An intense pain surged and condensed within his chest. He didn't know why, but it felt hard just to breathe.
"Balmar, what's wrong with you?" Goras asked as he lay down on the ground.
He wanted to say something. He couldn't. His lips were hard to move.
Darkness started to seep in from the corner of his eyes. Bubbles came out of his mouth.
"Somebody help him!" Goras shouted. He turned to face him and shook him again and again. "Hang on!"
His eyelids turned really heavy, and this time, he couldn't help but give in.
Sight turned dark.
…
BARMWICH.
Hax, Adam, Gorre, and Ratha were on an empty field. In front of them, tens of meters away, a small, round, wooden target was installed on a stick. Beside them, A Prime Guard was aiming with an extensive sniper rifle.
Bang!
The bullet missed.
"This is why I don't want to make sniper rifle," Hax said.
Adam scratched his head. "Why? I think a weapon with longer range is powerful."
Hax sighed. "That is true. The problem is, the norms needed a lot of training before they could properly be deployed. I don't have months. I am a week away to attack the Nefarious Sword."
"I am sure they won't take that long."
"I bet you that he will never hit the target."
"We'll see."
The Prime Guards sweated. He felt pressured to meet Hax's expectations but he didn't show it. He kept firing one after another. Moving his aim slightly to the left or right depending on how far the bullet missed its target.
After dozens of bullets, none hit the target.
Hax breathed out. "Told you so."
"No," Adam said. "I can't believe my work is useless for you. There must something we can do for it to be effective immediately in the short term. Why don't we let every man in the Rebellion Army try? There has to be someone talented enough to use this weapon."
And create an elite-sniper squad, Hax thought.
Seemed interesting, Hax thought. Maybe the sniper wasn't so bad after all. It could become one of his long-term projects. If only had two or three snipers then their effectiveness would be low. But in the future, he would have thousands if not ten of thousands. His enemy would shiver just by hearing its name.
"Good idea," Hax said. "I will produce two thousand snipers and let everyone test it. If someone is good at it and they are willing to fight, then we'll make a special team for long-range soldiers."
"What about my exploding ball?" Ratha asked.
"We'll produce ten thousand of that at minimum."
"Yes." Ratha threw her fist in the air. "Exploding ball for life."
She wasn't that lively before. Where was the girl who loves to sleep for passing time?
It was his fault that she changed. No, in fact, it benefited her. No one who spent their time sleeping would get anything done. No one.
This girl had decided that she would help her father. Then she took action. She had the purpose and the will to create.
Hax ruffled her hair. What a fine investment. Grow quick my little seed.
"Hey! What about me?" Gorre asked. "My ravager is obviously the most destructive."
"And the most expensive," Hax added. "It's also impossible to mass produce your bullets since I don't want it to explode if the bots printed it. We can only make a thousand. And that is my best estimation. My expectation is we get less than five hundred Ravager at the end of the week."
"That's too little."
"Considering the cost of a single bullet is twice the cost of a power suit, I think five hundred bullets is enough."
Gorre sighed. "Alright, fine. Why is my bullet has to be so damn expensive."
Hax smiled. "Cutting-edge technology always costs a lot."
"Cutting-edge? What the hell is that. My bullets are not used for cutting, thank you very much."
"It means that it is the best we currently have."
"Ah, so you admit my bullet is the best." Gorre laughed.
If Hax bought knowledge for material science, the Ravager wouldn't be the best bullet. In fact, it would become average as he could make better bullets with a fourth of the cost. Sadly, he still didn't want to spend his access points. He considered buying electronic engineering.
The benefit of long-range communication was immense. He could set up an entire army around the kingdom and coordinate them in minute detail. Toppling empires and kingdoms would become easier.
Though he worried that he might need to buy knowledge to increase his firepower.
He glanced at Adam, Gorre, and Ratha.
If they could work together to build firearms, explosives, and other weapons, he could focus on auxiliary technologies such as information, communication, transportation, medical, and even socials. Heck, he even could make technologies about making crops yield a hundred times more than the current production of the entire kingdom.
Starvation would end in a snap of a finger. Food would be free. People won't be forced to work the job they hate. In fact, they could have no jobs at all, but Hax didn't want that kind of society.
To be rewarded you must work. We will feed you, but if you want tasty food, then you better work for it.
Hax called hundreds of robots his way. He then ordered them to produce the sniper rifles immediately. The muscled men then get to work. Using Weler-150 as usual to lift the heavy crates. They opened the crates and fed the bots with all kinds of metal.
Adam and Gorre stared at the bots as snipers popped out of their mouths. They are still amazed by the capabilities of these bots. Making parts, carving, drawing, smelting, forming, bending, these bots could do anything. One time, Gorre even used these bots to massage himself.
Hax had never thought of that. He should have. This weak body couldn't handle much.
He felt silent for a moment. Why did he think like a super old man who was dissatisfied with his body because he had to pass through a weird dimension and transmigration?
Hax shrugged.
"Sir, the Prime Soldiers has returned."
Hax turned around. Finally. "Tell them to meet me at the field.