Chapter 193: Opening of Tower of Babel is near
There were still some people inside the mechanical fortress who hadn’t dared to come out earlier, but Carlotta spotted them one by one and dealt with them accordingly.
During this process, Amelia left the area.
Having learned from Carlotta the locations of the other two mines, she flew off intending to eliminate the Mechanical Fortress personnel there as well, to prevent any escaped miners from spreading news of this place to those at the other two mines.
As for wiping out all the miners, Carlotta hadn’t even considered such a thing, she wasn’t someone who enjoyed killing without reason.
After Amelia left, Carlotta quickly gathered every visible ore deposit into the Stellar Workshop. Once the exterior ores were collected, she even ventured deeper into the mine to search further.
On the mine’s walls, she spotted Tricolor emerald metal, but even placing the Stellar Workshop right beside it, she couldn’t absorb the ore into the space.
"Could it be because it hasn’t been mined yet?"
Carlotta frowned.
If she had to mine it herself, it would undoubtedly waste too much time, time she clearly didn’t have in abundance.
After thinking for a moment, she left the mine.
Besides the three mines, the Mechanical Fortress also had outposts within the city. Miners from the three mines returning to the city would likely be noticed.
So after leaving the mine, Carlotta took flight. With the enhancement of the Speed Card, she arrived in the city ahead of time and exactly located the Mechanical Fortress outpost.
It was a spacious, stylishly constructed building. Since it was already deep into the night, many people inside were asleep.
Carlotta remained silent. Through the windows, she saw several simple alchemy workshops containing numerous alchemical materials.
’It’s already mine.’
Carlotta muttered to herself.
She pulled out the Rose Cross, silently slicing through the door lock, then moved through the Mechanical Fortress outpost like a ghost, finding one person after another still asleep and killing them instantly in their dreams.
In just a short time, Carlotta had slaughtered everyone in the building while they slept. Blood flowed soundlessly. Everything remained as serene and quiet as the night itself.
Then, Carlotta gathered various alchemy-related items and materials, storing them all inside the Stellar Workshop.
Although the Mechanical Fortress was a vast organization, it couldn’t possibly station powerful experts at every outpost. The strongest individual here was at most just a listener.
With the people eliminated and everything she needed taken, Carlotta quietly left and headed toward the other two mines.
At the entrance of the Flame- Stone vein mine, Carlotta encountered Amelia. All ores from this mine and the other mines that Amelia could collect had already been gathered.
Upon learning that unmined ores couldn’t be collected, Amelia didn’t insist. Unless she could take the entire island, the ores inside the mines would have to be mined first before collection.
Although the ores held some value, it wasn’t enough to warrant them mining manually. The two immediately left the island.
On another island, at a coconut grove by the beach, Carlotta and Amelia landed. They transferred all the ores Amelia had collected into the Stellar Workshop. Finally, on the luminous screen embedded in the walls of the workshop, the progress for the second-tier ship reached 21%.
"Only 1% increase?"
Carlotta was somewhat stunned.
The amount of ore collected was clearly not insignificant, yet the gain was so minimal. Was it because the quality of these ores was ultimately too low?
She put away the Stellar Workshop and said seriously, "Looks like we’ll have to keep targeting the Mechanical Fortress bounty. Hopefully, their next outpost will bring enough."
Carlotta figured the incident on Island 61 wouldn’t be discovered by the Mechanical Fortress right away, since it was the middle of the night.
So she decided to strike at other nearby Mechanical Fortress outposts.
"Next, Island 74."
Carlotta led Amelia quickly towards their destination.
...
That entire night, Carlotta and Amelia traveled to many places, successfully looting five Mechanical Fortress outposts. Only when dawn arrived did they find a safe island to rest.
Such actions would naturally attract serious attention from the Mechanical Fortress, even provoking fury, but Carlotta couldn’t care less.
Indeed, while Carlotta and Amelia were submerged in peaceful dreams, the Mechanical Fortress gradually realized something was wrong. One by one, their peak tiering officials stood up in rage, declaring they will get to the bottom of this.
On Island 1, the Mechanical Fortress’s headquarters.
Inside the hall, Lucas Castro sat in the main seat. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a square face that naturally exuded authority, his gaze swept across those below. Everyone present lowered their heads; no one dared meet his eyes.
As a Weaver, Lucas Castro was undeniably a peak official of the Mechanical Fortress. His words and actions could significantly influence the entire organization.
But at this moment, despite his lofty status, he was furious. In just one night, five of the Mechanical Fortress’s outposts had been wiped out. Even though these weren’t particularly important outposts, such an act was utterly unacceptable.
These were their Mechanical Fortress outposts!
And now, someone dared to treat their outposts with such disdain?
"Find out immediately who’s responsible. No matter who it is, kill them on the spot!"
Lucas issued his command.
The order of a Weaver was not something anyone would dare disobey. Everyone in the Bass Archipelago immediately mobilized.
Carlotta, however, couldn’t care less. She didn’t wake until nightfall, then casually went for a short stroll outside, where she learned of the Mechanical Fortress’s actions.
Since the incident was seen as a provocation by the Mechanical Fortress, they made a huge public move, impossible to conceal, and they had no intention of hiding it. Thus, the matter quickly made headlines.
"Acting like they’ve suffered some great injustice, but in the end, you were the ones causing trouble from the start."
Carlotta murmured after reading the newspaper.
She didn’t care at all about the Mechanical Fortress’s response. Intelligence would inform her exactly how their experts were distributed, and she could easily avoid any trouble.
Over the next few days, Carlotta and Amelia roamed across the Bass Archipelago, assuming various identities to harass the Mechanical Fortress, destroying one outpost after another, driving the organization’s members nearly mad.
For the people of Mechanical Fortress, this period had truly been overwhelming. An invisible enemy was attacking them from every corner, yet they remained unable to locate their foe.
Yes, even after many days had passed, they still didn’t know who their opponent actually was.
All they saw was their own strongholds being eliminated one by one, their comrades falling one after another. Such scenes deeply shook them and filled them with resentment.
Over time, they even began suspecting an insider.
Because the enemy always managed to avoid their strongest fighters, appearing instead at their weakest points to destroy their bases. If no one was leaking information, how else could the enemy accomplish this?
They couldn’t make sense of it.
Formerly trusted comrades now seem suspicious in their eyes. Every action those comrades made now appeared strange.
Meanwhile, as the people of Mechanical Fortress scrambled frantically, Carlotta was enjoying a meal with Amelia in a private room at a restaurant on Island 36.
After finishing their meal and drink, Amelia retrieved newly acquired alchemical materials from the Ten-Heart Pearl and handed them to Carlotta.
Carlotta stored them all inside the Stellar Workshop.
Currently, the progress on the tier-two ship within the Stellar Workshop has reached 26%. After several days of consecutive strikes, the spoils they’d captured were abundant, successfully boosting progress by another 5%.
But this was clear enough.
"It’s time for something big."
Carlotta murmured.
Previously, they had deliberately avoided stronger members of Mechanical Fortress, only targeting weaker. This gave Mechanical Fortress a false impression, their current enemy wasn’t particularly strong. Otherwise, why would they constantly avoid direct confrontation?
Under these circumstances, the members of Mechanical Fortress didn’t concentrate their forces either, continuing to scatter across the area in search of clues and targets. This was their opportunity.
Carlotta alone knew that Mechanical Fortress already operated several alchemical ships. If they could capture all of them, the gains would be tremendous.
"Since we previously captured one of Mechanical Fortress’s alchemical ships, their current ships must at least have peak tier Resonators aboard, possibly more than one. Unfortunately, they don’t realize such formations are still insufficient. Do they really think peak tier Resonators can stop us?"
Carlotta couldn’t help but smile.
Truthfully, neither she nor Amelia were Weavers. Under normal circumstances, defending against two early tier Resonators with peak tier ones would indeed be adequate.
It was unfortunate, though, that they were no ordinary people.
Carlotta glanced at the map on her intelligence report, which clearly displayed the current positions of several alchemical ships belonging to Mechanical Fortress. Over recent days, these ships had gradually moved closer together. If they launched a surprise attack, Carlotta believed she had the chance to seize all the alchemical ships in a single night.
Every day for these past few days, the intelligence she gathered had been related to Mechanical Fortress. After so much time, she had become extremely familiar with them.
"It’s time to act."
After paying the bill, Carlotta and Amelia left the restaurant.
It was nighttime now. Lights sparkled across the island, and even beneath the night sky, the liveliness remains as vibrant as throughout the day.
Just as Carlotta was looking for targets among Mechanical Fortress’s people, she suddenly turned her gaze and noticed a crowd gathered at the intersection ahead. Faintly, she caught snippets of intriguing news.
"Let’s go see."
The two immediately approached.
This was a newsstand, where copies of the Bass Evening News were being sold. Important news was printed on the front page, and after reading it, many people’s expressions became visibly excited.
"The Tower of Babel... is it finally going to open?"
Someone whispered, eyes gleaming with excitement.
Many people’s eyes lit up, their pupils filled with yearning for the future.
Carlotta quickly bought a newspaper and scanned the page. Soon, she found the relevant news.
Rumors about the Tower of Babel’s impending opening had long circulated across the Bass Archipelago and even reached the northern and southern continents, drawing many to participate. But even after a long wait, the Tower of Babel still hadn’t opened, leaving many puzzled.
Today, however, the signs of the Tower’s arrival had become unmistakably clear.
This towering structure capable of reaching the heavens was actually located on Island 1, the largest island in the Bass Archipelago. However, it normally remained invisible, undetectable by the naked eye. No one could see the Tower of Babel, much less enter it, it seemed to exist only in illusion, untouchable.
But as the Tower descended, it gradually emitted a strange fluctuation. When this fluctuation appeared, it signaled the imminent arrival of the Tower of Babel.
It was exactly because this fluctuation had previously appeared that rumors of the Tower’s arrival began spreading, drawing crowds from far and wide.
This was only the first stage. The duration of the first stage wasn’t fixed. Sometimes the fluctuation progresses quickly into the second stage, but sometimes the first stage lasts a very long time, such as this time.
Only when the second stage appeared did it truly mean the Tower of Babel’s opening was near.
The hallmark of the second stage was the Tower shifting from intangible to tangible!
The tower, previously invisible to the naked eye, will become visible during the second stage. Anyone on Island 1 who looked in its direction would be able to see the Tower’s existence!
Even people on nearby islands can see the Tower of Babel.
Because the Tower was truly towering, ascending to unknown heights, piercing into the vast starry sky.
It was said that in ancient times, powerful cultivators had flown into the sky attempting to find the Tower’s peak, but all ended up in humiliation because they simply couldn’t locate its summit. No matter how high they flew, they never reached an end, until finally exhausted at their maximum altitude and forced to descend.
Towering, mysterious, this was the impression the Tower of Babel gave.
Able to rival the Sky Island in fame, the Tower of Babel’s exceptional nature was evident. Together with the Sky Island, they were known as the two great miracles of the world.
"It’s about to begin. I’ll have to step up my actions."
Carlotta murmured softly.
A miraculous place like the Tower of Babel, she absolutely had to enter it. The wonders and rewards inside were not something she could afford to miss.
Before that, of course, she needed to take more from Mechanical Fortress.
"Let’s go."
Carlotta said quietly.
Amelia nodded, following Carlotta forward, then couldn’t help turning back to glance at the distant north.
That was the direction of the mainland.
She felt that the time to return to the Wendell Empire might not be far away.