Chapter 33
Chapter 33 Underground Tunnel Inspection
After cleaning up the battlefield, Chief Technician Lance stood on the scarred battlefield, his gaze moving over the desolate scene . For a long time he was silent . Franco, Murdoch, and a group of other technicians stood behind him, saying nothing .
A few areas in the huge pit before them were still smoking, obscuring the scene . It reminded Lance of his own feelings, still muddied because he didn’t know how to confront all of this . Defeating an ultimate magic beast should be something to celebrate, but Lance only wanted to cry .
McQueen directed his subordinates to move into the cave with their tools one after another . The magic beast only reminded everyone that the passageway between the ground and the cave was a danger to be sealed up .
“I don’t think Chief Technician Lance will be in much of a mood for talking business today,” Bruce sighed, shaking his head .
“A hundred thirty houses, thirty some odd shops, and a laboratory were destroyed . Worst of all, thirteen underground pioneers were destroyed too . Three of them were damaged during the final explosion . This must be a huge blow to him . ” Will said, shaking his head too .
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“No, the worst part is that after all this we have nothing to show for . Now that’s the true tragedy . ” McQueen flipped his hair, “The Chief Technician’s a good guy . Working so hard to selflessly defeat the three-eyed lizard . Now that’s the stuff of legends . ”
“You don’t see a lot of good guys like that . It’s touching, really,” Percy had changed into a clean outfit that was leagues better than the awful way he looked earlier . While he exclaimed this he was still picking his nose .
“Mr . Castellan, I really want to cry . I can’t believe we’ve encountered such a good person . ” Pinching his nose, Bank spoke with half a sob and an expression like his own wife had died .
McQueen couldn’t help but sigh to the heavens: what the hell kind of sarcastic subordinates did he have? “Haven’t you seen a hero before? Go and do your work . Chief Technician Lance isn’t going to run away or anything . If you have time to gawk you might as well bury the deceased soldiers . They’re heroes too, you know . ”
As expected, Chief Technician Lance used the excuse of busyness to avoid bringing up the trade . After lunch, McQueen put on his respirator and went into the cave to supervise the progress of the underground tunnel .
With the gnomes’ amazing invention, the North compass, the tunnel was already several miles in . According to Bank’s estimations, they were almost halfway to Rafael Town, which was the current planned exit for the tunnel . It was close to the magic cave and had free bases for them: many empty houses . It was perfect for the exit .
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When the time came Toss City only needed to redevelop the area to upgrade it into a cargo transfer station, a link between Toss City and the Wrench tribe .
Wearing his respirator and carrying the compass, he listened to Bank’s report while investigating the report . On earth the reason why a compass pointed north and south was because of the magnetic poles of the north and south poles . But according to the gnomes’ records, this Pifa Continent was a square land mass, not round . According to that logic, it shouldn’t have a north and south pole . In that case, how did this thing work?
The north compass was basically a little metal box with a needle inside of it . No matter how hard McQueen inspected it, he didn’t find anything abnormal about it . The only conclusion he could come to was that Pifa was utterly incomparable to earth .
“We need to hurry up . The more we delay our progress here, the more everyone in Toss City will be in danger . Tell everyone to focus on their work . Whatever they want to eat or drink, I’ll arrange for it . As long as they can finish within two days, I’ll credit each of them with two times, no, three times as much food and pay . ” McQueen said proudly . There were still ten thousand three hundred or so people in the army . If they worked a little harder, they should be able to finish the tunnel in two days without problem .
The problem is how much they were using up . Each person’s daily food and breaths were clear debts . The gnomes weren’t here to help people for the fun of it . McQueen would have to pay the bill on all of these things . Thankfully he was wealthy enough to handle the expenditure . What he was missing wasn’t money, but time .
“No worries, sir . I’ll supervise everyone and ensure they finish within two days . You can go ahead and prepare the rewards for everyone,” Bank said happily . This was something worth celebrating . Three times their original pay and benefits? That would be a hundred fifty golden coins, enough for the whole family’s yearly expenditures . As for the remainder, heh heh, Bank was already starting to fantasize .
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He ran around to supervise everyone in their digging . Alone . McQueen walked around the tunnel . Soldiers saluted him when they saw him, giving him a warm feeling . Sometimes people only feel a sense of accomplishment when they’re working . McQueen was this way too . Seeing his subordinates work hard, he couldn’t help but let his mind drift to the grand plans of the future and feel motivation fill him .
“Toss City, I’ll make you so big no one will come and pick on us . Especially Tucker, scaring me half to dead back in the day…once we’re done fixing the city up, you’ll be the first on our list to defeat . ” McQueen thought to himself . He was quite the grudge holder . Tucker was the one who had embarrassed him in front of Garcia . Even though Garcia was his old servant, he didn’t know how tight-lipped the man was . If he let slip anything, his reputation would be damaged .
The more he thought about it, the more he hated Tucker!
“C-Castellan, sir…” Suddenly a female soldier with a faceful of pimples interrupted his fantasies .
“Ah . Yes, what is it?” He looked at her coolly . He was a little stressed that there were female soldiers in the army . Serving was hard enough for men, especially holding it in all day . To have a woman walking around before them might drive them crazy .
McQueen had questioned Will on this in detail, and the response he got left him speechless . Toss City was almost out of personnel, if they didn’t recruit they wouldn’t even be able to fill two bases . If anyone found out about that, it would be more than embarrassing . Furthermore, on the point of “holding it in”: there was nothing wrong with mutual pleasure as long as nothing illegal happened .
What the hell kind of rules were these? Was there any dignity to an army like that? Although he didn’t say anything, McQueen had made up his mind . He was going to reform the army . Troops were valuable for their quality, not for their number, those were words of wisdom from his ancestors . The problem of having female soldiers filling in troubled him .
“Mr . Castellan, c-can I ask for a signature?” The female soldier pulled a piece of paper from her collar, as well as a goose feather quill . Glancing into her open collar, there was something white and fluffy inside .
“Damn it, how could she have a face like that?” McQueen exclaimed to himself . Taking the pen, he signed his name–McQueen Thomas Arathi . “I’ve written my name in high level magical runes, doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, just know it’s my name . Practicing writing these characters will help you develop your magical abilities and personal motivation . ”
Eight characters so crooked they looked like a demonic language, that only McQueen could understand .
“Whoa, magical runes? Thank you so much, Castellan . I love you so much . ” Covering her hands with her face, the soldier ran off squealing .
“Hey, don’t do this cult of personality crap…” Flipping his hair, McQueen continued to inspect the tunnel .