The following day, after recharging the construction bots’ batteries, the pair realizes there’s still one last restoration to make. And Billerica has been busy contacting the owners of the remaining derelicts in town, hoping that one would sell it.

But unlike all other purchases of derelict housing, Billerica makes it in Karine’s stead. For the same sum she bought the first derelict yesterday. Which she begins restoring, but something bewilders her after restoration is complete, when the time comes to carry out upgrades to the multigenerational house earmarked for the mayor’s request, Kavula:

“Twenty tons? Teal paint doesn’t weigh that much! Even accounting for different paint chemistry, and possibly multiple layers, with twenty tons of paint, you can paint the entire neighborhood multiple times over, in and out!” Karine appears reluctant to commit the existing materials stockpile to painting the exterior walls teal, over the weight of the paint. “It seems like these bots are very weight-inefficient for painting jobs!”

“Usually, here, when people ask for a house of a certain color, they refer to the outside walls. I guess, I can always order teal paint if that’s what you want”

“But only if it’s less expensive than twenty tons of what you called construction materials” Karine makes her conditions clear.

Twenty tons of construction materials cost us T1600. However, while I can use the blueprints to determine the area to be painted, and, from there, the quantity of paint, there remains two variables to solve for, she seems to go deeper in thought.

It turns out that Taladuan paint covers more or less ten square meters per liter on stucco. She can then determine the cost of the paint.

“It appears that buying paint is cheaper than twenty tons of materials”

“You thought you were clueless about construction? You’re learning even faster than I initially believed!”

Realizing that paint doesn’t count towards the HCP’s star system, she repeats the same exercise with the other upgrades available to her for the first star, of which the HCP allows her to have only one. Designer closets, crown moulding or a grand fireplace. Apparently all estimated to use 30 tons of materials. My home on Earth has all three, so what purpose does the Senate have to limit contractors to one upgrade in a Chinese menu for any given HCP-built unit? A puzzled Karine ruminates before she can definitely rule the grand fireplace out. However, I know that weight efficiency isn’t everything.

“I wonder how cold this region can get, or how climate control works… right now, I lean towards either the designer closets or the crown moulding” Karine can’t seem to decide.

“The first star upgrade, right? Ask yourself which one is the cheapest”

She then repeats the costing exercise with the other two, comparing the cost of crown moulding as well as designer closets for all 3 bedrooms, against the cost of 30 tons of raw materials. But as she seems to research the cost of crown moulding, she comes across a supplier of crown mouldings that sells them by the kilometer. One km of crown mouldings would cost T5500 from that supplier, and weigh about a ton, she sure as hell isn’t going to need a kilometer of crown mouldings…

Overbuying can do a project in. This appears to take 150m of crown mouldings, so I might be willing to buy up to 150m lot size if volume rebates are available. Man do I hate volume rebates! They encourage waste, especially when people tend to focus on the unit cost as opposed to the total cost, when it’s the total cost that makes or breaks you in job costing, Karine ruminates while she shops crown mouldings. I can’t take for granted we’ll need these later.

“So why is it that the proposed upgrades all seem to use much fewer than thirty tons of materials, yet all require that much if we don’t buy the components readymade? I accepted that crown mouldings were going to be the cheapest option for this home”

“How much do these crown mouldings cost?” Billerica asks her. “As for the weight inefficiency of house upgrades, if the bots are left to their own devices, I am afraid I don’t have an answer”

“One hundred fifty meters, which will be enough crown moulding to get the whole house refitted, would run us about eleven hundred talas” Karine starts crying, realizing the mass efficiency of the construction bots’ 3D printing system leaves much to be desired.

If becoming caliph instead of the caliph does not mean the same thing on Taladu as it does in my home region on Earth, then it’s entirely possible that Taladuan tons and kilometers may not represent the same quantities of mass and length respectively, compared to their Earth counterparts! Even so, conservation of mass is a thing. And, of course, these houses we kept building look mostly like they could potentially have similar masses, were they built on Earth, Karine is even more puzzled, frightened even, by the possibility of units of measurement being significantly different from those in use on Earth, and more likely length in her mind.

“Fine, have it your way, but, in the future, if you feel like readymade components are the way to go, you must ensure that readymade components are cheaper than relying on 3D printing from raw materials!” Billerica scolds her.

As the painting work begins outside, the other two construction bots are now busy installing the crown moulding inside the home. Which is done in a matter of minutes.

Then comes rounds 2 and 3 of upgrades to the home, which, this time around, included building more rooms, the solarium and the game room. Which she believes to be a better use of raw materials than the crown moulding would have been, not to mention money. Yet Karine, more than ever, is puzzled by the project’s outcome, since the game room takes up a big chunk of the basement.

“If I get the opportunity to meet with the mayor…” Karine starts feeling uneasy.

“We fulfilled our contract with the town, that’s all that matters”

At the end of the day, Billerica decides to contact Kavula to announce the completion of the town’s mayoral official residence.

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“Mr. Mayor, we have finished building the official residence. However, it’s only partially furnished, as nearly all the furniture is concentrated in the solarium and the game room” Billerica explains to Kavula. “Or, more specifically, in the basement”

“I may as well buy the rest from my own personal funds” Kavula doesn’t realize that it’s an expensive proposition. “As usual for grand openings, here, the parties directly responsible for the construction are to attend, too”

Oh boy. I really hope that Karine won’t ruin everything. Sure, she has her set of ideas, she wants what’s best for the residents of this world, but this home is supposed to bring in almost as much rental revenue as all three units we own elsewhere in the swamp, Billerica then turns to Karine.

“Tomorrow, we will be at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new official residence. The mayor, Kavula, invited you”

The road trip takes the pair through locales other than the swamp they live in. I can’t wait to go back to my home world, and, hopefully, I can pick up where I left off, to the extent I can do so while I could claim to my superiors that I fell ill. However, these locations we’re traveling through remind me of other areas in MAA, like the Sabzevar Colony, the place of a raid in a patch of the vanilla game. Or the countryside between Gatwick and Heathrow. How much money will it take for me to return to Earth, using public teleporters? Karine asks herself, while Billerica didn’t provide her all the info. I was told I would be paid in arrears only after the debts are repaid, pursuant to the creditor proposal, but I even wonder what’s the going rate for this job here… I didn’t ask this myself yet, knowing that I wouldn’t be paid just yet.

Upon arriving at the town’s new official residence, they are greeted by so many among the town’s long-time residents, but the newer residents didn’t seem to hold the same attachment to it. However, Karine turns the heads of everyone in attendance, given that she looks like a giant to their eyes by being at least one head taller. That, even though, by human standards, Karine was tall, just not extremely so.

Who is that giant? What role did the giant have in building the home? Questions start popping in Kavula’s mind as the town’s council arrives in the area. Kavula then makes his speech about the troubled times of the town:

“Welcome to the grand opening of the new mayoral official residence! The old official residence was destroyed by an accident at the power plant not so long ago, which nearly destroyed the town’s industrial park, as well as part of this neighborhood. But with the Housing Crisis Plan, we finally have the support of the central government to recover from this disaster!”

Not too different from grand openings on Earth, really, except maybe for inviting the builders’ management. Then again, as a LIT, I was never invited to any of these things. So while some companies’ road to insolvency might have included a grand opening, the trustee deals with what happens when the financial situation becomes untenable, Karine muses while Kavula sheds some light on what happened to the town that required the HCP’s intervention. Just before the ribbon is cut…

“Among the buildings destroyed in the accident at the power plant, were a police station, a garden store, and an eco-center! Now that we are in negotiations to rebuild them, we shall rebuild!” Kavula adds.

“On the subject of the power plant, can’t public works rebuild it?” a town councillor asks the mayor. “Or the police station even?”

“Public works might be able to build and maintain the local power grid, as it might be able to do the same with the local water system and road network, but that’s where public works’ capabilities end” the town councillor responsible for public works answers their colleague.

Then that councillor hands over giant scissors while Kavula stands next to the entrance door to the home.

Meanwhile, Kavula takes the head of public works, along with Billerica and Karine, to tour the home the latter two built the previous day. Much like a realtor would show a home to prospective buyers. To enter the home, while Karine didn’t need to lower her head, it was a little too close for comfort. Especially since this home’s doors appear to be somewhat smaller, and narrower, than those at her home on Earth. But not by a large margin.

I’m not impressed. But I should wait until the end of the tour of the house to tell the mayor what I really think of this house. Again, I’m not sure about what role could builders have in affecting construction projects on this world. I knew, however, that publishers not listening to the devs can hurt a video game, or even kill one outright. Or devs not listening to the player base can kill a game, especially a live-service one, Karine waits until the three Taladuans are seated in the solarium.

“So after hearing references to a disaster that happened in town, I might be wondering why is it that you deemed an official residence a priority for the early stages of the town’s reconstruction. And this happens amid a world-wide housing crisis! You could have at least used this home as a homeless refuge and the population would probably have accepted it better!” Karine attempts to argue with Kavula.

“Homelessness!” Kavula shrugs off Karine’s mention of homelessness as a societal problem. “You thought that one three-bedroom refuge would be of any help for homelessness, even if limited only to the town in service area?”

“A homeless refuge is, to my eyes, anyway, a better use for a city-owned multigenerational house than an official residence! Even if it meant additional homeless refuges should then be built in other neighborhoods!” Karine keeps arguing with Kavula.

“Who… are you to argue about public property use?” the public works head asks her.

“I am the project manager who even got this home built, along with other multigenerational house restoration projects in the neighborhood. Simply building more housing units won’t solve the entire housing crisis; homelessness must be addressed, too, and can’t be solved only with more housing starts!” Karine lets her fury loose at the mayor.

“I… I didn’t think construction project managers would even believe homelessness to be more complex than just housing starts alone!” the public works head, in disbelief over Karine’s statements, starts drafting a contract for rebuilding the town’s industrial park.

With the addition of a homeless refuge to the contract, to be leased from Wonderlic upon completion. The head of public works shows her where the homeless refuge is on the list of deliverables, complete with its specifications.

“Are you happy now?” the public works head asks Karine.

“Would the town council agree to this? It is a major decision” Karine asks the two town officials.

Now it seems that the town has been a little late in getting a homeless refuge, but better late than never, and the scope of this project has become far bigger than I would have realized. But perhaps this represents an opportunity. And yet, I know that not all opportunities are worth pursuing, Karine muses, while she turns to Billerica.

“We might have an opportunity to go into commercial and industrial construction. Provided the town council approves us”

“It will require someone else who knows about commercial and industrial real estate, which I feel you don’t know about. You only seem to think of housing starts!” Billerica scolds Karine.

“You are both invited to attend a special session of the town council for the next phase of the project” Kavula extends an invitation to both builders. “And, if you ever think of property taxes, know that tenants pay a certain amount of rent, but the city withholds a certain percentage of it, so you only receive the net rent”

They are taken to the town hall and, from there, to the town council’s chamber. The town council meets in a circular room, and, fortunately for the two, they agree to the plan, but that sends shivers down Billerica’s spine. Nevertheless, for this special contract, Kavula invites the two to the signing ceremony.

“Today, we sign the contract for rebuilding the town’s industrial park, and also the construction of the town’s homeless refuge, which we will then lease from Wonderlic!” Kavula announces in front of the few attendees.