Castle of Black Iron

Being located in Avenue Bright, the Golden Roc Bank was the grandest architecture in the whole avenue. At the entrance of the bank were twelve stone pillars, each a diameter of one meter. In the middle of the building, between two stone pillars, was a huge relief of a four-winged golden roc which was over ten meters in length. This huge bird with four wings was the symbol of Golden Roc Bank and the ruler of the heavens, the land and the sea, the one who ate dragons in Chinese myths and legends.

Entering the hall, Zhang Tie felt like coming into a palace. The black marble floor was akin to a mirror. No service desks were set in the hall like in other banks, instead, there were two rows of service rooms for customers to enter. Each service room could only service one customer a time, thus guaranteeing absolute privacy.

Customers who were waiting in line just stayed in the sofa area outside the service rooms for a rest. Only once the current people inside the small rooms left could the bank clerks open the doors and invited the next customers in.

Although the ruler of Blackhot City had changed, the business of the Golden Roc Bank was not influenced at all; on the contrary, it became even hotter than before. No matter who ruled the city, Andaman Alliance or the Norman Empire, the Golden Roc Bank would not be influenced at all.

Chinese people could enjoy some privileged services in Golden Roc Bank such as not having to queue up!

Under jealous gazes of many pot-bellied gentlemen in tidy clothes, Zhang Tie with an average face mask came to the door of a service room. This room was exclusive for Chinese people in the Golden Roc Bank. Differently from other service rooms, the door of this one was not dark red, but golden yellow which Chinese people favored.

The bank clerk standing at the entrance of this service room was a 20-odd Chinese youth. At the sight of Zhang Tie coming here, he made a hand gesture in greeting before walking inside together with Zhang Tie. He then closed the door of the service room.

The inside was not large, less than 20 square meters, but it was well arranged. Each part of furniture inside was delicate. There was only one desk, two chairs, and a group of sofas. Behind the desk was a trading window which was similar to other bank counters.

After motioning for Zhang Tie to sit down on a chair near the desk, the young clerk spoke in Mandarin Chinese.

”Pleasure to serve you, what can I do for you, sir?”

Zhang Tie pulled out the 5000 gold coins’ crystal note from his pocket and gave it to him.

”I want to withdraw cash!”

The 20-odd bank clerk took the gold note. Not amazed by the amount, he carefully checked the anti-counterfeit label, the hidden grains and a series of special identification code on it, then finally nodded.

”All of them?‘

”All of them!”

”Well, wait for a moment then please!”

Taking the gold note, the young men turned back and came to a trading window behind the desk and slightly pressed the bell button on the window. After a ’ding’ sound, the window opened. The clerk then passed Zhang Tie’s note inside.

”The customer wants to withdraw all the cash!‘

In the short seconds until he came back, Zhang Tie felt bored and took up a service card which introduced the scope of business of the Golden Roc Bank. Besides usual businesses like bank storage and credit loan, the Golden Roc Bank’s business included all kinds of other things such as financial investment, asset entrustment management, auctioning and pawning, creditors’ right handling, business group financing, armored transportation, stock raising, pioneering, special personnel employment, information inquiry and release...

All this made Zhang Tie, who had come to the Golden Roc Bank for the first time, widely open his eyes. This was not a bank at all; this was obviously a monster combined of many super business groups!

Seeing Zhang Tie’s amazement, that young bank clerk walked towards him. ”Are you interested in our other services, sir?”

”You can provide all the services on the card?”

Out of suspicion, Zhang Tie pointed at the content on card.

”Yes! We can provide all the services on it. Our bank has numerous powerful cooperative business groups and partners which passed rigid authentications. We can satisfy all your requirements!”

”Does Golden Roc Bank provide pioneering service?”

”The most powerful business group Home of the Wild in Blackhot City is our partner. They have a business representative here in our bank. If you need, I can call him here to negotiate with you!”

Zhang Tie had not imagined that he could find a business group that provided pioneering services in Golden Roc Bank which really saved him a lot of time. Previously, he had planned to find a business group which provided pioneering services and purchase the materials needed for building houses there. Now, it would be much easier to deal with this.

”Fine! Thanks, I’m seeking for a business group that could provide pioneering services!”

”Wait for a moment then please!”

The 20-odd bank clerk left through another door in the room. Only one minute later, a 40-odd bald man came in with a pile of papers in his hands. Sitting down in front of Zhang Tie, he showed his exceptional respect, seemingly in-the-know of Zhang Tie’s paying ability from the Golden Roc Bank.

”Nice to meet you, sir. I’m Longe, the business representative of the business group Home of the Wild in Blackhot City, I heard you are very interested in what we can offer you.”

”Yes, my friends and me have chosen a place in the wild and are planning to reclaim wasteland and settle down there. I heard you could help pioneers quickly build houses in the wild. Therefore, I want to have a consultation on that!”

Hearing this, Longe became more lively. ”You’ve found the right man, sir, this is our business group’s advantage. If you want to settle and reclaim wasteland from the wild, you have to have a safe and comfortable base. Our business group can customize any house according to your requirements in the shortest time. Can you tell me your requirements?’

As it was very difficult to temporarily find raw materials in the wild to build a house, many pioneers who prepared to settle down wanted to customize their house in advance before bringign the components to where they had chosen to build their base. There were many business groups and commercial organizations in Blackhot City which could provide this service. Home of the Wild was the best among them as their services almost covered all the problems that pioneers would face when they tried to reclaim wasteland and settled down in the wild.

”Hmm, I need a house that could accommodate 20-odd people and a super huge food warehouse. The construction of the house should not be too sophisticated. It’d be better if it could be assembled by only one tough man...”

”Do you need the house to have great defense against wild beasts? If you need, we can provide special house building materials and externally-mounted movable residence’ armor.”

While they were discussing it, Longe started to record everything they talked about with a pen.

”No need, there are few wild beasts over there. Even if there are, they’re just our meals. The only concern is that there are few natural resources there that we could use to quickly build a house!”

”If so, we suggest you choose the No. 3 Wild House!”

Saying this, Longe pulled out a paper and gave it to Zhang Tie. Picking it, Zhang Tie saw two refreshing log cabins with triangular roofs: one was one story high, the other two. Below them were several photos of the structures and perspective drawings of the two log cabins.

”Can this No. 3 log cabin satisfy all of our demands?‘

”Of course not. This is just a sample which tells you the general look and structure of this wild log cabin. No. 3 log cabin has two types: one and two stories high. For each of them, we could provide six sizes for you to choose from. The house sizes would variate from 30 square meters to 380 square meters. You can choose your specifications...”

”Can one person finish building this log cabin?”

”It won’t be more difficult than stacking blocks for you to build this log cabin!” Longe revealed a smile. ”This log cabin was especially designed for pioneers who settle in the wild. It consists of modules, and all the building materials are standard steel and wood. We will classify all the items. If you build it according to the instructions, you will easily be able to manage it.”

”How much will it cost?”

Zhang Tie’s heart was hooked.

”Based on floor area, it would cost you 23 silver coins per square meter for the single-story log cabin. The fee rises to 34 silver coins per square meter for the two-story log cabin. As the two-story log cabin features a higher efficiency on using space and materials, it would be more cost-efficient.

”As you understand, this is just the price for the building materials themselves. If you need, we can also help you build it, or at least pull the materials to the place outside the Blackhot City, but for that we’ll ask for extra labor and transportation fees.

”The longest transportation distance that we can provide right now is within the region of Blackhot City that has been explored on the map. You need to pay 1% of the building price of the log cabin for each 5 km.”

”I can deal with the transportation. I’ve rented out a warehouse in Blackhot City. You only need to transport the items there!”

”If we just need to deliver the items within Blackhot City, you don’t need to pay extra for transportation fees at all!”

Zhang Tie was already imagining the remodeling of the Castle of Black Iron, yet at the same time, he was calculating the price of these lob cabins in his mind. Two-story log cabin looked much more cost-efficient with a higher space utilization rate. However, the single-story log cabin seemed to be easier to build.

After considering it for several seconds, Zhang Tie formed an image in his mind: in the Castle of Black Iron, north of the small tree that stood in the center, was a two-story log cabin that covered more than 200 square meters and was mainly used for living; in the west were two single-story log cabins which served as food warehouses; and to the east of the small tree was a slightly smaller two-story log cabin which performed as his lab.

The four log cabins surrounded the small tree and the spring, making it a small wild manor.