Once the blueprints were settled, it was time to determine the materials.
Jiang Han had originally wanted to commission Angelite to build her a mobile base, but after thinking it over—hiring Angelite would cost enough to build roughly fifty of these mobile bases—she decided to cobble one together herself instead.
"Brrr, it really is cold..." Jiang Han rubbed her hands and shrank into the station.
Although magic could ward off the cold to a certain extent, many Witches were not in the habit of keeping their magic active. Besides, walking around with magic activated in a big city was always somewhat provocative. The detectives along the way would stare at you as though you were a "suspicious person." Since this cold would not harm the body and could even stimulate magic, most Witches chose to endure it.
"Exactly. This winter is much colder than usual—I'd wager it's the Cold Chamber Effect." A Witch beside her, wearing a decorative monocle, complained as well.
The Cold Chamber Effect referred to the cold mist discharged by the magical power stations Witches used. In 1935, the civil war among European Witches had led to the construction of vast numbers of power plants, creating the legendary "Long Winter"—eleven months of winter in a year. Even Witches found that hard to bear.
Jiang Han tightened her collar and gave the Witch beside her a sweet smile.
"Yeah. I heard that, just to meet South City's electricity demands, they expanded another fifteen power stations in the suburbs at the same time."
There were actually thirty-five, but twenty were covered by a nondisclosure agreement and could not be mentioned. They were for cooperation with Angelite, producing an ultra-efficient raw material called "pure magic," a substance required for the cores of Sky Island and floating cities. This secret agreement