My Players Are So Fierce

Chapter 2936 -978: Old Bach’s Regret · The Secret of the Mechanical Church and Eden

Murphy’s sudden “host becoming the guest” posture left Master Minks a bit at a loss.

Sigh…

You damned weirdo vampire!

You’ve been using my stuff you swiped for almost a year now and never even sent me a letter. Now that I’m calling you out, you don’t repent at all—instead you put on this open and honest act, making this old Half-body Man suddenly lose confidence, like I really am some sleazy vendor who doesn’t care about after-sales.

But thinking it through carefully, the stolen goods really aren’t Murphy’s fault.

After all, this fourth-generation Core Calculating Pearl was originally stolen by spies from the Goldenrod

Kingdom. It was supposed to end up in the hands of that Dwarf Marshal Loren, but midway it got Robin Hood–style intercepted by Murphy and the young lady.

If you have to label it, this wave basically counts as a Robin Hood operation.

Of course, both of them are people of standing, so for this awkward matter that’s already in the past and only gets more embarrassing if you bring it up now, they just laugh it off. As for certain details of the affair, there’s no need to nitpick too strictly. At Murphy’s demand—or call it his request—Master Minks grinned, took the Core Bead, then pulled from a drawer a very precise piece of engineering kit that looked like a microscope, and started carefully examining the arrangement of Spiritual Energy Factors inside the Core Bead.

Murphy waited patiently, and took the chance to sneak a few glances at the blueprints Master Minks had just been modifying.

He realized it was a design for a walking machine. Minks had already reworked it into something like a walking tank–type war weapon, adding a barrel that could actually be used for firing and a more efficient power system.

Most importantly, this thing also had no crew compartment!

That made Murphy raise an eyebrow. He strongly suspected this was inspiration Master Minks had gotten from those Dragon knights that were about to be used in the defensive war. After all, no matter how you looked at it, the thing seemed to follow the same pattern as the Dragon knights. But in Minks’ design, at the core of this walking tank there was a special kind of Calculating Pearl.

Looks like he doesn’t plan on using the Dragon knights’ wetware core, and is instead preparing to go down the path of unmanned, automated weapons.

Given the engineering level of the Dwarves, making something like this is difficult but not impossible. In the past they couldn’t do it only because traditional ideology bound them, preventing them from developing war weapons. But now that civilization has reached the brink of life and death, once those traditional notions are thrown aside, at the very least the Half-body Man leadership has already started to discard those unrealistic pacifist fantasies and is marching toward a new round of pragmatic rearmament.

Apparently only the pressure of survival can really wake a race up.

“Peeking at another engineer’s blueprints without permission is a major taboo among engineers, but since you’re not a mechanic, it wouldn’t be proper for me to bind you with industry rules.”

Master Minks fine-tuned the viewing device in his hands, and in that sharp yet not grating, slow old-man tone particular to Half-body Men, he asked:

“You’re the first commander on the Continent to truly employ actively piloted models of walking machines in war. Although I don’t agree with the cruelty of wetware cores, I do believe you’re a genuine pioneer in this field.

So in your view, what is my blueprint still lacking?”

“Not enough firepower!

A single main gun isn’t enough to cope with the scenarios it needs to face. Based on our experience, when a walking machine steps onto the battlefield it mainly takes on siege-breaking and fire projection roles, so you need to equip your weapon with more destructive modules.

For example flamethrowers, rapid-fire gun arrays, high-voltage grids, mechanical reaping scythes, and missile systems that can launch barrages from range, or mine-layers.”

Murphy rubbed his chin and said:

“Also, since it’s unmanned, the protection concept needs a corresponding upgrade. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the idea of ‘explosive reactive armor’, but in my view, still trying to upgrade defense by piling on heavy steel is a very dull, very clumsy line of thought. Since it’s a weapon built for destruction, then you should make full use of that.

Why not give this thing a self-destruct mode as well? When it’s completely inoperable and has lost combat capability, it can treat the enemy to a big fireworks show, and at the same time prevent them from learning new war concepts from its wreckage.

I have many foreigners under my command who are very good at this sort of thing. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to invite you to visit our arms factory in Transylvania and talk face-to-face with those master weapon smiths.

Of course, while I too feel that the wetware cores Old Flywheel makes are a bit cruel, in our view as Transia People this stance of ‘still fighting after death’ fits perfectly with our philosophy of death. Besides, the Barbarians from Ice Bay have already sent Berserker Priests to Transylvania to learn this technology.

Their god wants to see Berserkers continue to unleash such pure fury even after they die.

So I have to pessimistically tell you: although the Mechanical Church’s utterly outrageous brand of utilitarianism is cruel most of the time, in the foreseeable future the Mechanical Church’s technology and ideology will inevitably spread like wildfire across a Continent that’s getting less and less peaceful.

This means that you orthodox mechanics, with you at the head, must pick up the pace and catch up, otherwise being eliminated by the times is only a matter of time.”

Murphy turned back to look at Master Minks and said:

“That’s also why I’m here this time. Two of my important subjects have been kidnapped by Mechanical Church forces in your city. I have to get them out, before those creatures hiding beneath the ground turn them into secret puppets.”