How to start a rebellion was the question that came into Hax's mind. And not just a normal rebellion, but a rebellion that spanned an entire kingdom whose rulers were beings that could defy the laws of physics with their breath. Now, He did not mind killing a group or two of these arrogant men, but to offend an entire kingdom was another matter.
Hax sat on the chair where his own personal workshop was. His room was separated from the other forge room where the others were still forging pistols for the norms. Of course, the manufacturing bot joined them, and their reaction was hilarious.
He and the rest of the pistol maker had been holed up in this building. Not even once did they go out to relax and do some mental healing. Every day was the sound of hammer banging, metal clanking, and fire spreading followed by a couple of screams. The last one was the fun part.
"I have an entire sect hunting me down, and an entire city of norms trying to protect me. With that burden, vacation seems so far away."
He wondered how the battle in Boiling Volcano progressed. Some curious norms had gone there, but they were either killed or did not dare to look close. He had heard that the norms are forming more groups to fight against the cultivators. The Black Wolves had inspired them to take the initiative to strike.
But Bodin told him that the Nefarious Sword had more than one apprentice temple. If the norms used their numbers, then the sect would not hesitate to do the same.
"If I want to create a great rebellion, then I have to destroy the Nefarious Sword in one giant stroke."
Hax considered the option. With his status, the men outside would follow him if he told them to attack the sect. But he didn't know their full capability. If he attacked, and the Nefarious Sword sect retaliated with a force that he could not contain…
He wouldn't even know where to cry to.
"Information and military might. Those two things are the priority. To get stronger military force I need resources, manpower, and stronger weaponry."
He could rely on Bodin for resources, and manpower, but to get stronger weaponry, he had to rely on himself. "I guess I need to make more variants or try to make a rifle. Or any firearms that are stronger than the low-caliber pistol."
The next part was information.
"The information part is hard and almost impossible since a cultivator can identify a norm with their eyes. Unless a cultivator is willing to work for the norms which is hardly possible."
But wasn't there a cultivator that willingly work for Bodin? He didn't know how that came to be, but if those guys are loyal to Bodin, then they would not mind doing some spy work for the norm.
"What was his name again? Gaelin?"
He'd tell Bodin his ideas later.
For now, he had to do what he could do, making stronger firearms. He only had two firearms blueprints. One of them he got from the system, while the other was the result of his modification. He named the blueprint of the variant 'Modified-Pistol Blueprint'.
There was nothing remarkable about that name because the pistol was not that great anyway. He wanted to keep cool names such as Widowmaker or Mankiller to the truly powerful weapons.
He knew the existence of powerful weapons from the fragment of his past memories which he received from buying knowledge. But making powerful weapons such as Laser Gun, Positron Gun, Oblivion Rifle, or Gravity Blaster was hard or downright impossible to create without the blueprint.
The exception was if he had the necessary knowledge. It was possible to reinvent the wheel if he was willing to put some time into research. But this was a long-term project. He did not know whether the norms could stall the cultivators without any improvement on their weapons throughout the rebellion.
"If that is the case, then there is only one choice. I need to make more variants, and try to make stronger firearms without stopping the production of a slightly improved weaponry."
"The mechanism of a gun is not that complicated so making a rifle or even a machine gun is possible with my current knowledge."
[Status]
Name: Hax
Race: Human
Access Point: 40
Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 4, Endurance 5, Intelligence 12, Concentration: 10
Skills:
[Mathematics] Lv 1
[Mechanics]: Lv 1
[Physics]: Lv 2
Hax sighed. He saw no improvement in his status except the forty access points that he had. That was the reward he got for making a slightly improved variant of the pistol.
"To get a Level-1 knowledge I need 500 access points while upgrading Level-2 to Level-3 is 50.000 access points!? This is insane!"
Hax stood up. There was no time to think about access points that he didn't have. "This is the time of war. If the sect invites their friends to destroy me, then there is nothing I can do. I have to strengthen my forces."
He looked at the Modified-Pistol blueprint to try to make some improvements to it. It was all he could do, improving the current weapon. Thankfully, the manufacturing bot that he got could print out any parts. This meant that he would have more bots in the future. If he had a thousand or even ten thousand manufacturing bots, then starting a kingdom-wide rebellion won't be a problem.
For hours, Hax stared at the blueprint. Countless simulations went on in his mind. And after a few hours more, Hax finally believed that he could make a rifle. It might be hard if he did not know the existence of the rifle. But since he did, he didn't have to go through trial and error.
Hax popped his finger and called for his manufacturing robot outside his workshop. The robot stopped making more parts and floated inside his room. He wondered why this robot did not run out of battery yet. It had a solar panel on its back, but he never saw it sunbathing.
"Just how much is your battery?"
[Battery status: 89%]
"That's quite a lot, considering you've been printing a lot of things already. And does floating in the air increase your energy consumption?"
[Anti gravity module consumption is 20% of the total consumption]
"Much less than I expected." Hax didn't bother with it anymore and just draw some parts for it to print.
Because he had never seen the inside of a rifle, the parts that he printed were experimental. It would be so much easier if he had blueprints.
"Why do you have to make my life hard, system?"
Hax took a while to print all the parts that he believed he needed to make a rifle. Most of the process was him drawing on the manufacturing bot. The bot only took a few seconds to print the parts down to its atom.
Sweat drenched his neck, it felt sticky and dirty.
"This room needs ventilation. I'll tell the builders to do that later."
After he finished printing all the parts, Hax tried to assemble the rifle according to his imagination. The rifle was supposed to be used with two hands, with one hand on the grip, and the other on the handguard. The problem was, the handguard was too short, so its handling was very awkward.
"I need to redraw the handguard." He spent a few minutes more adjusting its length and printing it. After he finished, he assembled them again.
"Aha! I finished it!"
The rifle in his hand looked like an abnormally large-sized pistol with super long barrels.
"I forgot to make the stock."
This was why the rifle looked very weird. The recoil of a rifle was much larger than a pistol, especially on rapid-fire mode.
Hax wanted to try the weapon but thought better of it. "I can't just test fire a gun without proper safety precaution and dummy target." He would make sure to tell that to the builder.
It was really nice to have subordinates. And he didn't even have to pay them. He still had to sell them the pistol and other weaponry at low cost though. If he started selling them at a higher price, he believed that they would strangle him for being selfish in this dire time.
"They don't fight for me. They fight for their own. They fight for their cause."
Hax sighed. There was nothing he could really do about that. Maybe he could find some way to make men fight personally for him in the future. For now, as long as he supported the fight against cultivators, the common people would give him anything they want.
He shook his head. "Let's get back to business."
Hax draw the rifle stock and installed it on the rifle. It fit perfectly as he braced it on his shoulder. He didn't feel any discomfort but that might change if he start shooting.
The only way to find out was to test it. Hax exited his workshop and called a few guardsmen to follow him. He might as well show them what these things can do.
As he walked with a dozen men behind him, he reached the shooting range and loaded his gun. When he printed the parts, he had not forgotten to print out the ammunition too. Unlike pistols bullets, this one was longer and narrower at the tip. It contained much more gunpowder to achieve higher velocity which equaled more power. The narrow tip also helped with the penetration power.
"Sir, is this the new weapon that you created?"
Hax smiled. "Yes, do you like what you see?"
They cheered and clapped.
"Congratulation, sir!"
"This pistol is much bigger than the last one, it must be more powerful."
"We can defeat those cultivators with this!"
Hax laughed. "It is more powerful than the pistol, but it is slightly harder to use. So I'm going to demonstrate how to use it to you. After that, I might make more of these for you all to use."
"Yayyy!!"
He raised his hand for them to calm down. "Watch and learn."
Hax raised the stock of the rifle to his shoulder. He widened his footing to shoulder width, and he looked through the rear sight.
"Alright let me explain while I demonstrate. This standing position, although it looked good, it is actually the least favorable position that you can use. It's terrible because you only have your muscle strength as support which makes it hard for accurate shooting. I'm going to show you the other position later. But for now, if you want to use a rifle in a standing position use your left hand to hold this handguard, with your elbow pointing down. On the other hand, your right hand should hold the grip, while your elbow pointing out or behind you. The butt of the rifle, or the stock should be snug on your shoulder like so. And remember to keep your finger away from the trigger, like I always told you when you bring a pistol. Also don't point the gun at something that you don't want to break or hurt. Remember it only took one careless move, and you would regret your action forever."
Hax eyed them. "Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Good. Let me show you some features of this weapon. Do you see this little metal thing with a hole in it? It's called the rear sight, while the one near the barrel is called the front sight. If you want to shoot far targets a lot more accurately, I suggest you use them by closing one of your eyes and look through the holes. If you see your target through the holes, then your bullets will probably hit it when you fired."
They nodded.
"That's a cool feature. It's really hard to hit distance target with a pistol."
"That's true," Hax said. "But I have a lot cooler feature for you." Hax smiled. "Tell me, have any of you heard of full auto mode?"