Chapter 870: Casting Workshop
El accepted happily. She liked the feeling of being able to help a little. Although her legs were inconvenient and not suitable for cooking, thankfully it was just roasting already cooked meat, which she could manage while sitting on a chair.
The rest was up to us. Older Brother Jayad and I, while changing into protective suits, studied the map and analyzed where Lorna might have gone.
Via and Sherris did not change. Via would just melt into the shadows, and Sherris also said that wearing protective suits would affect her stealth. She wouldn’t appear in front of anyone afterwards.
Older Brother Jayad and I were the same. Wearing protective suits was only to have an explanation ready if we were discovered. In reality, we both planned to avoid appearing in front of people as much as possible, to remain undetected.
This map was actually just a diagram of the factory’s various work zones, not a detailed map. However, it still marked information like the manager’s office, finance department, logistics, and various workshops.
After actually looking at the map, we discovered that this factory was quite large, with several factory buildings and large workshops. It even had an entertainment area and a living area, already resembling the rudiments of a community.
It was definitely not easy to find Lorna in such a large factory complex. We first had to eliminate places that were too close. Lorna would have already searched them thoroughly. The warehouses on the periphery were also ruled out; I didn’t think Lorna would be interested in those.
The final targets were the several large factory buildings in the center: the forging area, the melting area, and the assembly area. We decided to start searching there.
Once confirmed, we set off. How to get into the factory? Through the back door. That’s right, this villa had a back door. The entire villa was built against the wall of the factory district, actually being directly connected to the factory.
This way, those big shots and senior management in the villa district could enter the factory area directly after waking up and washing up, without needing to go around to the main entrance.
Incidentally, there were two rows of villas. The row opposite was not against the wall, but don’t worry, there was a small door opened separately on our side of the wall for them to pass through, which was also very convenient.
We opened the locked small door and quietly entered. Before entering, I had already scanned the situation behind the door with my God’s Eye. No one was there, so we entered with confidence.
Behind the door was a horizontal corridor. The side against the wall had doors. It looked like a row of offices, but in reality, they all led to the back doors of the villas. The senior managers’ offices were also nearby in this area. Just as Older Brother Jayad guessed, it was now pitch black; the senior managers had long since left.
Before coming in, I had scanned this factory with my God’s Eye. Actually, I had scanned it briefly yesterday when I first arrived, confirming the basic situation. The scale of this factory was truly enormous.
There were assembly lines for forging and assembling armor everywhere. Besides very advanced Steam Armor, they also accepted orders for normal armor or semi-functional armor. I strongly suspected that the Lord of the City’s fully armored soldiers came from this factory.
Then, just now, I searched the factory district several times with my God’s Eye, but I couldn’t find Lorna. This was why I was worried about her. Not being able to find her was definitely worrying.
However, the little ghost would certainly not enter the factory and stroll around openly. If she was invisible or attached to an item, my God’s Eye wouldn’t be able to see her.
Even though I knew Lorna might just be invisible, not being able to find her still made me a bit worried. At the same time, it confirmed one of the goals for going in to search this time: we didn’t necessarily have to see her, as long as she could see us.
“Let’s proceed according to plan. If we’re discovered, we’ll first try to talk our way out of it, saying we’re employees under the Deputy Manager. If that doesn’t work, don’t run back to the villa. Just find a window, jump out, and run out of the factory,” I confirmed with them.
Before we acted, we confirmed the plan. We couldn’t expose our occupation of the Deputy Manager’s villa just for the sake of finding someone and end up homeless again. So, the plan was that if we were exposed, we would run out and make the factory workers mistake us for intruders.
We also had another idea: if we caused a commotion in the factory, would it alert Lorna and let her know we were looking for her?
We’d take it one step at a time. Ahead of us was the first factory area. Blazing flames and the constant sound of machinery kept coming from ahead.
The corridor outside the office area was directly suspended on the factory wall. The ground beneath was a mesh of iron plates, and in front was a railing, allowing a clear view of the bustling scene below in the factory from a height.
Below was where armor molds were being cast. Towering furnaces burned fiercely, and workers continuously threw carbon steel into the boilers, melting it into liquid steel. When the boiler gates opened, the fiery, scorching liquid steel would flow into the molds and, after rapid cooling, become armor embryos.
Both the smoke from the burning fires and the water vapor used for cooling produced a large amount of waste gas. This waste gas rose to high altitudes and was discharged outside the factory through huge smoke exhaust pipes.
Yesterday, it was already late at night, and my hurried glance with my God’s Eye only showed the factory, where work had stopped and fires were out. Today, I saw it in operation and couldn’t help but sigh at the magnificent sight.
However, those workers had almost no protection, exposed as they were to high temperatures and exhaust fumes. There was no air conditioning in this era. Although these exhaust gases were sent out through the smoke exhaust pipes, there were no ventilation systems to let in fresh air.
The workers, more or less, had to inhale a large amount of waste gas. Water vapor was not much of a problem, but carbon monoxide could cause poisoning. Various other toxic impurities in the air would slowly erode their bodies.
But those were secondary matters. The temperature in this factory was extremely high. Even though it was snowing outside, I felt very hot and overdressed as soon as I entered the factory.
We were still on the upper level. One could imagine how hot it would be below. What kind of crazy designer put the boilers and the casting area together? Couldn’t they use pipes to transport the molten steel by just having a wall in between?
It was foreseeable that exposed to this scorching environment, the workers could only take off most of their clothes, with many working shirtless, sweating profusely. Luckily, there were enough water pipes in the casting workshop for them to douse themselves with cold water at any time, or directly drink from the faucets.
But the problem was, with their clothes off and no protection, they were extremely prone to touching the nearby boilers. Even the scorching liquid steel was directly exposed to the air, not only emitting high heat but also capable of burning down to the bone on direct contact.
Those who were slightly higher in rank, possibly foremen, wore a fire-resistant apron and protective gloves, but that was it. Their arms and legs remained exposed and would suffer severe burns if touched.
And there were quite a few of them. I estimated that dozens of people were working in this workshop, not counting those on shifts.
