City of Time: Falling into the kill zone at the start

As he spoke slowly and deliberately, Lu Chen's gaze toward the miners became increasingly playful.

—Lu Chen is not someone who "doesn't gamble".

Lu Chen is already gambling.

However, it's not about betting time on the outcome of a hand-to-hand combat game.

Instead, they gambled on being "beaten," betting that the miners in front of them really wouldn't dare to touch them.

...

Last night, at the Rope Hotel, Lu Chen had already sensed something was amiss.

The burly man, who was suspected to be a shop assistant or possibly the hotel owner, dared to scam Lu Chen with the price of "12 hours," but dared not threaten Lu Chen with the short stick in his hand.

Throughout the night, the "guests" in the hotel only used words to seduce him; not a single one dared to use force against Lu Chen.

Aside from not daring to use force, he also did not have any physical contact with Lu Chen from beginning to end.

Even harmless actions, such as pulling an arm or patting a shoulder, were completely absent.

Lu Chen hadn't noticed it at first.

They assumed that the "hangers" were too afraid to let their bodies off the ropes because of the strong man's threat of violence.

Only now, looking at the miners gesticulating wildly in front of him, who always deliberately avoided any physical contact with him, even accidental contact, did Lu Chen finally make a judgment.

The laws of the City of Time are not merely prohibitions against violent conflicts concerning time.

Instead, any physical contact is prohibited due to disputes over time!

To exaggerate a bit, it's very likely that even a touch of a fingertip or a scratch from a nail would be absolutely forbidden!

Soon, Lu Chen's conjecture was basically verified.

The moment Lu Chen stepped forward, the miner jumped back as if he had been electrocuted!

The next moment, a drone flew in from a distance and hovered in the air beside the two people.

"Parasite: No. 18-243-5011".

"Back off! Retreat!"

"Back off! Retreat!"

"Back off! Retreat!"

The cold, harsh mechanical voice caused the people around Lu Chen to instinctively make way for a large open space.

The miner, his face filled with horror, retreated several steps!

Finally, the mechanical sounds from the drone abruptly stopped, and inside the mine gate, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

A moment later, the drone hummed as it climbed up and disappeared into the distance again.

The miners secretly breathed a sigh of relief, carefully bypassed Lu Chen, and walked into the mine.

Five steps in front of Lu Chen, the miner felt as if he had fallen into an abyss.

She glanced at Lu Chen in a panic, then, no longer bothering to entangle him, she vanished as if fleeing.

As for Lu Chen, as the winner of the 'bet,' he naturally began to count the 'chips' he had won.

"That's really true."

"Complete prohibition of physical contact."

...

"Why did you only warn the other party and not me?"

"Because the other party is a parasite?"

"Is the status of the resurrected higher than that of the parasites?"

While pondering, Lu Chen also took a step and walked into the mine.

Besides the emergence of this new group of "parasites," there was another piece of information that Lu Chen secretly noted down.

—All miners are parasites.

Furthermore, all the serial numbers are prefixed with 18-243-.

18 and 243 likely represent this area or the code name of a mine.

However, this information is of little value to Lu Chen right now.

At least it's not something that urgently needs to be figured out right now.

The truly valuable information is that the parasites dare not touch themselves or have any physical contact with themselves.

This relieved Lu Chen of the worry that he would be threatened by force from others.

—At least there's no need to worry about the parasites, that is, the miners, threatening them with force.

As for incitement and fraud?

Lu Chen dared not say that he was a smart person.

But no matter what, Lu Chen was someone who had used the national anti-fraud app.

In Lu Chen's eyes, the parasites' "tricks" were no different from children's riddles—the answer was right there in the riddle itself.

With his personal safety initially guaranteed, Lu Chen's heavy heart eased somewhat.

Stepping inside the mine, the scene that greeted Lu Chen was different from what he had imagined.

There was no dust flying everywhere.

There were no roaring machines.

Yes, there are some, but they are just entrances to mines that look like subway entrances and clearly lead underground.

At regular intervals, huge screens stand above the entrance, displaying the time in fluorescent green.

—6:52:01.

Looking at the densely packed mine shafts, Lu Chen was at a loss for what to do.

Which mine should we enter?

Are the work positions inside the mine fixed?

What should a temporary miner like myself do...?

Soon, Lu Chen's brows relaxed again.

Lu Chen discovered that almost all the miners followed the principle of "nearest" and went to the nearest mine.

At the entrance to the mine, there are also security checkpoints.

Each time someone passes through, the security checkpoint will flash a green light.

After observing for a moment, Lu Chen saw that the security checkpoints closest to the main gate started turning red one after another.

The miners, after the red light came on, resumed their steps and headed towards the more distant mine shafts.

Lu Chen immediately understood: each mine has a "maximum number of people".

Realizing this, Lu Chen decided to stop following the crowd and instead walked a hundred steps away to a mine where no miners had gathered yet.

Looking up at the subway entrance-shaped mine shaft in front of him, which looked like it was about to devour someone with its mouth wide open, Lu Chen took a deep breath and stepped into the security checkpoint.

"Scan pupil information."

"Recovered: No. 9527, temporary miner."

"Workstation number 1".

·

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"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"

On August 1th, in the year 294 of Genesis, at 11 PM.

As the "dong dong" announcement signaling the end of the workday rang out in the mine, Lu Chen finally emerged from the mine shaft.

Along with that, Lu Chen's violent, breathless coughing could also be heard.

"vomit!"

"Cough cough cough cough..."

"Ugh, ugh..."

Inside the mine, Lu Chen was coughing and dry heaving as he jogged out of the security gate.

He ran to the open space next to the mine, but his knees buckled, and he half-squatted down, using his fingers to lick his throat.

There's nothing special about the mine; it's just an ordinary coal mine.

Lu Chen, in position 1, and the miner in position 2 are jointly responsible for mining an area.

One person was responsible for using a pickaxe to knock the coal off the mine wall;

One person is responsible for using a shovel to scoop up the falling coal and throw it onto the conveyor belt.

There was a clear division of labor, and everyone did their own thing.

Considering that Lu Chen was a temporary miner with no experience, the miner in position number 2 offered to break the ore himself and let Lu Chen shovel the coal.

There's not much to say about the work experience—it's purely physical labor, and the word "tiring" really comes to mind.

However, his lack of experience ultimately caused Lu Chen to suffer a loss.

—During the process of smashing and shoveling coal, the entire enclosed space would be filled with the rising coal dust.

Lu Chen, however, did not prepare a mask...

"Ugh~"

"Cough cough cough..."

"Tch!!"

After inhaling the dust all day, Lu Chen felt as if his nasal cavity and throat were blocked by a thick layer of coal dust.

After a bout of violent coughing and dry heaving, I finally managed to cough up some of the foreign object in my throat, along with some thick phlegm.

Looking down, unsurprisingly, the phlegm he spat out was black.

"Phew~"

"Where's the water? Where's the water?"

Behind Lu Chen, the miner in position 2, who was also his partner today, was gently patting Lu Chen's back.

Upon hearing this, he immediately took Lu Chen's arm and walked towards the sewage pool not far away.

Arriving at the sewage pool, seeing the vast expanse of black water before him, Lu Chen hesitated for only a moment before bending down and scooping up a handful.

Just as he was about to drink it, his arm was gently pressed down by miner number 2.

"etc."

"Let the slag settle before drinking, otherwise it will feel even worse."