The night was dark, but there was no starlight in the sky, only a mist hazy over the city, making the huge imperial capital seem illusory.

The weather had cooled down, and although there was still some time before the Frost Moon, the fog had already fallen on the plains in Aldernan, where it was most prone to fog, and had been foggy for five out of ten days in the past week - and judging by the weather of previous years, the number of fogs on the plains would increase in the next half month to a month.

Daniel put on a coat and left his room, and he walked through the dark corridors of the mansion to the balcony, looking out at the misty streets of Aldernan in the distance.

The bright light of the spar street lamps pierced through the fog and outlined various outlines in the night, silhouettes of buildings emerged in the darkness, and many windows were lit up, and patrol soldiers with dogs passed by the nearby streets, leaving a shadow that gradually elongated beside the street lamp.

This is the rich area, both in terms of infrastructure and law and order management in the whole city, and in the civilian areas a few blocks away, the number of security soldiers will be half smaller, and the street lights will not be as bright as here...... It was the same as a few years ago, at most there were a few more modern street lights, and some of them had been destroyed by the local gangsters.

Even so, it is evident to the average person living in the city that it is gradually becoming more prosperous, and the times are becoming more prosperous – especially among the "citizens" who have the opportunity to go to the Shadow Theater, buy imported food and shoes, and subscribe to fashionable magazines.

Daniel watched these build up little by little.

The old mage rubbed his fingers slightly, and a nearly transparent shield shrouded him, creating a warm and comfortable little space in this cold autumn season, and he looked up to the southwest, and saw bright lights in the depths of the night and fog, and a faint bustle of bustle came from that direction.

It was the neighborhood of the "Van Na Ang Sharon", the "high world" that the visionary Count of Van Na On had built at great expense, with its casinos, theaters, shops, stock exchanges, and the salon club at its core—the wealthy people of Aldernan, including the so-called "new burghers", now regarded it as their earthly kingdom in this prosperous age, and they used certain novel social events on the theme of competition for wealth and fine life as a means of showing their dignity, From the entrance to the exit of the Van Na Ang Sharon district, it is incredible that wealthy citizens and small aristocrats alike can find a place to spend their money.

Just a block away from the bustling lights was the ghetto of Aldernan, where the darkness seemed to have disappeared from the night, and the occasional silhouette of the building emerging from the darkness was eerie like a ghost.

The Van Neung Sharon may be seen as a microcosm of Aldernan's burgeoning "New Fortune Group", but Daniel is not interested in it, and has always forbidden his apprentices to go near similar places.

"It's just a poor imitation."

In the darkness of the night, the old mage muttered to himself, then took a step back and left the balcony that was being blown by the cold autumn wind over and over again.

……

On the morning of the next day, Gawain did not show up at the government office or deal with government affairs in his study as usual, but went directly to the Magic Guiding Technology Research Institute, where Daniel and Rebecca were already waiting in advance.

In a large laboratory, various devices used to control the rune system were placed on the four walls of the room, and in the center of the room there was only a wide metal platform, no complex experimental equipment, only a set of adjusted crystal projection devices, above which was floating a pale blue translucent schematic, on which the outline of the territory of the Cecil Empire was briefly marked.

"Ancestor!" After Gawain appeared, the first person to greet him was the elated Rebecca, "You can count it on!" ”

"How old are you - do things steady." Gawain helplessly looked at Zeng Zeng, who was excited at any time...... The great-granddaughter glanced at it, although she knew that preaching was useless, but she couldn't help but remind her.

Compared to when we first met five years ago, the once slightly young "Down-and-Out Viscountess" has grown up and become a girl who at least looks mature on the outside, but her personality has hardly changed, and Hetty seems worried about this, but Gawain thinks that this is not a good thing—he is likely to posthumously crown the foolish roe deer king......

Rebecca craned her neck to respond, not knowing how much to listen to Gawain's words, the latter didn't care much about it, and Carmel broke the silence on the side: "Your Majesty, we have already adjusted the demo diagram. ”

Gawain nodded, and came to the metal platform in the center of the room, his gaze swept over the floating magic projection, in his sight, he could clearly see the signs of Cecil City, Ten Forest City, Tamdulle, Solin Castle, St. Sunil, Wintercastle and other cities, and there were bright lines connecting the cities, and around the lines, you could see points of light in a dim state.

"These points of light are the nodes of the magic network that have completed the infrastructure construction, and the lines are the communication lines currently in use - except for the southern border, the other cities are basically single lines, and the triangles next to these hub cities represent the construction progress, and the ones that have been completed are blue, and those that are about to be completed are red......"

Kamel floated beside the holographic projection, explaining the annotations on the image for Gawain, while constantly adjusting the projection device to change angles and reveal a variety of details.

This made Gawain sigh at the convenience of magic, and quickly focused his attention on the last red triangle of the diagram.

"Only the node of Wintercastle is still unfinished...... he whispered.

Kamel nodded: "Yes, the climate in the north is cold, and the start time itself is a month later than other places, and there are many mountains, which is not convenient for construction, so the construction progress is the slowest one." However, under the call of the Grand Archon Victoria, many of the local transcendents have directly invested in the front-line construction, and the mountainous areas where large construction machinery cannot enter are carried out by mages who are not inferior to machines, so all nodes have caught up with the construction schedule, and the main hub of Wintercastle will be completed within a week. ”

"Very good...... Gao Wen exhaled, and finally felt a rare relief in his heart, "In this way, the magic net of the entire territory of the empire can finally be connected to the grid and become a real 'net'......"

There was a hint of emotion in Kamel's buzzing voice: "Indeed, Your Majesty. ”

Gao Wen didn't speak again for a while, but looked at the flickering light spots and lines in the holographic projection with some distraction, and his mood was difficult to calm down.

The entire territory of the empire is connected to the grid...... It was one of his most ambitious projects, and one that had taken the longest time, the most human and material resources, and the most far-reaching to date.

The points of light on the projection are large and small magical obelisks or hub towers, and projects in related fields have been started since the day the empire was founded, and even long before the empire was founded.

Some of them were built by the original Principality of Cecil sent teams to build them everywhere, some were built by the nobles of various places when the Principality's technology was exported, and today they have been standardized and upgraded, and some have been built under the leadership of the highest government office of the empire in the last year or two, and the large and small nodes are distributed in the main cities and transportation hubs of the empire, and extend to the periphery based on them, covering the "first-level urban areas" as much as possible, thus forming the prototype of a "network".

A separate "regional magic network" and a magic energy obelisk are not real magic "networks", they are only small-scale energy stations and regional communication stations, only by connecting them all, the "imperial magic network" envisioned by Gawain can be regarded as a real "network", the instructions from the Supreme Government Department and the information transmitted back from all over the country can be quickly transmitted throughout the territory through this network, the energy supply of the entire Cecil will be guaranteed, and the cities and the wilderness between cities will be protected. Information, security and productivity are all prerequisites for the country's further development.

And this ambitious plan had been launched as early as when Cecil was still a principality, and this net, Gawain laid for almost three years—these three years were still under the premise that this world had convenient magical powers, and various basic technologies already existed.

And in order for this vast network to work, one of the most critical facilities is the "main hub" installation, which is located in important cities throughout the empire.

It was an extremely large array of magic energy crystals, which were installed on a special tower (or a certain tree), and they had a wide coverage, but the vast coverage was only one aspect of it, their greater role was to coordinate and balance all the secondary hubs connected to it, and control the lower base nodes through the secondary hubs, and now the final step of Gawain's "Empire Magic Network Connection" plan is to wait for these main hubs to be all online.

- At present, the major cities of the empire rely on a series of relay towers to maintain a single line of connection, and this level of "connection" is obviously insufficient, from carrying capacity to risk resistance to actual efficiency, it is completely unable to meet Gawain's requirements.

"The first phase of this project will be considered complete only when the whole territory magic network is connected to the grid," he said slowly after a long silence, "The next step is to continue to increase the number of basic nodes and secondary hubs in various places......

"Do you want to add more?" Rebecca next to her couldn't help but say in surprise, "I feel like it's covering a wide area now......"

"Not enough, not enough," Gawain shook his head, his gaze never taking away from the points of light and lines, "not even half of it." ”

His words startled Rebecca, but he was completely serious - the scale of the magic network nodes currently established throughout the empire may seem to people in this era to be an incredible behemoth, but Gawain knew that what he had built in just three years was a "basic project", and those seemingly large-scale node coverage areas actually only included major cities and large-scale towns, and the lower villages or more remote settlements were actually unable to cover.

However, in the eyes of many people in this era, this level of magic web is actually far beyond imagination - it is enough to make every town have access to magical power anytime, anywhere, with strategic shields and instant communication, with modern lighting and entertainment and working conditions based on magic technology, as far as it is enough to cover the magic net to the lower villages, even remote mountains and forests...... They don't understand the need for it at all.

This made Gao Wen can't help but think of a joke he often heard in his previous life: Village through the Internet.

Village Network ...... That's a great thing.

Gawain exhaled and said slowly: "Continue to cover, cover every village, cover every populated place, this is our next goal, it may take more three years, but it is necessary." ”

Rebecca blinked, she was very talented in the technical field, and she was not stupid anywhere else, but she still couldn't think as hard as Gawain beyond the current era, but this did not affect her to show a bright smile and nodded vigorously: "What you said must have a point!" That's what to do."

Gawain looked at the stupid roe deer with a smile.

This kid ...... It's reluctant to be a viscount, if you inherit the throne...... Forget it, let's use it to chase the seal.

However, Kamel seemed to understand Gawain's thoughts, and his eyes full of arcane brilliance looked at the entire holographic projection map, and then nodded slightly: "Popularize as much as possible, cover as much as possible...... It means a lot to the future of this country, to everyone on this land. ”

As he spoke, the magus from a thousand years ago suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly and shook his head: "If the Gondor Empire hadn't relied too much on the Deep Blue Well back then, if we had the means to distribute and cover the entire territory at will...... You will never destroy all your business just by blowing up an energy well. Even in the face of the magic tide, the civilization that mankind has finally preserved is certainly not what it was 700 years ago. ”

Gawain nodded slightly, and then the room fell silent for a moment.

Half a minute later, he broke his silence: "After the matter here is over, you go and call Veronica and find me at the government office." ”

……

Just before noon, Carmel and Veronica arrived at Gawain's office in the government hall.

As soon as they entered, they found that Hetty and Amber were also there.

"Sit down," Gawain nodded to the two ancient rebels, gesturing for a seat near his desk, "calling you all here because I've received some news about Typhon here—now I suspect it might have something to do with the gods." ”