Fang Er listened to the announcement, his eyes wide with shock. He glanced back at his prison cage. It truly lacked any safety features.
There were no seats or seatbelts, not even a single rope to secure oneself!
The cage was made entirely of metal, hard and unforgiving. A direct collision would surely mean instant death!
As he was lost in thought, the spaceship suddenly accelerated upwards. The abrupt takeoff sent him crashing onto the floor.
Looking at Su Dingfang, Xue Rengui, and Gidov in the adjacent cages, they were all in the same predicament.
The other prospective miners in their cages were shouting curses, their language as foul as if dredged from a cesspit, utterly disgusting.
But the soldiers on the spaceship merely laughed. It seemed they were even placing bets!
Betting on how many people on this ship would safely reach Erxing, the planet mentioned in the broadcast.
He retrieved four leather belts from his system inventory, keeping one for himself and tossing the other three to Su Dingfang and the others.
"Tie yourselves up. Don't be stupid and end up dead!"
This was the only safety measure he could offer without revealing his abilities.
As expected, not long after the spaceship took off, Fang Er felt the vessel begin to shake violently. The frequent jolts felt as if the spaceship were being held by a Corgi.
The four of them were secured by belts, while the prospective miners in the other cages, who had been cursing earlier, now moaned and cried out in pain.
Some had their heads stuck in the gaps of the cages, others had broken arms, and some were contorted at bizarre angles.
This was...
A definite death flight...
As if they had endured eighty-one trials, the spaceship finally came to a halt after a violent collision.
The soldiers dismounted from their seats and checked on the occupants of the cages. They showed no particular surprise that Fang Er and his companions had survived safely.
Cases like theirs, where they secured themselves with an item, were encountered on almost every voyage and were not uncommon.
When everyone was herded off the spaceship, Fang Er realized they were on an extremely desolate planet.
The sky was dim, winds howled, and sandstorms raged. Before he could even open his mouth for a second, it was filled...
The environment was too harsh!
He looked back at the fellow prospective miners who had traveled with him. Fang Er had roughly counted them when boarding; there seemed to be over seven hundred.
But now, there were fewer than two hundred still standing!
With only a thirty percent survival rate, damn it, the person flying the ship truly treated people as less than human, for crying out loud!
Just then, a soldier looked at them and smiled, a cruel smile.
"Think they all died miserably?"
"Hahahaha! You'll find out later. Compared to those who died en route, you are the truly miserable ones!"
"Because here, you will wish you were dead!"
"Alright, the journey is over. I wish you all the mood to pity others in the days to come..."
After saying this, the soldier and the others left in the spaceship, leaving Fang Er and his companions in a bewildered state amidst the wind...
What the hell!
They'd come all this way, and there was no one to take charge?
Looking around, there was nothing but sand.
This so-called Erxing had an atmosphere and water sources.
Their attire was no different from when they were on Atarri. Forget spacesuits; those guys didn't even leave them a pair of work gloves when they departed.
Fang Er surveyed the group. The Lomo people, including Gidov, showed no unusual reactions.
There was only one possibility for this situation: Erxing was perfectly habitable for the Lomo people.
He discreetly took out his air quality detector and checked the readings.
Oxygen content: 36.4%.
Slightly lower than Atarri, but higher than Earth.
He tried removing his oxygen mask and took a breath of the air.
Although it was a bit dirty, and soon he felt fine sand particles being inhaled into his nostrils, the feeling of euphoria from oxygen was gone.
Fang Er was overjoyed. He could finally escape the limitations of the oxygen tanks!
"Come on, take these off!"
He walked over and collected the oxygen tanks and breathing masks from Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui, returning them to the system inventory.
Shortly after he finished, the rough sound of engines could be heard from a distance.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound. A group of Lomo soldiers in black cloaks were rapidly approaching.
They were the controlling force for the Erxing mine slaves.
Soon, Fang Er and his companions were led into a mine, and each was given a pickaxe.
The most primitive kind of pickaxe!
This sort of tool seemed to be obsolete even on Earth's main world.
Fang Er couldn't understand why the Lomo people, with their significantly more advanced technology than Earth, were still using them!
But when he actually entered the mine and swung the pickaxe, he realized how ignorant his thoughts were.
It wasn't that the tools were poor, but rather that this mining area could only use such pickaxes!
This mining area extracted a green crystal, something called Xuangan.
Of course, this was just a phonetic translation; Fang Er couldn't be sure if these were the actual characters.
Xuangan was very brittle, a crystalline substance with a natural purity of 98%. It could be used with almost no refining. However, this ore was extremely fragile, and any significant force would shatter it into powder.
But when suitable catalysts were added to Xuangan, its properties could be completely altered, becoming an extremely hard composite material with extraordinary toughness.
According to the old miners, this material seemed to be the preferred choice for manufacturing spaceship hulls!
Fang Er, who had been disappointed about not getting into the purple stone mining area, instantly perked up.
The mine supervision wasn't too strict. As long as each person submitted ore equivalent to one ton per day, their task was complete. The remaining time could be spent freely.
This was also because the oxygen content on Erxing was lower than on Atarri, making it impossible even for the miners to work all day.
While they were at rest, it was fine, but once they engaged in high-intensity work, they would experience discomfort similar to altitude sickness.
Take Gidov, for example!
After completing his task each day, this fellow would become like a dead dog, unable to even lift himself from his bed.
But for Fang Er, Su Dingfang, and Xue Rengui, they had fully adapted to the approximately 36% oxygen content within just two days.
After a few days of feigned work, Fang Er cheerfully called Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui over.
He was planning to make a big move!