"Go and tie them up — our new batch of slaves."
With those words, a few people produced ropes and lined everyone up, tying them together.
Soon, after binding everyone, they set off.
All of the people were tied together like animals, dragged along on a journey with almost no food or water.
Because there were so many people, the journey was slow. After four hours of travel without food or water, all of the captives were in poor shape.
Kai was sweating all over. In his entire life, he had never walked this much.
Not only was the journey grueling without food or water, but it was also dangerous.
Along the way, they were attacked by different animals three times.
Three captives died after being used as human shields. One was injured and left behind for slowing everyone down.
Not a single person on the looters' side was injured.
Finally, they arrived at the outer boundary of a post.
As soon as they reached it, the wooden gates were opened.
A man in his twenties, accompanied by a few others, arrived and inspected the goods — or rather, the people.
"Very good. It seems you've had quite a harvest."
The young man praised the middle-aged man.
The previously arrogant middle-aged man was now completely humble.
"Hahaha, Vice Leader, how could my humble achievement compare to yours? It's nothing in front of you."
He flattered the young man with ease.
"Hahaha. Good, good. I will definitely put in a word with the leader on your behalf."
The middle-aged man's face instantly broke into a wide smile.
"What are you looking at? Drag those damn slaves inside."
He barked the order at his subordinates.
There were now only 8 people remaining alive from the original group.
They were kicked inside a wooden prison and locked up.
The prison area was not small. Many cells had been constructed, and around 40 people were already inside.
Most of them were so thin that their bones were visible. Some lay on the ground motionless — no one knew if they were still alive.
Most had blank expressions.
When the new people were thrown into the cells, the existing prisoners didn't even react, as if they had grown used to it.
Kai and the others were extremely nervous.
Even though Kai was sharp-minded and intelligent, he was still just a young man who had barely entered society.
He couldn't bear to look at those people. He cleared a spot and sat down, closing his eyes, as if waiting for something.
He understood that since they had been brought here, these people definitely had motives and goals.
And looking at the condition of the prisoners, it was clear they were being exploited and given only enough food to survive.
Now it was nighttime. That meant the others would likely come in the morning.
With countless thoughts running through his mind, Kai drifted off to sleep.
The next day, in the early morning, Kai was woken by loud noises. A group of people in slightly better clothing arrived and one by one opened the cells. People carrying a large pot came forward and began lining everyone up.
Almost all of the prisoners quietly formed the line.
Following the example of the others, the newly arrived members of Kai's group also fell in line. Soon it was their turn.
They were handed a paste made from a mixture of grass, tree leaves, and a small amount of grain — served on a large leaf.
Kai sat to the side like the others and began to eat.
He used a piece of the leaf as a spoon and brought the paste to his mouth.
The next moment, he coughed violently and spat everything out.
Looking around, he could see that the other newly arrived people had the same reaction. Back in the previous group, life had been somewhat hard, but as long as they worked, they could get a simple and bland meal.
But here, the food was disgusting.
Grain was only there in name — the rest was mostly grass and leaves.
Kai looked around and found that the older captives, who had arrived with blank expressions, were eating this grass-and-leaf paste as if it were some kind of delicacy.
It showed just how hungry they truly were.
Some of them were even eating the leaves off the ground along with the paste.
Suddenly, there was noise.
One of the guards who had been serving food was kicking and beating a person.
"You bastard, how dare you spit out the food? Be grateful and eat whatever you're given. It's already a blessing that you have anything to eat at all."
Looking at the situation and the others around him, Kai steeled his heart, closed his eyes, and ate all the paste in just a few seconds.
A few of the other newly arrived people looked at Kai and, following his lead, also ate the entire paste with their eyes shut.
The guard glanced at Kai and patted his shoulder.
"Smart choice, kid."
And walked away.
Soon, everyone finished eating. Then another group of people arrived.
As soon as they arrived, they began assigning work to those who had just finished eating.
Soon, everyone except the new arrivals had left.
That day there were two new groups of people. The first was Kai's group with eight people. The other had around 20 people.
There were now 28 new slaves in total — or rather, that's what they were called.
All the new slaves were gathered together.
One person with a guard sat at a table, holding a pencil made from charcoal and a pale-colored rough leaf.
A person standing beside him announced:
"Anyone with a special skill, stand on the right. Everyone else, stay on the left."
He also explained that special skills included things like cooking, crafting, carpentry, and so on."
Soon everyone had chosen a side.
On the right, there were 13 people.
On the left, there were 15.
The man sitting in the chair looked at the 15 people on the right and snorted, then instructed them to report their skills.
When the first man was asked, he began to speak, trembling.
"I am a top university software engineer and I—ughhh."
As soon as those words came out, a guard kicked him hard.
The man in the chair looked at the groveling man in front of him and snorted.
"Where are you going to find a computer in this godforsaken survival world? Are you playing games with me?"
"Take him away."
"No, no... please give me one more chance. Please."
He was dragged away by the guard. No one knew what his fate would be.
Kai watched the man being dragged from the right side and sighed quietly in relief from his place on the left.
Despite having a useful skill, he had deliberately chosen the left side for exactly this reason: no matter what your job was back on Earth, it didn't matter here.
Even if someone had a useful skill, in this camp they would be confined and worked to death without any chance of escape.
But if he chose the left side, he would most likely be assigned some form of manual labor — like collecting, mining, or building something.
He chose this because such work would most likely allow slightly more freedom than the alternative.
Just as he had anticipated, after some time, the people with special skills were taken somewhere else.
The remaining people were assigned other duties — such as collecting grass and leaves for food from outside the post.
These people were not afraid of escape, because as soon as anyone left the camp beyond a certain distance, they would exit the safe zone.
The moment someone left the safe zone, eight out of ten people would die — quickly and certainly.
Those assigned duties outside the post were warned not to stray too far from the camp.
But there were always some who just wouldn't listen.
As soon as they were let outside, some people ran as far as they could. But just minutes later, screams rang out from their direction.
Kai sighed and began collecting grass and leaves.