Shrouded Seascape

"So this is what happened… I made contact with someone from the Foundation. Her name is T, and she will go back to try and persuade the Foundation into working with us," Charles said.

The sand figures in the room erupted into murmurs.

The natives of the Subterranean Sea were about to make contact with the Foundation for the first time ever. According to Charles' words, the Foundation was far stronger than any other organization throughout the Subterranean Sea, and everyone was shocked by the fact that they would soon make contact with such a powerful organization.

"If that's true, Governor Charles, then there's a high chance that the Foundation member you've stumbled upon doesn't have a high position in the Foundation.

"And you said that she's going to try and persuade the Foundation into working with us? That doesn't scream confidence at all. Bringing her here for us to question thoroughly would have been a more judicious decision."

"Yes, I know, but it was the first time a Foundation member was actually willing to communicate with us, so I thought we should compromise in respect to their goodwill.

"We're already having a difficult time handling the ongoing crisis, so it's better for us to make more friends than enemies."

The conference room was filled with murmurs once again, but their murmurs were futile because Charles had already made his decision.

When the murmurs died down, Jax glanced at Charles and said, "Governor Charles and I have discussed our next steps. We've decided to pour more resources and manpower into the engineering department so that they'd be able to build outposts and railroad tracks at the fastest speed possible.

"In other words, except for the necessary patrols, all exploration tasks will be postponed until two months later. I'll send everyone the list of additional required materials via telegram later; please be prepared to receive the documents."

The two-month respite from exploration would not only allow the exhausted explorers to get proper rest but would also ensure that the necessary amount of outposts would be completed, regardless of the Foundation's decision to their proposal.

"You want more from us, Governor Charles?!" a governor with a nose ring exclaimed. He became agitated upon hearing about the two-month break and the request for additional resources. "We can't take a two-month break! My island might not even last that long at this rate!"

Charles swept his gaze across the other governors. There were still quite a few governors, but he immediately noticed that four governors were no longer present.

They could have defected to the Fhtagn's Covenant, or their island could have become a lawless island upon collapsing beneath the pressure of the ongoing crisis. Regardless of what had happened to them, Charles was sure that they had met a horrible fate.

However, it was exactly because Charles knew of the islands' suffering that he had to handle what was necessary for their mission before the islands could no longer withstand the pressure.

His plan would become impossible once half of the governors present were no more, so Charles knew that he couldn't hesitate at all.

"If you want a ship to sail fast, then you have to pour resources into it. What we're doing here is for the sake of the surface world exploration. We just have to hold out for the next two months; the demands will no longer be that heavy by then."

"But we really can't take it anymore! If you insist on asking for more resources, then I'll withdraw from the plan to save the Subterranean Sea and stop providing my island's share of resources!!" The nose-ringed governor exclaimed, his voice trembling from the suppressed anger.

"How dare you!!" Governor Julio's voice boomed through the room. "Those daring enough to hold us back at this critical juncture… don't blame me for being ruthless against you!"

The governors instinctively looked down, avoiding Julio's hawk-like gaze.

However, the governors with smaller islands still couldn't hide their unwillingness to provide more resources than what they were already providing.

Unfortunately, they were in a dire situation that demanded as many resources as possible to the extent that they were finding it hard to withstand the pressure despite the fact that they were sharing the burden equally with the other governors.

The air above the conference became tense. Anna decided to step forward with a smile, saying, "Everyone, don't worry too much about it. Just do your best to provide what you can provide. Hope Island will fill in the gaps. I just want you to remember one thing—this is all for the Subterranean Sea."

The governors cast grateful gazes at Anna, and they felt like the mountain looming over them had vanished.

Noticing Charles' strange gaze at her, Anna leaned closer to the former and said, "Hope Island is developing extremely fast at the moment. We're even experiencing a technological explosion in various fields.

"So, don't worry. We're not going to have any issues with filling in the gaps that those governors will inevitably leave."

The issue was soon settled, and they proceeded to discuss some of the finer details of the plan. It didn't take long for everyone to agree unanimously, and the meeting was soon adjourned.

Charles stared at the mages in front of him. The mages were busy collecting the sand and erasing the magic formation on the floor. A few moments later, Charles stood up and walked past them to head outside.

The meeting was held within a base that Charles called "Outpost One." Charles looked around and realized that he could barely recognize the base.

Outpost One had expanded considerably since they first arrived here—telegraph towers, power stations, and even watchtowers in all directions were constructed in the blink of an eye.

There were recently built houses throughout the outpost. They were crude houses that looked ugly, but they were habitable.

Of course, no one was going to stay here for the rest of their lives, so as long as the houses would last two years without collapsing, the explorers didn't really mind living in them.

They also managed to save a ton of time by sacrificing quality.

Charles turned and saw a railroad track not too far away from him. An iron beast belching white smoke was pulling cars while clanking incessantly. The iron beast was none other than the train from the Colossal Hole Fortress.

The train before Charles was the lifeline of Outpost One, as it carried with it a huge chunk of the outpost's fresh water, food, and the fuel necessary for the power stations.

Charles turned once again and saw workers busy constructing a second railroad track. Outpost One was still expanding, and soon, one railroad track would no longer be enough to service the entire outpost.

However, the railroad tracks in Outpost One were just the beginning of Charles' plan. His plan was to build railroad tracks all the way to the final outpost on the surface world, which would be built right in front of that towering wall of darkness.

The train finally came to a complete stop as white steam whistled out of its smokestack. The railroad cars were soon detached from the train, and the workers drove their forklifts toward the cars to begin unloading the cargo.

A bustling scene reminiscent of an island's harbor district was recreated at the simple train station in Outpost One.

Just then, Charles noticed a green centipede-like humanoid creature standing in the distance. The creature's bald round head was pointed at the train. The green centipede-like creature was none other than Norton, who couldn't return to his original body.

Norton was no longer naked; his green figure was covered with a bedraggled canvas. His second right hand was holding a notebook and a pen, evidently to communicate with people, which made interacting with Norton feel a bit weird.

Although Charles and the surviving explorers had declared Norton a hero, the people within the outpost still looked at Norton with fear and disgust while talking about him behind his back.

It was inevitable. After all, Norton was in the body of a three-meter-tall green monster that looked like a centipede.

Charles was once inside the body of the same green centipede-like creature, so he knew that Norton's keen sense of hearing could clearly hear everyone's discussions about him, even if those people were standing far away.

"What are you doing here?" Charles asked, walking up to Norton.

"I'm perceiving the vibrations of these steam beasts. Their vibrations are like wonderful melodies," Norton replied, scribbling down his reply in the notebook that he had opened.

"Norton, are you married?" Charles asked.

"Captain, you don't have to console me. This is all for the Subterranean Sea's sake, so it's worth it. Besides, this body is more useful than my previous one."

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