Chapter 885 - 380: Two Successful Assaults
In recent years, Stilan’s rapid industrial advances have quickly widened the gap between the Empire and its neighbors, securing its place as the number one Plane.
During this period of explosive growth in productivity, Stilan hasn’t imposed strict management on manufacturing overall, but when it comes to dangerous goods like gunpowder and explosives, Stilan is still extremely cautious.
All explosive companies that obtain a license to manufacture explosives must be placed under surveillance and build their factories at designated locations.
In the southeast of Grimland, there are no legally registered explosive factories, but in that area Raventon found a cross‑sector chemical plant: the Gneral Chemical Factory.
Their products for external sale have nothing to do with gunpowder or explosives, but in various stages of their production process, they more or less use the main raw materials needed to make Steam Explosive.
More importantly, they discharge harmful wastewater during production.
In the Police Hall’s alarm records, there was once a report from residents living downstream of the Gneral Chemical Factory, saying that in the middle of the night, the river water flowing down from upstream would turn multicolored and be accompanied by a pungent stench.
Heavily polluted water sources caused the nearby soil and water to become mildly poisonous; many times when it rained, people would start dry heaving and feel dizzy.
Grimland’s southeast, midnight, the River of Colors—these three pieces of intel perfectly matched the decoded clues.
Adding to that, at this moment the Hills River running through Grimland had a layer of multicolored oily scum floating on its entire surface, further indicating a strong connection between the two.
Since the target was locked in, there was no time to lose. Wu Chang and the others located the address registered for the chemical plant and prepared to set off immediately.
This clash with the Steam Council had a high chance of escalating into an early final battle. In a fight at this Level, the native Secret Magic Knights wouldn’t be of much use and would instead hinder the Players’ use of their Abilities.
Wu Chang merely using Space Magic was already enough to make Raventon keep asking questions; if the Players used some Skills that were hard to explain, they might even end up under suspicion.
So he used the excuse that too many people would be easier to expose, and had his main body stay behind at headquarters with Raventon, ready to provide support and handle other emergencies.
The True Self led the Players and rushed to the chemical plant at the fastest speed.
Wu Chang had never been to the southeast of Grimland and hadn’t had the chance to leave a Teleportation Array nearby. To reach the target as quickly as possible, they had to find a suitable vehicle.
At this moment, the quiet, low‑key woman among the Management Bureau’s five‑person squad stepped forward.
When registering with the Secret Magic Knight Order, Wu Chang had heard the woman’s name: Earth Puppet.
Earth Puppet was an Energy‑specialized Player, weaker than Cold Mountain and Sword Star, stronger than Negotiation Master and Bai Ma, ranking seventy‑fifth on the combat power list.
Her Reincarnation Skill could grant Life to the Earth Puppets she made, turning them into real objects. While having a certain combat capability, they could also self‑destruct at the final moment.
Seeing Earth Puppet make her move, Wu Chang thought she would knead some extra‑large horses, or simply living creatures like passenger‑carrying dragons. Unexpectedly, with just a few pinches she produced a van.
Earth Puppet injected Ability into the clay sculpture; the palm‑sized clay model instantly expanded into a real vehicle.
Wu Chang glanced at the car’s interior. Not only did it have digital screens, but when awakened by Earth Puppet’s voice, a voice assistant could be heard activating inside, with the response that autopilot was standing by at any time.
Earth Puppet scanned Grimland’s paper map in front of the camera, and a map navigation system was automatically generated on the car’s display. It then plotted the optimal route based on conditions in each area.
Nice, so Earth Puppet’s Reincarnation that grants Life can also give Life to machines, huh.
Wu Chang had reason to suspect that if Earth Puppet’s Reincarnation advanced further, she might really be able to hand‑craft a Transformer someday.
To reach the chemical plant as fast as possible, Wu Chang chose to drive manually himself instead of using the car’s built‑in autopilot.
After everyone got in, Shadow activated his Skill, turning the entire vehicle into a hazy shadow.
According to the map, from No. 6 Bai She Avenue to the Gneral Chemical Factory, the straight‑line distance was close to twenty kilometers, and the actual driving distance was between 25 and 30 kilometers.
Earth Puppet reminded him, "The Earth Puppets I make are all Magic Life. If you inject Energy into the steering wheel, you can increase its speed."
"Earth Puppets have very high energy conversion efficiency. It’s best to inject only a little Energy at a time; be careful not to inject too much Energy, or it’ll flip the car."
After hearing this, Wu Chang laughed with excitement, flashing a row of white teeth, giving everyone a bad feeling in their hearts.
Earth Puppet’s words seemed to have flipped some kind of switch.
Wu Chang gathered Energy and directly injected five points of Energy, cranking it straight up to Earth Puppet’s limit, then said:
"Dear passengers, fasten your seat belts. We’re taking off."
The next second, he floored the accelerator, and the shadowy van turned into a trailing afterimage.
Five minutes later, the Earth Puppet van screeched to a halt two hundred meters away from the Gneral Chemical Factory. Wu Chang let go of the steering wheel with both hands and said,
"The Earth Puppets you make are really fast."
He turned to look at the back seats and saw that everyone, including Divine Tongue, was pale as a sheet, like people with fear of heights who had just ridden ten roller coasters in a row.
The slightly weaker Booker and Veronica had even thrown up inside the car.
Earth Puppet took the motion sickness medicine that Divine Tongue had compounded on the spot. After taking it, she said with lingering fear,
"Captain, let’s use autopilot for the return trip."
After they had more or less recovered, they moved under Shadow’s Ability, sneaking toward the Gneral Chemical Factory.
Under the Steam Council’s arrangements, the fifty‑meter area around the chemical plant was shrouded in Steam Root Power. If they moved any closer, Shadow’s Skill would fail, so they had to stick to the fifty‑meter distance, reach a high point, and observe the situation inside the chemical plant.