Chapter 417 - 406: Expansion
With a thought, Allen confirmed the payment.
Over ninety million Low-Level Magic Stones instantly evaporated from his account, transforming into a massive flood of material orders that poured into the Association’s trading system without so much as a ripple.
For the next two days, the Teleportation Array at Deep Blue Residence never stopped.
Crates of Superconducting Mithril, whole chunks of void crystals, highly active Magic Sources sealed in Force Field Containers... A sea of top-tier materials poured in endlessly. Under Jarvis’s guidance, they were precisely stacked in Cybertron’s designated material yards.
Cybertron’s Phase III expansion had officially begun.
This time, Allen planned to double Cybertron’s developed area, expanding it from fifteen square kilometers to thirty in one go.
That area was roughly equivalent to the developed part of a medium-sized county town in his previous life.
[Instruction confirmed. Commencing coordinated spatial expansion.]
As Jarvis’s response faded, the red lights in the eyes of several hundred Factory Servants flashed, and they all activated, speeding toward the edge of Cybertron.
There, order met chaos.
Under the resonance of the "Fortress Workshop Unfurled" core Skill within Allen’s Sea of Spirit, the chaotic, primordial Laws of space began to loosen.
The Servants brought sheets of Black Patterned Magic Steel, laying them over the void and transforming it inch by inch into solid black ground, stubbornly extending Cybertron’s "territory" into the unknown.
The scene was like the mythical act of reclaiming land from the sea, except they were conquering dimensions themselves.
Hundreds of Servants worked simultaneously, the steel domain expanding at a visible rate. Though Allen’s body was in the Material Realm, his Spiritual Power spread like a vast, invisible net, enveloping the entire Half-Plane and constantly correcting spatial distortions.
At this moment, he was both the monarch issuing commands and the sole foundation propping up this small world.
Internal upgrades were also proceeding at a frantic pace.
New Magic Furnaces were under construction, and this time, Allen planned to use a ring array layout.
Thirty Magic Furnaces would encircle the central hub area, forming a massive ring.
They would be interconnected by a thicker, more complex "Reinforced Original Magic Power Connection Array."
[Commander, according to simulations, the ring array will create a Magic Power tidal resonance. The total power supply efficiency will be 22.7% higher than simply stacking thirty Magic Furnaces.]
"Excellent." Allen was very satisfied. "This many Magic Furnaces will be enough to support thirty production lines and ten Golem Legions charging simultaneously, with power to spare."
Time flew by amidst the efficient construction.
Every day, without fail, he would engage in six hours of deep Meditation.
The Star Core of Deep Slumber hovered above his Sea of Spirit like a miniature black sun, continuously drawing in pure Magic Power to inscribe new Will Runes.
After Meditation, there was a four-hour "study session."
He reviewed thousands of technical reports that DSeek had cross-referenced and deduced from the Association’s knowledge base, dismantling and absorbing the technical barriers one by one.
This was followed by a one-hour "work session," where he would become "Chairman Weisren," remotely handling the backlogged business submitted by Vera and Lina, and approving the company’s development plans and large orders.
For the remainder of his time, he would take off his Wizard Robe, change into a simple engineer’s uniform, and personally visit the front lines.
At the installation site of the sixteenth brand-new automated production line, he personally calibrated the error of a multi-armed collaborative robot with practiced movements.
He was the boss, a Wizard, the chief engineer, and the most skilled worker.
It was on this very production line that an interesting milestone was quietly reached.
[Report to the Commander, Cybertron’s ten millionth standard component has come off the line.]
Allen stopped his work and looked at the part that had just rolled off the production line—a left front knee joint connecting shaft for a Spider Slayer Mk. II. It was unremarkable, no different from any of the others.
Allen observed it for a moment before calmly ordering, "Give it a unique serial number. Archive and seal it."
[Instruction confirmed. Serial Number: CBT-10000000.]
The inconspicuous part was carefully picked up by a robotic arm and placed into a special alloy preservation case.
It would become the first exhibit in the museum of this city of steel.
New production lines were installed one after another, and more Factory Servants were manufactured to be put to work on even larger projects.
Meanwhile, in the advanced workshop in the deepest part of the facility, the skeletons of two behemoths were being constructed simultaneously.
Cyclops Unit 03 and Gabriel Unit 03.
Based on Allen’s recent studies, Cyclops Unit 03 had undergone thirty-seven fine-tuning adjustments to the structure of its Earth Core Furnace.
It sacrificed three percent of its peak burst power in exchange for a fifteen percent increase in sustained output stability and greater efficiency in drawing energy from ley lines.
It would become a more qualified, indestructible "shield."
As for Gabriel’s "Chanting Core," Allen had made drastic modifications.
He referenced multi-threaded processing models to design a new parallel casting module for it, and added two new Rune Board card slots.
This meant that a fully realized Gabriel Unit 04 would be able to maintain six different Witchcraft effects simultaneously, becoming a true "Flying Spell Cannon."
While Cybertron was undergoing a world-shaking evolution internally, exciting news continued to pour in from the external business world.
An encrypted communication request from Lina popped up on Allen’s personal terminal.
"Boss," on the other side of the light screen, Lina was dressed in a sharp business suit, with the busy office of Weisren Heavy Industry’s Hub City headquarters in the background. "We just signed eight new orders, with a total value exceeding thirteen million Low-Level Magic Stones."
"Understood." Allen’s reaction was calm; he had grown accustomed to orders of this magnitude.
"There’s one order in particular I think you’ll be interested in." The corners of Lina’s mouth turned up slightly in a smile she couldn’t suppress. "It’s from the ’Horn of Raging Tides,’ a Level 2 Wizard Organization entrenched in a Plane on the edge of the Endless Sea. They’ve ordered a complete Golem Legion to wipe out a Magical Beast species on their Plane."
Allen’s gaze sharpened slightly.
A Second-level Wizard power had placed an order directly.
This meant that the products of Weisren Heavy Industry, on the strength of their solid quality and combat performance, had finally knocked open a brand-new door.
"This is our first direct order from a ’high-level client.’"
There was a hint of excitement in Lina’s voice. "Boss, your brand... no, *our* brand, has started to break through the circle of small and medium-sized clients."
"One more step up, and we’ll reach the old-money families and top-tier powers who used to be so far above us they wouldn’t even give us a second glance."
’So we’ve finally knocked the door open...’
Allen turned off the light screen, a faint curve playing on his lips.
This was an important signal. It meant his Golems now had what it took to start competing with the established Alchemy Workshops.
Just as he was pondering how to use this opportunity to further expand the brand’s influence, the doorbell of Deep Blue Residence rang.
With a flicker of his consciousness, Allen’s Spiritual Power instantly returned from Cybertron to his body in the Material Realm.
He got up, walked to the entrance, and opened the heavy, sunken-wood door.
Outside stood a tall, handsome man with an upright posture.
It was Rhine Hart.
He wore a well-fitting black formal suit, his golden hair was impeccably combed, and his azure eyes were as calm and placid as two flawless gems.
He just stood there silently, his posture as straight as a spear. In front of his boss, he had ceased all fluctuations of a living aura; even the pretense of breathing and a heartbeat had stopped.
In Allen’s perception, this was a perfect mechanical creation, composed of countless precision parts.
"Boss." Rhine bowed slightly.
Allen looked him up and down, his gaze lingering for a moment on his skin, which was indistinguishable from a real person’s, and on the energy patterns faintly flowing beneath it.
A year of high-intensity planar development work had caused this body to accumulate a massive amount of data, but it had also left behind numerous hidden injuries and signs of wear.
’It’s time... to retrieve the data and perform a complete overhaul.’
"Come in," Allen said calmly, stepping aside.