The changes in the factory area were not limited to this.

Roland noticed that many workers along the road were dismantling and replacing billboards. The usually bustling construction site was now eerily silent, as if the enormous Auto City project had been abandoned overnight. Scaffolding had been erected both inside and outside the low walls that separated the construction areas, seemingly in preparation for building new exterior walls.

Even more astonishingly, he saw armed police officers standing guard with live ammunition, setting up警戒线 (jingjie xian, cordon) and哨卡 (shaoka, sentry posts) outside the project headquarters. Anyone entering or leaving had to verify their identity, and vehicles were not allowed to approach the project building.

After verifying his and Garcia's credentials, the armed police officer gave a standard military salute and opened the gate for them.

"Good heavens..." Garcia whispered, "What on earth did you get the Association to do?"

"Honestly, I don't know much more than you do right now," Roland said, shaking his head innocently. "I haven't even made any requests yet."

As they approached the building, Garcia paused slightly, frowning involuntarily.

Standing outside to greet them was her father, Gerhard, one of the directors of the San Ye board.

"I've been waiting for you," he said, nodding to his daughter before extending his hand to Roland. "Mr. Roland, although I knew you were extraordinary when we first met, I didn't expect you to exceed my expectations so much. From today on, this factory is yours."

Gerhard spoke congratulatory words, but his tone lacked sincerity. His expression was complex, a collection of contradictions. If the middle-aged man had shown obvious contempt during their first meeting, and then disguised congeniality due to the town defense during their second, then this expression was probably his truest feeling.

"The New Energy Auto City was supposed to be a key development project for the San Ye Group, wasn't it? Is it really okay to hand it over to someone else so readily?" Garcia said sarcastically. "I thought the San Ye Group would be tougher, especially after disregarding public opinion and wanting to demolish the old apartment buildings."

Surprisingly, Gerhard did not show any anger, but smiled bitterly. "The Martial Artists Association has offered terms that the family cannot refuse. Although I am a member of the board, I cannot prevent this decision. In addition, the San Ye Group has officially terminated the demolition and reconstruction plan for the old apartment complex, which will be announced at the reception later. You no longer need to champion those residents, daughter."

Garcia was stunned.

"The demolition...is over?"

"Yes, it's all over," Gerhard said slowly. "I know that even after this, you won't easily forgive me, but at least we are no longer 'enemies'. You can come home to see your brother anytime, of course..." He looked at Roland, "You can bring him too."

After ushering the two bewildered individuals into the hall, Gerhard waved his hand and left the project building.

Before they could recover, the secretary responsible for meeting them had already led them into the main conference room.

Nearly a hundred square meters, the room was surrounded by forty or fifty people, almost all dressed formally, making it feel nothing like a meeting held on a construction site. At the head of the long table were four chairs. Besides Town Guardian Stone, there were two other people sitting there: one was about forty or fifty years old, with a capable face; the other, though his hair was gray, had eyes full of vitality.

The remaining chair was obviously reserved for him.

Garcia seemed to have woken up from her previous confusion, and gently pushed him in the back.

Roland nodded, stepped forward steadily, and sat beside Stone.

Having been a king, he naturally wouldn't feel intimidated by such an occasion. Instead, he was increasingly curious. Judging from this display, the Association clearly intended to give him a surprise.

However, after the town guardian's secretary announced the start of the meeting and introduced each of the attendees, Roland was quickly left speechless. Although he knew that the Martial Artists Association had a long history and had a significant influence on the government, this "surprise" still greatly exceeded his expectations.

From metallurgy to materials, from mechanical design to automatic control, those present were almost all authorities in their respective fields. Among them were academic masters from the National Academy of Sciences, as well as technical leaders from private enterprises. More importantly, these forty or fifty people were only representatives, and each of them had behind them a large team, completely capable of handling the entire process from research and development to production.

The two people sitting to his right were the chief technical director, Dean Wu, and the administrative director, Director Liu. The former coordinated the progress of various studies, while the latter was responsible for the allocation of personnel and resources. The professionalism of the entire system was evident, far surpassing the original small team of the Graycastle Design Bureau.

This was why the Association had taken over all of this land - without enough space, it would be impossible to carry out so many research projects simultaneously.

In addition, the two of them were also government representatives, among the few people in the venue who knew the truth.

The entire project was named "Nuwa Project", using the legend of patching the sky to fight against the erosion was very appropriate. However, since only a few government officials knew about "another world", the project was explained in paper documents as a "resurrection drill", which assumed that human civilization would eventually be destroyed by erosion, and the survivors would rebuild civilization on the ruins using postwar resources.

One key background was that some awakened individuals had undergone rare mutations under the effect of erosion, evolving special abilities that were very different from existing natural forces. Therefore, any research project had to take these factors into account. As for what the special abilities specifically looked like, it was up to Roland, the Association's chief hunter, to decide.

Hearing this, Roland almost spat out the tea he had just drunk.

In other words, the main content of the meeting was to listen to him announce the abilities and discuss their uses. Even if he made something up, everyone had to seriously consider what impact the ability would have on rebuilding civilization.

It was a good thing that the Martial Artists Association was doing this. If he announced such a ridiculous condition himself, half of the experts present would probably leave immediately.

"I wonder if Mr. Roland is satisfied with this plan?" Stone looked at him and smiled. "When you made that request to me before, you said that it was incredibly important to this world. I thought it was just an exaggeration, but now I understand the true meaning of your words. Considering that the magic manifestations in the two worlds are different, no matter how strange your request is, they won't be able to object."

Roland raised an eyebrow. "You believe... everything I said?"

"Honestly, I don't know," he said, looking away. "But as long as we can work together to overcome the erosion, we will always have the opportunity to verify it in the future, won't we? And this new design bureau is just the beginning."

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