Chapter 140. Factory City (1)

Modern medicine defines nightmares as a disorder.

Not all nightmares are seen as a disorder, only those that are repetitive and interfere with daily life are defined as ‘nightmare disorder’.

The reason I know this in detail is because in my previous life, when I was suffering from nightmares, the psychiatric examination that cost a whopping one million won showed a particularly high score for that disorder.

Pointing at the ninth disease name on the examination paper that listed a total of 18 sleep disorder-related diseases, the doctor told me in a clear voice.

‘Now, nightmare disorder. See here? It means it's a disease. In modern medicine, nightmares are defined as a disease. This means that you can be treated just by diligently coming to the hospital.’

I stopped going to that hospital around the time I had taken a similar examination for the fifth time and spent almost three million won.

According to the examination results, I was a seriously ill patient with dozens of sub-disorders in anxiety disorders, trauma and stress-related disorders, depressive disorders, personality disorders, and sleep-wake disorders in general.

As soon as I cut ties with the hospital that kept piling on disease names while mentioning the possibility of treatment, my anxiety greatly subsided.

After that, well, my life was confined to my room, but I think it was a good choice.

It might be my delusion, but the way the hospital director looked at me seemed as if he had caught a rich young pushover.

Rather than getting more mental illnesses by going to such a hospital, it's better for my mental health to just stay at home and play games.

A lot has happened since then.

I fell into the world of a game and gained a mind stronger than steel.

Nevertheless, the nightmares persist.

No, they've gotten worse.

The nightmare that used to show the day my dream was shattered and the day I was broken began to show the deaths of others.

Soldiers die.

My people fall.

Burken, Wolfskrig, Gunterburk, Berenburg.

In the forest south of the domain, in the distant eastern wasteland, in the dwarven hold, and at the collapsed Tubon Fortress.

On every battlefield I've passed, the bodies of my subordinates are piled up like mountains, and the flowing blood forms a river.

That nightmare has recently changed.

A fourth repertoire has been added.

The lens of the dream that only showed the past has turned its direction.

It's a dream of fighting enemies I've never seen before on a battlefield I've never seen before.

Subordinates whose faces I know, or don't know, fight a life-and-death battle with monsters clad in strange armor.

This fourth repertoire of nightmares all end with the same scene.

A shadow is cast over the vast battlefield.

Several silhouettes.

The Outer Gods of the Theocracy.

Advent.

A destructive catastrophe.

The twisting sky.

Darkness.

Eyes staring at me.

I don't know them.

But they look familiar.

Those gleaming eyes….

* * *

“……!”

I woke up with a silent scream.

A familiar room.

A bed.

I sighed and covered my face with my hands.

[[Lord’s Unyielding Mind] is deployed.]

“Hoo.”

My pounding heart calms down in an instant.

I shook my head and got out of bed.

I wiped the cold sweat with a towel on the table and touched the bed.

The blanket is all wet.

It's sweat, not urine.

The good thing about being a lord is that you don't have to do laundry.

In this era where there are no washing machines, let alone dryers, how troublesome would it be to hand-wash a blanket?

Shwaaaaa-

After a quick shower to wash off the sweat drenching my body, I came out and had breakfast.

Bread made from the new rice harvested last season, strawberry jam, sausages, eggs, and the like.

On Earth, I didn't eat breakfast, but here I try to eat it as much as possible.

Because there are so many things to use my body and mind for, it's better to get my calories for all three meals.

It's also because, like laundry, I don't have to cook myself.

“Kkumteuli.”

‘Yum yum… huh? Did you call, master?’

“Yes.”

As I munch on the food, I can feel the sugar reaching my brain.

Let's start thinking.

The new repertoire was added to my nightmares recently.

To be precise, it happened after I collected the fourth sacred relic of the church.

As the Outer Gods of the church appear at the end of the nightmare, the Outer Gods in my subspace must also know something.

Even though they may look like subspace parasites now, their main bodies are cosmic beings that have destroyed the entire world more than a thousand times.

‘A nightmare… I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can tell you.’

“Again?”

‘If we break the contract and share knowledge, the power engraved on the statue will be diminished accordingly. Do you want to be unable to transform in the future?’

“That's not it.”

But it keeps bothering me to just let it go.

I'm not one to believe in prophetic dreams, but this is a world where mystery breathes.

A place where magic and miracles are real, and superstitions also become true.

If this dream foretells the future, even if it's difficult to know the time and place, I should at least know who the enemy is.

Perhaps this dream is a clue to the boss-level faction of World Scenario 4.0 that I have never faced before.

‘For now, all the existing boss-level factions have begun their activities.’

Let's organize.

1.0's Paradise Fairies.

2.0's Ratmen.

3.0's Theocracy.

The fairies are coming down from the north, and the Ratmen are spread underground.

The Theocracy has already spread its tentacles throughout the entire continent in the form of a cell organization.

Furthermore, the Dwarf King Ungol warned that the Eastern Empire has completely fallen to the Theocracy.

This is information from none other than the Dwarf King.

The dwarves are a faction that has continued to trade periodically with the Eastern Empire across the World's Barrier.

If the Eastern Emperor's seal has been completely broken, then the ancient conqueror, the Lumer Legion, which is said to be on a winning streak in the south, would be nothing more than an appetizer-level event.

‘The boss-level faction of 4.0 would be a game-breaking faction that surpasses that.’

That's why preparation is necessary.

There is a hint.

The boss-level factions that newly appear in each scenario have a story that connects with the boss faction of the previous scenario.

For example, the fairies and the Ratmen are mortal enemies.

Their bad blood goes back fifty years.

The first match was a decision loss for the Ratmen, who failed to invade Paradise.

After that, the two, who had been quiet, began to fight in earnest after the Paradise fairies declared a Great Holy War and the continent was engulfed in the flames of war.

Usually, the Ratmen win in the end.

Because it's natural for the 2.0 boss to be stronger than the 1.0 boss.

Even after moving on to World Scenario 3.0, this rule of ‘boss linkage’ applies.

As it was revealed that the ‘gods’ the Ratmen served were the Outer Gods, the Ratmen themselves became, in a broad sense, a part of the Theocracy.

In fact, about 20 percent of the named heroes of the Theocracy are Ratmen.

‘This means that the boss faction of 4.0 is definitely linked to the Theocracy.’

I can't know for now.

But what if the dream is a hint?

The first half of the nightmare was different each time, but the last scene did not change.

The advent of the Outer Gods.

The destruction of the entire battlefield.

And an unknown gaze.

“……”

‘There's one thing I can say.’

“?”

‘Prepare. So that you can deal with whatever crisis comes your way.’

Kkumteuli, which had popped out of the subspace, said in a formal tone.

As if stroking a chin, it stroked the bottom of the regular octahedron with its tentacles.

I let out a dry laugh, but it's not wrong.

I need to grow my forces.

Forces strong enough to fight not just orcs, but also Lumer, the Paradise fairies, and the Ratmen.

Knock, knock.

“My lord? The Administrative Director is here!”

Just then, old man Brol knocked on the door.

It's time to go.

As I've emphasized many times, the strength of a faction comes from its foundation.

I need to grow the domain.

* * *

Two months have passed since the expedition returned.

Wolfskrig has once again entered a trajectory of development.

The water and sewage facilities have been extensively replaced, and the maintenance of the Mainwolf River, which runs through the city, has been completed.

Fortunately, the work style of the dwarven engineers was similar to that of old man Poodle.

A method of resting lazily when resting, but getting things done quickly once work begins.

I heard they get along well, including their love for alcohol, and maybe that's why the dwarves are staying longer than planned.

These days, they are laying the foundation for construction by teaching the construction methods for buildings over 10 stories high.

“…So this is the blueprint for the dwarven square to be built in the future, and these four pages are the permits for the new buildings. Please review them and sign. Moving on to the number of people who have moved in and out of the domain this week….”

I am moving while listening to the weekly report of Bart, who has been officially appointed as the Administrative Director as the viscounty expanded.

For reference, this is inside a carriage.

To save time, I purchased a modified carriage that allows me to handle work while on the move.

Should I call it a medieval version of the limousine with a table that corporate chairmen use?

“Due to the effect of the pioneer support benefits, the floating population of Wolfskrig is gradually increasing. This week, there were two thousand six hundred people who flowed in from the mainland, and one thousand seven hundred who moved out to the eastern pioneer lands.”

“A net inflow of nine hundred?”

“Yes, it seems they are people who came to apply as pioneers in the southeast and decided to stay. It must be the effect of the support policy, the land trade with the dwarves, the mine development, and the expansion of farmland.”

I listen to the report, ask questions, give instructions, and sign.

It's just a few words and scribbling with a pen, but it's the hardest time of the day.

Even though I have no connection with motion sickness, my head gets hot after moving like this for a few tens of minutes.

Because the trait gave me a will of steel, not a genius brain like Bart's.

“My lord, we've arrived.”

“Thanks, Olif. Bart, let's continue this later.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Fortunately, the carriage stopped.

I got out of the carriage, rubbing my hot temples.

Today's destination is the smithy district in the western part of the city.

William came out to meet me.

“My lord.”

“William, how's the engine device?”

“It's in the final stages of testing.”

After the war with the orcs ended, Ungol's son, Balkan, handed over the steam engine iron exoskeleton technology as promised.

In fact, the iron exoskeleton itself is not a particularly special technology in this world.

Even without the complex artificial muscles combined with modern engineering, it's not difficult to grant a strength enhancement option to armor with runes or magic.

Isn't this a world where even living armor roams around?

The important thing is the power source.

Unless it has a sense of self like living armor, it's standard for a mage to directly charge the mana of a magical tool.

Balkan's iron suit didn't need that.

Because it had an internal engine device and worked just by inserting a magic stone.

This is the same technology that made the ‘heart’ of the dwarven hold, and the Dwarf King Ungol, while smacking his lips as if it were a waste, handed over the blueprints and technology because a promise is a promise.

Of course, whether this can actually be reproduced is a completely different matter.

Fortunately, we have a talent of the era.

One who received gifted education directly from the dwarven Meister since childhood.

“This is the equipment that has been implemented exactly as the original. It consumes magic stones and converts them into mana.”

“That's amazing. Extracting mana from a magic stone? Like a mage?”

“Ahaha. That's not it, Sir Brol. A mage uses their mana control and the mana circuits in their body to absorb the mana of a magic stone.”

“Uh, huh?”

“It ignites the magic stone powder and uses its explosive power to rotate a turbine, and the power converter at the end of the turbine converts the power into mana and transmits it along an artificial circuit. After that, it can be converted into the necessary force through a mana converter.”

“…What in the world are you talking about?”

Honestly, I don't know either.

I'm not a mechanical engineer.

Since I was a modern earthling, I've heard of things like internal combustion engines and gas turbines, but….

Anyway, they said they made it with a structure as similar as possible to the dwarven heart, and as with any engine, the material of the combustion chamber, which has to withstand the destructive power of the explosive combustion, is important.

I heard that they managed to reproduce something similar to the hold's mithril alloy with the mithril imported from the dwarves.

“I have no idea what you're talking about. It looks impressive, though….”

“Thank you. However, the dwarven-made engine device has a fatal flaw.”

“Huh?”

“The difficulty of supplying magic stones.”

William grinned and pointed to the side.

Something the size of a small warehouse was covered in cloth.

When the cloth was removed, a mechanical device with a complex metal material, but a somehow familiar shape, was revealed.

“Inheriting the legacy of Duke Meister, I present the William-made engine device.”

A generator.