Chapter 827 — The Gift of the Month of Revival

The bitter cold winter had at last departed the northern lands, and the Month of Revival came to this soil, heralded by a nationwide rainfall.

Cecil was like an industrial machine that never ceased running; the cold winter had failed to halt its operation, and the comparatively warm spring acted all the more like lubricating oil, swiftly restoring vitality to this vast machine. Day by day it burst forth with surging power, rapidly returning to full capacity.

On the north bank of the Whitewater River, in Cecil's Northern Development Zone, the still-chill riverside wind swept across the somewhat damp ground. Then ripples of faint light, like layered water, welled up across the surface; the once-solid earth seemed in an instant to melt, surging and softening.

A large black-painted engineering vehicle emitted a low hum. The mechanical apparatus at its front raised two parallel long metal rails; runes flickered along those rails, which were inlaid with mana-conductive metal. A complex mechanism adjusted the rune triggers back and forth, maintaining a constant magical effect in the rails that shone continuously upon the steadily softening ground ahead of the vehicle.

A surveyor holding a specially made arcanotech terminal kept checking the readings at his side, the beam at the terminal's front sweeping across the ground then being transmuted by the spell of stone to mud—

"Conversion rate 0.8, target depth reached—drive the pile!"

The hoisting equipment clanged and roared. A reinforced concrete pillar, prepared in advance with runes covering its base, was suspended and carried to the designated position, settling steadily into the already fluidized ground. As the marking line was fully submerged, the surveyor signaled the machinist operating the crane; the machinist in charge of the black engineering vehicle casually switched on the comm unit at his side and reported at the top of his voice:

"Vehicle One, preparing polarity reversal—clear the area!" "Area secure. Vehicle One, you may reverse polarity."

The mechanical interlock clattered; the rune array completed its switch in an instant. Amid the humming drone, light flowed across the surface of the "irradiation rails," and the ground began to harden slowly...

Wind swept over the platform beside the work site. The chief architect Gordon lifted his gaze from the blueprints in his hand and watched the busy engineering machines nearby and the workers bustling among them. His tone carried a sigh of feeling: "This is the first pillar of the spring... it went down smoothly. I hope that's a good omen."

"'Omen' is a word devoid of meaning," came a voice with a metallic tremor from the silvery-white metal sphere floating beside Gordon. "Isolated events with no logical connection cannot foretell the future. I prefer precise mathematics and machines—at least they have fewer variables."

"I like precise numbers and machines too. The former makes blueprints more useful; the latter speeds construction along," Gordon said with a smile, looking at the grand artisan beside him. "Master Nikolai, I'm actually quite curious—what exactly is this facility for? That it would require a 'grand artisan' like yourself to personally calibrate the equipment... Of course, if a confidentiality agreement is involved, I won't ask."

"The name I can tell you—this is the future Imperial Computing Center. Though whether that will be its public name hasn't been decided yet," the Imperial Grand Artisan Nikolai Eggbuns bobbed slightly up and down, a voice full of pride emanating from his round body. "Inside is all high-precision, cutting-edge stuff. In theory the mechanical scholars under me could handle it, but His Majesty still had me assemble the core area myself—for safety's sake."

"Computing Center?" Gordon frowned. "For researching mathematics? What a strange name..."

"Sooner or later you'll learn what it's for, Master Gordon," Nikolai Eggbuns said, his tone rising, as he slowly lifted his body. The silvery-white metal sphere floated high in midair, the ever-cheerful smiling face slowly rotating; upon his polished metal surface were reflected the scenes near and far across the whole development zone.

Vast stretches of work sites breaking ground, swarms of rumbling machines, busy workers threading between the zones—the people of Cecil were embracing this spring of universal revival—

...

A low hum of equipment came from the room in the upper level of the hub tower, where the high-power mana-crystal antenna slowly rotated outside the window. The tip of one of its mechanical arms happened to sweep past the direction of Xuanyao City.

The crystal glass shut out the still-chilly wind; the tower's heating system ran at minimum output. The tower keeper Green, wearing a light linen shirt, stirred the steaming drink in his coffee cup as he came to the window.

A flock of birds flew past in the distance beyond the tower, leaving a string of rising and falling calls in the clear sky. They gave this powerful mana-net hub tower a wide berth, leaving no "annoying things" atop the head of this precision facility.

The tower keeper nodded in satisfaction: the new device he had applied for last year had produced gratifying results. It proved that the clever folk in the research institute and the design bureau had more tricks than an ordinary man like him—all it took was the lowest-grade "animal intimidation spell" to keep the flocks traveling north and south far from the tower. It used less energy than a shield, and there was no need to worry about the extra weight of a physical barrier.

No more cleaning up the bird droppings piled beneath the antenna's rotating shaft, and no more periodically fishing out the poor dazed birds that had crashed headlong and died within the crystal array.

Standing at the observation window, Green took a small sip of his still-too-hot coffee, then turned back to his workbench, preparing to check the hub tower's operating status as usual.

The printing device connected to the mana-net terminal had already extruded a long sheet of paper bearing the information records that required special attention—not all data was printed; only specially flagged intelligence, fault receipts from key nodes, and orders sent from the central hub to the various tower keepers were automatically printed, lest anything be missed.

Of course, as the keeper of the Luan hub, Green also enjoyed a few small "privileged perks." Here he could not only receive clear mana-net broadcast programs, but also "receive" the latest Cecil Weekly and two other newspapers for leisure—likewise through that printing device connected to the mana-net terminal.

For those who love to read, newspapers are a better pastime than broadcast programs.

None of this had existed from the beginning; it had been gradually perfected after this hub tower was established, and in the foreseeable future it would surely continue to be improved.

Green sat down by the workbench, pulled the paper-cutting hook of the printer, and took the long sheet from the machine. Then he carefully cut it apart according to content. He picked out several newspapers, folded them neatly, and set them aside—the newspapers were shared property of the tower keepers, and he did not want them soiled before his colleagues came to change shifts.

Restraining the urge to read the newspapers first, Green carefully checked the reports from each node and confirmed the equipment's real-time status before finally picking up the newspapers he had set aside and leafing through them at random.

"Winter Ends, Imperial Provinces Enter Spring Production—Cecil Will Embrace This Spring"