(ps: These special extras are all written by Wirtz, but because it is impossible to describe the details of the events in full, Wirtz will make some artistic processing.)
Today, Xing said he would take me to another place to experience that magical world.
Through the portal, Xing and I came to a city. The air here was a little dry and had a smell of rust. At the same time, there was another strange and pure energy lingering in the air.
I asked Xing curiously: "Why do these energies look a bit like flowing magic crystals?"
As everyone knows, magic crystal is an underground ore formed by the condensation of magic power. As the concentration of magic power decreases, magic crystal can only be used to develop magic technology and can no longer absorb the magic power inside.
The energy here feels very strange to me.
It looks like magic, but it cannot be absorbed, and like magic, it floats in the air.
Xing Dao: "This is blue crystal energy, which is a lower level energy than magic crystal. It can only be used on some strange creations."
As she spoke, she waved her hand and said, "It's hard for you to understand just by talking about it. Let me show you."
Xingqian and I entered the city. Xingqian told me that this was the capital of a force called the Iron Alliance, and the most advanced technology of the entire force was concentrated here.
I took a look. If the Republic of Loris I had been to before was cold, then this place was dead silent.
There are no forests of chimneys towering into the sky here. Instead, there are giant factory buildings that undulate like mountains of steel. Their surfaces are covered with thick riveted steel plates, and huge pipes are wrapped around them like tangled blood vessels, emitting white cooling steam.
I can't feel the vitality of the elements here at all. Only the flowing plastic magic in the air can give me a strange sense of familiarity.
We were walking on a wide street, the road surface was made of hard alloy plates.
Passersby...or rather, the residents of this city are the most amazing and heart-pounding scenery in this city.
It was then that I understood what Xing meant when he said that one must see the world for oneself to truly understand it.
The Iron Alliance is a strange country that combines flesh, blood, machinery, blue crystal and steel into one.
A man in overalls strode past us, his bare left arm replaced from the shoulder down by a brass-colored mechanical structure.
Complex gears, pistons and circuits flashing with faint blue light were clearly visible. Three fingers were various tools of strange shapes, and one of them was a pliers-like finger, holding a thick cigar.
Not far away, there was a lady in a skirt. Her dressing style reminded me of the Uruk Kingdom ten years ago. Her upper body was elegant and noble, while her legs in the lower body were like steel legs that reflected the sunlight.
This made me feel absurd and incomprehensible.
I can understand why this lady had to install these two steel legs after she lost her legs, but you say I am naive.
"She took the initiative to cut off her own legs and installed these two steel legs."
I immediately took a breath and at the same time, I felt a slight resistance coming from my body. Although this transformation of my body did not occur on me, I still felt uncomfortable.
I sighed and said, "It's hard to understand."
Xing shrugged and said, "The trend of the times is sweeping over us, engulfing us all. Who can really stay out of it? You think they are weird and see transformation as a desecration of their bodies. But in their eyes, we are all poor and backward country bumpkins who can't keep up with the times, and are weak and pitiful creatures of flesh and blood."
The word "terrible..." escaped my mouth again.
The concept of this world is impacting my previous worldview. Before I saw this world, I couldn't even imagine its existence.
Xing and I continued to go down the mountain. The ratio of people who underwent mechanical transformation and those who did not was about half each.
Xing told me that those who did not transform did not do so out of belief or resistance, but simply because they were short of money.
After saying that, Xing pointed to a worker who was maintaining a huge steam pipe above.
Of his entire body, only his head and part of his torso were left as flesh and blood. His entire lower body and arms were wrapped in a heavy exoskeleton that looked like a small industrial mecha. Thick hydraulic rods supported his huge body, and his back was connected to several thick, hissing steam hoses and energy pipelines.
He wielded his mechanical arm like a battering ram, tightening the huge bolts with ease.
Xing Dao: "After undergoing deep transformation, he can complete the workload that ten or even twenty ordinary workers cannot accomplish by himself."
"Of course, I'm not saying that ordinary people can't do certain jobs. In this country, not being transformed means being excluded from high-paying and respectable jobs. Employers will give priority to those who have been transformed. Even if they just install a pair of mechanical legs to move boxes, their efficiency is far better than that of a flesh and blood body."
"Discrimination." I uttered the word clearly.
In Rendria, power comes from either innate talent or hard work, but here, physical improvement is the focus of the leaping class.
Xing nodded and said, "Yes, it is discrimination. People who have undergone mechanical transformation are much more noble than those who have not."
The degree and material of the renovation directly reflect the status.
Those who possess streamlined mechanical limbs, precision mechanical organs, and blue crystal core drives walk with an invisible sense of superiority, while those who only have simple iron prosthetics or basic external machinery are a little better. However, those who have not received any transformation mostly walk with heavy steps and lowered eyes.
In order to get a deeper understanding of this world, Xing took me into a street shop called Sparks.
The store is small, filled with the smell of motor oil, plastic magic and metal cutting.
Behind the counter, a shop owner with half of his face covered by a brass mask and one eye being a mechanical prosthetic eye that glowed blue, was repairing a customer's mechanical prosthetic limb with his hands made up of fine tweezers and a micro-welding gun.
The shop owner raised his head, looked at us, and said in a hoarse voice like metal friction, "Ordinary people?"
"What can I do for you? A body modification consultation?"
Xing said: "No, we just take a look."
Xing and I watched the owner work inside for half an hour, and then we couldn't stand it anymore. It wasn't because I was afraid, but because I felt pity for him.
All his broken hands and legs were discarded and replaced with cold machines.
For the sake of efficiency, for the sake of survival, and for the sake of not being discriminated against, the people here voluntarily or forcibly sacrifice part of themselves to the cold steel and the strange blue crystal.
I don't really like these unnatural things.
So he and Xing left the shop.
I asked with a complicated expression: "Are all the people in this country like this?"
Xing smiled and said, "Of course not. After all, this is the capital city, and most people can afford the renovation costs. If it were in other cities, most people would not be able to earn enough to pay for the renovation even if they spent a penny."
"I still prefer more natural places. Here, I can no longer regard those who have undergone transformation as the same race as me. This feeling is much more uncomfortable than seeing monsters that are not of the same race as me."
Xing smiled and said, "Come on, I'll take you to other places."
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