The Game of Global Mining

At 5 a.m., Chun was awakened by a system notification from the main account.

But he still glanced at the side account first.

Over there, his side account was panting continuously, pink smoke was filling the air, and the entire bath had started boiling!

This night... well, standard procedure, just quite a waste of time. For a professional player who values every second, it’s probably unbearable. But the more advanced this game gets, the more seductive it becomes, maybe it’s designed to trap professional players, making them addicted and destabilizing their resolve?

Switch to the main account then.

—System notification: Congratulations! Your Dream Forest Divine Domain’s revival progress has reached 100%, developing new divine domain skills: Cursed Crow, Eye of Disgusted Crow.

Cursed Crow: Can absorb curses, transforming them into spirit-based attack skills. When cursing a target, there’s a high probability they will go berserk and lose control, locking onto attacking you. Note: The more curses absorbed, the stronger the effect. Ineffective against non-intelligent creatures.

Eye of Disgusted Crow: Passive skill, can see clearly people who are despised.

...

Chun blinked sleepily, bewildered!

My Divine Domain has revived? These are the two skills I gained from reviving my Divine Domain?

Holy shit! This Cursed Crow means cursing to aggro, making the target attack me? This... feels familiar, isn’t this just like the Blasphemer? Except Blasphemer seems to only work against the Evil God.

So, because I’ve got the groundwork from the Blasphemer, I’ve comprehended this?

What’s the deal with this Eye of Disgusted Crow?

Chun instinctively glanced at the four young ladies playing instruments ahead, suddenly discovering that there’s a display above their heads saying "Despised by Many"!

What? A pointless skill for "seeing people clearly"?

But truth be told, my Divine Domain revival progress is indeed quite fast, maybe it’s because these girls themselves are annoying, helping me draw a lot of aggro? So, should I specifically hang out with such annoying people and let them pull aggro to boost my dark reputation?

Aileen said, "Darling, you’re here. While you were resting, we visited 4 more cities. Now the young ladies are also tired, after touring this round they plan to find a hotel, have dinner, and then rest and sleep."

Sleep? Ah, yes, NPCs have normal routines, don’t they? But this is tricky, I just woke up, so I can only roam the streets alone, reaping reputation?

Aileen added, "There’s a man in a trench coat and top hat among the crowd a hundred meters behind us, he’s been following us since we had lunch in Saint Martin City at noon, he’s followed us through five cities!"

Chun’s heart tightened, the Ten Lords? Changing methods to track us?

Thinking about it, the Ten Lords have been tracking me for a day, seeing me swagger for a day, would the Ten Lords’ temper tolerate this? Isn’t it the best time to take action while I’m staying in a hotel asleep?

Chun felt he couldn’t avoid it, rather than accidentally hurting innocents in the hotel, wouldn’t it be better to find an open space outside the city and have a showdown with the Ten Lords? But what if the Ten Lords don’t play fair, while I’m leaving the city, they rush into the hotel and kill the four young ladies to vent frustration, or capture them as hostages to disgust me, isn’t it possible?

Or should I just forget about all that and confront him in the hotel?

Now, with the "Curse" skill, as soon as I encounter anyone, I’ll max out aggro, striving to drag him outside the city for a final battle?

As he mused, the luxurious hotel arrived, and under the guidance of the doorman, the four young ladies tiredly but joyfully enter.

They are quite ostentatious, sitting in the most luxurious and prominent spot in the banquet hall.

Aileen said in a low voice, "That man followed us inside!"

Holy shit! It’s not dark yet, people haven’t slept, won’t he act now?

Libnahi whispered a reminder, "Spatial fluctuations entering from the window."

Yes, the Eye of Omniscience has come in too?

Chun was very conflicted, should he remind these young ladies? But what’s the use of that? They have no combat power... reminding them would only scare them, wreck their annoying arrogant demeanor.

Just then, a waiter came over with a tray, distributing knives, forks, napkins, and other dining utensils.

Chun was very nervous, after all, knives and forks can be used as assassination weapons!

The waiter came to Chun’s side but handed him a folded paper, then turned and left!

—System notification: You have received a letter delivered by the hotel waiter.

Holy shit? A challenge letter from the Ten Lords?

Chun raised his hand to check:

—Long time no see, I followed you back to the Empire, ready to assist you in the manhunt for the Dark Sage. I also learned that you have business this morning in Red Sand City. Upon investigation, several border cities are dedicated to exploring the ruins of Holy Emerald City buried in the desert a thousand years ago. If you can quickly make discoveries, your business can rapidly thrive, otherwise, they are prepared to join forces against you, your free time is limited, I suggest you give up. If interested, you can head to Blood Sand City’s Adventurer’s Guild, where you can directly teleport to the ruins camp. I will follow shortly.

...

Chun looked stunned, this tone, this behavior... Holy shit! It’s Moss!

Aileen hadn’t seen Moss, who became an Imperial Spy after a century crossover, so she didn’t recognize that the trench-coated, top-hatted man following us for several cities was actually Moss!

Holy Emerald City, eh?

Chun immediately opened the phone given by Zhou Qing, searching city map guides, searching for Holy Emerald City, yes! The previous version’s gem city, it even had a map of the city’s sewer system!

So the goal of these border cities exploring the ruins is nothing more than Treasure Hunting, finding places like vaults? And I have the Earth Vein Perception taught by Earth Mother, plus the Vine Technique to drill underground, as well as the Great Explorer profession, who but I can handle this!

Very interested, I want to go! Not only can I meet up with Moss to learn more about the situation, but I can also avoid the Ten Lords’ assassination interference.

The key to the matter was that the commissioner Fubole screwed up, wasn’t it? Not only did he fail to achieve, but also alerted the other party to prepare to join forces against me?

Ultimately, this game, relying on NPCs with no cultivation of favorability or tasking degree, expecting to get things done just by spending money, is nothing but a pit as the public beta god said!

But how to tell this to the young ladies? Leave them to rest at the hotel? If the Ten Lords take action tonight, they’ll be doomed!

Forget it, take them along! After all, they’re annoying too, let them suffer a bit in the desert, everyone will be happy. Even if the burdens get killed, they’d be killed staying at the hotel anyway.

Chun couldn’t even wait!

So he said, "Ladies, pack up, we’re going to a fun place, right now!"

Heswey was stunned: "We’ve been out all day, the plan was to have a good rest."

The other three young ladies were about to agree, but suddenly seemed to remember something, just opened their mouths, didn’t dare speak.

Hmm, not bad, Chun actually appreciated their sensitive instinct to latch onto a strong figure.

Want to rest, huh?

Chun knew Libnahi was knowledgeable, so he asked Libnahi, "Did the Hathaway Race’s status come from resting?"

Libnahi replied without hesitation: "After the great war a thousand years ago, many nobles were destroyed in warfare, which cleared the way for new aristocrats to rise. The founder of the Hathaway Race was a surviving ordinary naval soldier, he emerged through ocean trade, also repeatedly fought life-and-death battles with pirates, acquiring his first pot of gold from the confiscated pirate treasure."

Chun sighed, "So Miss Heswey, follow your ancestors’ example, pack up and let’s go!"