1 A New Hell

CRACK!

CRACK!!

CRACK!!!

Pain exploded on Lin Zhou's back, as if he was being burned alive. Being abruptly stirred from his sleep, he could not help but curse repeatedly as he turned around to see where the pain was coming from.

He had been staying up the last few days working on his research essay for the Industrial Revolution, so he just wanted a good night's sleep. Was his mother hitting him so he can wake up? Why did it hurt so much? Furthermore, it was so noisy, like he was living next to a construction site.

"Goddamn lazy ass kids, I knew you were pretending to be sleeping! 5 more lashes!" Lin Zhou heard a gruff voice, before his back blossomed with pain. All the lashes landed precisely on the same area, bringing excruciating pain to Lin Zhou!

A furious anger boiled in his heart, before it was extinguished almost immediately by a cold realisation. This wasn't his home, it was a dusty, run down dormitory. That person wasn't his mother, he was a tall, thin man who was smoking a pipe. Most importantly of all, this wasn't his body!

The memories of the body that he was in suddenly flooded his brain. The boy's life was extremely pitiful. He was born without a name, and his parents sold him off to a factory to earn some money when he was 5. He had only remembered the smiles of his parents as they accepted a few bank notes from a buff-looking thug, as his hands were cuffed together. He was then led up into a wooden carriage, where other children his age awaited.

The children there had a look of fear as the buff looking man behind the boy approached. The boy huddled next to the rest of the children, and hugged the arm of another skinny boy. Along the way, more children joined them until they were packed to the brim. The trip lasted 3 days and 3 nights, until they finally arrived in front of a huge factory with red billowing fumes overhead. Those were the last intact memories of the boy, the rest of them only looked like a blur to Lin Zhou.

Lin Zhou looked at his body. He was wearing scraps of cloth that barely covered up his private bits that stuck to his body courtesy of the sweat, and he was barefoot. Grime and dust stuck to his body, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"This… reminds me of the start of the Industrial Revolution? Child labour in factories... Is this a form of complicated lucid dreaming? Yes, that must be it!" Lin Zhou felt that he could have dreamt up of this scenario because he had affected his subconscious after immersing himself thoroughly into the research. Still, he could not understand why everything was so realistic.

"Why are you still not moving? Do you need me to whip you more?" The thin man had a long and wrinkled face, sporting disheveled hair and a small goatee. He huffed and puffed, before taking out a metallic box of tobacco. Taking a pinch of it, he rolled it up and lit it on fire, taking a long drag. His eyes that were bloodshot previously instantly relaxed, but a dark blue smoke emitted from the burning tobacco. It wafted behind the thin man, away from Lin Zhou.

Lin Zhou took the chance to look around the room while the thin man was smoking. The room was lit up by a dim metal chandelier holding pitch black candles that were burning. The metal walls and floor looked rusty, but they still reflected the light into Metro's eyes, which made him turn his head down. There were only two straw mattresses on the floor, where black wax had dripped. It had been unwashed since forever, judging by the stench that came from them.

Lin Zhou winced as he came to his feet. Every action aggravated the pain that he felt. Suddenly, a multitude of coughs sounded out behind the thin man. The individual coughs sounded weak, but they were gathered in one place, amplifying the coughs, to the point of creating an echo.

"Can't you see I'm having a break! If even one of you continues to disturb me, all of you will get whipped 50 lashes together!" The man's speech slurred as he continued to smoke. He held his whip high, swaying it in the air, and every sound except for the creaking machinery was silenced.

A smirk appeared on the thin man's face. "That's better." His eyes rolled back as he continued smoking, so Lin Zhou took the chance to sneak behind his back slowly, out of fear for making any sounds that could alert the man.

The sound of machinery rumbling grew louder for every step he took. Sweating heavily, Lin Zhou wiped his forehead as he exited the room and entered a long corridor. It was made of metal just like the room he was in, and he could see a long line of rooms down it.

The corridor were also lit up by the chandeliers, and the candles burnt brightly compared to the room Lin Zhou was in previously. He was briefly dazed by the sudden burst of light, but he quickly recovered from it.

Lin Zhou sniffed the air, and scrunched up his nose. The stench from the mattresses still lingered in the corridor, and had even doubled. The blue smoke from the thin man was also suffocating. He pinched his nose tightly and looked forward, but a metal railing broke his line of sight.

"I should be able to see past this if I tip-toe." Lin Zhou stood on his toes, which lifted him just enough for his eyes to look downwards. The sight that he saw confirmed his expectations.

There were numerous children that were doing all sorts of tasks. Some of them were pulling on ropes, some were pulling out unidentifiable objects from a stream of dark, red liquid, and some were bottling the same liquid in glass bottles.

There were strange metallic machines with mysterious symbols engraved on it that produced the red liquid, which was connected to a simple wooden pathway that was held up by the children through a pulley.

"Red liquid? From my knowledge, shouldn't it be textile or iron production? Why would my brain come up with such a weird setting?" Lin Zhou could not believe his eyes. It was simply too illogical!

"What could the red liquid be?" Lin Zhou wanted to find out what this factory was producing. The machines looked very unusual, and looked incredibly realistic. He wondered how his brain was creative enough to craft these details.

Glancing around, Lin Zhou found a staircase that led directly to the ground floor. Looking up and down the staircase, it looked like the factory had 7 flights of floors, and that he was on the third floor.

"There are so many rooms. How much manpower does this factory need?" The size of the room he was in previously looked like it would accommodate 8 people if they squeezed together, and the bodies of children were smaller, so in total it would fit 12 children. If he multiplied that by the amount of rooms and floors, it would be at least higher than 1000 children!

Were ordinary factories this big? Were there even any factories that were this gigantic? Lin Shou racked his mind to see if there was any information, but there was none. Even if there was one like this, it was undocumented. Lin Zhou clenched his buttocks involuntarily as his whole body tensed up.

"If this was a dream, it should be weird and controllable, right? But why are there so many discrepancies, those memories… I… But science…" Lin Zhou could not bear to admit that his worldview might had just been destroyed. There was no way that dreams could be this shocking. There was coherency, personalities that were unique, the emotions, the gut-wrenching pain and those memories… they were nothing that could be replicated by a mere dream!

"What happened to me? Why am I here?" Lin Zhou was troubled by the sudden revelation. He was doing well academically, had a few friends here and there that he met with occasionally, and his parents supported him well. There was nothing much that he had problems with. He planned to get a decent job, marry a good wife, settle down, live a long and peaceful life.

He was still healthy and well, he was still alive, so why did he suddenly take over this body? Lin Zhou wanted to scream out loud to express his frustrations, but he could only suppress his anger to avoid irritating the thin man.

"The Industrial Revolution… when do we get to the point that my living conditions will improve?" It was simply impossible for him to tolerate such abuse. The living quarters were cramped, allowing plagues to spread easily. Disease would wreak havoc on an ill treated child body, and would almost certainly spell an agonising death.

"Such a terrible end!" Lin Zhou tapped on his legs repeatedly, before taking a deep breath and calming down. A fierce expression appeared on his face. He was not sure if he would arrive back to his original body if he died, so the risk was too great for him to take. In order to survive in a world where people sought to exploit him for his own gain, he would first have to get out of the factory.

If he really wished to exit the factory, he would have to take care of the thin man, by either incapacitating him or put him to sleep forever. He would have to be wary. When children were placed into brutal environments, they would mature faster to adapt. There should have been no doubt other children with the same thoughts as him, and yet the thin man should have outsmarted them all.

While he was thinking of the thin man, Lin Zhou unconsciously walked down the staircase. He was not aware that his body was moving on its own, and had already arrived on the ground floor.

"Orange! Orange! Why didn't you come down sooner? Old Huxley beat you up real bad, right?" Some of the children noticed Lin Zhou, and tried their best to minimise the sound of their shouts. Seeing Lin Zhou ignore them, they simply thought that their friend had just not heard them, and they were about to return to their duties when one of them cried out.

"Look! Orange is plunging his hand in the stream! Shit, has the beatings affectedhis brain? If he contaminates the blood, we're all done!"

Lin Zhou only looked forward as the blood that his hand touched briefly formed a whirlpool, before it continued flowing. His eyes were blank, and he stood still like a statue, while the children closest to them quickly pulled him back.

In his mind, Lin Zhou heard a deafening sound of gears turning. Then, a booming voice appeared, "Welcome to the Factory of Power! Technology will turn energy into the ultimate form of Magic!"