Chapter 421 - 410: Running into the Information Age
Allen returned to his loyal Aiselan Kingdom. Three years passed in the blink of an eye.
The third phase of Cybertron’s expansion had long been completed.
Cybertron had now expanded into a cybernetic city of steel thirty kilometers in diameter, filled with towering Golems and factories that rose like mountains.
With his current military might, he could plow the continent’s surface three times over in seventy-two hours.
Over these three years, the Aiselan Kingdom had faced three Beast Tides, each one slightly larger than the last.
However, to Allen, who possessed six superweapons, they were nothing more than a cluster of flashing red data points on a screen.
He couldn’t even be bothered to intervene personally, merely authorizing Jarvis to conduct remote fire saturation. In less than six hours, the Beast Tides were reduced to ash.
The only thing the Royal Army had to do was set up enough chairs in advance to watch the grand and expensive "fireworks show."
The turmoil of the outside world was far less important than the development of new technology.
Allen poured all his energy into study and research.
Puppet technology, miniaturized Magic Engines, new materials, the simulation of the Allen Network Witchcraft, preliminary research into new Golems, artificial souls... Each of these projects was measured in years.
Even with Jarvis and ten sub-processes helping, he was still completely swamped.
And the Aiselan Kingdom itself had been completely reshaped in those three years.
One thousand three hundred and twenty Spirit Communication Towers had sprung up, standing like silent sentinels across the entire kingdom.
A network of highways extended like steel arteries, connecting once-isolated cities. Tens of thousands of Alchemy Apprentices graduated from accelerated academies, becoming the cogs in the machine of a new era.
Inexpensive and durable Magic Lamps, Alchemy Farming Tools that increased grain yields by twenty percent, runic refrigerators that transformed urban life...
Alchemical goods flooded into every corner of the ancient kingdom like a tidal wave, silently changing everything.
Today was a day that would go down in the history of the Aiselan Kingdom.
The national Spirit Communication Network was scheduled to officially go online.
This meant the ancient kingdom was about to leap into the information age in a single bound.
And Allen would officially begin the practical demonstration of his insane second Core Witchcraft—the Allen Network.
...
「Golden Stone City, Royal Palace Plaza.」
The plaza was a sea of people, the noise deafening.
All the Hereditary Dukes, provincial governors, and the new masters of Alchemy Workshops and representatives of merchant guilds had gathered here.
In the center of the plaza stood a thirty-meter-tall Spirit Communication Tower, its angular body glinting with a cold metallic sheen in the sunlight. At its peak, a massive blue crystal pulsed with a soft light.
Allen materialized out of thin air atop the royal palace’s highest clock tower, overlooking the scene below.
Prince William and the old King Alexander stood upon a temporary dais in the plaza, preparing to give the final speech.
Alexander looked even older than he had three years ago, but his eyes were brighter than ever.
William, in contrast, had shed all his youthful immaturity. With his straight posture and sharp gaze, he had already become a worthy heir to the throne.
On the dais, Prince William cleared his throat. His rousing voice, amplified by Runes, carried across the entire plaza.
"...We once forged a great wall from our flesh and blood and filled the chasms with our very lives! For a thousand years of darkness, a thousand years under the shadow of the Heart Eaters, countless families lost their sons, husbands, and fathers every single year!"
"Today, we will witness history!"
William took a deep breath, pointing to the thirty-meter-tall triangular spires scattered across the city, their forms stretching toward the distant horizon.
"Look at those Spirit Communication Towers! They are the kingdom’s new great wall! Information will travel like light, instantly reaching every corner of the kingdom! News of a southern harvest will no longer take weeks to arrive, calls for aid will no longer require messengers to ride for days on end, and an enemy at the border will be known in the Royal Capital the very instant they invade!"
...
"I hereby declare the Aiselan Kingdom Spirit Communication Network officially launched!"
"Lord Guardian." Alexander’s aged voice carried an irrepressible excitement and reverence. He was communicating privately with Allen via Spirit Art while William gave his speech.
"My lord, the first batch of three hundred thousand personal Spirit Communication Terminals has been distributed, concentrated mainly in the major cities, legion garrisons, and new industrial zones. The public’s enthusiasm... is beyond imagination."
"Everything is ready. The people of the kingdom are waiting for you... to usher in a new era."
Three years ago, he had addressed Allen as "Your Excellency." Now, it was simply "My Lord."
To be able to speak in real-time with relatives thousands of miles away was a miracle that, in the past, only an Arch-Spirit Artist could have imagined. But now, Allen Wesren had made it an everyday convenience for all.
Allen’s tone was as placid as ever. "This is just the establishment of a basic communications network. We are still a long way from a new ’era’."
Allen gave a slight nod and said no more.
He raised his hand, closing it as if grasping something.
"Initiate ’root server’ protocol. Activate all nodes."
[COMMAND CONFIRMED. EXECUTING PROGRAM...]
[NODES T-0001 THROUGH T-1320, ACQUIRING SIGNAL...]
[LOADING ENCRYPTION PROTOCOL...]
[NETWORK FRAMEWORK COMMENCING SELF-ORGANIZING RECONFIGURATION...]
Deep within Cybertron, Jarvis’s "body"—the giant core from the Ancient Golem Factory—and its vast array of surrounding processing sub-nodes began to flash at an extremely high frequency.
After the processing power upgrade from the third expansion phase, its capabilities were seventeen times greater than before.
It had never undertaken such a colossal task.
But as of today, it would temporarily become the sole root server for 1,320 nodes, covering thousands of square kilometers and serving a population of thirty-five million.
It would become the informational lifeblood of an entire civilization.
[ROOT SERVER READY. AWAITING INTEGRATION COMMAND.]
"Jarvis, integrate."
VMMMM!!!
The Spirit Communication Tower in the plaza suddenly erupted with a blindingly brilliant blue light.
An ethereal blue wave of light, invisible to the naked eye, erupted from Golden Stone City at its epicenter, spreading across the entire continent like a ripple on the surface of water.
East, south, west, north...
Wherever the light wave passed, the node of one Spirit Communication Tower after another lit up. Countless fine threads of light then connected and interwove between the nodes at incredible speed, transforming from a simple radial pattern into a vast, complex network that covered the entire kingdom.
At that moment in Golden Stone City’s plaza, as Prince William pressed the activation button, the screens on the palm-sized metal squares held by those with first-access privileges lit up in unison.
They were the personal Spirit Communication Terminals.
After a brief flicker of static, a clear image appeared: the astonished and joyful faces of soldiers on the Northern Defense Line, thousands of miles away.
"It’s connected! It’s really connected!"
"Gods! I can see my son! He’s with the Third Legion!"
"A miracle! This is a miracle bestowed upon us by the Lord Guardian!"
The roar of celebration was so intense it felt as if it would burst through the holographic projection on the screen.
However, Allen, high up on the clock tower, was completely uninterested in a sight that would have driven any emperor mad with ecstasy.
With the network’s activation, his Spiritual Power flowed out like an invisible tide, spreading to every corner of the vast web, blanketing the entire Aiselan Kingdom.
[CONNECTING NODES... 1%... 17%... 46%... 89%...]
[ALL NODES CONNECTED.]
[SIGNAL COVERAGE: 97.3% OF THE KINGDOM. UNCOVERED AREAS INCLUDE DEEP SEAS AND EXTREME MOUNTAIN TERRAIN.]
[JARVIS HAS ASSUMED CONTROL OF THE GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK.]
Latency, bandwidth, interference resistance... all metrics were perfectly in line with expectations.
Before Allen’s eyes, a living, breathing map of the network slowly formed, its pathways flickering with the pulse of data.
Each Spirit Communication Tower was a breathing node. Each data link was a throbbing nerve.
He could "see" three hundred thousand communication terminals activating at once as the first wave of information surged through the network.
He could "see" a soldier in the Third Defense Sector calling his wife in their hometown far to the south, the signal crossing seven hundred kilometers with less than a second of lag.
He could "see" a foreman in a remote western mining town staring wide-eyed as he received a real-time shift schedule from headquarters for the first time.
At this moment, a civilization of thirty-five million people was connected into a single, cohesive whole by an invisible web.