Chapter 194: Cultural Invasion of Another World

The players had long known that a group of Believers of the Death God were staying at an inn on Store Street.

These people were originally supposed to stay on Commercial Street, closer to the Municipal Building, but for some unknown reason, after these people left the Military Camp, they found a place to stay on their own.

Compared to the low-class inns in the Factory District, the players' inn was quite clean and tidy, so after some consideration, several Priestesses chose the players' inn.

Thanks to Zhuguli's promotion on the forum, everyone already knew that these people were envoys from Gannaer, and also Priestesses of the Death God.

"Did you tell Tana and the others not to come to work today?" As soon as Ye Laoshi entered the door, he reminded his two students, "Those Priestesses are out shopping today; you two should prepare, and don't bother with the translating."

Xiao Liu pushed up his glasses, looking at his mentor in disbelief, then let out a sigh of relief.

He hadn't expected the teacher to treat things in the game as seriously as a foreign diplomatic visit.

Then again, this was the teacher's habit; he was always meticulous in everything he did and never cut corners.

The two students put away the documents they had partially translated on the table, then wiped the table clean.

These tasks were usually done by the Rita sisters, but because the situation had been tense lately, they were often unable to come over to work during working hours.

This made the two of them feel a bit anxious, but fortunately, they could also handle cleaning the guest rooms where the players lived, so they took on this task.

For the time being, they couldn't come to the bookstore to help.

Visiting Tana City for the first time, Niya was filled with curiosity, though in her heart, Tana City was not a very good place.

Those Gannaer people who had visited Tana City before never spared any effort in describing how unbearable Tana City was.

This place was visited by those Evil Gods every now and then, various sects developed evil Believers here, and there were barbarian attacks from time to time, so the city looked very fragmented.

In the Factory District, there were many shanties and quite a few poor people without many clothes.

Yet in the city center, near the Municipal Building, people were dressed in bright and beautiful clothes; although they couldn't compare to the Royal Capital, they were not bad compared to Gannaer, and perhaps even better.

In the West District, the nobles' houses were noble and magnificent castles, looking as if they were from a fairy tale.

As for Store Street, it made Niya somewhat suspicious that this place was not the same place as Tana City.

This was the place in all of Tana City with the most vitality, and also where the most people were.

Merchants were willing to look for supply channels on Store Street, and at the same time, those players were also looking for merchants to do business with, haggling with them and trying to buy things that didn't originally exist in Tana City.

For example, the coal that was most needed at the moment.

There were also some players who needed workers and were recruiting at the agencies on Store Street.

It was bustling here to an absurd degree, especially the aroma of the delicacies, which constantly tempted Niya's taste buds.

"I don't remember this place; it used to be ordinary shops." A Priestess walking in the back frowned. She had last visited two years ago, when Gannaer was in a civil war, and to protect her awakened family, she had sent them to Tana City and then taken a Train to settle elsewhere.

At that time, her impression of Tana City was quite poor; there definitely wouldn't have been a street like this.

And the players' street was indeed different from other places.

In Tana City, apart from the First Avenue in front of the Municipal Building, only Store Street was swept by people every day, and twice at that.

There was no strange odor from excrement here, and certainly no disheveled people; everyone was full of energy.

"The spirits here are different." Niya felt that there was something different.

"Don't talk nonsense; you aren't one of those Channeling practitioners, and you haven't even awakened." Jimola shook her head. Many Priestesses were born with more spiritual sensitivity than others, which was because they were under the protection of the Death God.

It was a pity they couldn't awaken, otherwise, they would also be hunted down by the nobles.

Niya aggrievedly picked at her fingers, "Should we go over and take a look? It seems like a lot of people are watching over there."

"Then let's go over and see." Jimola was also very curious about the current Tana City, although she knew that if it weren't for those people sent by the War Church, perhaps Tana City would already be Gannaer territory.

At this moment, Mengmeng was taking the first batch of cookies of the day out of the oven. Because those troublesome pastries were all sold out yesterday, she couldn't make that many cakes today, so Mengmeng made quite a few cookies and egg rolls today.

These things were easy to preserve; they could be made at night and sold during the day, or even made and sold on the spot.

Quite a few people were already gathered to the side, intending to buy some.

Many players were also regulars here; eating delicious food in the game carried no burden.

Chen Ai was holding a bucket of mixed pigments. She happened to be queuing here, and since she couldn't let go of the food, she simply brought the pigments along to queue.

She had finally managed to buy those medicinal powders containing spirituality from the Royal Capital, but the price was truly quite expensive, so they could only be used on some of her Paintings.

Moreover, the effects still needed more research.

"No, why are the people here walking around with those powders containing Golden Beetle?" Niya quickly discovered something wrong, "That stuff will affect people's minds."

"No wonder the cookies here smell so fragrant; it turns out..." Several Priestesses pointed at the stall, which made the players queuing nearby feel very dissatisfied.

"What exactly are you doing?" You'eryuan, who was queuing behind, couldn't help but ask, "These cookies are all freshly baked and sold; the taste is quite good. Do you not like sweets?"

"No, there is actually someone here using Golden Beetle powder; these powders have hallucinogenic effects." Niya said seriously, "Adding this kind of thing to food is completely harming people."

"That is for painting, not for adding to food." Chen Ai walked over, carrying pigments in her left hand and a bag of cookies and a bag of egg rolls in her right. "I learned about this powder when I was painting murals for the Sun Church. I usually add these powders to portraits; it makes those portraits look more vivid."

"You, you are a painter?" Niya hadn't expected that there would be a painter in Tana City.

Not to mention that Tana City shouldn't have one, even in the Federal, painting art was very much rejected; the whole city was completely devoid of life, lifeless.

Although it was controlled by major churches, these churches didn't know how to adapt at all; those doctrines confined people within strict frameworks, not at all like Gannaer, where the liberation of spirits was free.

Chen Ai nodded, "Would you like to see my Paintings? My studio is just ahead."

Niya looked at Chen Ai, then looked at the snacks, and hesitated.

If those cookies weren't poisonous, they really did smell too good.

"I can treat you to some." Seeing Niya's reluctance, Chen Ai continued to invite her, showing no signs of rejection toward them.

Along the way, only the people on Store Street did not reject Niya and her group.

Their attire and their behavior all indicated that they were people from Gannaer.

If it weren't for the fact that they were wearing priestly robes when they went out, they might have even been arrested by patrol soldiers and thrown into jail.

Everyone avoided them, yet only this lady was actually willing to invite them to appreciate her Paintings.

Accepting the invitation, Niya arrived at the studio and saw some of Chen Ai's Paintings.

Painting here, Chen Ai was relaxed because she didn't have to worry about money or fear running out of time.

Apart from portraits, other Paintings could have sufficient time for conception, so every one of her Paintings could be said to be quite remarkable.

"It's truly beautiful, what is this a painting of?" Niya exclaimed in admiration.

"This is an order from the Church of Wisdom; they hope I can paint a piece that allows even large warships and heavy cannons to possess consciousness," Chen Ai said quite naturally, looking at the ship-girl above. "I added some Alfalfa Flower powder and Musk Orchid powder, which makes the figures in this painting look as if they are alive."

Although it was a two-dimensional painting, it truly had a feeling of being able to move.

And the movements looked very similar to those in the game.

Niya frowned; she didn't understand, weren't the things created by the Church of Wisdom all soulless?

Even if they could move or speak, those things were still soulless.

"You even painted the God of Death?" Unlike Niya, Jimola quickly discovered a painting that was different from the others.

"To be precise, this is not the God of Death, this is Black Impermanence." Chen Ai flipped the painting over and saw the other side. "This is White Impermanence."

"Is this... a deity?" Seeing the portrait, Niya hesitated.

Because the black clothing and the ferocious appearance above really looked like the image from the Oracle of the Lord of Death.

"You could say that. You can understand them as a type of spirit, those who lead people into the Underworld." As he spoke, Chen Ai told these folklore stories to the several Priestesses.

"I seem to have heard such stories somewhere before," Jimola said. "My student learned about similar stories from the Xiahui People some time ago."

"We are Xiahui People," Chen Ai said. "If you want to learn more, you can go to the bookstore over there; the people there can help you understand more about the Underworld."

Never did she expect that one day Jimola would need to seek out these outsiders to learn about the Underworld.

She hesitated, but thinking that many stories about the Underworld were scattered amidst the wars of the nobles, she decided to go take a look.

Inside the bookstore, Ye Laoshi was summarizing stories about the Underworld; these stories had been organized some time ago, and now they were basically finished and could be taken for printing.

This content would definitely be able to shock all of Gannaer, and because the stories seemed overly reasonable and self-consistent, they could completely influence the existence of the God of Death in Gannaer.

This would depend on whether these Gannaer people were willing to accept the God of Death from the faith of another group of people.

It did not involve awakening or Transcendental Power, so those nobles probably wouldn't care; this was also a fact that Heart's Yearning had learned during this time.

Those priests didn't mind adding a few more myths and legends to the realm of the God of Death and the Underworld, as long as these stories didn't affect the awakening of the Believers of the God of Death.

Therefore, the players who truly wanted the Gannaer civilians to see the goodwill of Tana City were willing to share with them some myths and legends from modern society that had been preserved.

"You mean to say that different regions have different ideas about the Underworld?" Wearing the reading glasses provided by Ye Laoshi, Jimola clicked her tongue in wonder; these myths and legends perfectly filled in some content for the entire Gannaer Death Sect.

Many things that hadn't been understood before seemed to have found their reasons within these myths and legends.

"So, it's not that we are inherently divided; in the Underworld, there are also different people in charge?"

"So many people die every year; some need to be reincarnated, while others need to atone for their sins. I think there are similar stories in Gannaer, right?" Ye Laoshi explained. "These contents might be able to explain it: deities will adapt to this world according to people's thoughts. Otherwise, how would a deity who only speaks the Gannaer language guide pirates living on the sea?"

"What you say makes a lot of sense. Those pirates cannot become wandering souls. I would like to take these materials back to study; would that be alright?"

"Of course, I can have a friend at the newspaper office help you make a copy so you can take it back to read," Ye Laoshi appeared quite generous.

Letting the other party see the sincerity of Tana City was more useful than inciting war with them, not to mention that Heart's Yearning had already said on the forum that Jimola was the High Priest within Gannaer, and her status in theology far exceeded that of the Queen.

As for the Queen, who constantly incited war and cooperated with those witches, even in a country like Gannaer, there would be voices of opposition.

It was just a pity that these Priestesses had not awakened, and even help in terms of public opinion might not be provided in any significant amount.

However, sticking to the principle that anyone who can be won over is a friend, Ye Laoshi was still very diligent and conscientious in communicating with the other party.

Besides those stories, Niya also purchased many of the latest books, such as "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Ancient Mythology Compendium".

These books translated by players mostly carried an Eastern flair and contained many hints about resisting tyranny.

Seeing them take these books away, Ye Laoshi breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't know if the groundwork is being laid too late, but one step at a time."

No one wanted Gannaer to have problems, and even if the problems in Gannaer were solved peacefully this time, who knew when they would come back again.

As long as that brainless Queen was still there, who knew what other problems would arise?

On the other side, the team brought by Sigma had moved ten kilometers forward.

The Barbarian front line retreated ten kilometers, maintaining a certain distance.

These Barbarians were indeed cautious, but one could not let their guard down. Sigma instructed his subordinates: "There might be a first wave of night raids tonight; remember to stay alert."

(End of this chapter)