Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 341 The Selection of the Male Lead

In the Pioneer Territory College district, there is a huge construction site on a high slope, only two streets away from the Territory Public College. It is the construction site of the Institute of Magical Sciences approved by Harvett.

Hundreds of construction workers, wearing thick cotton work clothes and leather helmets with rubber coating, were working hard in the falling snow.

The foundation of the huge building complex had been completed ahead of schedule thanks to the day and night digging of the engineering alchemy beasts. If it weren't for these giant guys with steel bodies, it would have been harder than climbing to the sky to dig the frozen soil in the dead of winter with manpower alone.

Once the construction of the first floor of the building is completed, ground work and high-altitude work are divided into two groups according to regulations. Workers working on the second floor of a three or four meter high building must strictly abide by safety procedures and tie two safety ropes, one long and one short, around their waists.

Haru, the director of the Construction Department, stood in a makeshift shed at the construction site. A stack of construction drawings lay spread out on a wooden table. He frowned and said to his subordinates, "The snow is expected to get heavier over the next few days. Notice the aerial work team to halt construction. We'll finish the ground work first."

The subordinate nodded and leaned over to whisper, "Let's just let them finish their work today before calling it a day... As you know, many of them are on temporary contracts. The Winter Festival is coming soon, and everyone wants to earn some extra money to enjoy the holiday."

Haru stuck his head out and looked at the fine snowflakes falling from the sky. He couldn't help but sigh and compromised, "Okay, let's finish today and have the security team keep a close eye on it."

……

Barron, holding a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth and with a thick safety rope tied around his waist, was sitting astride the steel bars of the main beam of a two-and-a-half-story building, deftly doing his job - according to the construction design drawings, water heating copper pipes needed to be buried in the walls of each floor of the building in advance, and after the overall paving was completed, concrete would be poured into the wall interlayer to seal it.

"Hey! Barron!" A fellow worker from the same high-altitude team called out from another beam. "Throw me a cigarette! God, it's so cold today! I feel like my head is going to freeze to my helmet."

Is it cold? Barron scratched his head. He felt a little sweat on his chest.

He gave his coworker a simple smile, rummaged through the tool bag at his waist, pulled out a hand-rolled cigarette, and waved it, "Come down from the beam first, and then I'll throw it to you when you get below me."

"That's really troublesome. Why not just throw it over here?" the worker urged, nodding his helmet. "Why bother? Throw it at me!"

Barron shook his head helplessly, squinted his eyes and took aim, then raised his hand and threw the cigarette lightly towards the other party. However, it happened that a sharp cold wind blew over, and the cigarette that was originally flying straight towards the worker spun in the air, and fell to the end of the stone beam opposite with a bang. It rolled forward a few times and just got stuck in a gap in the steel bar.

"Damn it! Didn't I tell you to aim and throw it? Are you cross-eyed?" The worker cursed with a speechless smile, and tried to lean forward and stretch out his hand to reach it, but found that he was still a little short of it no matter how hard he tried. The length of the safety rope limited his range of movement on the stone beam.

"Forget it, come down after you finish your work. I have a new box of cigarettes in the shed." Barron advised.

The worker rubbed his face and said irritably, "Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. I can't wait that long..." As he said that, he reached out to touch his lower back, preparing to unfasten the buckle of the rope on the safety belt.

Barron saw this and quickly said, "Hey! Hey! Stop it! You're not allowed to remove the safety rope when working at height. If the patrol sees you, you'll have to give up your job, won't you?"

A fellow worker looked around and said disdainfully, "It's so cold, they're too lazy to come up here to do the safety inspection. They're probably huddled in the shed warming themselves by the fire right now. Don't worry!"

He unfastened the safety buckle, pushed himself up shakily with both hands on the stone beam, took two nimble steps forward, bent down and took out the cigarette covered with snow and dust from the gap between the steel bars, held it in his mouth and smiled triumphantly at Barron.

But just as he was about to turn around and go back, perhaps because of the ice and snow on the stone beam or because he lost his balance due to being too proud of himself, he suddenly stumbled and slipped and fell.

Fortunately, the safety belt worn around his waist saved him at the critical moment. A horizontal steel bar just hooked his belt, leaving him hanging in the air.

"Damn it! Damn it!" The worker's cigarette dropped from his mouth in terror, but he remained suspended in mid-air, daring not to struggle. The two-and-a-half-story building was nearly eight meters high, and the lower floor was piled high with prismatic stones used for interior paving. If he fell, he would be either dead or half-dead. Barron was also so frightened that his soul almost flew out of his body. He shouted, "Don't move! Don't move! The safety belt is only halfway fixed. The steel bars can't bear your full weight!"

Seeing that his coworker was in imminent danger, he no longer cared about any safety construction regulations. He quickly turned around and untied the safety rope hanging around his waist. At the same time, he took off the thick work clothes he was wearing, and threw the clothes forward and spread them flat on the construction scaffolding nearly two meters away from the stone beam. He planned to use the scaffolding as a springboard to jump directly from mid-air to the stone beam where his coworker was. With the work clothes on top, at least he would not fall down because the snow was too slippery when he landed.

The movement in the sky had attracted the attention of the construction team on the ground. They also saw the workers hanging precariously on the steel bars, and they screamed and ran up the stairs, wanting to help rescue people.

But the steel bar that carried all the weight obviously couldn't wait for rescue to arrive, and it had bent to a terrible angle that would cause the safety belt to slip off almost immediately.

Barron couldn't wait any longer. He took a deep breath, kicked the stone beam hard, and jumped onto the scaffolding with a bang. He stood firmly on the clothes under his feet, and then without any delay, he took another big leap and landed on the stone beam opposite.

His balance was obviously much better than that of the worker who fell. Although the stone beam was slippery, he could still barely stand firm. Like a circus tightrope walker, he walked quickly to the place where the worker was hanging, clamped his legs around the stone beam and sat down. He bent down and reached out his hand to the worker who was hanging in the air and dared not move.

"Quick! Hold my hand!"

The worker was so frightened that cold sweat poured down his eyelids, but he dared not blink. He gritted his teeth and replied, "No, I can't reach it!"

As he was speaking, the steel bar bent down a little more, and the safety belt also slid down slowly. Seeing this, Barron could only grit his teeth and hold on to the stone beam tightly with his legs. He hung upside down in the air and reached out to grab his co-worker's belt.

Now there are two people hanging on the stone beam...

But Barron's muscular legs seemed to be much stronger than the thin steel bars. He suddenly shouted, pulled his co-worker with one hand, and relied on the strength of his waist and abdomen to do an upside-down pull-up, forcing himself and his co-worker to sit back on the stone beam.

The crowd below couldn't help but burst into exclamations, "Damn, this guy is a real power monster!"

The security patrol team hurried to the bottom of the building and shouted at the two men, "Fasten your safety ropes immediately and get down!"

……

It's over! This temporary job I finally landed is going to be lost...

Barron's heart tightened, and he climbed down from the height reluctantly. His face flushed as he stood there waiting to be scolded, praying silently in his heart that his salary for today would not be deducted.

A young man with beautiful short golden hair, pale skin and tall stature suddenly left the crowd and led a group of guards to the center of the crowd. He looked around and locked his eyes on Barron.

"Barron, twenty-two years old, a quarter-blooded Orc from the Wastelands, that's you, right?"

Barron was stunned for a moment, then replied in confusion: "I am..."

The blond man clapped his hands happily and said with a smile, "Not bad, not bad. He fits the appearance and temperament of the male protagonist in my mind!"

(End of this chapter)