Chapter 237: Saka's Difficult Journey (Part 2)_1

Accompanied by the crisp sound of metal collisions and loud shouts, the slaves who had long been crouched in darkness seemed very bewildered when they just left the prison car. Thor was no exception, his expression still somewhat stunned. Not even pain could make him utter an additional sound.

A Sakar supervisor, similar to the big red guy, waved a large iron whip lashing at the slaves, making them line up and walk towards the mine.

Thor slowly moved forward in the queue. In front of him was a green-skinned creature, thin and small, resembling a member of the dwarf race. Behind him was a creature with a tire as its head, four arms, and a centipede-like lower body.

In this queue, there were all kinds of bizarre aliens. Many of them were creatures that this galaxy could not have evolved, clearly, they were also thrown into this garbage dump from distant galaxies millions of light-years away.

Races with the ability to travel across galaxies have advanced civilizations. Many of these aliens have evolved into purely intellectual beings that do not engage in production. Most of them had once lived privileged lives within their own groups. Such torture is unbearable for them.

The green-skinned man walking in front of Thor complained in a low voice. His language was like the gurgling sound of a drowning man, hard to understand. But from his tone, it was clear he was not saying anything good.

When he passed a Sakara supervising worker, his mouth did not stop. A strapping Sakara man lashed his whip on his back, and the green-skinned man writhed about in pain on the ground.

A few Sakara supervisors started to laugh. They landed a kick on the stomach of the green-skinned man, watched him vomit fresh blood, then finally lie motionless on the ground.

One of the Sakara beings mumbled a few words of discontent, grabbed the green-skinned man and walked towards the side. Just like throwing a sandbag, he tossed the green-skinned man into the air, who then fell onto a sharpened log, impaled like a skewered piece of meat.

Thor's lips were trembling. His arm moved slightly, but in the end, he turned his head back, making no other move.

But the attention of those Sakara supervisors fell upon him because among these aliens, Thor's physique was very robust.

A whip landed on Thor. He stumbled and fell to the ground, sitting there groaning, but he remained silent.

The Sakara beings hurled a few insults and kicked him. He kept quiet. This non-resistant prey, this silent toy, couldn't satisfy the violent and bloodthirsty impulses of these Sakara beings. They simply grabbed the iron chains hanging over Thor's shoulders and pulled him up.

Thor was like a sandbag hanging on the end of a rope, trailing on the ground, then struggling clumsily to get up and return to line.

All the while, Thor remained silent. His eyes were hidden under his deep eyebrows. His face was covered in grime, his brilliant golden hair was dirtied by the mud, sticking to the side of his face. The wound on his shoulder began to scab over, but before it could heal, it was grazed by the sharp spike and fresh blood was drawn.

Pain forced him to stoop his body. With each step he took, the iron chain would scrape the ground, making a "clink clink" sound.

The long queue extended all the way to the outside of the Red Ring Mine, while the people in front kept progressing, entering into dark mine caves, swallowed by a giant abyss, uttering no more sounds. Perhaps, they would never have the chance to make any noise again.

The edges of the footprints stirred up tiny dust, fresh blood dripped onto the ground, and the sound of the iron chains resonated constantly. Arriving at the entrance of the mine, Thor looked up slightly. He saw a Sakara person, somewhat thinner compared to those supervisors standing above the mine cave.

He looked down at the slaves lining up and entering the mine, his eyes full of mockery and malice. Thor heard him speaking in the common language of the Furnace Star System: "I have given you a chance to be reborn... I am your god, thank me…"

Then, Thor's figure was also swallowed up by the shadow of the cave. At the last moment before stepping into the darkness, he glanced back at the sprawling planet floating on the horizon, its starry ring floating faintly and mysteriously.

His gaze seemed to sweep across the cosmos for millions of light years, towards Asgard, towards his previous homeland, filled with resolution and sorrow.

Loki, outside the screen, fell silent.

Loki remained quiet, his eyes fixed on the magic screen, wordless.

Although Sakaar is considered a cosmic garbage dump, due to many top-level interstellar civilizations dumping their rubbish here, after their technology was collated by the Sakara people, a unique branch of technology was born, which could be called "Stitched Monster" or "Recycling Garbage".

In short, Sakaar has a decent level of technology, at least higher than that of human race, but the reason they still need to pick up "garbage" to take on as slaves to mine manually is because the minerals in the Sakaar mines are extremely unique and cannot be extracted by machinery.

The Red Ring Mine is a large mine in the southern part of Sakaar, belonging to the ruler of Sakaar, the "Red King". It is rich in a special mineral known as "Saka Star Rock". The peculiarity of this mineral is that it appears only when observed by living beings — without observation, it is nothing.

Without the gaze of a sentient life form, it won't materialize, so many slaves are needed to work in the dangerous mines, keeping an eye on these observer effect minerals. Sakaar star rock, after processing, becomes the core material of invisible platforms favored by many advanced interstellar civilizations and enjoys a decent market demand in the interstellar market.

Because of this, Sakaar has a quite mature industrial chain. For instance, junkyard owners like Red Wing specialize in scavenging locations where aliens frequently dump garbage, collect various types of waste, and also round up any aliens that get dropped off with the trash.

The likes of the big red guys are comparable to long-haul truckers. They are responsible for transporting these alien slaves from the junkyards and bringing them to the mines to work.

The slaves who enter the mines, although not subject to extreme physical labor, does not imply that the work here is relaxed. On the contrary, it can be said that it is already very lucky if they get chosen by these long-haul drivers to be sent to the arena to fight with all kinds of terrifying alien monsters, because the mortality rate for slaves once they enter the mine is one hundred percent.

That's because the mining operation of Saka Star Rock doesn't take place in a mine in the physical sense, but amid collapsed shards of dimensions. As soon as it involves the breaking of space and the collapse of dimensions, the level of danger is self-evident.

After Thor was brought into the mine, he was assigned to the South District. The leading Sakaran supervisor stated, "You're in luck, scum. This is a mining point favored by His Majesty the Emperor. Thus, we'll let you live a bit longer. If you can master the terrain here, there's a chance you might become an old miner and survive."

Accompanied by his narration, Thor walked through the cave and what appeared before him wasn't the kind of mine he had seen before, but a colossal abyss filled with endless galaxies. In the abyss, diamond-shaped shards like mirrors floated intersectingly, and there were numerous dazzling rays of light attacking these shards.

Within the intricate shards were stands built from wood with unique engravings. Along a circular staircase attached to the wall, slowly descending. Thor saw various aliens perched on these scaffolds, staring intensely in one direction.

Among them, the one closest to him was a humanoid creature, only its legs and hands were longer. Due to its lengthy limbs, it had an advantage, hugging the engraved log with its long limbs.

Then, Thor saw as a shard suddenly lit up, and the alien pressed a button embedded in the scaffold. A ray of laser shot out, causing the shard to scatter into specks of light, which was then collected by a magic light ball and floated to the other side.

However, the miner farther from Thor wasn't so lucky. Like the earlier miner, a shard sparkled, he pressed the button, and the laser shot out. But he did not shatter the shard. Instead, it refracted many small lasers. The lasers flew out, hitting many of the wooden scaffolds where the miners were perched, and instantly, cries of abuse rang out.

Then, a long tentacle grabbed the failed miner and pulled him down from the wooden scaffold he was clinging to. Thor saw a huge fish mouth where the tentacle was stretching from. The tentacle curled up the miner and tossed him into the fish's mouth. He disappeared without even being able to scream.

"You better do a good job," came the voice of the Sakaran supervisor. "Otherwise, he's going to eat you."

Thor was herded by the supervisor, walking onto the lowermost wooden scaffold. After being whipped, he stepped onto the log and chose a stand to perch on. But at this height, there were few glowing shards.

"You must press the button when the star rock glows. Remember, it has to be when the glow is at its brightest. Press too early or too late, and the mining laser won't be able to break the star rock and mine the ore. The laser will then destroy the scaffold beneath you. Once you fall, of course, you'll be dead."

The supervisor chuckled twice and said, "Of course, don't think being lazy will help. If you don't have a single successful attempt in a whole day, wait to be turned into food in the evening..."

As he said this, the entire scaffold suddenly shook. A loud rumbling noise came from the bottom of the starry sky. Even the robust supervisor staggered a bit, while an alien who had just stepped onto the scaffold was directly shaken off. The old miners above, utilizing the advantage of their body sizes, clung tightly onto the scaffolding.

"Shaking is very common in the shattered dimensions. If you don't want to die, hold on tighter," the supervisor warned.

Thor also almost fell down. He now realized that the big red guy who had brought him here had deep-seated malice because he had thrust the spikes and chains into one of Thor's shoulders, rendering one arm of Thor unable to apply force. Under these circumstances, he could not possibly hold on to the scaffold for long.

But Thor didn't show any reaction. His eyes had a somewhat vacant look, and his movements were slow. He had just stabilized his body when another tremor came, and he was shaken to the edge of the scaffold, showing absolutely no intention of adjusting his posture.

Meanwhile, Loki, who was lying on the sickbed, was recovering quite quickly, or rather, the venom was working very efficiently. Half of his body had gradually returned from being a phantom, and Shiller saw that just as the shake in the mine reached the magic screen, Loki's one hand fiercely grabbed onto the rail.

Strange also noticed this movement, and he and Shiller exchanged looks.

Shiller whispered, "Someone's getting restless...but I won't say who."