Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1188: Chapter 1187: Rebecca’s New Approach

Deep mechanical hums echoed across the central testing platform, and a series of neural devices and biomass circulation equipment connected to the platform were undergoing ”warm-up” operations before the official activation. The platform’s ”Main Brain” had completed all inspection and adjustment processes and was in a shallow sleep state, waiting to awaken.

Gawain shifted his gaze away from the Main Brain, wearing a somewhat helpless smile: ”There are many ’famous quotes’ about me left in books, some are relatively reliable, while others I have no idea when they were attributed to me—this often happens, so it’s nothing surprising.”

However, Rebecca pulled a long face, reminiscing about something sad: ”But when I was little, it took me a huge effort to memorize those things, Aunt Heidi even changed her Magic Wand several times...”

Gawain: ”...”

The fact that Rebecca struggled most with her ancestral quotes with Aunt Heidi’s Magic Wand might leave outsiders baffled!

”Look on the bright side, learning more principles is never a bad thing,” Gawain, paused for a moment, coughed twice to steer back the conversation, while reaching out to pat Rebecca’s head for comfort—even though she was no longer a child, habits formed over years aren’t easily changed, ”I’ve seen quite a few of those quotes, whether true or not, they’re mostly positive in thought, which is why I haven’t asked the educational officials to create any ’debunking’ of these long-circulated quotes, nor requested the academy to remove these from the books, but simply asked to clear out a few bits of content that are not in line with today’s era...”

Rebecca had to accept the wisdom of her ancestor, but couldn’t help but ask one more question: ”Ancestor, those pieces that have been circulating for hundreds of years and sound quite reasonable... were really not spoken by you?”

Gawain looked at Rebecca’s curious face and could only smile helplessly: ”If you think about it, you’ll understand. Collect all those so-called quotes and sayings attributed to ’Pioneer Gawain Cecil’ in books, stories, and poems, and see how many you can find. Then think about when your ancestor died—I was only thirty-five when I died seven hundred years ago, fifteen years were spent in obscurity, and the remaining twenty years were all dedicated to war. How much time did I actually have to ponder life philosophies! If I lived by the conduct books sorted by later scholars, I probably ate and slept while being a philosopher...”

Rebecca nodded thoughtfully, seemingly finding some truth in it but then voiced another thought: ”But actually, I don’t think it’s impossible—look at Amber’s ’Holy Word Record,’ it’s published quite diligently, with a sizable volume every month...”

Gawain’s expression was calm just now, but now his eyes widened: ”Huh? You read that stuff too?!”

Rebecca knew from her ancestor’s expression that things weren’t right, so she quickly shrank her neck and explained: ”I sneakily read what Aunt Heidi had collected...”

Gawain: ”...”

Honestly, at this moment, he remembered when he had learned from Aunt Heidi about the ridiculous novel featuring eighty Princesses, feeling truly bewildered and puzzled about why Heidi, who was so mature and steady, secretly collected this stuff. What puzzled him more was Amber, who pursued the ’Holy Gibberish of Emperor Gawain Cecil’ with such dedication, seemingly more devoted than she ever was to lock-picking...

His expression was peculiar, he didn’t know what to say, but Rebecca, standing nearby, watched her ancestor secretly, slowly showing a thoughtful look: ”Ancestor, I’ve always felt... you actually approved Amber’s actions, right? Although you always reprimanded her for this, and sometimes showed disdain when seeing her sorted notes, you never really banned this—if you truly wanted it stopped, it would have ended long ago.”

Gawain looked surprisingly at Rebecca, not expecting that this usually carefree girl, only smart in technical areas, would notice and think about such things. For a moment, many thoughts surged inside him, but as his thoughts flowed, he ended up saying nothing, simply reaching out to touch Rebecca’s hair.

There were things Rebecca didn’t need to know... What important secrets could lie behind this? It’s merely about someone highly strung daily wanting to keep a bit of long-term amusement for themselves, hoping to leave some traces behind in this world. Whether Amber, diligent in recording those notes and competing in wits, had noticed this astutely, was unknown. But at least for now, this ”tacit understanding” seemed to last a long time.

Rebecca looked at her ancestor, suddenly feeling somewhat different from before, instinctively wanting to ask something, but moments before speaking, she felt a tickle on her scalp—a sense of intuition developed through long training made her swallow back the words she was about to say (which was rare for her), and almost simultaneously, a crisp bell rang from above the platform, attracting the attention of everyone at the testing site.

Gawain immediately raised his head to look towards the crystal container not far away, seeing bubbles suddenly surge from the primary container and several transparent pipes beside it, followed by runes around the base of the container lighting up and flickering in succession, a more pronounced hum and slight tremor emanating from beneath the platform, as a technician in a white short robe walked over, approaching Rebecca: ”Minister, the neural system integration is completed, and the remote test point is ready.”

”Ah, it’s finally happening!” Rebecca instantly forgot her prior discussion with her ancestor, her face lit up with excitement as she turned to Gawain, ”Ancestor! We can awaken the Main Brain now!”

Gawain’s mouth turned up slightly, lightly nodding to Rebecca: ”Then let’s wake it up.”

Rebecca softly inhaled, stepping over to the console beside the main container, personally entering the initial activation sequence into the rune Palette, and in the next second, the sleeping ”bio-processor” inside the container began to awaken gradually, stepping out of a brief state of chaos and sluggishness, it sensed the neural systems connected to it, and sensed the remote test points scattered across the test field—

It ”stretched lazily,” thus breathing life into hundreds of neural nodes within the testing site, as light signals lit up at each frame structure’s distant end, Gawain finally showed a hint of a smile on his face.

”This is just the beginning—but we’ve finally taken a substantial step,” he looked at Rebecca, not sparing any words of praise, ”now we’ve finally found a workable control core, well done, Rebecca.”

Rebecca showed a happy smile—many times, this overly simple and bright smile seemed almost silly in Gawain’s eyes. She scratched her hair, then suddenly seemed to remember something, ”By the way, Ancestor, speaking of the Sky Fortress, I’ve recently had some new ideas...”

”New ideas?” Gawain raised his eyebrows. Although many of Rebecca’s ideas often left people feeling at a loss, in the realm of technology, her new ideas were always highly anticipated, ”Go on.”

”We’ve recently been communicating with Typhon about technical solutions for advancing into the wasteland. The main advancement method on the ground has already been decided: armored trains combined with ground troop clusters, relying on chaotic magic tracks to advance into the wasteland step by step. This part isn’t technically difficult, as long as production capacity keeps up. As for the sky... our Sky Fortress is still just a shell, and progress in this area may not catch up.”

Gawain frowned slightly, ”You mean...”

”We might need some kind of compromise—something between the Dragon Cavalry Fighter and the Sky Fortress. It could carry high-power shields and armor like the Sky Fortress, operate for long periods in the wasteland environment, yet be produced relatively quickly. Ideally, it could be deployed in the airspace near the Great Walls shortly after the chaotic magic tracks leading to the wasteland are completed. You know, we currently don’t lack the technology to build large Anti-Gravity Rings. The materials provided by the elves have helped us solve the stability bottleneck for such large devices. Now that we have a usable control core, theoretically, building a flying facility smaller than the Sky Fortress should only be limited by factory capacity...”

”A solution between Dragon Cavalry and the Sky Fortress...” Gawain pondered, frowning slightly, and slowly nodded, ”Sounds reasonable. Project 115 is important, but considering actual progress, we need a device that can be put into use before Project 115 is completed... Do you already have an idea?”

Rebecca thought for a moment, organizing her thoughts while gesturing, ”Actually, the inspiration is quite similar to the first-generation Magic-guided Vehicle universal chassis. We can now manufacture high-power Anti-Gravity Rings and install them within the same power spine’s coverage area. We also have a way to control these Anti-Gravity Rings simultaneously and prevent them from interfering with each other. This allows us to make a universal large anti-gravity chassis; it’s theoretically entirely feasible.

”The structure of this chassis can be very simple, with a manufacturing difficulty far less than that of a Sky Fortress almost the size of a medium-sized castle. Once we build it, we can deliver it to different military branches or departments of need, allowing them to design or order the carrying structures on the chassis. Besides basic armor and Barrier Generators, anything can be built on it as long as it doesn’t exceed the load limit of the flying platform—from barracks to medical stations, from small factories to water purification devices. We can dismantle an entire forward camp and install it on a dozen of such universal platforms...

”I don’t really understand military matters, nor am I familiar with your vision for advancing bases to retake the wasteland, but I believe these platforms will certainly serve a great purpose. Their biggest advantage is versatility. Although their survival and combat abilities are certainly inferior to the Sky Fortress, and their flexibility is certainly less than Dragon Cavalry, like engineering vehicles on the front line, these platforms can form the basis for many things... Hey, Ancestor, why aren’t you speaking?”

This stubborn girl called out several times before Gawain awoke from an almost dazed state. He looked at his great-granddaughter with surprise, reaching out to pat her head after a while, ”How did your mind grow like this...”

Rebecca blinked uncertainly after a moment, ”Ancestor, is that a compliment?”

Gawain vigorously ruffled her hair, a smile already emerging on his face, ”Of course, it is a compliment—you found an idea that even I hadn’t thought of! Anti-gravity technology... I didn’t think such a convenient technology could be used this way... Cheap and high-power universal airborne platforms? Why didn’t I think of this before...”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but gently tap his forehead, regretting his previous limitations in thinking. After being exposed to anti-gravity technology so many times, his thoughts were still confined either to small aircraft or obsessed with the sci-fi scenes of giant airborne fortresses, yet he hadn’t thought of a more convenient application that fits the current situation... In the end, it was Rebecca’s flash of inspiration that conjured this brilliant idea.

Producing a large number of universal airborne platforms and then constructing an entire forward base onto those platforms, deploying them directly into the wasteland under the cover of ground troops...

After a little regret, Gawain suddenly sighed with a smile, feeling somewhat relieved—in the end, he’s been living in this era for too short a time. In his mind, impressions of anti-gravity technology were inevitably influenced by memories and worldviews from his past life. On the other hand, since the weight of the Empire fell on his shoulders, he hasn’t directly handled technical matters in a long time, hence he’s lost pace slightly.

In this regard, Rebecca, who constantly strides with cutting-edge technology, is obviously ahead of him.

There’s no need to regret this; rather, it should be something to be gratified about.

Rebecca had no idea how many thoughts flashed through her ancestor’s mind in those few seconds, she was just a little worried looking at Gawain, only daring to speak softly when his expression relaxed, ”Ancestor... Are you okay?”

”Of course, I’m fine,” Gawain laughed, ”I’m very happy, really—your plan is excellent. I think it can be initiated immediately. With the numerous outcomes from Project 115 and those factories already producing parts, your concept for a universal airborne platform already has a solid foundation. Go back and organize a report, and draft an initial budget list. I’ll inform Aunt Heidi on that side.”

Rebecca’s excited expression instantly froze when Gawain mentioned ”Aunt Heidi.” The girl’s face flinched visibly, her voice dropping by several pitches, ”Uh... Ancestor, will Aunt really not get angry when she receives a new budget form?”

”That’s why I’ll give her a heads-up beforehand,” Gawain also looked a bit helpless, ”mainly so she’s mentally prepared...”