God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 351: Toll Roads

Before long, Gray Fort Empire government bonds increased by another 50 million gold coins, with the goal of building a road network covering major cities nationwide. And the collateral? Toll fees.

The Gray Fort Empire had already drafted plans to establish toll stations at every city entrance. Everyone coming through the roads would need to pay toll fees based on their vehicle size—or you could call it a road maintenance fee.

After deliberation, the dragons believed the plan was viable. With the development of Dragon Delivery’s regular package delivery service, the dragons had gained some understanding of land-based logistics. These toll stations would actually benefit both transportation and the Gray Fort Empire.

Previously, each lord could collect certain fees according to their own requirements. Although due to certain tacit understandings between nobles, their standards varied—you could say they were generally low—they still collected fees, and there were no unified standards.

This made many merchants uncomfortable.

But now all places had unified fees, charging based on transport weight and distance traveled. Very reasonable. The key was it was open and transparent, so merchants were naturally quite satisfied.

As for the Gray Fort Empire and local nobles, with the empire growing stronger and the previous incident with the God of War, the Gray Fort Emperor’s influence had already expanded further. He promised a portion would go to local lords—not all income would be submitted—so both local lords and the Gray Fort Emperor were naturally satisfied.

They believed that over time, these facilities wouldn’t just make the Gray Fort Empire’s commerce more prosperous, but they’d also earn more in the process.

For the dragons, they knew very clearly that with the magic-tech industrialization process, just how much transport volume these roads would have, how many people would travel on them. If the Gray Fort Empire ran into problems, the revenue from these road networks would be enough to offset the bond pressure.

The dragons even wished the Gray Fort Empire would default!

The dragons felt that with this transportation network in their hands, they’d definitely earn way, way more than these 50 million gold coins plus the interest they’d have to pay.

Southern Region of the Kingdom of Dawn.

Viscount Roster had just returned to the southern region, planning to make an inspection tour to see how the south had changed during his absence. When he discovered this development, he was stunned speechless.

What does it mean when the student surpasses the teacher?

What does it mean when each wave is stronger than the last?!

Viscount Roster now had a profound understanding.

"Never thought they could play it like this—copying the ultra-high-speed maglev train’s fee model and applying it to magic-powered vehicles."

Viscount Roster couldn’t help but murmur quietly, "Great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?"

He’d figured out the ultra-high-speed maglev train’s fee model long ago: ticket sales. The price between each station varied. Anyone wanting to go somewhere would be charged by station.

As for transporting goods, same thing. They’d already drafted the transport prices for cargo by unit volume or area, as well as the price for booking entire cars.

But for the regular road network and future fees for magic-powered vehicles, they’d never been able to come up with an effective plan.

The reason was simple: magic-powered vehicles could leave the planned routes and go directly to other places. They really didn’t know how to charge.

But even if they couldn’t collect fees, they had no choice—they had to build and develop. As the team that invented magic-powered vehicles, they knew all too well what role these vehicles would play in future development.

After a brief shock, Viscount Roster shook his head slightly, then nodded. "Although it still can’t prevent some people from taking detours to avoid paying fees, it’s already a pretty good solution. Besides, it can actually be upgraded even more."

"For example, the main road actually just passes near each city but definitely doesn’t enter them. If you want to enter a city, you need to turn at the fork in the road for each city, and charge there... Whether it’s entering or leaving areas, everything will be registered in the Magic Net database. If there’s only entry but no exit, have the enforcement team go find them."

A clear process gradually formed in Viscount Roster’s mind.

For example, when buying a car, you must go to the official department to get a license plate, so everyone knows who the car belongs to.

Register through the Magic Net and so on.

Through the Magic Net database, they could directly pull up exactly where this car got on the road and where it got off. They wouldn’t even need to charge fees at every station like the Gray Fort Empire.

A fairly clear plan gradually took shape. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Just as Viscount Roster was thinking about these things, there was a knock at the door.

"Lord Roster, the Archbishop of Agriculture has arrived and wishes to see you..." The attendant’s voice came from outside the door, interrupting Viscount Roster’s train of thought.

The power, wealth, and resources Viscount Roster now controlled had long surpassed what a viscount could achieve—even some dukes couldn’t manage it. Under these circumstances, gradually, people no longer addressed him as viscount.

Everyone felt it was quite awkward.

But calling him minister directly wasn’t appropriate either.

So people tacitly began calling him Lord.

As for the Archbishop of Agriculture, it went without saying—it must be the Archbishop of Agriculture for Dawn’s southern region.

In this southern region, he was the Church of Agriculture’s only archbishop.

Also the Archbishop of Agriculture most familiar with Viscount Roster.

"Lord Roster, long time no see!"

As soon as he entered, the Archbishop of Agriculture walked up with a cheerful smile. "If you didn’t come back soon, I was planning to go to Roster territory to find you!"

"I’ve been pretty busy lately, haven’t I? As soon as things stabilized on the Roster territory side, I came over." Viscount Roster said with a smile. "What’s up? Looking for me about something? From your expression, it should be good news, right?"

"Of course." The Archbishop of Agriculture said with a smile. "Well, for you, it’s definitely good news."

"Oh?" Viscount Roster became interested, putting on an attentive expression.

"Our Church of Agriculture has decided to promote agricultural mechanization across the entire continent, in all places where agriculture is relatively developed. We need to order from your Roster territory. The scale of this promotion is huge. The procurement quantity will probably be three to five times the agricultural machinery currently used by the Southern Development Company, with follow-up increases depending on the situation."

The Archbishop of Agriculture didn’t waste words. Knowing Viscount Roster’s personality, he got straight to the point. "Also, we want to custom-order some small and medium-sized agricultural Magic Conductors, mainly for use in various mountainous and hilly areas. After all, not every place can use these large machines. The most typical example is the Hill Lands Commonwealth."