Chapter 2317: The Competition Begins

Just like that, time quickly arrived at the last day of April, which was also the final exhibition day of the Tower of Time Steam Locomotive Design Competition.

On this morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, both sides of the 【Daxia-Saville Passage】 were packed with people watching the excitement; naturally, this was only the case at the two ends of this great avenue, and the further toward the middle one went, the fewer people there were.

After all, this road was over 20 New Li long!

The southernmost end of the road was the Code Plaza of Daxia Territory; starting from here and extending straight to the north, the main venue for the Locomotive Design Competition was set up on the Code Plaza.

Security personnel dressed in orange-yellow uniforms wandered among the crowd, maintaining order at all times and constantly reminding those calling out the names of their sons or neighbors' sons to calm down a little.

Thanks to the long-standing order and regulations in Daxia Territory, although the residents were in high spirits, they still respected the participation order stipulated by the basic organizational methods for large-scale territory events, truly achieving a state of being boisterous but not chaotic.

Tower of Time.

Xia Duo and Niya stood before the Projection Window, quietly watching the lively scene on the Code Plaza, yet their hearts were not as calm as they appeared.

Especially Xia Duo; at this moment, he could not help but regret not discovering the steam engine earlier and arranging the competition matters in advance, or perhaps not extending the competition time a bit more.

The Steam Locomotive Design Competition was said to be open only to members of the Tower of Time, but in reality, territory residents were not necessarily unable to participate.

After all, the competition tested the contestants' mechanical design abilities more than anything, and ordinary people were not necessarily inferior to Spellcasters; many things were learned from life itself.

Especially those blacksmiths who had spent half their lives working at the forge; no matter what, they would understand mechanical design better than half-grown children.

The current competition was already set, so Xia Duo decided that starting from the next one, he would give notice at least half a year in advance and allow contestants to invite territory members to participate together.

Whether it was bringing parents and family along to experience the joy of the magical world or finding someone more professional to compete for a ranking, it would be a rare experience for members of the Tower of Time.

Of course, for Xia Duo, such a competition could also promote the continuous dissolution of the barriers between Spellcasters and non-Spellcasters in the territory.

What ordinary people feared most was not how strong Spellcasters were, but the worry that they could not participate at all; a sense of participation was very important.

And for Spellcasters, to a certain extent, they would not care how weak ordinary people were, but rather what use ordinary people had.

Before magical civilization developed to the point of universal mages, having these two groups frequently interact, understand each other, and build identification was the only way to avoid a situation of severe social stratification.

Furthermore, the popularization of Magic, allowing Spellcasters to appear more among ordinary people and allowing ordinary people to come into more contact with the magical world, was the only path for magical civilization.

While he was thinking, the real-time projection on the Projection Window changed immediately, and the crowd's enthusiastic passion rose once again. Xia Duo knew what had happened at a glance and immediately adjusted the viewing angle of the Projection Window.

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At the southeast corner of the Code Plaza, all the contestants had already put on exquisite formal attire and walked out of the Portal in a line, waving and greeting the seething crowd on both sides as they walked.

Emerging behind them were other non-competing members of the Tower of Time; some Apprentices remained in the Floating City to make up lessons, but most Official Mages appeared here.

Seeing this scene, Niya walked to Xia Duo's side and whispered, "The time is almost up, let's go over."

"Mm."

Xia Duo straightened his clothes and then extended an arm to Niya. Niya obediently took Xia Duo's arm, and then the two teleported together to Hengchun Square on the Floating City, then went directly to the Code Plaza from the Portal on Hengchun Square.

……

When Xia Duo and Niya walked out of the Portal, the surrounding noise suddenly became quiet for a moment, but then even more enthusiastic shouts erupted.

Cries like "Lord Territory Owner" and "Lady Niya" were endless, occasionally interspersed with sharp sounds made by spells from Tower of Time mages who conducted early childhood enlightenment education in the territory and Magic Affairs Officers already serving in the territory, though they mostly called him "President," even the Magic Affairs Officers were no exception.

Xia Duo and Niya followed the path cleared by the crowd, waving and greeting the crowd as they walked. When they reached the Code sculpture in the center of the plaza, Xia Duo saw Laidun, who had been waiting for a long time. He nodded at Laidun, and the other party immediately joined his group.

On the way to the north end of the plaza, Xia Duo also noticed Jibu standing in front of the crowd in plain clothes. He also nodded in greeting, but Jibu did not join his group.

After all, no matter how orderly it was, it was still a large-scale event with tens of thousands of participants, and one could never be too cautious. Jibu would remain at the scene to keep a close eye on the situation.

As for the other Chief Officials of the territory, they also had their own tasks; for instance, the Logistics Department—if someone were to faint or if any other emergency occurred among the many people gathered here, they would need to immediately mobilize Airships to take the person away to the rear for arranged medical treatment.

Daxia Territory had held large-scale events more than once or twice, and with Xia Duo's special instructions, they had gained experience even through trial and error, not to mention consciously summarizing and learning.

……

Arriving at the north end of the plaza, the enthusiastic residents had already crowded to both sides of the 【Daxia-Savile Territory Passage】; naturally, they did not infringe in the slightest upon the competition area that had been demarcated in advance.

"Citizens of Daxia Territory, students of the Tower of Time, welcome to the scene of the first Tower of Time Steam Locomotive Design Competition. I look forward to the performance of all contestants!"

Xia Duo gave a simple opening statement and then handed the scene over to the real host—Xia Duo's old friend, Dien of the Five-Member Committee of the Progress Society.

While Dien was introducing the contestants and rules to the audience, Xia Duo secretly drove the Floating City to activate the War Spell 【Wide-Area Prohibition】.

This was, of course, not aimed at anyone, but rather to "condense" the race track, which originally seemed almost endless, and while retaining its original appearance, to make some fine-tuning to the spatial structure within it.

This allowed the audience at both ends of the 【Daxia-Savile Territory Passage】, which was the race track for this competition, to clearly see the entire process, similar to a live broadcast screen on Earth.

It was just that here, what Xia Duo let the audience see was not a broadcast, but the Reality of the contestants; the space between the audience's eyes and the figures of the contestants they saw was continuous.

When Xia Duo finished all this, many people had already noticed that on the Savile Territory side at the north end of the track, the crowd, which had originally been blurry black shadows, had somehow become clear; those with better eyesight could even clearly see the expressions on the faces of the people over there.