Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 218 Newman's Aesthetics

Su Ming thought about it and realized that Catherine's consideration was indeed reasonable. Due to the need for secrecy, very few members of the Temple of Light in the North knew about their existence.

He nodded in agreement to Catherine's arrangement.

"Welcome aboard, both of you!" Su Ming turned to Gerus and Gendal. "However, you must follow the instructions and not run around in the vehicle."

Grendel bowed slightly, his voice gentle yet firm, "As you wish!"

Gerus also bowed.

The two began unloading their luggage from their mounts. Gerndar carried only a simple wooden box, while Gerus's luggage was quite substantial, even requiring an extra snow beast to carry it.

“If you need any help, just send them,” Catherine added. “They are the best even among the elite civilians.”

****
After exchanging pleasantries, Catherine gestured for Gerus and Gendal to leave temporarily, and then entered the work compartment with Su Ming to begin discussing in detail the specific operational plan for the surprise attack on the Divine Might Prison.

Violet refused to attend the meeting. In her words, the resources available to their side were now at the level of a medium-sized war, and the combination of the two foxes could not possibly lose, so there was no need to drag her along as the straight man.

“Things aren’t that simple,” Su Ming said helplessly. “The Divine Might Prison and the Divine Grace Sea have a large number of elite combat forces and also have the advantage of defensive terrain. It will be extremely difficult to minimize our own casualties, especially the deaths and injuries of the prisoners.”

"..." Zijin rolled her eyes at Su Ming.

The discussion lasted a full half day, and Su Ming and Catherine roughly finalized the basic framework. Catherine would then be responsible for refining the tactics, while Su Ming would need to gather the keys necessary to implement the plan.

“I’ve already set up an investigation into the Bell of Calamity,” Catherine added. “Once you arrive at the Dome Mountains, keep an eye out for this group.”

Su Ming nodded. "If we have concrete information, we can also join the encirclement and suppression."

The current strategy for conquering the Divine Prison does not require using these people as expendable resources. On the contrary, if the actions of the Calamity Bell alert the enemy, it will have serious negative consequences and cause unpredictable changes in the situation.

More importantly, Su Ming absolutely did not want to be ambushed from behind by the Calamity Bell while he was fully engaged in dealing with the Divine Might Prison. Or risk being outmaneuvered like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

To be on the safe side, it would be best to eliminate them completely in advance!
****
After lunch, as Catherine was about to take her leave, she suddenly remembered something important.

"Give me a few cans of Dwarf Milk Powder." Her tone was somewhat helpless. "Now the little dumpling only recognizes this brand of milk powder. If I switch to another one, he cries and refuses to eat it."

Su Ming couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Stepping out of the carriage, Catherine noticed Newman bustling about and exclaimed in surprise, "A half-human skeleton?" She quickly connected the dots and asked incredulously, "Master Newman?"

"Hey, Judge Catherine," Newman greeted, holding up a torque wrench. "I heard you've become the mistress and taken over!"

“Yes,” Catherine readily admitted, a playful smile playing on her lips. “I have plenty of resources. Shall I help you arrange a ghost marriage? So that Daphne can finally give up.”

"..." Newman paused, speechless. These people are all so sharp-tongued, they don't even give an old man a break.

Catherine turned to Su Ming, "With this guy around, you guys can easily crush Daphne!"

Newman gave Catherine a resentful look, his bone claws fiddling nervously with the wrench. "There's nothing between us."

“During the Frostflame Festival, little Darlene drank half a bottle of brandy,” Catherine blurted out. “I had barely left the governor’s mansion when my maid came to fetch a priest skilled in sobering up.”

"It's normal to have a little drink during the holidays!" Newman retorted stubbornly.

Zijin grabbed the little skeleton and pulled it back. "Focus on your work, don't slack off!" she said. "Being gossiped about won't cost you a bone."

"Why do I feel like Elisa has a grudge against him?" Su Ming asked Catherine, his gaze sweeping back and forth.

Catherine chuckled. "It would be strange if Elisa could be so kind to him." She explained, "The library at the nunnery we attended back then was built under Newman's supervision."

Su Ming calculated the time; Newman should have been quite young back then. "Is there a problem with the library?"

“The floor tiles at the entrance are all tilted seventeen degrees to the left,” Catherine listed as if she knew them by heart. “The reading room on the left has five windows on the south wall and six windows on the north wall, while the reading room of the same size on the right has seven and nine windows respectively.”

"...Where did Ba go?" Su Ming asked.

“Is this something to do with eight?” Catherine exclaimed. “The stairs upstairs have twelve pillars on the left and fifteen on the right.” She added, quite discontentedly, “And the shapes are different too—some are square, some are round, and some are even sesame-shaped!”

"Is Newman deliberately trying to drive OCD patients crazy?" Su Ming was both amused and exasperated.

“Elisa often has to go to the library to look up information, and she is tormented by these designs almost every day,” Katharine said. “Over time, she has accumulated a lot of resentment.”

Su Ming was also speechless. "It's just some asymmetrical design. You can accept different types of aesthetics with an open mind. There's no need for Elisa to keep harping on it."

Catherine gave Su Ming a meaningful look. "Don't advise others to be kind if you haven't experienced their suffering."

****
The skeleton servant brought over the milk powder, and Su Ming calculated the cost: "Five cans of milk powder, ten gold coins!"

“It’s offset,” Catherine answered readily. “The four of you caused a ruckus in the temple’s kitchen the night before last, and the damage was only a dozen or so gold coins. I won’t take the change.”

"Making a scene in the kitchen?" Su Ming glanced at Qi Luo, who was setting up her easel over there. It wasn't surprising that she would do something like that. "But we only sent three people to the Frostflame Night Festival!" he asked.

“Eh!” Catherine raised an eyebrow in confusion. “The report I received said: a green-haired little girl with super strength and an enormous appetite.” She pointed to Kira. “A girl who keeps a small notebook to record how much she has eaten.” This time she pointed to Yunier. “And a seemingly respectable but lewd old man. Several of my female guards have bruises on their chests from his pinching.”

Hans St. suddenly sneezed in the distance.

"Finally, there was a woman who was completely wrapped up, drank some fruit wine, and started running wild, treating the paladins maintaining order like bowling balls," Catherine continued her description.

Inside the shed, Violet couldn't win the argument with Newman, so she angrily rolled him into a skull ball, making a cracking sound.

“It sounds a lot like Elisa, but if she was drunk, it shouldn’t be the kitchen that was demolished,” Su Ming analyzed. “It makes no sense that your cathedral is still standing.”

"...Is it possible that she didn't drink too much that night?"

“No way, she was with me the whole night,” Su Ming said. “We didn’t go to Bubing City at all.”

Upon hearing this, Catherine let out a loud whistle. "Are you two on a date?"

"Is it strange that the two of us stayed on the train and then took a walk nearby?" Su Ming asked rhetorically.

“That’s the Frostflame Festival Night!” Catherine spread her hands exaggeratedly. “In your world, don’t you have the custom of choosing to spend important holidays with special people?” Su Ming paused. “…No.”

Catherine was too lazy to expose her, "Fine."

She nimbly leaped onto the lion-like beast. "See you in a while. I still need to organize suitable personnel for the battle."

"See you later!" Su Ming waved goodbye.

Suddenly, Gerus screamed from inside the carriage. She grabbed a few clothes and ran out of the carriage in a panic, only to see Catherine and several riding beasts already disappearing into the distance.

****
Newman's involvement certainly accelerated the pace of the work. On the third day after the winter solstice, the assembly and first phase of magical modifications of the Doomsday Motorbike were completed, and it successfully passed the test drive.

During this period, Su Ming also completed the transfer of two high-speed trains, and the test runs were also successful.

The system, which had been perfectly debugged in the Earth factory, could be turned on almost immediately in the other world, saving them a lot of time.

The group was overjoyed, and Fuyin happily began the test drive. This time, an electronic control screen was added to the cockpit, and Earth's engineers had replaced the language displayed in the system with an alien script, as requested by Su Ming.

It is said that this team rewrote it from the pixel matrix of the font library, and in their own words, they never thought they would be doing such a thing.

However, Su Ming quickly discovered the problem: the system showed that all the parameters on the left and right sides of the Doomsday Motorbike were not in sync, and the Gospel also indicated that the motorbike was veering off course.

He immediately stopped the car to check and quickly discovered that Newman had adjusted all three tracks of the Doomsday Motorbike to an asymmetrical state, with the left track larger than the right!
To maintain track tension, all six tracks on the Doomsday Locomotive were designed with adjustable tension wheels. Newman adjusted the three tracks on the left to their maximum and the three on the right to their minimum. He even removed two sections of the right track and added them to the left.

So he turned a perfectly good motorcycle into a "crippled" vehicle!
Su Ming grabbed Newman's skull, his teeth itching with anger, "Change it back right now!"

“Asymmetry is the most beautiful!” Newman insisted. “You simply don’t know how to appreciate it. Whether it’s a person or a machine, the fact that one side is larger than the other is a universal truth!”

There is no such universal truth!

****
Under Su Ming's insistence, Newman reluctantly readjusted the tracks back to a symmetrical state.

With the power system restored to balance, the train was finally able to run smoothly. After a series of detailed corrections, the final assembly and testing of the new locomotive was truly completed.

The team members began dismantling the makeshift sheds in preparation for their departure.

"How should we plan our next route?" Zi Jin asked as she tidied up the tools and blueprints scattered on the long table.

“Let’s follow the ancient riverbed, pass through Bird Bay, and then head to Compton Forest,” Su Ming replied. “We need to refuel there.”

"Can this motorcycle be used to burn wood now?" Zijin asked, somewhat surprised.

"That won't work." Su Ming shook his head.

Although the Doomsday Locomotive's boiler features a multi-fuel compatible design, greatly improving fuel adaptability, it is not a panacea.

"The wood needs to be carbonized and then crushed into pellets before it can be used," he explained.

“Isn’t this just making charcoal?” Violet said. “I heard that you dig a pit and then throw wood in to smolder?”

"Yes, do you know this technique?" Su Ming asked.

Although he had prepared a tutorial on the traditional method of carbon production, theoretical knowledge and practical operation are two completely different things.

Violet shook her head, then turned to ask the listless Newman, "And you?"

“I can build earthen kilns,” Newman replied listlessly. He had been sullen ever since the tracks were forced to be changed to symmetrical, “but I don’t know how to fire them.”

“There must be some master charcoal burners in the villages near Compton Forest,” Gerndale suggested at the opportune moment. “We can ask them for help when we get there.”

This method is good. The locals understand the soil conditions best, are familiar with the properties of the wood, and know how to process it to achieve the best results.

"How much charcoal do you need?" Newman picked up a pen and paper and began designing the earthen kiln.

Su Ming quickly estimated, "It will probably require around three hundred tons."

"So many!" Newman exclaimed in surprise. He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the newly refurbished motorcycle. "This big guy can really eat!"

Qiluo peeked over from the other side and looked at the group with a puzzled expression.

"...I wasn't talking about you."

****
Su Ming decided to make some compromises. He said to Newman, "You can make the train's exterior paint asymmetrical."

Newman's soul fire instantly blazed brightly. "Can the searchlights and obstacle-clearing shovel be redesigned into an unconventional layout?"

Su Ming sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. This master's aesthetic sense had probably been infected by the devil. But, asymmetrical equipment like searchlights and obstacle clearing tools didn't matter, as long as they didn't affect functionality.

"As long as it doesn't affect functionality, you can adjust it!" Su Ming agreed.

“Alright!” Newman immediately perked up and seized the opportunity to make another request, “Give me your two sets of toys!”

"What toy?" Su Ming didn't react.

Newman turned and pointed to the corner of the shed, where two unassembled 100mm smoothbore gun parts were neatly arranged, their dark metal surfaces gleaming with a cold light.

This was just transmitted by him; he didn't expect it to be spotted by Newman so quickly.

The story begins the day before yesterday. Ling Wen handed him a report yesterday, which analyzed that the weapon system of the Youth Civilization was significantly inadequate when facing higher-level targets from another world.

Su Ming unfolded the document, and the report analyzed Yeshia as an example. In the first engagement, the M110's 7.62mm rounds wouldn't have been able to hit Yeshia at all if it weren't for Violet and Siwo's all-out attack breaking through her shield.

Later, under the cover of the violet, Su Ming got close and fired. The bullets hit the person, but didn't even break the skin.

The analysts in the report believe this is a disgrace to firearms!

(End of this chapter)