A few days later, the Golden Road finally reached the first settlement in the Grafted Cluster. It was just a small village with a little over three hundred citizens inside.
The locals of this settlement saw first-hand how the Rebornian Engineers poured the liquid concrete onto the pathway ditch and watched it harden within just a few hours with the help of a little magic.
It completely surprised them, especially as the first few automobiles came riding from the horizon.
These trucks carried over all the necessary equipment and products needed to create a base for the Reborn company here in this settlement.
Michael even went above and beyond as he planned to create more amenities in this place such as an underground well to help raise the standard of living in the Grafted Cluster.
After the automobiles arrived, he transported himself over there through his shadows and met with the local leader of the settlement to relay his intentions.
"Are you the owner of the Reborn company?" the hunched old man asked Michael.
This kind of surprised him a little bit seeing as he hadn't even introduced himself yet, but the old man seemed to have known that he was its leader.
"Yeah. How did you know?"
The old man smiled and pointed at all the Rebornians laying down their materials from the automobile trucks.
"They've been looking at you with respectful eyes all this time," he said. "That kind of respect can only be reserved for benevolent leaders such as yourself."
He was flattered. "You've heard about us?"
The old man nodded. "There has been a lot of talk about the new sponsor of Angora City. And despite my ears failing me, I can still hear well enough to have heard about you."
Michael looked around and saw the underdeveloped state of the settlement. Most buildings were made out of wood and thatch, the roads were muddy, and there wasn't much foot traffic going around it. They didn't even have a market and only relied on travelling peddlers to get supplies.
"Can we establish our company here? Build our own infrastructure?"
The old man nodded and spread his hands. "You are very much welcome to do so."
"I'm planning on building a Golden Road that connects this place to Angora City. You can travel there in about three days through carriage, or just one day through our taxi automobile service."
He also planned to create a bus station in every territory, allowing for normal people to travel easily to the big cities like Angora.
Michael began instructing Kong, the Rebornian Engineer Chief, to start the construction in the settlement. Their first order of business was to create running water from the aquifer underground.
It took them just an hour before a deep well hand pump was installed, giving clean water for the citizens to drink and bathe from.
"Woah! Water!" a boy said as the water splashed on the ground from the pipes.
The whole population of the settlement celebrated this momentous occasion, thanking the Rebornians by offering them dried deer meat and skinned rabbit fur.
The old man approached Michael. "This may be presumptuous of me, but there is nothing we would like more than to be under your banner."
"You want to join the Nation of Reborn?"
"Yes. We would all like to," the old man replied with everyone nodding behind him.
Michael didn't think it would be this easy. Not even a few hours after they landed in this settlement and already he had accomplished his goal. He was just hoping to establish the company here, but he ended up gaining another territory.
He had Sheina and Yuna take care of all the paperworks. And in just a matter of a few hours, they became official Reborn citizens!
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Back in the center town of the Grafted Cluster, the two twins each sat in their respective headquarters and commanded their companies to start a large campaign that spanned the whole western territory.
"Gather all our merchants and our peddlers. I want them all to start going over all the territories near us selling only Barcus Inc. products. Sell potatoes, carrots, and even pepper spices at a large discount!"
And it seemed that his twin brother thought of the same thing.
"Make sure that the whole market is drowned out by all of our products," Bulren shouted to his employees. "I don't want anyone buying those Reborn products at all!"
Since they were much more established in the deeper parts of the Grafted Cluster, their campaign largely worked and increased their overall sales throughout the whole region. Their profits were down, but that was a necessary sacrifice to completely shut down the Reborn company's attempts.
However, just a few days after this campaign started, the twins each received terrible news.
"Sir Barcus…we can't sell anything in the First Settlement," his messenger said anxiously.
"And why is that? They're the ones that need fresh produce from us. Otherwise, they can't survive."
The messenger bit his lips. "That's the thing sir. The Reborn company has already arrived there and established a connection with them."
"Hmmm…that's fine," Barcus said. "Just lower the prices some more. I doubt that the Reborn company can bear to lower the prices like we do because they're transporting those goods all the way from Angora City. This is a war that they'll lose."
The messenger tried to get the words out of his mouth, but couldn't bear to do so.
"Umm…sir…the First Settlement has already agreed to become part of the Reborn territory."
"WHAT?!?"
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Now that the First Settlement was part of their territory, Michael decided to implement a lot of new establishments in the territory. Aside from basic stuff like concrete roads and plumbing systems, Michael also created a fun little hotsprings-inspired bath for the people to enjoy.
And just as Michael thought, this became a really popular spot for the locals.
The large improvement in the First Settlement eventually reached the next two territories in the Grafted Cluster, which Michael set his eyes onto next.
The Golden Road branched into two paths once again as it reached towards those two places in just a matter of a few days.
Those two settlements were a little bit bigger and more advanced than the First Settlement. They had proper buildings and infrastructures to be called a town rather than a village.
The wet markets in these places consisted of small local businesses who sourced their products from their own homes. Things like butchered pigs, metal pots and pans, and dirtied vegetables were all made by their own citizens and sold to other citizens.
However, unlike the wet market free-for-all, the Barcus Inc. Store was established in a building that was much more organized than most.
Right now, the whole store had signs that showed prices slashed in half.
This caused quite a line in the Barcus Inc. store as people bought their products in a frenzy.
However, this all changed when the citizens noticed the flat road being constructed in the distance.
It was the famous Rebornians!
A few days later, the Golden Road connected to their town and allowed for the automobile trucks to unload all their products onto the general market.