Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 245 - 199 Research on Firearm Innovation_2

Like in some strategy games, when the territory gets too large, it becomes necessary to consider setting up satellite bases.

Therefore, to bring the entire region under control, the optimal solution was to build several more cities.

At present, looking at the extreme scenario, at least four more cities were needed to cover all the resources of that historical "slice" within the protective range of the cities.

Having a single city wasn’t impossible, but on one hand, the speed of transporting goods would slow down, and on the other hand, if monsters really invaded in great force one day, it meant that the areas not covered by Linyuan City would fall to them, making those resources unusable.

So, Li Weiyi was considering whether to spend some construction value to remodel the terrain and, based on the terrain generated, continue planning new city areas.

Even if it was impossible to build three or four cities all at once, at least one additional city had to be built to create a dual-city structure.

This would maximize the use of resources.

Of course, when remodeling the terrain, players could choose to lock a certain area’s terrain from changing. This prevented randomly generated terrains from destroying the already built Linyuan City.

However, construction value was limited after all, and whether to enhance Linyuan City first or to remodel the terrain and generate new cities required careful consideration.

So, these architectural heavyweights started their assessments again but hadn’t yet reached a definitive conclusion.

Meanwhile, there were quite a few players busy buying various new pieces of equipment.

Zhao Haiping was one of the first to buy a set of armor for his warhorse and also upgraded his bow and arrows, selecting a cavalry bow that was perfect for mounted archery.

He also bought a standard-issue three-barrel matchlock gun for cavalry.

Many players had tasted the sweetness of this item in the trial instance, so it was naturally time to equip themselves with one.

After clearing the instance "Lofty Ambitions Amidst the Grasslands’ Heroic Air," all equipment from the entire period of the Great Sheng Dynasty had been updated in the fortress, leaving players spoilt for choice.

After a spree of upgrades, Zhao Haiping found himself broke again.

There was no helping it—money was flowing like water!

Both weapons and armor were too expensive, easily depleting one’s entire savings.

Left with no choice, he left Linyuan City, mounted his warhorse, and trotted around the vicinity, hoping for the good fortune to encounter some intrusive monsters, exterminating them to earn some bounty.

...

At the same time, in Li Hongyun’s fiefdom, several players had gathered.

These were like-minded firearms enthusiasts he had found during his time playing the game.

Among them were some with deep knowledge of firearms and others who were craftsmen with excellent manual dexterity.

Now somewhat of a celebrity player, Li Hongyun had considerable influence among the player community and had successfully organized this "Firearms Innovation Research Team."

Currently, the team was in front of many different firearms, such as various forms of matchlock and matchlock guns, attempting to disassemble and study them.

One smith was hammering away at a red-hot iron ingot on an anvil.

Before the instance "Unintended for Marquis" ended, an area resembling a blacksmith shop, complete with an anvil, furnace, and hammers, had already appeared in the players’ fiefdoms.

However, since the instances "Access at a Moment’s Notice" and "Lofty Ambitions Amidst the Grasslands’ Heroic Air" were about to start, few players had taken the time to study this craft.

After all, blacksmithing was technical and tended to burn through money.

To forge in one’s fiefdom, one had to buy coal, iron ore, and various materials from the Regulator’s fortress, and failure meant that everything had been for naught, with labor often proving less profitable than simply buying the finished goods from a blacksmith’s shop.

Initially, players were too poor to attempt this, preferring to save their money.

But as the game progressed and players had more disposable income, some began to delve into forging.

Li Hongyun was clearly one of them.

While some players were interested in forging melee weapons, Li Hongyun was most interested in firearms.

More specifically, how to further improve the matchlock gun in his possession.

"So, after our research, the result is that we can’t create a Gatling gun.

"Not only can’t we create a Gatling gun, but we can’t even make a basic bolt-action rifle.

"The only thing we can barely manage to make is a flintlock gun," Li Hongyun tersely summed up the conclusion the team had reached after their research.

The player who had been hammering away, a Ranger player, nodded, passed his tongs and hammer to another smith to take a turn, and then sat down in front of Li Hongyun to explain their current line of thinking.

This Ranger player, named Cui Huowang, wasn’t particularly outstanding among Ranger players, but in real life, he was a hobbyist of cold weapons forging and an excellent mechanic.

After entering the game "Dark Sand," he constantly tried to improve the weapons and equipment, whether melee or firearms.

His motivation naturally matched perfectly with Li Hongyun’s, making him the soul of this "Firearms Innovation Research Team."

Cui Huowang casually picked up a matchlock gun and said, "During the period of the Great Sheng Dynasty, all matchlock guns used match cords. As for the three-barrel guns, they were even more primitive, belonging to the category of match guns."