From the scene before him, it was clear the mechanical factory had been shut down for some time.
Inside the warehouse, large numbers of humanoid machines were piled up. They wore simple dresses and skirts, while beneath them lay crude humanoid silicon-based structures.
These humanoid machines had not been properly stored or maintained. They leaned this way and that, and some had fallen to the floor, scattering parts everywhere, with no one bothering to deal with them.
Not only that, but red electronic seals were lit up at every entrance to the mechanical factory.
From the text on them, it was clear that the area had been sealed off by the Imperial Market Regulatory Department and was still under investigation.
"Machine Goddess, our Mechanicus Workshop is about to go bankrupt. Who knows how much we'll have to pay—"
Magos Prik lay sprawled on a base, gloomily drinking near-expired Fuel Drink.
All around him, many similar cans were scattered across the floor.
Given this Magos's terrible financial situation and the debts on his back, all he could afford was this doctored-up near-expired stuff, drowning his sorrows in drink.
And that was still the better case.
If all his creditors came knocking, he would not even be able to afford low-grade Fuel Drink, and his only Mechanicus Workshop would be seized to pay off his debts.
When that time came, he would only be able to work as an assistant under some other Magos, with no chance to run a Mechanicus Workshop of his own again.
To a Magos, losing one's Mechanicus Workshop was no different from ending up on the streets. His research career would collapse halfway through, leaving him at the very bottom of the Tech-priests' contempt chain.
Perhaps even his mentor back at the Forge Academy would use him