Chapter 13: Castle of Black Iron
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
Zhang Tie faintly felt that the surrounding environment had suddenly changed as if he instantly exited a tunnel while on a train. At the same time, Zhang Tie also felt warmer. He could smell a much fresher air, a smell akin to the park after it rained. Zhang Tie couldn’t help but open his eyes. When he did, he was really shocked with his mouth opened widely, saliva dripping.
What was presented in front of Zhang Tie was a square, broad, and empty land. Standing in the middle of the piece of land, Zhang Tie noticed that this land was several times larger than the Seventh National Male Middle School. He roughly measured the length and width of the land with his eyes and found that they were both at least 700m. It felt extremely open; there were only a few things left on the land. It seemed like a barren land with only one bulge at the center of the land. There was also a small tree as tall as a person not far away from Zhang Tie.
With great curiosity, Zhang Tie looked at the small tree.
It was growing well with its spreading branches and luxuriant foliage. Each leaf seemed as if it was flowing with a special brilliance, which made the tree very conspicuous. What amazed Zhang Tie was that the leaves were in various shapes and colors, making each leaf distinct from one another. How weird! However, Zhang Tie also felt strangely harmonious with the leaves of varying shapes hanging on the tree. The tree was neither made of gold nor wood; it was a material that nobody knew of.
Colorful fog swirled above the tree in ever changing shapes. Staring at the tree for a while, Zhang Tie naturally felt a sense of tranquility and peace.
What he had earlier seen in the crystal egg several hours ago was fully present in front of his eyes — the strange tree and the colorful fog…
“Am I dreaming?”
Looking at himself, he was wearing the same clothes he wore before going to bed — he only wore shorts. Even his posture in bed was unchanged. Zhang Tie pinched his [email protected]#$% and realized that he was not dreaming, thus he got up and stood on his bare feet. Where he sat was just ten steps away from the tree. He moved towards it and circled it twice. He didn’t know why, but he felt a sense of familiarity with the tree. He felt that he and the tree shared a blood-tie.
Being a relative to a strange tree, Zhang Tie was almost driven mad.
Circling it for quite some time, he couldn’t figure it out. He only felt that there was something strange about those colorful leaves. Thus, Zhang Tie decided to further explore the land. As the soil was fine and smooth with a proper temperature and contained no impurities, Zhang Tie felt like he was standing on soft and wet sand, so he began to run in his bare feet. Although the area only covered slightly more than 0.5 km2 and was limited in space, it was still enough for Zhang Tie to make a dash. He explored the surrounding environment and the edge of this space. He could see the rolling colorful fog from far away. There was a strange elasticity that pulled Zhang Tie back from the barrier; therefore, he was never able to break through it. More than 300m away from the small tree, Zhang Tie found a black deep mire that was larger than 200m2. The mire was as black as ink, and it was still bubbling; however, there was no smell, which gave Zhang Tie goosebumps. After looking around, Zhang Tie found no other living being within this space besides himself, not even a single ant.
“Anybody here? Where am I?”...
“Can anyone tell me where I am?”...
“Anybody here?”...
Zhang Tie shouted yet got no reply, not even an echo. He spent another ten minutes to look around and finally ascertained that he really was the only living being here.
Therefore, Zhang Tie decided to start from the tree.
Circling the tree for a while, he felt increasingly intimate with it. Zhang Tie couldn’t help but touch the small tree that had splendid leaves. Touching it, Zhang Tie abruptly saw a semi-transparent pale blue dialog box that had a line in it and was startled.
——Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree
——The tree feels that energy is leaking from your body. With the leaking energy, you can produce Leakless Fruit. Do you want to produce it?
——Yes … No
There were two options below which Zhang Tie had never seen before. He was really stunned when he saw this. Moving his hands away, the dialog box disappeared; putting his hands on it, the dialog box re-appeared. He repeated this for many times and got the same response. Although he didn’t know what it was, he knew that it was definitely a great thing...
Although Zhang Tie didn’t know what energy was escaping from his body, he considered that the choice would do him no harm, thus he stretched out his hand and selected “Yes”. It was a strange feeling. Although there was nothing in front of Zhang Tie, when he pressed the option, he felt like he really pressed something ——
——Leakless Fruit in production, 168 hours away from maturation!
——Space management system template of Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree is established!
——Please name It. Attention, the name is permanent!
——Space name:———————— （followed by a line of sparkling spots）
The moment the old dialog box disappeared, a new one appeared. Seeing the line of sparkling dots behind the name of the space, Zhang Tie was stunned for a while. He then figured it out and replied — Castle of Black Iron!
After That, the four words appeared on the sparkling light spots. This also shocked Zhang Tie.
——Name of space: Castle of Black Iron!
——Enter … Back
Zhang Tie pressed the “Enter” button. Then, the old dialog box disappeared and a new one appeared.
——What do you want the system to call you?
——Your Name:————————（followed by a line of sparkling light spots）
Zhang Tie then naturally knew what to do next. After a while, he figured that nobody would even know. Even though he was a little arrogant, no matter what, he was not afraid of being called sick; therefore, he set his name — Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord!
“It should be ok, nobody would know!” Zhang Tie thought to himself faintly. Finally, he made a decision and pressed “Enter”...
——Castle of Black Iron and the Lord of Castle of Black Iron confirmed!
——Preliminary management system template of Castle of Black Iron has been established!
When the dialog box disappeared, Zhang Tie’s eyes turned bright once again. A semi-transparent pale blue icon, marked with a small tree in the center and “Castle of Black Iron” below the small tree, appeared in the upper left corner of Zhang Tie’s vision and started to sparkle. Becoming braver and braver, Zhang Tie touched the icon with his hand, and as a result, the icon instantly expanded in front of Zhang Tie while several lines of words appeared on the branch of the tree and became a tree-like menu.
There were four options inside:
——Basic Attributes of the Castle of Black Iron
——Space and Topographic Creation
——Living Beings and Species Management
——Produce Special Seeds and Fruits of Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree
Zhang Tie touched the first item, “Basic Attributes of the Castle of Black Iron”, which was between the root and the branch of the functional tree. All of a sudden, a new data window opened.
Castle of Black Iron
——Length: 1 Krosa (a length unit in ancient India)
——Width: 1 Krosa
——Aura Value: 0
——Merit Value: 0
——Basic Energy Storage：0
——Special Output: Void
“Length unit 1 Krosa? What’s that? How long does that mean?” Zhang Tie only heard about millimeter, centimeter, decimeter, meter, kilometer, sound second, and light second. However, what’s “krosa”? “I’ve never heard about that!” Zhang Tie looked at the other basic attributes and heaved a deep sigh.
It was completely empty. Although it had poor data, Zhang Tie became vigorous as he felt like starting from scratch. Even though he couldn’t understand the content, he continued to touch another button — “Space and Topography Creation”. Unexpectedly, the following words appeared in front of Zhang Tie:
——As the three storage values of Castle of Black Iron are 0, the Space and Topographic Creation Function is not available!
Touching another option, “Living Beings and Species Management”, a new window opened.
——Carbon Based Living Beings and Species Management
——Silicon Based Living Beings and Species Management
——Sulfur Based Living Beings and Species Management
——Other Living Beings and Species Management
This time, besides the first option, “Carbon Based Living Beings and Species Management” was available, while the other options were all gray. When Zhang Tie pressed the first button, a dialog box containing two messages jumped out.
——Input systematic resources into a biological population or an organism. You can help this living being mutate and evolve in an unprecedented way.
——The system has detected carbon based microorganisms on you, the Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord. When you entered the Castle of Black Iron, the Microorganisms System of the Castle of Black Iron started.
After the dialog box disappeared automatically, three new options appeared.
Among the three sub-options of animals, plants, and microorganisms, only the option “microorganisms” was activated and available.
Therefore, Zhang Tie touched the option of microorganisms.
Zhang Tie then saw the microorganisms that he “carried” into the Castle of Black Iron under the option of “Microorganism”. They were bacteria and microzyme. Everybody, more or less, carried bacteria. Some were good, while some were bad. The microzyme might have come from the rice brew at home. He remembered having drunk three bowls of rice brews downstairs just now. Some of the rice brew might have spilled onto his clothes and followed him into the Castle of Black Iron.
He touched the option “Microzyme”, which enlarged and looked like a drop before another new picture appeared.
To the left of the icon of “Microzyme” was a red cross. Under the icon, the system showed three sliders that were similar to schedule bars and respectively corresponded to the three basic attributes: aura value, merit value, and basic energy.
As it did not seem that complex, Zhang Tie simply glanced at it and understood their uses. The three sliders seemed to represent that you agree to input systematic resources into these living beings. Once you have decided to do that, the selected living beings or species would mutate and evolve to a certain degree.
Zhang Tie touched the other red cross beside the icon “Microzyme”!
—— Will you, the Handsome and Magnificent Castle Owner, kill these living beings using the rules of the space? Attention! Once it has killed, it will never revive.
——Yes… Cancel...
Zhang Tie was startled and hurriedly touched the “Cancel” option and decided to use this function as little as possible.
It seemed very interesting. Closing this window, Zhang Tie tried again and found the function “Produce Special Seeds and Fruits of Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree” was not available yet.
The Castle of Black Iron seemed to be full of secrets. When Zhang Tie was prepared to further study it, a dialog box appeared in front of him:
—— The system has detected that you, the Handsome and Magnificent Castle Owner, is already exhausted, both spiritually and physically. All functions are in negative conditions. As the aura value of the system is zero, it cannot provide a good environment for you to recover. It’s suggested that you, the Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord, leave the Castle of Black Iron and return after you have recovered.
Meanwhile, the “door” in his consciousness also sent a slight wave to indicate that once Zhang Tie would like to leave, he just had to lock the “door” in his mind and think to himself, “Return”...
After that, Zhang Tie felt very sleepy. It was a really energy-consuming day He made a deep yawn, and after thinking for a while, he held back his desire to continue exploring. He locked the door in his mind and thought to himself, “Return”. He felt that feeling of traversing a tunnel once more. Zhang Tie’s eyes opened widely, as he didn’t know how he was out of there. He only felt that the door in his mind shook, and then he found himself standing on his bed and everything around him had instantly changed. What had happened just now seemed as if it came from nothing. It felt like a photographer pulled a line on the wall behind him to change the background when taking a picture of a family.
That was [email protected]#$ing amazing!
Without recalling what had happened just now, Zhang Tie felt really sleepy and fell asleep instantly...