Chapter 3158: Chapter 3159: Pipi Castle

The dome shrouding Pipi Castle was golden, pure and dazzling. Yet inside Pipi Castle, it was a murky gray, the sky’s original color indistinguishable, dim like the pitch-black heavens before a storm breaks.

And beneath this dark Sky Dome stretched a floor paved with reinforced concrete, along with rows upon rows of pointed houses shaped like Pyramids.

Let’s temporarily call them Pyramid houses.

The quality of these Pyramid houses was clearly distinguishable: the inferior ones were cobbled together from metal plates, gaudy in color; the slightly better ones had bodies of pure metal, without a single patch.

Different materials, different sizes, yet the one thing all Pyramid houses shared was the pointed tip—the chimney—where the same billowing, thick smoke poured out.

Even separated by several hundred meters, Angel could smell the outrageously choking metallic tang in the smoke.

These dark gray fumes gathered in midair, forming a low-hanging mass of black clouds pressing down over the city.

By now, Angel understood why the sky above Pipi Castle was so dim: it was the pollution.

For a moment, Angel felt an illusion of being back in Yirong Country. Yirong Country’s greatest strength was its exceptional machinery; its greatest flaw, the lethal poor-quality air.

"Pipi Castle doesn’t actually have strict block divisions, only the distinction of inner and outer districts, and this place belongs to neither the inner city nor the Outercity. It’s the transition zone." Luigi’s voice drifted over. "The people living here are basically all from the dome guard corps, or in other words, Pirush who don’t want to pay air tax but still want to carry out heavy-pollution experiments."

"The guard corps, I can understand. What is this air tax?" Angel looked at Luigi in puzzlement.

Luigi: "Just what it sounds like. Both inner city and Outercity have isolation shields that can Purify pollution generated by experiments, but running the shields requires a huge amount of Crystalline. The shortfall in Crystalline here has to be covered by the Pirush themselves—that’s the so-called air tax."

"The air tax in the Outercity is a bit lower, but the isolation shield’s Purification efficiency is also weaker. There’s still some pollution in the air, though not as bad as the transition zone; the inner city is basically free of pollution, but the air tax is correspondingly much higher."

Perhaps this could be considered one of Pipi Castle’s peculiarities?

Pirush, inventors by the head.

And any invention requires a vast number of trial-and-error experiments, each of which may bring pollution. Especially heavy mechanical and heavy chemical experiments, whose pollution is even more severe... To secure a decent environment, the Pirush invented the Purification isolation shield, but the cost of operation was too high, which led to the notion of the air tax.

"In the Pirush’s own words, this is the price of invention, an unavoidable period of growing pains—but one that can definitely be solved." Luigi said, then added, "Those words came from Duke Pishu. After saying this, he pushed quite a few Pirush to turn their inventive efforts toward the isolation shields, focusing on developing low-consumption, high-efficiency shields. Although there haven’t been visible results yet, judging from the Pirush’s enthusiasm for invention, it probably won’t take many years before they come up with something."

Luigi spoke with considerable feeling.

In other respects, the Pirush were hated by all, but when it came to their passion for invention and the fruits of those inventions, one had to admit they really had a knack.

"Who is this Duke Pishu you mentioned?"

Luigi: "He’s the current ruler of Pipi Castle, something like... a King?"

Angel nodded in understanding; it seemed Duke Pishu was the Ruler here.

"Is he an inventor too?"

"You could say so, but as far as I recall, none of his inventions are particularly outstanding; it’s his elder brother and his father who are the truly renowned inventors among the Pirush." As Luigi spoke, he naturally slipped into a brief explanation of Duke Pishu’s family.

Simply put, it was a family of inventors. Duke Pishu’s rise to the position of Ruler owed not only to his own ability, but also to the lingering prestige of his elders.

Though Duke Pishu himself lacked notable inventive talent, he understood very well how crucial invention was to the Pirush. During his tenure, he strongly promoted public funding for inventions by commoner Pirush. Even though this brought with it issues of excessive pollution, it did genuinely raise the Pi Luoxiu Clan to a new height. Many high-end, cutting-edge inventions were created by commoner Pirush.

Inventions like the Sky Dome’s legs and the isolation shields were all made by commoner Pirush.

While vigorously promoting invention, Duke Pishu also strove to spread the Pirush’s outstanding inventions to the outside world. The reason the Pirush came to support this multi-racial routine gathering this time was also thanks to Duke Pishu.

Given the situation so far, Duke Pishu could actually be called a "Bright Lord."

Chatting about the current state of the Pirush as they walked, they soon reached the depths of the transition zone.

Along the way, Angel saw quite a few Pirush.

Their appearance was similar to what he had seen of Duo Yi before: all green-skinned little dwarfs, most shorter than one meter. The only difference was that Duo Yi was dressed in finery, whereas these Pirush were dressed very casually.

But because they didn’t care about their attire, Angel also resolved a doubt that had arisen in his heart when he first saw Duo Yi: did the Pirush have hair?

The answer: yes.

Just extremely sparse. Their scalps looked to have about a hundred strands, give or take?

With hair like that, matched with their shiny foreheads and big cow-like eyes, they looked even more "wise."

"These are all commoner Pirush." Luigi: "For many years in the past, they had almost no rights. Starting from Duke Pishu... no, that’s not quite right—from Duke Pishu’s father, more than a thousand years ago, commoner Pirush gradually stepped onto the stage."

"Now, commoner Pirush can freely engage in invention."

As he spoke, a Pirush with a face blackened by soot burst out from a Pyramid house belching thick smoke not far away. He was dressed like a pauper, yet he shouted, "It blew, it blew, this experiment topic is ruined—damn, I’ll have to apply for a subsidy again."

Angel didn’t know what exactly had blown up, but it looked like some experiment had gone awry.

Commoner Pirush could also invent, and if they lacked materials, they could even apply for subsidies. This alone showed that Duke Pishu had truly ushered in an era of invention for all.

They walked on for several hundred more meters. The road was still lined with Pyramid houses, most of them churning out thick smoke. Only a few shops were lit up in neon colors, with light shields around them, apparently isolating them from the outside pollution.

"Mini isolation shields, one Crystalline per month. They only isolate pollution and have no Purification function." Luigi: "So they can only be used for shops, you can’t do any experiments inside."

Looking at the multicolored shops, Luigi sighed. "A pity. All the shops here, except for one Dye store, are basically closed. They’ve probably all moved to Crystal City. Otherwise, I could have taken you inside for a look around."

Angel: "..." He didn’t have any Crystalline anyway; even if he browsed, it would be for nothing. Besides, there’d be plenty to wander through at the gathering, so there was no need to waste time here.

After another five minutes of walking, they finally saw the Outercity of Pipi Castle.

A massive light shield separated the transition zone’s surging pollution from it.

Through the light shield, the buildings inside could be vaguely made out... still Pyramid houses, though their size, specifications and outer decor were different.

The Outercity also had guards, though far fewer than those by the dome.

When they saw Angel approaching, the guards’ eyes clearly lit up, and leers spread across their faces, as if they’d just spotted a fat sheep.

However, the moment they saw Luigi behind Angel, the expressions of this group of guards immediately changed. They stood up straight, eyes fixed ahead, as if they really considered themselves pillars of the castle, stars among the guards.

"Master Luigi, what brings you here? Long time no see." The guard who had just changed his face walked over with a fawning grin.

Luigi clearly had no intention of chatting with the guard. He took out the access pass, handed it over, and said, "We’re going to see Baba Ragon. Get us a private rail car to take us to the inner city."

Guard: "About the fee..."

"You’ve still got the nerve to charge a fee?" Luigi let out a cold laugh. He wanted to nag a few words, but considering the time, he didn’t bother arguing and only said, "If you really insist on charging, put it on Baba Ragon’s tab."

The Pirush guard pulled a bitter face. "But, in the past, Master Baba Ragon never paid those fees either..."

Luigi: "Then go urge him to pay."

"W-We don’t dare."

Luigi: "Then I’ll go urge him."

The Pirush guard thought for a moment, then still shook his head. "Better not. If Master Baba Ragon really comes, we’re afraid he’ll swallow us in one bite."

Luigi snorted. "With that tiny belly and tiny mouth of his, he’d have trouble swallowing an ant."

Luigi, personally, felt nothing wrong with what he said. Angel also didn’t feel there was any problem. But the surrounding Pirush guards all backed off dozens of steps, faces full of terror.

Some guards even had their legs go weak and needed both hands on the railing for support.

"M-M-Ma... Ma..." The Pirush guard stammered, "Master, please don’t joke like that. We don’t dare listen to that kind of talk."

After he finished, he looked around at the others. "You all didn’t hear anything either, right?"

The group of Pirush all nodded repeatedly, their fearful expressions unchanged.

From this alone, it was clear they were very aware that Baba Ragon’s taboo was his miniature body. Only Luigi would dare to say such things so openly. They wouldn’t dare say it, let alone hear it.

"Cowards." Luigi grumbled impatiently.

The Pirush guard pretended not to hear, hunched his back and gestured for Luigi and Angel to move forward. "I’ll arrange a private rail car for the two of you right away. The fee, the fee... we’ll put it on..."

His eyeballs rolled around, then finally fixed on a nearby Pirush guard who had collapsed weakly on the ground. "We’ll put it on you."

Facing the other’s tearful, about-to-cry expression, he let out a sigh of relief and said cheerfully, "Masters, allow me to guide you."

On the way to the rail car station, Luigi said to Angel, "Actually, with access passes like ours, outsiders ride the rail cars for free. That’s a rule set by Duke Pishu."

"But, when it comes to these little things that get delegated down, the Pirush have all kinds of little tricks. In the end, it all boils down to collecting Crystalline."

"At first I paid too, until Baba Ragon told me the truth..."

Ever since then, Luigi simply refused to hand over any Crystalline.

Luigi didn’t lower his voice for this speech. The Pirush guard clearly heard it, but did not refute a single word. He even smiled and said, "This isn’t really a ’trick’, this is business."

"Besides, the Duke knows about this and hasn’t stopped it, which means it’s allowed."

Luigi snapped, "Duke Pishu doesn’t stop you because this is a small matter, and because there are very few outsiders who come to your Pipi Castle in the first place."

"Master, that’s where you’re wrong. Precisely because so few people come, we have to grasp these rare business opportunities all the more." The Pirush guard looked as if this were only natural.

Luigi was left speechless and couldn’t be bothered to argue. He only turned his head and silently said to Angel: See? That’s the Pirush for you.

...

The so-called rail car was somewhat similar to the aerial vine buses of the Barbarian Cave, but the buses of Pipi Castle already had fully metal carriages, and the overhead tracks covered the entire inside and outside of the castle.

They were riding an overhead rail car that, using its crisscrossing tracks, could swiftly bring them from the Outercity to the inner city.

Baba Ragon was in the inner city.

The interior space of the rail car was fairly spacious, but the seats were rather low—so low that they couldn’t sit down at all. This was normal, though; after all, the rail cars were designed with the Pirush’s height in mind.

The rail car was very fast—faster even than the vine buses—but its weaknesses were obvious too.

While traveling along the tracks, the rumbling noise was deafening, and steam kept spurting out. Although it was immediately sucked up by the isolation system, those inside the car could still catch a whiff of a pungent odor.

Still, these were minor issues.

As long as the rail car could quickly reach the inner city, such small problems were tolerable.

From inside the rail car, they could clearly see the scenery of the Outercity.

Compared to the buffer zone, the Outercity was indeed much more comfortable. There were still pyramid-shaped houses belching smoke here, but the smoke disappeared midair.

The ground in the Outercity had also been renovated, now flat and clean. Shops lined the streets, neon signs glowed here and there.

It was just that... ninety percent of the shops were closed.

Not only were the stores shuttered, there were very few Pirush around either, probably because they had all gone to Crystal City.

It was worth mentioning that, after observing the shops, Angel discovered that the biggest and most numerous businesses here were... dye shops and dental clinics?

This surprised Angel a little. He had originally thought the materials shops of Pipi Castle would be larger and more numerous, but the reality was completely different from what he’d imagined.

Perhaps noticing Angel’s confusion, Luigi said from the side, "You’re wondering why there are so many dental clinics and dye shops, aren’t you?"

"Actually, I had the same question the first time I came. Later, Baba Ragon told me the answer."

"Most Pirush don’t actually have problems with their teeth. What’s wrong is... their brains."

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