Under Luke's precise control, the tilines of Blue Star and Westeros advanced in parallel.
After sending Mia back to school (she had already started classes at UCLA), Luke's activities on Blue Star beca even more intensive and goal-oriented.
He shuttled across the vast Arican landscape like a tireless shuttle, weaving his own network of supplies and industries.
First, he flew to Montana — not for the "inspection" he had told Mia about, but to personally survey and quickly finalize a deal.
For twenty million dollars, he purchased a dium-sized farm spanning over one thousand acres, complete with basic irrigation infrastructure and several old buildings.
The deal caused a small stir locally, but to Luke — who now held hundreds of millions in cash — it was a drop in the bucket.
He cared little about the land's future appreciation potential. What mattered was its relatively isolated location and the existing agricultural infrastructure.
He instructed the newly hired farm manager to purchase several large tractors, combine harvesters, seeders, and supporting farm tools.
These steel behemoths might not be rare on Montana's wide fields, but in Luke's mind he already pictured them roaring across the God's Eye Lake fief in Westeros, tilling virgin land with efficiency far beyond human or animal labor.
"Bringing these production tools over will be true invincibility…"
Modern chanized agriculture would be another trump card for his "dinsional reduction" developnt in the dieval world.
Next, he fulfilled the "lie" he had told Mia and actually flew to Alaska.
His purpose, however, was not gold panning, but "gold washing."
In a remote area with a history of minor gold discoveries that had long been abandoned by major mining companies, he bought a sizable piece of land with complete exploration rights for a re one million dollars.
The paperwork went through lightning fast. Money opened doors, and local governnts were eager for investnt. Everything proceeded smoothly.
Luke planned to register a "Northern Lights Gold Mining Company" here next year and set up so superficial equipnt for appearances.
In the future, the endless stream of gold shipped from Westeros could be "reasonably discovered" here and then integrated into Blue Star's financial system through legitimate channels.
This was a relatively safe "exit valve" prepared for Westeros's massive gold reserves.
He even considered shipping so "gold-panning equipnt" from Blue Star to "pan for gold" in the Westerlands!
The Westerlands had gold mines. Although the show claid they were exhausted, in his view, with the primitive exploration and mining technology of "ancients," exhaustion was laughable… modern equipnt would need to "plow" them again!
The future Westeros empire would definitely need a lot of gold.
"Money… no, gold — you can never have too much of it!"
At the sa ti, the "Pacific Rim International Trading Co., Ltd." that Luke had registered in California began operating at full speed.
Using this shell company as the procurent entity, he rented multiple large warehouses in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, and other ports.
Purchase orders flew out like snowflakes:
Hundreds of thousands of tons of basic grains such as wheat, corn, and soybeans; canned ats and fish products processed with modern techniques for long-term storage; large quantities of sturdy canvas, burlap, and so relatively subdued synthetic fabrics; even tens of thousands of sets of work clothes and durable boots suitable for manual laborers.
For tools, he ordered everything from ordinary shovels, hoes, axes, and saws to handheld electric drills, chainsaws, angle grinders, small welding machines, diesel generators, solar photovoltaic panel kits, storage batteries, as well as cent, building materials, small cent mixers, and prefabricated rebar…
The list was comprehensive, covering nearly everything needed to build a fief from scratch in a dieval setting.
These supplies were categorized and quietly shipped to the various warehouses.
Luke's blueprint was clear: White Stone Town fief would be his experintal field and base for combining the advantages of both worlds.
Before the storm of the War of the Five Kings swept across the Seven Kingdoms, he had to establish a solid base with self-sufficient agriculture, rudintary industry, tight defenses, and an efficient managent structure.
At that point, whether he intervened in the war as rcenaries to seize benefits or sat back and watched the lords fight before stepping in to clean up the ss, he would have enough foundation to act.
While shuttling between the two worlds and handling a mountain of affairs, Luke did not neglect exploring and training his newly acquired abilities.
Every late night, in the bedroom at Jaqenion Estate in Westeros or in the wooden cabin at Green Forest Ranch on Blue Star, he would set aside ti to focus entirely on practicing "telekinesis."
After both Intelligence and Spirit reached 5 points, this psychic power beca increasingly easy to wield.
After several days of conscious training, he could now manipulate the invisible force with considerable flexibility.
His effective range had stabilized at about a five-ter radius. Within that range, he could barely lift objects weighing around fifty pounds without touching them — for example, a box full of books.
His precision had also improved. He could make a feather drift slowly or bring a wine glass steadily to his hand.
Although duration and stability still needed work, and the ntal drain was significant, it was undoubtedly an extrely practical and discreet ability.
This gave him a deeper understanding of the value of attribute points and made him even more eager to continue raising Intelligence and Spirit in the future, and perhaps explore elental forces.
He fantasized about commissioning a few "flying swords" and turning himself into a "psychic master" or "sword immortal"… he wouldn't even need a dragon to fly through the sky.
It seed telekinesis could also "lift himself"…
The Seven Gods might no longer need to be "above." He could be above all by himself.
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