Chapter 220 14.5mm
Zhang Xiao Qiang got people to open its mouth and shone a torch inside. This large rat was unlike the others that had two typical incisors. Upon opening its mouth, it had sharp carnivorous teeth, with three sets of sharp teeth on the upper and lower mandibles that were clenched extremely tightly. Upon looking at this, Zhang Xiao Qiang figured that it might have suffered from an intense pain right before it died.
The clenched teeth made the rebar in Zhang Xiao Qiang’s hands to be useless. At long last, Zhang Xiao Qiang used the spear to drill and remove one of the tough teeth to be able to form a hole, after which they made use of the pry bar principle to open the unpleasant rat mouth.
Zhang Xiao Qiang found a wound in its oral cavity and understood, a highly explosive warhead had exploded beside it, but the explosion was unable to harm its fur.
This giant king rat was careless, it was, in fact, a king rat that regarded class importantly and gave orders through its close subordinates. Coincidentally everything happened when it ordered the countless rats to suicide rush the survivors. Right as it was giving the order, a shrapnel from the warhead flew into its mouth, which shot through its oral cavity that had no protection all the way to its brain, as a result, it severely harmed the king rat.
With the king rat dead, there was no suppression from it. All the innately coward rats naturally would not rush to their deaths. Therefore, all of them scurried away in fear, resulting in Zhang Xiao Qiang’s victory, which had actually heavily relied on his luck.
Zhang Xiao Qiang thought back about in fear as cold sweat trickled down his back. He got a few men to find more helpers and carried the large rat onto a truck while he moved towards Wang Le who was in a buzz of activity.
Wang Le’s face and body were covered in engine oil, working on the Type-54 anti-aircraft machine gun while talking to the few mechanical apprentices around him. He remained unaware of Zhang Xiao Qiang standing behind him for half a day and it was only after he had completed his handiwork and that the anti-aircraft machine gun was able to swivel did he realize that Zhang Xiao Qiang was behind him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang pointed at the few porcupine corpses and spoke: “Did you see their leather? Are they usable?”
Wang Le glanced at the monster corpses and turned back to Zhang Xiao Qiang: “They can be used, I took a look at them, their leather will naturally condense towards the point of impact, it is able to withstand large caliber bullets from a close range and the leather by itself is bulletproof, giving the leather time to condense and react.”
He paused for a moment, picked up his water canteen and drank a few mouth of water. Looking at Wang Le who was so busy to the point of forgetting to drink water for the whole day, Zhang Xiao Qiang took out a pack of Nanjing Cigarettes and handed Wang Le a stick. Wang le, being overwhelmed by the emotions from the actions of Zhang Xiao Qiang, accepted it and helped Zhang Xiao Qiang lit the cigarettes. He smoked a deep breath and exhaled, then looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang with slight embarrassment.
“I saw a report once that talked about technology that could be built in the future, one of which is a futuristic personalized soldier armor, a few conjectures on bionic armor and they even have thick hides that made me think of the similarities….”
“This thick hide, compared to the D2 skin that I had given to you the other time, which is better?” Zhang Xiao Qiang interrupted Wang Le’s recollection and got straight to the main point.
“The two have their advantages, the D2 skin is much easier to work with but in terms of strength, the leather is stronger.” Wang Le patted on the Type-54 anti-aircraft machine gun and continued.
“As long as this big guy is finished and usable, it can kill off D2s, because D2’s skin has a certain limit, so long as you break through its limit, the bullets are able to penetrate through its skin. But the leather is much more difficult, its innate characteristics prevent it from being penetrated so easily unless we are talking about a 14.5mm caliber….”
His words were interrupted by Zhang Xiao Qiang: “14.5mm large bullets? Why?”
Wang Le drew another puff and continued: “Actually, everything has a threshold, including the leather. The 14.5mm caliber’s kinetic energy is too strong, the leather can maximally withstand 12.7mm caliber bullets, which means that even something slightly stronger than a 12.7mm is enough to break through it. 14.5mm bullets have multiple times the kinetic energy of a 12.7mm, the instant a 14.5mm hits this leather, it will definitely break through, and the unique point about large caliber bullets is that they will explode. Think about it, what would happen if an explosive explodes from inside the stomach?”
Hearing these, Zhang Xiao Qiang immediately felt that it was a pity, he had countless 14.5mm bullets on hand, even if he gave out 10 thousand, he would have plenty left. The thing was, he did not have any barrels capable of using the bullets.
Wang Le took a puff and noticed that Zhang Xiao Qiang looked dispirited and downcast, and immediately sensed something wrong. He was alright just a second ago, why is he like this now?
“Brother Cockroach, is there something bothering you?” Wang Le carefully probed and asked.
Zhang Xiao Qiang shook his head with a bitter face, then after thinking about it, he nodded. Wang Le was muddled by Zhang Xiao Qiang’s reaction. It was a shake, then a nod, what was that supposed to mean?
“I know what you’re talking about, I have 14.5mm bullets, they’re there.” Zhang Xiao Qiang pointed to the ammunition crates that were just about to be moved.
“I have more than 10 thousand of such bullets, multiple times in fact, but so what? Can you make a 14.5mm gun?” Zhang Xiao Qiang rambled on and asked Wang le. Wang Le shook his head, even if he could, they did not have the materials to do so.
Seeing Wang Le admit that he could not, Zhang Xiao Qiang completely let go of the idea. He turned and walked toward the dormitories, he wanted to take a look at how the 8 porcupines were doing. Towards this new species of rats, Zhang Xiao Qiang wanted to rear them in the base and see if they were able to reproduce. Regardless of meat or obtaining the leather, it could be considered a local niche.
“Brother Cockroach…” Wang Le’s shout came out from behind. Zhang Xiao Qiang stopped and looked at him, who quickly ran to his side and asked: “Brother Cockroach, are you worried about having bullets but no guns?”
Zhang Xiao Qiang nodded his head: “You know that our walls are thick, but god knows if there are any D3, D4 that will run over. You have seen a Type-D zombie, it is that one that is slightly strengthened. With that, a rifle can kill it, but when it comes to a D2, even a cannon can’t kill it, at that time, I’m afraid our base will not be able to stand against them.”
With that, Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the Type-92 Battalion Gun behind the vehicle and self-ridicule: “Who knows, maybe even I will have to hug a warhead and use my life to fight something…”
Zhang Xiao Qiang sighed, but Wang Le’s expression became excited. He spoke with a vulgar expression: “Brother Cockroach, I do know where we can obtain a big gun for such an ammunition….”
Zhang Xiao Qiang suddenly turned and looked at Wang le anxiously: “WHERE?”
Wang Le started to speak….