Global Mining.

Chapter 969 Further Developments in Iron Flame Village

Uriel checked the village chief's expression frame by frame repeatedly: "It's basically confirmed. It was just a succubus who controlled the village chief. These four guardians aren't very qualified."

Xila laughed and said, "They must have been exhausted after the great battle. Besides, all three are trainees, and the Black Dragon God is still young. However, with this battle experience, the three trainees are one step closer to becoming full-fledged trainees, aren't they?"

Sariel scoffed, "Trying to replace my mermaid? Not so easy."

Xila recalled something: "Now that the Shenqian team's month-long effort to achieve their goal of staying in the village has completely failed, what will they do next?"

Sariel sneered: "Either continue heading west to the pioneer village, but there are no rivers to the west, and the land route will be blocked by the Chinese region, so it won't work."

Xila laughed and said, "But the north is all snow-capped mountains and strange places, so going north is not an option."

Sariel laughed and said, "Then why not just become a mercenary group and specialize in attacking the China region?"

Xila retorted irritably, "My chamber of commerce has just been established in the village, and the entire China region will be at my disposal. How can you attack me indiscriminately?"

Gabriel said irritably, "Wait until you replace Da Chun before you say it's your chamber of commerce."

Uriel said, "Then the only possibility is to develop underground and find the passage connecting Ironflame Village to Hell. After all, the God-preceding team has already sent 3000 people into Hell to mine, so they must have this path dependency, and everyone is going to Hell."

Michael laughed: "Path dependence? That's something to look forward to..."

……

God's team headquarters.

Ever since Blood Demon killed the 30 low-level miners mobilized by the God-foreign team, Tata Team, the young master realized that the situation was dire.

As expected, the royal team used the excuse that all the laborers had died to start fighting for the right to reside in the village. Fortunately, the contract of the god team was still being used to defend the last line of defense.

The young master could already imagine that the royal team's next move would be to ambush and kill the miners on their way back to the village, putting pressure on Iron Flame Village to shut down production. So let them kill! Let them be put under pressure to become infamous!
Just as the young master was preparing for another wave of large-scale relocation of miners, Tieyan Village issued an announcement!

—Iron Flame Village Announcement: Congratulations! Broken Bottle Chamber of Commerce has become the resident chamber of commerce of Iron Flame Village!

The command center erupted in an uproar: "What?!"

The young master was utterly incredulous: "What's going on? How could they possibly cancel our contract?"

Zuo Gaowan trembled as he said, "Just now, those witches came to see the village chief, and the village chief nodded and bowed in agreement!"

The young master was practically going crazy: "Then where are the results of our server launch! What does our investment of the past month even mean?"

Zuo Gaowan snapped out of his daze: "But I feel like the village chief and the witch are acting strangely, like they're drunk or under mind control! Their village residency contract is definitely not normal and won't last long. My reputation is still intact, we still have a chance!"

The young master asked, "What do you think, Mr. Spy? Mr. Spy?"

"Young Master, the paparazzi has been staying up all night for several days in a row and is now asleep."

The young master swallowed his anger: "Asleep?!"

Just then, the little mountain god spoke up: "Young master, I have been monitoring the tatami area all night for the past few days and have made an important discovery. Please watch my video recording."

The young master exclaimed in surprise, "Playing on the big screen!"

Although the young master appointed Xiaoshanshen as the leader of Group Zero, he had no say in front of the veteran paparazzi. Finally, when paparazzi fell asleep, Xiaoshanshen had to seize the opportunity to step forward, emphasizing that he too had been "working through the night."

The war in Shadowstream City ended, and both Little Mountain God and Alpha were released from prison to atone for their crimes. The Guardian Demon God tasked Alpha with investigating the "Mirror Goddess" he encountered in the divine prison, and also bestowed upon him considerable power, but first gave Alpha a mission to return to the Black Iron City organization for investigation. Then, the Guardian Demon God tasked Little Mountain God with a watch device to track Alpha continuously without any interruptions. (Note: Chapter 912)
This task seems simple, but the difficulty lies in tracking the player. If Alpha doesn't sleep all night, the little mountain god doesn't dare to sleep either.

The little mountain god monitored Alpha's defeat by Feng Xingcuo in the sewers of Black Iron City, monitored Alpha's animal rights protest activities in cooperation with the God of War Tata, and then followed the NPC team possessed by Alpha all the way to Iron Flame Village.

The little mountain god knew that the tatami mat had a mission to protect the demon god, but he didn't know what that mission was. However, through studying the instruments and watches over the past two days, he discovered a set of progress bars that he couldn't quite understand, and the intensity of the monitoring was becoming increasingly clear. Even if the tatami mat was in the village inn, he could still see it from more than ten kilometers away outside the village.

Now, even at night, it can still be clearly seen.

Unlike other NPCs who were busy guarding the village and trying to impress the city beauties, the NPC team at the tatami mat was chatting and interacting with other NPCs, which was very suspicious. The progress bar on their watches was also constantly increasing.

Just now, the Little Mountain God's watch displayed a clearly mirror-like interface. This was no longer a matter of clear monitoring; instead, a thin mist of blood was visible!
Has the Blood Demon been discovered?

In short, the Blood Demon entered the magic tower, thus ending the siege of the village.

The little mountain god seriously suspects that the guardian demon is trying to cultivate the tatami into a "magic mirror"? Otherwise, there's no way to explain why the guardian demon would channel so much divine power into the tatami.
If we could communicate with the Tata team and find out exactly what Tata's mission is, we might be able to confirm it. But that's unlikely, and not important...

……

At this moment, the command center's large screen was showing the process of the Blood Demon infiltrating the magic tower. From a normal player's perspective, it would only be visible for a second at most, but from the Mirror Demon's perspective, it lasted for tens of seconds!
The young master was astonished: "What is this?"

The little mountain god explained, "It's the Blood Demon! The Blood Demon has hidden in the magic tower! The attack on the village is over. So, I deduce that the suddenly appearing witch, the Blood Demon, the Shadow Demon organization on the tatami mat, and the village chief have all colluded internally. And these witches are also in cahoots with the newly joined mentors of the Broken Bottle Merchant Guild, which is why the Broken Bottle Merchant Guild was stationed in the village!"

The young master then understood, but was very indignant: "Why the Broken Bottle Merchant Guild?"

The little mountain god wasn't quite sure: "It's probably because the Broken Bottle Guild is currently the most prestigious guild in Black Iron City."

The young master frowned: "What is their purpose?"

The little mountain god continued to speculate: "Iron Flame Village has a volcanic passage connecting to the underground. Their goal should be to establish an outpost in the surface world that leads to hell."

The young master then asked, "Then what should we do?"

The little mountain god said, "It's still the same idea as Senior Zuo Gaowan. We still have a chance to trigger the mission events of these witches with all our might. Moreover, our goal in mobilizing 300,000 miners to the village was to mine underground, so this operation should continue. Even if we can't stay in the village for the time being, we can still develop underground to obtain mining profits. Then, with my Shadow Demon Castle forces in Hell and Senior Yamada Kame's Hell Mining Group providing support from Hell, we can achieve great development in Hell!"

Zuo Gaowan and Yamada perked up and blurted out, "That makes sense!" Koyama-gami smugly replied, "You two are too kind!"

The young master let out a long breath: "If that's the case, we should also invest all the resources of Black Iron City into Iron Flame Village, which can further offset the influence of the Broken Bottle Merchant Guild!"

Everyone applauded: "Young Master is right!"

The young master frowned: "But there are tens of thousands of members of the royal family in the Chinese region, and their levels are generally higher than ours. If they interfere with our competition, we will be in big trouble."

Zuo Gaowan perked up: "Young Master, we've been fighting with the Royal Family Guild Master Ma Yinglong for many years now. Ma Yinglong has a very strong expansionist mentality. He didn't even have time to fully develop the Southern Canyon Village and the Southern Jungle Mine before he couldn't wait to mobilize tens of thousands of his main forces to Tieyan Village, which is proof of his style. Now he has taken Tieyan Village, but it's not entirely his doing; it's Da Chun's Broken Bottle Merchant Guild that has taken it. This will definitely leave him with regrets. With his style, he will definitely be eager to continue advancing westward to the Crystal Iron Outpost Village. We can also make a gesture of advancing westward to lure his main forces westward."

The young master nodded and said in a deep voice, "That makes sense! Besides, the Broken Bottle Guild is, after all, owned by Da Chun. Although Da Chun is imprisoned in the Empire, its consistent global ranking speaks volumes. The fact that various female NPCs from the Empire have joined the Broken Bottle Guild, allowing it to develop so rapidly, shows that Da Chun must have enormous influence. This person..."

Zuo Gaowan said in a sinister voice, "Young Master, the Ten Elders have been telling us to take down Da Chun in Shenjiang City, but we didn't want to make a big fuss and have only dealt with it on a small scale. The last big move we made was bribing a fried noodle vendor to blow up an internet cafe with a gas cylinder and shatter one of the windows..."

The young master gritted his teeth: "So, we can't just give a perfunctory response?"

Zuo Gaowan said, "That's right, this time it's for our own good! The situation has changed too quickly in just one month. If we don't eliminate the hidden danger of Dachun, we will face endless troubles in the future! Not to mention, if we do well, the higher-ups will be happy."

The young master made up his mind: "Allocate 3000 million to the external affairs team. This time, we must make sure the money is used effectively..."

……

Tata Team Headquarters.

Tata Warriors continues to campaign for the professional title of animal rights activist, with only one day left.

Meanwhile, they are also closely monitoring the situation in Ironflame Village. The current situation is dire; all 10 canal miners of the Tata team have been sent back to the city by the Blood Demon, and the 30-strong miner team cooperating with the God-foreign team has also been wiped out. What will happen next—

Tata's phone rang with a text message—it was Alpha!

Tata immediately logged onto the dark web. This time, Alpha was clearly involved in something big. He directly sent a video file: "We have discovered and contacted the lurking Blood Demon in Ironflame Village. He is a wanted criminal who escaped from Hell and urgently needs to hide and develop in the surface world. He is afraid that we will report him and is willing to cooperate with us. Contact headquarters and send a large number of high-end players to Ironflame Village."

Tata, the God of War, trembled. He was deeply shocked by the Blood Demon's power in annihilating 30 miners: "Understood! What's your next step?"

"We'll wait for Blood Demon's next move. At the same time, we'll continue to get closer to Sister Mentor and find out more about her and the Twilight Church. Either way, it's an opportunity we can't afford to miss."

Tata the God of War exclaimed excitedly, "When I take office tomorrow, animal rights activists will come too..."

……

Da Chun continued drinking and taking photos at the stadium.

My phone rang again. I looked at it and saw it was a royal contract sent by Zhou Qing.

Zhou Qing laughed and said, "Brother Chun, Brother Long sent the contract. I've looked at the terms for you, and there are no problems. Just turn to the last page for the electronic signature. Brother Chun can play however you usually do, without any restrictions."

Da Chun laughed: "Brother Long's movements are too fast!"

Zhou Qing laughed and said, "Brother Long has wanted to recruit Brother Chun for a long time, so it's hard for him not to act quickly."

Da Chun asked the important question: "I get a salary, right?"

Zhou Qing smiled and said, "The salary is on the second page. It's currently 5 a month, and we'll discuss it later based on performance bonuses. How about that?"

Ha! Following Mr. Jiang's technical supervisor easily earning 5 a month, here comes another 5!
Da Chun casually signed his name: "Thank you for your help, Brother Long!"

Zhou Qing smiled and said, "It's Brother Long who's thanking you. By the way, now that Brother Chun is a manager-level figure, what suggestions do you have for the future development of the Royal Family?"

Da Chunhan: "I'm not familiar with the work!"

Zhou Qing smiled and said, "I was referring to the development direction of the royal main force in Tieyan Village. Now that Tieyan Village has been taken over, Brother Long wants to continue to expand westward. There is a village called Jingtie Village, which is about 100 kilometers to the west. It can be considered outside the fourth ring. The monsters there are at least level 80. The royal main force can barely handle it with its current overall capabilities. However, the NPCs in that village are said to be even less trusting of outsiders than those in Tieyan Village, and the conditions for settling in the village are even more stringent."

Holy crap! This Brother Long is really... well, to be worthy of Brother Long's 5 yuan salary, one shouldn't hold back what shouldn't be held back.

Da Chun asked in surprise, "Not developing northward? If we go north, we can rely on shipping."

Zhou Qing said, "The north is all mountains, there are no villages, and there are many remote and strange places, and the climate is cold."

Da Chun's alt account transformed into a dragon and traveled all the way north; that's indeed the situation. But there's a valley to the north where the Frost Dragon King is imprisoned that connects to Hell! He doesn't have time to figure that out himself; it's better to let a royal expert scout the way.

Da Chun switched to his alternate account and pulled up the map it had explored. This location was the one where he had previously contacted the Dragon King through the Frost Horn. The alternate account then stopped advancing; the map ahead wasn't fully explored, but the approximate distance was...

Da Chun took a picture with his phone, edited it, and sent it to Zhou Qing: "This is where the Frost Dragon King appeared. It's probably a prison that connects to hell. The terrain is also very dangerous. If Brother Long is interested, you can send a group of experts to search for it."

Zhou Qing was shocked: "The legendary dragon's nest? It's full of treasures?"

Da Chunhan said, "No, no, it's a prison!"

Zhou Qing was surprised: "Okay, but I don't think anyone in the royal family has the ability to go there, unless it's Tao Ge's Mordruid team. Mordruid can possess birds and small animals, so he can definitely do it."

Da Chun thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then Moore can go. By the way, he's been wanted by Bronze City. Is it convenient for him to come all this way?"

Zhou Qing smiled and said, "Don't worry, these are all minor matters that can be resolved. What about Brother Long's plans to expand westward?"

Da Chun laughed and said, "No objection. I know nothing about that place. Once Brother Long has gathered the first batch of intelligence, I'll help him figure out a solution."

(End of this chapter)