Chapter 158 The Captain’s Big Purchase

Chapter 158 The Captain’s Big Purchase
Duncan was telling the truth – after saying goodbye to Shirley he literally ran to the store near the Crossroads neighborhood to get Nina a bike.

And on the way to do something that had been planned ages ago but had been put off until today due to various delays: open an account for himself at the bank.

Inside the Plain City State Bank, Duncan was waiting for the clerk lady at the front desk to get the last of the forms ready for him, and since the wait was boring, he focused his attention on observing his surroundings.

Perhaps because it was not a day off, coupled with the fact that there were not many citizens in the lower city who needed to conduct banking business, the lobby of the bank itself was rather cold, with three out of the total five clerical windows unused, the staff in black uniforms chatting behind those unused windows, and the bright light of the electric lamps shining on the glass of the counters, with a lazy halo of light.

Duncan’s gaze shifted upward to see long cast-iron pipes stretching out near each of those counters, pipes that seemed to run like tiny pillars up to the ceiling and lined up neatly overhead, stretching out into the back of the hall somewhere, while a low rhythmic clacking sound came from the floor beneath his feet, as if some sort of mechanical device was running underground.

The lady clerk who had prepared the form finally confirmed the last item, and she handed it to Duncan, saying routinely, “Sign at the end after confirming that it’s correct, and there’s a drawing of your account and seal on it. The fee required for a bearer account is six solas and five pesos.”

Duncan took the form and looked at it curiously, and was struck with many speculations about the civilization of the city-states and the economic system of this world, but he was not an expert in this area, so after a few moments of rambling he focused on the end of the form – after memorizing a short string of numbers on it he signed it and handed the form with the handling fee to the opposite party. form across the table along with the processing fee.

The lady clerk took the form and, after a casual glance, placed it on a hole-punching machine, which, with a brisk click, punched a dazzling array of holes in the blank box around the edge of the form, before the paper was rolled up by the clerk, stuffed into a metal cylinder and plunged into a pipe next to the counter.

The sound of metal clashing came, followed by the closing of the pipe, the hiss of steam pressurizing and the sound of an object sliding rapidly through the pipe reached Duncan’s ears, and his gaze moved upward with the sound to see one of the curved tubes that connected to the ceiling quiver slightly – and the document was sent off to some faraway place.

“Wait a while,” said the clerk behind the counter casually, “if the pipes don’t break down today, and the machine across the way happens to be in good shape, you’ll have your return in half an hour – but if that faulty light next to it light comes on, then you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

Fantastic process.

None of it was very efficient for Duncan, but for the world it was as advanced as the city-state civilizations had tried their best to develop so far since the dawn of the Deep Age.

He watched it all with curiosity and emotion, while hearing the chatter among the clerks – the young man behind the counter next to him was exclaiming, “I’ve heard that the Truth Academy over there is approaching the head office about installing some new machine that would increase the efficiency of the head office’s processing by more than a few times ……”

“It’s called a large differential machine – the City Bank in Mokko has been using them for a long time, and there are actually some within the city of Prand, a couple of smaller ones over at the Tax Office and the Mathematical Institute, and one in the Cathedral, I hear they’re used for managing archives,” the clerk sitting across from Duncan casually picked up the conversation, “If you ask me, it’s retarded enough that the head office side is just now thinking about it.”

“It’s not like it’s any of our business,” another clerk with nothing better to do joined in the chit-chat, “It’s expensive and bulky, and with the steam core as a power source and the accompanying punching and analyzing machines, a set of differentials could fill the entire lobby… …”

“It is said that the Truth Academy is also organizing manpower to research the next generation of differential machines? It seems that it can be half the size, and its performance is comparable to that of the current mainframe, and it’s powered by electricity. ……”

“Electricity? Without a steam core? What if the machine gets possessed while it’s running? That thing has to calculate a lot of data constantly, and without divine vapor protection, it’s too easy to attract evil spirits in the bearings and gear sets, right?”

“I don’t know …… Maybe a priest would have to stand next to it, and while the machine is calculating, the priest would light incense and say mass for the machine ……”

“…… Then it doesn’t feel like miniaturization would save anything, but it would take up an extra clergyman ……”

“Hey, how much space does a priest take up, how much space does half a differential machine take up, and how expensive are the prices in the city center ……”

It seemed that no matter what world they were in, people’s small talk at work while they were pawing at the fish was all the same pie-in-the-sky and north-south, and the topic of conversation among a few of the bank clerks quickly shifted from the differencing machine to the price of housing in the city-state, but on the other hand, what they were gabbing about was so rare and interesting to Duncan – he was so mesmerized by what he was hearing, that he forgot about it. the boredom of waiting.

But the chit-chat didn’t last long, and the conversation about “which is more expensive, the price of a house or a priest” was finally interrupted by a clunk from a nearby transmission pipe.

Duncan opposite the clerk lady opened the copper pipe next to the counter, and took out the metal cylinder inside – this metal cylinder is obviously not the same type as the previous delivery, it seems to be thicker and heavier, and there is a complex locking structure at the seal, the clerk used a special tool to drum half a day before the lid was opened, and took out the contents. The thing.

It was a rectangular metal plate half the size of a palm, with letters and symbols stamped in steel, and randomly arranged holes of varying sizes around the edges, and the string of numbers Duncan had just memorized was stamped on one end of the plate.

“This is your seal card,” the clerk lady said as she handed the metal plate to Duncan, “It can be used universally at any bank within the city-state of Prand, or at the Boundless Sea Chamber of Commerce bank in any other city-state – but access to money in other city-states operations will be delayed by three to seven days, which is the time it takes to telegraph across the sea or to communicate in the spirit world.”

“Thanks.” Duncan took the metal plate, looking with curiosity at the artifact that seemed to represent the technological level of the city-state’s civilization, his eyes surveying the small, delicate holes, while on the bank counter he found the machine used to read it. These technological artifacts, very different from those on Earth, but equally representative of the world’s wisdom, are the “footprints” of the city-state civilization of the Deep Sea Era, which has come all the way to the present day.

“Is there anything else you need?” A voice of inquiry came from behind the counter.

“Ah …… no, thank you,” Duncan woke up, he showed a hint of a smile, got up from the chair, but before leaving, and as if he suddenly remembered something, could not help but stop and casually asked, “say Can …… machines really be neutralized?”

“Of course it will, what’s so strange about that?” The clerk behind the counter immediately replied, as if this was a question that didn’t even need to be considered for her, “Anything in this world can be contaminated except subspace, isn’t that common sense?”

Duncan was stunned, he had only asked the question casually, but the other party’s answer somehow touched his thoughts, making him feel a shimmering light somewhere in the back of his mind.

A moment later, he nodded gently, “…… Indeed, anything in this world can be contaminated except subspace.”

He then left the bank.

As planned, he had another big purchase to make today – besides buying Nina a bike, he had a long list of things on his shopping list that could scare Nina out of her wits.

The proceeds from the previous sale of the dagger to old Mr. Morris, plus the reward for reporting the cultists, had added up to enough money to support a family of three for a year or two of clothed survival in the Lower City, and now that most of that money had remained untouched, Duncan felt it was time to put it to good use.

So for the next half day, Duncan rolled through the markets and stores around the Crossroads neighborhood in an almost sweeping fashion ……

At about 4:00 PM, in the shadows of a street near the Crossroads, Duncan set the last of his pack on the ground with a clang and let out a long sigh of relief.

He looked at the mountain of stuff in front of him with satisfaction.

Flour, vegetables, seeds, spices, fresh meats, cured ingredients, dried mushrooms of all kinds, wine – and cheese.

Cheese that was edible, normal, and younger than him in age.

There were even a bunch of pots and pans and a lot of things that Duncan thought might be useful.

Getting all this stuff on board would definitely change the Lost Country’s existence for the better.

At the very least, the galley would be able to produce a steady stream of human meals.

Duncan nodded with satisfaction and casually greeted, “Aye!”

A fluttering sound came from over the nearby buildings, and Aey landed firmly on his shoulder.

In the next instant, the pigeon glanced at something on the ground and exclaimed under his breath, “You’re not amusing Sprinkles!”

Before the words left his mouth, the bird’s body lurched and fell straight to the ground – although Duncan hadn’t yet said what he’d told it to do, the creature had obviously wisely realized its situation.

Duncan, however, just hemmed and hawed and caught the pigeon in mid-air that was in free fall: “It’s okay, if you can’t transport it back once, you can transport it a few more times well ……”

(End of chapter)