Chapter 2995: Netheril's Gross Product vs. Teleportation Link Construction Costs

"So, Huo En, your meaning is that you are more inclined toward cooperation?"

"At the very least, before the other party clearly expresses hostility, I am indeed more inclined toward cooperation. Behind the other party is a powerful foreign domain; cooperation is the best choice, and one could even say it is the only choice."

However, Huo En also pointed out, "If we are to cooperate, the Seven Towers alone will likely not be enough. The construction of a cross-domain teleportation link requires a massive amount of manpower and material resources; it is not appropriate for us to bear it alone."

"Then is your meaning to do it in the name of the Seven Cities Council, or in the name of the Northland Alliance?"

"The Council, of course!"

On this question, Huo En blurted out the answer without a moment's thought, even if it meant bearing more of the cost, he would not hesitate. After all, once this matter was handed over to the Alliance, it would no longer be something the Seven Towers could control.

"I also believe it is better to keep the cooperation within Netheril."

Very quickly, the interior of the Seven Towers reached a consensus on the matter of cooperating with Pulitatisi to build a cross-domain teleportation link. In this process, Xia Duo was also asked several questions.

These were mostly about confirming the content of what Pulitatisi had said, such as the results of the lie detection, the feasibility of the relevant spell theories, and so on.

"Next, I will convene a councilor meeting. Huo En, please talk to Pulitatisi about the details of the cooperation; if anyone else is interested, you can go over and take a look as well."

The "anyone else" Badijiaer mentioned here naturally included Xia Duo. Even if Badijiaer had not said it, Xia Duo would not have missed the opportunity to communicate with Pulitatisi.

Previously, when they were in the Delake Territory, many issues had not been delved into deeply. Now that they were at the Seven Towers, he imagined the other party would be easier to talk to and would reveal more things.

Next, the eight people split into two groups to act separately. Badijiaer went to convene the councilor meeting, while the remaining people swarmed toward the Morien Tower—

Pulitatisi's tour of the Seven Towers happened to reach the Morien Tower.

Inside a reception room of the Morien Tower.

Bulundesi left after bringing Pulitatisi here. Huo En once again represented the Seven Towers in expressing a welcome to Pulitatisi, and then quickly entered the main topic:

"The Seven Towers intends to build a Mage Tower for you in Xin Saiwendun. If you do not mind, in the future, our cooperative projects will be prioritized at that Mage Tower."

Although Badijiaer was already convening the councilors for a meeting and others might not necessarily agree to cooperate with Pulitatisi, this did not affect the Seven Towers cooperating with the other party, and this naturally included Xia Duo.

"No problem. All consumption for building the Mage Tower can be counted as expenses for the cooperative project." Pulitatisi agreed to this proposal quite readily.

He was very clear that the Seven Towers could not possibly place the cooperative project in a place they could not see; building a Mage Tower for him even had the purpose of monitoring him to some extent.

However, he did not care about these things, as long as the project could proceed normally and allow him to contact his home domain as soon as possible.

"As for manpower and material resources, I wonder how much the teleportation link construction requires? I hope Mage Pulitatisi can inform us in advance, so we can prepare ahead of time."

"This question is actually not easy to answer right now."

Regarding this, Pulitatisi also had his own explanation, "On one hand, I did not engage in teleportation link research in my home domain. Although I have some understanding of it, it is still somewhat difficult to estimate the project's consumption.

"Additionally, the bulk of the cost for teleportation link construction actually lies in determining the plane nodes. Within this, there are two key steps: first, finding a large number of backup planes, and second, finding suitable node planes from these backup planes.

"These two key tasks both require consuming a massive amount of manpower and material resources.

"As for the construction of the teleportation link itself after everything is prepared, I can actually inform you all about that: the construction cost of a single node should not be higher than that of a Mage Tower—I am referring to one like the Delake Territory."

"Of course, it won't be lower than that either. I know you have a type of permanent teleportation array here; the cross-domain teleportation link node is similar to this kind of permanent teleportation array, but it is more complex.

"You can imagine its construction cost."

After Pulitatisi finished speaking, the several people from the Seven Towers all fell silent. Huo En was slightly better off; when he was at the Delake Territory previously, he knew that the teleportation link between Pulitatisi's home domain and a public domain used a total of over five thousand plane nodes.

Then, for the Main Plane to connect with the domain where Pulitatisi is located, it would likely be of the same order of magnitude.

In other words, even if all preparatory work were ready, the cost of simply building such a cross-domain teleportation link might be thousands of conventional Mage Towers.

Calculated in Gold Coins, it would be roughly 5 billion. If one further considers some preliminary preparations, such as exploring and discovering new planes or researching suitable node paths, then it would be even more.

According to a preliminary estimate, it would at least exceed 10 billion!

If calculating it this way is not intuitive enough, then comparing it to the finished Mythallar device that Kelifu auctioned at the Tower of Time, that Mythallar only sold for 20 million Gold Coins (settled in Mithril).

Yet, even this 20 million was not something every Great Arcanist could produce; they all needed to borrow or raise it from their vassals and wings. Doing it once was enough to hurt their vitality.

And right now, such a cross-domain teleportation link project was equivalent to 500 Mythallars—five hundred times 20 million!

Even Xia Duo could not help but gasp when he heard such a situation. Outsiders might not know, but was he not clear about it himself? Building a Floating City, even if all internal facilities were completed (at the current level of technology), would not exceed 50 million.

He had built two Floating Cities himself. Not to mention the later-built Yongle City, which was just a bare shell besides the Mythallar; the first one, Chang'an City, already had relatively complete internal infrastructure, lacking only some standard laboratories.

And when he built Chang'an City, all costs combined amounted to less than 30 million.

In other words, building one cross-domain teleportation link was equivalent to building several hundred fully equipped Floating Cities. This had already completely exceeded the capabilities of Netheril.

This is just like building a Mars base on Earth; theoretically, it can indeed be built, but the cost of building such a base might be 1% of the entire Earth's gross product. This ratio seems very low, but for a single country, that is far too much.

Generally speaking, any investment higher than 1% of the gross product is worth being cautious and more cautious about. And as for Netheril's gross product, Xia Duo could actually estimate it roughly.

Taking himself as an example, the total annual income of the Tower of Time plus his territory does not exceed 10 million. If expenses are deducted, the net income is even less.

Of course, the current income of the Tower of Time is not very stable for the time being. For example, not long ago, when the Third Generation Communication Artifact was first released, the first week's sales exceeded 10 million, but this cannot be sustained.

Averaging the income since Xia Duo took over the Tower of Time, it might only be a few million, but this is already among the best of the Great Arcanists.

Assuming all councilors' (factions') incomes are referenced to Xia Duo, calculating at an annual income of 10 million, the 51 councilors combined would count as 500 million. And the total income of these 51 councilors can actually be treated as Netheril's domestic gross product.

That is equivalent to only one-twentieth of the cost of the cross-domain teleportation link project!