Great Mine.
Natasha was currently on the outskirts, cleaning wounds for some injured miners.
Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps came from behind.
"Hm?"
She turned toward the noise.
A long-haired man in a patient gown, barefoot, came sprinting toward her.
Seeing Natasha, his face lit up with joy, and he immediately shouted:
"Hahahaha! Found you all! Where are my two teammates?!"
Natasha caught sight of the newcomer—her pupils contracted sharply, and the cotton swab in her hand dropped in fright.
"You…how did you…"
Behind the man in the patient gown, a girl was pushing a wheelchair at full speed, her face filled with worry:
"Mr. Zeig, wait up—you haven't even put on shoes yet!"
The sprinting Zeig looked back triumphantly: "Hahahaha! You won't trick me this time—I, Zeig, will never believe you again!"
Soon, he reached Natasha in a burst of speed.
Not even out of breath.
The people around, upon seeing him, instinctively stepped back, expressions of fear on their faces.
Who is this?
Why is he charging over here barefoot? And he's wearing a patient gown—is he a patient?
No, he ran all this way without panting.
Probably not a physical problem.
"Could it be…he has mental damage?" someone suddenly said.
Immediately, everyone had an epiphany.
Yes.
That must be the truth.
"How…how are you still here?" Natasha stared in shock.
Zeig crossed his arms and grinned smugly:
"Did you think leaving that girl behind could trap me? Mere iron chains—with my current strength, breaking free is child's play!"
Natasha instinctively pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed:
"March, Dan Heng, Bronya… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
Seeing her murmuring repeatedly, an injured miner sitting in front weakly said:
"Doctor Natasha, m-my wound…"
"Ah, sorry."
Natasha snapped back, took a fresh cotton swab, dipped it in the medicine bottle, and while applying it continued speaking to Zeig:
"They've already gone inside. Let me first explain the situation to you."
Zeig nodded.
Behind him, Cyrille crept closer with the chains, her eyes gleaming sharply.
Natasha murmured:
"The cause of this incident is that the miners here discovered a massive ore vein—extremely valuable—but they didn't tell the vagrants."
"While they were mining it themselves, the vagrants found out and wanted a share. That's how the conflict erupted."
Zeig nodded and stepped left, causing Cyrille, who had lunged at him, to miss and fall flat on the ground. He continued:
"Since the miners discovered the vein first, they shouldn't have any obligation to inform the vagrants, right?"
Natasha affirmed:
"Of course not. In fact, it's thanks to the miners usually being generous—mining teams are willing to take in some vagrants for work—that those vagrants have food and can survive."
"But some vagrants are still dissatisfied. They're lazy and only pretend to work in the mining teams, and now they want to seize the Geomarrow from the vein. The miners really couldn't tolerate that behavior anymore, so the conflict broke out."
Zeig nodded lightly. "I see."
He stepped back, dodging another flying tackle from Cyrille, and said slowly:
"Then these vagrants are nothing but tumors—why not just get rid of them?"
Natasha sighed while cleaning the miner's wound:
"That would be too cruel. These vagrants are also pitiable. If not for their towns being swallowed by the Fragmentum, how would they have become wanderers?"
She looked at Zeig. "If Rivet Town had been the first to be eroded by the Fragmentum, the miners of Rivet Town would be the vagrants now. Everyone's fate is more or less the same."
At these words, the miners behind Natasha all fell into a daze.
In the end, it was the lower district's survival environment that was too harsh.
They had just been a little luckier.
"So, what do you plan to do?" Zeig asked.
"They've caused trouble before, and Wildfire has dealt with it many times. Now Seele and Oleg have taken people deep into the Great Mine. Do you want to go in and take a look?"
Zeig raised his hand, caught the chain Cyrille swung at him, and said seriously:
"Of course I'm going in. Teammates aside, I've still got a triple-turbo super duck to protect—after all, I took the money, so I can't slack off!"
With that,
Zeig twisted his arms, stretched his body.
In his patient gown, he leaped high, drawing a beautiful arc in the air to evade Cyrille's encircling chains, landing steadily.
Then he immediately broke into a mad dash!
Thud thud thud thud—
Dust flew everywhere in an instant.
Everyone watching was stunned.
"Doctor Natasha."
At that moment, a miner stood up and asked: "What illness does this little brother have? He looks perfectly healthy—healthier than anyone here."
Natasha shook her head helplessly:
"It's a sickness of the heart. Heart sickness is hard to cure."
She quietly gazed in the direction Zeig had gone.
A figure whose face was completely blackened with soot and grime, holding chains, pushing a wheelchair, crouched low, took a deep breath—and suddenly exploded forward!
"Bang—!"
A black shadow charged toward the depths of the Great Mine.
Once again kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
"Doctor Natasha, what's with that nurse?" another miner asked.
Natasha rubbed her temples, no longer bothering with the two.
"She might have been infected too."
She continued her work, the red ribbon tied on her shoulder swaying gently.
On the other side.
Zeig ran toward the depths.
Miners kept running toward him from the opposite direction, brushing past.
These miners looked panicked, their faces more or less covered in dust.
"Hey, what's happening up ahead?" Zeig grabbed a woman and asked.
"Aaaaaah—help!!"
The woman frantically shook off Zeig's hand and fled in terror.
"???"
After a brief pause, Zeig figured the woman had been scared silly by something inside, so he ignored her.
He continued running deeper.
This time, a young man came running straight at him.
Zeig immediately grabbed him and asked:
"Hey, buddy, what's going on in there!"
"Aaaaaaaaah—!! Evil spirit knight!!!" The young man suddenly screamed, shook off Zeig's hand, and fled in another direction.
"???"
Zeig scratched his head, first looking himself over.
Patient gown, no AK drawn.
At worst, he'd be mistaken for a patient—not scary enough to frighten people, right?
"Wait."
Suddenly, he realized something.
He slowly turned around.
And met a pair of eyes gleaming with intensity.
"Aaaaaaaaah—!!"
This time, it was Zeig who screamed.
He charged toward the depths without stopping.
And behind him, a girl with a face blackened by soot, eyes bloodshot and fierce, stood quietly.
Seeing Zeig about to run,
she pushed the wheelchair with one hand like holding the reins of a warhorse, charging wildly in pursuit.
The other hand gripped the iron chain, one end dragging on the ground, emitting a piercing whine.
The miners who nearly collided with her all swerved away in horror.
"Help! There's a monster!!"
"Quick, call the Ancient One—!!"
…