After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

Finn emphasized the words "outsider." The nun, upon hearing this, merely turned her eyes slightly and pursed her lips:

"To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that you're interested in my man, I'd actually think it would be great if you were a good friend to me..."

"Bad friends? Does that mean they're very bad friends?"

"A metaphor! I am a metaphor! Don't you understand the hypocrisy of human beings?!"

"So you really want to be friends with me?"

"I guess so. As long as you don't have any designs on my man."

To this, Fen simply smiled and said, "Impossible. Who would give up such a good man?"

They started arguing again in a flash. But compared to before, both of them seemed less aggressive.

Chapter 15: The Survivors Underground - Highlights (10/5)

It's early December now.

When Yang Hao woke up from Mother Teresa's belly, he had breakfast with the nun, with whom he finally had time to be affectionate, and then planned to visit Naruja, Dr. Joseph, and Arthur Trash—he meant Arthur's good brother.

On Fingal Commercial Street, where few people walk about as people mourn the fallen elves.

They silently discovered that Mr. Arthur's legs had been broken at some point. And the one pushing Mr. Arthur around was none other than his wife, Viya, whose hair was completely green with envy.

Good morning, Your Majesty.

"Good morning."

The two greeted Yang Hao and the others cheerfully, while Yang Hao and the others looked at Arthur with extremely strange expressions.

You haven't been here for a few days, how come you've broken your other leg now?

Arthur looked rather embarrassed, while Viya said expressionlessly, "He broke it himself. He said his kidneys just couldn't take it anymore, and in order to get a few days of life-saving rest, he had no choice but to take a risk... which is to say, he did it with another girlfriend in front of Viya."

Naturally, if Arthur cheats on Viya in front of her, Viya can also break his legs with a clear conscience.

Arthur's leg was broken, and no matter how much his girlfriends threw a tantrum, they had no choice but to obediently leave as promised—they said they would come to visit Arthur every day, and to prevent them from actually coming every day, Viya had to make excuses to take Arthur around aimlessly...

Being loved by multiple elves at the same time is really not a good thing—everyone sighed. Just then, Arthur, who didn't forget to work even with his leg broken, said that he wanted to show Yang Hao his brand new achievement!

They then arrived at the testing grounds where the Japa 1404 rifle had previously been used. There, Yang Hao and Teresa found Dr. Joseph, and Miss Naruja, who was also diligently conducting tests.

Whenever the Regent greeted his subordinates, the disheveled, murderous doctor would rush over, tightly grasp Yang Hao's right hand, and excitedly shout in a hoarse voice:

"Your Majesty! Look at this! It's something wonderful that Mr. Arthur and I have come up with!"

"...ha?"

"A rifle capable of continuous fire!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Hao immediately perked up.

He quickly put down the sullen nun and, together with Arthur in the wheelchair and the disheveled doctor, examined the unexpectedly placed golem for shooting test at the firing range.

It turns out that Dr. Joseph and the elves were ultimately unable to create a rifle that was both small, simple in structure, easy to maintain, capable of continuous fire, and used by creatures that could be alerted by the elves.

But on the other hand, no matter how precise the parts are, they will naturally appear "rough" when they are enlarged proportionally. Although the size of an elf may not be able to wield and use these giant weapons with bullet heads of more than 30 millimeters under normal circumstances, a golem can!

Driven by this idea, a completely new type of golem was born.

Afterwards, Yang Hao named it [Machine Gun Golem]. This is a Golem variant that is more expensive and powerful than the Grenade Launcher Golem. Not only is its overall structure more robust and precise, but in a sense, its magic circuits are also more advanced than those of its kind.

If the initial model Golem is like a novice prostitute who can only lie in bed and be slaughtered, then the machine gun Golem is like an experienced flight attendant who not only knows how to serve, but also has much better skills in terms of hands, mouth, and feet than a novice.

Building upon its enhanced intelligence, the Gun Golem is now capable of operations such as reloading and precise aiming. Dr. Joseph felt this wasn't enough, so he added a spear-like bayonet structure to the underside of the Gun Golem's weapons, allowing it to engage in melee combat when necessary—provided an enemy could reach it.

Aside from the weapons, that's all for now. The weapons, however, represent the culmination of Arthur and Dr. Joseph's hard work.

“Sometimes I really doubt that your talent is actually not to be a doctor, but to be an arms dealer.” Theresa complained to Joseph while lying on Yang Hao’s back. She looked at Golem making a shooting motion not far away and subconsciously cast a divine spell on herself to avoid being hit by the impact. Then she also made sure to gently cover Yang Hao’s ears with her small hands.

bang bang bang-

Gorem fired a three-round burst. Yang Hao didn't see that the machine gun required manual breech-loading, so it seemed to be a semi-automatic machine gun.

The machine gun shells unsurprisingly shattered a target a kilometer away into pieces, but the hit rate was rather poor—rather than the target being destroyed by direct hits, it was more accurate to say that the three shells landed too close together, causing the target to be directly damaged by the force of the explosions...

...

Wait, what? An explosion?

Yang Hao stared wide-eyed at Arthur and Dr. Joseph, while Arthur, whose ears were also covered by Viya, simply revealed his full set of white teeth:

"Your Majesty, I wasn't idle while you were commanding the battle—although we can't solve the problem of explosive ores exploding inside cannons through industrial means for the time being, we can overcome the material limitations that would take decades to overcome through enchanting!"

By covering the shaped explosive ore projectile with a thin layer of metal, the elf can apply a "Cryogenic Enchantment" to that metal. Under the effect of the "Cryogenic Enchantment," the explosive ore projectile will not explode directly inside the cannon barrel unless the metal layer is directly ruptured by a high-speed impact or the temperature inside the barrel exceeds its tolerance limit.

Although the cost has increased significantly, and we will still have to rely on manual production for the time being, at least we have identified a shortcut... which is..."

"that is?"

"Making these cannonballs by hand is disgusting; even elves would curse in disgust."

"Oh...we still need to further improve our industrialization level...but what about the costs?"

"Your Majesty, I have roughly calculated the wealth you seized from Shanghai. It's at most 2 cannonballs, no more than that."

"What?!!"

Yang Hao had previously launched a surprise attack on the parish's demon city, not only rescuing the demons and dealing a heavy blow to the parish's morale, but also plundering all the wealth inside.

At the time, he thought that since he had seized the parish that was richer than a country, Gaparia should be able to use that gold to maintain its stability for at least twenty or thirty years.

And that's how you tell me?!

A maximum of 2 shells?!

Are your cannonballs made of gold?!

Yang Hao stared in disbelief, and Theresa was equally bewildered. Seeing their stunned expressions, Arthur and Joseph exchanged a glance; one gave an extremely awkward smile, while the other scratched his head in frustration.

"Because only gold can be enchanted under extremely thin conditions..."

"So these shells of ours are gold-plated..."

"In other words, a large portion of the cost comes from the consumption of gilded shells and enchanting materials..."

"We haven't found a solution yet. After all, using iron or steel for the coating would not only greatly increase the thickness, but it could also damage the rifling inside the gun barrel..."

"..."

The two sides exchanged words, and Yang Hao finally understood the seriousness of the problem.

But then again...

Gold is an excellent material for enchanting... is it?

Yang Hao seems to have found the [raw materials] to store magic power. But then again...

"Leaving aside the cost issue for now, what is the condition of these Golem's weapons?"

"Theoretically, when firing continuously, it will have to stop firing after 80 to 100 rounds because the barrel gets red-hot. As for ammunition, since it is a Golem, we can try to integrate it directly inside. However, if we do that, we will have to design a special 'ammunition feed port' that can be opened and used repeatedly."

"Could it be developed into a weapon usable by elves? Even if the caliber is smaller?"

"Not for now. It's easy to make complex things big, and they're relatively easy to maintain, but making them small would be tricky even from an elf's perspective, let alone the type that Your Majesty requires: easy to maintain."

In the eyes of the elves, Yang Hao was a typical pragmatist. He seemed to dislike unnecessary decorations and structures that looked ingenious but actually only increased logistical burdens. Therefore, the elves unanimously agreed that before making weapons that were "simple and practical," they should not bring out expensive finished products that might anger His Majesty the Regent.

Yang Hao expressed his understanding... At this point, he had already achieved his biggest gain from this trip.

In the distance, Naruja, who was controlling Golem to complete the test, also jogged over. The girl with brown hair and antlers gave Yang Hao a shy smile.

This made the nun on Yang Hao's back look slightly helpless, but in the end, she didn't say anything.

......

While Yang Hao and the others were enjoying a leisurely day off, Heilong Nia was on her way to Gaparia.

Considering she was entering Gaparia as a peacekeeping diplomat, Nia had spent the entire night cramming to understand the elves' perspectives. She wondered if this country was overly traditional. After all, even the oldest blood demons of Isgard had relaxed restrictions to allow marriage with ordinary people, and many had even chosen orcs... But compared to the elves, the blood demons' previous restrictions were practically nonexistent.

This ancient and traditional country must have virtually no industries, right? Nia thought to herself. The greatest strength of traditional countries is probably their cultural heritage... But dry cultural heritage is nowhere near as appealing to young people as Ysugard Cola and black stockings.

Nia tentatively judged that although the cultural invasion would be met with resistance at first, if the efforts were gradually increased, the new generation of elves would probably be completely dependent on the pleasures of cola and stockings.

If they could leave, they should intensify their efforts—just as Nia was pondering this, for some reason, she suddenly sensed something was amiss.

The forest before him and the forest beneath his feet presented a starkly different environment. If the forest behind him was shrouded in darkness, then the warm-toned forest before him was bathed in sunlight that shone directly through the dense canopy...

This must be the Elf Forest? Just as Nia and the diplomats were preparing to ask the forest for their acceptance in order to enter the Elf Forest according to the elves' understanding, a gust of wind blew and several elves carrying long spears appeared in front of Nia.

This left Nia and the diplomats from Ysugard completely bewildered: What is that thing on your back, the one that's as thick as a pipe...?

No, don't tell me—

Just as Nia was in a daze, the elf's envoy told them that the Elven Forest had accepted their existence, and now the elves would guide them all the way to the Hanging Gardens of Fingel, the capital of Gaparia, and they must not leave the elves' sight.

"Oh, we see... Um, if I may ask, can you sell the things you're carrying?"

“Friends across the sea, we will not trade what we carry without Finn’s permission.”

"Then, can you tell me what kind of weapon this is?"

"Gapa 1404 rifle. Please come with us."

Upon hearing this, Nia swallowed hard and obediently led the diplomats and caravan to follow the elf's steps.

She calculated that it hadn't been a year since she traded the two new rifles to the Elf Kingdom.

Less than a year? You elves have already produced a counterfeit in less than a year?! Wait a minute... considering it's a handmade product, this might be a show of force.

Hmm, it might be a show of force—who knows, these might be shoddy, handmade products; the bullets might not even fit the barrel's inner diameter, just pretty-looking shells.

On the other hand...it does look quite nice and is very practical...and why is there a protruding part in front of the trigger? Could it be...?

Actually, I guessed wrong?

Even in front of the elves, the black dragon Nia couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

If her earlier guess was wrong, it would mean that Gaparia might also be an industrial nation comparable to Issugard.

While it's not impossible that elves could be a species focused on craftsmanship and artisan techniques, exchanges between nations must be prepared for the worst.

Ysgard was prepared to get bogged down in the Roman Empire's colonial wars, and Nia was naturally prepared for the possibility that the Elf Kingdom might also become an industrial nation.

(This is terrible...)