Chapter 357: The Maintenance Worker

November 31, 4243 of the Heral Calendar, 20:35 at night.

Frost Kingdom, Frostfall City, Liuli Street.

On the second floor of Sisilaiya Cafe, inside Yun Mu's room, a dazzling white light suddenly shone.

Although the light was bright, it showed no signs of spreading outward, so even though the curtains in the room were open, it did not attract anyone's attention.

Oh, no, someone did notice.

"Hm?"

On the first floor of the cafe, Edward, who was resting on a recliner, suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward the ceiling.

"Has Miss Yun returned?"

Before leaving Frostfall City, Yun Mu had told him about the teleportation array, and she had even returned once last month.

Therefore, upon sensing the aura that had suddenly appeared on the second floor of her cafe, Edward was not particularly panicked.

"It seems it is possible to teleport with other living creatures." On the second floor of the cafe, Yun Mu looked at the unharmed lizard lying on her palm.

"I can't let you run around here; I'll take you back in a while." Grabbing the tail of the lizard that was trying to escape, Yun Mu threw it into the Painted World of the painting Atlas.

Although it was unlikely that one foreign lizard could disrupt the local ecosystem, and there were cargo ships traveling between Frostfall City and the Federation, since she was the one who brought it, she would naturally be responsible for sending it back.

It was a pity that Brenna had no intention of participating in the Soul-Returning Night.

Because after tomorrow, once the competition ended, if they could win the Champion title, Brenna would have to start preparing for Elena's body.

There was no time to leisurely enjoy the festival atmosphere.

Although Yun Mu felt a bit regretful about this, it didn't matter.

This was only the first year since she had transmigrated; there would be many more opportunities to enjoy the festival in the future.

There was no need to dwell on this.

"Good evening, Uncle Edward."

She went down to the first floor of the cafe and greeted Edward, who was lying on the recliner.

"Good evening, Miss Yun." Edward waved his hand: "Do you have any business returning this time?"

"There are some small matters to handle." Yun Mu nodded, then took a deep breath.

"Ha, it's still more comfortable here in Frostfall City," she said.

Having stayed in the Federation where Ether information was scarce for so long, she had almost forgotten this feeling of being surrounded by abundant Ether information.

For a Transcendental, this was like the fresh air one breathes when returning to the countryside after staying in a polluted big city for a long time.

It felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted, making one feel much more relaxed.

Come to think of it, as long as she wasn't in the Federation, she could probably promote to a Master-level Transcendent.

But unfortunately, she had not yet completed all the advancement conditions.

Then she could only handle some small matters while conducting teleportation experiments.

This was also what she had just told Edward.

Leaving the cafe, Yun Mu reached out to hail a taxi; her destination was, naturally, Yun Chao Publishing House.

She hadn't provided comic manuscripts to One-Eared Rat for a while.

This was not good.

After all, if she wanted to promote to Master-level, her work's popularity had to reach 【Rising Fame】.

She was still some distance away from this goal, but with the cooperation between the Fire Weaver Bird Family and Yun Chao Publishing House.

Presumably, it wouldn't take long for this goal to be achieved.

What actually gave her a headache at the moment was the second condition for promoting to Master.

Mastering four Paths related to painting... Oil Painting and Comic were the two Paths she currently mastered, while Pencil, Drawing, and Watercolor were what she had been attempting during this time.

But unfortunately, there was no reaction on the panel.

It seemed that obtaining new Paths was not as simple as she had imagined.

Of course, it was also possible that it was because she was within the territory of the Federation.

But regardless, up until now, she still hadn't made much progress on this.

And speaking of Paths... she had actually discovered something else recently.

That was that different types of paintings actually had certain hidden effects within them.

For example, skills released by Oil Painting would have a very "viscous" feeling.

The adhesive property would be stronger; for instance, flames would be difficult to extinguish once attached to an enemy, and water currents would erode stamina.

And comic-style paintings seemed to be superior in the ability to create entities, such as when creating falling rocks out of thin air, or summoning the Thunder God Mecha.

They would all receive enhancements similar to real objects.

This might sound confusing, but it didn't matter; it was enough to know that Oil Painting was more suitable for Elemental attacks, while Comic was more suitable for physical attacks.

If that was the case, then what kind of abilities could other Paths related to painting possess?

Yun Mu couldn't help but start to look forward to it.

"This is the content for the next five chapters; take a look first, and if you have any opinions, you can tell me."

At Yun Chao Publishing House, Yun Mu took the manuscripts she had drawn long ago out of her earring space and handed them to One-Eared Rat.

"You finally returned." One-Eared Rat took the manuscripts from her hands: "If it weren't for someone from the Federation contacting me about the cooperation, I would have thought you were caught or had run away."

"Hahaha, I've just been busy lately." Yun Mu felt a bit guilty and changed the subject: "Take a look at the manuscripts first."

"Alright, alright, you're the boss, you have the final say." One-Eared Rat looked down helplessly and began to flip through the manuscripts in his hands.

It was still the familiar art style and the familiar plot, but... "It's drawn even better than before, Boss." One-Eared Rat's expression was quite surprised; he hadn't expected that the paintings, which he already thought were as good as they could get, still had room for improvement.

"That is only natural." Yun Mu responded quite proudly, then asked the other party: "So, after reading it, is there anything you want to say?"

"You want me to offer opinions?" One-Eared Rat shook his head without hesitation: "I think this is already very good; as a layman, I have nothing to offer."

"If I had to name a drawback, it's that it's a bit too taxing on the body, *cough cough*."

Yun Mu looked at him with an expression that said, "What kind of nonsense are you spouting?", then took a stack of new items from her bosom and placed them on the table.

"What is this?" One-Eared Rat looked at her in confusion.

"A new attempt." Yun Mu did not answer his question, but instead reached out to gesture for him to pick it up and see for himself.

"A new attempt?" Seeing that she had no intention of explaining, One-Eared Rat could only raise his hand to pick up the papers on the table.

*Violet Evergarden*, what is this? Opening the pages, a gray-black page drawn with a pencil appeared before One-Eared Rat.

Drawn on the page was a Young Girl with loose, long hair, lying on a hospital bed, with Bandage after Bandage wrapped around her neck.

The Young Girl's name was Violet Evergarden; this was her story, and also a story called love. "Ah, ahhh, it's written so well!"

"Boss, you write so well!"

The middle-aged boss, One-Eared Rat, held Yun Mu's manuscript in both hands, tears streaming uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.

Before finishing the novel, he had never imagined he would ever display such an unsightly appearance.

From the initial expectation of seeing Violet reveal her out-of-place side, to the anticipation of the Young Girl truly becoming human and searching for love, One-Eared Rat had never seen such a work in his entire life.

【I cannot understand. The articles I write reflect the client's intentions to the greatest extent.】

【The meaning of language has inner and outer layers; what is spoken is not everything. This is the weakness of humans—probing the other party to find one's own status in their heart. How contradictory.】

【Brother, I am so happy that you were able to survive.】

【You must live on and become free. I truly... love you.】

【What is love?】

【As a weapon, having always hurt others, have I stolen the promises of others? And do those people also have someone they love?】

【Are you going to use those hands that have taken so many lives to write letters that connect people?】

The many lines from the novel, combined with Yun Mu's exquisite illustrations, surged into One-Eared Rat's mind scene by scene.

At the same time, Yun Mu also had a feeling that something was about to appear.

【Your work has successfully moved an audience, your Path 【Painting】 +2.】

【Your Path 【Writer】 +1.】

【Path 【Painting】【Writer】 has been unlocked.】

【Current Path: Oil Painting/Manga/Painting lv3 (62/80), Writer lv1 (1/10).】

Suddenly, the Oil Painting/Manga/Painting Path became a blur, and in the end, only the two characters 【Painting】 remained.

Only after clicking on the details could one see the specific paths contained within the 【Painting】 Path.

That makes three out of the four paths needed to advance to Master level, and as for the 【Writer】 Path, that was entirely an accident.

Yun Mu hadn't expected to be able to gain an additional new path.

As for why it was *Violet Evergarden*, that was something Yun Mu had decided upon after careful consideration.

The reason is actually not hard to explain: first, the world background of *Violet* is very similar to the Frost Kingdom, both having a level of technology similar to steampunk.

She didn't have to change anything; she could copy it directly and no one would think there was a problem.

The second is that she remembered the plot of *Violet* relatively clearly; although she had only watched the animation and the theatrical version, this did not affect her copying this work.

And third, *Rain Curtain Magazine* currently lacks a top-tier pillar work.

What, you say Torina's *Adventure Journal*?

If a magazine's only impression on people whenever it is mentioned is that it's a lewd comic, then it's probably already finished.

However, there is one point worth noting.

That is Violet's blonde hair, which is not common in the Frost Kingdom; however, in the Heling Empire, there are many people with blonde hair and blue eyes.

But these are all minor issues, of no great consequence.

"How does it feel?" Yun Mu took a tissue from inside her earring, handed it to One-Eared Rat, and asked.

"It might be a bit boring for young people, but for an old thing like me, it's just right." One-Eared Rat took the tissue, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said.

"I didn't expect the boss to not only have superb painting skills, but to be so moving at writing novels as well." He praised her with genuine words.

"No, this novel wasn't written by me; I'm only responsible for the illustrations inside." Hearing One-Eared Rat's words, Yun Mu slowly shook her head.

"This, who should I write as the author for this novel?" One-Eared Rat was a bit confused.

"No need to write it; let people guess for themselves."

In her past life, Yun Mu had only watched the animation and hadn't paid attention to who wrote the original work.

But she felt embarrassed to occupy someone else's hard work, so it was better not to label the author's name.

This way is also quite good.

"That works too; I'll go arrange the publication matters immediately."

"Mm, then I'll trouble you."

After resolving the minor matters of Yun Chao Publishing House and successfully obtaining the Path she wanted.

Yun Mu returned to Sisilaiya Cafe and used the power of the teleportation array to teleport back.

"Let's go, little one." In the room of the Feiluoka Old Residence, Yun Mu retracted the teleportation array and released the lizard she had caught from the courtyard earlier.

I don't know if it was because of the Charm bonus brought by her many titles, but this little lizard had no intention of resisting at all after being caught by her.

It even used its head to rub against her palm.

This made Yun Mu, who had used it for an experiment to see if the teleportation array could transport other living creatures, feel a bit guilty.

But there was no help for it; she couldn't exactly let Brenna do the experiment, or should she just find a random bug?

No, there was no way to guarantee that—forget it, as it stands, it's still very safe, isn't it? It's about time, she should rest too; she still has the finals to participate in tomorrow.

Slightly exhausted, she pulled the curtains, turned off the lights, and Yun Mu lay on the bed, slowly closing her eyes.

"Hoo, hah."

The next morning.

The sky was clear and the air was crisp, the sun was shining brightly. Like hell it was.

A bone-chilling cold Wind blew against Yun Mu's face, and thick, heavy clouds obscured the sunlight.

In the sky, one could only vaguely see wisps of light piercing through the gaps in the clouds.

Come to think of it, the sunlight in this world was equivalent to the radiance shed by Godwin, King of the Sun, and the clouds that could obscure that radiance didn't seem to have any special significance.

It seemed there wasn't anyone in this world who had incarnated as a god in the form of a cloud.

As for her, although her name contained "Yun" (Cloud), she had absolutely no thoughts about becoming a cloud god or anything of the sort.

Suddenly, the enthusiastic cheers from the scene brought Yun Mu back to her senses.

She looked at the screen above the competition arena.

【Yun VS Teabei】

Is she the first one to go up again?

And the opponent is that guy.

Yun Mu looked at the green-haired man, and the other party happened to be looking at her at this moment.

"Ha, are you that player Yun?" Teabei walked up to Yun Mu, a look of keen interest on his face.

"I've long wanted to try a duel with you." He reached out his hand, looking quite enthusiastic.

Is this guy's personality like this? Or is he only like this toward players he's interested in?

With some doubts in her heart, Yun Mu reached out to respond: "Nice to meet you, player Teabei."

"I will give it my all," she said.

"That's for the best." Teabei nodded, then walked toward the competition arena.

"See you in a bit," he waved at Yun Mu.

"Hmph, look at that arrogant look of his, does he think he's guaranteed to win?" Vivian pouted with some annoyance. She spoke, then looked at Yun Mu with expectant eyes:

"You must help me beat him up, Miss Yun!"

"About that, haha, I'll try my best." Yun Mu replied perfunctorily, then got up and walked toward the Duel Pod.

【Map: Old Capital】

【Size: Neutral】

【Resources: Neutral】

【Player ID: Yun (Purple) VS Teabei (Blue)】

Old Capital is a city map, containing many high-rise buildings and flat, open streets.

It is a map very suitable for mid-game fighting.

As for why it's not late-game? Firstly, the map size isn't large enough, and secondly, the total resources in Old Capital are relatively low; although it's labeled as Neutral, collecting minerals in many places is quite laborious.

Unless it comes down to a desperate situation, no player would consider building a Mining Vehicle there.

Although it's a mid-to-late game map, Yun Mu didn't really want to play a development game with Teabei.

It wasn't that she was afraid of him, but she felt that a player of his level should also be able to judge the attributes of this map.

Since that was the case, if she took advantage of the other party's mindset and launched a quick attack, there might be an unexpected surprise.

In any case, let's start with a little trick.

While building the Tank Factory, Yun Mu quietly had the Jeep load up a hacker and detour to Teabei's base, preparing to see if she could steal his Command Center.

What she never expected was that Teabei's reaction was inexplicably a beat slow, successfully allowing her to steal the Command Center.

A happy Yun Mu sold the Command Center directly, thinking that this match was already in the bag.

She hadn't expected that the reason Teabei's reaction was a beat slow was precisely because he was also controlling a Jeep, quietly sneaking toward Yun Mu's Command Center.

By the time Yun Mu reacted, it was too late to make the Command Center perform an Ascension; there was no other way, she had to Sell it immediately.

This was very awkward; both sides had no Command Center, and without a Repair Factory, the repairmen could not build a new Command Center.

At the same time, there were no blueprints to build other structures.

But if there was any good news, it wasn't entirely non-existent.

That was that Yun Mu had one more Mining Vehicle than Teabei, and on top of that, she had sold two Command Centers, gaining 3000 in cash instantly; she was very wealthy.

In the current situation where neither side could build structures, this extra Mining Vehicle and the three thousand in cash were her advantage! And the reason Teabei had one fewer Mining Vehicle than her was because he had used more funds to produce Flash Silver Tanks.

At this moment, the other party had six Flash Silver Tanks, while Yun Mu only had two! The situation was very critical; knowing that dragging it out would be disadvantageous to him, Teabei immediately controlled his Flash Silver Tanks to attack, preparing to wipe out Yun Mu's Flash Silver Tanks.

But Yun Mu wasn't a fool; in a situation where she couldn't build a Bunker, her two Flash Silver Tanks definitely couldn't compete with Teabei's, so she immediately controlled the Flash Silver Tanks to retreat.

But the Flash Silver Tanks could run, could her buildings run?

Making the Tank Factory fly would stop production, which would be no different from committing suicide.

Teabei decisively had his Flash Silver Tanks attack Yun Mu's Tank Factory, forcing her to come back.

The other party seemed to intend to blow up her Tank Factory directly so that Yun Mu wouldn't be able to produce Flash Silver Tanks, meaning she couldn't spend her money even if she had it; therefore, he ignored the two returning Flash Silver Tanks and continued attacking the Tank Factory.

Seeing the Tank Factory's health drop below half and starting to emit black smoke, Yun Mu hurriedly had all the repairmen run to the side of the Tank Factory, desperately using their drills to repair the Tank Factory's health.

Just at this moment, a new Flash Silver Tank crawled out of the Tank Factory.

It immediately blew up one of Teabei's Flash Silver Tanks that was already low on health.

The Tank Factory's health was strangely kept in balance! Hi-hi-hi, didn't expect that, did you? My repairmen's drills are capable of piercing the heavens!

With her mood like a roller coaster, Yun Mu, seeing the situation successfully stabilized, thought excitedly to herself.

Oh no!

Teabei shouted in his heart that it was bad; he hadn't expected that when the Flash Silver Tanks were reduced to five, the speed of the damage dealt would actually be slower than the repairmen's repairs! And the main reason for this was actually the three extra repairmen she got after selling the Command Center!

Yes, just like a certain game on Earth, after selling or destroying a building, some small units, known as executors, would be left at the building's original location.

And after the Command Center was sold, it would grant a few extra repairmen.

It was precisely these few extra repairmen that completely buried any possibility of Chabei winning.

Because at this moment, in order to blow up Yun Mu's Tank Factory, the Flash Silver Tanks under his command had almost no health left.

Even if he wanted to retreat, he couldn't run away.

It was almost equivalent to throwing away a wave of combat power for nothing.

With him already having 3,000 fewer Resource Points and one fewer Mining Vehicle than Yun Mu, this was undoubtedly fatal.

If he had been able to take out Yun Mu's Flash Silver Tanks first, then crush those few repairmen, and finally attack the Tank Factory, or if he hadn't had his Command Center stolen earlier... No, these things were meaningless.

Lost is lost.

Chabei first let out a helpless sigh, then an excited smile appeared on his face.

"One more round!"

Before surrendering, he typed in the in-game public chat.

"No problem." The opponent responded to him very quickly.

It was rare to encounter a player whose skill level was similar to her own, and Yun Mu actually felt a bit excited herself.

Playing against novices every day would make one's brain rust!

Games, after all, are most interesting when played against opponents of equal skill.

Of course, she would still win.

If you ask why... who would think they were destined to lose before a match even starts!

Yun Mu adjusted her state and quietly waited for the second match to begin.

【Map: Abandoned Village】

【Size: Normal】

【Resources: Barren】

【Player ID: Yun (Purple) VS Chabei (Pink)】

It was still a map that was relatively flat overall; Yun Mu spawned in the bottom-right corner of the map, while Chabei was in the top-left corner.

A river separated the two, with a stone bridge hanging over the water.

Without a doubt, as long as one held the bridgehead, it would be very difficult for the other side to attack.

But in this round, neither side had any intention of playing like a turtle, because the map's starting funds were low, only 10,000, so after building the Tank Factory, Yun Mu kept building Mining Vehicles.

She built five in one go, and at the same time built two additional Ore Refineries, equivalent to eight Mining Vehicles!

And opposite her, the number of Mining Vehicles Chabei built was a bit lower than hers, only seven.

"Both sides are full of fire this round, with absolutely no intention of climbing the tech tree. Once the number of Mining Vehicles reached the target, they immediately built three Tank Factories and simultaneously produced Flash Silver Tanks."

"And because he produced one fewer Mining Vehicle, Chabei's Flash Silver Tanks are a bit more numerous than Player Yun's... Ah, Player Chabei has crossed the stone bridge; he has chosen to directly challenge Player Yun!"

"Player Yun shows no sign of cowardice; the tanks of both sides are clumped together... Player Yun actually won! Heavens, how on earth was this done?"

The male commentator was commentating on the match with great passion at the commentary desk, and when he saw Yun Mu defeat the superior force and take out Player Chabei's Flash Silver Tanks, he jumped up from his seat in excitement.

The audience at the scene cheered enthusiastically, the waves of sound almost suppressing the male commentator's voice.

And in the live broadcast room of the Old Days Front program, the entire screen was filled with question marks.

Clearly, they could not understand how Yun Mu had managed to win against a superior force.

【???】

【What happened? How did she suddenly win?】

【I don't know either.】

【Cheat!】

【Cheat your mom, you can even cheat on official equipment!】

【That Player Yun knows the CEO of the Joy Company, I've seen it in other articles!】

【You can even brag about rumors? Idiot, |.】

Besides some questioning comments, there were also people seriously analyzing the footage and operations just now, and besides that, 【Holy shit, Yun!】

(End of chapter)