The snow had finally melted.
Boshita watched the familiar streets of Lunaria recede through the carriage window, a trace of reluctance settling in his chest. He had not expected this visit home to change so much about how he saw the city, and he found himself wondering what it would look like the next time he returned.
On those same streets, as the carriage rolled away, the crowds moved through their morning routines without paying much attention to the figure at the corner. He was an old man with wild hair hanging loose around his face, his once-fine robe now torn and caked with mud. The moment he spotted someone nearby, he shuffled after them with urgent, unsteady steps.
"I'm a temple elder! I'm a temple elder, hehe..."
"You, and you, why aren't you kneeling?"
Passersby flinched and moved away quickly, giving him a wide berth.
"Where did this lunatic come from?"
"I am the Goddess's servant! I am noble... hehe... I'm an elder!"
He drifted toward the next person, muttering without pause.
It was Bayev. There was no trace of magical energy around him anymore. He was simply an old man now, unremarkable in every way. Boshita's carriage had already turned the corner and carried him out of sight before any of it registered, and he noticed none of it.
Development on ARK: Survival Evolved had been moving well. Alto had posted an announcement on the forum, and the reaction was immediate.
[Holy crap! Master Alto already makes another game? Am I reading this right?!]
[This is unbelievable. I haven't even finished Liberty City, and now there's something new coming. I'm already losing my mind over this!]
[Just release it! What's the theme? When does it go live? I'll wait as long as I have to!]
[Doesn't matter what it is. If it's from Master Alto, the quality is guaranteed. Waiting for more details!]
Shortly after, Alto posted a promotional video and a brief introduction on his page.
It opened with an ascension scene that stopped the breath.
Against the backdrop of a vast, dark universe, a solitary figure floated in the void, and beneath them stretched a colossal world contained within an Ark, mountains and rivers and seas forming a complete continent, its oceans and cloud cover visible from above, its landmass traced in a faint outline. A holographic woman emerged amid the starlight and moved her lips in silence before dissolving into a beam of light and merging into an implant on the figure's arm.
Then the figure entered a corridor of honeycomb energy barriers and began streaking through the cosmos. A round, blue planet came into view, surrounded by countless Arks in its orbit, each radiating a faint glow. Light- and shadow runes converged into the implant, and a blinding radiance swallowed everything.
When it faded, the figure was no longer floating.
The Ark world opened up slowly beneath them. Towering trees pierced the low clouds. Ferns blanketed the ground in every direction. Luminous plants shimmered between the trees. A Tyrannosaurus rex shook the valley with its roar. Pterosaurs cut through the clouds overhead. Triceratops moved in herds across the open land, and vast, prehistoric creatures ran without restrictions across the earth.
The camera pulled upward, and the full sweep of the world came into view. Three pillars of light, red, green, and blue, shot into the sky and converged into a triangular symbol. Then, cold and deliberate, the title appeared.
[ARK: Survival Evolved]
The forum erupted.
[Is this some ancient world? I've never seen anything like it. This is insane!]
[What are those giant creatures?! Rough skin, massive teeth, that roar actually gave me chills. I need to know what they are!]
[And the flying one! Is it a magical beast? It moves faster than any I've ever seen!]
[That landmass floating in space... and that glowing corridor... I couldn't look away!]
[The blue world is beautiful. Why is it round? Are those glowing things in orbit the Arks? I don't know what any of it means, but it felt sacred!]
[The light, the runes, the three beams at the end. I understood nothing and felt everything. Release it now!]
[I cannot get those creatures or those cosmic scenes out of my head. How does Master Alto even come up with this?!]
After posting the video, Alto went completely silent. Players were practically clawing at the walls, flooding the forum with questions about the release date, but no response came. There was nothing he could do about it. He and the development team were already working overtime, and he had no time to check the forum. He had handed everything on the trading company side to Ophelia entirely, and she kept it all running without a stumble, giving him the space to focus completely on development.
Good news arrived from the Mechanical Workshop, though. The railway experiment had succeeded.
Paste's voice was bright with barely contained excitement, even through the communicator. He invited Alto to come and celebrate in person, but Alto couldn't spare the time. ARK had entered a stage that demanded his full attention, with an audience waiting impatiently on the other side of it.
"I understand completely," Paste said, his enthusiasm undimmed. "But we've broken ground on the railway between Lunaria and Emerald City. When it's finished, you have to come."
"Of course. I wouldn't miss it."
Alto meant every word. The idea of watching the first train move through the Moon Elf Territory held genuine appeal. Airships existed in this world, but they were slow, and their carrying capacity was limited. Land transport relied almost entirely on beast-drawn carts over uneven roads. A functioning railway would change the shape of commerce across the territory entirely. Freight costs would fall, travel between cities would stop being the ordeal it currently was, and once the model proved itself in the Moon Elf Territory, there was no reason it couldn't extend across the whole Elven Empire.
There was an old truth behind it, one that held true regardless of the world. Infrastructure drives prosperity. The railway was only the beginning.