My health recovery is incredibly fast.

According to the military museum, underwater bullets have very limited applications.

Due to limitations in water pressure and materials, it can only be used at depths of up to 100 meters underwater, and only in special operations by frogman units.

The underwater bullets developed by various countries are largely similar, basically all being long-barreled bullets with engraved patterns.

Xia Zuo intended to help the group monopolize the patents for underwater bullets, so he applied for patents for underwater bullets of all sizes, specifications, and materials.

This is a huge expense!

Because of the size, specifications, and materials, changing 1 to 3 parameters in these three dimensions results in a new type of underwater bullet.

Especially the material.

Within the alchemy school, there are as many as 110 common metals that can be used to make underwater bullets, and there are thousands of enchanted materials derived from them.

Due to limited funds, Xia Zuo only allowed the team to apply for all metals once.

Even so, their underwater bullet patent application included more than 460 sub-projects, with a total patent application fee of approximately 35 citizen points.

As the investor, Xia Zuo's spare funds were suddenly reduced to...

...

[Federal Citizen Points] 21700 points

...

It was worth it.

Xia Zuo had calculated that if imitators wanted to use enchanted materials to make underwater bullets, they would find that it would be better to pay Xia Zuo a patent royalty to use ordinary metals as raw materials, since enchanted materials are much more expensive than patent royalties.

Secondly, the 35 citizen points that Xia Zuo spent have already begun to show results.

The Lumington Emergency Response Department is very interested in these inexpensive yet lethal underwater bullets and is willing to help with the research and make the application process easier.

Their only condition was that they would receive a good discount when purchasing the patent rights from Xia Zuo in the future.

Xia Zuo agreed almost without hesitation.

He has always avoided the trouble of socializing with others, so it would be best if someone else could do it for him.

In addition, Xia Zuo also knew that Hillenburg's group had contributed to his underwater bullet patent.

He and his team signed a revenue-sharing agreement, under which a portion of the patent royalties would be distributed to members of Hillenburg's team.

Although the amount of money is small, it is indispensable; it can strengthen a sense of belonging and prevent rifts from forming.

Xia Zuo has that much self-awareness.

Upon hearing that the Alchemist of the Auspicious Diamond had shown interest in underwater bullets, the crowd immediately envisioned a surge in the price of patent rights, and their smiles became even more genuine.

“Alright, let’s get back to the main topic.” Hillenburg pulled out a chair and sat down. “We won a great battle just now. But there are many details that we need to think about and reflect on rationally.”

“Let me start.” Hillenburg paused, then continued:

"I inquired with Klara Ozuan about the basic performance parameters of their combat golems. Most of them have a hardness of 86 and a toughness of 72, and are equipped with crystal array control modules..."

Hillenburg took two minutes to give a brief introduction to the Arcane Alchemist's battle golem.

The group members wrote down this information in their notebooks, referring to the dictated content.

Overall, their approach in this friendly match was more of a probing exercise.

"They deliberately lowered the basic performance of their combat puppets to about 85% of ours, and their combat strategy was completely conservative, attempting to use pure defense to lure us into revealing our hidden attack methods."

Hillenburg's words elicited a murmur among the team members.

"So cunning."

"It feels like I've fallen into a trap."

"No wonder they chose to cower next to the flag."

Hillenburg tapped the table, signaling the group members to be quiet, and said:

"It's not all bad. As I said before, the patent for underwater bullets is very important. We need to have our own unique trump card to widen the gap with other teams."

The team members turned their attention to a corner of the conference table.

Xia Zuo scratched his head modestly and smiled…

Before proposing the idea of ​​underwater bullets, he had prepared himself for the attention, but when he actually became the focus of everyone's attention, he couldn't help but feel nervous... his social anxiety suddenly kicked in.

"In addition, during my conversation with Klara O'Dragon, I discovered a drawback of underwater bullets." Hillenburg promptly helped Xia Zuo out of the predicament and drew the team members' attention back.

"The lethality of underwater bullets comes from the pressure difference caused by supercavitation."

"Kra O'Dragon said that after being bombarded by a barrage of underwater bullets, they guessed that the bubbles were tearing the combat golems apart. They were planning to create a large number of bubbles to resist the underwater bullets, but Field's cluster bombs destroyed all their manpower, so they were unable to test whether this idea was feasible."

Hillenburg turned his chair around and looked at the incubation tanks in the alchemy room, and the eyes of the other team members also turned to him.

Hillenburg used his Wind Hand to press the control panel of the culture tank, pouring seawater into the tank and creating many bubbles, making the seawater inside churn like boiling water.

“Huberon, try firing an underwater bullet,” Hillenburg said.

"Yes, team leader." Huberon picked up an underwater rifle from the weapon rack, inserted the barrel into the sleeve on the side of the culture tank, adjusted the power of the water pressure array, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang..." "Pop..."

The underwater bullet was interfered with by the air bubbles as soon as it left the muzzle. Before it could hit the opposite tank wall, it deviated from its trajectory and slumped against the glass.

Slender, long bullets are indeed more susceptible to complex environmental factors, and this cannot be avoided.

"This experiment is not rigorous enough, but it can prove that the idea of ​​the Arcane Alchemist has some feasibility."

Hillenburg emptied the seawater from the culture tank and, facing the conference table, said:

"It's normal that there are ways to deal with underwater bullets."

"If, in a real competition, an opponent deliberately creates large bubbles to counter underwater bullets, we need to be more flexible."

"The presence of bubbles weakens supercavitation, but it also obscures the enemy's vision, allowing us to switch to mines in time to attack them."

Speaking of eye contact… Xia Zuo had a sudden thought and raised his right arm.

“Shazo, tell me, what are your thoughts?” Hillenburg asked.

“It’s like this, team leader.” Xia Zuo hesitated for a second before speaking. “I think we need to develop an auxiliary tool that can continuously track the enemy. When I was observing the battlefield with the monitoring orb, I found that once the battle becomes intense, with sand and stones flying everywhere and the seawater becoming murky, both sides will lose sight of their targets.”

Huberon also raised his right arm, nodded, and said:

“I agree with Xia Zuo’s point of view. In fact, if the Arcane Alchemist chooses to operate quickly by moving around, the hit rate of underwater bullets will drop significantly. After all, the supercavitation range dragged by its tail is narrow, far less than the fan-shaped kill area of ​​a mine.”

“Good suggestion…” Hillenburg pondered for a few seconds and asked Huberon:

"How did the Federal Army do it? Is there anything we can learn from them?"

"Hmm... Team leader, if we're fighting in a dark zone, the Federation army's approach is actually similar to ours: sound wave detection, ballistic trajectory positioning, detecting magical light, and so on. The difference is that if the army encounters a deception, they'll choose to use heavy weapons to cover the area where the target might be."

Huberon shrugged and said:

"Our combat puppets are better suited for individual special operations. They also don't have the opportunity to cooperate with other military branches in the actual combat competition of the research and development competition."

"Therefore, I think we should put aside the militaristic approach and use alchemical methods to solve the problem of tracking targets."

"Just like the Golden Vitex Sisterhood developed nectar tracking technology."

“A fair suggestion, Huberon.” Hillenburg nodded.

Danielle, standing nearby, interjected:

"We can also add visualization capabilities to the tracking technology that is about to be developed, thereby shortening the on-site reaction time and enhancing the accuracy of pointing."

Hillenburg pushed up his glasses thoughtfully, muttering, "Visualization...tracking...let me think..."

He used the Hand of Wind to open his desk, pulled out his hand-compiled encyclopedia of underwater monsters, and searched for answers within its pages.

"Ha~ Found it. Luckily you reminded me, Danielle. The eyes of the Azure-Eyed Spinosaurus can be of great help."

Hillenburg laughed loudly, spread the pages of his book on the table, his eyes sparkling with excitement, "I have a way to help us track targets, and it also has a visualization function."

Hillenburg took the page from the binder and showed it to his team members.

"The eyes of the Azure-Eyed Spinosaurus can see beams of light of a specific color."

"This special ability, which comes from the mutated organ, does not require elemental energy and will not increase the energy consumption level of the combat puppet."

"Most importantly, based on my research on the Blue-eyed Bone Snake, their saliva contains a unique marker that emits a beam of light that is difficult for ordinary people to see."

"These beams of light are not the light of elements, nor sunlight or the light caused by magic; only the eyes of the Azure-Eyed Spinosaurus can see them."

Hillenburg looked at the anatomical diagram of the Azure-eyed Spinosaurus with a smile. "I call this marker the Azure-eyed Beam Marker, and the Azure-eyed Spinosaurus's special ability to see beams of light is called the Azure-eyed Vision."

“Team Leader,” Danielle raised her hand and asked, “you mean, we should create an alchemical device modeled after the eyes and salivary glands of the Azure-Eyed Bone Serpent, and then install it on the combat golem? Hmm… I’m not sure if this Azure-Eyed beam will be affected by bubbles and seawater…”

Hillenburg shook his head. "Probably not, Danielle."

He pointed to the words on the page, "Look, the place where I found the Azure-Eyed Spinosaurus is near an underwater volcano. The temperature there is extremely high, and toxic gases are spewing out from cracks in the ground, with dense bubbles. Even in this environment, my diving cabin was still caught by the Azure-Eyed Spinosaurus..."

Hillenburg seemed to be deeply affected by that experience, and he shared his research on the Blue-eyed Bone Snake with his team members.

When Xia Zuo heard that when the Azure-Eyed Bone Serpent activated [Azure Vision], its originally grayish-white eyes would be covered with a thin emerald-green film, he couldn't help but scratch his head...

Azure Eye Beam Marker... Azure Eye Vision... their functions sound so familiar...

Based on Hillenburg's description, it's not hard for Xia Zuo to conclude that the so-called "Azure Eye Beam" must be a kind of invisible light.

Blue-eyed beam marker is a type of biotin that emits invisible light.

"Azure Vision" is an optical instrument that can receive specific wavelengths of invisible light... uh... what's it called again...?

Xia Zuo scratched his hair a few times, trying hard to recall the name of the thing he had also seen in the military museum.

Infrared filter?

That should be its name.

Its principle is to block light from other wavelengths and only allow infrared light to pass through. It is generally used in night vision products, detectors, communication devices or security monitoring.

By adding special dyes to the filter to change its refractive index, the filtered invisible light can be converted into visible light of a specific color.

So... the special function of the eyes of that Azure-eyed Spiral Snake is similar to a filter?

Interesting... a bio-filter.

Xia Zuo nodded thoughtfully.

The alchemists around the conference table are discussing the principles behind the Azure-Eyed Spinosaurus's special abilities...