Duncan was telling the truth—after saying goodbye to Shirley, he actually ran to the store near the Cross Street Block to buy a bicycle for Nina.

By the way, I'm going to do something that I had planned for a long time but has been delayed until today due to various things: open an account for myself in a bank.

Inside the Plande City-State Bank, Duncan was waiting for the clerk at the front desk to prepare the last form for him. The waiting process was boring, so he focused his attention on observing the surrounding environment.

Perhaps because it was not a holiday, and there were not many citizens in the Lower Town who needed to handle banking business, the bank hall, which was not very large in size, seemed quite deserted. Three of the five service windows were idle. Staff in black uniforms were chatting behind the idle windows. The bright light from the electric lights shone on the glass of the counter, casting a lazy halo.

Duncan looked up and saw long cast iron pipes extending from near the counters. The pipes went straight to the ceiling like thin pillars and were neatly arranged in the air, extending to somewhere at the back of the hall. A low, rhythmic clicking sound came from the floor beneath his feet, as if some kind of mechanical device was operating underground.

The clerk who prepared the form finally confirmed the last item. She handed the form to Duncan and said in a routine manner: "Sign at the end after confirming that it is correct. There are your account and seal images on it. The handling fee for an anonymous account is 6 solas and 5 pesos."

Duncan took the form, looked at its contents curiously, and came up with many guesses about the city-state civilization and economic system of this world. However, he was not an expert in this area, so after thinking about it for a while, he focused his attention on the end of the form. After memorizing the short string of numbers on it, he signed his name and handed the form and the handling fee to the other party.

The clerk took the form, glanced at it casually, and then put it on a hole puncher. With a light clicking sound, the hole puncher punched a dazzling array of holes in the blank box on the edge of the form. The clerk then rolled up the paper, stuffed it into a metal tube, and put it into a pipe next to the counter.

There was a sound of metal colliding, followed by the closing of the pipe, the hissing of steam pressurization, and the sound of objects sliding quickly in the pipe. Duncan's ears moved upward as the sound came. He saw that one of the curved pipes connected to the ceiling vibrated slightly - the document was sent to some distant place.

"Wait a moment," the clerk behind the counter said casually, "If the pipe is not broken today and the machine opposite happens to be in good condition, you can get the receipt within half an hour - but if the fault light next to it is on, you have to come back tomorrow."

Fantastic process.

For Duncan, all of this is not very efficient, but for this world, it is already an advanced achievement that the city-state civilization has been striving to develop since the advent of the deep sea era.

He watched all this with curiosity and emotion, and at the same time heard the conversation between the clerks - the young man behind the counter next to him sighed: "I heard that the Truth Academy is in contact with the head office, saying that they want to install a new machine that can increase the processing efficiency of the head office by several times..."

"That's called a large differential engine. Moko's city-state bank has been using it for a long time. There's actually one in Plande City, too. The tax bureau and the Institute of Mathematics have a few smaller ones. There's also one in the cathedral. I heard it's used to manage archives," the clerk sitting opposite Duncan casually continued. "I think it's pretty slow for the head office to just think of this now."

"That has nothing to do with us," another clerk with nothing to do joined the chat, "That thing is expensive and bulky. Counting the steam core as the power source and the matching punching machine and analysis machine, a differential machine can fill the entire hall..."

"It is said that the Academy of Truth is also organizing people to research the next generation of difference engines? It seems that the size can be half that of the current mainframes, and the performance is almost the same, and it is powered by electricity..."

"Electricity? No steam core? What if the machine is possessed by evil spirits while it's running? That thing has to constantly calculate a large amount of data. Without the protection of holy steam, it would be too easy for evil spirits to attract into the bearings and gears, right?"

"How would I know... maybe there should be a priest standing next to the machine, and the priest would light incense and chant mass for the machine while it calculates..."

"...Then it seems that miniaturization doesn't save any trouble. Instead, it takes up an extra clergyman..."

"Hey, how much space does a priest take up? How much space does half a difference engine take up? How expensive are the houses in the city center..."

It seemed that no matter which world they were in, the idle chats people had while slacking off at work were all the same, and the topic of several bank clerks quickly shifted from the difference engine to the housing prices in the city-state. But on the other hand, the content of their chat was so strange and interesting to Duncan - he was so fascinated by it that he even forgot the boredom of waiting.

But the chat didn't last long. With a clanging sound coming from a nearby transmission pipe, the topic of "Which is more expensive, house prices or pastors" was finally interrupted.

The clerk opposite Duncan opened the copper tube next to the counter and took out the small metal tube inside - this small metal tube was obviously not the same model as the one sent away before. It looked thicker and had a complicated locking structure at the seal. The clerk used a special tool to fiddle with it for a long time before she opened the lid and took out the contents.

It was a rectangular metal plate only half the size of a palm, with letters and symbols stamped on it. There were randomly arranged holes of varying sizes on the edge. The string of numbers that Duncan had just memorized was printed on one end of the metal plate.

"This is your seal card," the clerk handed the metal plate to Duncan. "It can be used in any bank in Plande City-State, or the Bank of the Infinite Sea Chamber of Commerce in other city-states. However, deposits and withdrawals in other city-states will be delayed by three to seven days, which is the time for cross-sea telegraphs or spiritual world communications."

"Thank you." Duncan took the metal plate and looked at it with curiosity. It seemed to represent the technological level of the city-state civilization. He looked at the tiny holes, and on the bank counter, he found a machine used to read this metal plate.

These technological creations are completely different from those on Earth, but they also represent the wisdom of the world. They are the "footprints" of the city-state civilization of the deep sea era all the way to today.

"Is there anything else you need?" a voice asked from behind the counter.

"Ah... no more, thank you." Duncan came to his senses, smiled, and stood up from his chair. But before leaving, he seemed to suddenly remember something and couldn't help but stop and ask casually, "By the way... can machines really be possessed by evil spirits?"

"Of course, why is that so strange?" the clerk behind the counter answered immediately, as if this was a problem that she didn't even need to consider. "Everything in this world can be contaminated except the subspace. Isn't this common sense?"

Duncan was stunned. He had only asked casually, but the other party's answer somehow touched his thoughts and made him feel a glimmer of light somewhere in his heart.

After a moment, he nodded slightly: "...Indeed, everything in this world can be contaminated except the subspace."

He then left the bank.

According to the plan, he had a big shopping trip to do today - in addition to buying a bicycle for Nina, there were a lot of things on his shopping list that could scare Nina.

The proceeds from the sale of the dagger to old Mr. Morris, plus the reward for reporting the cultists, were enough to support a family of three to live comfortably in the downtown area for a year or two. Most of the money had not been spent, and Duncan felt it was time to put it to use.

So in the next half day, Duncan swept through the markets and shops near the cross street area...

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, in the shadow of an alley near the cross street, Duncan put the last package on the ground with a "clang" and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He looked at the pile of things in front of him with satisfaction.

Flour, vegetables, seeds, spices, fresh meats, preserved ingredients, various dried goods and mushrooms, wine - and cheese.

Edible, normal, cheese that is younger than him.

There was even a large collection of pots and pans and lots of other things "that Duncan thought might be useful."

Once these things are transported onto the ship, the living environment of the Lost Homeland will definitely undergo a drastic change.

At the very least, the kitchen can produce a steady supply of food.

Duncan nodded with satisfaction and casually greeted, "Ai Yi!"

A fluttering sound came from above a nearby building, and Ai landed steadily on his shoulder.

The next second, the pigeon took a look at the thing on the ground and immediately exclaimed: "Are you making fun of me?"

Before he finished his words, the bird tilted its body and fell to the ground - although Duncan hadn't told it to do anything, it was clear that it had cleverly realized its situation.

Duncan just chuckled and caught the pigeon in free fall in mid-air: "It's okay. If you can't bring it back in one trip, you can try bringing it back a few more times..."