Chapter 1508: The Hot Pot Restaurant Can Do Without Her
After the breakfast service was over, Mag went to the factory in the north of the city.
Irina herself was supervising the work, and the 20,000 Night Elves personally built many fine-looking wooden factories in the empty plot of land in the north of the city.
If it weren’t for those garish chimneys, Mag would think he had walked into an artistic garden.
Of course, the combination of the chimneys and wooden factories also showed a striking contrast.
“What are you doing here?” Irina, who had come to the factory early in the morning, asked Mag, who had just walked into the office, with surprise.
“I come to check on the building progress of our palaces of art.” Mag chuckled.
“Aren’t they factories?” Irina pushed open the windows. Her office was on the fifth floor, and she could see all the factories around here.
“Perhaps only the elves could build such exquisite factories.” Mag also walked to the window to gaze at those almost completely wooden factories. The perfect marriage of industry and nature amazed him.
“I have a question for you.” Irina pointed at those textile factory’s chimneys giving out black smoke and frowned. “The smoke that is produced after burning coal is toxic, and has a very bad influence on the plants and animals. I think we shouldn’t continue to release smoke like this or promote it at a grand scale.”
Mag watched the black smoke emitted from those protruding chimneys fly toward the blue sky and taint it.
He didn’t expect he would still get caught by the Environmental Protection Agency in the alternate world for random discharge.
However, looking at this scene, Mag was reminded of England during the First Industrial Revolution. Those protruding chimneys proudly declared the arrival of the steam age. However, humans still had to pay for all their actions. The environment deteriorated, the diseases ravaged, and the sky was no longer blue.
Suddenly, he began to doubt his rash decision of bringing the steam engine to this world.
If this world entered into the steam age because of his intervention, was it beneficial or harmful to this world where magic existed?
Mag couldn’t have a confirmed answer now, nor did he have the ability to run a complete deduction, but he was sure that if the steam engines were to popularize and develop without an order, the blue sky would be lost forever.
“This is indeed a headache.” Mag nodded. Coal that was not treated gave out a huge amount of exhaust after being burned.
The elves were always close to nature, so of course they were very sensitive to that.
“I will do an initial processing for the coal, and desulfurize the smoke to reduce toxic gas emissions,” Mag said after a moment of silence.
“How much can we reduce?” Irina asked.
“Currently, the methods that we could use are limited. We can remove about half of it,” Mag replied after thinking for a while.
“Alright. I will handle the remaining half.” Irina smiled. “I was still thinking how to handle the other half. Now, we’ll be able to achieve nontoxic emissions.”
“Hmm?” Mag stared at Irina with surprise.
“I planted a lot of the plant called ‘absorbing grass’ in the new chimneys. It can grow in a very extreme environment, and has a very strong absorbing and purifying ability. I have tested it. It could effectively purify half of the toxic gases in a 50 meters long chimney, and then transform it into a harmless material.”
“There is something like that!” Mag was really shocked by it. A super powerful biological detoxification method which could achieve a 50% detoxification effect just planting a kind of grass in the chimney.
This grass was really born for detoxification.
“Is this why you wanted to build the factories yourself?” Mag asked. He had previously suggested getting the dwarves to come build the factories as they were very efficient and precise, but Irina had rejected it.
“Yes.” Irina nodded. She gazed down at those busy elves down there, and said with a sense of mission, “We believe in the God of Life and the nature that nurtures us. We also love the existence of other lives. We definitely couldn’t accept gaining wealth through the destruction or oppression of nature.”
“However, the metals which could move after burning the coal are not just used in our factories, right?” Irina turned to look at Mag.
“Yes. This is a collaborative project between me, Miss Scheer, and the city lord. The initial motive was to introduce the steam engine trains, and then utilize the steam engines into the production so we could increase the productivity.” Mag nodded. These few factories could be considered as pilot programs. Large-scale and wide-spread promotion most probably would not take too long. The steam engines would sweep across the world, and drag it into the Age of Steam.
“Can you control it?”
“No.” Mag shook his head. Nobody could stop the high-efficiency solutions from replacing the low-efficiency ones. He had already released the monster, the steam engine. He no longer had the power to keep it away.
Irina furrowed her brows tightly.
“However, maybe I could make them reduce the emissions and reduce the harm done to nature,” Mag replied after a brief moment of pondering.
“But, it is still harming nature.” Irina continued to frown.
Mag fell into a silence. Although he believed it was inevitable, just as Irina said, less harm done was still harm done.
The humans were not able to love and treasure nature and lives like elves.
“Is it alright if Amy can never see a blue sky like this one day?”
Mag suddenly felt his heart constrict. Amy had a soul that was as pure as an elf’s. She loved nature and all lives fiercely just like the elves. She would definitely be crushed if the blue sky and fluffy clouds were to disappear one day.
“I will try my best to stop this day from coming,” Mag promised solemnly.
“I will do that together with you.” Irina smiled at Mag.
Mag looked down at those green factories and smiled. “That would be much easier.”
***
“Boss, we couldn’t get any information at all. The people who were arrested last night are still being held up. Even the girls from the brothels were not released.” The manager nervously peeped at the grave-looking Bennett.
“Who the heck is messing with me?” Bennett slammed his palm on the coffee table with a dark expression.
Who was able to mobilize such a large-scale Gray Temple’s operation? He couldn’t remember when he had ever made such a terrifying enemy.
“Could it be that Mamy Restaurant’s bo—”
“It cannot be him!” Bennett shook his head with conviction. Mag wasn’t even in the top 100 on his list of enemies.
He was just a chef. What power and status would he possibly have to make the Gray Temple mess with him?
“However, since the gambling dens and brothels are all gone, it seems like I have to take some serious actions now.” Bennett got up, picked up the hat at the side, and put it on. In a low voice, he said, “I will go see Miss Rena again. The hot pot restaurant can do without her, but we have to get the formula…”