The Industrial Route
These words, bordering on the delusional, came from Bishop Whitman's mouth.
"Very well, such devout faith, no wonder your parish has had the worst performance all these years." Spencer chuckled and continued, "The night before last, an Extraterritorial Heavenly Demon appeared out of thin air, out of thin air! in front of me and told me their background. They called themselves— Survivors."
"Space..." Whitman was shocked for a moment, then her expression returned to calm, and she remained silent.
According to the current theories of this world, changes in space and time are gifts bestowed upon humanity by the Holy Light forbids humanity from interfering in them, although no one has the ability to do so anyway.
At most, the calamity might possess some related abilities, but that's a separate matter, and even the Church can't explain it.
"How is it?" Governor Spencer observed Whitman's reaction.
"There's no definitive statement. Any descriptions or doctrines involving the Holy Light are merely our clumsy conjectures about Holy Light, indicating that the past [Church] was wrong, not that the Holy Light was wrong."
Spencer smiled helplessly and began sharing the information he could with Whitman.
"Survivors, All Heavens and Ten Thousand Worlds, Large Dungeons, Survival System, NPCs..."
The description was so clear, even including some common-sense explanations of the world, that Bishop Whitman frowned.
With such a large number of Survivors, it would be difficult for the local high command of the Dungeon not to know their origins, and the Survival System does not impose any restrictions on their existence.
Their organization, their technology, their competition and cooperation—everything tells the natives of this world: you are not unique; there are worlds beyond worlds. You may even be nothing more than a Copy, rebooted phantom.
"You want to run away?" After Governor Spencer finished speaking, Bishop Whitman sensed a hint of emotion in his words, and his voice turned cold.
"Because of the Holy Light and the Church, this world is full of stubborn old men, harder than rocks in a latrine. The fact that they were able to target someone as easily swayed as me so precisely proves their methods," Spencer said, shrugging.
He plans to cooperate with the Survivors, and once the Dungeon ends, he will use Survivor as a springboard to travel to All Heavens and Ten Thousand Worlds in search of new opportunities.
The All Heavens and Ten Thousand Worlds are so vast; just hearing the descriptions in Text is enough to stir one's heart and fill one with excitement, prompting one to raise a flag on the spot.
"I feel you might have been influenced or bewitched. The information about the Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons is most likely incomplete, so your dream of Ten Thousand Worlds won't come true," Whitman replied rationally.
"Perhaps, but at least we're on the same side now. You need to investigate, and the Survivors I'm working with have asked me to hinder the Survivor forces in this area."
If he wins the bet, he can leave this world and travel to All Heavens and Ten Thousand Worlds; if he loses...
Then just die.
Spencer, who had already placed his bet, didn't pay much attention. The conversation between the two came to an end, and Spencer drank his wine by himself, while Whitman got up, walked to the side, and began to chant the doctrine of the Holy Light. The scattered syllables were broken into pieces by the howling wind in the sky.
In the midst of this calm, a deafening explosion pierced the air!
The two looked in the direction of the sound and saw a large, silvery-white rat with its rear end on fire, soaring into the sky at an incredible speed!
The object had a strange shape, unlike any aircraft they had ever seen before. Its outer shell was metallic silver-white, resembling a bullet fired into the gray sky. A trail of orange-red flame trailed behind it, leaving a long contrail in the sky.
"What is that?" Governor Spencer exclaimed in surprise.
"It's not a living thing, but a large object made of metal and mechanical structures. It's most likely the work of the Survivors here." Whitman squinted, tracking the object intently until it disappeared into the clouds.
"Let's go check the area around where that object was launched."
The massive Steam airship slowly changed direction.
Su Luo clapped her hands, watched the substandard satellite gradually take off, tidied up the launch pad, and left.
The launch pad was a simple device built with a steel frame, which still bore the marks of being burned by high temperatures. The smell of rust and kerosene mingled together in the air.
We launched a satellite to test the waters, and just two days after setting up the basic small-scale power system, we quickly smelted a batch of alloy and built a satellite with suitable strength but no function... This is already the limit of efficiency; the transformation of matter requires natural time.
Copper smelting, steel casting, metallurgy... these material processing tasks require the most time for Su Luo.
It's the sixth day since the Dungeon opened. Everything is developing in a stable direction, and the various Survivor factions are thriving. Some are farming, some are advancing in technology, some are pursuing military routes, and some are pursuing political routes. Everyone has their own plans, but they have all subtly reached a limit. The initial exploration is over, and the development from here on out won't be as explosive.
This is because everyone's strength after retraining is generally stuck at an in-between level. Moreover, this world appears to be a feudal Steam society, but in Essence, it is a distorted society dominated by Awakened, where strength and influence are closely related.
Su Luo's strength progressed slowly. Without Transcendent Seed, he relied on the direct transplantation of the [Judgment Knight]'s body tissue to reach 18 in both Constitution strength and mental attributes, while his mental Attribute reached 20.
Kundina's application of Divine Power is inferior to Su Luo's when she only has pure stats, and her recovery is also slower. Her final stats are currently suppressed, but she still has a whole bunch of terrifying passive effects.
With two relatively powerful combat units in this era, the Survivor were originally in these fourteen counties were either killed or fled, leaving only Ansen, who was being restrained and pulled by Mu Hongyuan.
Elbow yours, elbow yours, elbow yours, elbow lovers protect everyone's natural right to be elbowed.
Even the thirty-odd [Judgment Knight] level Awakened residing in these fourteen counties have been brought under their control. The current threat is limited to the potential pressure from the Empire's high command and the expansion threat from other Survivor forces.
There are six major Survivor factions in the Elfa Province, and the dark faction led by Su Luo is one of them.
Having seized control of the industrial heartland of the Elfa Province and its surrounding raw material and processing bases, Su Luo began to advance cutting-edge technology, including the creation of strange satellites, and started exporting low-end products.
What product?
The telegraph machine appeared first, and around the third day, people began setting it up for their own use in the surrounding area. On the fourth day, they began producing generators that could be driven by Steam, as well as incandescent light bulbs with extremely short lifespans, simple batteries, telephones, and electrolytic hydrogen balloons based on Steam airships...
Being able to command a large group of Awakened to create these things while simultaneously working, retaking courses, engaging in academic debates, and advancing in cutting-edge technology, Su Luo already considered herself a superhuman.
Of course, product production and transportation management, as well as organizational operation management, were actually handled by Ye Zizhen and her team; Su Luo did not have the ability to accelerate real-world time.
But shortly after the products were delivered to other counties for free, other Survivors started using various tricks.