43: Chapter 43 Rebellion

Outside the Shelter.

Black Rat, leading the group of laborers carrying sacks, had just delivered the tribute minerals to the Fire Seed Shelter.

He walked out of the camp gate and glanced back.

Those slaves, who just days ago were shackled and whipped like livestock in the pitch-black mines of the Mountain Tribe, were now wearing rough but clean clothes, working up a sweat in the camp.

Their faces no longer bore that suffocating numbness; instead, they showed an intense desire to survive.

Black Rat sighed and withdrew his gaze.

He did not envy these people.

Having struggled through the wasteland for most of his life, he knew all too well that so-called freedom and fairness were merely slogans used by those in power to deceive others.

"When true danger arrives, you newcomers will still be pushed to the front lines by that cold-blooded leader to serve as cannon fodder. Just like those soldiers who died on the riverbank defense line last night."

Black Rat sneered inwardly.

Recalling the crazed soldiers from last night, he was certain they must have injected some extremely potent psychoactive combat drug, which was not uncommon among wasteland mercenaries.

"Move! Hurry up! Back to the tribe!"

Black Rat kicked a slow-moving laborer nearby and hurried the team along.

The distance between the two sides was not far; without any heavy loads, the massive metal archway of the Mountain Tribe, built against the mountain, appeared in his field of vision in less than an hour.

Black Rat breathed a sigh of relief.

But he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

The high metal walls, which should have had three or four guards patrolling with guns, were completely empty!

Even the positions for the two twin-mounted heavy machine guns were unmanned!

"Where the hell did everyone die? Daring to slack off in broad daylight?!" Black Rat cursed as he walked forward, preparing to kick the gate.

Just then.

"Bang! Bang-bang!"

A few muffled gunshots suddenly rang out from inside the cave!

Breaking the deathly silence of the valley!

Black Rat gave a sudden start, the hair on his body standing on end instantly!

He drew the semi-automatic submachine gun from his waist without hesitation, yanked a nearby laborer over to shield himself, and his eyes became extremely sharp.

Immediately after, a chaotic chorus of shouts and screams drifted from the depths of the cave.

"Someone is rebelling!"

Instead of being afraid, Black Rat lowered his voice and let out a cruel, cold laugh.

He had been in the Mountain Tribe for so many years and had long since grown tired of being exploited by that old bastard Ockham.

This old thing monopolized the cleanest water sources and the most beautiful women in the tribe, and the overseers and guards below had long been complaining.

Black Rat shoved the bewildered laborer aside, kicked open the partially closed gate, and slipped into the cave like a nimble rat.

The main hall inside the cave was already in total chaos.

Ockham's most loyal elite guards were frantically rushing to the nearby armory to collect ammunition, then, clutching automatic rifles, they charged desperately toward the tunnels deep in the mine.

These people were all beneficiaries; everyone had their own luxury rooms and seven or eight young, beautiful maids upstairs.

If the miners' riot really succeeded, they would all die.

Black Rat hid cunningly in the shadows.

He did not follow the guards to the bottom of the mine to die; instead, he took advantage of the chaos to head straight for the top floor—Ockham's study—along the spiral staircase on the edge.

He ran to the entrance of the study.

Several personal guards wearing heavy bulletproof armor and holding automatic rifles blocked him tightly.

"Stop! Black Rat! The leader has ordered that in these special times, no one is allowed to enter!" The guard's muzzle was pressed directly against Black Rat's chest.

Black Rat narrowed his eyes and cursed inwardly: "Damn, this old guy has a tough life; he hasn't died yet."

He immediately put on a humble and anxious smile:

"Brother, don't misunderstand! I heard the chaos below and rushed back specifically to protect our master! What exactly happened down there?"

The guard looked at him coldly, saying nothing, his finger pressed firmly on the trigger.

The smile on Black Rat's face froze for a few seconds, then he sensibly raised his hands and retreated:

"Alright, alright, I'll go down and help."

He turned and ran back down the stairs to the cave hall.

By now, there was no one left in the hall.

Black Rat pressed himself against the stone wall at the entrance to the deep mine, pricking up his ears to listen carefully.

The sounds coming from below were extremely chaotic.

There was not only the sound of dense automatic rifle fire, but also desperate pleas for mercy, the crisp sound of bones being ripped apart, and a roar that sounded nothing like a human, filled with extreme violence and bloodlust!

What made Black Rat even more terrified was:

The gunfire was decreasing at an extremely abnormal frequency!

"Something's not right."

Cold sweat instantly soaked Black Rat's back.

"This is definitely not an ordinary miners' riot! Those laborers who couldn't even get enough to eat, even with pickaxes, couldn't possibly slaughter dozens of fully armed elite guards before they could even fire a shot in such a short time!"

He hesitated at the entrance for a few seconds.

When the gunfire from below was reduced to only sporadic shots, Black Rat gritted his teeth and made a decision.

He did not go to the bottom level, but instead charged like a mad dog toward the armory where the guards had gone earlier.

The iron gate of the armory was open.

A fat warehouse manager was trembling, hiding behind a pile of ammo crates.

"Fatty! Get up!" Black Rat rushed in and grabbed the manager by the collar.

"Black... Brother Black Rat! Don't kill me! I don't know anything!" The fatty begged loudly in fear.

"Bang!"

Black Rat's eyes were cold; he pulled the trigger without hesitation, and the submachine gun bullets turned the fatty's head into a rotten watermelon.

The corpse fell.

Black Rat stepped over the pool of blood and arrived at the electronic keypad door in the deepest part of the armory.

He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, recalled the password he had accidentally glimpsed a few months ago, and pressed it on the keypad with trembling fingers.

"Beep—"

The green light turned on, and the heavy metal door popped open.

This was Ockham's private armory.

Black Rat's eyes went wide.

He stripped off his tattered jacket, grabbed a top-tier set of Kevlar body armor and a tactical helmet, and put them on.

He threw away the submachine gun in his hand, picked a brand-new large-caliber automatic rifle from the shelf, and hung several high-explosive grenades on his tactical vest.

After arming himself to the teeth, Black Rat closed the armory door and slipped out of the cave.

He hid in a concealed rock crevice halfway up the mountainside outside the cave.

The muzzle of his gun was fixed tightly on the gate.

"No matter what kind of monster appeared below, old man Ockham will definitely not fight to the death. He will certainly try to escape from here with his good stuff. I'll just be waiting."

Time ticked by, second by second.

About ten minutes later.

The gunfire deep in the mine stopped completely.

In its place were waves of terrifying roars that made one's soul tremble, filled with an endless desire for slaughter.

"It's coming!" Black Rat held his breath, his finger resting on the trigger.

The next moment.

The mine gate was smashed open from the inside by a terrifying force!

The heavy metal door panel flew more than ten meters away, slamming into the rocks and sending sparks flying!

A group of... monsters rushed out.

When Black Rat saw these monsters clearly through the rock crevice, his blood instantly froze, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably!

They were a group of... demons that still barely retained the appearance of miners!

Their thin labor uniforms had long been torn apart by muscles that had expanded in an exaggerated, even biologically impossible way!

Those developed muscles were a morbid dark red, with bulging black veins covering the surface!

Even more terrifying were their weapons.

The rusty pickaxes originally used for mining had actually grown directly into their flesh, completely fused with their forearm bones, becoming grotesque bone-and-flesh blades!

Their eyes, like burning charcoal, spewed an extreme desire for blood!

"What... what the hell are these things?!" Black Rat covered his mouth tightly, fearing he might make the slightest sound.

This group of dark red monsters rushed out of the gate and let out a roar that did not sound human toward the sky.

"Blood for the Blood God!!!"

They did not leave the Mountain Tribe, but turned around and, like a pack of violent beasts that had smelled blood, scrambled up the rock walls using hands and feet, charging directly toward the upper level of the cave—Ockham's study and the high-level residential area!

Not long after, gunfire and desperate screams, a hundred times more tragic than those from the bottom level, came from the upper level.

But what was desperate was that the more miserably people screamed, the more excited and louder the roars from the monsters' throats became!

Don't know how long passed.

The screams gradually subsided.

Those dark red monsters, holding strings of still-dripping heads—some of the elite guards, some of the women—returned to the hall.

Then, like a gust of bloody wind, they lunged toward the soldiers' family residential area on the other side of the cave.

Wait until the monsters' roars faded away.

Black Rat dared to breathe heavily.

His bulletproof vest was already completely soaked with cold sweat inside.

He gritted his teeth, crawled out of the rock crevice, shouldered his gun, and like a ghost, sneaked into the cave again, heading up the stairs to the top level.

At the study entrance.

The guards who had pointed their guns at his chest moments ago were now headless corpses in a miserable state, their blood staining the leather carpet dark black.

That luxurious silver door had been ripped into two halves.

Black Rat walked into the study, gun raised, cautiously.

The room was a mess.

A huge bookshelf on one side had been pushed to the ground, revealing a hidden alloy secret door behind it.

The secret door had also been violently broken open.

Black Rat took a deep breath and walked in.

Inside was a long, narrow corridor with many extremely luxurious rooms on both sides.

But at this moment, all the room doors had been smashed.

On the floor of the corridor, over a dozen female corpses lay scattered about.

They died in a miserable state, clearly having suffered inhuman torture before death.

Black Rat suppressed the churning in his stomach and continued to walk inside.