Pangolin．Lin

A pangolin who seems to be paranoid, thoroughly convinced that you want to steal his scales. Through talking to him, you learned that he almost got his tail cut off in prison because of a rumor about pangolin scales. Stupidity and greed hang over his head like the sword of Damocles, making him too afraid to let his guard down for even a second.

Lin was a miner, one of the most common occupations for pangolins. Although he is not very old, he had worked in mines for more than 10 years, and was fed up of the tedious digging. His dream was to become an action movie star, just like his idol, Tang the Pangolin. But he also knew that pursuing his dream would require a lot of money, and his meager salary was but a drop in the ocean compared to what he needed.

The last mine Lin worked was at Twin Peaks, located on the northern border. The southern peak belongs to the Animal Federation, while the northern peak is in the Republic of Aslovia. The Republic of Aslovia is far poorer than the Animal Federation, so Twin Peaks was a smuggling hotspot until the Animal Federation spent a lot of money to build a wall.

On his day off, Lin went to a bar in the small town at the foot of the mountain as usual. The bartender told him that there was someone in the booth who wanted to buy him a drink. Never one to turn down a free drink, Lin readily agreed. He sat down in the dimly lit booth, and a cobra wearing sunglasses explained his intentions. He claimed to be an Aslovian businessman who was losing money due to the tariff increase. He had heard from certain sources that Lin was short of money, so he wanted to make a deal. He wanted Lin to dig a secret smuggling tunnel in the mine. The cobra tried to gently persuade Lin: "Hiss... Aslovia needs cheap food and medicine. You would be doing a good deed."

"The tunnels in the mine are like interwoven mazes," thought Lin. "Only miners know all the ways in and out." He came to the conclusion that the risk was not very high. Plus, he really wanted to leave the mine as soon as possible and go to the bright lights of the big city. So a few days later, he agreed to undertake the "good deed".

Lin worked incredibly fast. Within a month, he had used an abandoned tunnel to link the southern and northern peaks. Just as agreed, Lin received payment and gave the map to the cobra.

Lin could barely contain his excitement at seeing the huge sum of money. The once unattainable dream of being an actor now seemed to be within his reach. He submitted his resignation. In a month's time he would be saying goodbye to rock and dirt forever. While waiting for his shift to end, Lin would often look around the tunnel. At first it was just as the cobra had said. There were guys carrying crates from the southern peak to the northern peak. But as time went on, Lin noticed a drastic change. Sometimes there would be another group of guys moving something very different from the northern peak to the southern peak: girls. Their hands and feet were bound, and they were covered in cuts and bruises.

Lin was no fool; he understood exactly what this was. The food and medicine that the snake talked of were nothing but a minor sideline. His main business was the trafficking of girls from Aslovia to the Animal Federation. Lin went to confront the cobra, but received only ridicule and threats.

Knowing that he had allowed himself to become an accomplice to such evil because of his greed, Lin was consumed by guilt and could not sleep at night. Every time he looked at the money in his account, all he could see were the helpless eyes of those desperate girls. "I wanted to be a hero like Tang," he lamented, "but now look at what I've become!" Unable to bear the torment, he finally chose to turn himself in to the police and tell them all about the tunnel of nightmares.

The police soon sealed off the tunnel and followed the trail to rescue a group of girls who had been trafficked. As for Lin, he may have paid the price of losing his freedom, but at least now he can sleep at night.