Count me lucky, Ian only took Kirishima and Shen Tangzhi for ten minutes, and then brought back a large bucket of freshly boiled potatoes.

The potatoes were still steaming, and they were indeed freshly cooked, and the iron bucket containing the potatoes was actually a huge nut cap, hollowed out.

Ian said apologetically, "It just so happens that the miners here are eating...... However, our only food is these potatoes, and the food allocated by the king is not enough at all, this is the potatoes that our rebels grow themselves......"

As soon as I smelled the aroma of food, my hunger swelled even more, and my stomach even spasmed, and I didn't know where to feel a surge of strength, I jumped up and took a potato in one hand and stuffed it into my mouth.

The old knife frowned and looked at me: "You eat slowly, and no one will rob you of ......"

Me: "Hmm, hmm, hmm......"

Lao Dao also took a steaming potato, and said while "whirring" and blowing in his hand: "Damn, you are really a starving ghost reincarnated, so hot, you can swallow it?" ”

I snatched the potato from his hand and stuffed it into my mouth: "Hmm, hmm, hmm......"

Old Knife: "......"

As I ate, I reached out and motioned for him to help me get it again.

"Well, here." Kirishima squatted down and handed over the two potatoes in his hands, "Mr. Yoshimitsu, I'll help you get it." ”

I nodded at her, grabbed the potato in her hand and stuffed it into my mouth, but I swallowed so fast that I immediately choked and rolled my eyes.

Shen Tangzhi immediately brought a kettle to my mouth, and the spout of the kettle had already been unscrewed: "I know that you are in a hurry, come, drink some water......"

"Uh......", I reached over and poured half a pot of cold water in one go, and then continued to nibble on potatoes......

"Well, look at this, it may not be enough for you to eat it all." Seeing my demon-possessed appearance, the old knife threw the potatoes in his hand back into the iron bucket, and then suddenly thought of something, pointed at me and smiled, "I understand - no wonder you suddenly took on any case during this time, I thought that you kid went to the top of the earth, cleansed his mind, and became more industrious...... It turns out that I can't support myself anymore! Hahaha, tell you to eat up my azure jade dew, it's time for you! ”

I gave him a blank look, swallowed a mouth full of unchewed potato pieces, and just wanted to reply, Shen Tangzhi directly blocked my mouth with a kettle-

"Choking again? Come, drink water! Shen Tangzhi couldn't help but say, and poured water directly into my mouth.

The old knife on the side covered his stomach and laughed so much that he almost rolled to the ground.

Just now, everyone escaped death, and their faces were full of panic and fear, but now with such a gag, the surrounding atmosphere has eased.

Even Ian, Xu Liang, and Du Min all smiled, while Shen Xiaoke hid behind Kirishima Xun, only showing one head, and covered his mouth and snickered - this little girl seems to have a sense of dependence on Kirishima since she was carried all the way by Kirishima Xun, and she is very tight, like a timid puppy, which is pitiful and loving.

In less than five minutes, I had eaten the half-human-tall bucket of potatoes, and I still looked a little overwhelmed.

"The Chosen One, we have very little food to have, and the miners have donated all of their lunches, if you haven't had enough...... Once you've arrived at the rebels' base, you may be able to find some food. Ian said tentatively.

"No need, thank you."

I touched my stomach, and after eating no less than thirty or forty potatoes, my stomach didn't bulge at all, and I didn't feel bloated at all, as if there was a black hole in my stomach that sucked all the food into it in an instant.

As if seeing my doubts, Shen Tangzhi explained: "Most of the nutrients of potatoes are starch, and their calorie content is certainly not comparable to compressed biscuits or chocolate...... And you've clearly overdrawn your strength just now. ”

However, although I was only half-full, my symptoms of collapse and weakness had improved a lot, and the intense hunger in my stomach had subsided for the most part.

I nodded, stood up against the wall, tried to stretch, and said, "Ian, take us to the dried blood." ”

We walked along the huge fan-shaped tunnel, deep into the interior of the mine, and the tunnel gradually widened, and after a few minutes, a wide space appeared in front of us-

In the mountain of this mine, there was originally a huge karst cave, the bottom area of the cave is about several thousand square meters, and the miner's lamp emitting dark yellow light illuminates the semi-circular stone wall dome, and white steam keeps rising in the light......

The bottom of the cave is flat, a desolate gravel field, with countless piles of ore of different sizes piled on the ground, and hundreds of mines scattered throughout the gravel field like a dense entrance to a beehive.

On top of each mine is an ugly structure, most of which are topped with huge pulleys or rusty protrusions - ominous machines that constantly lift and lower all sorts of cages and platforms from the mines.

The mines are incredibly dense, with mechanical structures of different heights huddled together like a sinister creature of great size.

Just glanced at this scene, Xu Liang trembled slightly, I asked him to look down and only look at the place at his feet, he immediately did so, it seems that they have experienced a difficult process together, which has more or less reduced the prejudice of adults in his heart.

We were surrounded by a huge number of miners, both men and women, and even children who were clearly underage.

They all knew Ian, and most of them had a heartfelt smile on their faces when they saw us strangers, and I could see in their eyes a glimmer of hope.

It seems that Ian and other people are not the only ones who know the term "Chosen One...... It's an open secret.

"The mechanical giants can't enter the mines, and the king's minions don't have the protection of the mechanical giants and don't have the guts to manage it, but we still have to hand in the minerals in exchange for food, because the kingdom's land is almost completely polluted by industrial wastewater, and there is too little land to grow potatoes...... And we have a shortage of labor, people are caught, maimed by machinery, or ......sick every day," Ian said, "If these children don't participate in the workforce, we don't have ...... people to live."

I took a closer look at the shafts in front of me, which didn't look solid, and understood what the workers were doing.

Most of the half-grown children were responsible for the energy supply of the steam engine: the boys, using shovels taller than their height, struggled to shovel crude lumps of coal that had only been lightly processed into the combustion chamber of the steam engine, while the girls used their sufficiency to shake the blower and fill the combustion chamber with oxygen.

The old-looking steam engines screamed, oozing white steam, and laboriously turning the wheel, which was connected by hinges to the rudimentary and strange elevator that rotated at the mouth of the shaft.

The elevator ran with a cacophony of noise, lifting the loading boxes with a thick layer of black dust into the abyssal depths.

Shifts of workers line up and carry their gear into cage-like loading boxes and are sent deep underground, while others carry truckloads of black minerals from the depths of the mines, the final work done by women, who work in groups to drag the carts onto rudimentary railroad tracks and carry them to another cave.

The workers looked very tired, covered in soot black, and some unknown red that looked like dried up clumps of blood.

I pointed to the women who were pulling the minecarts in pain like slender men: "I noticed that you all use human manpower except for the steam engine—no livestock?" The work of hauling the minecart can be done by the livestock. ”

Ian shook his head: "No, humans are the only living creatures here except for all kinds of machines. ”

Noticing her words, I asked, "You...... Understand that the world is not 'reality'? ”

"Of course. This world was created by Hemdal the Great, who called himself the 'King of Machines', and every once in a while, someone would be transported from the real world through that vapor gate, and then endure horrible slavery forever until death......"

"Didn't anyone go back?"

"The Steam Gate will disappear as soon as it teleports people in, and if you can save the world, or go back from here—I think it's your job."

"Understood."

"Okay, we need to go down the mine too."

Ian said, leading us to the edge of a shaft.

These are two deep shafts next to each other, consisting of a steam engine and a hoist to form the operating equipment, and each of them is topped by an ugly but sturdy iron pulley, about 3 meters high. The steel hinges emit an unpleasant smell and protrude from the block of pulleys into the two shafts – there should be a loading box on either side that balances each other.

Ian tugged on the lever and ordered the two kids in charge of running the mine, "Start the machine." ”

The greasy black lumps of coal were immediately shoveled into the combustion chamber, and the steam engine shook slightly, spewing out a large amount of steam.

A loading crate was raised.

We cautiously walked into the loading box.

"The maximum load of each loading box is 1,000 kilograms, don't worry." Ian snapped the iron door and pulled a metal lever at the door of the loading container, "Stand firm." ”

"Bell, bell, bell—"

The rough metal hinges turned rapidly, and the loading box sank deep into the mine, and the violent vibration and shaking of the box made us involuntarily reach out and grasp the iron bar, and the faces of the children who had just eased became unnatural again.

The loading box descended quickly and was uncomfortable.

The mine is incredibly deep, and due to the nature of this wacky dream world, we even occasionally clearly feel the loading crate moving upward, even visually, we know that the loading crate is still descending.

Ian said the mine is not completely safe, either. In the early days, the king invented a number of small mechanical monsters that could enter the mines, but then these mechanical monsters lost control, even the overseers.

The king presumably controlled the mechanical monsters and the human overseers with mechanical masks through a radio-like signal wave, but deep down in the mines, the signal waves were apparently shielded.

At the bottom of the dark, damp mines, in addition to the darkness, landslides, and gas explosions, there's another danger, and that's to be careful not to be spotted by wandering mechanical monsters.

The mine was cut off from the signal waves, and most of the mechanical behemoths fell into a deep sleep, but some of the machines began to develop their own consciousness due to the long period of isolation, and these chaotic and brutal machines roamed the bottom of the mine, in a semi-crazy state.

As we went deeper into the mine, we discovered that the walls of the mine were crimson and that the rocks were mixed with some unspeakable horror substances.

"That's where the dry red ochre on the miners comes from." Ian shone the gas lamp from the loading box at the mine wall, "That's right, it's made of blood. ”

After seeing clearly what was buried in the walls of the mine, we all felt a chill that penetrated deep into the bone marrow.

The crimson color comes from the hundreds of corpses buried in the mines...... There are men, women, old people, and children......

Their corpses remained in a position of extreme pain, and the wounds on the corpses were shocking—

The wooden pole passes through the ribcage......

Metal through the belly......

Hands and feet were brutally cut off......

The entire skull was crushed into pieces......

"How, how can this be?" Even Du Min, who had been pretending to be deep all the way, couldn't help but turn pale.

And Xu Liang, who had dense fear, trembled all over, and I quickly covered his eyes: "What can I see, what can't I see, I don't have a B number in my heart?!" ”

Feeling Xu Liang struggling, I used my other hand and immediately made him honest.

Shen Tangzhi glanced at me: "Don't bully children, you ......"

I smiled "hehe" and relaxed my hand: "Hey, be honest." ”

Shen Xiaoke buried his whole head in Kirishima Smoke's chest that reached the D cup: "Sister Kirishima, I'm afraid of ......"

The old knife immediately complained: "Or will you find a place to hide......"

Kirishima Xun himself frowned, but patted Shen Xiaoke's back in his hand: "Xiaoke is not afraid, these ...... These are hallucinations, not real. ”

Ian explained to us with great sadness, "These are the miners who were killed earlier, and there are hundreds of them on each floor. The king gave us a stern commandment, commanding us to dig deeper and leave the dead alone—which is where the name of the place comes from: dried blood. ”

"Ring, ring, ring!"

The loading box suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

"Phew, we're here."

Ian looked a little uncomfortable, and she admits that she has rarely descended this deep, not only Ian, but all of us are more or less dizzy and nauseous, and I don't know if it's because of the rapidly descending loading box, or because of the sight of the broken and dried corpses.