Ch.352The Road to Truth City (2)

Just as the Four Great Gods had made their birthplaces and ascension sites into famous landmarks, Victor’s hometown of Parcival and his ascension site, the Belka Archipelago, began to bustle with tourists and pilgrims.

Among them, the Belka Archipelago was clearly smiling more broadly, as it had always been rich in tourist attractions like the World Tree. It began accelerating its development by extracting enormous amounts of money from the influx of visitors.

The citizens, knowing that the Sun had saved them, fervently believed in the Solar Faith, and consequently, no particular problems arose. After all, what more could they ask for when the deity who had saved them was now even normalizing their economy?

However, Parcival, despite its impressive nickname “Pearl of the Western Sea,” was utterly failing to grasp the lifeline offered by the deity.

In truth, Parcival was already known among neighboring countries as a hotbed of crime and poverty—a place with a very poor reputation. While security issues might be unavoidable in a port city, the real problem was that citizens’ lives were too harsh overall, even taking that into account.

Simply put, there was nothing to see and no special local products. The title of “birthplace of a deity” was all it had—and even that was somewhat ambiguous since Victor had been an orphan.

Because of this, pilgrims who visited Parcival would leave saying, “Now I understand why the Sun is so strong. Growing up in a place like this, one would naturally become powerful!”

Those who expected sandy beaches with a western oceanic climate based solely on the title “Sun’s hometown” returned in tears after facing the salty, cold winds of the North Sea. Parcival failed to present any convincing solutions for how to handle these visitors.

In fact, while the average citizen’s life in Parcival had been difficult, the city’s finances were actually quite sound compared to other port cities of similar population, thanks to intercontinental trade. However, expenditures were equally high, making it impossible to allocate resources elsewhere.

Take Victor’s case—had he been sent to an orphanage or childcare facility, he might now be living as an ordinary citizen who knew nothing about being the Sun. But Parcival had to maintain a large oceanic navy to deal with monsters coming from across the sea, and substantial funds were permanently tied up in breaking the frozen sea during winter. The critical issue was the lack of available funds.

With a relatively small population, this led to excessive taxation, which in turn prevented population growth… The best they could hope for was that tomorrow would be the same as today.

Such problems were not unique to Parcival but common among cities and countries whose growth engines had been depleted.

With nothing left to exploit and only people remaining as a resource, they would eventually collapse after consuming their human capital like a resource.

But by the grace of the Sun, Parcival would receive the blessing of enthusiasm.

*

“W-what is this?!”

The mayor of Parcival, Evans Whitaker, watched with wide eyes at the scene unfolding along the coastline.

Massive mechanical devices had fallen from the sky, disgorging countless mechanical dolls that proceeded to isolate the sea and pump out all the water that had filled the harbor.

In this sudden environmental change, the navy patrol boats were left stranded on the bottom, helplessly being lifted by the giant mechanical cranes. In the distance, Parcival’s warships could be seen firing their cannons, attempting to drive away these unidentified forces that had descended from the sky.

Bang! Boom!

“Aaaahh! Run away!”

Startled by the bombardment, citizens screamed and fled from the harbor. The mayor, regaining his composure, used the hotline to issue an emergency alert throughout the city.

“Blockade the harbor! Mobilize all police forces!”

Of course, what could police officers armed with mere batons do against these countless machines that were ignoring even military bombardment while steadily evaporating seawater? Still, there was something to be said for psychological reassurance.

Soon, police officers in riot gear, equipped with large shields and batons, blockaded all entrances to the harbor. In the barnacle-covered harbor, now bearing a desolate appearance, only inhuman-shaped machines remained, evaporating seawater and transforming the harbor’s appearance.

“That’s… the architectural style of the ancient empire…”

Suddenly, the mayor muttered, recognizing the familiar style of the harbor being reconstructed.

Having enough scholarly knowledge to be elected mayor, he could recognize the empire’s architectural style.

-Phase 1. Deep-sea heat line construction initiated.-

As ancient imperial language flowed from the machines, scholars who could understand it began to whisper among themselves.

“Heat lines? They’re creating heat lines under the sea?”

“Why? To warm the ocean?”

Satellites carrying resources continued to fall from the sky, and the machines kneaded them like dough, methodically embedding heat lines at the bottom of the force field-isolated sea. The scale of the operation was truly enormous, laying heat lines from the harbor—which typically froze in winter—to a distance of thousands of kilometers.

-Phase 1 complete. Proceeding to Phase 2.-

The working speed of these machines was astonishing. The tremendous task of literally parting the sea and embedding heat lines—an enormous installation project—was completed in just four hours.

By now the sun had reached its zenith, yet no one thought to look away from this incredible spectacle.

“So this… is the technological power of the Empire…”

Overwhelming. Transcendent. No other words could describe it.

Just as humans pay little attention to ant colonies, these ancient machines simply performed their duties according to protocols programmed in the distant past.

It was as if the citizens of Parcival didn’t even register in their awareness.

In fact, these machines ignored the citizens because they weren’t registered in the Empire’s population database. Being ancient imperial machines, they naturally couldn’t recognize modern humans as “imperial citizens,” and thus had no interaction with them.

-Searching for power source… No power source nearby. Beginning local procurement.-

At that moment, the massive transport vessel that had disgorged the mechanical dolls suddenly disassembled itself. The mechanical dolls rummaged through the debris, installed a massive power source at the harbor bottom, and used the remaining debris to build a substantial facility to protect it.

Intense heat—enough to turn nearby soil into ceramic—erupted from the embedded heat lines, and after confirming their operation, the heat lines were deactivated again.

-Port facility inefficiency. Very high. Calculating improvement methods… Plan 331 adopted. Beginning execution.-

After saying this, the mechanical dolls began mercilessly demolishing the harbor. Displaying strength unbelievable for human-sized dolls, they reduced the concrete and steel harbor to ruins in an instant.

Soon, rockets carrying materials landed from orbit. Thousands of mechanical dolls kneaded these materials once more and began reconstructing the port facilities in the ancient imperial style.

Automated and mechanized cargo cranes and docking facilities. Control facilities to manage them. Grain silos, warehouses for trade goods, dry docks, and lighthouses began to densely line the coastline.

Even more surprising was the appearance of massive coastal artillery at various points, which were directly lowered from orbit and remotely connected to the power source beneath the harbor, immediately beginning coastal surveillance duties.

The construction was completed in just 12 hours. As dusk slowly began to fall, the mechanical dolls briefly activated the facilities to check their status, then spoke with apparent satisfaction:

-Comparison with existing facilities. Efficiency: 2013% increase. Improvements complete. Beginning return procedures.-

With these words, the mechanical dolls lined up in formation and returned to the rockets they had arrived in.

Before departing, they left behind one massive container with the words “A Gift for the Sun’s Hometown” written in modern language.

When the police opened the container, they found various precious resources along with technology extracted from the Layer Archive. Only then did the citizens of Parcival realize they had received help.