“It’s two o’clock! Time for breakfast!”The instructor’s voice echoed from the entrance of the tunnel, loud through the microphone, bouncing against the hard walls and shaking the dust loose from the ceiling.At that moment one by one, the miners began to step out of the tunnel. Some dragged their feet. Some stretched their stiff backs as they walked. A few laughed weakly, already talking about food like hungry children that had been kept too long without eating. Their helmets looked dull under the weak afternoon light as they moved toward the exit.Inside the tunnel, Liam Gael did not move.The sound of metal striking rock continued from where he stood, deep inside the narrow path where the air felt tight and heavy. He swung his tool again, and the sharp sound cut through the silence that had followed after the others left.Sweat rolled down his face, cutting clean lines through the charcoal that covered his skin. It slipped past his jaw and dropped to the ground, mixing with dust

Still Liam stood there, completely stunned.What his eyes met did not make sense to his mind at first. Emily was on top of Mr Benjamin. Both of them were naked, their bodies pressed together, lost in a moment that should never have existed. The room felt tight, hot, and wrong at same time.His breath caught in his throat.Because the office was soundproof, that was why he hadn’t heard anything earlier. The walls had swallowed every sound. But the instant the door opened fully, his ears picked it up, the soft, broken moan of his wife, the same voice that used to encourage when he gets back from work, sing his praises when he feels down, and feel the whole world is against him, now calling out for another man.Immediately His stomach dropped.Even with the door wide open, they didn’t notice him immediately. They were too wrapped up in each other, bodies glued together, movements careless, blind to everything outside their pleasure.At that moment Liam’s helmet slipped from his hand, and

He couldn’t believe it, that Emily, the woman who held his hand when things got rough, who laughed with him under poor light bulbs at night, would treat him the same way the higher‑class citizens had always done. No, she had to be lying. It had to be a sick joke. Liam’s body shook as he stepped closer. He only wanted to hold her shoulders to make her look at him straight, to ask again, to make her say it while looking into his eyes. Maybe then he’d believe. Maybe then he’d finally wake up. But before he could reach her, Benjamin moved. The manager’s jaw tightened, and in one quick motion he pushed Emily gently aside, mistaking Liam’s desperate move for an attack. Without hesitation, Benjamin’s leg swung forward a hard, brutal kick straight into Liam’s chest. The sound of it echoed through the office like thunder. Liam hit the floor instantly, the air knocked out of his lungs. Pain shot through his ribs, sharp and blinding. He coughed hard, and blood spilled from his mouth,

The moment Lord Ayden finished speaking, every single person in the hall dropped to their knees. The sound was thunderous armor striking gold, robes brushing the floor, foreheads pressed down in absolute reverence. This was no ordinary gathering. Here knelt generals who commanded legions capable of leveling cities. Here knelt medical lords whose hospitals could pull souls back from the brink of death. Here knelt cultivators whose whispers could split mountains and financiers whose wealth could drown entire oceans. But Yet at that moment, all of them bowed as one. “Our master will not die!” The roar shook the hall. A towering man clad in black military armor spoke, his fist pressed firmly against the ground. “We will not repeat the mistake of twenty‑five years ago. Never again!” Another voice followed immediately, sharp and resolute. “We must save him at all costs. Any enemy standing in his path will be erased. If he is harmed in any way, I swear we will conquer the country

His forefathers had spent generations improving that land, turning dust into a home. For him to reclaim even half of it… it would take two hundred years years he didn’t have. Regular people never lived that long. Some did now but only the wealthy. Those who could afford divine medicine or rare magical tomes that expanded life by decades. Not full immortality, but enough to keep power growing. Those relics were the most expensive treasures in the world, worth more than cities. An E‑level citizen like Liam could never dream of touching a single pills of the drugs , let alone buying one to extend his age.The life expectancy of an E‑level citizen was barely that of an ordinary human seventy years, if the gods were feeling generous. And even that was a curse disguised as mercy. By seventy, most could no longer lift a tool or stand through a single workday. In this world, if you stayed home idle if you stopped producing, stopped paying, stopped serving you were already marked by deat