Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 112 [The Only Solution]

"Increase the wind speed!" Brenner stood in front of Forging Platform No. 1.

The hammer was raised high and then fell heavily.

when!

The furnace's exhaust vents spewed out scorching white smoke, thus dividing the workshop into two worlds.

On the left is the birthplace of the Shell of Order.

Thirty master blacksmiths stood in a row.

They worked together seamlessly, maintaining a unified rhythm.

Every hammer blow lands on the same spot. The precious material stretches and fuses through hundreds and thousands of forgings, transforming into a hemispherical, silvery-white metal shell.

To the right is the execution ground for the Gallbladder of Chaos.

Mason, accompanied by three dwarf apprentices, guarded the second crucible.

The obsidian fragments tumbled and struggled under the high temperature, attempting to break free of the crucible's constraints.

A dwarf apprentice even had to use his body to hold down the stirring rod, not far away.

Li Yao lay on the makeshift stone bed, half of her skin had turned into translucent crystals, with black threads running inside them.

The game UI displays her time as 00:15:32.

"Order group progress 90%; Chaos group progress..." Aija noticed the dwarf apprentice pressing down on the mixer with his body, "Stuck...?!"

“Those stones are completely unruly.” Master Ballin glanced to the right. “I’ve said it before, this kind of mud that can only be dealt with by ‘casting’ doesn’t deserve to be called craftsmanship.”

In her, or rather, in the understanding of dwarf culture, only through rigorous training and refinement is the right path.

Pouring melted liquid into a mold? That's for kids playing with mud.

"If you don't want us all to go to heaven together, shut up and get to work," Wang Xuan added abruptly.

Turning to the right, Mason, the chief commander of this massive project, was also working up a sweat.

Even in the frigid snowfield, the high temperature here caused him to peel off a layer of skin.

"No, it's too unstable," Mason shouted. "It'll shatter as soon as it's put into the mold; the internal stress of the obsidian is a complete mess."

As Ai Jia deduced the logic, she offered supporting suggestions, truly utilizing her doctoral mind. "You can't treat it like metal. The more you try to 'shape' it, the more violently it resists."

"What should we do then? Beg it to go in?" the dwarf apprentice cried.

"Ignore the stress," Ai Jia said sharply. "Change the medium."

She rushed to the materials shelf and grabbed a handful of dark blue crystal powder.

This powder is usually used as a coolant, and the four of them, having spent some time with the dwarves, knew a little about its basic uses.

"Are you insane!" Barring roared. "That's molten metal! Pour in coolant? It'll explode!"

Wang Xuan stepped forward and blocked Ballin's path as he tried to rush over to stop him.

"Do as she says."

"This is suicide!"

"This is the only way." Wang Xuan looked at Mason, "Mason, fall!"

Mason's hand trembled slightly, but he chose to trust the messengers of the gods.

"I want... to let him cook." Mason gritted his teeth, took the crystal powder from Aja's hand, and poured it all into the churning black liquid.

Sizzle—!

White smoke billowed into the air, the crucible trembled, and the dwarves' muscle memory compelled them to raise their shields.

Extreme heat and extreme cold collide inside the crucible.

Perhaps due to some special effect, the churning stopped, and the restless liquid turned into a viscous semi-fluid.

"Now! Put it in the mold!" Ai Jia ordered.

Mason pulled the lever, and the black fluid flowed obediently into the mold with the inner liner carved into it.

"It's done!" the apprentice exclaimed.

"Don't be too happy yet." Brenner finished the final forging. "Prepare for the final fusion. The most dangerous step is coming."

……

Aside from the blazing fire inside, it was freezing cold outside... and there were restless conservatives whose torches illuminated half the snowy night.

"Open the door!"

"Hand over those blasphemers!"

"The subterranean fire has changed color! That's a curse from the abyss!"

Thousands of dwarven civilians, wielding torches, pickaxes, and even kitchen knives, stormed the fortress gates.

Behind them, several elderly dwarf nobles in magnificent robes pointed tremblingly at the white smoke billowing from the top of the fortress.

"Look! The earth fire left by our ancestors has been polluted white by them! That's the color of the dead!"

"Brenner betrayed our fortress!"

The crowd went wild, and the hinges of the gate creaked.

Chen Kai stood in the shadows behind the door, wearing the brand-new [Wind Fang] armor set, but his spear was stuck upside down in the ground.

He was all alone.

"Aren't you going to help?" asked a dwarf guard on the gate, his hands trembling. There were many of his neighbors and relatives outside.

"My job is to guard the goal."

"But……"

"As long as I stand here, the door won't open." Chen Kai crossed his arms.

The door cracked open, and several irrational mobs reached in, trying to pry the door open.

At this moment, Chen Kai kicked, and the spear shaft swept horizontally, knocking those hands away.

The gentle yet irresistible wind pushed the people crowded at the front of the crowd three meters away.

A brief vacuum appeared in the crowd.

Chen Kai stepped forward and filled the gap in the door with his body.

One man can hold the pass.

"This road is blocked," Chen Kai said.

The crowd outside fell silent for a moment, then began throwing things: stones, rotten vegetable leaves, and even throwing axes.

Chen Kai didn't even blink; all the projectiles were deflected by the flowing wind wall when they got within a foot of him.

"Never mind what's outside," Chen Kai said via the in-game forum. "Get things sorted out here, then I'm going offline to eat."

……

Inside the workshop, two hemispheres floated in mid-air.

The outer layer is silver-white, the inner layer is pitch black, and the inner liner must be accurately suspended in the exact center of the outer shell.

"Repulsion Rune Set, activate," Brenner ordered.

Six rune masters infused the runes, causing the inner wall of the silver-white shell to glow with blue light, and an invisible force field was generated.

The inner liner slides into the outer shell, just as Mason envisioned, vacuum-sealed, with two independent layers.

"This is art." Even Barlin had to admit that the design was beautiful.

Click.

The two halves of the shell came together, and the clips locked in place... Hey, it didn't explode.

The double-layered sphere suspended in the air rotated quietly.

A silvery light shimmered, and through the observation window deliberately left on the outer shell, one could see that the pitch-black core inside was also rotating in the opposite direction.

One black and one white.

One positive and one negative.

Do not interfere with each other.

"It worked?" Mason slumped to the ground.

Aijia stared at the monitoring panel. "It's working normally."

The cheers were just beginning to build in their throats.

hum-

A faint buzzing sound broke the silence.

The sphere began to vibrate, at a very low frequency, but the frequency increased every second.

"What's going on?! Wasn't the calculation correct?" Brenner began to doubt his life; there were no mistakes in the calculation.

"The calculations are indeed correct, but we missed an important point: the airless space established by the runes... it also counts as a medium." Aija discovered the key point.

The two opposing rules do not actually come into direct contact, but they transmit vibrations through the force field in between.

The chaotic shockwaves struck the force field, which then transmitted the shockwaves to the outer layer of ordered runes.

The two frequencies are opposite, so instead of canceling each other out, they add up.

"They're resonating, this is bad, they might still end up in the sky..." Ai Jia sighed helplessly.

The reaction intensified, and the workshop's equipment was almost completely destroyed by the tremors.

"We can't hold it in any longer!" The rune masters were bleeding from their mouths and noses; they were unable to maintain that violent force field.

"Stop! Stop now!" Ballin tried to disassemble the outer casing.

"Don't stop!" Wang Xuan grabbed him. "Stopping will trigger an immediate explosion! The entire fortress will be destroyed!"

Caught between a rock and a hard place, stubbornness leads to being blocked on both ends.

If this continues, the resonance will shatter the container.

Stop, boom!

The plan is perfect.

Execution was perfect.

Reality played a cruel joke on us.

"Ten seconds left!" Ai Jia pushed the calculation result, her despair overwhelming her even before the mob outside.

"No, that's not right...maybe..." She hadn't given up yet, waving her hand in the air, actually making a final struggle through the game interface.

The instant when the two rules push against each other and then retreat simultaneously.

A gap of 0.1 seconds.

"Wang Xuan!" Ai Jia suddenly shouted, "You have the [Scholarly Barrier]!"

"What?"

"I want you to unleash an overloaded [Static] rune on it at the very moment the next vibrational cycle begins!"

"About what?"

"The outer shell!"

This was not part of the plan.

That's not scientific either.

Since its invention by Lynch, the god of forging, the effect of the Stasis Rune has been largely verified: it seals things off, and is exceptionally stable and powerful.

At this particular point in time, this characteristic simplifies things.

If the energy is locked at that moment, the two energies will explode because they have no outlet.

There is only that one moment of balance.

If it fails, detonate immediately.

Wang Xuan didn't ask about the success rate. She was a partner who had shared life and death with him. She said so, so he did it. There was no need to ask too many questions.

Overloaded by his heavy armor, all his energy converged in his right palm.

The sphere emitted a piercing shriek.

Ai Jia looked at the data.

"three."

Wang Xuan raised his hand.

"two."

Energy leaps at your fingertips.

"one!"

Wang Xuan slammed his palm heavily onto the wildly trembling silver ball.

"Stop right there—!"

【Stagnation】

The world fell silent.

The sphere hovered motionless in mid-air, and Wang Xuan remained in the pressing position, cold sweat dripping down his nose.

one second.

two seconds.

The brilliance on the sphere's surface is solidified in an amber-like texture, while the surging blackness inside is also frozen in time.

"That is..." Brenner dared not breathe deeply.

"It's done." Aijia slumped in her chair. "The current state is like a time bomb that could explode at any moment; but at least for now, its countdown has been paused."

A balance forcibly maintained by brute force. Fragile, but effective.

This is the finished product they obtained.

An imperfect, one-time-use cage that has imprisoned the greatest disaster.

The dangerous radiation on Li Yao's body disappeared, and the [Seed of Chaos] in her chest fell into a forced slumber.

The noise at the gate continued.

But the war here is over.

Mason lay on the dusty floor, staring at the ceiling and grinning foolishly.

Master Balin wiped the blood from his nose, which had been shaken out, and looked at the floating sphere. His eyes were no longer arrogant, but only filled with awe.

Wang Xuan withdrew his trembling hand and typed two lines of text in the player public channel.

It was sent to Chen Kai, who was still holding out outside, and also to those who were still fighting hard in the distant valley.

"Done."

"The four-man team is back immediately."