Chapter 23 Part 3

Qin Lang: “That’s good timing. You still haven’t finished your books; no time for sadness.”

Xia Xifeng was driven frantic. “Qin Lang, you’re so boring too!”

Qin Lang didn’t look up, continuing to read.

Anyway, it all had to be read; procrastination was useless.

……

As Amuruo had said, the following matters no longer required Qin Lang and Xia Xifeng’s involvement.

Using Teleportation Formations and Teleportation Scrolls without regard to cost, including the time to assemble personnel, the Dwarven Great Sage arrived in Green Sand City in just one day.

The Dwarven Great Sage swaggered over with the “Dwarven Envoy Delegation,” using the excuse of visiting the Magus Master Suer—though Suer was still meditating.

Even if he wasn’t enthusiastic about politics, being old and wily, the Dwarven Great Sage was extremely shrewd.

He amiably visited the Dwarf Merchant Caravan, inquired about their well-being, praised their adventurous spirit, and encouraged them to keep pioneering new trade routes.

The members of the Dwarf Merchant Caravan were deeply flattered and visibly excited.

The Dwarven Great Sage sighed to Amuruo, “If Lana weren’t still alive, and the Recording Stone hadn’t been verified as genuine, I truly wouldn’t dare believe they’ve been replaced by monsters.”

Amuruo said, “This is the Dwarven Ancestor God protecting the Dwarf Kingdom.”

The Dwarven Great Sage smiled. “Indeed.”

The unknown enemy’s plot had no flaws. Even Amuruo couldn’t detect anything unusual about them, yet they had overlooked one single, weakest little girl.

This little girl happened to be swallowed by a scorpion, and then happened to encounter Pioneer Knights from Green Sand City out hunting.

This string of “happenstances”—truly the Ancestor God’s blessing.

“Upon closer inspection, there are gaps in their memories,” the Dwarven Great Sage said. “Especially Lana’s father, Jim. He’s our breakthrough point.”

Amuruo said, “Consider Lana’s feelings as much as possible. Don’t do anything excessive. I don’t really care either way, but Suer has a terrible temper.”

The Dwarven Great Sage chuckled. “Of course.”

The Dwarven Great Sage was brimming with enthusiasm, and the entire team of Sages was eager and ready.

Perhaps academic and tech nerds all had a slightly “inhuman” tendency. Although it was tragic that their fellow Dwarves had been devoured, the thought of never-before-seen monsters filled them with excitement.

Experiments! Experiments!

They absolutely had to uncover the monsters’ true forms!

Amuruo’s eyelid twitched.

He knew perfectly well this was how Dwarven Sages were. That was precisely why he had forbidden Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang from entering the city during this time.

If Suer woke up and found the Little Prophet had been corrupted by bad influences, he’d give Amuruo the cold shoulder.

Even though Xia Xifeng couldn’t enter the city, he still followed events there from afar.

Hearing that the city was peaceful and its residents were even holding a festival, his feelings were very complicated.

Mr. Amuruo… well, how to put it… knowing full well that the shadow-possessed Dwarves would bring great tragedy, he was truly quite laid-back about it.

Was this what it meant to be so skilled one feared nothing?

“Qin Lang, you have to work hard and become as strong as Mr. Amuruo. That way I can live without fear too.” Xia Xifeng looked to his childhood friend to become a dragon.

Qin Lang agreed, then urged Xia Xifeng to quickly level his Life Skills and earn money to support him.

How could he become strong without money? Get to work.

With a mana-restoring snack in his mouth, Xia Xifeng humphed and continued working.

With Green Sand City as their backing, Xia Xifeng didn’t have to worry about gathering materials at all.

It was as if he’d activated a materials cheat; he just had to busily make stuff to sell.

Dammit, why doesn’t this cheat also unlock levels and skills? Xia Xifeng thought discontentedly.

While Xia Xifeng worked at full capacity, Qin Lang wasn’t idle either.

Besides daily combat training, almost all the city-building matters fell to Qin Lang.

Without a preliminary plan for the Knight’s Domain, they couldn’t recruit people.

The Free Alliance had many Pioneer Knights. Whether they could attract residents depended entirely on the individual knight’s ability.

Although Suer had given them great advantages, in the eyes of outsiders, Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang had no reputation whatsoever, their strength wasn’t considered high, and the land they’d chosen to pioneer was the most dangerous zone. Very few were willing to join their Knight’s Domain.

Relying on Halfling friends for help wasn’t a long-term solution. Xia Xifeng drew upon his experience playing pioneering and base-building games: first get the infrastructure in order, then set good welfare policies, and only then could they attract the first batch of people with money.

Once the first laborers arrived and the first tax revenue came in, adding more people later would be a snowball effect.

City construction in a fantasy world was just like on Earth; it all started with planning the sewers.

Xia Xifeng’s System had a built-in city-building function. With the System’s assistance, he could quickly produce a blueprint.

Coordinating the construction was Qin Lang’s job.

The System could only handle the general city layout. Although one could get by without details, both Qin Lang and Xia Xifeng were studying civil engineering books, so clearly, they weren’t the type to slack on details.

Qin Lang first installed the Mana Network Stabilizer. After that, construction was even easier than using heavy machinery on Earth.

In the main world of Fantasy Realms—the Dream World—technological development was as disjointed as in any fantasy world.

The Dream World’s primary energy source was “Mana Elements,” i.e., magical elements.

Mana Elements were everywhere. The God of Magic was the Innate God who controlled the concept of Mana Elements. He generously shared Mana Elements for everyone’s use, using divine power to soothe them. As long as one’s Mana affinity was high enough, even a child could safely use magic.

Mana Elements entered plants and animals and were also stored in ores.

With divine power supporting them, Mana Elements were almost inexhaustible. Properly utilized, they were an extremely efficient clean energy source.

Even nuclear fusion from Earth would pale in comparison to Mana Element energy.

With Mana Element energy being so convenient, the Dream World’s technology level should be quite high, right?

In fact, the Mana Element tech tree was already very advanced.

Whether it was the city-building speed rivaling 3D printing, or teleportation technology that could cross half a planet or even dimensional planes, the advanced nature of Magitech based on Mana Element energy was evident.

But this convenient Magitech was very difficult to fully implement for civilian use.

The reason lay in the fact that Mana Elements were too easily manipulated by intelligent beings.

On Earth, trying to cut a power line to cause a city-wide blackout was not easy at all, and you’d almost certainly get caught.

In the Dream World, a world where individuals possessed immense power, tampering with Mana circuits was far too easy.

Not to mention deliberate sabotage—just a fight between two major figures could cause disturbances in the Magical Network.

To avoid this problem, cities needed to build large-scale Mana Network Stabilizers to eliminate the risk of network interference.

Cities also needed comprehensive defense systems to prevent anyone from invading the Magitech circuits.

The cost of maintaining Magitech infrastructure within a city was imaginably high, requiring an extremely strong and stable ruling class.

Aside from the capitals of the two great Empires and the Dwarf Kingdom, only a few major cities could popularize Magitech in their inner districts.

Taking Green Sand City as an example, only the innermost core district fully popularized Magitech.

Outside the inner district, even Magitech Vehicles couldn’t be driven freely; animal power had to be used.

Without a Mana Network Stabilizer forcibly making Mana Elements “inert,” a single malicious person in the shadows throwing down a scroll could cause Magitech Vehicles to go out of control and crash into crowds.

Because Suer paid for it out of his own pocket, Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s Knight’s Domain could use a small Mana Network Stabilizer from the start, covering an area roughly the size of a small town of ten thousand people.

A Knight’s Domain that could use a Mana Network Stabilizer had living conditions utterly incomparable to ordinary towns.

Mana Network Stabilizers and Magitech infrastructure all required large amounts of magic ore, and the materials for drawing Mana circuits weren’t cheap either.

If they could build the town according to the blueprint, the experienced Freemen of the “Wastelands” would immediately see the background and financial power of this Knight’s Domain’s lords.

By then, recruiting people would be very easy.

Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang certainly didn’t have that much money. It was all privately borrowed from Suer and Amuruo.

Initially, they wanted to take things slowly, starting with an ordinary village. But after confirming the Apocalypse was approaching, Amuruo, taking advantage of Suer’s meditation, forcefully ordered Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang to sign IOUs, urging them to take on debt and ramp up construction immediately, striving to build another sturdy frontier fortress town before the Apocalypse arrived.

Thus, just as their career began, they first racked up tens of billions of gold coins in debt.

Not only did Qin Lang’s face become even more stoic, even Xia Xifeng’s smile turned stiff.

Even in the game, it was hard for him to save that much money.

Relying solely on personally crafting items for sale couldn’t possibly repay this debt. He would have to be a benevolent lord, leading his citizens to prosperity and collecting plenty of taxes, to even have a chance of filling this enormous deficit.

Would the Apocalypse arrive before he and Qin Lang even paid off their debt?

The debt was so heavy that Xia Xifeng had no energy left to overthink things.

What Shadow Fiends? Weren’t those just ordinary trash mobs that even a life-skills player like him could farm randomly?

Now that they were exposed right in front of a major figure like Mr. Amuruo, what was there for him to worry about?

Hurry up and work, earn money, pay off the debt—that was his life’s priority now.

“Isn’t this pressure a bit too much?” Perila came to help, startled by Xia Xifeng’s near-breakdown state. “The City Lord and Mr. Suer didn’t ask you to repay immediately. You and Lang will surely reach the Legendary realm too; your lifespans are very, very long. There’s no rush to pay back such a small debt. Besides, the City Lord and Mr. Suer are just subsidizing you; they’ve never expected repayment.”

Xia Xifeng said with a bitter face, “It’s precisely because they don’t expect repayment that we can’t let their goodwill down. I’m just afraid that even when the world ends, we still haven’t paid it off, and then Mr. Amuruo and Mr. Suer just wave their hands and say, ‘The world has ended, the debt is written off.’ That would make me and Qin Lang feel awful for the rest of our lives.”

Huh? Even if the world ended, you’d still want to repay your debt?

If the world ended, what debt would there even be to repay?!

Perila hadn’t considered that the “world ending” Xia Xifeng talked about was literally going to happen. He was simply shocked by Xia Xifeng’s stubbornness.

Perila shared Xia Xifeng’s words with Leo and Damon, and Amuruo quickly found out too.

He was stunned for a long time, then leaned on his forehead and laughed heartily.

These juniors were truly adorable. Not only would Suer be deeply moved when he awoke, but even he himself now felt a sense of fondness and doting towards them.