Life Dungeon Game

As He Ao was pondering, a soft voice came from behind him asking a question.

He Ao turned around and looked at his mother and her children behind him.

Nell's mother's face came into his view.

He thought for a moment, then took out some candy from his pocket. It was what the vendor had given him when he didn't have any change at the market.

Heo's electronic account had little money; he mostly carried cash he had brought back from the wilderness.

He grabbed the candy and gave it to the children.

The children glanced at their mother, hesitant to reach out. Finally, the older boy, who had just been kicked away, reached out and took the candy from He Ao's hand, then shared it with his younger siblings.

At this moment, the man who had been grabbed also staggered to his feet and walked over, and his wife quickly helped him up.

The man seemed about to thank He Ao, but He Ao gently shook his head, "You should find a place to hide first, they will definitely come back again."

After saying that, he turned and left.

The children watched his figure disappear.

"Brother, when will we grow up?"

"how?"

"I want to grow up quickly so I can protect my mom and dad."

-

He Ao walked through a small alley, about to hail a taxi, when he suddenly saw a figure under the streetlights ahead that seemed to be waiting for him.

He looked at He Ao and smiled.

I've written nearly 5,000 words, and the next update won't be until tomorrow morning. I suddenly got stuck and my head is buzzing.

Chapter 379 Tomorrow Will Always Come (Long Chapter, Please Subscribe and Add to Favorites)

The old foreman.

He Ao stared at the figure in front of him, slightly surprised. He glanced around and saw that there was no one behind the old foreman, and neither Ivo nor Watson were there. The old man had come alone.

"Shall we talk?"

The old foreman waved his hand and asked with a smile.

······

"There were people from the miners' mutual aid association nearby helping the miners who had been maliciously arrested. I heard from them about a 'passing knight' who rescued them,"

The old foreman sat on the edge of the rooftop, looking at the city lights in the distance. "I guessed that person was you, so I followed you all the way here."

"I shouldn't have left any obvious traces?"

This was the rooftop of a relatively low building. He Ao sat next to the old foreman and chuckled.

“Talent Sequence 44: The Thinker,” the old foreman said softly. “When I stand in a crowd, I can naturally sense the divergent thoughts of people. It’s like some kind of wonderful collective consciousness. Sometimes I don’t need to do anything; I can intuitively realize that something might happen.”

"Of course, this kind of prediction is not omnipotent, and it is mostly inaccurate. However, I can logically analyze several possibilities to determine which one I think is most likely. Of course, there is also an element of luck in it happening to you."

"Sounds like a prophet."

"Actually, it's not as mysterious as a prophet's ability. This ability is just to vaguely sense the thoughts in the minds of most people. Only when there are many people with the same thoughts can I sense their thoughts."

"For example, if I am standing among a group of hungry people, I can foresee that many people will eat soon. In fact, the fact that many people will eat may not necessarily happen. There are many factors that affect this. If there is no food around, the eating will not happen."

"For example, when I'm looking for you, I rely on finding the blurry figure of you that people can vaguely 'see'. Even though you're well hidden, there will always be someone who sees the 'mysterious figure.' As long as enough people see it, I can roughly sense the direction. However, everyone's standards are different, so this method has a high failure rate."

The old foreman spoke slowly, as if he were telling a long story, recounting it in a leisurely manner.

"So you came to see me specifically because you 'foresaw' something?"

He Ao looked at the lights in the distance and asked softly.

“You yearn to change this city,” the old foreman said, looking ahead, “and so do I, but my time is running out.”

Actually, I don't necessarily have more time than you...

He Ao shook his head. The old foreman must have something to say to him; he wouldn't go to such lengths just to chat.

But just as he was about to get straight to the point, the old foreman slowly raised his head, looked at a dimly lit area in the distance, and began to speak slowly.

"I am not actually a miner."

“My family was poor before, so I dropped out of school at the age of fifteen. I suffered from long-term malnutrition and was not strong enough. The mine didn’t want me, so I could only do odd jobs on the factory assembly line.”

"Working on the assembly line is incredibly monotonous; every day is the same as yesterday. After only a week, my brain..."

My mind went completely blank; all I could think about was how to assemble the parts together.

"We work twelve hours a day. Every night after get off work, we go back to the dormitory, take a shower, and fall onto the bed. When we open our eyes, it's already time to go to work the next day."

"I felt like a machine back then, but my foreman corrected me, 'I'm cheaper than a machine.'"

"During those depressing days, we would always seize every spare moment to get together and chat about things unrelated to work, such as relationships and life."

"At that time, the woman I most wanted to marry was the clerk who sat in the office on the second floor."

"She's certainly not pretty, but the other workers with me all think she has a lot of class. She's a full-time employee, a level above us who do odd jobs on the assembly line."

"Working on the assembly line was tiring. My favorite thing to do back then was to squat in the corner of the assembly line and watch her wiggle her hips as she walked into the office step by step."

"This is the greatest enjoyment in life."

"And then? You got together with her?"

"She died. That year, the factory went on strike, and the conglomerate sent a security team to suppress us. She died in a stray bullet."

“We never spoke, and she never knew my name until she died.”

The old foreman seemed to have not told anyone stories of the past in a long time. He stood up, dusted off his trousers, and then pulled a small pickaxe from his waist and handed it to He Ao—the very one that hung in his room.

"If I die, would you be willing to be the next leader of the miners' mutual aid society?"

"why me?"

He Ao did not answer directly, but asked softly.

“We’re the same kind of people,” the old foreman said, looking at He Ao’s somewhat youthful face. “I have a feeling you’ll do better than me.”

He Ao still didn't reach out to take the small pickaxe.

"This pickaxe contains a sensor chip with a list of all members of the miners' mutual aid association, including miner leaders who organized strikes and demonstrations at various mines,"

The old foreman's cloudy eyes calmly gazed at He Ao. "I think you'll need their strength."

He Ao slowly reached out his hand, but seemed to hesitate.

"That list also includes the phone number of Wright, the commander of the 108th Division. We're on good terms. Take this pickaxe to him; he'll be happy to see you."

Seeing that He Ao was still holding the pickaxe, the old foreman shoved the pickaxe into He Ao's arms and said with a laugh, "You little rascal, this is all the old man has. I don't have any more than this."

After saying that, he immediately turned and walked towards the stairwell.

He Ao watched the old man's faltering figure, then slowly reached out and grasped the pickaxe in his hand.

"If I ever really die, remember to collect my body. Don't let it end up like Yaz's, where the municipal garbage collectors take it away."

The old man seemed to notice He Ao's gaze, smiled and waved before walking into the deep stairwell.

"By the way, this chip is password protected,"

An aged voice slowly rose into the night.

The password is,

Tomorrow will always come.

-

The old foreman seemed to have foreseen something, and it seemed to be a secret that couldn't be said directly.

The situation in this city is becoming increasingly complicated.

However, the ability to recognize complexity suggests that He Ao may have already been gradually...

We've begun to uncover the deeper secrets of this city.

He tucked his small pickaxe into his trench coat and walked quietly down the street.

The city defense vehicles sped by, the crowds were noisy and chaotic, children were crying, and homeless people were hiding everywhere.

The snowflakes fell one by one from the sky.

This is the northern part of the city, where the largest number of miners in Rock City are located.

This is the North District, the most desperate place in Rock City.

He Ao casually knocked two members of the Ice Wolf Gang who were forcibly taking people to the ground, then looked up at the large TV screen in the mall that was broadcasting the news not far away.

Since the mayor's speech this morning, the entire machinery of violence in Rock City and the mining conglomerate has been activated, and a large-scale, unrestricted arrest of miners has begun.

These miners would be quickly taken to court, and after a brief trial, immediately transferred to the Rock City jail.

The vast majority of federal prisons are privately owned, with subsidies provided by the municipal or federal governments on a per capita basis.

The subsidies vary from city to city. The city of Chenxi pays a lot of government subsidies to these prisons every year. These high prison subsidies not only allow prisoners to live a better life, but also allow the prisons to make a profit.

Private prisons, on the other hand, will go to great lengths to obtain more subsidies.

On the one hand, they bribed judicial organs and courts to demand more sentences and send more people to prison.

On the other hand, they hire the media to hype up prison human rights issues and prisoner treatment problems.

With more prisoners, the proportion of their family members living outside the prison also increases, and these family members have become an important factor influencing politicians' elections.

In order to win these votes, some politicians have to promise to increase prison subsidies. Similarly, they also receive political donations from private prisons and increase prison subsidies as soon as they take office.

As this continues, subsidies for private prisons have become a significant financial burden for most fortified cities, with a large portion of tax revenue being consumed by prison monopoly conglomerates.

However, Rock City doesn't have this problem because it can't collect taxes, and the Rock City government is dirt poor.

As mining groups have encroached on the municipal government, municipal revenue has been decreasing year by year. Since the current mayor took office, he has reduced taxes, allowed markets to operate freely, and eliminated government agencies. The municipal government has not paid financial subsidies to private prisons for one or two years.

But private prisons also need to make money, especially since most of the private prisons in Rock City are subsidiaries of mining conglomerates.