Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 850: Section 564: Finding Fun at Work (Part 1)_2

Chapter 850: Section 564: Finding Fun at Work (Part 1)_2

Hmm, does he even match up?

Pah, how dare he try to match me, that thing’s been dead as a doornail for who knows how many millennia, while I churn out nine hundred thousand rifles and four hundred and twenty cannons a month, and equip a Mage squad with new heavy magical armaments every single day. And what are you, Huang Renxun, etching with your carving knife?

NVIDIA talismans?

Such a pity, to miss seeing Mother Su slice you, the scoundrel, to pieces.

"Jason, I originally wanted to set up a triple-A system and then play 2077 or some other games when I felt like it, but you know everything that happened afterwards." Malin always felt some regrets when mentioning the past, and although he’s managed to make up for some of those regrets, at the end of the day, not all were completed to his satisfaction.

"Let’s not talk about your past, Lord Malin, those two factories had closed down even before the Federation was born. Your love and hate aren’t worth mentioning in the face of history."

Jason’s response elicited a sigh from Malin. But the so-called imperfection is life itself, perhaps that’s what Malin figures these days.

With such a sense of regret, Malin entered the core area of the workshop—surrounded by an Array that reduced noise, cutting down ninety-nine percent of the clamor.

The good thing was Malin could finally take off his noise-canceling headphones, but the downside was as soon as he reached the second floor of the core area, he was greeted by dozens of arguing mouths.

And after noticing Malin, these mouth-owners began appealing to him for a fair judgment.

Malin had no choice but to listen to what these Dwarves and Half-humans were arguing about.

The Dwarves said they had recently come up with a brainwave—they wanted to upsize the Shotgun to a 40mm caliber, using a long barrel, a 20-round drum magazine, with the option for Hollow Point Bullets or buckshot, mounted on a four-wheeled motorbike, capable of dealing with every wretched creature that crossed their paths.

Malin thought it was a great idea. This was essentially a 40mm grenade launcher. Good stuff. Once the impact bullets were ready for production, they could pummel the Chaos Infantry with it. With this in mind, Malin turned to the Half-humans, awaiting their justification for the dispute.

The Half-humans said they also had a brainstorm—they wanted to scale up a machine gun to a 20mm caliber, with a long barrel, a 200-round belt, and the options for Armor-Piercing and incendiary bullets, to be mounted on a four-wheeled motorbike, which could effectively take care of every damned creature that came across their route.

Upon reflection, Malin felt the machine gun was a bit overkill in size, but as a 20mm autocannon, it certainly had its use.

"So why are you arguing then?"

"The Half-humans stole our concept!" the Dwarves angrily pointed at the Half-humans.

"It was the Dwarves who stole our idea!" the Half-humans protested just as fervently, hopping mad.

"You’re talking about a launcher and a cannon, they’re entirely different weapons," Malin puzzled, feeling like his IQ was being crushed.

"No! Your Excellency! They plagiarized our idea of mounting the weapon on motorbikes!" both Dwarves and Half-humans retorted in unison.

Malin fell silent, then took a deep breath, and with a roar like a Frost Giant in battle, sent these two idiots flying out the second-floor window.

"Are you imbeciles?! Get out and run fifty laps around the building!"

After ordering the ringleaders to start running laps, Malin signaled their team members to produce a prototype within a week—the leaders might be idiots, but their team members’ diligence shouldn’t be wasted.

"My apologies for the spectacle," said the Dwarven Great Craftsman, emerging from some corner after Malin sent the team members off. "You were most fair, although I admit I found my kin’s idea a bit more sound."

"Yes, Lord Malin told no lies, though I also tend to think my kin’s argument had more merit," the Half-human Great Craftsman approached as well.

Malin eyed these two old troublemakers, squinting like a serpent and with a legendary tongue steeped in righteous sarcasm asked, "Do you two want to run laps?

"Not at all, we Dwarves and Half-humans are as close as family!" Facing the oncoming storm of violence, the two Great Craftsmen immediately put arms around each other’s shoulders without hesitation.

Malin rolled his eyes at the elderly pair, who together were surely over two hundred years old, then turned to the approaching elven ambassador: "What brings you here today, Your Excellency?"

"My youthful kin have made a new firearm and insisted I come see it. I was just on my way to the range," the elven ambassador said with a smile. "By the way, I’ve heard you made quite an impression in the North, Your Excellency."

"Average, I’d say," Malin replied with a smile, gesturing for the ambassador to lead the way. The ambassador walked ahead, with Malin by his side, followed by the group of elderly Dwarves and Half-humans.

"If your performance is considered average, I really don’t know what’s considered good," the elven ambassador remarked with a smile.

Malin simply smiled in response.

The elderly group seized the opportunity to heap praise on Malin for his actions in the North. Out of respect for their age, Malin could only endure their nauseating flattery until he saw the... uh... Malin watched, troubled, as he looked at the 57mm cannon in front of him, confirming it was still considered a ’firearm’ after verifying its full set of gun mechanisms. Then he turned to the equally puzzled ambassador: "This is the gun your kin were talking about?"

"It, it should be," the ambassador hesitated.

It was the ambassador’s youthful kin who ran up to them, saluting Malin and his elder: "Wonderful, you’re here, Your Excellency, and Mr. Malin, please watch our firing test."

After saying that, an elf opened the breech, loading... Malin truly didn’t want to use the word ’bullet’ to describe it. What kind of bullets are 57mm!

But it indeed was a bullet. In Malin’s eyes anyway, the elf loaded the bullet and then pushed the breech back, laying prone, ready to fire.

Hmmm, they’ve applied the Immovable Technique, which tightly binds the user to the ground, making them unshakable.

A great idea, indeed... but wait, this guy has also given himself an elemental body. There must have been quite a twisted tale behind this.

With this thought, Malin watched the elf take aim for a while, then pull the trigger.

The entire body of this ’firearm’ seemed to recoil—appearing to have an integrated recoil mitigation design, significantly reduced by this method in combination with the spell formation.

After one shot, the shooter stood up, looking no worse for wear.

The target on the other hand was completely obliterated, proving the weapon’s lethality was impressive indeed.

Malin commended the elves for their ingenious invention, while preparing himself to tell them to stop making these abominable seven-and-a-half-meter long monstrosities—a Frost Giant could almost use it as a lance: "Next time you’re making something of this caliber, I’d suggest making it a cannon, and you could even increase the caliber a bit."

Not by much, just a 75mm would suffice.

While thinking this, Malin and everyone else at the scene watched as a segment of the distant city wall suddenly collapsed.

"You guys..." Malin eyed the elves, a bad feeling dawning on him.

"The bullets we used are Blooming Bullets, with Arcane Gunpowder, that pack twenty times the explosive power of regular gunpowder at only three times the cost and easier to mass-produce!" the elves eagerly responded with evident pride.

"Truly amazing!" the ambassador, the Great Dwarf Craftsman, and the Great Half-human Craftsman simultaneously clapped their hands in praise.

Clap for what?! Do you realize that thing just punched through how many things before blowing up that stretch of wall?! Malin hadn’t felt this flustered in a long time—were these fools too smart or too stupid?

Call them stupid, yet they were able to innovate profoundly and now even create new weapons independently.

As for calling them smart... Malin truly couldn’t believe it. How imbecilic must one be to invent something with such monstrous lethality and still dare to name it a firearm?

My tall, slender-eared friends! Would you be so kind as to just make a cannon already?!

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