Sir! Don't close the net!

The middle-aged man, noticing the change in Austin's facial expression, bent down and quickly withdrew.

The moment the door closed, Austin lost his temper, grabbed an antique vase he used to flaunt his refinement, and smashed it down hard.

The middle-aged man shuddered upon hearing the series of loud bangs coming from behind the door and quickened his pace.

"Ah-ah-ah-"

Standing amidst the rubble, Austin clenched his fists, unable to utter a single curse word, only letting out roars until his voice became hoarse and he couldn't stop coughing. Only then did Austin slump back down.

"How much money would it take for you to kill Josephine?"

The shadows behind Austin writhed, and a cloaked figure wriggled outwards.

"This is not about money."

"I'll add more money!"

"..."

"Believe me, Mr. Austin, if you insist on doing this, I certainly wouldn't mind doing Josephine's business, because I really can't beat Josephine."

The people behind Austin were quite honest.

“My contract with you is limited to guaranteeing your safety. If you win this matter against Josephine and she becomes enraged and tries to kill you, I can spare your life and escort you to safety.”

Austin's lips twitched, then he raised his hand to cover his forehead. "I understand. Are you sure you can save my life from Josephine's pursuit?"

“Mr. Austin, believe me, Josephine herself was in dire straits at that time,” the cloaked figure said as he gradually disappeared.

"OK--"

Austin gritted his teeth and stood up abruptly.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Minister! Quite a few people have arrived!"

Joey burst into the minister's office with a beaming smile and waved to Josephine, who was standing in front of the painting of flames with her back to him.

“I heard you,” Josephine raised her right hand, her index fingers slightly raised behind her. “This is just the beginning. There will only be more people after this. Is the factory situation settled?”

"This is just an ordinary steel mill," Joey paused, his expression somewhat subtle, "It's only thanks to Li Yili's visit yesterday that we were able to..."

"With the factory set up so quickly, plus Li Yili's plans to build an underwater park and the experiments at the dock, we've accumulated a huge backlog of orders. To be honest, these people... really aren't enough."

Josephine paused, her raised finger froze, and after a long silence, she slowly lowered it, put her hands behind her back, and exhaled a long breath.

"No matter how many orders or how many people there are, it won't be able to operate without enough raw materials."

Yes, so I'm making contact—

“The raw materials will be transported by the young black goats,” Josephine said, turning to Joey.

"Eh? But..."

“But shouldn’t such an important matter be entrusted to the young of a black goat, whom we know well and who also comes from beyond life and follows the will of the past?” Josephine’s fiery red eyes narrowed slightly. “If there is a problem with the raw materials, the Fire Spirit Steel Mill will be finished.”

Joey gasped.

Josephine was right. If there were problems with the supply of raw materials, the entire Fire Elf Steelworks would be unable to operate normally. With so many Instas residents in the factory, even the Fire Elf Steelworks couldn't afford to be delayed.

Therefore, they must make full use of the channels from the "Extra Life" (a metaphor for resources or connections). The goods they transport are all normal raw materials needed for refining metals, so they are not worried about being investigated. However, since these are channels from the "Extra Life," there must be something shady going on. If they use other logistics companies from Instasus, Austin will most likely find out about those channels. If Austin joins forces with Bishop Azavet to cut off their channels, or digs out the fire elves through those channels, they will be completely finished.

Therefore, they could only choose the young of the black goats that happened to be from the logistics company.

He understood this principle, of course, but it was precisely because he understood it that he felt a chill run down his spine.

Because of the Black Goat's offspring, or more precisely, Li Yili's Underwater Paradise project, their conflict with Austin intensified. Faced with pressure from Bishop Azawi, they had no choice but to seize control of Instas by taking all the Instas residents away and leaving them at the Fire Spirit Steel Mill. To keep those Instas residents, they needed an endless stream of orders. Li Yili's Underwater Paradise, and the current so-called plan to go above sea level, were just a bottomless pit, providing them with a constant stream of work.

What's even more bizarre is that they can only obtain minerals through the offspring of black goats, which is their only means of survival.

One thing leads to another, and if Li Yili just says one word—stop supplying goods or halting orders—they, the Flame Elves, are finished.

“Minister, the black goat's cub... has only been in Instas for less than a week, right?”

"That kind of thing is no longer important."

A silent war, but one that affects the entire Instas, has begun. Under the relentless spending spree of the Fire Spirits, large numbers of Instas residents flock to the Fire Spirit Steel Mill. Countless industries are forced to shut down due to a shortage of workers. The wealthy begin to protest, saying that all the servants they have hired have run away. Many bosses even threaten to teach the striking workers a lesson.

Unfortunately, they couldn't remember any of their employees, and in order to squeeze every last drop of value out of the Instas residents, they never signed any formal contracts with them. So their threats were ineffective, and all the pressure naturally fell on Austin.

Austin also tried to emulate the Fire Spirits' operations, but the fishing industry he was in charge of was, to put it nicely, a traditional profession in Instas, but to put it bluntly, it was outdated. Even if the conditions were relaxed, the residents of Instas would only choose the Fire Spirits' steel mill over the fishermen.

Li Yili, the one who instigated this great battle, lived a life of leisure, going between home, the Yangcun Logistics Building, and the dock.

The experiments at the dock went smoothly. The catapult experiment had reached its limit. With the fire spirits' unwavering support in terms of manpower and resources, the catapult was quickly dismantled and moved away from the dock. The new catapult device also entered the loading stage. According to Joey, a dozen catapult devices would soon be installed at the dock, and they could be tested however they wanted.

The only regret is that Heidi stayed on the ship and never showed up. On the other hand, Jones would shamelessly ask for rum every time. He started with an empty bottle, then a little bit of rum, then a clear amount of rum, and finally asked for a whole bottle. It was all done in one go.

On the fourth day, Austin, finally realizing that he couldn't win against the fire spirit head-on in a short time, changed his tactics.

Chapter Sixty: Let the other side prove how many bowls of noodles they ate.

"Fire Spirit has actually gone bankrupt and owes a lot of employees wages. The steel industry is in crisis. This is a very familiar situation."

Li Yili casually tossed the newspaper onto the table, clasped her hands together in front of her, rocked her chair toward Alma standing beside her, and smiled slightly.

"They're just child's play, aren't they, Secretary Alma?"

Alma's lips twitched slightly before she turned the document in her hand to Li Yili. "Unfortunately, your tricks were quite effective. Instas is a daily wage system, with wages paid on the same day. Because of what this newspaper reported, many Instas residents demanded payment from the fire elves halfway through their work. If it weren't for Vice Minister Joey directly bringing the money to the factory gate, ha—in short, although the fire elves managed to hold on, but..."

“But even the fire elves wouldn’t have enough cash on hand,” Li Yili said, raising a finger and bending it towards Alma. “The number of employees at the fire elf steel mill will continue to increase, and the fire…”

The amount of money the elves need to withdraw will increase significantly. If the banks of Instass refuse the fire elves' withdrawals, it will likely trigger a large-scale riot. Even if it doesn't, it will probably happen in Austin.

“That’s exactly what happened,” Alma sighed. “Actually, in order to get the banks to refuse the fire elves’ cash withdrawals, Austin had people spread rumors all over Instas that the bubble economy of thirty years ago was coming back, that the banks’ investment projects couldn’t recoup their costs, and that many Instas residents were going to the banks to withdraw their cash and refusing to pay their daily wages by account.”

"After all, there's only so much money. Numbers can be written down casually. If the money is gone, the so-called account balance is just a string of numbers."

Li Yili rubbed her nails, not surprised at all. This annoyed Alma. As both a member of the Flame Elf and the secretary of the Black Goat's Cub Minister, she had been running around on both sides for the past few days and was almost vomiting blood. She had to deal with the Flame Elf's orders and the logistics channels connecting the Goat Village.

"Minister! I'm telling you! If this continues, the banks will really just be a string of numbers!"

"Haha—don't worry, even if the bank is empty, they won't lose a single penny."

Alma's lips twitched violently.

“Ahem—but Secretary Alma, you’re right, this is indeed a serious issue,” Li Yili coughed and tapped the newspaper on the table.

"The stupidest thing you can do is to prove your innocence, because once you prove it, you'll have to face countless deliberately difficult questions afterward."

"They don't want to prove how many bowls of noodles we ate, they just want us dead."

Alma relaxed considerably. The fact that Li Yili could analyze the situation so calmly meant that Li Yili had a solution.

"So what should we do now? We can't keep proving this endlessly."

"Unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can do about this."

Alma's breath hitched, and she almost fainted. Just as Alma was about to shout, "Then why are you so calmly eating several bowls of noodles?", Li Yili opened the drawer and slapped a stack of papers into Alma's hand.

Alma subconsciously looked down, and the first thing she saw was darkness.

[Shocking! Austin and Ips had an illicit relationship!]

"You, you, I..."

Alma looked at Li Yili with trembling hands, stammering and unable to utter a complete sentence.

“Since we can’t avoid it anyway, we might as well just go all out and fight Austin,” Li Yili said with a bright smile, her fingers interlaced.

"Does this... really work?"

Alma flipped through the things Li Yili had prepared with a conflicted expression. Not only were the contents of Li Yili's writing highly aggressive, but each one was also extremely seductive, making people subconsciously want to read on. Although she eventually discovered that Li Yili hadn't said anything except the title, the content of the title had already been etched into her mind.

She was certain that once this article was published in the newspaper, it would create a sensation throughout Instas, and Austin would most likely be dead the very next day.

The problem is that Austin attacked the fire spirit, while Li Yili attacked Austin directly, at most rendering Austin unable to become human.

Alma couldn't help but doubt whether she could prevail over Austin in this match.

“Secretary Alma, believe me,” Li Yili shrugged, “the residents of Instas don’t care about anything.”

After a moment's hesitation, Alma nodded. At this point, this was the only thing they could do.

Before leaving, Alma glanced back at Li Yili, who was rocking back and forth in her chair, and asked, "Minister Li Yili, are you planning to take advantage of the residents of Instas?"

Li Yili paused, then turned her head to look.

"Otherwise what? Go do charity work?"

Alma had no more questions. She bowed to Li Yili and then took what Li Yili had written downstairs. She boarded the sheep village's special logistics carriage and rushed to the newspaper office as fast as she could. To avoid any unforeseen complications, Alma went straight to the editor-in-chief's office, slapped what Li Yili had written in front of him, and explained her purpose.

“I’m sorry, I have my own professional ethics,” the editor-in-chief said, turning around to wipe his glasses.

"Snapped--"

A wad of cash landed on the table.

The editor-in-chief put on his glasses, glanced at the money slapped on the table, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes, and shook his head with his hands behind his back. "Sorry, I have my own professional ethics."

"No, once you've seen all of this, the money is yours."

As soon as Alma finished speaking, the editor-in-chief sat back down, swept the bundle of banknotes into the drawer, picked up what Li Yili had written, intending to just glance at it and be done with it, but at the first glance, the editor-in-chief's eyes widened and he subconsciously looked up at Alma in front of him.

Is all of this true?

"Is that important?" Alma casually picked up a newly printed newspaper and pointed to the headline that claimed the fire elves were actually heavily in debt. "The important thing is to make your newspaper sell like hotcakes."

The editor-in-chief lowered his head guiltily and flipped through a few more pages. The eye-catching headlines made him nod involuntarily. As for the content, he hadn't paid much attention to it in all his years in the industry. In any case, he had never seen such a powerful headline.

Although he could already imagine the newspaper selling like hotcakes, the editor-in-chief still cautiously tested the waters.

.

"Um... will the fire spirit win?"

After all, Austin has immense influence in Instas. If these things were released, Austin would be like someone who had been kicked into a cesspool and then bricked up with several more. If Austin recovers from this confrontation with the fire spirit, he's doomed.

"Don't worry, Austin can't win."

Chapter Sixty-One Disparity

The new newspaper was printed and published at an extremely fast pace, and soon appeared on the shelves of every newsstand. The eye-catching headlines instantly attracted every passerby. Since all the newspapers could only be taken from the shelves to read the contents after paying, the residents of Instas, attracted by the headlines, hesitated for a moment before simply taking out their money to buy the newspapers.

That day, screams of "Holy crap!" echoed through the streets of Instas. The talk of the town was no longer about whether the Fire Elf would go bankrupt, but about how many men Austin had been with that night—whether he was with someone else or someone else was with him.

In the Fire Elf Steelworks, Josephine and Joey glanced at the newspaper, chuckled twice, and finally burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs. This left Alma, who was reporting the situation, with mixed feelings. She now understood what Li Yili meant by "they don't care."