The Great Xia Empire was highly efficient now. At the very least, it was highly efficient at building a Space City.
If industrial development was set aside and all that was sought was internal stability and isolation, it became even simpler.
Large numbers of modular units were assembled and put directly into use. First, a rough two-level structure was built, and then trial operations began.
It was a breeding farm, even if it bore the name Utopia.
With Davis urgently in need of consumable materials, batches of black slaves were sent into this new Space City.
Utopia was located in a desolate planetary belt within a star system, with no abundant supporting resources nearby.
Its only neighbor was a fleet watching over it.
As a place where materials were gathered, they themselves were the resources.
But Davis was still deeply dissatisfied with the pace, because the experiments required ever greater scale. They even needed to produce a small batch of Fourth-Generation Mecha, so the demand for raw materials naturally grew without limit.
After another forced halt to the experiment, Davis finally exploded. "Materials, materials, I need materials. I don't care what methods you use—steal, rob, kidnap, anything. Aren't there still some black slaves with suitable faith? Or..."
"Institute Director Davis!!!"
The official responsible for monitoring the laboratory loudly stopped Davis. Though his duty was only to oversee the progress of the institute's experiments and not interfere with the specific experiments, including funding and personnel arrangements.
But... some things could not be said, much less done.
The royal family could treat all ordinary people as materials, but unless absolutely necessary, they could never cross the bottom line.
Once that line was crossed, the disastrous consequences would be terrifying.
But someone like Davis truly had no bottom line when he went mad.