Perfikot actually doesn't enjoy turning people into living statues; this method is indeed somewhat bizarre and cruel.

However, those unscrupulous merchants genuinely believe she won't kill over trivial matters. After all, this is akin to the steam era of the 18th century in the original world; expecting these merchants to have any business integrity and professional ethics is as impossible as asking a priest not to have entered a young boy's body.

In this era, business ethics are almost nonexistent. In pursuit of profit, these merchants don't even care about workers' lives, so how could they possibly care about consumers' lives?

Especially in this era, the production process itself has certain deficiencies that later generations would find beyond human capabilities. Processing precision, material strength, and processing techniques, all are in a nascent stage.

Although it's not impossible to produce qualified and good products, the issue is that not all merchants have enough of a baseline and morals to pay for product quality, investing more production costs.

They even expect workers to work 18 hours a day, without restroom breaks or water, squeezing out the last bit of surplus value while lowering production costs as much as possible. It goes without saying how unacceptable it is for them to increase production costs.

Therefore, even with Perfikot's terrifying deterrent methods and repeated warnings, many parts that are sent still fail to satisfy her.

Admittedly, there are some due to production process issues resulting in non-conformance; Perfikot shows great tolerance for these, usually only asking them to take it back for rework and providing suggestions for process improvement.

But those truly impossible to improve, Perfikot would also have the Alchemists and Engineers cooperate to solve the problem.

The prerequisite for Perfikot's easygoing attitude is that these issues are indeed caused by non-human factors, not human factors, especially due to the supplier's careless and perfunctory attitude.

Perfikot is willing to assist in resolving issues caused by non-human factors since demanding them would indeed not solve the problem.

But for the latter, she shows no kindness.

She is least able to accept perfunctory behavior.

Anyone daring to do so is dancing on her minefield and bottom line, in a face-to-face all-out manner.

So for such individuals, Perfikot usually issues a stern warning the first time, sends in the White Bear Knight the second time, and directly walls them in the third time.

And the merchant on the cooling shell of the Energy Tower belongs to those who seek death.

Even after Perfikot issued the first warning, he learned nothing and still perfunctorily brought components that didn't meet Perfikot's requirements, insisting that the batch had no issues.

What's more, he even mocked Perfikot, saying: "The current level of technology production can only achieve this extent. Countess, you may be talented, but you should consider reality and stop designing those overambitious items beyond production capabilities."

Hearing this enraged Perfikot, directly ordered him to be pressed on the cooling shell of the Energy Tower, which deviated by at least 5% in size, and melted him into it while manually adjusting the shell's size and other technical parameters to meet her requirements.

Thus, this guy became a signature appearance of Chernobyl City's Energy Tower—a lamenting merchant.

Over the ensuing years, this also became a famous sight of Chernobyl because whenever Perfikot executed someone, she would pull them in front of the lamenting merchant statue and wall them with Alchemy.

If their crimes were insufficient for walling, she would steam them alive with high-temperature steam in front of the cooling shell.

But that is a story for later; for Perfikot, aside from these merchants occasionally causing her trouble, there were no other issues.

The overall project progress was smooth, the vertical shaft leading underground had already been dug, confirming the existence of a sealed rock layer and geothermal resources underground for constructing a geothermal cycle through water injection.

Originally, to maximize efficiency, Perfikot should have added additives to the water injected underground to allow it to expand to twice its original volume, enhancing heat conduction and operational efficiency.

But considering the protection of groundwater, Perfikot opted not to do so, instead designing an alternative cooling system that enhances heat conduction efficiency to resolve the issue.

This is also the reason why Perfikot interrogates these suppliers; after modifying the design, the demands on production processes are even higher.

To some extent, it is indeed higher than the commonly used production processes of this era.

However, this is not an unsolvable issue. If Alchemists oversee detail processing combined with proper process improvement and level enhancement, it can meet Perfikot's requirements.

While she is strict, she is not unreasonably inhumane or oblivious of actual circumstances.

In fact, she personally visited all the component production factories around Chernobyl, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the required components and the factories' production processes, knowing what they can achieve, what they can achieve with effort, and what they can't even with efforts.

Under these circumstances, if someone tries any tricks with defective products, perfunctorily refusing to invest costs to improve processes during production, then she has no choice but to wall them in the components they delivered, making them part of the Energy Tower.

Anyway, with her Alchemy level, doing so wouldn't affect the Energy Tower's operational efficiency, instead making the construction more smooth due to adding these "living piles."

"Beifa, bring me a cup of tea, with extra milk and sugar." Perfikot finally set aside her work, ready to take a proper rest.

The intense mental labor during this period made her heavily dependent on sweets. Not only did her regular drink change from unsweetened tea to a calorie bomb with milk and large amounts of sugar, but her daily diet also turned high-calorie and high-carb.

This was mainly to meet her mental consumption, as the perfect life form gave Perfikot intelligence and physical superiority far beyond the ordinary, but her bodily consumption was also significantly higher than ordinary people.

Previously, she merely hadn't worked intensely, so her dietary consumption didn't seem so terrifying.

Just as Perfikot planned to enjoy her cup of "milk tea" tea and relax, suddenly a White Bear Knight burst into her office, reporting: "Bad news, Countess! Those workers and engineers have clashed and are now protesting for a strike."

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