Black Sail
Chapter 140: CXL. Technological Explosion

Chapter 140: CXL. Technological Explosion

"What era is this, still smoking traditional cigarettes?"

Rein found an interesting gadget in this inn, a water hookah made of glass and metal, consisting of several parts—smoking pipes, bottles, and bags. Various flavors for filtering the water were available to choose from, including all types of fruits, coffee, mint, and even cream.

He purchased one from the Sub-dragon people owner and named it the "York IV Water Maple," looking down on Mika, who smoked traditional cigarettes.

"Lightning strike at the opening."

Claude was worried. When he was in Londen City, he hadn’t understood these people deeply. Now, he thought it was a miracle that they could complete the job. Only a few key figures were reliable, which meant this robbery was likely fraught with great danger.

Fen quickly skimmed through the newspaper and handed it to Liszt, observing his reaction. He faintly felt that the external force pushing technological breakthroughs might just include Liszt and other extraterrestrial visitors.

"Let me see."

Liszt shook the newspaper twice. He recognized most of the characters and could barely understand it.

A fuel-free oil lamp prominently dominated the front page headline.

Liszt strongly suspected that the copywriter and the editor who wrote about the last train were the same person.

"Century News! How does a fuel-free oil lamp light up? This isn’t a Magic Stone. Low-priced portable gas lamps are available, suitable for camping outdoors or indoor living..."

This world had already entered the Age of Navigation.

In the major cities of Aran, the infrastructure was entirely built up with Magic Energy Industry—street lighting, everyday living, all reliant on Magic Energy Material.

After all, the consumption level in the major cities of the strongest country on the Western Continent was incomparable to the barren outlands or places like Beima Duchy.

But there were significant drawbacks.

Urbanization had its advantages, but it also had its downsides.

That was the centralization of all resources towards regional centers, leading to severe population drain from small towns. The high cost and consumption of the Magic Energy Industry prevented its expansion outward. Larger cities grew more prosperous, while smaller places lagged behind—an effect akin to the Matthew principle.

Liszt took a sharp breath—this could lead to major problems.

Mika also leaned in closer.

He had no interest in the content but was fixated on the lamp’s accompanying illustration, which featured the well-known musician Qili—his object of longing, even when visiting brothels.

The engraving by a great artist had a high artistic component, depicting a beautiful woman elegantly holding the lamp.

It was almost like a product endorsement, choosing a national goddess for the promotion.

These gas lamps also required refilling, the newspaper mentioned kitchen reforms too. In towns yet untouched by the Magic Energy Industry, volunteers would be recruited to install gas pipelines for each household for free, usable for night lighting, cooking, and hot showers.

The concept of underground pipelines existed in this world. The newspaper noted that gas pipelines, similar to drinking water pipelines, would be metered.

Each volunteer would receive a calendar featuring musician Qili as a benefit.

"Now we’ve got to use gas."

Mika, looking at Qili’s picture, just wanted to find a substitute to satisfy his craving, but alas, being in the Great Wetland, related services were sparse, and no prostitutes ventured to such forsaken places to operate.

The newspaper also had many extended articles. The political elites in Aran decided to build a model city to trial this new energy source within six months, adapting the most suitable generalization strategy for Aran situation, to spread the results nationwide within a year.

Fen wasn’t too surprised by this news. He understood the principles of gas heat release all too well. Although Fen’s understanding of this field wasn’t as advanced as electrical engineering experts who stood on the shoulders of giants on Earth, his knowledge still surpassed ninety-nine percent of the population on Earth.

He had also published papers on producing gas cylinders to improve living conditions in Pedan and proposed underground gas extraction techniques.

But hindered by the political situation in Pedan, his thesis was shelved.

This technology didn’t surprise Fen, what really amazed him was that proposing a theory and thoroughly popularizing it were two different things. It indicated that the upper echelons of Aran had mastered extremely sophisticated mining technologies and had also trained technicians capable of working on-site. Now that the results were made public, it meant that they had already reached a terrifying scale, allowing the popularization movement to fully unfold.

Had Aran held back a major move, deciding to unleash it all recently?

Liszt, however, was thinking about another issue.

The comprehensive strength of a country not only lies in its external military strength but also in its internal strength, ideological unity, and the presence of internal contradictions and other unstable elements.

This could be described as a benevolent policy of a strong nation and strong citizens; the standard of living had improved significantly.

With external threats managed and internal security assured, radiant men descended from heaven, and now the anti-imperialists within Aran found themselves without an argument, the Emperor’s prestige had risen once more, and those five bastards were likely thriving more than ever.

"Are you fucking still smoking? In a few days, the Gundams will come over, do you understand what a beam saber is?"

Liszt snatched Rein’s waterpipe out of his hands.

Seems like the waterpipe had some special tobacco leaves from the Great Wetland added, making Rein feel a bit dizzy and floaty.

"What Gundam? Brother Sha is here, one slash and it’s all over, nothing much to say."

Rein dismissed it with contempt.

"Thanks a lot."

Morison was a ruthless man, even the indescribably tasting swamp mishmash was devoured completely by him, and the black insect kebabs were crispy in his mouth.

"Fuck it, drink more, it helps with sleep, we need to get up at six tomorrow to continue our journey."

Liszt issued the Captain’s orders.

Visibility wasn’t great in this rainforest at night, and many dangerous nocturnal animals roamed, making traveling at night particularly perilous, so he ordered everyone to drink up and sleep early.

This newspaper was already a week old, although it didn’t mention the trial operation of a manned train, it must be coming soon. They had to reach their destination before the third and fourth waves ended, and also rush to the Southeast Province to extort someone named Sefer.

If it got delayed and official operations started, would the train not be full of indigents, or even if there were some wealthy businessmen, could they afford tens of thousands of Golden Dragons?

If they couldn’t cough up the money, they would return dejectedly to Heaven Port. Without Taylor’s protection, the Twin Group of the Skull Club would cause trouble, and they would end up engaged in worthless fights over protection fees—weren’t they just becoming trash pirates again?

Meanwhile, in a corner of the tavern sat a person fully cloaked in a deep brown robe; his upper face obscured by shadows with only the lower half visible, showcasing a beard-filled chin and a pronounced nose from years gone by.

He had been watching this group ever since the earlier seat-grabbing dispute.

The Southern Wetlands were teeming with bounty hunters.

Due to the complete chaos, it was a great hideout for many fugitives, naturally attracting bounty hunters.

Killing magic beasts for materials wasn’t very profitable, so it was better to kill people, not only could you legally plunder their possessions, but there was also money to be earned from the Cross Alliance for their heads.

It’s not that the bounty money came from the Cross Alliance, but rather from the contractors; for instance, if you captured someone from the Green Oasis Country Wadina, it would be this country’s government paying out the bounty.

The Cross Alliance served as the platform organization for capturing all criminals on the Western Continent.

And this hunter was a skilled professional, only hunting "big fish" worth hundreds of Golden Dragons.

"Is that the target?"

The tiny creature perched on his ear emerged from his hood, asking in a low voice. In the Western Continent, they were called fairies, barely the height of an average human’s index finger, with semi-transparent four wings similar to those of a butterfly and some even had feathers.

Some called this tiny race the Feather Clan, while others called them fairies, because they were so small, elusive, and usually hard to spot.