The three men blocking the exit soon noticed Xiang Yi's approaching footsteps and unconcealed figure.
"Huh? The kid's still kicking."
Long, who was fiddling with a Blood Crystal, paused and said to Kun, "Guess we weren't rough enough. Next time, remember to cut his tendons."
Kun gave a slight nod. "I was just worried he'd die too fast. I'll be more careful next time."
The two chatted casually, completely ignoring Xiang Yi as he slowly walked toward them.
"You or me?"
"I'll do it."
As he spoke, Kun pulled a rough but sharp stone shard from his protective suit's pocket. He walked toward Xiang Yi with a grin. "Tell me, what's the point of holding that piece of scrap metal? You don't actually expect it to do anything, do you?"
Xiang Yi didn't answer. He just tightened his grip on the Mining Gun's switch, making sure he could fire at a moment's notice.
"I haven't done anything to you, have I?"
"Nope. But you have to die."
"What do you get out of me dying?"
Xiang Yi looked like a curious kid, and Kun didn't seem to mind elaborating.
"Of course there is. Why else would we be doing this?"
"Like what?"
"You..."
"Enough with the chit-chat," Long, who was sitting further back, suddenly yelled at Kun.
As if his tail had been stepped on, Kun snapped his head around and retorted in an annoyed tone, "Seriously? I'm just talking to him. What the fuck is it to you?"
"Ha? You're pushing your luck. Who the hell do you think you are?"
Just when Xiang Yi thought the two were about to turn on each other right in front of him, Kun suddenly hurled the stone shard at him, then lunged forward and threw a punch at his nose.
Smiles were on both Kun's and Long's faces. There wasn't a hint of genuine anger between them; it was a tried-and-true trick.
But in the next moment, Kun's expression froze.
He had expected the stone shard to miss, but he hadn't expected his fist to whiff, swinging through empty air a good several inches from Xiang Yi's face.
"Huh?"
Confused, Kun looked down to find his right foot had vanished.
He lost his balance and crashed heavily to the ground.
At that moment, the Mining Gun in Xiang Yi's hand was vibrating violently. Its internal rotors were spinning furiously, firing a continuous beam of orange-red light.
The laser beam had swept across the ground, leaving a deep scorch mark, and it had also swept across his right foot, leaving a charred, black stump.
Before Kun could even scream in agony, Xiang Yi kicked him in the temple.
Even with the protection of his helmet, he was knocked out cold.
A short distance away, Long had already gotten to his feet. He grabbed his younger brother, who was trying to flee, and roughly pulled him in front to act as a shield.
The look of contempt he'd had for Xiang Yi was completely gone, replaced by confusion and terror.
The brother he was holding trembled uncontrollably, the burnt-flesh smell in the air making him sick. He never had the stomach for this kind of work and hated it. Seeing Xiang Yi turn the tables and slice off Kun's leg had pushed him to the brink of a breakdown.
After struggling several times to break free from Long's grip, he turned his head and shrieked hysterically at Xiang Yi, "How did you do that?!"
Xiang Yi didn't answer.
Inside, he was also incredibly excited.
'The power of this Mining Gun is far beyond my expectations. The control panel clearly said it had an output limiter installed, but it can still sever a man's leg this easily. This kind of power...'
Xiang Yi's arm trembled uncontrollably with excitement, but it soon calmed down.
It wasn't just him getting used to this newfound power; it was also the certainty that he was going to survive today.
Xiang Yi squeezed the Mining Gun's trigger again.
The rotors in the gun, which had been slowing, spun up again. The orange-red laser swept across the other foot of the unconscious Kun, severing it from his leg.
Amidst a now-thicker stench of burnt flesh, Xiang Yi stepped over the incapacitated Kun and aimed the Mining Gun's barrel at Long.
Long's knees gave out, and he dropped to the ground. He clasped his hands over his head, not daring to move an inch, and begged, "Xiang Yi, no... Brother Xiang, I was wrong."
Seeing this, Long's younger brother turned and ran, but how could a person outrun a laser?
The orange-red beam swept across the younger brother's legs. He immediately suffered the same fate as Kun, and a wail of agony erupted from his mouth.
Seeing this, a grin spread across Xiang Yi's face for a moment, but he quickly suppressed it.
In the past, especially during the major accidents he'd been through, he had seen plenty of dead and dying people. Every time, it had left him with an indescribable, gut-wrenching feeling. The first few times, he'd even thrown up.
But this time, he didn't feel the slightest discomfort. Instead, he was thrilled.
Thrilled by the power he possessed, thrilled that he had used this power to eliminate the men who wanted him dead.
'But this isn't quite over yet.'
Xiang Yi's gaze swept over Long, and also over the small piece of Blood Crystal that Long had casually dropped on the ground.
"Speaking of which, these Blood Crystals... they're alive, aren't they?"
Long's expression was now one of pure shock. "Brother Xiang, you just got here. How could you know about this?"
"A guess."
The rumors from his memories, the sounds he'd heard deep in the mines, the way Long and his men had deliberately made him bleed instead of killing him, and now, seeing the Blood Crystal with his own eyes... all these factors added up, forming a vague hypothesis in his mind.
His final question, and Long's answer, had just confirmed it.
'The rustling I heard in the dark must have been the Blood Crystals, or rather, some kind of "creature" that produces them.'
'They follow the scent of blood and turn people into these crimson crystal formations.'
'That's why Long and the others made me bleed.'
'These things must be incredibly valuable.'
Xiang Yi took a few steps toward Long, the barrel of his Mining Gun shifting slightly.
"Tell me exactly what these Blood Crystals are, and tell me the rules around here that a newcomer wouldn't know. Do that, and maybe I'll let you go. Otherwise... listen closely. I think those things are coming."
Still kneeling with his hands over his head, Long looked as if he'd just seen a glimmer of hope. "Okay, okay," he said quickly, "I'll tell you."
"You've probably seen those guys in white lab coats, right? They say this Blood Crystal is a type of... a Phenomenon, or something. I don't know the details."
"But they say if you feed corpses to these Blood Crystals, you can get ore-grade Blood Crystals. Those aren't like the little fragments we usually dig up; the big ones can be turned in."
"Of course, not too many people can die, or the prison couldn't stay open. And somebody's gotta keep mining the regular stuff as a cover, right?"
"So the prison set a quota. A certain number of people have to die on a regular basis. You get it?"
"Heh." Xiang Yi let out a sarcastic laugh. "So, some of the inmates who've been here a while and haven't been fed to the Blood Crystals yet figure out what's going on. They band together for self-preservation and push the new guys out to meet the quota."
"And then, you set your sights on me."
Long fell silent, but Xiang Yi continued voicing his deductions.
"And the prison must tacitly approve of this. After all, they just need Blood Crystals; they don't care who gets turned into them."
"Makes sense, I guess. The criminals in this prison aren't much use for anything else. Turning them into ore is a damn good trade."
Hearing this, Long looked up again. "That's the long and short of it. Otherwise, how could this prison have been running for so long? It's just a small asteroid. After a few years, a decade at most, the resources would be depleted. There's no way it could have been open for nearly forty years."
Xiang Yi froze when he heard that. He repeated, "An asteroid?"
"What about it?" Long asked, confused.
Xiang Yi didn't answer. His expression had turned grim.
The memories in his mind began to resurface once again.