Mystery: The New Dark Emperor Arrives

Chapter 630: Building the teleportation array

During this period of time, candles have become a very scarce commodity in Backlund, and one candle has been sold for 2 soles on the black market!

However, it is still difficult to solve the lighting needs of the people.

Today is Sunday. After dark, most areas of Backlund are still dark.

The people could no longer bear the darkness and took to the streets to participate in the demonstration.

In the darkness, cases of theft and robbery occurred frequently. Gradually, someone took advantage of the chaos to pry open the door of the store, and the situation got a little out of control for a while.

At the prime minister's residence in Queens, distant sounds of chaos can occasionally be heard.

In the restaurant of the Prime Minister's Mansion, the atmosphere here was very serious at this time. It was obvious that Hobert was not satisfied with Duke Negan's implicit compromise.

If you want to end the chaos outside, Hobert's wishes are very important.

Agushid smiled and broke the silence: "No matter what, we still have to do our best to protect Backlund's lighting. After all, you are the Earl of the Kingdom of Loen."

This is a warning to Hobert that the government can completely determine that the current behavior of "Earl's Light" is an act of treason, and then the government will take over "Earl's Light".

"Please forgive me." Hobert seemed not to hear the Prime Minister's threat, he smiled: "The government's response speed on this matter is very disappointing.

“When the gas association cannot meet the lighting needs of the people, the government should purchase a batch of candles as soon as possible. Even if the sales are a little more expensive than usual, if stalls to buy candles appear on the streets, the public’s dissatisfaction will not be as strong as now. "

Everyone showed a strange expression, and Christine and Earl Hall also looked at each other.

In their impression, although Hobert sometimes did some surprising things, he was not an arrogant person.

Although what Hobert just said was in the tone of advice, he was correcting the government's behavior. It was equivalent to criticizing the Prime Minister and seemed to be instructing him on how to solve such problems.

The mayor, who attended the banquet together, visibly trembled with the hand holding the wine glass for a few times before he quickly said: "This, this is the city hall's mistake, it's our lack of consideration."

This is not only helping the Prime Minister out of trouble, but also stating the facts.

Not to mention the city government, even all the nobles and officials in Backlund did not expect that the struggle between gas lamps and electric lights would cause such a huge chaos.

The key is that Hobert's reaction exceeded everyone's expectations.

According to the normal thinking, since the Gas Association framed "Earl's Light", shouldn't we investigate the case clearly and then go to court with the Gas Association?

But what people didn't expect was that Hobert would blow up the gas storage point.

Although no one has evidence so far that it was Hobert who caused the gas storage point to explode, they all know that it must have been Hobert, or someone he sent to do it.

Then the second unexpected thing happened. In theory, the Gas Association suffered a big loss at this time. Shouldn't "Earl's Light" take the opportunity to seize the market?

But Hobert did not do this and actually suspended all sales operations.

These two unexpected events are the catalyst for the current chaos.

Otherwise, according to the dealing habits of Backlund's nobles and wealthy men, at most the "Earl's Light" and the Gas Association would start a fight in newspapers and courts, and it would not be possible to spread to the entire Backlund.

Agushid put down the glass of wine in his hand and said: "There is indeed a cause of government negligence in this incident, but we are here to solve the problem today, and we will hold people responsible after the problem is solved."

"Yes." Hobert nodded: "We really need to solve the problem first, and tomorrow, I will hold the decision-makers of 'Earl's Light' accountable.

"How could they make the decision to completely abandon Backlund? We still have to maintain the current business!

"But please give us time to make adjustments. Starting from tomorrow, the power will only be cut off for three days, and the power will be restored after three days."

The mayor thought he heard wrongly: "You, you want to have a power outage? What about the lights that have been installed?"

"We have no choice, but this city obviously doesn't welcome us, and there are many cities that are very friendly to us." Hobert smiled: "We plan to move all our business to those cities that are friendly to us, and bring Baekeland to those cities that are friendly to us." Germany's market was ceded to the Gas Lamp Association."

Hobert's toughness once again exceeded everyone's expectations.

The Prime Minister winked at the mayor, who took a deep breath and said: "Sorry, Mr. Earl, I regret to inform you that if there is a power outage, the city government will take over the 'Earl's Light' and we will maintain the current lighting. area."

"Feel free to take over." Hobert smiled and said: "But I suggest that the people who come to take over should bring a tour guide to avoid getting lost again.

"When three days have passed and we still haven't found the door to 'Earl's Light', it will be a joke."

Hobert's power, and the power of his faction, gave him enough confidence to face the threat from the city government.

Seeing that the momentum was not right, Agushide quickly reprimanded the mayor: "It is the city hall's dereliction of duty to let 'Earl's Light' be framed. How can it take over 'Earl's Light'!"

The mayor quickly said: "Yes, yes, it is the city hall's negligence."

The Prime Minister showed a smile and said to Hobert: "Tonight, we will go to investigate the previous electric shock accident overnight. Before noon tomorrow, we will definitely investigate the case clearly and complete the trial of the people involved."

Hobert also smiled and said: "The Prime Minister still understands the grievances our 'Earl's Light' has suffered. I think it will be no problem for them to work overtime in the past three days to maintain the current power supply."

Everyone also breathed a sigh of relief. Hobert finally had the intention to compromise.

The Prime Minister also immediately understood Hobert's demands. It was obvious that if he wanted Hobert to cooperate, the gas association must be held accountable immediately.

Then Agushid added: "The losses caused by the Gas Association to 'Earl's Light' must be compensated within three days.

"I suggest you negotiate the exact amount of compensation tomorrow."

"There is finally hope of solving the problem." Hobert showed an intriguing smile: "I thought that the gentlemen of Backlund were all covered by the fog of this city.

“Originally, the biggest contradiction between the electric lighting and gas lighting industries is competition. I don’t know who is so self-righteous that they want to use very despicable means to win the competition.

"And 'Earl's Light', as a victim and a party to solve the problem, has endured greater pressure than the Gas Association. This is really a ridiculous thing."

The eyes of the nobles were somewhat evasive. Of course they knew that Hobert was right, but the power of the conservatives was very strong. It did not mean that Hobert could get the compensation he deserved just because he was a victim.

It was up to Hobert to claim this compensation, and he did so.

Finally, Hobert said seriously: "The Gas Association must not only compensate for the loss of 'Earl's Light', but also compensate for all losses caused in this incident.

"Including the houses that collapsed in the explosion, including all the losses caused by marches and demonstrations!"

Duke Negan suddenly said: "Your request is unreasonable!"

"Really?" Hobert smiled and said, "Mr. Duke, was the previous electric shock accident planned by the Gas Association?"

"Maybe." Young Duke Negan said ambiguously.

"So is the electric shock accident the cause of everything?" Hobert asked again.

Duke Negan sat up straight: "But the Gas Association also suffered huge losses..."

"If they had not used those despicable methods, would they have suffered such losses?" Hobert stared into Duke Negan's eyes: "We are all adults and must always be responsible for what we do.

“Since the Gas Association plans to use despicable means, we must be mentally prepared to be liquidated!

"Mr. Duke, this is Backlund, the largest and most prosperous city in the world! It's not your fief or manor. You can do whatever you want."

Duke Negan leaned back in his chair and couldn't find the direction to reason with Hobert for a while.

Prime Minister Agushid, who was sitting on the main seat, sighed secretly in his heart, lamenting that his nephew was too immature.

Anyone with any sense would not argue with a "lawyer".

Even if you want to argue with reason, you must pay attention to strategy. You should seize Hobert's arrogance and unruliness. These are some behaviors that the nobles hate very much. You will definitely get support instead of arguing with him about responsibility.

But as the mediator in this matter, the Prime Minister is not suitable to say something biased towards Duke Negan, so he can only remain silent for the time being.

At this time, Baron Sindras, who came with Duke Negan, suddenly said: "Mr. Earl, do you admit that the losses suffered by the Gas Association were caused by you?"

"Are you deaf?" Hobert said unceremoniously: "Only Duke Negan admitted just now that the four accidents were planned by the Gas Association. What did I admit?"

Sindras thought he heard wrongly. Among the nobles of Backlund, Hobert's first question just now was a very rude insult.

"You are a count," he reminded.

Hobert asked: "Do you have any discrimination against the earl? Does the earl have to admit all your accusations?"

"I..." Sindras didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Hobert spread his hands: "If none of you have any objections, when will the gas association's compensation be paid and when will the 'Earl's Light' resume sales.

"I will pretend that nothing happened and we are still good friends."

Everyone looked at Duke Negan and Baron Sindras. Hobert had already stated his conditions and it was time to see if Duke Negan would agree.

After Duke Negan was silent for more than half a minute, as everyone expected, he agreed to Hobert's conditions.

Because the Gas Association failed miserably in this fight, the evidence of planning the electrocution incident was held by Hobert, but the Gas Association has never found evidence of Hobert's gas storage location.

This is actually due to the different concepts between the two parties. If Duke Negan asked the Beyonders to blow up gas storage points, ordinary Sequence 5 people would feel that such a job was demeaning and would leave it to their subordinates.

But Hobert doesn't think so at all. Exploding it yourself can avoid leaks and is very convenient. It can be detonated five kilometers away. What clues can Duke Negan's subordinates find around the scene?

In addition, the electric lights in Backlund City are still bright, but the gas lamps cannot be restored without Hobert's approval.

Duke Negan and the others failed to enter the "Earl's Light" or enter the power plant to get something that Hobert could take care of.

In these two battles, Duke Negan was completely defeated, so in this negotiation, Duke Negan's final compromise is doomed. At this time, at the Prime Minister's signal, the first dish of today's dinner was served.

While everyone was eating, they continued to talk about some details.

Under the mediation of the Prime Minister, sales of "Earl's Light" will resume tomorrow. The government will send people to closely monitor the negotiations. All compensation from the gas association will definitely be received before the end of next week.

In addition, the Prime Minister asked the Gas Association to purchase a large number of candles and distribute them to the people of Backlund for free so that everyone can use candles for lighting first.

The dinner ended at about eight o'clock. After drinking a cup of tea, everyone got up and left because they were still very busy tonight.

For Hobert and Duke Negan, although a reconciliation agreement was reached, the details were still very complicated and could not be discussed in a day or two.

For example, what is the standard for the loss of 'Earl's Light'? For example, for buildings affected by the explosion, how should compensation be paid?

After coming out of the Prime Minister's residence, Hobert and Christine took a carriage back to the Duke's Palace.

On the carriage, when the problem was basically solved, Christine said: "I have been thinking about your curse recently, and I finally had some ideas a few days ago."

He paused and asked, "I heard that you have a good relationship with the Church of the Night Goddess?"

"Yes," Hobert said bluntly, "I have a few friends in the church."

"Then can you get a secret space?" Christine said: "In addition, although you can't change your destiny, you can create a body to separate your bloodline from your body.

“And as far as I know, your relationship with the Church of the Mother Earth is also very good.

"The only problem now is, how to transfer the blood to another body temporarily?"

Hobert immediately understood what Christine meant: "This is a good idea."

Although bloodline is very abstract, it can be "distorted" or "tampered with", and it is only temporarily tampered with. This level of operation sequence 2 should be able to do it.

What Christine meant was to ask the Earth Mother Goddess Church to help refine a body exactly like Hobert's, and temporarily put the bloodline on that body.

At this time, Hobert hid in a secret space to be promoted. After the promotion is successful, as long as Trunsoest notices that he has been promoted to Sequence 2, he will immediately appear on the body with the blood of the Trunsoest family. .

If Trunsoest is eliminated at this time, the family curse will be lifted.

Hobert thought to himself: It is true that having an old man in a family is like having a treasure.

This method is a combination of his previous method and Klein's method. It is also the plan with the highest controllability and the highest probability of success.

After returning to the study in the Earl's Mansion from Duke Christian's residence, Hobert thought about it and soon had a relatively complete plan. As soon as Backlund's matter was over, he would start preparing.

It was after ten o'clock in the evening that he came to "Earl's Light" and convened a meeting with all senior executives to discuss tomorrow's compensation issue.

Of course, the senior management also included Audrey. This was her first time participating in such an action. Although she looked very stable on the surface, she was actually a little excited inside.

The discussion continued until late at night. Everyone took a short break in their respective conference rooms, then had breakfast together, tidied themselves up, and then welcomed the gas association negotiators.

The first day of talks lasted most of the day. Although Hobert didn't have to talk in person, he had to ask for his opinion at any time on some decisions.

Today, Hobert had to ask for leave from Mr. Fool again and was unable to attend this Tarot meeting.

Audrey originally wanted to take leave, but Hobert gave her two hours of leave, saying that he wanted her to go back and take a rest. In fact, it was to prevent Forsi from seeing that neither he nor Audrey attended this tarot meeting. , and have random thoughts.

The first day of negotiations continued until around 4 p.m., when several members of the gas association fainted on the scene.

It's not that they are exhausted physically or energetically, but that the amount of compensation is too high. After this compensation, two of Backlund's six gas companies will go bankrupt!

But no compensation is enough. The Prime Minister's secretary participated in the entire negotiation and requested from the beginning that all compensation should be paid before Sunday.

The reason why there is such a high compensation is that in addition to claiming its own losses, "Earl's Light" also requires the gas association to make a large amount of public compensation.

There are mainly three aspects. The first is the houses that were blown up in the explosion. The second is the shops and individuals that were robbed in the chaos last night. The third is to compensate each gas lamp user for a certain amount of losses.

In addition to the losses suffered by "Earl's Light" in the past few days, Hobert asked for 60 pounds. Even a gas company that was not in danger of bankruptcy would have to sell off its assets to complete the compensation.

Until the members of the Gas Association... several of them were carried away. It wasn't until they left that the conference room erupted in cheers and laughter.

This time in the competition for the lighting market, "Earl's Light" has won a great victory. The Gas Association is completely unable to compete with them. In the future, a large number of people will install electric lights.

In the evening, after dinner, everyone discussed tomorrow's negotiations in the conference room.

At this time, the summary report of "Earl's Light" on the first day of resumption of sales was sent. Today, all stores and counters were crowded, with 36,000 orders received in just one day.

It's not that there are only more than 30,000 people who want to replace light bulbs today, but that they can only receive so many orders in a day.

Each order is not just as simple as buying a light bulb, but also includes a series of installation and other services.

At this time, a large amount of receipts, installation agreements, customer information, etc. need to be written by hand, which means that "Earl's Light" can only receive so many orders at most.

The newspaper the next day, Tuesday, published a report about "Earl's Light" fighting for the interests of the majority of gas lamp users and those who had suffered losses in previous explosions.

Suddenly, everyone became more enthusiastic about replacing light bulbs.

Because the tone of the negotiation had been set, Hobert left the subsequent negotiations to Todd and Audrey.

He still has many other things to do now, such as trying to open the first teleportation array.

At present, at Tutujia Port, the first batch of stolen goods sold by pirates has entered the port.

Facing the massive amount of goods, the "Traveler's Gate" is no longer sufficient. The teleportation array must be built as soon as possible to temporarily transport these goods to the northern or southern continent.

However, the first experimental teleportation array was from Tutuga Port to Nagawei Port.

Although these two places are on the same island, the transportation between the two places is actually very inconvenient because of the mountains in the middle.

If you take the sea route, it will take more than a day for a cargo ship to get from Tutuga Port to Longwei Port. The premise is that the weather is good and the wind direction is suitable. However, there are two or three months of the year when the wind direction is not suitable. Ships that do not use steam engines, It might take four or five days to get to another port.

Although the distance is shorter by land, it is slower because of the many mountainous roads. It takes at least two and a half days to reach the opposite port.

It would be convenient if there was a teleportation array. People and goods could arrive in an instant.

On Tuesday morning, Hobert used a large number of gems and crystals to complete the placement of the teleportation array at Longwei Port and Tutuga Port.

Because it often rains, the teleportation arrays are built indoors, in huge warehouses on two port terminals.

Hobert only asked Forsi to help. After placing the gems and crystals, Forsi stayed at the teleportation array at Tutuga Port, while Hobert returned to the teleportation array at Longwei Port to arrange the sacrifices. tower.

This huge teleportation array is actually very much like a spell that can be used multiple times. Gemstones and crystals are the materials for making this "talisman".

Now we still need a high-level power to give the magic circle the ability to teleport.

As for who to pray to for strength, the first choice is of course "The Fool"!

Hobert estimated that the teleportation array he saw on another planet before should have prayed to Mr. "Gate" for power.

After so many years, as long as the positions of the gems and crystals are correct, the power given by Mr. Men will still be effective.

It's just that Mr. "Gate" is not only polluted now, but also sealed. It is very dangerous to pray to him for power.

Theoretically speaking, after becoming a demigod, "The Fool", who can mobilize more power of the Source Castle and make advanced spells, can completely give the magic circle the ability to teleport. After all, he and Mr. "Gate" are adjacent to each other.

But before praying to "The Fool" for strength, Hobert planned to pray to "The Creator" to give it a try.

Theoretically speaking, as long as this power level is high enough, the magic circle should be able to operate.

It's just that the teleportation array is rather special, and Hobert doesn't know if there are any requirements for the power it's given?

After setting up a simple altar, Hobert first prayed to himself, then entered the "Land of Disorder", found the stars about himself, and poured the surging "Power of Order" into the magic circle.

The crystal that was originally very clear immediately turned black, and there seemed to be a black thread in the gem.

Hobert spiritually realized that this magic circle did have the ability to teleport, but he didn't know where it would be teleported.

After thinking for a while, Hobert roughly understood that the "State of Disorder" did not have the relevant authority in the spiritual world and could not rely on the power of the spiritual world, so it could not locate the two ends of the teleportation array, nor could it link to the other side of the teleportation array. .

However, his experiment can prove that the "Fool" with relevant authority in the spiritual world can completely complete such an operation.

Hobert is about to leave the "Land of Disorder" and pray to the Fool.

Suddenly, he had a new inspiration. With a wave of his hand, an extraordinary characteristic of the "Mystic Mage" came flying to him.

Hobert held the Extraordinary Characteristics in one hand and injected power into the array again. This time, the spiritual world suddenly opened an entrance in front of him, and he easily located the teleportation array on the Tutuga Port side.

After establishing the corresponding connection, Hobert took back his power.

Looking at the teleportation array again, there are colorful lights flashing at this time, and the symbol representing the "door" in the middle is awakened and turns into an illusory door!

It worked!

(End of this chapter)