Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Although believers liked to sing praises to the gods and considered them omnipotent, in fact, gods were not omnipotent at all. For example, almost every god in the world could trace the past, but only a few gods could see the future.

  The future was confusing as if it were covered with thick fog, so it was difficult to see. It was easier when the gods were out of the way. When they were in the way, they couldn’t see the future no matter how powerful they were.

  The Queen of Water Elements was almost the most powerful existence among the great Divine Powers. She was also the oldest god in the world today. She might even be the oldest existence in this world. However, even she couldn’t see what her future would be like.

  If she had the so-called “eyes that could see into the future,” she wouldn’t have needed to design a big swirl that could shield the greater Divine Powers. She only dared to talk about those secrets with Sui Xiong.

  Moreover, if she could see into the future, she wouldn’t have to try so hard to find a way to break through the limits of a great Divine Power. From this point of view, perhaps even the legendary God of Fate, who could see the future, was not that miraculous.

  The Rune God was relatively powerful among the dwarf gods. He was currently at the peak of mid-level Divine Power. If he tried harder, he could become a great Divine Power.

  Once he became a great Divine Power, there would be two great Divine Powers among the dwarf gods. At that time, the human gods would carefully consider whether it was necessary to continue to ask the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs to attack the Kingdom of Dwarfs. It was true that at the mortal level, dwarfs were completely unable to compete with the people of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. However, at the god level, the Dwarf God System had two great Divine Powers. They were not opponents that humans could easily defeat.

  After all, the arch-enemies of the human gods were always the Orc gods. If there were only one great Divine Power of the dwarf gods, the human gods could deal with that. However, there were two great Divine Powers. Along with the Orc gods, the human gods would have a fierce battle. Even if the human gods won, they would pay a huge price.

  Therefore, for the current dwarfs, they only had two ways: one, they would have to find a way to fight against the humans at the mortal level, or two, they would have to help the Rune God become a great Divine Power. They didn’t have a third way to get out of trouble.

  The Rune God quickly returned to the Dwarf God System. He told everyone what he had seen and heard.

  “They replace manpower with machines. It is indeed possible to greatly reduce the pressure caused by insufficient manpower in production,” the Rune God said. The King of Hills, the god who presided over the national government of the dwarf gods, pondered for a long time; then he said, nodding, “That’s a good idea. We should learn and promote it!”

  “That’s a huge favor!” the Great Elder said, sighing. Although in theory, the Great Elder should be immortal, but he was old like an old stump; he usually didn’t move much. “We must remember the good things that our friend has done. We should find a way to repay him.”

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  The gods all nodded seriously. However, when they discussed how to repay him, they all had nothing to say.

  As for money, the richness of the Republic of Northwest was well known. In the Fighter Championship that was held every ten or twenty years, the bonus alone would attract countless people. It was said that Rio, the champion of the third Fighter Championship, had been robbed more than 20 times on his way back to the Machinery Realm from Void City. If his friend Phileo hadn’t persuaded him to ask for help from the Void Mask, he might have lost his life along with his bonus.

  Rio was a strong man who was about to enter the Legendary Realm! The amount of money he had could be imagined.

  The Republic of Northwest could offer such a bonus every ten or twenty years. Did they care about money?

  In addition to money, the dwarfs were proudest of their forging techniques. About one-third of the most famous artifacts in the world today were created by dwarfs. It would also be a good way to repay the Void Mask if they created a powerful artifact for him.

  However, to be honest, they all thought that the Void Mask was too powerful. He didn’t need any artifacts.

  This was not to say that Sui Xiong didn’t need weapons. However, his unique skill was to detonate himself twice in a row, and he could do this continuously. Even if he owned all the artifacts in this world, the artifacts would be useless. His self-detonation power was too great, so no artifact could be preserved in that kind of attack.

  For example, the famous self-detonation cars on Earth were used for bombing, so no one would use luxury cars that were worth millions. Durable and cheap trucks were good to use, so vans were not bad. It was okay to use small off-road vehicles at most.

  The second solution couldn’t work. The dwarf gods looked at each other for a while, not knowing what to do. In the face of a friend who was wealthy and powerful, they really couldn’t think of a good way to repay him.

  In fact, as everyone knew, the Republic of Northwest was now extremely short of citizens. They had to summon a lot of skeletons and use them as laborers. However, the Kingdom of Dwarfs was also short of citizens, even more so than the Republic of Northwest. The Republic of Northwest was only short on workers, but the Kingdom of Dwarfs was short on soldiers.

  If they were short on workers, then they could wait. However, if they were short of soldiers, they really couldn’t wait. In other words, the Kingdom of Dwarfs wanted to wait, but the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs didn’t agree.

  After some discussions, the Great Elder finally put forward the most reliable solution. He said, “They may lack excellent craftsmen and technicians—after we adopt their methods, we can save a group of people. So we can send those people to help them train craftsmen. That can be regarded as our appreciation. Of course, this is not enough to repay his help. However, it is better than nothing, isn’t it?”

  The dwarf gods discussed it some more and agreed on the suggestion.

  Then, the Kingdom of Dwarfs started a large-scale industrial reform.

  The first reform was about mineral processing. The dwarfs couldn’t make electromagnet concentrators because they didn’t have the special iron that Sui Xiong owned, but they could buy the machines from Sui Xiong.

  Because of the large scale of mining, the dwarf gods ordered one hundred concentrators at once.

  If mortals received such a huge order, they might need more than a year. However, both the dwarf gods and Sui Xiong were not going to use the mortal method. The dwarfs couldn’t wait that long, so Sui Xiong produced it for them personally. He only needed a few days to produce the concentrators. He even went to visit the God’s Kingdoms of the dwarf gods again and delivered the concentrators to their doors.

  A home delivery service was necessary on Earth in block trades. Moreover, when people bought things for their family members online, the shipping fee was usually free. The mobile company advertisements always started with “Beautiful living environments, with spring blossoms; use 4 Mb/s broadband, order food online and have it delivered to your door.” In short, for Sui Xiong, this wasn’t a problem.

  However, the dwarf gods were moved by his action. Sui Xiong felt pleased, but he was also surprised by the backwardness of the service industry in this world.

  After the mineral processing, they thought about furnaces.

  The iron ore of the dwarfs was very good, and they had suitable furnaces. Although it was impossible to produce special steel like that in the Republic of Northwest, they could produce ordinary steel.

  Reforming furnaces was not an overnight effort, and the dwarfs couldn’t wait.

  After the furnaces, they thought about the hydraulic presses. These were not difficult to build. There were many rivers in the Mountain of Broken Clouds, and those rivers were enough to build several hydraulic presses. Moreover, they didn’t contain much technical content, just little tricks that could be understood easily. The Rune God had only looked at it and completely understood its structure.

  Finally, it was on to manufacturing in pieces and then assembling in general.

  This was Sui Xiong’s suggestion. In his opinion, the production method currently used by the dwarfs was still too traditional. For example, according to their method, a craftsman would lead a few assistants to make a set of armor. The craftsman would build various parts of the armor in person and then assemble them with his own hands.

  There was nothing wrong with this method, but it was too slow.

  Under the suggestion of Sui Xiong, the dwarfs changed the production process. They divided the craftsmen into several groups, and each group produced a certain part of the armor and finally assembled them.

  As a result, production efficiency was greatly improved. The dwarfs were amazed.

  Originally, increasing the speed often meant lowering the quality. However, after using Sui Xiong’s method, the speed was improved, but the quality was not reduced at all. On the contrary, because the craftsmen only focused on a specific part, the quality was getting better and better.

  Sui Xiong lived with the dwarf gods for half a month. When he left, he not only gained the dwarf gods’ gratitude but also their friendship. Moreover, he gained a group of senior craftsmen and technicians from the Kingdom of Dwarfs in the mountains.