Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 849: Section 564: Finding Fun at Work (Part 1)

Chapter 849: Section 564: Finding Fun at Work (Part 1)

Although it was a holiday, Malin always felt as if there wasn’t one, because early in the morning, he had to crawl out of his warm bed, leave the Mage Tower with the dissatisfaction and regret of Clovis, and for the next month, his schedule was already packed. Malin’s journey today started with a visit to the workshop in the morning.

Speaking of the workshop, Malin’s workshop now seemed more like a part of this city. Looking outward from the city’s first layer of walls toward the northwest, rows of chimneys, the clamorous hydraulic forging machines, and carriages transporting various materials filled the streets. Dwarves, humans, giants, gnomes, and half-humans in work clothes were everywhere in the streets and workshops.

Malin even saw some highlanders from the North; these fellows also sent some craftsmen over. However, considering they had never been in contact with firearms before, Malin had them start from scratch as apprentices.

As for the elves – these tall and skinny individuals possessed magical array inscription and enchanting capabilities that other races couldn’t match. Therefore, they often sat in clean rooms, working alongside those dwarves who were the most skilled at dwarven rune enchanting, doing what they do best.

As Malin walked by, the craftsmen were all hard at work. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to greet Malin; the noise in the area was so overwhelming that they had to use large, headset-style noise cancellers during work. These devices significantly reduced noise, but wearing them and trying to greet someone in such an environment became an impossible task.

Therefore, Malin simply waved at the craftsmen who looked his way.

They too smiled and waved their hammers back.

These craftsmen were part of teams that made various large components, mainly responsible for the parts of cannons and battle mage heavy magical armors.

Compared to these craftsmen and apprentices, the ones Malin saw after crossing the intersection - who were using lathes to manufacture gun barrels - seemed much more genteel. They were the true blue-collar workers, and firearms had become Malin’s flagship product. Now, in the South, Farol Principality, Sydney Union, and even their northern neighbors were all massively drafting troops. They needed to train enough soldiers before the Tide of the Dead truly arrived. Soldiers in the North were striving hard to conquer the last strongholds of the Chaos Kingdom – if these Chaos forces received a large number of reinforcements before the Tide of the Dead truly struck, it would be a swift downfall.

Thus, even Farol Principality dispatched almost ten divisions to the fight, and while training their soldiers, representatives of the Farol military also used their own eyes to confirm the gap between their army and their northern friends.

Malin had seen the first report, which was filled with Farolians’ envy and praise for their northern neighbors. They even highlighted canned food, stating that their own logistics had been completely outclassed by this easily preserved item.

It does make sense. The Farolian logistics are still moving with the army; if they march for extended periods, all soldiers must eat black bread filled with sawdust and drink plain water. Malin had specifically asked the soldiers for their thoughts, and the response was that the texture of soft sawdust wasn’t too bad.

Thinking about it, soft sawdust is still part of black bread, unlike the sand and stones found in the northern black bread.

The mud-legged nobles of Farol had a lot to say in the first report, but Malin could condense their message into one word – poor.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Region, the Eastern Kingdom was frantically militarizing – with Malin’s assistance in place, the Eastern Kingdom began an aggressive expansion of their forces. Aside from farmers and essential production jobs that required manpower, all adults were being drafted into the military by the state. Malin was greatly troubled by the inflated organization sizes, similar to inflating balloons, and the ever-impossible task of reaching full armament levels.

Indeed, his wizard friends had already verified these force sizes’ authenticity and knew that the vast majority of new recruits could only use wooden sticks for basic training, pretending they were firearms. But Malin was truly helpless – the Eastern Kingdom alone was short of 800,000 rifles for just one corps group, not to mention other equipment. Who could withstand such tremendous demands?

Malin’s workshops, even at full capacity for a month, couldn’t satisfy their needs.

But he couldn’t just not help. The Eastern Kingdom’s eastern frontline was currently teetering, with new Chaos forces making their appearance daily. As members of the Observation Group, representatives from Sydney and Farol stated more than once in their letters to their superiors that without Malin’s weapons, the Eastern Kingdom would have had close to 370,000 deaths instead of the current figure of less than 70,000.

So, apart from these two regions, a heavy flurry of orders, like snowflakes, appeared before Malin’s desk from the North. These orders didn’t even have a deadline; they simply urged Malin to prepare all the required equipment as quickly as possible.

Malin’s production for a month was like a drop in the ocean compared to the demand from different countries.

Malin had even joked with Jason about this, saying that Nvidia never had such glorious days selling the 3080 back in the day.

After hearing Malin’s joke, Jason scrolled through the database and gave Malin a very interesting reply: "Do you think such a practice of limiting sales, reminiscent of early 21st-century unscrupulous merchants, is befitting?"

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