Hax stood with both hands behind his back. In front of him, a man wore an iron armor that covered his arms and shoulders. The man held a big assault rifle that wasn't meant to be held at all. It was the big weapon that Hax had meticulously crafted. It took him a couple of days to make one. But the most important part, the mechanical arms, took him more than a week.
The mechanical arms were deep black and didn't reflect any light. It was flexible and strong enough to lift 150 KG of weight.
The high-caliber assault rifle that he called BC-75 had a firepower of a cannon, high firing rate of a machine gun, and the accuracy of an assault rifle. With this, the gun was effectively a medium-range, high damage, high firing rate firearm.
Eight muscled men lifted a metal statue and brought it into the shooting field. After they placed it down, they took a complete set of armor and wore them on the statue.
This was the practice target.
"Fire when you are ready," Hax said.
"Yes, sir."
The man tucked the stock of BC-75 on his shoulder. He aimed with one of his eyes and pulled the trigger.
The assault rifle spat out violent flames as it madly sprayed bullets towards the target. The high-caliber projectiles ripped the statue apart. Its armor was filled with holes and some parts were dented and deformed. The only thing that let it stand was its weight. A real human would fall the moment the first bullet hit it.
The firing continued, accompanied by the sound of metal against metal and gunfire. Hax and the audience watched as the man held the recoil with ease.
"That's enough," Hax said.
Thick smoke came out of the barrel as the assault rifle stopped firing. When the man put the assault rifle inside a bucket of water, it hissed like a snake.
The BC-75 was 69 KG in weight and had 0.75 calibers as its ammunition. It had a drum magazine that held 140 bullets inside. Its high explosive power was enough to punch through any metal. The metal statue that acted as the target was a 55 mm meter thick folded alloy. For this weapon to do so, Hax had refined its gunpowder a bit.
The ordinary gunpowder was too weak. He had to improve it slightly, though he couldn't do much since he didn't have the right knowledge.
"What do you think, Ratha?"
She nodded with a little more energy than she used to. "Strong weapon."
Hax laughed. "Of course it is. But nobody can hold it without that mechanical arms that I made."
"The mechanical arm is the key," Ratha said.
"That's right. If you mastered the knowledge that I gave, you could make something like that."
"I can help dad more."
"Precisely," Hax said. "I am but only one man. I only have two hands and one brain. If you mastered the materials, the norms would have another brain to improve its might. You do know what your dad wanted right? Freedom for all norms."
Ratha nodded. "I will work hard."
"Good." Hax smiled. Her progress in her study was up and down like a wave. Her cognitive ability was good, but her concentration was not up to expectation. Unless she treated it like it was her passion, her development in mastering the physics field would slow down as time goes.
[Congratulations! For creating a new technology with your own knowledge and wisdom, you have been awarded 120 access points]
[Congratulations! For creating a new technology with your own knowledge and wisdom, you have been awarded 100 access points]
Hax put fingers on his chin. These notifications came at random times. Why didn't they come the moment he finished the design or production? Only when he tested the product did the system gave him rewards. Or was that part of the process? To avoid defective products, the system had to see the result, first?
That was quite a possibility.
[Congratulations! Your hard work has paid off. For studying and experimenting with new tech, your intelligence has increased.]
Hax's eyes lit up. Finally, after a long time. He checked his status window.
[Status]
Name: Hax
Race: Human
Access Point: 1,760
Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 4, Endurance 5, Intelligence 13, Concentration: 1
Skills:
[Mathematics]: Lv 1
[Mechanics]: Lv 1
[Physics]: Lv 2
[Mechanical Engineering]: Lv 1
He grimaced a bit. His intelligence only increased by one. What did this mean? At first, he thought that he was stupid for having 12 intelligence but he probably misunderstood how the system valued the attributes. The 6 points in strength were normal strength for a human. This meant that the low points in his attributes were normal. It was just how the systems used the score.
Hax inspected his status again. He had enough access points to buy more knowledge. Looking at his list of skills, Hax couldn't help but feel pathetic. If he bought a skill in chemical sciences or mathematics, he could increase the firepower of his weapon and further reduce its weight and recoil.
He didn't need that though. The mechanical arms could lift enough weight and hold the recoil of BC-75. He had planned to dump it all onto mechanical engineering and bought electronic engineering for later, but the firepower that BC-75 showed made him think that it wasn't necessary.
Upgrading mechanical engineering would let him build a full-body mechanical armor. It would be a good alternative for the power suit. His army would be stronger than before.
Hax shook his head. For now, he had to make more of BC-75 and the mechanical arms. He would see the situation first before deciding what knowledge to buy.
With Ratha in tow, Hax entered his workshop and crafted the mechanical arms and the assault rifle with the help of the manufacturing bots. He had more than a few of them now in his workshop, the rest were busy making rifles for the army. The muscular men he taught before were still in the forge hall helping the bots by giving them the required materials. They hadn't worked for a year and they already felt what the age of automation dealt to the basic workers—Replaced.
He didn't mind the development. Humans shouldn't do the basic work. It was tedious and boring, instead, they should get their attention to the jobs that matter. Humanity's creative and innovative nature shouldn't be wasted on repetitive work. Wait! Look at him, only a few months passed and the system already deluded his mind with the grand scale of the human race.
"Is the system brainwashing me?"
"What system?" Ratha asked.
"It's nothing. Have you read page 57 of the kinetic chapter?"
Ratha shook her head.
"Well, you can start now. I will give you some test later."
Ratha slumped her shoulder and grabbed the parchment on the table as she sat down on the plastic chair. That was her favorite spot.
What a pathetic civilization. Even a plastic chair was considered to be a luxury. Hax wondered when he could meet the guy who invented plastic in this world. He had sent a few men to 'recruit' this inventor.
If he could replace the wood parts of his gun with plastic, his weapon would be much lighter than before.
"That man better join me without a fuss. If he didn't then I will send the Black Wolves to his door."
Hax proceeded to make the BC-75. The name actually stood for Big Cannon With .75 Caliber. He laughed as he praised his good naming sense. As he crafted the assault rifle, he wondered what he should name the mechanical arms. Light class Mechanical Arms Weler-150? Weler-150 stood for weight lifter that could lift 150 KG of weight. It sounded good, but Hax still had some doubts. After some thought, Hax decided to keep the name.
Weler-150. If he wanted to upgrade the mechanical arms. He just had to replace its name with Weler-250 or something.
As Hax put away his finished product, Ratha jumped off her seat and observed him.
"Do you want to learn how to make the BC-75?" Hax asked.
Ratha nodded.
All the theory must have bored her. Well, practical training was too early for her. But a little watch and learn session would do her wonder.
The manufacturing bots printed all the parts that Hax needed in bulk. It was impossible to print BC-75 as a whole. The best the bot could do was print half of the gun, and then print another half before assembling them. But before the bot could do that, Hax had to let it watch how to assemble it by hand. The A.I chip inside the bot would record it and replicate his action.
After that, the bot would replace Hax in manufacturing the Weler-150 and the BC-75. Just like the muscles men, even Hax would be replaced by the bots. At least, labor-wise. His creative and innovative mind, though, was irreplaceable.
This time, Hax printed all the parts instead to teach Ratha. "You know all the names of these parts, right?"
Ratha nodded twice.
"Good. I will explain to you what each part could do and why it could do so. This is the recoil spring. It is needed to absorb the shock when the gun fired the bullet. Its primary use is to reduce the impact the gunner feel."
Hax proceeded to explain every part in detail. Ratha still understood the first and second parts. But when Hax continued to explain more parts, Ratha's mind was already in another universe.
"And that's how the bullet travels in the barrel. Do you understand, Ratha?"
She blinked and returned to reality.
Hax sighed. He knew this would be a long-term investment. It was just that he put too much hope on a child. "Why don't you take a rest for now. Tell the guards what you want and have fun. After you that you can start studying again. Sounds good?"
Ratha nodded. "Very good."
She exited the workshop and returned a few hours later with her cat and a group of waiters pulling a cart of food. As her cat found the best spot to sleep, Ratha sat on her plastic chair and enjoyed her full-course meal.
She had told Hax that she sleep for fun. Hax guessed she had another way of having fun. He prayed for her not getting fatter because of her new hobby.
A few days later, the four bots in his workshop printed out half of the BC-75 and another half before assembling them with atomic precision. It took the bots quite a while to learn such basic things. Was this bot defective or what?
The bots continued to make the BC-75 and the Weler. Their production speed increased with time.
If he bought the computer and information sciences knowledge he could modify the artificial programming. He could also make new parts with electronic engineering and improved its performance by using improved chips.
A week later, tens of BC-75 and Weler-150 piled on the ground. Another tens of them were inside the crates that his men would move later.
Suddenly, a bird entered his workshop through the window. It landed on his shoulder. Hax grabbed the bird and took out the tiny parchment tied to its leg. There were a bunch of talented people that could train birds, so the rebellion had been using them once in a while. Hax had told his army not to use them unless it was the state of an emergency. This was to prevent the enemy from finding out how they communicate. If they did know, and sabotage the communication, the damage done could result in confusion and miscommunication.
The rebellion could fall apart from that alone.
He opened the parchment and read it.
"Magicians, shapeshifter, a squad of heavy cavalries appearing out of nowhere?" Haha! This world is really interesting. The Royal Army is strong. But the stronger they are the better. If I defeat them and parade their dead bodies to every city, the norms would have the confidence they need to rise up and rebel. At that time, he would get his hands on the power suit. Taking over the kingdom was not impossible."