‘Last night was great but today is a new day, time to get my head back in the game. That money isn’t going to make itself.’ Lucifer silently psyched himself up before work.

‘Tsk, I can’t send Aruna to school alone. I’ll have to figure out a way to raise another 40 thousand so Ambrosia can go too.’ Lucifer slapped himself in the face as he arrived in front of the mine.

He was about to enter when he noticed a long ant trail. There was a sandwich that had fallen on the ground, probably left over from someone’s breakfast. At the foot of the sandwich there were worker ants at the front. Their only job was to rip off pieces of the sandwich which they then passed to the ant behind them. The ant would turn around and follow the line behind him carrying the food back to the hive.

As he saw this scene his mind almost exploded, “Why the hell didn’t I think of that before?” He hit himself in the head while saying, “Stupid, stupid.”

Instead of entering the mine he ran to the boss, “Hey boss, can I speak to you for a minute?”

“Sure, come on in.”

They chatted as Lucifer drew on a big piece of paper, explaining his thoughts to the boss. He then drew up some calculations. “As you can see, if we do this we will definitely see an increase in loads per hour.”

The bosses’ eyes shined as he nodded his head, “Damn kid, how did you come up with this? You’re a bloody genius!”

An announcement rang over the speakers in the mine.

Announcement: Please halt mining and head to green zone alpha 1. I repeat, halt mining and head to green zone alpha 1. This is an announcement for every miner, please head to green zone alpha 1.

Over 600 people now crowded the green zone station, on the stage stood the boss and Lucif. “Okay workers, today we will be trying something different. Everyone please get into groups of six.”

Everyone started talking as they formed groups. “Alright then, now give yourselves a number from 1 to 6.”

“What is this for?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll see soon enough. Okay, now for all the number 1s you are now miners. Number 2s, 3s and 4s are the diggers. Numbers 5 and 6 are carriers. According to this pattern we will alternate once every hour. After an hour number 2 will be the miner, numbers 3, 4 and 5 will be diggers whilst numbers 6 and 1 will be the carriers. Any questions?”

“Yes, I have no idea what you mean by that. Can you explain?”

“Miners mine, diggers dig, carriers carry. We will be sharing the load of work to increase productivity.”

“Share? So I have to share my money with them? No way!”

“Yeah, what do you mean share? I have a daughter to save!”

The workers seemed to be in an uproar. Lucifer quietly raised his hand to silence the crowd, “Don’t worry, you will be making more money this way. Just trust me, there is also another plan but we don’t know which one will be more efficient.”

Their eyes seemed to light up, even though he was a kid he was quite the smart cookie. In fact, many viewed him as a prodigy.

“What’s the other plan?”

“We all work in one spot and completely mine the area. We will try the first idea first and see how well that does and then try the second idea in two hours.”

The workers all moved to different areas in green zone and found areas to start mining. The sounds of explosions echoed all around except they were much more frequent. The idea was to minimize down time and maximize efficiency. If you had one person running the trailer while you dug and filled the other trailer the work would continue nonstop.

The machines had already registered every team. When they turned in their trailer it was automatically split six ways. This continued on and on. Lucif stood next to the boss and watched the numbers fly up on screen.

He felt a bit of envy watching these workers, their trailers were full of high quality iron and gold. Lucif couldn’t mine through strong walls like they could so there were a lot of areas he couldn’t get to. They were also more efficient because they were faster and could destroy giant walls in one hit while it took him a few dozen strikes.

Their trailers averaged in the tens even when it was only full of Iron, when they brought back loads of high quality gold it would number in the hundreds. There were trailers rushing back and forth, in and out almost nonstop for the entire 2 hours.

After 2 hours the boss called everyone in to stop. The workers were anxious to see the results. The work felt like it moved a lot faster and it was easier but it was split six ways so would they really have made a profit? They didn’t think so.

Names popped up on the screen.

[1] Sydney Baker

Hourly Average: $22 Today’s Average: $40

[2] Peter Reti

Hourly Average: $23 Today’s Average: $41

[3] Zac Tahere

Hourly Average: $19 Today’s Average: $46

Everyone was shocked. Their hourly average had increased upwards of 90% per person. Sounds erupted followed by cheering. “How can this be?”

Not only was it more enjoyable to mine along fellow workers but their profits increased too.

The boss put his hands together like an evil little merchant as he laughed. 90% increase meant they would nearly double the amount of product mined every day, which meant he would make more profit.

“Shall we try the second method now?”

They grabbed their tools and lined up, this method was a risk. Lucif had no idea how well it would work out. The idea was to have everyone working together, but more numbers doesn’t always mean a better result, that’s why he was wary.

“Okay, miners go first. Smash the wall and then quickly retreat. The diggers will rush in and start shoveling after you smash the wall. Drop your pick and then grab a trailer. That’s the process. Let’s see how good this method is.”

A line of miners ran to the wall, the sounds of heavy explosions smashed against it, followed by intense rumbling and shaking. Their combined strength felt like someone had dropped a nuke on the mountain. The rumbling lasted for 5 minutes and shook everything but it wasn’t enough to cause a cave in.

Cracks spread from the wall and a strong gust of wind rushed towards them. The whole entire wall came crumbling down. The height was many times higher than the average tunnel, usually their strikes would cause 8 or so meters to collapse down but this combined power caused a gigantic avalanche of dirt.

When the dust settled it had cleared out a height of 30 meters!