Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1310: Unnecessary Acting

^Okay,looks like Zhen Tai and Zhen Xing's wagon have made it to the mine's entrance unharmed and with nothing unexpected happening. I suppose this means everything might go according to plan,^ Antonio hoped. ^Although, it looks like there's a mild delay...^

^I still think this is an incredibly stupid plan,^ Maggie complained.

^Why are you mentioning this now when the main creators of this plan aren't even here?^

^They're not here to argue against me.^

^Seriously?^

When the Zhen Clan scions and their allies finally managed to convince the slave shipment from the Zorro Familia to cooperate, not all members of the former agreed to pretend to be slaves.

More specifically, Maggie.

The bloodliner slave girl had already went through hell and back taking her death in order to escape the [Mines of Malevolence], as such, it made no sense for her to suddenly sneak back in when not even a week had passed since she had escaped.

If anything, she had wanted to leave this place this very instance and get as far away as possible.

However, the promise of revenge was a bit sweeter than the promise to escape.

As such, while she did agree to assist them with getting out of the mines if needed, she didn't agree to go back in.

Because of this condition, both she and Antonio were now situated outside to keep watch.

^Why did you agree to hang around out here instead of going with them?^ Maggie asked. ^Is it because you think I'll run away at the first sign of trouble?^

^Partially, yes,^Antonio readily admitted to Maggie's annoyance. ^But it's also because I'm fairly certain you're not sharing the whole truth about why you're sticking around.^

At that last statement, Maggie grew visibly apprehensive.

^Then again, maybe I'm overthinking the fact that you're not holding onto that strange horse totem of yours?^Antonio pointed out as he turned his gaze away from the mines and towards the now grimacing bloodliner. ^Why'd you give it to Zhen Tai anyways?^

Maggie was silent for a couple of moments, mulling over whether or not she wanted to share her past with yet another person in this strangely honest group of weird warriors and monsters.

Then again, Zhen Tai did mention to her that the act of sharing one's past had a habit of setting one free from the burdens they carry.

^Ugh...fuck it, fine,^ Maggie eventually sighed with annoyance at her own behavior. ^You want to know why I gave him that totem?^

^Yes.^

^Well...^

...Meanwhile...

"...and that's why she gave me this totem," Zhen Tai told Zhen Xing as he proceeded to hide away the horse skull totem he received from Maggie. "Hopefully, I can help her out with this request of hers. Worst case scenario, I'm pretty sure I can ask Xiao Liu to handle it."

"You think it's fucked up that we're starting to rely on Zhen Liu more and more to handle things?" Zhen Xing asked. "I feel like it might be detrimental to our ability to handle things in the long run."

"No," Zhen Tai readily answered. "Because the crap he handles and the stuff we handle are on completely different levels of existence. Like, be honest to the both of us, do you think you'd be able to maintain your sanity if you had multiple voices talking in your head like the kaijin do in Zhen Liu's head?"

Zhen Xing went silent for a few moments as he tried to imagine such a scenario, only to come to what was probably the same conclusion as Zhen Tai.

"No."

"Exactly," Zhen Tai agreed. "Now get, your game face on. I think they're done checking the papers of the drivers."

"Right...wait, what names did we use for our false identities again?"

"I don't think it's going to matter."

...

The Zorro Familia had done dealings with the [Mines of Malevolence] before, and they were clandestine even by their standards.

The former would arrive once every few months with a wagon full of slaves that they couldn't sell, whether because they were too defiant or had too little value to be worth anything.

The latter would then look over the slaves, make an "attempt" to look over the papers of these slaves before burning them, and then exchange the slaves for a supply of [Malevolent Gold] or any other cursed metals they had on hand.

The value of these metals far exceeded the value of the slaves given, but the suppliers of these bodies didn't care since the trade-off was so good.

That stated, none of the suppliers attempted to go for an even more lopsided deal.

There was a single incident where someone tried to do this once...that person and their entire organization has since been redacted from the records of every single person who might've known them in any capacity in fear of the possibility of getting on the [Mines of Malevolence]'s bad side.

As such, the Zorro Familia warriors couldn't help but let sighs of relief as the monsters guarding the place couldn't seem to tell that they were being deceived.

Or at the very least, they didn't seem to care about the fact that they were being deceived.

The monster keeping watch of the gate today was a strange, Salamander-like being with body parts that vaguely resembled a millipede and an assassin bug.

"Okay, here are the papers for the slaves and—"

FWOOSH!

"Of course."

After burning the slave papers, which made it nigh impossible for people to track down the slaves associated with those papers, the monstrous salamander proceeded to motion the wagon to enter.

[Unload the wagon next to tunnel three. You can pick up your metals from tunnel six.]

"Of course," the slavers nodded.

Entering the outer perimeter of the mines, the slavers were reminded why they hated coming here.

At this point in time, the slavers were "graced" by the sight of several dozen slaves being directed by the monsters of the mines.

This sight alone was enough to conjure images of hell in most people who followed the religious doctorines.

As slavers, they were used to seeing people treated as property, or getting abused for the amusement of their masters, but the sight of these slaves at this mine felt...off.

They weren't entirely sure what this feeling was exactly, but if they had to hazard a guess...these slaves looked like they were missing their humanity.

In their usual circles, whether they were the slaves of noble houses or slaves of labor zones, the slavers could usually see some form of light in the eyes of the slave.

Bright, dim, obedient or defiant, it didn't matter, they would always see some form of light in them.

These slaves, though, especially the ones that had been here for longer than a year looked...dead.

Like any form of light, thought or feeling behind their eyes had fully disappeared.

To refer to these slaves as acting like beasts of burden wouldn't be accurate.

[Oi, move!]

"Okay..."

The way these slaves acted, failed to react when they were abused, or even acknowledge the fact that someone just died right in front of them, were more reminiscent of puppets than people.

The sooner they finished this exchange, the sooner they would be able to leave...as well as get their cultivation restored.

It only took about ten or so minutes for the Zorro Familia wagon to arrive to tunnel three from the entrance.

The moment they arrived, a group of kaijin already got to moving to unload the slaves from the wagon.

This normally would've been the part where the new owners of these slaves would apply new collars to them, as well as cultivation seals if needed.

The monsters of these mines did no such thing.

Instead, they lined up the slaves and delivered to them a very straightforward promise.

[Alright, meat. From here on and out, you are all nothing but objects to the Kaijin Lord, and us, the kaijin,] an orangutan-like kaijin snarled at the slaves. [Now, you're probably wondering why none of you have any shackles or collars, right? Well to put it bluntly, nothing you do will be able to affect any of us in the slightest. For example...]

The orangutan-like kaijin took a gnarled finger and began to wave it between the gathered slaves until he stopped while pointing at one that had a viciously defiant look in his eyes.

And from what the kaijin could sense, this slave was at least an Aether Grandmaster.

In other words, the perfect person to make an example of.

[You, big guy, try and land a hit on me,] the orangutan-like kaijin commanded.

"Are you serious?" The Grandmaster couldn't help but to ask, disdain clear in his eyes."You look as if one blow from me will turn you into dust."

[Bahahaha!]the orangutan-like kaijin laughed. [What? Are you afraid that what I'm saying isn't true? Are you afraid that—]

[Miracle Fist!]