Chapter 517: Product
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Chong could not help but to shake his head. Design-wise, there was nothing particularly stunning about the these energy based weapons. The striking performance should be because of its superior materials. And regarding those, to be frank, Ye Chong had never seen such bizarre-looking woods and crystallization, while they did convince Ye Chong that they could be the best candidates to produce energy based weapons.
Nevertheless, he felt it was a total waste of decent materials when they were used to make such weapon type, especially when the design was poor to begin with. It was never humanistic to begin with. It looked crude, there was not even an aiming assisting device installed on every weapon. No wonder they were meant for spiritual shooters, nobody could aim their arrows even at a giant without neurokinetic aids.
Certainly the marksmen well-trained on their parapsychic would be perfect for this overly innovative weapon. They would need no assisting device in aiming. Their powerful spirits would be more than enough to help them reveal the enemies within the proximity at the shortest time possible, while producing firing at a humbly 100% accuracy.
But that was only if the enemies were *within* the proximity.
How about a distance farther away from their proximity?
Ye Chong had always been fighting in the galaxies, where wars between spaceships and mechs in the void were so far the most common, in which each unit would be easily over few hundreds, even thousands kilometers away from each other. Would this weapon-design be practical? He remembered Huang Baiyi once taught him that, the chance of somebody expanding their parapsychic senses hundreds meters beyond their proximity would be hardly 1 / 120,000,000. Even the teacher himself could only sense things at most 60 kilometers away from him.
Well, perhaps, the Mentalists here might be godlike but only godlike. They could have performance like a god but they were still human and there would always be a limit in the anatomy, a slope hindering the growth at a point, where it would be too hard to further improve their spiritual sensitivity.
Furthermore, the designer should be focused on maintaining the performance of the weapon while minimizing the demand on the user's mastery, or the weapon would have no point to exist. It was the thumb rule that every weapon designer should abide by. No use of create a giant toothpick that was too hard to use.
"Mhm? Not of your taste eh?" ridiculed Kristen, which shocked Ban Meng awake.
Ye Chong did not lift his head, he just gently placed the weapon down. "Just checking it out a little," he said.
That was when someone came to knock on the door.
"Who the-" Kristen frowned as she stormed towards the door.
"Greetings, Ms. Kristen," greeted a man with his partner. The man was in a dark-green patterned skirt, standing next to a lady in a pretty chivalrous attire.
Kristen's brows loosened, "Mr. Mo, what brought you here?" Mr. Mo was a wealthy merchant, well-known for his gentle and courteous nature in the city.
"Ms. Kristen." Mr. Mo smiled, "This... is a friend of mine. She just got back from the Mist, well you see, she might have gotten back alive, but her weapon was damaged during a fight with the beast. So she wishes to get a fitting weapon from a talented designer, so we came to you, Ms. Kristen, you are known for your god-given hands. I hope our visit did not cause you any inconvenience."
"Hmm..." Kristen gave a nod, "Well, if it's Mr. Mo's friend, then it's my friend too. No problem. Well, all these are available, take any you like. But before that, as you know, I don't do purchases here. I only do trades. So you'll need something special to exchange."
Mr.Mo took a look at the lady next to him, who nodded as she replied, "Alright, I wonder if you are interested in the amapolla wood..." Her voice was hoarse and deep.
"Amapolla?" There was glow in Kristen's eyes, "Okay, no problem. Pick anything you like."
The lady nodded and began browsing the weapons on the rack in silence.
She had rapid eyes, it was as if she was seeking that fateful moment of connection with one particular weapon among the crowd, instead of actually inspecting them. Well she did take a few of them to have a look but she, like Ye Chong, would place it down right after. A few minutes lapsed and she looked at Kristen.
"That's all you have?" She sounded disappointed.
"Uhhh..." Kristen halted for a moment, "Sec." She walked to the other room and brought out a few boxes onto the table, "These are the precious of my works. Some of them were my old masterpieces." She opened up the boxes and the lady expressionlessly moved to the table.
This time, instead of a quick window shopping, she gave a careful inspection on every piece. She would give a grip, a brandish, a caress before placing them down. 10 minutes lapsed, "Well, you have good weapons but they do not fit my hands well," she shook.
Kristen was feeling helpless. She would love to grab that amapolla wood but it was very difficult for a shooter to get a weapon that felt nice to the grip. It almost felt like a real need of fate or fortune sometimes. Nothing technical there.
"Is there... anything else?" asked the lady as she looked at Kristen with expectations. Those masterpieces were indeed excellence so she seemed more interested now. She was truly in need of a fitting weapon.
Kristen wanted to shake her head and cancel this deal remorsefully but something came into her mind - that imagery where this strange boy also shook his head upon seeing her crafts. Perhaps...?
"I'm sorry. I have no other weapons here."
"I see..." The lady was literally disappointed, "Well, can't help it I guess. At least I manage to behold these masterpieces today."
"BUT!" The tone changed drastically on Kristen.
"Ms. Kristen, do you happen to have one more thing in the drawer?" The lady returned to her attentive self.
"Perhaps, he could help you out," said Kristen, with her finger pointed at Ye Chong.
Wow, poor boy.
Ban Meng was terrified by Kristen's behavior. It seemed like she got a new target to shoot, and it was the cold-hearted man too. Someone would be hurt, really soon.
The lady looked at Ye Chong in bewilderment, "You mean... this young man?"
"Yes. This young man seems to have a unique understanding on weaponry. Perhaps he could give some help," said Kristen.
Ye Chong was not astonished by the plot twist. His expression remained frozen. And it was this frozen expression that convinced the lady that maybe the young man was in fact a master craftsman in disguise.
"Hello, sir. I wonder if you could help me out?" she asked, with a formal bow upon Ye Chong.
"How much?" asked Ye Chong after a moment of consideration with his head tilted, "How much is amapolla wood?"
It was an unexpected question which resulted a total dead silence in the next 30 seconds.
It was unexpected because a real professional craftsman would not ask such silly question. Premium materials like amapolla wood were obviously something that not a man could afford simply because he had enough money for it. No mechanic would ask a question like this! Only an outsider, a novice, a layman would question the value of amapolla.
Like really, if he doesn't know the value of amapolla, how would he possibly be a good craftsman?
That was what everyone had in mind.
"Well." Kristen was the first to react, she said, "If you could get that piece of wood, I'm willing to buy it with 1,000,000 Ao."
Hmm... sounds expensive?
Ye Chong lacked the concept of the value of Ao but it looked like a colossal amount. He did need more pennies in his wallet, compared to some precious piece of wood from nowhere, considering how he had a full inventory of premium materials in his ring.
"Okay," said Ye Chong.
The girl, upon realizing the whole intention of Kristen's little gesture, could feel the blood fading away from her cheeks. The atmosphere was cold, as her eyes popped at Kristen.
Kristen too had a pale expression, with regrets tinting her face. She could sense it! The upheaval in the atmosphere, the brewing blizzard, this lady, she must be an expert, at least a Level 5! Only somebody Level 5 and above could exert such pressure! She was playing with fire the whole time?!
Ban Meng was looking for a rathole at the corner just to make sure he could run away in time.
Mr. Mo was calm, as expected from a merchant, but there was somebody else, unaffected by the storm.
That was Ye Chong.
Mr. Mo was naturally unaffected since he was in a kind of association with the lady. But Ye Chong? The boy who did not even comprehend the value of amapolla wood was actually feeling nothing in the atmosphere?
The lady was finding this boy strange as she withdrew her expression.
The atmosphere lightened, as calming as before.
"I would need to borrow the facilities here, the materials too," said Ye Chong.
"Alright." Before Kristen the owner could give her approval, the girl had already nodded her head and replied. She then glanced at Kristen who acted like a poor scalded kitten by then.
"Any requirements for your weapon?" asked Ye Chong.
"Penetrability. High frequency of shooting, with sufficient accuracy. Adaptability in different climates," she stated her requirements.
"What about sizes? The weight?"
"Not too huge, preferred it portable, a weight less than 40kg."
"Are you left or right-handed?"
"Left! I'm left-handed!" The lady sounded a little excited now, well that was probably why she could not find a fitting weapon without a hassle. She was left-handed and weapons for left-handed person were hard to find to begin with.
"Lay both of hands, with arms wide spread."
The lady obeyed the request and spread her arms across, "Alright, done," said Ye Chong after a quick glance.
Kristen was stunned by the conversation between this layman-looking boy and this clearly talented shooter. She never imagined of having such inquiry before a purchase. She usually just made whatever that popped up in her mind and placed the products on the rack for the customers to choose.
Ye Chong went to Kristen's seat before. He would need the materials here.
His gaze first laid upon a pale blue stick on the table, about 90 centimeters long, with white glitters across the body. He observed that most weapons on the rack were made out of such wood.
Well, be it the name or the functionality of these materials on the table, Ye Chong had zero knowledge regarding them. So he played safe anyway, starting from the common material.
The lady was not impressed by his choice. Speckled blue fir was a pretty common wood in the market, almost every standard weapon was made out of such wood. There was hardly any advanced, premium weapon when this wood was involved, since its tolerance towards energy firing was not high, so it would work like a toy, to be frank.
Ye Chong was silently calm.
He was not aware of the capacity of this piece of wood, so he intended to first figure out the maximum energy tolerance of this wood. The method would be simple, obviously he had to carry out an experiment.
The methodology was rather simple. He would be carving a simple circuit over the surface of speckled blue, then he would trigger the flow of energy from the crystallization, and he would amplify the energy flow during the process.
Yes, little bit more, okay, more...
Boom!
The speckled blue broke into two.
Okay that would be the highest energy tolerance, which was a bit surprising to Ye Chong to be frank. It was a rather high figure, much higher than the alloys he had seen before. That explained why all the wooden firearms now!
Now that Ye Chong had gotten the figure, he had a plan.
He did not utilize any of the facilities available, since he was not familiar with them. The outcome would not be optimum if he used an unfamiliar apparatus, especially those facilities were parakinetically demanding. They required much more careful handling due to the enhanced sensitivity of humans under parakinesis.
"Where's my dagger?" asked Ye Chong towards Ban Meng at the corner.
Ban Meng hurriedly took out the dagger and threw to Ye Chong.
Once the dagger was withdrawn from the sheath, Kristen was immediately overwhelmed. No one at the place had noticed the bit of shock going on in her pupils.
It was a dagger made out of something she had never seen before. The people were shocked into silence, as they could hear their intensifying breaths.
Ye Chong lifted the dagger and gently scratched the surface of speckled blue randomly.
The films of the chipped wood fell off the place.
Ye Chong was concentrated, as his hand danced across the wood, yet like a machine it crossed the surface, with accuracy like manufacturing machine. The films of wood were all identical. It was the accuracy that captured the attention.
Within twinkling of eyes, the speckled blue had transformed into a smooth, flawless rod in Ye Chong's hand. The body was polished, the fair white spots were like the cherry blossoms on spring.
That was not it. Ye Chong intended to hollow the rod, so he could make it an actual cannon tube, which was the trickiest part of the entire crafting process, since the inner wall must not contain any flaw to ensure proper energy transition.
He cautiously crafted a circle at the cross-section of the rod.
Be it the lady or Kristen, with their enhanced senses by parakinesis, both of them could see the detail in Ye Chong's craft and certainly they were again amazed by it. It was a perfect circle, that almost felt like he drew it with a precise geometric apparatus, and it was just a simple cut promptly from his dagger.
Ye Chong then drew a similar circle at the other side.
The depth of the cut, the diameter, the shape of the circle, everything was precisely identical. It was astounding!
Ye Chong then put the dagger down and reached his hand into the pocket, looking for something.
It was a curious sight, as the people wondered what Ye Chong would be pulling out from his pocket.
Well, the reality was... there was nothing in his pocket. It was just his typical smoke and mirrors, a camouflage to what he was doing. The thing he wanted was resting inside the dimensional keystone.
So he just dug into the pocket, which eventually gave him a bottle of dark green fluid.
Everyone was confused yet fascinated at the same time, as they looked at this half bottle of fluid.
It was actually a very strong corroding agent, which was obtained on one of Ye Chong's adventure in the Consortium base on Spectre back then. Ye Chong was familiar with such agent, he created Liquid of Shang after all.
Rather than figuring out on "how" to hollow the tube, Ye Chong had an idea on "what" to hollow the tube.
Only if he had Liquid of Shang, with its excellent capability, a simple drop could have fulfilled the task for him. Well, he was not aware of the name of this green bottle, he knew it was a corroding agent merely because of the warning label on it. There were a rack of them back in the base, but Ye Chong could not bring everything away, so he just picked a random bottle.
Fortunately, the bottle had a dropper at the cap, which saved him a lot of trouble. The curiosity intensified so much that everyone could not help but to reach their neck like a giraffe, popping their eyes just to see what the heck was going on.
Oh, before hollowing the tube, he got to test the capability of this agent. So Ye Chong stacked 3 pieces of speckled blue he took from the table and he dripped the agent.
Ssssss...
Sizzling was heard as a column of green smoke rumbled. The board was being corroded at a perceivable rate. The board was then pierced, with an irregularly shaped hole which reached all the way through even the table itself.
A horrified gasp could be heard in the room.
Such corrosion!
Kristen, Mr. Mo and Ban Meng had a colorless face by then, even the lady was feeling uneasy at the sight.
Ye Chong was a little surprised but his expression remained unchanged.
He pondered for a moment before he finally made his move.
Using the dropper, he first sucked about 15 drops of the agent.
His left hand rested with the wooden rod standing. His right hand holding the dropper and with extreme caution, he pressed the valve of the dropper.
The atmosphere was intense. Whether it would become an invention or an accident, it all depended on this very drop now.
A thin stream of liquid flowed out of the dropper.
Before the liquid reached the cross-section of the rod, Ye Chong replaced the dropper with a speed of lightning.
The people could see nothing than a brief afterimage.
And that was the last straw to the lady's crumbling serenity. Her expression changed!
The withdrawn right hand returned to its position, clipping the rod to support the other hand this time.
The stream of liquid was traveling in slow motion in Ye Chong's eyes.
It dripped, it landed and touched the surface, the gradual sizzling was heard again.
Ye Chong began rubbing his hands.
Chnnngggg!
The rod started vibrating, as the resonance bounced all around the room.
The lady had lost the colors on her face at last.
The rapid spinning rod allowed the liquid to contact and corrode the surface uniformly. Ye Chong's eyes focused upon the rod as his rubbing hands tried to control the angle and momentum of the rod.
Such technique would complicate anyone on strength control, even the master of strength control himself.
It almost looked like an acrobatic performance in the eyes of the people.
The hollowed space of the tube grew deeper and larger, the sizzling grew louder.
And out of sudden, silence returned.
Ye Chong stopped rubbing his hands and took a careful look at his craft. The inner wall had a satisfyingly even surface. To be frank, he was not particularly confident in this exaggerating performance. But really he could not summon a whole table of professional apparatuses right from the keystone, it probably would frighten the people and cause havoc, so he succumbed to this pretty crude, primitive method instead.
He liked his tube. It looked fine.
After the most challenging step had been done, nothing else should stop Ye Chong. He already had a blueprint of the beam shooting circuit in his mind. He decided to go for the not-so-complicated design that would produce a decent projectile, with a twist of course.
He had to make a few changes, considering how this gun would use no battery but a tiny light crystallization. He would revolve the circuit about this crystallization and pick the most common trigger he observed from all the weapons here. Regarding the more effective trigger, he lacked the necessary research for it. He also needed to reverse the circuit so it would fit the left-handed lady.
Throughout the entire process, Ye Chong had only used his dagger and the corroding agent. He used nothing else.
"Done," said Ye Chong, as he calmly presented his craft to the lady.