doesn’t even tell our Headman where he freaking comes from! Only Headman Daoba had this kind of patience with him! Dax is right, he’s nothing but useless!”

“What if he gets mad at us?” Rene said.

“Now who is your real bro! If you side with that weird dude, then never follow me anywhere!”

“That’s not what I mean…..”

“ENOUGH!” Dax shouted at both of them. “It’s no time to start any childish arguments! Those who started the riot should be taught a lesson, otherwise they would never learn!”

“Yep, Dax!” Leo replied, and hand signaled a few more men to go for the revolters.

The revolters’ energy was high, so the gang picked out the ones who started the riot and started to punish them.

The fight was real.

Most of the slaves were too afraid to get involved, and hurried to turn in the coins to exit the place, only a couple of them decided to rebel against the gang. The whole thing was a mess, with all the shouting and kicking and breaking of bones.

Still, no guards came to the chaos.

Yes, the guards didn’t care about the weak, so long they collected the coins for General K.

Those revolters were weaker in strength, but they were fierce, as if that was the last fight to their rights. Soon Dax and the rest of the gang had to join in, and the whole thing became even more savage. The hammers that they used to crack open rocks were now murder weapons. There was no mercy in the way they fought each other, because they all knew if their hearts soften, that would mean death was not far away.

There were countless blood stains on the tattered clothes.

Everyone else was trying to exit the cave, and of course, me as well.

I was short compared to demons, therefore soon lost in the crowds. I was trying hard to get buried in the crowds, so that no one noticed that I didn’t even turn in the thirty pounds of coins.

I didn’t want to give these gangsters the coins. They were nothing but vampires sucking the blood out of the poor slaves. They were slaves too, but why didn’t they work together against the whole slavery system? Instead, these gangsters decided to suck the blood out of their own kind!

I couldn’t think about this anymore, otherwise I sure would be mad enough to spit out blood.

Soft orange sunlight shone near the cave exit.

The sun was going down.

I better be fast to turn in the coins, otherwise there could be a chance for the gang to catch me. As I got pushed by the crowd closer to the exit, I heard someone shout in the background.

It was a deep and familiar voice……….

Sounded almost like………..

I couldn’t remember exactly where I had heard this voice. I stared back to try to get a better look, but I was too short to see clearly. Somebody accidentally pushed me and a few coins fell out from the basket. There was no way I could have bent down to pick them up, since there was no space to even stand still. I was no more than the stuffing inside a biscuit that got squeezed by all sides.

Fine, not that I could magically grow a couple inches to see what was going on the other side of the cave!

The most important thing right now was to turn in the coins.

I grabbed on the straps tightly to stabilize the basket on my back, and let the flow of the crowd carry me outside. I hurried to the left and got in line. The line was long as expected. While waiting to turn in the coins, I had a chance to observe the surroundings.

The sunset was beautiful, full of rainbow colors. Many of the bonfires were getting lit up to get ready for another night. The canvas tents were scattered across the open space. I wondered who had the privilege to sleep in those nice tents. It would be so much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground with bugs crawling all over, and having no privacy at all.

A huge wooden cart wheeled in. Inside of it were countless white buns. They were steamy and smelled so delicious that everyone started to mouth water. I was no exception. My stomach growled even louder, like some unreasonable music. The steamed buns always caught the attention of everyone. This was basically the food station, just a big cart with buns. Of course, there was a little bucket on the floor to collect wooden cards. Anyone who had a card would drop it into the bucket, and receive three buns.

Those steamed buns were decent size. If I wasn’t in a hunger state, one would be enough for a meal, and three would be a day's worth of food. If I could gather a hundred pounds of coins, then it would definitely be enough food for me. In general, the demons were bigger in size, it was probably not enough to fulfill their stomachs. For the first time, I realized being small wasn’t bad at all.

My mouth watered up, and all I could do at this moment was swallow it down.

Today I got lucky with the geodes, but that didn’t mean I would be lucky everyday.

I wondered if those steamed buns had stuffing inside, like meat?

Oh, LiNa, stop daydreaming!

The line kept on moving, and it was almost my turn. I got a little nervous, and kept turning my head to make sure the gang was not around. At least I didn’t see any of them wandering nearby, maybe they were still trying to take care of the riot.

If one day I was strong enough, I would start the biggest riot ever and show some color to those jerks. Of course, that was plainly another daydream.

Finally it was my turn to unload the coins. They didn’t even need a balance because the eight feet tall guard just grabbed it and dumped its content down into the collecting cart, and then threw the basket back to me.

“Name.” He asked.

“Umm------LiNa.” I stuttered.

“Fifty four pounds.” The guard uttered coldly as someone else recorded it down in a book.

Right next to the book were a bunch of wooden cards. Those cards meant food. I wished I could lay a finger on one of them. I stared at those wooden cards for so long, that someone pushed me out of the line.

“Just go! Not enough for a card yet!” Someone yelled in the line.

I gathered myself and carried the basket on my back. I walked to the other side, and kneeled next to the spring, then gobbled down a ton of water, enough that my stomach hurt a little. I picked up everything and headed back inside the cave.

Deep inside I knew I couldn’t last more than a couple days without food. Never in my life had I felt how painful starvation was!

I only produced fifty four pounds of coins on a super lucky day, but I couldn’t rely on luck tomorrow because there was not enough time to gamble. I must use every second to get to a hundred pounds. There was no time to lose.