Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 182 Rifled Rifle
Erwin was not a reckless person. He became the team leader largely because of his calm character. He estimated the strength of both sides. If they attacked by surprise, they could basically get rid of the fishman without any harm.

The tower is not far from here. Zeus once gave them a blueprint with the time marked on each area. Here, the Banshee team can arrive in three minutes at most.

Three minutes. Erwin licked his lips. He had seen those banshees when he was studying in the advanced class. As long as they arrived, no matter how many murlocs there were, they could be dealt with. Even if this murloc was just the vanguard and there was a large army behind them, they only needed to hold on for three minutes.

Erwin made a few gestures, and the patrol members came over and began to discuss in a low voice.

The merman hid behind the reef and observed quietly for a while before tentatively moving forward. His vision was not very good, and his perception in the sea was not very useful from land. Fortunately, his intuition was quite sharp, so he could always find a suitable place to hide and walked here safely.

Suddenly, a "pop" sound was heard in the darkness, and then a round object rolled over.

The fishman was stunned for a moment, and wanted to retreat cautiously, but a shrill scream suddenly sounded behind him.

That was a flare, used by the patrol team to give warnings. After it flew into the sky, it began to light up, guiding the Banshee Squad over.

Three people were standing behind the merman. One of them fired a flare arrow, and the other two pointed their bows and arrows at the merman. By the time it realized something was wrong and wanted to dodge, it had already been hit by an arrow.

Then it rolled and crawled backwards, but ignored the round thing. When the fishman came above it, it exploded.

"This is the result." Erwin pointed to the murloc's corpse on the table. There was an arrow stuck in its body, but the extensive burns were the real cause of its death.

The patrol team was issued a simple grenade by Hughes. Its damage capacity was average, but it contained a large amount of flammable material, making it more like an incendiary bomb and could emit a large amount of fire as a warning.

"Very good cooperation, your team will be rewarded." Zeus patted Erwin on the shoulder. A team of six people, equipped with simple armor, can defeat a lone murloc in a head-on combat, but they may not be unscathed. Moreover, Erwin also took out the flare to sound the alarm at the first time, so that even if an accident occurred, it could be handled. It was indeed an accurate judgment and execution.

But Xius's expression gradually became gloomy.

The murlocs have already reached the island. They may be vulnerable on the shore, but what about in the water?

Zeus looked at everyone, and everyone's face looked unhappy. Almost all of them had a lucky mentality: sea urchins and fish people were active underwater, and they could live in peace as long as they stayed on the island. At worst, they would have to give up the sea.

"Everyone, you've already seen that simply retreating is useless. Even if we don't go to the sea, the mermen will come ashore."

"This is just what we found. What haven't we found? This is just on the island. We have almost no means of searching in the sea. How many of these fishmen and sea urchin monsters are there in the sea?"

Hughes looked at the silent people, sensing the oppressive atmosphere, and shook his head. "This war is unavoidable. We had hoped the pirates would provide assistance, but now there's no news from them. We had hoped the refugees from the north would provide more manpower, but now it's too late. Castel has become a true isolated island. We have no help whatsoever. We must carry this battle on our own."

The people around swallowed their saliva, and Xiusi slowly looked around, looking at everyone in the room one by one.

Ash and the other Banshees had eyes full of hatred and anger, while Alexi had a look of eagerness to fight. Connor looked at Hughes calmly and nodded slightly when he looked at him. Chloe showed hesitation on her face, and after a slight sigh, she raised her head.

Fortunately, at least no one here retreated, or rather, they had no way to retreat.

"But we also have good news." Hughes' tone softened. "Mercans are much more clumsy on land than in water. Land is our home turf."

The Banshees nodded slowly. "Yes, they're much more responsive in the water." "If the murlocs are this good, then the sea urchin monsters might be easier to deal with."

This is good news. Although it has not been confirmed, it is at least a hope.

The most troublesome thing in the sea is the sea urchin monster. As long as you can deal with them, the fishmen have nothing to fear at all.

"The war has officially begun. We expect many direct battles to follow. Alexi, we need to expedite the selection and training of soldiers. Hand over some of the engineering tasks to your subordinates. The newly selected trainees have already been assigned to your side."

Hughes redesigned a set of procedures for selecting and appointing bureaucrats. He had previously implemented this system on a small scale on the island. The factories and test sites under his management were the original test sites.

He had originally planned to take action against the public officials on the island later. After all, they were theoretically under the management of the Queen, and it would be somewhat inappropriate for Zeus to interfere. But he couldn't care less now.

Anyway, they couldn't complain to the Queen.

Alexei nodded heavily. He had been waiting for this day for a long time. Finally, he could take over the battle affairs. His heart was burning with joy.

"Chloe, I need your cooperation right now. Put aside other research for now and prioritize researching things that will be used on the battlefield. I'll give you some blueprints later. Take a look at them."

Hughes had already developed the rifle a long time ago. This thing doesn't have much technical content, but it can't be used as the main weapon against sea urchins, so it has not been deployed in large quantities.

Now that the murlocs have landed, the patrol team must at least be equipped with hot weapons. Rifled rifles are easy to make, but they require smokeless gunpowder.

With nitroglycerin, it is not difficult to prepare smokeless gunpowder. Zeus even has a ready-made preparation process, which can be handed over to the Fire Moths for a little improvement before it can be prepared in large quantities. This is also the task he plans to give to Chloe.

The previous preparation in the laboratory had not been successful due to the existence of the technological lock. Good news came two days ago that it was finally successful.

Now, as long as the production line is opened, smokeless gunpowder can be produced in large quantities. This is a huge improvement from flintlock rifles to rifles, not to mention that smokeless gunpowder is also a necessary technology for improving artillery.

The advancement of science and technology is gradually accelerating, and the world's restrictions on technology are gradually weakening. Castel will soon usher in a technological explosion.

Getting better.

Chloe nodded slightly. "No problem. By the way, if we're on land, the [Nymphs] can use their extraordinary abilities to build a perception network, but this requires manpower, and those assigned to perceive the network won't be able to do anything else."

“How much coverage can it provide?”

"With my current manpower, if you don't count me, it's probably half the island. I only have three transcendents here."

"Then please stay for a while and tell me in detail about your extraordinary abilities."

(End of this chapter)