Nothing serious between us -4
Douluo Continent
Bright City.
12 at noon.
Fan Lin had used his full speed and arrived late to meet the officials who had come to record the restoration and map out the surroundings landscape.
But the good thing was that the moment he got there, he immediately started the reforestation and the moment the officials were done, he picked them and left for the other area.
He went to one place to another and by the noon and at his fifth place, the picked up officials protested at their rough treatment.
Fan Lin had been carrying them like toys in his ice projections - arms, created through his Ice Jade Transformation and had been putting them into one place then another while and then making them work without stopping at that!
They were all tired now, even though they had just worked a little less than an hour and all they did was set up the Lidar and mapping system but doing that three times in a row after rapid travel was a little overwhelming for them.
They were used to drawn out work where they set up the system in the morning and slowly take the day over a period of a day or more. Three places in an hour was something that none of them had even thought of doing much less be forced to do.
Hence they started complaining to the young boy who was their supervisor for now.
Fan Lin listened to their words and squinted at them like the hindrance they were.
He knew that most of them were normal people without any chance to become a full fledged Spirit Masters and that the amount of labour that they can provide was far inferior to the staff at the Spirit Pagoda who were usually Spirit Masters.
He knew that. But all he had made the normal workers do was to set up their machines, sent some of the drones in the air and then chatting as the drones did the work.
Once the work was done, Fan Lin just picked all of them and then they did the same thing in their new area.
They had done this just three times and yet they were complaining that him carelessly carrying them and flying was making them sick.
Usually he didn't need to have any officials to aide his work. He normally went to the area, replant it, took some pictures and videos and left. The officials would then do the rest of the things like barricading the area, shooting the people and further construction.
Fan Lin didn't take part in any of those and it would have remained the same anywhere else.
Bright City wasn't anywhere else though. It was the capital of the Sun Moon Federation and any form of construction required heavy monitoring because a certain mysterious death plague had been killing people left and right for a few years, thus increasing the activities of the Evil Soul Masters in the continent which had resulted in stricter regulations in the security around key places.
Bright City was at the top of this because Shrek was infallible.
*Hmph!*
'Why the heck am I snickering at this?'
Due to the strict regulations and the lack of Qiangu Dongfeng's background support, Fan Lin had to bear with the pathetic officials who couldn't even keep up for an hour.
"Well 3 per hour, 36 to 40 in 12 hours, I need them to overtime then. The quota should meet, even at the expense of their lives, much less their health."
Fan Lin apathetically said. His voice perfectly reaching all of them. They needed to know what they were into. He wanted them to know this.
"Rest ten minutes more. We have a long day ahead of us." [Fan Lin]
The officials were visibly disgruntled by his words and looked at each other for that one person who would take the lead and oppose the unfair system.
No one did. Unfortunate as they were, the only thing they could do was to count how much time was remaining while waiting for the ten minutes of rest time to pass.
Three hours later.
"Can we get a quick lunch?"
"I give you fifteen minutes of rest every hour, use it to eat as well."
"Can we go relieve ourselves?"
"..."
"Okay, let me drop you all near the toilets next time. Hold it for now. The rest time is over."
Fifteen minutes later.
"Can't we take the rest time now? You can cut out next hour's rest."
"Which place would you like to be dropped at?"
"Near the barricading encampment. Just drop us there."
"En."
Four hours later.
"Our working hours are over. Other officials are coming to cover our shift so can drop us near the barricading encampment."
"Nah. Let them come, double the workforce would cut down a lot of work for tomorrow."
He apathetically stated while looking at them.
"Huh?"
"Let. Them. Come. You are not leaving before you complete you work today."
The workers silently looked at each other.
"... How much is left of our work?"
"16. It won't take much time, if you do 4 in an hour."
And that plain statement became the last straw that broke them the silence of the workers. They had been working for the past 8 hours, being taken from one place to another and only allowed a small rest and even that wasn't peaceful as he stared down their throats!
"..."
"...We quit."
"We are not your workers, we work for the Federation and you can't order us anymore..."
The workers started to ravishly rage down but not even two people have spoken before their voice came to a halt as someone wasn't in the mood to play Viva la Revolución with them.
"Get to work or you won't be able to."
He stated and ignored them. His sight focused at the map in his hand.
He was quite behind his plans. The humans were going to tire out in a matter of days but that was a problem for the later.
The workers looked at him in protest for a while before going to do their job. Fan Lin didn't seem to care about their well-being and if the rumours were right, he wouldn't care even if they protested.
Left with no choice and no help from their department who had just ordered them to follow his words, they decided to complete the job of the site, so they can once again move to a new site.
An hour later, the new officials joined them and the work became easier and in just another two hours, they were done with their quota since they gave their all to leave as fast as they could and left in the vehicle that the other officials used to reach there.
On the other hand, since it was night, Fan Lin had chosen the easier and small areas for the evening shift officials which made 6 sites in a hour possible. Adding to the fact that it was a winter night, most people didn't feel like resting and they all worked with the intent to finish the work and leave.
Due to this, the new officials completed their share of work in nearly 4 hours and were happily escorted by Fan Lin to the barricading encampment.
Fan Lin then joined the barricading encampment, got a list of logistics and supplies that needed to be transferred and began his work as a transporter.
Currently, since the officials that were provided for the reforestation were divided into two teams of barricading encampment and site mapping team.
Nearly 8/10th of the workforce was invested in the barricading encampment while Fan Lin was only given a small group for his site mapping team since the barricading team had to do more work and it was time consuming.
Fan Lin obviously didn't like the allocation of resources but his complains weren't met with any answers. The Bright City officials seem to be ignoring him.
The situation didn't stop at that. Bright City had actually requested his assistance on helping as much as he can.
But they all didn't understand Fan Lin who started working on the things with his own accord.
He was actively working with the group to fasten their work so that he could leave the vicinity of the Bright City sooner. He was behind his plans and he needed to restock soon.
Just like that, the first day ended.
2nd day.
"Yesterday, we finished 80 sites, if we continued at this rate, the total sites would be done in around 8 to 9 days."
Day 2 results - 76 sites. Some workers caused a mistake and had to do three sites area recording again.
Day 3. Two workers absent in the morning shift.
Day 3 results - 59. The morale was low and many of the evening shift workers failed to arrive on time.
Day 4. 9 workers absent in the morning shift. They seem to have low tolerance and were currently sick with cold and body aches.
Day 4 results - 39. The night shift was able to do well but a sudden retreat order by the Federation ceased the work for the night. The same happened with the barricading team. The reforestation was once again put on an absolute halt.
Day 5. 23 workers came. All others on sick leave. The end of the mysterious death was announced the previous night following by the Federation to recall their unnecessary workforce.
There were rumours of a complete change of the officials who would be deployed in the Resurgence of Life project that came from the Federation's side.
Day 5 results - 72 sites done. A new workforce joined us midway, totalling five times the previous amount. The work was done easily but the new workers had the insignia of the Spirit Pagoda.
Day 6 - 90% of the previous workforce was replaced with the new officials that came from the Spirit Pagoda. The Barricading work was heavily focused on and had an increase of 300% rate in productivity.
At their current speed, they would be able to caught up with the reforestation soon.
Day 6 results - 80 sites in 8 hours. Second day of complete quota. The envoys sent by the Spirit Pagoda were all Spirit Masters.
Day 7. 13 new sites were added to the reforestation plan by the seperate requests of the Bright City and Federation. The new sites are massive and far away from the city.
Day 7 results - 80 again. Nothing else.
Day 8. Nothing new. Same as Day 7.
Day 8 results - 80 sites.
Day 9. The work was the same. Spirit Pagoda had appealed for the creation of conservation parks for the soul beasts in the reforested areas that meet the size requirements. Many factions of the Federation are in support of the appeal.
Day 9 results - 80.
Day 10. Vice President of the Spirit Pagoda, Leng Yaozhu was publicly acknowledged as the ender of the mysterious death and given an award.
It was truly a wonder how she was able to solve the mysterious death crisis when she was still in another continent Maybe that's what geniuses are?
Day 10 results - 80.
Day 11. A fifth of the workforce was transferred to the barricading and patrolling of the barricaded areas. The statement by the Spirit Pagoda was that the reforestation was going to be completed in a few days so the focus should go towards barricading which was lagging behind.
Day 11 results - 80. A slight decrease in the workforce didn't mean much to the Spirit Masters who gave their all and took overtime.
Day 12. Another part of the workforce was transferred to the barricading encampment. The Spirit Pagoda officials guaranteed that there would be no problem on the productivity.
Day 12 results - 80.
Day 13. Another part was once again taken by the Spirit Pagoda and transferred to the barricading encampment.
Spirit Pagoda's appeal was approved by the Federation and Spirit Pagoda can start working on it after 6 months. This was done to give Fan Lin the breathing space and to have further options for the conservation parks.
Day 13 results - 36(33+3) areas were done. Fan Lin's 759 areas quota was finished with the 33 sites and now only 10 more newly added sites remained.
Day 14. All the workforce from the Spirit Pagoda was transferred to barricading and securing the barricaded areas.
The Bright City officials once again joined Fan Lin on his work after they had healed.
Day 14 results - 3 big areas. The officials refused to do overtime. No night shift was provided.
Day 15. Some of the officials were substituted with others due to getting sick while working again. It was the starting of the second week of the 1st month and it was heavily cold.
The newly added forests weren't helping at that.
The officials who would have been cooped up in their tents and relying on the ease of technology for most of the heavy lifting were asked for far much then they can provide.
Fan Lin's slave labouring of the officials wasn't met with good intentions as most of the officials either took sick leave due to being sick or transferred to the barricading encampment.
Day 15 results - Barely able to do three areas.
Day 16. Only a single person turned up. The others were either on leave or were transferred to the barricading encampment to aide in their work.
Day 16 results - Completed 4 areas. Qiangu Dongfeng's list was completed. Fan Lin was free to leave.
....
Day 16.
"I am the only one who can came. Should we postpone today's work."
(This was not a question but she said it.)
"No." [Fan Lin]
"I can't do all the work myself."
"You don't need to." [Fan Lin]
"Are there any more workers coming?"
"Of course not." [Fan Lin]
"..."
"Here we are." [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin put the official down on the new area and looked at her.
"Start the assembly." [Fan Lin]
"Am I the only one? I can't do all the work by myself."
"What's your work?" [Fan Lin]
"I have to set up the system and then control all the various drones and then collect and arrange the data sent by them while overlooking any problems."
"You can't do it yourself?" [Fan Lin]
"...I can't. For all this to work, we need someone to control all the different drones, around 1 person per drone and there are nearly 30 of them. Then we also need overseers and programmers and Spirit Engineers to completely piece out the various data."
"What are you?" [Fan Lin]
"I am a programmer and Spirit Engineer."
"What are the various data that you were talking about?"
"There is Lidar, heat scans, video mapping and such."
"Such? They can all be done by the drones?" [Fan Lin]
"Yes. The drones were specifically created for this task. We just update the information, aligning them with the rest of the info and control the drones flight patterns and movement and backing the data.."
"These are fully automated ones?"
"No, those are for military use only. These ones can't be fully automated."
"How do you use the data later?" [Fan Lin]
"We collect the data and then later when the barricading team is here, they will do their own tests and match it with ours. If the results don't match,"
"They will got to the source where the data wasn't matching and can easily know what the problem was."
"If the data matches in first try, they would directly start their work."
"So that's what they were doing all this time. Good." [Fan Lin]
"So you are saying that if the drone can be controlled by someone you can do the rest?" [Fan Lin]
"I didn't mean that."
"You can't?" [Fan Lin]
"I should be able to do that but the drones had to follow a strict pattern and there should be no problem with the information sent. I should be able to register the information if we did one at a time."
"You should have said that first. So which one would you like to start with?" [Fan Lin]
"..."
"Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to insult you but..."
"Are you sick in the head? Do you not understand that we don't have the workforce necessary for the work! I have been telling it to you straight all this time and YOU! Why DON'T YOU LISTEN?!!"
"Don't scream. There's no need to. Here."
Fan Lin saw the official on the verge of crying and gently consoled while his Battle Armor appeared around him and his three Spirit rings began to revolve around him.
One of his Red rings began to shine as small ice birds began to form around them, circling the sky in a cheerful manner.
"Huh?"
The woman official looked at the hundred of ice sparrows that were flying in the sky as her mind was taken by the sight and Fan Lin's gentle voice came to her ears.
"If it's the drones, I can make sure that they follow a strict pattern while mapping the area." [Fan Lin]
"You can."
"Yeah." [Fan Lin]
"Why didn't you help us earlier?"
"Is it my job?" [Fan Lin]
"..."
The Woman official looked at him and the way his gentle voice seem to insult her thinking and silently began to set up her recording system.
He was going to make her work and she didn't want to continue any further conversation with him. She wasn't strong enough to bear any more insults that he casually threw at her.
A few minutes later.
"I have completed with the set up, the drones have began operating, now you just control the drones movement and make sure to follow this specific pattern."
The official said after wiping her face and showing the screen to Fan Lin.
"Up and Down, Left and Right. Okay."
The Ice sparrows attached themselves to the drones and flew off to the horizon at great speed.
"Slow down! Slow down a little!"
She immediately reprimanded Fan Lin at the display of breaknect speed.
"How much?" [Fan Lin]
"Around 60 to 100 kmph. I won't be able to handle more than that."
"Ok."
The drones speed was set and they were all sent to the respective starting points to start their work.
Five minutes later.
"What was that skill?"
"Ice Jade Transformation." [Fan Lin]
"Does it allow you to create various things like those sparrows?"
"Yeah." [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin said by creating extremely life-like butterflies flying around them, then a set of table on which he sat down. Then fishes and dragons begin to effortlessly swim in the air followed by food, fruits, clothes and finally two people, one male and one female doing tango. All the creations were extremely detailed as if someone carved living beings into dolls.
The Woman Official just looked at the various creations with awe and speechlessness as such a great skill had went to such a hateful person.
"It is a support or defense type skill?"
"Multi-purpose." [Fan Lin]
"It is hard to control the skill?"
"Yeah, you need to have peak Spirit Abyss realm spiritual power to be able to do what I am doing." [Fan Lin]
"Oh. Which spirit soul gave you this ability?"
"Ice Jade Scorpion." [Fan Lin]
"Oh! That ferocious ice attribute power type spirit soul?"
"Yeah." [Fan Lin]
Fifteen minutes later.
"We can start with the other one. Same pattern."
"You won't ask why the others officials didn't come?"
"Pagoda had informed me already." [Fan Lin]
"Ah, yes, they would."
"You know, if you had cut us some slack, we would have been fine and working today and you won't be here alone with me. But you didn't and overworked us to the point of giving up."
"I don't understand. Is the hasty completion of the work that important to you?"
"There were 55634 reforestation sites in total and I am the only one capable of replanting all of them. You understand my impatient now."
"That many!"
"That many." [Fan Lin]
"How many did you finish by now?"
"Around 2329 sites." [Fan Lin]
"And the Federation is planning onlisting new sites?"
"Yeah." [Fan Lin]
"Is it necessary to do all the places? Just do the places where people live, that will improve the air quality there as well. Leave the rest. There's no point in replanting a place where no one lives. Who would even benefit from forests that is in the middle of nowhere."
"I know that it is good for the natural ecosystem and such but... I don't know. Whatever, this all is just increasing our workload for now."
"You guys wouldn't need to join me in anything." [Fan Lin]
"I was doing fine alone and you all could have worked on your own pace but then your Bright city sent several requests to the Federation and Parliament that the newly appeared forests could potentially become a hiding place for the Evil Soul Masters." [Fan Lin]
"Thus the Federation appointed you all to check for the same and I am stuck here with you." [Fan Lin]
"If I was alone, I would have been done with this place in 4 days." [Fan Lin]
"The mysterious death had been a huge source of fear to the people of the Bright city. Thankfully, it has ended for now."
"You talk funny." [Fan Lin]
*Silence*
Fifteen minutes later.
"How many of those drones do you have? Would having more affect your work?" [Fan Lin]
"No. It won't. Once I have connected them all to the system, it won't be a problem if they strictly keep their flight pattern."
"But we don't actually need to have more. The ones we have are completely enough for the area and anymore would just be a hindrance. We don't need more drones and we can't increase our work rate. This the peak that we can achieve, even if all the people are here."
"More resources doesn't mean faster productivity. Humans are feeble." [Fan Lin]
"Huh?"
"Ignore it. Are we done here?" [Fan Lin]
"Just a few minutes and we will be."
A few minutes later, the Woman Official and the entire setup along with the drones were escorted to the new area by Fan Lin through his Ice Jade Transformation.
Then they repeated the same thing over and over for the rest of the remaining three sites and cut to five hours later, the work was finished.
"You know how to drive a flying car?" [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin asked as he looked at the boundless green fields that were slowly enveloping the land in front of him.
"I do."
The Woman Official replied. She was also looking at the greenery that was as far as her eyes could see. Just an hour ago though, it was just barren land with rocks and hedges everywhere.
"Take this and leave. The reforestation has been completed."
He tossed the storage ring with his flying soul car to the Woman Official and gestured her to leave.
She caught the storage ring and checked its contents.
"Are you not afraid that I will steal your flying car?"
"Are you faster than me? If so, feel free to take it." [Fan Lin]
He said, still keeping his gentle tone. He then ignored her as if she wasn't there and took out a big map and set it on the table that was created by him.
"Are you planning on leaving to the new area?"
"En. The work here is done. The President is going to take care of the rest and I am behind my schedule." [Fan Lin]
"Good luck then. I hope you success."
The Woman Official said and left.
A minute later.
"When are you going to show yourself?" [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin asked to the skies.
"So you knew."
Qiangu Dongfeng came from beside him.
"Yeah. How are you?" [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin created two chairs and gestured Qiangu Dongfeng while sitting down on one of them.
Qiangu Dongfeng unceremoniously sat on the other one.
"Your Spiritual realm has increased." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"That's just the Battle Armor enhancement." [Fan Lin]
"Might be. How did you guess I would be here?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"I came all the way here, to where you were, of course you would come to see me." [Fan Lin]
"In case I wasn't here?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Then no one would have known that I talked to the skies." [Fan Lin]
"You sent that woman for this reason?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Yeah." [Fan Lin]
"You were quite gentle with her? Any interests?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"She was the only one who knew what to do. It wasn't helping that she was close to a breakdown due to fatigue and stress that I was giving her for the past two weeks." [Fan Lin]
"If even she had left, I would have no one else to complete this job. Being gentle and soothing to someone won't hurt me." [Fan Lin]
"You really are... why did you come here?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Well, I thought I should finish with the bothersome one and gave him some piece of mind so that he won't disturb me later." [Fan Lin]
"Kid, your tongue needs some discipline." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Says the guys who took his words and annulled the bet. I would have won and be done with you." [Fan Lin]
"You were defeated at the 98th floor and that bastard Yang interfered or you would have been slaving under me." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"I wasn't defeated, I admitted defeat since I realized that something was wrong with the trial after I didn't hear your voice anymore." [Fan Lin]
"If you say so. How was your relationship with Leng Yaozhu?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"There's nothing serious between us. You can be assured I won't steal her or anything." [Fan Lin]
"I truly commend you for talking like that. I truly do. Now let's cut the chit chat and be serious about it."
"What's your relationship with Leng Yaozhu? She said that Fan Lin had planned to support her disciple. You are Fan Lin." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"That was for the Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear and I said I will take my name from the Presidency list. I am not participating in Spirit Pagoda's power struggle." [Fan Lin]
"Really? May I ask why?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"I don't care. Once I am done with the reforestation, I will quietly fade away from the world and live my life peacefully." [Fan Lin]
"Wanna join the Qiangu Family?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Nah." [Fan Lin]
"Your choice then. You are leaving now?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"If you haven't been cutting down on the workforce, I would have left a long ago." [Fan Lin]
"I needed your presence for a while. What do you think about the conservation parks for the soul beasts?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Already knew about it." [Fan Lin]
"Hmm. You did." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Why did you leave Shrek?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"..." [Fan Lin]
"That's an unexpected question." [Fan Lin]
"I saw nothing in there. No opportunities, no benefits and no reason to stay. It was kinda bland as the best Academy on the planet just turned out to be not that different." [Fan Lin]
"I was extremely strong among my peers, extremely weak against the oldies. Everyday was just participate in this event, participate in that event, useless timelines and total waste of time projects and group works."
"I felt completely bored, as if my time spent wasn't meeting the returns that I had wanted. Then I found a ray of hope and grabbed onto it. After that I joined the Spirit Pagoda." [Fan Lin]
"What was that?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"I lost my skills(I met her) and realized there were many ways to enjoy my life since I wasn't the strongest of my peers. Neither do I need to be. There's nothing else to achieve when you are beyond the peak." [Fan Lin]
"The arrogance in your voice truly irritates me but I can't deny your words and that irritates me more. You are the strongest of your peers. That's indeed true." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"I don't care about this though. It doesn't excite me anymore. The loss of my Crystallokinesis was an eye opener for me on just how easy it was to become nothing if you are dependent on just one source." [Fan Lin]
"Your new skill works like Crystallokinesis. Looks like it returned to you." [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"I wish it didn't. I would have rather have some other skill." [Fan Lin]
"Your martial soul is Blue Silver Grass. What do you think was going to happen?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"My martial soul had nothing to do with this. It's my bad luck." [Fan Lin]
"I have done the areas that you wanted. Don't interfere in my work. Again." [Fan Lin]
"And if I did?" [Qiangu Dongfeng]
"Save yourself first. The council seems to be hungry for your demise. If you survived, then I will do something about your interfering as well." [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin said as four pairs of ice wings formed around him and he set of for the air.
His domain made the flight easier and the moment he reached the cold skies, the skill changed, allowing fast travel and he zoomed to the Southern Douluo Continent.
Qiangu Dongfeng also got up as the chair beneath him had disappeared. He looked at the vast green lands and disappeared.
With this task, Fan Lin had erased the enmity that Qiangu Dongfeng had against him.
Why?
Because Fan Lin had blamed everything on Qiangu Dongfeng, be it the matter of his skill, the spirit soul tower challenge or the prize. Fan Lin had effortlessly lied and got himself out of the limelight while focusing everything on Qiangu Dongfeng.
The result was the anger of the Council that was to befall on him when all the members gathered but Qiangu Dongfeng will care of it.
He had his ways and Fan Lin just made things easier. For at the end of the day, all the council wanted was profit, be it for themselves or the Spirit Pagoda.
"I will strangle them out one at a time. My Spirit Pagoda doesn't need leeches."