Global Mining.

Chapter 879: Van Gogh's Soul Paintings

Black Iron City.

Not long after the raid on the Earl's mansion in the first half of the night ended, Amy was out for another nighttime stroll with her bodyguards. The paparazzi continued to accompany her.

To increase Amy's Earl's Mansion's merits, the spies essentially sent the entire thief team to jail. And to avoid impacting the Baron's Shangri-La Merchant Guild, the spies kicked them all out of the guild, resulting in the entire group's guild merits being reset to zero.

But after the young master witnessed Amy's invisible blow, he still resolutely supported the decision to take photos secretly.

The candid shot was very touching. Honestly, although the young master has a lot of flaws and isn't very good at managing business, he's definitely a wise leader when it comes to games. After all, in real life, dealing with shareholders and partners is too complicated, often leading to failure. But in a game, there aren't so many obstacles, so what reason is there for things not to succeed?
Yes, there is one: curry! Any collaboration with them almost always leads to problems.

Now, the Tata team is completely silent, and Tata God of War has checked into a hotel and gone offline to rest. There's been no follow-up. This hardly looks like a collaboration.

We can only watch the progress of the more than 1000 expert-level miners who have entered the third level of hell. As for that naturalized little mountain god, I have always despised him and never expected to succeed through him.

Just then, a player clearly equipped with Gem City mage gear rushed over: "Miss Amy!"

However, before they could get close, they were immediately blocked by NPC bodyguards.

The man taking the photos felt a chill run down his spine. This was clearly a member of Raphael's subordinate group! He was a complete outsider in Black Iron City, with no way he could speak to an NPC. But he couldn't speak up for him either. All he could do was figure out how to avoid offending the Ten Elders.
The player immediately pulled out a painting: "Miss Amy, I need your help with something."

The moment the painting appeared, the NPC bodyguards were stunned, and Amy was stunned as well.

An event has been triggered!?

While secretly filming and recording the painting, he said, "Miss Amy, he has an urgent matter. Please let him in."

Amy waved her hand: "Come here!"

The player immediately stepped forward excitedly, pointing a finger at him and saying, "You, get away!"

I was stunned to be secretly filmed. This is my territory! Even if you are...

For the sake of her dignity, she forcefully resisted being secretly filmed: "No!"

"Mr. Raphael is watching my live stream, and he doesn't want to see you! Get lost!"

The person who was secretly taking the picture shuddered and left dejectedly.

This scene drew laughter from the surrounding players who were watching the spectacle.

He dared not speak out against the paparazzi, and could only watch from the crowd as the player and Amy talked. Amy looked shocked, and then immediately assigned a bodyguard to take a painting back to the Earl's mansion. At the same time, he and the player headed towards the Night Rose Tavern.

Spying on me is unbearable! It triggered a major event, but I can't participate. All those nights of friendship I built up aren't as impactful as a painting from an outsider. It's not that I'm cowardly, I'm just worried about implicating the young master. If I were a free agent back then, I wouldn't care who the Ten Elders were.

The person who took the photos felt wronged: "Young Master..."

The young master's expression was equally grim, but he still asked, "What does the paparazzi think about this incident?"

The photographer secretly filmed the painting that was being recorded and zoomed in: "This painting is titled 'The Mermaid Battles the Guardian Demon,' and it's signed by the four people: Jenny, the plaza painter from Gem City, and the fisherman... Therefore, their plea for help is illogical. They should first seek help from the Gem City Church, and then from the Black Iron City Church. There's no reason for them to immediately use Amy's connections to approach Vivian..."

The young master said in a deep voice, "So, this is the mermaid believers' distrust of the church?"

The person secretly filming said, "At the same time, it's also because the Ten Elders don't trust her. The conflict between the mermaid and the Oak Bronze Guardian has become public. The Ten Elders made the mermaid serve as the guardian of three cities, which is quite illegal. So now the mermaid's situation is very dangerous!"

The young master pondered for a moment: "Keep following up, you paparazzi."

"clear."

The young master then contacted the little mountain god: "Little Mountain Lord..."

……

Shadow Demon City.

The little mountain god's human form is hiding on the roof of a building. It uses the shadow cast by light from nearby tall buildings to navigate to the ground and accept quick leveling quests.

After the attack on the Earl's mansion in the first half of the night, Little Mountain God was almost certain that the two Curries were not in the city, so he took the opportunity to quickly accept their customized leveling quest. However, he was not entirely sure and was worried about unexpected events, such as them suddenly dying and returning to the city, which would be bad if they were suddenly discovered.

So they resorted to this underhanded method of completing tasks using shadows.

Then they learned some intelligence: an emergency had occurred in Shadowstream, another Shadowfiend city. Shadowfiends, as a minority race among demons, are very united; if one city is in trouble, other cities will offer support.

The little mountain god also wanted to go, but the teleportation fee wasn't the 5000 coins of a human city, but 15,000—and that was a special price for emergency support. After all, Shadow Demon City's location was very unusual, making teleportation difficult.

The little mountain god only earned 2 in a month, plus the money he secretly earned doing quests in Shadow Demon City these past few days. Once he went there, he wouldn't be able to come back, so of course he wouldn't risk it for an uncertain event.

Then the young master contacted him personally: "Little Mountain Lord!"

The little mountain god was flattered and surprised: "Young Master! What can I do for you?"

The young master said in a deep voice, "Intelligence indicates that the Ten Elders' mermaid and the four city beauties are encountering difficulties in attacking Shadowstream City. What are your thoughts on this?"

Xiao Shanshen's heart skipped a beat. As a naturalized player, Xiao Shanshen's greatest strength was his ability to understand the superiors' intentions and get into the main team.

Normally, as a member of the Shadow Demon's faction, one should assist in defending the city against the mermaids. But that would be going against the Ten Elders. In their anger, the Ten Elders could fire the young master with a single word, and the young master would also be punished by the Ten Elders.

The little mountain god had a sudden inspiration: "Then I'll teleport to Shadowstream City and find an opportunity to assist the mermaid as an inside agent?"

The young master sighed, "You just became a Shadow Demon, isn't this tantamount to sacrificing your future?"

The little mountain god immediately pledged his loyalty: "But as long as I can please the Ten Elders, the young master will also receive a reward from them, and my future will be even brighter."

The young master was very satisfied: "Be careful during the operation. Record the entire process live, and ensure that the recorded content is handled in accordance with the highest level of confidentiality regulations for each side."

"clear."

The little mountain god was really going all out; all his possessions amounted to only 2, and if he went on this trip, he might not come back...

……

After ending his connection with the little mountain god, the young master let out a long sigh of relief.

The immortal who had been secretly photographed was quite displeased: "Young Master?"

The young master said in a deep voice, "What do you think, Sneak Peek Immortal?" Sneak Peek Immortal could only whisper, "Young master, this is a brilliant scheme of flattery to kill! If Little Mountain Lord's sabotage is successful, young master can show the screen recording to the Ten Elders to demonstrate loyalty. At the same time, the Mermaid's victory will make the Empire hate her even more, accelerating her downfall, which can also be seen as venting young master's anger! If the Mermaid still fails, we have done our best to help..."

The young master's lips curled into a cold smile: "Actually, there's another purpose, which is to take this opportunity to weaken the Shadow Demon Clan and make those two curries cooperate obediently..."

"Young Master is wise and has a broad vision!"

As they were talking, the live stream camera switched, and Little Mountain God was teleported to Shadowstream City.

At this moment, alarms blared throughout Shadowstream City, and more than a dozen magic towers flickered and emitted smoke, but no enemy attack could be seen at all.

Then there was another loud bang, and another magic tower exploded and started smoking.

At this moment, not only was the little mountain god stunned, but the young master watching from behind the scenes and the paparazzi were also stunned.

The little mountain god saw several shadow mages, also smoking and injured, floating out of the exploding magic tower. They didn't dare to run far and lay on the side of the street, chattering away.

The little mountain god immediately stepped forward and asked, "My lords, is there anything I can do to help?"

The shadow mages glanced at them disdainfully, but their eyes lit up immediately: "You're a human who works part-time as a shadow mage?"

"Yes!"

Shadow Fiend then asked, "So you know shadow manipulation?"

The little mountain god immediately manipulated his shadow to crawl on the ground: "I must know this! That's how I got the job."

The Shadow Mage immediately drew a shimmering 3D diagram: "Go to the core of the bottom level of the magic tower and turn off the elemental hub switch there."

The little mountain god paused for a moment: "I cannot leave the light yet, my shadow cannot reach there!"

The shadow mages' black hands suddenly stretched out and landed on the little mountain god. A huge shadow power instantly surged into his body. At this moment, the little mountain god truly felt that his shadow had become a complete entity!
The monks urged, "With our blessing, your shadow can go down now."

The little mountain god asked, "Can I stay here without moving my body?"

"Of course, the Shadow Demon Tower is different from the towers of other races; physical entities cannot enter it."

The little mountain god asked again, "Why must it be someone like me, a human who also works as a Shadow Fiend, who goes in to lock down this place?"

"Because you have a physical body, the impact you receive will be smaller!"

That's the advantage of part-time work!

The little mountain god's confidence soared. While maneuvering his shadow to advance according to the map, he asked, "Who are the enemies? How did they launch their attack?"

The mages said in a deep voice, "It's that rising star from hell who just defeated the Gem Guardian. It attacked the energy core of the magic tower in the Elemental Realm..."

The little mountain god continued, "If that's the case, why didn't you turn it off beforehand, instead of only turning it off now that it's exploded?"

The monks said in deep voices, "As expected, they're new here. Shutting down after an explosion is wartime emergency repair; not only is it not wrong, it's actually meritorious. If they shut it down when nothing happened, that's avoiding war, and that's a crime!"

The little mountain god was instantly dumbfounded. What kind of logic is this?
"Hasn't the supreme commander given the order to shut them all down?"

The monks said, "We are waiting for orders, but the enemy's destructive speed is too fast."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than another magic tower exploded with a deafening roar!

Ah this...

The little mountain god suddenly felt inexplicably relieved. Given the state of Shadow Stream City, the mermaid would have a hard time losing. He didn't really need to deliberately cause trouble; he could just cut out this part of the video, send the video of himself repairing things in the thick smoke to the Ten Elders, and lie that it was him causing the damage. Of course, he couldn't cut the video himself while livestreaming to the young master, but the young master could…

Finally, the little mountain god reached the bottom of the tower, where the turbulent energy flowed like magma churning in a steel furnace!
The little mountain god panicked: "Is this...is it really okay for a newcomer like me to go in?"

The monks suddenly tightened their grip, pinning the little mountain god's body down until he couldn't move: "Of course, fast forward, the slower the better..."

The little mountain god went all out, his shadow darting inside. In that instant, it felt like the entire screen was on fire! A barrage of system notifications about soul-burning and mentally frustrated attacks flooded the screen...

……

Top Ten Chat Group.

The team members were eagerly awaiting the progress of the messenger, and it went very smoothly!

The team members followed Amy and knocked on the door of the Wild Rose Tavern. Vivian came out to greet them in her pajamas. Vivian glanced at the painting and froze! Without even changing out of her pajamas, she took Amy directly to find Baron Fat Pompom.

Amy moved at an astonishing speed, almost flying through the streets with Vivian. Upon arriving at the Baron's mansion, the sight of Fat Ball in his pajamas and the butler surprised Hua as well. Hua then instructed the butler to prepare a car and head straight to the newspaper office.

It has to be said that whether it was Amy and the bodyguard who first saw the painting, or these NPCs now, they all seemed stunned when they saw it. This shows that the painting by the street artist Van Gogh has amazing power. Otherwise, why would the NPCs have this reaction?

Then, they happened to run into Count Aamir Khan, who was wearing pajamas, at the entrance of the newspaper office.

In short, the Earl and the Baron intervened simultaneously and ordered the painting to be forcibly covered in the Black Iron City Morning News, which was being printed, taking up two full pages.

When the first new newspaper was printed, the whole process took no more than 10 minutes!

Sariel is truly astounded! This is the status of mermaids in Black Iron City! Everyone says that nobles are inefficient and sluggish, but now it seems that's not the case at all.

Once the first newspaper was printed, the machine went on a crazy eating spree and produced hundreds more!
Sariel had already sent his subordinates from Silver City to deliver the newspapers, since only Silver City members had the money to send them. Then the newspapers were posted in the five major cities.

Honestly, it's hard to say whether this method of players directly pasting newspapers will trigger the prayers of the citizen NPCs, but I have faith in Van Gogh's skill!
As expected, the posters in various cities immediately attracted a group of night market NPCs to watch!

The citizens of Silver City and Iron City, in particular, were filled with emotion after reading the newspaper and shouted, "Let us pray for Lord God!"

"Where is the church? Church leaders, wake up!"

It's incredibly effective! This is practically a masterpiece from Van Gogh, striking straight to the heart and soul! It turns out this seemingly useless artist is actually unbelievably powerful!
Sariel was overjoyed and immediately ordered his team: "Send a newspaper to the aquarium and find the grumpy priest!"

After all, the church in Silver City has a scoundrel bishop, who is the biggest obstacle and must be avoided.

As expected, the irritable priest became even more agitated after reading the newspaper and immediately issued a quest to the players: "Knock on every door and wake up the citizens! The Divine Throne is fighting to the death, how can they possibly sleep..."

—System notification: You have received the quest "Urgent Prayer for the Whole City" from the irritable priest!
Sariel was speechless: "All members of the Silver City team, go find the grumpy priest and accept the quest..."

(End of this chapter)