Chapter 369: Brother, This Is Green, It Can

Cang Lang still trusts Ji Ming more, so he isn't worried about any danger from the werewolf that followed him in.

After all, even if he truly is a bad breed, he's confident that with just a shovel he could hand‑to‑hand beat him into a wolf pup and show him who the tougher werewolf really is.

But according to the organization's rules, every word of this meeting must be submitted in written records and reports, so he still followed the procedure.

"Oh, this? This is my hired bodyguard—after all, I travel the jianghu alone, so if something goes wrong I'll have someone to look after me. Come, Ah Hui, go over and greet Brother Tao."

"Uh…"

Cloi thought that the old man who wasn't even a professional was one thing, but this thing, with blood‑soaked vigor like a butcher, you want me to grin at him?

Seeing the werewolf tuck its neck and stay silent, its knobby flesh practically straining its clothes, Cang Lang smiled.

"Hey, Wai Shu, why does your bodyguard look a bit shy?"

"He's just like that, socially awkward; otherwise I'd never have brought him here."

"Oh, so that's it… what do you think?"

"Our own, no problem."

"Hmm, as long as you know what's up, that's fine. I trust you. Sit, sit, everyone sit! I'll get you some good stuff."

Calling the two to sit, Cang Lang turned toward the side table, grabbed a handful of blackish stuff from the paper bag on the desk, and put it into the iron kettle filled with water.

"???"

Cloi was still wondering if this might be some laxative poison, when a strange fragrance drifted from the kettle being gradually heated by magic.

Ji Ming thought briefly, then opened his mouth.

"Tea? Damn! I thought Yangyue World only had coffee, beer and honey water, maybe some herbal soup when you're starving."

Cang Lang didn't even turn his head, grabbed a chopstick and stirred vigorously, replying offhand.

"Haha, Professor Qian and his team discovered it while doing ecological research on the nearby ShanShang. It's an ancient tea tree, probably over a thousand years old. Since you're here, let's enjoy it."

"???"

Ji Ming was stunned by what he heard, until Cang Lang brought back three cups of tea, his face full of surprise.

"Why are you looking at me? I'm not Nantong. Drink up quickly, it's green, not sleepy red tea!"

"Nima…"

Ji Ming took the cup, blew on it, and carefully took a sip. He was surprised to find…

Hey, no kidding, this tea really is tea!

And no matter how good it is, expecting Cang Lang to perform a three‑boil, three‑steep tea art with twenty‑one steps is impossible.

His tea‑brewing technique was so rough it was like dumping protein powder into the kettle, and we were all terribly thirsty, ready to drink right away.

There were no delicate, break‑easily beautiful tea wares; looking at the glass cup half‑filled in his hand, Ji Ming felt it was more like something for drinking beer.

So after that sip, he gently sniffed again and couldn't help sighing.

"If this were over at our side, it'd be a top‑tier luxury you might not even be able to afford, and you're wasting the good stuff!"

Cang Lang, perhaps truly thirsty, gulped the near‑boiling liquid in one go, then spat out three words.

"One mountain!"

Ji Ming furrowed his brow, as if something suddenly occurred to him, his eyes widening slightly.

"Right! You guessed correctly—we discovered a mountain covered entirely with thousand‑year‑old tea trees!"

…Although I know magical worlds have many natural wonders, does your world actually produce something this top‑notch?

But Ji Ming's brief surprise faded; after all, at home there's a tree at least ten thousand years old, its species having mutated into a one‑of‑a‑kind, almost indescribable old tree.

"Fine, you guys still enjoy it. Everyone's a tea‑soup immortal; our External Affairs Bureau is practically a line of immortals."

Basically it's just leaf‑infused water. Ji Ming took a few more sips, downed them in one go, smacked his lips, and asked.

"How's the work over at our side lately? Any progress on Brother Zhang's mech?"

"Well, how to put it… this difficulty is probably greater than we imagined."

Cang Lang scratched his head, pulled up several images in his game system, and sent them all to Ji Ming in one go.

"So even though the manpower growth rate is fast, the gap widens even faster; it may still take some time before we can officially start production."

Ji Ming opened the chat window and saw that the pictures were of the valley designated as the External Affairs Bureau's base, but compared to two weeks ago, the place had undergone earth‑shaking changes.

If the small research building responsible for magical mech research still existed, this vast construction site stretching to the horizon, with almost every spot under development, would be hard to recognize at a glance.

And looking closely at those photos, the workers weren't just players; there were many locals—humans, beast‑folk, demi‑humans, and even tamed magical beasts used as transport and construction tools.

Indeed, even though Ji Ming constantly manipulates the game system to open backdoors for worlds including Huaxia, trying to boost the odds that relevant technical talent can obtain game qualifications…

But currently only about ten thousand new players can enter the game each day; everyone wants in, some get in, some don't—does that mean ordinary people have no right to the game?

So, as a savior who should be more objective, even if he still harbors personal motives, he can't divert all the qualifications.

Moreover, maintaining such a grand development plan can't rely on players alone; it must enlist the locals' strength.

Thus the number of locals on the site far exceeds the players; the players are only a fraction of them.

Now it was Ji Ming's turn to ask back.

"Is it trustworthy?"

Cang Lang gave a wry smile.

"Trustworthy? Hell no! They're just constantly screwing things up!"

That's one reason the project's progress isn't going well.

Indeed, they can recruit locals, and as natives of a magical world, their physical condition far surpasses that of Earthlings.

However, the question is whether they're trustworthy.

Would you dare hand over all those high‑precision, top‑secret laboratory schematics to them and trust them to handle the entire construction?

Give them to a bunch who once didn't even get enough food, who freeze at the sight of a slab of meat, and occasionally pilfer a bit?

Fine, even if you're bold enough to entrust them with such a crucial task, can they actually pull it off?

If construction work were really that simple, there wouldn't be so-called skilled workers, nor would various professions and even top universities exist.

Therefore, besides local employees, the Foreign Affairs Bureau keeps trying to recruit some reasonably reliable casual players.

Even just coming over to work as a patrol officer would count as extra manpower.

In this process, there were also players who did it just for the money but, out of goodwill, raised questions, asking in the Feixin group about that superior young man whose account looked completely unremarkable.

【Do we really need to spread the construction site so wide? Why not split into several projects, Little Li? I see you all busy inside and out, I feel sorry for you.】

However, before the young man could copy and paste his prepared answer, another player who was still in school gave a response.

【Auntie, this is already the most basic plan; if we reduce it any further, we might not even be able to gather a full set of equipment.】

Yes, as players' science and technology keep improving, many things on this tech tree are no longer obtainable simply by successful advancement on a single branch.

Among them, the intersecting branches and leaves are growing more numerous, the involved technical categories are increasing, and from theory to construction to production, one must go through the whole process.

For example, how to manufacture an aircraft carrier.

In Red Alert 2, you only need to place a shipyard and a battle lab, then click the mouse lightly, and spend two thousand money to get it.

In Civilization VI, you only need the prerequisite technology called 'Joint Operations', after which you can freely build in coastal cities or ports, or simply spend money to acquire it directly.

But in reality where you can't pay to win, can't speed up, and can't almost skip levels?

The former director of the Black Sea Shipyard, Yuri Ivanovich Makarov, gave the answer.

When asked how to build the half-finished Varyag when dismantling Big Brother, his answer was that besides a complete Big Brother, one also needed the State Planning Committee, the Military-Industrial Committee, nine defense industry departments, six hundred related specialties, and eight thousand supporting factories.

— In short, a great nation is needed to complete it.

Moreover, even with magic and legendary artisans' aid, could one really rely on sheer enthusiasm to handcraft high-spec components that on Earth would require considerable high technology to produce, dating back to modern times or even WWI?

But in a world of magic, a technology weapon that neither deals heaven-defying damage nor can be widely issued is truly meaningless, even if it comes from the hands of the dwarf master Vilmo.

After all, even manufacturing an early automatic rifle based on the M1916 prototype requires such enormous manpower and cost; no matter how well-made, it can only serve as a display collectible.

「What should we do about this……」

LaoZhao worried so much over this that he was losing hair in handfuls, until a big shot in the Technical Committee slammed the table and said.

「Are we planning to fully restore our civilization in another world? 」

Only then did we suddenly realize: right, we don't need to consider Earth's current technology; we can just stick with the Yangyue World as a base and proceed step by step.

As for why the committee, despite having understood this, still marked out such a huge construction site and frantically set up procurement offices elsewhere.

— Sorry, just as the student young man said, this is already the last bottom line that merely satisfies the most basic needs.

Actually, according to the plan, there are still seventy or eighty pages of densely packed projects that haven't broken ground yet……

Therefore, Zhang Hai's magi-mecha plan also wasn't smooth; many places' technical levels temporarily fell short, so he didn't achieve the strategic goal he originally thought he could accomplish.

Having only recipes but no rice made him so anxious that he drew diagrams day after day, venting frustration; the drafts he had on hand added up to almost enough to work as a part-time mecha designer for a game company.

However, as a key promoted project of the current Affairs Bureau, the mecha research department that consumed many resources did have some technical achievements.

But this also isn't something that can be directly sent to Ji Ming as 'publicly releasable content'.

「So, come take a look at mine. 」

Cang Lang summoned a video-sharing frame and placed it before Ji Ming.

It shows a mechanical hand linked by multiple magic conduits, which is following the commands—presumably from Zhang Hai, heard from off-screen—to perform the corresponding actions.

At first it grasps a weapon, then pulls the trigger, next threads a needle and unscrews a bottle cap; the project design is purposeful and representative.

「Huh? 」

As another big iron-hard enthusiast, Ji Ming, though he hasn't closely studied magi-mecha technology, has carefully examined the first-generation magic armor and even its upgraded 2.0 version. Therefore he knows that perhaps due to technical and energy-drive limitations, or maybe because the early stage didn't need to burden himself with too many technical challenges, the first-gen mecha, while having hands, lacked a true hand structure.

Whether it's the 1.0 magic wand or the 2.0 chainsaw, they simply attach the weapon directly to the arm, and at most, for ease of use, they add a simple rotation and twisting mechanism where something looks like a hand.

Although it's a pity, this magi-mechanical hand failed the needle-threading challenge; while it succeeded in screwing the bottle cap, the bottle also showed some cracks, clearly indicating uneven force output.

But such near-human delicate manipulation is absolutely impossible for the first-gen magi-mecha; if you really tried to use it to open a medicine bottle, brute force would just crush it to pieces, so this is definitely a technological innovation in the magi-mecha field.

「Awesome! 」

As an information broker cooperating with the Foreign Affairs Bureau, Ji Ming has been busy these days with many things, but since he's not the only one working in the Production Team, he still obtained quite a bit of valuable information.

Since AdaiEr became the true Source God and agreed to disclose magi-mecha technology, the various countries' officials and some high-precision tech companies that successfully obtained research permits have begun research in their respective fields.

If Huaxia's main focus is movable hands on magi-mecha, then White Eagle's focus is structural enlargement, the Europa Alliance's focus is mechanical prosthetics, Rosia is heavy armament, and EastJapan is high-heat laser……

And these are merely the official forces of each country, whose thinking is relatively conservative; if one speaks flowerily, it's easy to get knocked down by superiors.

Like those private enterprises that possess some technical capability, they face no pressure to deliver, so they can explore, or rather, cook up schemes to dupe shareholders, and the topics for that can be many.

As long as one is bold enough, they dare to write any nonsense, from Lovecraftian claptrap to Investiture of the Gods, and finally throw in some nonsense about calves.

Those in the know say they're conducting mecha research, while those unaware think another soft sci-fi IP is about to launch.