296: Chapter 296 Are they trying to make me a sucker again?

Chen You stared at the line on the iron ring—"Thousand Light City Meng Clan Ancestor's Construction Team"—for a full thirty seconds.

The cold wind howled.

He felt that even the sub-zero seventy-degree arctic wind didn't carry as much destructive power as this line of text.

In his impression, the ancestors of the Meng Family were ruthless people who would use any means necessary to become stronger, even signing contracts with demons.

As it turns out, in secret, this ruthless figure was actually a contractor specializing in high-altitude operations?

Chen You rubbed his cheeks, which were frozen stiff.

"The developers of this game definitely have a screw loose," he gave a fair assessment.

Complaining aside, he still had to keep moving.

Chen You pushed off with his legs, his entire body like a nimble ape as he quickly ascended between the massive chains.

The gale scraped against his cheeks like a knife, but with spiritual energy protecting his body, this bit of physical cold couldn't penetrate his defense at all.

One hundred meters.

Five hundred meters.

One thousand meters.

The higher he climbed, the more massive that eerie blue city hanging inverted in the sky became.

When Chen You climbed to the middle section of the chain, the surrounding wind and snow suddenly came to a standstill.

Without any warning, a strange pulling force came from above.

Chen You felt his stomach churn; the downward gravity instantly vanished, replaced by a powerful suction from above.

Gravity had completely inverted at this moment!

He let go with both hands, allowing his body to fall "upward."

In mid-air, Chen You forcibly twisted his waist to adjust his posture.

The inverted city in his line of sight rapidly enlarged, and what was once the ceiling became solid ground.

Thump!

Chen You've feet landed steadily on the eerie blue stone slabs, his knees slightly bent to absorb the impact.

The moment he landed, a circle of eerie blue ripples centered on him and suddenly surged outward.

Wherever the ripples passed, the once-dead city seemed to be powered on, with piercing yellow searchlights lighting up one after another.

[System Prompt: You have discovered a hidden Mythological Area—Cangxing Mining Area.]

Chen You was stunned.

A mining area? Isn't it the former site of Cangxing City?

Or was the old Cangxing City just a mine?

He raised his head and looked around.

Looking up from below the abyss earlier, he only felt that this place had magnificent buildings and brilliant starlight, full of the epic feel of a mythological era.

But now that he was inside, those disguises that came with their own filters were completely torn away.

This couldn't even be called a city; it was an absurdly large open-pit mine!

The mountains and fields were covered in scaffolding built from the bones of unknown giant beasts and black iron.

On the flat ground not far away, several pieces of extremely wild-looking machinery were parked—

Their treads were larger than houses, and their fronts were equipped with drill bits flashing with runic light; they were clearly some kind of magically modified spiritual energy excavators.

And directly in front of him, that giant chain connecting to the abyss was firmly anchored to a bronze base the size of a football field.

There were no sacred halls, no ancient inheritances, only a strong, strange flavor of industrial wasteland mixed with civil engineering.

Rustle... Click...

A series of small, rapid footsteps came from behind a pile of abandoned mine carts to the left.

Chen You immediately became alert, his right hand loosely gripping as jade brilliance was ready to be unsheathed at any time.

"Hey, hey, hey! You there, the newcomer! I'm talking to you!"

A sharp, coarse voice filled with deep exhaustion rang out.

Chen You turned to look.

He saw a humanoid creature less than a meter tall with bright blue skin poking its head out from behind a mine cart.

This thing had a large head and a thick neck, its body wrapped in filthy gray bandages, and it was dragging an iron pickaxe taller than itself.

It looked exactly like a blue goblin wrapped in bandages.

The blue goblin laborer walked forward with an arrogant swagger, tapped the ground with its pickaxe, and pointed at Chen You's head while shouting.

"Which crew are you from? You dare enter the construction site without a hard hat? That's a fifty copper coin fine! Go, go, go, go to the warehouse to get a hat before coming back to work!"

Chen You fell silent.

He, a grand Cultivator possessing a Heaven-Rank Cultivation Method and holding an innate spiritual treasure, a man trained by the country as a strategic-grade nuclear weapon.

Was actually being fined by an NPC in a mythological ruin for not wearing a hard hat?

"I'm not here to work," Chen You said calmly, trying to be reasonable.

"Not here to work?" The blue goblin laborer widened its pupil-less white eyes, sized Chen You up, and its gaze suddenly fixed on Chen You's waist.

A token was hanging there.

The [Thousand Light City Vice-City Lord Token]—Chen You didn't even know when it had appeared on his waist.

The surface of the token was engraved with a flamboyant "Meng" character.

The blue goblin laborer gasped, its wrinkled blue face instantly contorted with an expression of disbelief.

It dropped the pickaxe, clutched its head with both hands, and let out a highly piercing scream: "Boss Meng! It's Boss Meng's waist token!"

This shout was even louder than an air-raid siren.

From the surrounding abandoned scaffolding, mine shafts, and even from under the treads of the excavators, countless identical laborers instantly crawled out.

They held wrenches, hammers, and even half-broken steel bars, swarming over like a tide and surrounding Chen You.

"Someone from the Meng Family is here?"

"Finally, someone is here!"

"Heaven has eyes!"

The blue goblins were incensed, their eyes flashing with a green light.

The first laborer squeezed to the front and grabbed Chen You's leg, crying with snot and tears everywhere.

"Boss Meng promised back then to pay our wages after finishing this Astral Ore Vein, but then he ran away!"

"He left us workers in this godforsaken no-fly zone, trapped for three thousand years!"

Another blue goblin holding a wrench chimed in tearfully.

"Three thousand years! Do you know how we've lived these three thousand years?"

"No base salary, no social security, not even a single distribution of rice, flour, or oil during the holidays!"

"Give me back my hard-earned money!"

"Punish the black-hearted contractor!"

Chen You's scalp felt numb as he listened.

He finally understood why this place was called the Cangxing Mining Area, and why there was such an absurd disclaimer at the entrance.

The ancestor of the Meng Family from Thousand Light City must have tricked these natives into coming here as cheap labor back then, and then skipped town with the money!

Now, with the Meng Family's Vice-City Lord Token hanging on his waist, in the eyes of these laborers who had been owed wages for three thousand years, he was the Chief Financial Officer sent by the Meng Family to settle the accounts!

"Calm down." Chen You tried to pull his leg out, but the blue goblin held on tight. "I'm not from the Meng Family, I'm just passing through."

"Bullshit!" The laborer holding his leg roared. "You're wearing the Meng Family's tag, and you say you're not from the Meng Family? Brothers, he wants to renege on the debt!"

"Grab your tools! If the wages aren't settled today, nobody's leaving!"

Hundreds of blue goblin laborers raised their tools, looking ready to smash Chen You into pulp on the spot.

Chen You took a deep breath, feeling that this plot setting was just too damn ridiculous!

It seemed there were only two options now:

One: Pay the gold coins and settle these wages on behalf of the Meng Family.

Two: Don't give the money and wipe out all these laborers.

Chen You thought quickly and asked tentatively, "How much back pay does the Meng Family owe you?"

The leading laborer held up his only three fingers.

"Not much, thirty million gold coins."