My name is Liu Bo, and I transmigrated!
When I woke up, I found myself imprisoned in an underground jail. The walls around me were built entirely of steel, and besides the occasional sounds of metal being struck, there was no other noise.
Based on the memories I received, I learned that my current body was only twenty years old, yet already a Sequence 7 Appraiser—someone capable of using his abilities to avoid the negative effects of magical items and bring out their full power. In this "City of Steel," that already counted as a "warrior," someone who had to go outside the city from time to time to carry out exploration missions.
The reason I had been locked in this steel prison was that the squad I belonged to had provoked a terrifying monster. Most members of the squad were "cursed," while only a few escaped unscathed. In order to distinguish the cursed from the uncursed—and to prevent the curse from spreading—the upper echelon of the City of Steel decided to imprison the entire squad for isolation. Whoever survived would be considered clean.
Naturally, the body's original owner was not among the "few." So he died, and I arrived.
I stayed in the prison for over a month before being released. Even then, someone continued secretly monitoring me, and it wasn't until half a year later that all surveillance was removed—something I discovered easily with what I call my "Pure White Eye," my golden finger.
After I regained my freedom, I finally had to face a brutal truth…
I had transmigrated into the world of a novel from my previous life—
and not just anywhere, but into the harshest environment described in that novel—
Forsaken Land of the Gods
The City of Steel was a city-state never mentioned in the original book, located on an iron-ore belt. Its population was small; after years of struggling to survive, the total number barely reached 2,000. Every life was precious. Thus even though the original owner was likely cursed, the upper echelon did not abandon him.
Because the population was so small, every adult had work to do, so all children were raised collectively. As a result, the City of Steel had lost the concept of "family." Even surnames and personal names had been abolished—everyone had only a code name…
I didn't like this. It made me feel like a machine instead of a person…
But I could understand the leadership's choice—family names were already a luxury for a city-state like this.
To change the system, I must first improve the quality of life here, then find a way into the upper echelon so I could reform the system.
And the prerequisite for all of this was to increase my own strength!
Fortunately, I had the Pure White Eye to help me. Not only could it analyze the essence of things with great power, it also let me see many details others couldn't detect in the darkness.
When I advanced to Sequence 5, I could even pray to it and complete ritual magic of higher Sequence level.
Because of this, "Evans' Arcane Barrier" and "Violet's Perfect Restoration" were developed one after another, and I earned the appreciation of the city's leadership.
"Evans" was the surname I chose for myself, inspired by another novel I liked from my previous life. "Violet" was the surname I gave my alchemy assistant… or rather, what I preferred to call my "Artificial Intelligence."
Speaking of Violet—it was originally the "wraith" that had cursed the original owner. In life, it had been a Shepherd. I used the sealed "Ancient Alchemist" characteristic I'd obtained by coincidence to stitch it together with other spirits, creating the intelligent assistant I had now.
After gaining the appreciation of the City of Steel's upper echelon, I joined the Supreme Council, becoming the last-ranked of the thirteen who ruled the city-state.
But very quickly, the series of reforms I proposed and the strategies I offered for survival and exploration all yielded excellent results. In a short time, the population capacity the city could sustain doubled.
My achievements in science—especially the invention of the "steam engine," a groundbreaking leap—allowed my rank to rise from last place to fourth within just a few years, beneath only the three demigods who occupied the top seats.
None of the other council members objected… After all, everyone lived on the razor's edge of survival; schemes and infighting had become luxuries no one could afford.
When I later looked back on those days when everyone worked together, I felt a deep sigh building in my chest.
Twenty-some years passed. The First Seat's body could no longer hold on, and the "Alchemist" characteristic he left behind was given to me. After I drained the life force of an entire region, I successfully became a demigod.
Only then did I discover the true secret behind the Pure White Eye!
Unfortunately, I did not dare let my spirituality probe too deeply… Something like "pollution" seemed to lurk there. All I could see were the various "deaths" suffered by different versions of "me" in other lives.
It seemed that in every lifetime, my "luck" wasn't great…
Compared to that, even being stuck in the Land Abandoned by God yet managing to become an Alchemist made me one of the luckier ones.
In any case, once I became a demigod, I became First Seat beyond any dispute and began implementing a plan I had prepared long ago—
the Floating City Project.
The reason we needed a floating city was because I wanted to lead the people of the City of Steel out of the Land Abandoned by God, away from this dark continent, and toward a world of light.
According to the original novel, the only exit from this forsaken land was in the Giant King's Court.
But the City of Steel had no records of the Giant King's Court, nor did we even know our own positioning. I had no way of determining the correct direction, and could only explore outward again and again.
But the range a city-state could explore was limited. We couldn't build outposts all the way; first, we didn't have the manpower; second, temporary bases lacked safety; third—and most importantly—if the direction was wrong, all the outposts would be wasted.
Therefore, the only solution I could think of was:
make the entire city mobile!
Because of the complex terrain, land vehicles weren't a good choice. So a floating city that could traverse the sky became my goal.
This was a nearly impossible engineering task—but fortunately, the Land Abandoned by God still had remnants of divine power from the gods that could be used!
In the end, after 112 years and several generations of effort, the floating city "Morning Star City," equipped with four major systems, finally rose into the sky!
Taking advantage of this moment, I changed the societal system, granting everyone surnames and personal names. I also formally announced my own name—Lucien Evans—to all citizens.
By then, Morning Star City's population had already approached ten thousand.
The long years that followed were spent advancing and stopping intermittently… After a long process of exploration, I finally determined that the city's original location should be near the iron ore belt of present-day Cameroon in my past life.
As for the Giant King's Court, it was likely somewhere in Northern Europe.
The distance between the two was enormous, and the journey was full of danger. Some areas had to be bypassed entirely. It was destined to be an extremely long voyage.
Thus, Morning Star City traveled northward while exploring, collecting materials, and upgrading itself. Along the way, it also gathered many survivors from other city-states.
Those survivors, having never seen a place with living conditions as comfortable as Morning Star City, naturally regarded me as a god, addressing me reverently as—
the Mechanical Emperor.
At that time, I had just advanced to Sequence 3, and I did require a certain amount of "faith," so I let it be.
Until one day…
my closest companion—the former "artificial intelligence," now the Tower Spirit of Morning Star City's central high tower—Violet, conveyed to me the will of a great existence…
(End of this chapter)