The craftsmen teams have used up nearly half of the materials I delivered to them last week, and the impressive new apartment complexes rising up 5-10 stories for future residents are completed. There's enough room to increase the population of this city tenfold if needed. The new streets are built, and dozens of new storefronts line the roads, ready for businesses to move in. Two small grocery stores are built, and I task a body double to buy supplies from large chains in Vice City and Solara. This will have to do until I can barter some deals with Sector 3 to buy fresh produce in large quantities directly from them. Some of the villagers take positions as managers, and the teens and villagers in their early 20s take jobs to stock the shelves and work registers. Many of the small shops and businesses that were set up during the first construction wave hire people to work in them too, and with the influx of new money to villagers from my weekly aid packages and the increase in coin supply from the guildhall's farming requests, the economy begins to move along on its own. Less than 10% of people are now unemployed. Many don't fully rely on my aid packages, but the reassurance that they will be taken care of gives them trust to take risks in their business and have fun in their personal lives too. Dan Striker's mercenary bar mostly sells drinks and food, but there have been a few private trading requests for materials in the dungeons that can be farmed that the guildhall isn't offering to buy. I'm sure my requests for goods will fluctuate every month; it won't always be the same items. So it's great to see if people have usual dungeons they like to farm or special requests, there will always be other places to sell that loot if it's not on the guildhall list. Back in the guildhall itself, the entirety of the structure has been renovated. While making contact with the outer barrier of the red Soul Energy forcefield, I'm able to manipulate it by connecting the red energy to my own supplies. The construction workers all walk through without any resistance. Their gear and building supplies are all in item boxes around their waists. The prisoners all carefully walk through a small hole that I create in the Soul energy shielding. Once the last one makes it through, I release my contact from the barrier. The hole shrinks until it's gone, converting right back into its natural solid barrier state and we get to work. I use earth magic to begin the base structure of a trail out into the desert. Earlier last week, I surveyed the lands and found nearby towns that I see as great routes to make the road near. I won't be making the main trade route within 10km of any settlement, because I don't want to bring any unwanted foot traffic to them. However, once we're out there, I'll be greeting every town with my Flame Emperor's appearance and give them options. They can come and live in the Crimson City while listing the benefits, or for those that aren't interested in staying in my settlement, I'm giving them the option to come and be trade partners with us instead. If no one in the villages that we make contact with wants anything to do with us, we just won't make connecting roads to their town from the main trade route. If they want their privacy and isolation, they can keep it. It's as simple as that. While I head off into the empty desert, slowly forming a long winding path, a small group of workers follow to add fine details, lighting fixtures for nighttime, and signs that show the distance to the surrounding landmarks in place. A larger group stays behind and works on building up another village outside of the Crimson Barrier. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. This consists of many trading posts that will be filled with workers who want to sell and trade their personal gear to outsiders, along with another guildhall that will accept trades buying and selling my crafts and gear directly. Nearby, outside the barrier, there are also plans to have inns, bars, and even a small short-term stay residential area for people to spend the night if they've traveled a long way. It is another large-scale project to work on, and we have two weeks to get everything in motion and automated before I leave out of town to attend the B-Class exams. I make two roads, about 200km each in two directions spreading throughout Sector 2. One of them stretches toward Sector 3 and the other goes off in the direction of Sector 1. The trading posts and visitors inns have been completed, and the infrastructure is almost as large as the residential area inside the Crimson Barrier. It's definitely going to be necessary too. Making my search diameter over 400km, I've made contact with 7 villages ranging from populations of 25-200. Not a single one declines my offer to connect them to the main trade route via smaller off-shooting roads. There are 117 new links of loyalty created through my Rising Emperor's Domain, and I've given these individuals transport back to the Crimson City as promised along with weekly aid and a free place to live in the newest residential housing areas. Most of these new citizens are hunters that are looking for work. The remaining 40% of the guildhall's orders are filled before these 7 days are even up. I deliver them to Bri and she tells me she'll have everything ready for me days before the final deadline. She also received word back from Rodrigo and managed to get our two false identities registered for the B-Class exams. There will be a pickup point assigned in the Bedrock Region one day before the exams start. "I believe so too. When this works, I can have my students in the monastery perform the treatment on the fighters you rescued too." Once back in the Crimson City, I make my way down to the Bunker beneath the guildhall to check on Ember in the isolation pod. It's been 3 weeks since he entered that pod. Meaning over 240 days have passed inside. Less than 9 days remain on the timer at the top of the pod, meaning about 100 more days are left inside. It hums very lightly, and no excess or unique energy signatures come off of it at all.