Chapter 350 - 255: Deepwater City: Skylines (Part 2)

In other places, one might charitably call it rolling hills. Less charitably, it was just a cluster of dirt mounds.

All in all, it was a very suitable place to develop a city.

It wasn't hard to understand why it had never been developed before.

The area had no strategically defensible terrain, which didn't meet the defensive needs of cities from the previous era.

The deepwater port at the river's mouth held no advantage over other ports on the continent, as maritime trade had not yet developed to such an advanced stage.

The climate wasn't great either. It was only marginally better than the Northern Domain, a place of exile. The winters weren't cold enough to kill you, but they were certainly cold enough to be miserable.

However, once technology reached a certain level, none of these were actual problems.

Besides, since it was currently just a village, it was the perfect opportunity to plan a city from the ground up.

Many famous cities on the continent were difficult to replan due to their historical baggage. They usually only got a chance for a redesign after a major disaster razed a large number of buildings to the ground.

After flying a loop over the entire plain, Zog returned to the advance engineering team's camp, which was set up just outside Deepwater Village.

The first wave of the engineering team was composed mainly of Tieflings, most of whom were converts with construction experience. There was also a small contingent of humans looking to take a gamble, a few goblins, some Zor Engineers, and the Beastmen in charge of security.

They looked less like a construction crew and more like a band of marauders coming to slaughter the villagers.

Consequently, on the day they arrived, the residents of Deepwater Village were scared half to death.

The engineering team's first task wasn't to begin construction on the city itself, as the specific urban plan had yet to be finalized.

Their main job was to first build housing for themselves and for the subsequent teams that would be arriving, as well as to discuss demolition and relocation with the local villagers.

The Beastman in charge, accompanied by a few kind-faced humans, had to make repeated visits and hold several town hall meetings before the villagers finally understood that this monstrous-looking, ferocious group was actually here to build, not destroy.

However, looking like a crew of villains wasn't without its perks. There wasn't a single holdout in the village, and the demolition negotiations proceeded without any conflict.

All the villagers signed the demolition agreements with surprising swiftness. They were utterly astonished when the Beastman leader not only gave them money but also promised to build them new homes.

Zog was very generous with the compensation payments. After all, he was tearing down their homes. No matter how dilapidated they seemed, people still formed emotional attachments to the places they were used to living in.

On the other hand, everything was incredibly cheap here. What Zog considered a merely generous compensation package was a life-changing fortune to the local villagers.

It made Zog wonder if there was a different exchange rate for Gold Coins between this area and Twin Tower City, despite both being within the Sutton Kingdom's borders—one that he just didn't know about.

After returning from his inspection, Zog ducked into his large tent.

The furnishings inside were simple. Until the city began to take shape, Zog's primary base of operations would remain in Twin Tower City.

Inside the tent was only a bedroll and a game console—gaming was one of Zog's basic necessities.

There was also a massive Devil Sand Table.

The sand table wasn't for entertainment; Red Alert was still in development.

Rather, Zog had discovered another marvelous function of the sand table—it could be used as a direct stand-in for *Cities: Skylines*.

As for what *Cities: Skylines* was?

It was a little traffic-jam-simulation game.

Sometimes, you could also use it to simulate building cities.

The flight Zog had just taken was for the purpose of inputting the terrain data into the sand table.

Then, various building models, selected from the game department's asset library, could be displayed directly on the sand table, allowing him to arrange them as he pleased.

It didn't have a simulated-citizen function, though, so it was more like a bare-bones version of *Skylines*.

The gameplay was limited.

But as mentioned, Zog had no intention of using the sand table for fun. After all, he had a real city to build; he didn't need a simulator to get his kicks.

He was going to use it to plan Deepwater City.

Of course, Zog wouldn't be doing all the planning himself. He was only responsible for contributing ideas and opinions; the design and execution of the actual plan had to be left to the professionals.

"Where are those city planners we recruited? Have them come in and present their ideas," Zog ordered.

He had recruited a number of city planners to build Deepwater City, hoping to pool their collective wisdom.

At present, urban planning wasn't yet considered a formal academic discipline, so these planners relied primarily on experience.

If one person's experience wasn't reliable enough, he'd just gather several and synthesize their knowledge into something that was.

After all, the need to build large cities had only emerged in recent years.

The cities of the past were far smaller than their modern counterparts.

Furthermore, many major cities could hardly be said to have been planned at all. The only planned areas were the small sections within the city walls.

As for the sprawling residential areas outside the walls, they had grown organically and chaotically, with no planning whatsoever.

After a short wait, several planners filed into Zog's tent.

They had arrived a few weeks prior with the engineering team to conduct a site survey.

At the time, Zog had only given them the projected final size of the city and let them design freely, wanting to see their initial ideas.

Of course, the estimate Zog had provided wasn't set in stone. He had just made a guess based on his memory of large cities, having no real idea how large a city here could ultimately become.

"Have you familiarized yourselves with how to operate the sand table?" Zog asked.

He had required the planners to be able to present their ideas on the sand table.

Zog didn't want to look at blueprints; he couldn't make much sense of them anyway.

The planners all nodded.

"Good. Let's begin. You first," Zog said, pointing to the first planner.

"Of course."

The first was an elderly gentleman who had participated in the construction of many cities, though most of his experience was with castle-related projects.

The old man appeared quite confident. He was dressed with an artistic flair, wearing an exquisite small, round hat and a flamboyant scarf.

He began by creating a grid of small squares on the sand table.

"My idea is to break the entire city down into small community structures, like these squares. Each one is actually formed by four buildings, enclosing a central community space. Then, hundreds or thousands of these squares will make up the city."

The old man then demonstrated several different building layouts.

Zog didn't recognize those models from his group's art asset library.

"Did you make these?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, Mr. Zog. I started as an apprentice in an art studio when I was a boy. I studied painting for many years, and sculpture as well," the old man explained.

'So this is a career path for art students!'

"Impressive. Please, continue with your presentation."

"The communities are divided into several types. For residential areas, the open space between the buildings can be used for gardens, where people can rest and relax. For commercial areas, they would be composed of different businesses..."

The old man went on to introduce his design concepts for various combinations of buildings.

He then pieced the building modules together, much like assembling building blocks. The final result was quite beautiful.

"I believe a structure like this is filled with aesthetic beauty. The community design will also bring people closer together, creating a city that has both order and warmth."

The old man concluded on a philosophical note.

Zog watched the demonstration, and the more he looked at the layout, the more he felt he'd seen it somewhere before.

'Wait, isn't this Barcelona?'

A whole city composed of block-style communities. It was certainly beautiful.

It even had a port.

'It's reasonable that the old gentleman came up with a design like this,' Zog thought. 'If I remember correctly, the era in which Barcelona was planned was very similar to the current one on the Feilin Continent.'

The only difference was the lack of Magic.

"AHEM," Zog cleared his throat. "First off, I really like the look of the city you've designed. It's beautiful."

"Thank you." The old man gave a slight bow.

"However," Zog's tone shifted, "do you recall that in my vision for the city's future scale, I mentioned that people would be widely using a new form of transportation?"

"Oh, I remember. It's called a 'car,' correct?"

"Yes. I've already provided you with the relevant materials on cars. This mode of transport will require much wider streets than horse-drawn carriages. Also, Deepwater City is going to be an industrial city. Where did you place the industrial district?"

Zog tried to recall. 'How did Barcelona handle this?'

'One-way streets, sidewalks, combining communities to form superblocks, and building new districts on the outskirts.'

'That might be convenient for daily life, but Deepwater City has more utilitarian goals. It's not a great fit.'