Another World Metal Factory

Chapter 1

A small metal workshop located in the Guro Industrial Complex.

The old workshop sign, which looked to be over 30 years old, was covered in grime and dust.

While other factories in the neighborhood opened their doors and started their daily work, the iron shutters of this workshop remained firmly closed.

The locals, thinking it was just business as usual, passed by the workshop without a second thought.

However, the sounds of machinery diligently working could be heard from inside the workshop.

“Hey! Hurry up and move that over there!”

The elderly, middle-aged man, the Factory Manager, barked, and the young man repeatedly bowed his head and began to move the pieces of steel plate scattered on the floor.

The Factory Manager, with streaks of white visible among his black hair, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

Even with a cigarette in his mouth, his hand movements as he fed a long steel plate into the machine were flawless, demonstrating the years of experience the Factory Manager had accumulated in his work.

Every time the Factory Manager pushed the long steel plate into the hydraulic cutting machine, a clang echoed, and a piece of steel plate, cut to the same length, fell to the floor.

The young man picking up the steel plates was a Westerner with blonde hair.

With his long ears, he was handsome enough to be a model in a magazine, but he was diligently working in greasy overalls, his movements clumsy compared to the Factory Manager’s.

As the young man, who had been gathering the steel pieces in one place, wiped the sweat off his greasy gloves, the sound of the machine stopping echoed throughout the workshop.

“Good. We’re done. Hey! Channing! Bring the rest to the bending machine.”

“Yes, sir!”

The bending machine was a massive machine made up of huge rollers, literally used to bend steel plates into a curved shape.

The young man called Channing began to stack the cut steel plates neatly onto a wooden pallet.

The Factory Manager walked over to the bending machine, flipped the switch, and started operating it by turning various knobs.

After setting up the bending machine, the Factory Manager straightened up and turned around.

“Steel plate coming.”

“Alright.”

The Factory Manager replied and looked at Channing.

Channing was slowly moving the wooden pallet, attaching it to the hoist, a crane hanging from the workshop ceiling.

The pallet, lifted into the air with the whirring of the motor, moved, and the Factory Manager signaled with his hand to maneuver the hoist.

“Good… good… Watch your surroundings! To the right… to the right… Okay! Lower it here!”

“Yes, sir!”

Following the Factory Manager’s instructions, Channing carefully lowered the pallet to the designated location using the hoist.

While Channing untied the rope connected to the hoist and organized it, the Factory Manager lifted a steel plate.

“Channing. Watch and learn. This is how you bend. I’ll teach you how to set up the machine later. Just watch and insert them one by one like this. Got it?”

“Yes, Factory Manager-nim!”

Channing’s eyes sparkled as he watched the Factory Manager’s hand movements.

******

It had already been several months since the back of the workshop connected to Polchis, a large city in another world.

At first, the Factory Manager was bewildered, but he had gradually gotten used to it and was now living a life of making and delivering goods based on various requests from that world.

Since he had been running the workshop as a half-hearted hobby, the leisurely pace of work and the small-scale requests from the other world were rather agreeable to the Factory Manager.

Then, a young man with pointed ears, Channing, who had offered to do any work in exchange for food, joined him, and the Factory Manager, thinking this wasn’t so bad, was teaching Channing the ropes one by one.

Channing was a young man who had suddenly appeared one day and persistently begged for work.

To be precise, he had come to weed and mow the backyard, but ended up clinging to the Factory Manager’s pants, begging for a job.

That, too, was several months ago.

The Factory Manager thought that if he had to do the current task, attaching iron rings to wooden barrels, alone without Channing, he would have immediately refused the request.

Due to his age, it wasn’t easy to do it alone. Therefore, the young and bright Channing was proving to be quite helpful.

******

The Factory Manager took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth as he watched Channing work. He was using the bending machine to roll the long, cut steel plates into a circular shape.

One, two… After rolling several steel plates into circles, Channing removed the finished one, inserted a new one, and pressed the operation button.

And at that moment.

The steel plate suddenly started rolling in at high speed.

“Uh oh… Factory Manager-nim! This is too fast!”

“You idiot! Let go!”

As the panicked Channing quickly tried to grab the steel plate, the Factory Manager ran over, pushed Channing away, and pressed the emergency stop button.

-Whoosh-

With the sound of air releasing, the machine came to a halt, and the Factory Manager sighed deeply.

Then he yelled.

“Be careful! You idiot! If your hand gets caught in there, it’ll be completely mangled.”

“Yes… Yes, sir!”

Channing politely bowed his head at the Factory Manager’s reprimand, and the Factory Manager stepped back.

Channing started to insert the steel plate into the bending machine again.

“Channing, are you getting scolded again?!”

The back door of the workshop opened, and a young lady entered, shouting. The Factory Manager and Channing looked at her.

“Ah! Richel! Haha, hahaha!”

“Just get used to it. Hurry up and help the old man.”

As Channing blushed and scratched his head, the young lady approached with a grin and spoke.

The young lady called Richel was attractive with her red hair. She was also the daughter of the”Red Rooster,”a restaurant and pub located a short distance from the workshop.

She had slightly curly, long red hair and was wearing a red dress that matched her hair, an apron, and carrying a basket.

“Channing. Turn off the machine. Let’s eat first.”

“Yes, sir!”

At the Factory Manager’s words, Channing quickly pressed the machine button.

******

Channing and the Factory Manager, after washing their hands at the sink, entered the small kitchen in the corner and sat around the table.

While Channing poured water from the water purifier, the Factory Manager asked Richel,

“Aren’t you going back?”

“I’m going to take a break too. I’ll take the dishes when you’re done.”

Richel perched on another chair and opened the basket. Inside were stainless steel bottles and sandwiches.

The sandwiches weren’t the modern type with various ingredients between slices of bread, but rather a hotdog-like food where ham and cheese were inserted into a round, hard bread that had been cut open.

“Here. Ham sandwiches and hot soup.”

“Wow! Looks delicious. Tell your mom thanks.”

“I want rice…”

Channing exclaimed excitedly as he looked at the sandwiches Richel took out, and the Factory Manager accepted the sandwich with a slightly displeased expression.

“Even your mom and dad don’t know what that ‘rice’ is. You’re so strange, you know.”

At Richel’s words, the Factory Manager nodded and took a bite of the sandwich.

The hard bread, with a texture like a baguette, had a subtle sourness that didn’t quite suit the Factory Manager’s taste.

To the Factory Manager, bread was a sweet treat like red bean buns or cream buns, so he wasn’t accustomed to the sour taste of bread meant for meals.

However, since this was the only food available for delivery from the restaurants in this world where rice didn’t exist, the Factory Manager swallowed his complaints and chewed on the bread.

After all, filling his stomach was all that mattered.

“Here’s the soup. Today it’s cabbage soup with chicken.”

Richel took out a wide-mouthed bottle from the basket, opened it, poured the soup into a stainless steel dish, and handed it over.

“My mom loves the bottle and dish you made, you know. At first, she was worried that the metal would rust, but she’s so happy that it doesn’t.”

Richel closed the lid of the stainless steel bottle.

The Factory Manager had been ordering meals from Richel’s restaurant since he started working in the workshop, but he was dissatisfied with the lukewarm soup always delivered in wooden bowls. So, he had used a press to stamp thin stainless steel plates into dishes and a bending machine and welding to create bottles.

The bottle openings were threaded, making them easy to open and close.

The bottle and dish had greatly pleased the restaurant owner couple.

“It’s stainless steel. Stainless steel doesn’t rust.”

“That’s amazing. Even Mr. Popper, the blacksmith over there, was shocked by this kind of metal.”

“Well, Popper wouldn’t know about this stuff. But his skills are the real deal.”

The Factory Manager took a bite of the sandwich.

Popper was a blacksmith working nearby. He was a dwarf, and a rival of sorts to the Factory Manager. However, they acknowledged each other’s skills.

Popper mainly made pots and farming tools, while the Factory Manager received orders and sold stainless steel bowls, spoons, and the like, so they didn’t clash much.

Rather, the Factory Manager sometimes sent customers to Popper, and vice versa. In a way, their relationship was like that of neighboring factories in the same town.

Or rather, it would be more accurate to call them friends who occasionally drank together at the pub.

“Factory Manager-nim. You use stainless steel often, but what exactly is it that makes it rust-proof?”

Channing asked, his eyes sparkling as he looked at the Factory Manager.

Those eyes played a part in the Factory Manager’s decision to take Channing under his wing and teach him. He was curious and full of questions. It was surprisingly enjoyable to have a young man ask about things he didn’t know.

The Factory Manager handed over the remaining sandwich, drank some water, and then spoke.

“Stainless steel is a type of steel mixed with things like chromium (Cr) or nickel (Ni). This chromium thing, it sticks to oxygen better than iron does. So, it covers the iron like a coating, preventing oxidation, which is like rusting. That’s how it prevents the iron from rusting.”

“Uh… So, does that mean it’s already rusted?”

“Well, you could say that, but I can’t explain it in more detail. Anyway, that’s how it is.”

“The world of metal is truly fascinating. There’s always more to learn.”

Channing scratched his head.

Actually, the Factory Manager could have explained it in more detail, but Channing wouldn’t be able to understand all of that knowledge.

Things like chromium or nickel were unknown in this world. Therefore, he tried to explain it using the simplest terms possible, but there were limits.

“I don’t understand a word you’re saying. Now, hurry up and eat. I need to take the dishes back.”

Richel grumbled as she listened to their conversation, and Channing laughed and quickly stuffed the sandwich into his mouth.

The Factory Manager also took a bite of the remaining sandwich and slurped up the soup from the dish.

“Well, it wasn’t meant for you to understand. Just know that there’s something like that.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Factory Manager-nim. It sounds like a story from another world. Just like those machines you use to make things.”

“Ahem!”

The Factory Manager coughed at Richel’s words and lifted his glass of water.

Channing scooped up some soup and said,

“You don’t need to think too deeply about it. It’s amazing, but I’m using them too.”

Richel nodded as she put the empty bottle back into the basket.

“Well, I guess if Channing can handle them, they must not be that amazing.”

“Hey! Is that a compliment or an insult?”

The Factory Manager wiped the remaining soup in the dish with his sandwich and put it in his mouth, listening to the conversation between Richel and Channing.

He wasn’t hiding the fact that his workshop in the Guro Industrial Complex was connected to Polchis in this other world, but he wasn’t boasting about it either. So, the Factory Manager remained silent.

“Alright. Let’s take a short break and then get back to work.”

The Factory Manager said, holding out his empty dish, and Channing, who had been chatting with Richel, hurriedly stuffed the sandwich into his mouth.

Channing choked and pounded his chest, and Richel laughed and patted his back.