Systems and methods for remote assistance. In on-state, hole current can be largely suppressed. Further, since temperature adjustment can be continuously and efficiently conducted, a good premium discharge condition can be achieved, and the speed of recording can be increased by reducing the number of recovery operations such as preliminary ejection. The process includes pre-treating ferrous material including steelmaking slag and thereafter direct smelting molten iron using the pretreated ferrous material as part of the feed material for the process.