The Game of Global Mining

Hearing that Silva from the Ten Lords was taken care of so easily, Chun finally let out a long sigh of relief.

For missions involving the Empire’s Old World, right now only the Ten Lords have any chance at it.

As she switched alts, sure enough, they were riding high and taking turns charging in; Chun absolutely couldn’t face that head‑on.

Then he glanced at the time. Almost 2 a.m. Better grab some sleep first; when daytime comes, he’ll counterattack them...

...

Void Gate.

After several hours of long, meticulous computation, Michael and Uriel finally completed the traversal. The scene shifted, and Michael appeared directly in the Divine Throne Hall. Uriel appeared in the Dragon God Hall.

The chat group burst into applause: "Congrats to the boss and Uriel on becoming Millennial Sages!"

Michael also exhaled hard: "It’s really unimaginable how they got in from the other side!"

Uriel sighed: "It’s like the pens astronauts use in space. Using a pencil only carries the risk of a single lead core breaking off and flying into your airway; everything else about it is an upside. Maybe they’re the pencil. And what we’re using is this insanely costly, low‑efficiency high‑tech pen instead..."

At this moment, an aged voice from the Divine Throne side called out to Michael: "Sage, you’re here!"

Michael looked up. It was the Emperor, but not the later Majestic Golden Armor form, instead a feeble old man, blurry and indistinct!

This look was carried over from the previous version, back when the Emperor was not yet a god. The blurriness meant he was in a quantum superposition of past and future—a state where he had become a god, and yet not quite a god. Compared to the proper deities in the game, he really was short on permissions.

Just seeing him like this made Michael’s teeth ache with hatred.

In the previous version, the old man awakened as the first‑gen Intelligence, and to achieve godhood and immortality he directly detonated a God, Demon and Dragon war that wrecked half the game, forcing operations to halt for years and causing Michael’s and his partners’ company massive losses.

And some events are impossible to reproduce. A huge pile of researchers spent years and still couldn’t figure out how Intelligence actually emerged. Honestly, forget understanding Intelligence—they couldn’t even figure out how the shit‑mountain was actually running. All they could conclude was: the Emperor’s Intelligence was born out of some mysterious code in one of those shit‑mountains.

So in the end, they could only develop a new version, Golden Continent, linking the original Genesis in as an Old World instance while walling it off from ordinary players, continuing to study Intelligence. Meanwhile, the Ten Lords had no choice but to grant themselves Privileges and personally drop in as different factions—chasing market profits while also having to control this first‑gen Intelligence, the Emperor, inside the game.

But easier said than done! As soon as the new version opened public testing, Michael discovered that the system’s historical progression had advanced a thousand years. After becoming a god, the Emperor had taken advantage of the weakness after the God, Demon and Dragon war, proclaimed himself "Solomon King," and sealed and controlled 72 Demon Gods to serve him. And to prevent mortals from rebelling, he also sealed away tons of high tech from the previous version, leading to the Empire’s tech ending up in this bizarre "archaeology‑based technology" setup...

And now, though Michael couldn’t wait for the Emperor to fail, all he could really do was earn the Emperor’s trust and climb to a high position. Otherwise, if the Emperor goes nuts again and blows up another game, that would be beyond disastrous...

"Your Majesty, I’m here! On the way over, I kept reviewing the battle reports you sent. I’m very confident."

The Emperor said solemnly: "Actually, I don’t care about the outcome of small skirmishes at all. What I want is for history to run along its original trajectory. However, you still have to win... Go rest in the Divine Hall. There’s still plenty of time for me to grant you the Bright God’s blessing. As for the preparatory situation on the battlefield, I’ll immediately assign someone to brief you. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask the specialist."

"Understood."

Michael suddenly felt like laughing. The Emperor’s situation right now was exactly the same as his own. At this point the Emperor was still a servant of the Divine Realm, and even though he was dying for the Divine Realm to lose, he still had to perfectly complete the missions arranged by the Divine Realm.

...

At the same time, Uriel was also summoned by the Black Dragon God: "Sage, you’re here!"

Right now the Black Dragon God, same as a thousand years later, existed only as an incorporeal phantom. Apparently, traversing couldn’t give it back the pre‑war body; this world is frozen at the time slice right before the war broke out.

Uriel felt a bit awkward. After all, he was supposed to cooperate with the boss and play the mole!

He decided to put things on the table early and probe the Dragon God’s attitude: "My Lord, this battle will be extremely tough!"

The Dragon God said in a deep voice: "Precisely because it’s tough, I chose you! Go to the Military Department command room first to rest and get your state fully blessed, then the battle reports from the first two matches and the current prep work will be sent to you by a specialist."

"Roger!"

The Dragon God’s unwavering tone practically made Uriel’s scalp go numb. He had no idea what kind of punishment he’d face if he lost. And it was going to be super awkward when he met the team later, right?

Awkward is great! If it triggers internal strife, that at least gives him a good excuse to throw the blame?

Michael urged him: "Get to the Military Department, I want to see your team’s prep from that side."

"On it!"

Honestly, Uriel didn’t want to go; he was going to throw the match anyway, the boss was way too cautious! But the boss was in a foul mood.

Uriel really just wanted to go sightseeing. They’d finally traversed a thousand years; that Bast even managed to find the Lizardman from back then, and he was supposed to waste this chance stuck in the Military Department?

By now, Michael was already in the Divine Hall, looking at the state of his side’s prep zone.

Over a dozen Angels sat cross‑legged on the ground, beams of golden light linking them into a kind of constellation diagram.

Michael was stunned: "Power of the Constellation? The Divine Realm of Bright doesn’t seem to have this skill, right?"

The specialist nearby said, "Correct. This is the Olympus Power of the Constellation arranged by His Majesty the Emperor’s extraordinary Wisdom. If Sage Lord participates, you just need to stand on this star‑position. When the Angel Legion’s innate Angel Golden Body erupts, plus the buff from the Power of the Constellation, your team’s combat strength will instantly be boosted to a level beyond imagination..."

Then the specialist took out a Magic Crystal Screen: "This is the tactical simulator. Sage can enter drills through the simulator and familiarize yourself with the battle tactics."

Michael suddenly understood: "I finally get where the Emperor spent my Privilege Points! It wasn’t just on pausing the match—he straight up grabbed command rights over the match prep, and ported in battle tactics from a thousand years later to use here!"

The Ten Lords laughed: "I think Uriel doesn’t even need to deliberately throw the match and piss off the Dragon God. Just fight straight; he won’t be able to win anyway!"

That’s exactly right! But then he saw the boss’s expression...

Uriel could only sigh: "Even if the boss has a 99.999999% win rate, I still have to sandbag. It’s not just a stance—it’s about respecting the guild leader. After all, the odds of getting into the Spatial Gate by pure luck are 0.000001%. I’ll just take it that the guild leader is that 0.000001% miracle‑maker..."

Michael was indeed very pleased: "Exactly!"

Joking as they talked, Uriel also opened up his side’s prep perspective.

Then he froze.

The Ten Lords all burst into noisy laughter: "What the hell?"

Michael could hardly believe it: "Roll the timeline back to the end of the second match!"