This day finally passed, just like countless other ordinary days before it.
However, this day was sowhat different after all.
On this day, the Bright Castle ushered in unprecedented success. After holding the interrupted dal awarding ceremony in the Atlantis City Hall, several large etings followed to discuss various matters.
The seeds were planted, waiting quietly to sprout.
Afterwards, life began to proceed as if according to a schedule.
Two weeks later, in the laboratory, Richard solemnly received a glass tube engraved with a magic rune from the Witch Demon Elder. Inside was a swirling gold mist, a part of the mory extracted from the Truth Society’s chief Fen Feng after unraveling the "True God Power Protection," which contained thods of contacting Heaven.
After receiving the mory-filled glass tube, Richard turned and left.
About three days later, a eting was held inside the Bright Castle to make adjustnts on how all personnel can jointly improve the furnace’s condition—everyone was divided into two groups, with the first group focusing on furnace miniaturization research and the second on its large-scale research.
Notably, the second group outnumbered the first.
Not long after this, outside Atlantis City, a seemingly inconspicuous 100-ter-high mountain called "Gray Head Mountain" suddenly welcod nurous construction workers.
The construction workers cordoned off a stretch of land encompassing several miles and set up a restricted area, then comnced the complete renovation of the mountain.
Tracks were laid at an unimaginable speed, with a large number of locomotives ferrying cartloads of stone out and cartloads of iron ingots in.
The entire high-mountain construction site operated around the clock, day and night, yet curiously, almost no one knew exactly what the rush was about. Even the managent personnel tasked with supervising quality were rely instructed to mind their areas and not to ask questions. Otherwise, they might find a Black Knight appearing behind them like a phantom, clutching their shoulder like a chick, and kindly escorting them to a little black room for so barley tea—plentiful enough that so could drink it for several days straight.
Almost simultaneously, other cities within the Shalin System also began expansion activities under directives, significantly increasing their urban areas or directly establishing satellite cities.
In stark contrast were the cities opposing Shalin.
Since the onset of the Dark Era, these cities persistently refused to surrender, declaring Shalin as an enemy of the entire world and vowing to fight it to the end.
To be fair, the first half of the statent wasn’t wrong—Shalin indeed was the world’s enemy, and it was the Black Sun weapon they launched that led to the Dark Era.
However, those who made such statents were right about the first half but couldn’t uphold the second half.
Previously, Shalin had been tied up dealing with the Truth Society and had little energy left to tackle opposing cities, preferring a defensive developnt approach. Once the Truth Society’s influence on the Main Continent was almost eradicated, Shalin was free to muster forces and attacked enemy cities without delay.
These cities were reasonably pragmatic as well. Most of them had not even engaged in battle before raising a white flag as soon as the tide-like Black Knights appeared densely outside their city gates.
Of course, with pragmatists, there are also die-hards.
A few city lords of opposing cities completely ignored Shalin’s overwhelming forces, commanding their subordinates to prepare for a bloody battle to the end. Even if Shalin captured the city, they intended to leave it a ghost town strewn with corpses, refusing to compromise.
Their loyal subordinates, inspired by these words, swore blood oaths on the spot, promising to follow orders and perish along with the city and its lord.
Then, a day later, at dawn, the loyal subordinates who had sworn blood oaths presented a square box containing their beloved city lord’s head and knelt on one knee with all the city soldiers on the open ground in front of the city gate, awaiting Shalin’s army to take over...
And so, one by one, the opposing cities vanished, replaced by new cities of the Shalin System.
Locomotive after locomotive continuously delivered supplies to the new cities, feeding the populace while selecting capable individuals to plan the new city’s transformation and open up the many nearby mines.
Iron, copper, silver, gold, square lead, flash zinc, asbestos... under Shalin System’s deliberate guidance, nurous mineral resources across the continent were developed and utilized.
"Boom boom boom!"
Amidst the explosions, tracks were laid, mines established, and the extracted ores were loaded into train carriages for central transport to refineries.
The refined tals were then transported out to various needed locations, one of the most crucial being the ongoing, mysterious "Gray Head Mountain," still under construction and unknown to most.
Busy, busy, busy...
As ti went on, everyone seed to be busy with sothing, each person investing energy into their respective responsibilities.
Under the control of an invisible hand, everyone worked towards an unclear goal.
The vast majority had no complaints; after all, it was the Dark Era—it was a luxury just to have enough to eat. But now, not only could they eat their fill, but they could also eat well, even better than before the Dark Era—so what was there to be dissatisfied with?
Not to ntion, besides food, in Shalin System’s cities, they could enjoy many unimaginable anities. Like touching a wall to light up the entire house, touching a machine to pop out a delicious canned al, or touching a water pipe to get warm water.
But, where there are the vast majority, there are also the very few.
Most seamlessly integrated into life within the Shalin System, while a very few remained hidden, secretly resisting and sabotaging while conducting actions with ulterior motives.
Shalin dealt with these people rcilessly, with heavy-handed punishnt.
For instance, soone infiltrating a city archive room attempting to steal confidential files would be struck down by the powerful lightning shot from a magic rune gun as soon as they stepped in, then dragged to prison like a dead dog.
Or a few people who managed to procure a pack of explosives, attempting to blow up buildings to incite panic, were pinned down by Black Knights as soon as they stepped out. One who resisted fiercely received a rciless punch to the head from a Black Knight—a loud "crack," the head shattered, and the neck bent at a grotesque ninety-degree angle.
Furthermore, a small group secretly spreading propaganda that Shalin’s reign wouldn’t last long, soon to be annihilated by "priests" sent by a True God to reboot the world. This group’s existence didn’t last even four days before the city security and Black Knights ca knocking, requiring them to cooperate with the investigation.
The group refused to cooperate, quickly sealing doors and windows, huddling inside to resist to the end while shouting that Shalin was dood. Angered, the city security captain decisively ordered subordinates to carry multiple "Second Type Steel Fist" units to blast the house, considering that further delay might ss up their lunchti. Then the Black Knights stord in, indiscriminately dragging out both the living and dead, carrying them away together.
After so commotion, the city returned to normalcy, the very few beca even fewer, while the vast majority continued their standard, busy lives without disturbance.
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