IRM Chapter 94

Three pieces of epic equipment! This was an extremely rare spectacle even in past competitions.

Although those who could participate in the competition were all the top-tier engineers on the continent, even Saint Engineers couldn’t guarantee they could craft [Epic] equipment every time.

After all, even in the game, crafting equipment had success rates, let alone in reality—the slightest mistake would cause precious materials to be completely wasted.

The stands were already in an uproar. The noble lords and ladies in the front rows could no longer resist standing up, their hats adorned with gorgeous feathers crowding together, adding a splash of color to the arena.

Their burning gazes fixed on the three purple lights, the covetousness in their eyes so thick it nearly spilled out.

“This year is truly a bountiful harvest, isn’t it?” On the judges’ platform, a lady wearing a wide-brimmed hat and dressed in a golden gown took a puff from her long pipe in hand, squinting as she exhaled swirling smoke. “Three full courses—surely Your Grace the Duke couldn’t eat them all alone? You should leave some for us small fish and shrimp, shouldn’t you?”

Not far from her, the Duke stroked his beard with a smile. “You make it sound as if I’m being unreasonable, Marchioness. I do follow etiquette—I only make moves on desserts that interest me.”

His gaze calmly lingered among the three teams.

The [Epic] quality label sounded intimidating, but the judges and nobles present weren’t fools—they paid more attention to the equipment’s actual effects. Many times, practical low-quality equipment would be more popular than flashy but impractical high-quality equipment.

William used the remaining time to clean the carbon ash from his face. The stains on his clothes couldn’t be cleaned, so he simply ignored them. All his attention was now on the other two dazzling purple lights.

His expression had looked unpleasant ever since the purple light from Ji Chi’s area lit up. He couldn’t understand how they had modified the design blueprint, yet still managed to successfully create it, and even at such high quality!

Ji Chi was one thing, but what was with that other team? Engineers he’d never even heard of—how did they suddenly craft epic equipment?!

“What troubles Your Highness?” The dwarf engineer beside William watched William’s constantly changing expressions with interest and asked gently, “Do you have so little confidence in our masterpiece?”

William snapped back to attention, turned to look at the workbench, his eyes first twitching violently, but his tense body gradually relaxed. He smiled with difficulty. “Of course not… The masterpiece we’ve crafted will be able to lead the Empire through its difficulties! However… during the third selection, could I perhaps design its appearance?”

The young dwarf put away his smile and looked back, puzzled. “Does the appearance need changing? Doesn’t this look quite nice?”

William’s mouth twitched stiffly. What?! Are you blind or am I deaf? How could this monstrosity be called “quite nice”?!

The young dwarf seemed to understand something, glancing again and again toward the south side of the arena. He frowned and muttered softly, “Could it be that only that kind is considered good-looking? Tsk, no personality at all. Mortals just don’t understand art…”

To complete the final step of assembling the set, Chloe had consumed more energy in two hours than in the past two months. She shuffled to the workbench and, while no one was paying attention, fished out a magic crystal the size of half a fist from the pile of excess materials and quickly stuffed it into her mouth, expressionlessly puffing out one cheek.

Seeing that the ending bell hadn’t rung yet, and with nothing better to do, Linton began tidying up the messy table. Soon he made a sound of surprise. “How is there one magic crystal missing? There should be five left…”

He searched around, even bending down to crawl on the ground looking for it.

Just as the search was about to reach Chloe’s vicinity, Ji Chi and Bard simultaneously noticed and spoke up, “I put it away.”

The two fell silent for a moment, then said simultaneously again, “Oh, he put it away.”

Linton raised his head, looked at them suspiciously, but didn’t pursue the matter further, just muttering something strange under his breath.

Behind him, Chloe gulped and swallowed the last bit of magic crystal fragments, sighing contentedly. Her dim eyes immediately brightened considerably.

“Clang clang clang——” The ending bell finally rang. The light of the stasis magic array flickered, and all the engineers were frozen in place, unable to make any further movements.

Ji Chi was immune to this kind of array but didn’t move carelessly either. He just leaned against the table edge, waiting for the apprentices in uniform to carefully pack the equipment on the workbenches into magic boxes and carry them away.

The judgment of the second selection was about to begin. The engineers, released from their immobilized state, still stood on the competition platform, nervously looking up at the judges’ platform above.

The judges’ platform was a trapezoidal platform floating in front of the arena. A crimson carpet printed with golden patterns covered the entire surface. Forty-nine dignified and respectable engineers sat upright on it—among them were master engineers renowned across the continent, as well as high-ranking nobles.

In the coming time, they would select the ten most excellent works from the floating magic boxes to serve as outstanding contenders for the third selection.

Magic boxes flew quickly past the judges’ platform one after another, flashing with various colored lights. Most were blue light symbolizing [Fine] quality, with some green light of [Excellent] quality. For these “inferior” equipment pieces, the judges didn’t even look at their effects before quickly dismissing them, eliminating them without hesitation.

After countless sighs of regret had echoed through the arena, a box emitting purple light slowly opened before the judges.

People both on and off the platform held their breath, their burning gazes all fixed on the brown cedar magic box.

A man-high silver cross-shaped torture rack gradually floated out from the magic box, presenting itself before the judging engineers.

The Marchioness elegantly adjusted the wide-brimmed hat atop her head and curiously examined the gleaming, holy silver rack. “Whose masters’ work is this? Could you explain it for us?”

“Marchioness, of course!” From a corner of the arena diagonally opposite Ji Chi, several inconspicuous engineers stepped forward and answered loudly, their voices carrying some excitement and fervor.

Good-natured laughter came from the judges’ platform—clearly they understood these engineers’ agitated feelings at this moment. The Marchioness also smiled, her crimson lips making her neat teeth appear even whiter.

“This piece of equipment is called the [Judgment Torture Rack]. It can be considered both a weapon and an instrument of torture.”

“Oh?” The Marchioness leaned forward slightly, appearing very interested. “What torturous effects does it have?”

The contestant grinned and said loudly, “According to its master’s will, it can track guilty people. The cross will pierce vertically through the sinner’s body from the neck…”

“Sinners subjected to this punishment often struggle in extreme pain for several days before they can cleanse their sins.” The contestant stared directly at the Marchioness, his gaze carrying a chilling coldness that made one shudder.

Such an instrument of torture was too cruel. Except for some nobles who regularly tortured commoners and slaves, everyone else felt their hair stand on end, empathetically raising their hands to touch their own necks.

Bard listened with deeply furrowed brows and cursed under his breath, “Absurd!”

Ji Chi’s gaze darkened slightly. He slowly straightened his body, no longer looking toward the judges’ platform but instead unobtrusively searching through the stands.

“Hehehe! How interesting!” The Marchioness suddenly covered her mouth and laughed softly. Her eyes lingered obsessively on the silver cross. “Guilty people indeed need to be deterred and punished. I like it very much!”

As she spoke, she unhesitatingly used her bright red quill to mark seven stars on the parchment—the highest scoring standard among the judges.

After she finished scoring, the other judges also gradually put down their pens. Some were quite averse to such an instrument of torture, but because it was a rarely seen [Epic] quality and the tracking attack method was very practical, they also hesitantly gave it high scores.

The engineers who crafted the torture rack seemed not to notice the judges’ conflicted expressions, gazing at the cross-shaped rack with satisfaction, as if envisioning a beautiful future.

“Tsk——” William at the center of the arena laughed disdainfully. “And here I thought it would be so impressive. Just this? How utterly useless.”

The young dwarf beside him had at some point put away his gentle smile. His nose twitched as he sighed and shook his head. “Resistance, bloodshed, brutality… Humans really can’t do without these things…”

The first [Epic] equipment to appear remained on the platform for an unusually long time. When it leisurely flew down in its magic box, everyone was certain it would definitely appear in the third selection.

The next [Epic] box appeared not long after. The moment purple light escaped, the entire arena buzzed with discussion as spectators guessed the attributes of this equipment.

Soon, a slightly distorted humanoid figure floated out from the box, giving the nearby judges quite a fright.

“Whoa! What is that thing!” The elderly master engineer in the front row nearly threw his teacup, clutching his chest with a face full of alarm and uncertainty.

It was an extremely ugly puppet. On its large head, parts haphazardly formed bizarre features. Its limbs were thin and weak, dangling loosely on either side of its deformed body. It hadn’t even been dressed in proper clothes, just exposing its sharp, misshapen body while raising a twisted smile toward the front.

Ji Chi withdrew his gaze from the stands with a trace of imperceptible disappointment. His eyes inadvertently fell on the puppet on the judges’ platform. He paused, then suddenly whipped his head around to look in the direction of William’s team.

His timing was perfect—he caught the young dwarf just as he turned his head.

The young dwarf was displeased with the judges’ reaction. He had originally intended to turn around and observe other people’s expressions, but unexpectedly met eyes with a special little fellow.

Black hair, black eyes—quite hard to find here.

The dwarf raised an eyebrow, about to smile at him, when he suddenly sensed a familiar aura. His expression changed abruptly, and he stared fixedly at him.

Bard muttered something about what kind of hellish things there were this year—this was a new phrase he and Ji Chi had learned. Thinking of this, he wanted to complain to Ji Chi about just how hellish it was, only to discover Ji Chi was staring intently in one direction.

Bard also looked that way and asked, “What are you looking at?”

Ji Chi silently withdrew his gaze, looked at Bard with a very peculiar expression, and shook his head.

I’m afraid if I tell you, with your temper you’ll rush over and hit him directly, Ji Chi thought silently to himself.

While several people were unsettled, William’s cadenced royal recitation rang through the venue. “This is a special puppet. With it, a mage can also become a summoner!”

“Hmm? How so?” The judges’ interest was immediately piqued. For a moment, they overlooked the puppet’s infuriatingly ugly appearance and examined it with great interest.

William stepped forward with a proud smile. “Because it can be driven by magic power. Its sturdy shell and flexible movements make it no different from a normal person—even superior—yet it can unconditionally submit to its master’s commands. I’ve named it—New Citizen.”

As soon as he finished speaking, before others could react, they just felt the name was somewhat peculiar.

The first to understand William’s meaning was the King. He gripped his scepter tightly, his eyes emitting burning light, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “My son! My excellent son! He can actually accomplish this! He is truly the Empire’s treasure!”

Those near the King quickly realized—New Citizen, new people, people who replace the old with the new.

With such obedient and capable new citizens, those rebellious, disloyal, and willful commoners and slaves would lose their only remaining purpose—basic work would be handled by new citizens, and disobedient old citizens could be ruthlessly eliminated, just like discarding useless equipment.

More and more people noticed this point. The arena resounded with waves of cheerful praise and excitement.

Of course, some people of common birth looked grim. They knew that once such equipment became widespread, the future would become increasingly difficult for commoners. Even talented people might not survive to adulthood…

But they couldn’t influence such developments. The noble engineers on the judges’ platform already wore delighted smiles, writing readily and decisively. Barring any accidents, this kind of equipment would be placed in the most prominent position after this competition. Derivative equipment based on it would spread across the continent, and the revolutionary transformation of replacing the old with the new was about to begin.

Amidst the nobles’ cheers, the next piece of equipment acted like a saw, dragging the previously pleasant atmosphere to freezing point. The enormous arena fell into dead silence.

Ji Chi looked at the simple, streamlined silver set on the platform and slowly stepped forward to introduce it. “Mm, wearing this set can accomplish many things… For instance, allowing an ordinary person who knows nothing to become an all-element mage.”

He looked at the nobles on the platform whose expressions had suddenly changed and smiled mockingly. “Even if they’re a commoner, or even a slave.”