Across the sea in Westeros, the scale of operations had shifted dramatically. To facilitate the massive extraction of Dragon Crystal, Jason had restructured the leadership. After his marriage to Daenerys, he handed over the daily administration of the realm to the two queens—Daenerys and Sansa—who were backed by a team of modern administrative experts to ensure smooth governance.
Jason himself took to the skies, traveling to Dragonstone Island via military helicopter. To bridge the gap between King's Landing and the island, four Zhi-10 helicopters had been transferred from the modern side, cutting the travel time down to a mere thirty minutes.
Lately, Dragonstone had become Jason's second home. He spent his days coordinating the arrival of modern mining machinery, using his unique transportation abilities to move heavy equipment that would have otherwise been impossible to land on the rocky shores.
The efficiency of modern technology was staggering. Because much of the Dragon Crystal on the island was located in shallow deposits, the mining progressed at a lightning pace. In just half a month, over 10 million tons of raw material had been extracted and moved to the modern world. This steady flow of Westerosi resources allowed manufacturers back home to maintain a massive supply of high-capacity batteries for phones, laptops, drones, and electric vehicles.
However, the military wasn't taking any chances with this new power source. To prevent civilian technology from being weaponized, strict restrictions were placed on energy density:
Electric Vehicles: Consumer-grade batteries are capped at 4 times the capacity of standard lithium batteries.
Consumer Electronics: Smaller devices like phones are limited to 6 times the standard capacity.
While someone could theoretically strip thousands of car batteries to harvest enough Dragon Crystal for a "super battery," the cost and labor involved made it a foolish endeavor. Meanwhile, the military had no such limits. Jason had heard from General that specialized batteries with over 10 times the standard capacity were already being integrated into fighter jets, submarines, and electromagnetic weaponry. Even the aerospace groups were testing the material for rockets and satellites, though Jason knew better than to pry into those classified details.
Jason, donned in a safety helmet, walked through the mining sector accompanied by the director of Zhongwei Mining Group. The air was filled with the roar of heavy machinery. Deep black-and-red ore was hauled out of the earth by transport trucks, then loaded onto 30-ton heavy haulers that lined up to move the cargo to the central staging yard.
Once millions of tons of ore had accumulated, Jason would simply place his hand on the massive pile. With a focused thought, he could shift the entire inventory across worlds to a specialized warehouse in the suburbs of Zheng City in an instant.
The transformation of Dragonstone was total. The island had become a singular, massive industrial zone.
Employment: Over 10,000 locals, including fishermen and young men from the island's original villages, had been recruited as miners.
Housing: Workers were initially housed in temporary prefab units near the port, but a permanent residential community was already under construction.
Quality of Life: Families who once struggled to survive on meager catches of fish were now eating for free in the company canteen and earning over a dozen Silver Deers a month—enough to buy sturdy, clean clothing from the modern world.
The "aborigines" of the island were far from exploited; even the elderly and those unable to work in the mines were given light roles in logistics, such as laundry and food preparation. While they lived in high-rise apartments rather than the luxury villas reserved for the senior modern engineers, it was a massive upgrade from the drafty wooden shacks they had known all their lives.
Jason stepped into a duty room, where several gray-haired men were hunched over technical documents. He couldn't help but smile. "These must be the masters who came out of retirement to help us build Westeros," he remarked.
The elderly engineers stood up tentatively as the young man in fine clothes entered. The site manager introduced them with pride. "Mr. Liu, these are our most precious technical assets. When the call went out for the Dragon Crystal project, they didn't hesitate to leave home and come to this world. Master Hu, Master Zhang, Master Han—you all remember Mr. Liu from the Zheng City base, don't you?"
The engineers shook Jason's hand with visible excitement. At the base, they had only seen him from a distance in a crowd of thousands; this was their first real meeting.
"Thank you for your hard work," Jason said warmly. "The country and the development of Westeros owe a lot to your expertise."
"It's no trouble at all, Mr. Liu!" one of the masters replied with a laugh. "Knowing my old bones can still contribute to the nation's future makes me happy. It's not hard work when it's for a cause like this."
Another added, "We should be thanking you. If you hadn't opened the door to this world, our country wouldn't have this chance. With these resources, we're going to see a new era of prosperity sooner than anyone imagined."