Castle of Black Iron

Each work-stand was an iron desk longer than one meter. A rotary vice clamp was fixed on one end of each iron desk, and tools were placed in the tool slot at the front of the desk, including a hand saw, a file, a hammer, a chisel, a screw tap, an incisor, a straight steel ruler, a pair of divider calipers, a scratch awl, and a pair of vernier calipers. On the other end of the table, there was a set of pedal-type grinder and an anvil that was placed beside the grinders.

This was the commonest and the cheapest work-stand for apprentices. It was said that each senior work-stand was matched with a steam-powered module and a melting furnace. As for the experienced workers, a senior work-stand was enough because they could make almost everything on it.

With his plan in mind, Zhang Tie instantly put on his work uniform and his protective goggles. He then started with the largest steel wire. As he had no special steel wire control panel, he had to utilize the existing tools to process it. After fixing the steel wire and the wooden board onto the jaw vice, he placed the core well inside and fixed one head of the steel wire onto it. After rotating it in the clockwise manner carefully, he checked and found no problems, thus he continued to rotate it.

Generally, it was not that hard. After a while, Zhang Tie had almost finished his first spring. He counted the number of spring circles as he cut off the excess circles on the anvil. He then grinded the two burry ends of the steel wire with the grinder, and finally, the simplest column-type spring was made. He tested it and found it to be truly flexible. Zhang Tie's spirit rose as he finished the remaining two springs nimbly. It took him a bit more time to complete the round hook. By comparison, when Zhang Tie was working hard on a round hook with a chisel, someone else had already finished three springs.

Finally, the bald man walked inside and answered the questions of the students who raised their hands. He then checked each student's three works and explained tempering heat treatment on the springs. He emphasized that the ends of the springs should be round and tightened. He then solved problems regarding the coiling of springs and the creation of internal and external torque arm tools. The students then had another try. Three hours in the morning soon passed in this fashion…

The students then ate lunch in the school cafeteria, which was a welfare of the school. The food was not good and they often saw no oil for a couple of weeks. Actually the food could only sate their hunger, but was not enough to fill them. Even though, the crowd rushing towards the cafeteria at lunch time was still horrible.

At school, cafeterias were distributed by grades; even the number of diners was fixed. However, the number of dining plates was always less than the number of students in each grade's cafeteria. As a result, there were always some people with bad luck that failed to get their lunch at each noon. Therefore, they would pass out on the playground where they accepted military skills training in the afternoon. Zhang Tie himself had encountered this occasion twice. From then on, he deeply understood the golden law in the Age of Black Iron——striving to fill his stomach.

The only rule in the school cafeteria was to line up; therefore, if you didn't want to be part of the starved group, you would have to line up as soon as possible. Besides that, you should also be strong enough, lest being offended by others. Certainly, luck was also very important.

Take this time for instance.

After three hours' classes, the group of fifteen or sixteen-year-old male students were starved. The line was already long, while many students continued to join in. Thankfully, Zhang Tie slipped away very fast after class and caught a position in the middle of the line. Otherwise, he might have had no food today. When the last students arrived at the end of the line gloomily, the students at the front had already got their lunch and were ready to eat it. Right then, the hubbub of the school cafeteria suddenly became faded away. Zhang Tie looked back as he found a group of people led by Glaze swaggering over. Although they arrived last, they didn't line up at all. Instead, they strutted all the way to the front of the line. Seeing this group, the students who had just received the dining plates turned pale.

'F*ck, disgusting craps. They do this every noon!' Zhang Tie verbally abused inwardly.

"Ho ho, sorry to trouble you today!" They swaggered to the front of the students who were receiving lunch. Speaking genially, they showed off an arrogant air, heads raising and nose pointing towards the sky. They crossed their arms with a contemptuous smile. They looked at the students, whose faces had already turned pale, like what a cat would do to a mouse.

"Mother f*ckers! They're really unscrupulous!" Zhang Tie swore in a low voice.

"You can also be unscrupulous and grab others' food like them if you are able to defeat them!"

"It's said that Glaze has already passed the examination and is qualified to be a LV 2 soldier. Two surging points inside him have already been ignited. Seventh National Middle School has not seen such a great figure for many years!"

"He was just born strong; it's nothing to be proud of. They are just simple-minded guys with well-developed limbs. Are they attracting the school administration in this naive method for a recommendation?"

"Humph… humph… no more jealousy. He's born with that exceptional aptitude, and they are much stronger than us, so we should stay away from them..."

"He has a great dad, a big figure in the CSIF!"

"Big figure? Bah! He's just a head guard!"

"Those behind him are also big figures too!"

"I will never concede to that motherf*cker! No matter the reason!"

"They will beat you when you walk out the school gate, and it will take you one month to get up. Isn't that enough of a reason?"

When the people beside Zhang Tie discussed in a low voice, the boys being grabbed walked over dejectedly. When seeing the unlucky fellow, some showed looks of sympathy, while others appeared aloof. However, nobody dared to comfort them, not even with a single word. Each student at the school had to strive for themselves. This was why the cafeteria was several dining plates short everyday. If you didn't fight for yourself, nobody would fight for you. As for the weak, they had no options. They either had to surrender to humiliation or suffer from nosebleeds and broken bones.

The gloomy and embarrassed passers-by reminded Zhang Tie of something. What would I do if it were me? What if they grab away my beloved Goddess Disna instead of just a dining plate? What would I do? Zhang Tie suddenly became worried. It seemed that he had already seen the desperate and weeping face of Goddess Diana. The teenager then felt painful inside.

'Never...'

The youth roared inside like a beast.

...

The second floor of the cafeteria was for teachers. There were also several pairs of eyes peering over from behind the glass wall.

"LV 2 soldier. He's too powerful in front of those kids. Glaze himself could easily beat a dozen of them easily. He has such a vantage point in physical strength!"

"The group led by Glaze was composed of four people. By comparison, there were several hundred people behind them. They simply understand half of patient teachers' lessons and have learned how to compete and fight for their own lives, but they neglect the other half — teamwork, which was extremely critical to their survival..."

"This is the difference between human beings and beasts. No matter how weak they are, weak individuals can always be powerful enough to take down a strong beast once they have united."

"They might understand this in the future, but not now..."

"I will see who among them can realize it first!"

The voices behind the glass wall gradually became unclear amidst the sounds of friction from the forks and knifes and the crunching of food.

Although Zhang Tie had no appetite, he still took his poor lunch. He then queued up and seriously washed his dining plates and dinnerwares under a water faucet. After giving them back to the cafeteria, he felt somewhat frustrated, as the desperate and weeping face of Diana constantly haunted his mind as if it truly had happened. He walked away with his head lowered; he became more depressed whenever he occasionally noticed the pair of heavily worn leather shoes with two patches on it. When he walked into the woods close to the school, he found himself surrounded by several people.

"Are you still delighted about what you did to us this morning?" A punch had already touched his stomach before he realized. Zhang Tie almost vomited his lunch. Bending over painfully, Zhang Tie finally realized what was happening. "F*ck! I'm besieged. I have already noticed their hostility in class, I shouldn't have forgotten that."

"Beat him!" the moment he bent over Zhang Tie heard this voice, he found a pair of feet in front of him. Without thinking, he instantly tried his best to hug the pair of feet, and surprisingly, he knocked him over. Zhang Tie then quickly threw himself at the opponent and punched the boy's nose before the latter realized what was happening. As a result, the guy fell flat on his back...

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