Hyper-Dimensional Player

Chapter 371 - 10: Your Emperor Has Returned!

Divine Hall District.

When Duncan reappeared, he was already dressed in the robe of the Mechanical Divine Sect, featuring the emblem of the sect in the front, steel-cast wings on the back, and gear patterns on the sleeves, with a larger cloak often worn outside. The clothes of the Mechanical Divine Sect are very spacious, since no one knows how much modified equipment they might contain underneath.

Along the way, followers of the sect greeted Duncan proactively; he wore a gray gear emblem, indicating his status as a novice priest.

By this time, the F46 district had lifted its military control status, except for a few Defender Army within the Divine Hall District. Other living and industrial zones had replaced them with local recruited guard squads. The manpower Tassia recruited was almost ready; they had acquired mercenary licenses and would set off in no more than four or five days.

The daily operations of the Mechanical Divine Sect are not so complicated.

Despite being a theocratic state, the church remains independent of everything else. The mechanical cultivators are a decidedly privileged class; unless one plans to make a career in politics, ordinary mechanical priests only need to complete a set quota of tasks to move freely.

All mortals are the screws inside this grand machine, while the mechanical priests are the gears responsible for the machine’s operation.

Logistics Area.

Since the F46 district has just been established, the assignment quotas distributed by the church’s upper echelon are not heavy. Once Duncan entered the steel-casting workshop, he took off his cloak, revealing a mechanical interface beneath his neck—the recently implanted mechanical nerve bundle.

"Priest Duncan."

"Here is your task quota for the past week."

A nearby church steward approached, quietly standing by as Duncan linked the mechanical arm to the nerve bundle. Only after Duncan had tested and ensured the mechanical arm was agile did the steward hand over a list, saying, "There are a total of twenty-four steel-cast armors, all semi-finished products with mechanical prayers engraving completed."

"You just need to re-bless them."

With an impassive expression, Duncan glanced at the list before handing it back to the church steward, saying lightly, "I understand."

The mechanical cultivators of the Mechanical Divine Sect receive a considerable salary. However, to earn it, they must dutifully work in the factory. Generally, mechanical priests with less affluent backgrounds enter the assembly line, while those with significant wealth engage mainly in prayers and training, not needing the stipends provided by the church at all.

The tracks on the steel-casting factory began to operate, and soon a steel-cast armor with a diameter of about one meter was delivered in front of Duncan. On the opposite side, someone was already working—the middle-aged man who passed the trial a day before him. He had been on the assembly line for half a month and was now highly proficient.

With his hands on the solid steel armor, which was manufactured in the industrial zone and then sent to the Divine Hall District to be blessed with magic infusion and engraved with unique mechanical runes of the church by a mechanical priest, Duncan began his work.

Under the control of his mind, the two mechanical arms operated simultaneously—one carving a precise rune and the other assisting. Duncan engraved the mechanical runes while reciting mechanical prayers, a process of blessing by which faith strengthens the steel-cast armor, endowing it with the characteristics of curiosities.

Directly across from him, two people were working on the same task: one engraves the runes while the other applies holy oil to the steel-cast armor, chanting as they apply it.

With the assistance of Dimension Space.

Duncan’s speed in the work was incredibly fast, finishing within just one morning.

Using his mechanical arm, he immersed each steel-cast armor in holy oil, then closed his eyes to mobilize his magic power, completing the rune magic infusion by chanting mechanical prayers.

—"Creating Magic Marvels (Mechanical Constructs): A skill for creating marvels originating from the Mysterious Era. Following improvements by the mechanical church, it has become an assembly line production method that completes the magic infusion for metal through faith and magic power, differing from the curiosities creation abilities of esoteric practitioners. The church’s cultivators excel at creating mechanical constructs."

(Craftsmanship in constructs, engineering, alchemy, etc. +10.)

After completing his work for the day, Duncan went directly to the church steward to apply for leave.

The church steward handed Duncan a piece of black iron plaque, through which he could apply for some standard equipment and weapons from the armory.

Think Tank Library.

After receiving the plaque, Duncan walked through a long gallery, greeted Ian on the way, and entered through the church’s insignia imprint.

The think tank in the F46 district was small, essentially a central processor controlling power, industry, production, and resource allocation here. It’s a black iron box about three meters in diameter, its surface shimmering with a faint blue light, featuring numerous mechanical interfaces at the front from which knowledge can be downloaded via a display.

Since Duncan hadn’t implanted a brain-machine chip, he couldn’t download knowledge temporarily, so he turned directly into the right side of the hallway, untouched for a long time, with dusty bookshelves.

"Priest Duncan."

"You’ve come."

The speaker was a very old man, half of whose face was embedded with a metal faceplate, and one arm replaced with an old mechanical prosthesis. It was said that he was a retired member of the Defender Army, reassigned to think tank logistics work due to his meritorious service in an operation.

This man, named Negan, placed a thick stack of books in front of Duncan and said, "I’ve found what you need."

Generally, mechanical cultivators come here for the most advanced knowledge.