Terra Tinkers Construct is fine.

“That’s not a coincidence.” Milan laughed as well. “You might not believe it, but I’m actually quite strong.”

"……Ah."

Herag gave a faint laugh, neither confirming nor denying, but the atmosphere surrounding him seemed to change; so the topic was temporarily put aside, and under his guidance, the two soon arrived at the perimeter of a building.

This place is indeed not far from Azazel.

Standing at a distance, Milan squinted.

— Chernobog Energy Institute

He gazed at the building, which was surrounded by walls and tall iron fences, from afar. The building's walls were mottled and it looked quite old from the outside. Even the green areas in the courtyard had grown wildly over an unknown period of time, showing no signs of being tended to.

Is this the place that was only briefly mentioned in the game, yet where the entire Terra story begins?

—According to the main storyline, I was rescued from here? In other words, the sarcophagus is inside this place?

"Based on the conditions you provided, this should be the only place in Chernobog."

Seeing Milan's rather complicated expression, Hrag spoke up: "This place hasn't been noticed for a while, so young man, what do you plan to do now?"

"……Do not."

Milan shook his head.

He did forget some of the plot details, but he still vividly remembered how the story began: at the very beginning, the little rabbit led a team to infiltrate Chernobog, opened the sarcophagus according to Kal'tsit's method, and awakened the Doctor.

At that time, the doctor was in extremely poor condition. In addition to amnesia, he was also weak, as if he was repeatedly teetering on the edge of shock. Milan weighed the resources at his disposal and was willing to dig up any healing potions or regeneration potions that night.

Getting a PhD is very simple; it's just a matter of pulling a lever.

But if you're not well prepared, and you accidentally open the box and kill the doctor, that wouldn't be fun at all.

As for seeking help from Azazel... to be honest, it's not that he looks down on Azazel's abilities, but on the one hand, they are likely to be clueless in this situation, and on the other hand, for such an important decision, he himself feels that it is more reliable to wait for Rhodes Island than to bet on Azazel.

So he pondered for a moment and shook his head.

"My matter is a little complicated, but I have plenty of time and I'm not in a hurry to cause any unforeseen problems."

"It's good that we can confirm the location."

He stretched lazily, turned around, and said with a smile, "I still need to think about it some more, but for the other aspect of cooperation, I'll have to trouble you, General."

—A few days later, in the underground area, at Milan's stronghold—

Milan doesn't know what internal exchanges Azazel went through afterward, but after that day, nothing else happened, and Milan returned to their home base and enjoyed a few peaceful days.

Originium research remains stalled, and the resolution of local Terran materials is also far from satisfactory, probably because local materials are inevitably affected by Originium. If there's anything that can make him feel better, it's that his team is gradually taking shape.

His subordinates consist of two groups: thirteen people left over from the Rust Gang and twenty-five infected people who were rescued. Among the workers are those who are still working for him and do not fully believe in the Milan catastrophe prophecy. Among the infected, there are those whose infection level is not optimistic or whose infected parts make it difficult to move.

Milan doesn't care about the former; these people just need to do their jobs well in the short term and keep his territory from going wrong. As for the latter, under the influence of his inhibitors and sufficient nutrition, his symptoms are gradually improving.

In the end, a total of twenty-four people were willing to fight for the future he described and to start making efforts from now on, which was just enough to form two squads.

When Hrag returned to fulfill his training contract, this was the scene that greeted him.

"...So, this is the recruit you were talking about, the one I need to train?"

Chapter 66 - Equipment Deployment

Hrag's gaze swept across like that of a hawk.

There were twenty-four people in front of him, all of whom were of the Ursus race, which is common in Ursus, mixed with Pero and Liboli. Without exception, they were all young and middle-aged men; some were infected and some were not. After a short training in Milan, they stood in two rows and looked somewhat presentable.

Milan knows absolutely nothing about military administration.

He simply cut out the bits and pieces of military training he still remembered and used them for disciplinary training in addition to physical training.

But now it seems that it's not entirely useless. At least these people's posture is somewhat neat and upright, and their eyes are not completely as loose as before.

First, let's establish a premise: Milan is too lazy to engage in empty talk. The food is visibly plentiful, their physical functions are noticeably improving day by day thanks to the MC food, and the coins are directly handed to them and allowed to be taken home—under these circumstances, let alone the infected he personally rescued, even the [Canned] members that Milan never expected to help in the first place…

Or rather, former Rust Gang members developed an increasingly firm belief in the natural disasters he predicted, which made them uneasy, and some of them, in their wavering, chose to swear allegiance to him.

Milan made it clear to them: "I'm training you here not so that you'll risk your lives for me."

"With your level of skill, you're nowhere near as good as someone qualified to risk their life for me."

“But you need to understand that I cannot, and do not intend to, stay in Chernobog to protect you forever.”

"So your current training is for yourselves and for your families, so that you can have a place to protect yourselves after natural disasters and survive in the dark times to come."

"do you understand!"

He spoke so bluntly that, aside from those who were still wavering, those who trusted him had indeed put in real effort to hone their skills during these days—and so, with a conceptual level of satiety and ample nutrition, in just a short period of time, these people had unearthed some of the dormant genetic potential of the Terrans within their flesh and blood.

Hrag's eyes were incredibly sharp; he could tell at a glance that these people's current physical fitness level was at least higher than most military police in Ursus and that they could stand firm among the regular army's "soldiers."

This level isn't very strong.

However, considering that his information indicated the Rust Gang, which controlled this territory, hadn't been gone for long, meaning Milan hadn't been in charge here for very long... then this training result was quite valuable.

Not to mention, what attracted his attention was not just these few green recruits themselves, but their equipment: although these people were of different races and had different builds, they were all wearing the same standard equipment.

He could tell.

It was a uniform white full-body armor, consisting of a helmet, breastplate, leg guards, and boots. Not only did they have the same shape, but even the material and luster were almost identical. At first, he was a little unfamiliar with the material, but after a closer look, he found that it seemed to be similar to the material of the crossbow that Milan had given to Nain, which he had seen frequently in the past few days.

It looked like some kind of pale skeleton.

Aside from their uniform armor, seemingly at the behest of their leader Milan, their weapons were noticeably different: most wore two different tools on either side of their waists, while a few leaned on tall shields propped up on the ground. In addition, four people stood together, carrying crossbows that were the same size as her daughter's toys.

"..."

Hrag was momentarily speechless; the information he gleaned from that glance was quite substantial: if equipping a team with decent weapons meant they were quite powerful at the "gang" level...

"Organized and standardized armament" should be called "equipment"; being equipped with "uniform armor" is completely different from the meaning of uniform... In fact, the mere fact that "being equipped with armor" is a factor that is stressful enough.

What, you want to rebel? Don't even mention the classical era, with the combat mode of the Tai (nine) phosphorus VI Siliuqi (eight) babala civilization, the twenty well-equipped and physically excellent armored soldiers could really take down a village or town.

But now even your weapons and armor are standardized and uniform in shape and material—well, who would believe that there isn't a big force behind you trying to cause trouble?

If you switch to a power that's not big enough, how can you talk about productivity... they can't even reach that level of purchasing power!

"Mr. Jung."

Herag's voice was steady. He turned around and looked at Milan with the scrutiny of a soldier. He said, "I am glad to have this opportunity to return to my old profession. But it seems that you already have a plan for the responsibilities of your subordinates."

"Since I'm in charge of the training, would it be convenient for me to know your expectations for the training results, and... the condition of their equipment?"

"That's a good question, General."

Milan flashed a smug, leopard-like grin, and stepped forward to pat the armor of the man at the head of the line; the breastplate, including the shoulder armor, clanged in his hand.

"Sixteen melee fighters, four shield bearers, and four crossbowmen, usually operating in two squads, which can be further divided into six-man groups if necessary."

"The general-purpose [bone-plate armor] weighs forty-eight kilograms and provides passable protection, as well as noteworthy knockback resistance."

【bone】

-Tier 1 tools, ranged weapons, armor, and jewelry materials

When used as the tip or part of a tool, the "Piercing" attribute can slightly increase attack power and armor penetration, thereby improving damage effectiveness. It is a weapon attribute that is quite useful at low levels.

When used as armor, it can be used to make armor plates. Although the armor value is not very good, the "High Calcium" attribute can provide +1 armor toughness.

What exactly is armor toughness?

In the game's armor-piercing combat system, there is a rule that "when taking high damage attacks, a certain amount of armor is ignored by default according to the damage value." "Resilience" is a defensive reinforcement attribute that counters this default armor-piercing rule. In reality, this attribute becomes the performance of "reducing the degree of damage taken by the armor".

This is equivalent to indirectly improving the armor's resistance to damage.

"As for weapons... well, their primary purpose isn't to be used as weapons, is it?"

Instead of removing the weapon mounted on his waist, he flipped his hand and produced a pickaxe identical to the one he carried. It looked like some kind of mining pickaxe, with a bright green handle and a brown tip that, unlike the bone, appeared to have an oily sheen.

...Herag didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he felt that when Milan swung this thing, it seemed to bring out a rich and mellow flavor—like meat broth?

He swallowed the saliva that his body spontaneously produced.

"As you can see."

Milan, muttering to himself, swung the pickaxe a couple of times, then held it up horizontally to show it off, saying, "Because the main objective isn't killing, but rather facilitating movement and disaster relief in special circumstances, this is the primary piece of equipment we're using—"

"However, if the logic doesn't work, I can still talk about physics."

As Milan spoke, the pickaxe in her hand disappeared into thin air, replaced by a short-handled axe. The axe was made of the same material as the pickaxe, with the same green handle and an axe body that gleamed with oil and smelled fresh.

"IMHO."

Herag looked puzzled: "What materials are these weapons made of?"

"Stewed bones."

Hellagur: "...Huh?"

Milan chuckled.

Stewed pork bones

Level 2 tools, remote materials

-From the mod [Tinker's Construct Portable]

As a superior material to [Bone], [Stewed Bone] is easy to upgrade; simply pour [Bone] into the casting station using [Meat Broth] to obtain it.

For Milan, where livestock were free, it was essentially equivalent to unlimited.

Furthermore, this thing has the weight of bones but the strength of iron, provides stats that surpass those of bones, and also has the [Fullness] material attribute: it can be triggered with a probability as durability decreases during use, replenishing the user's hunger to restore stamina, allowing ordinary Terrans to use heavy equipment for longer periods of time.

Anyway, Milan thinks that it seems quite appropriate for Duchizaki Ichiji to give Siqi to the Terrans.

While Hrag was still completely bewildered, or rather, it was rare for the seasoned veteran to be so bewildered, Milan had already moved on to the next project; the axe in his hand had disappeared again, replaced by a tall shield, so tall that even a grown-up Ursus strongman could easily conceal himself by simply lowering his body slightly.

The upper quarter of the shield is almost transparent, allowing the user to easily assess the situation in front of it—partly because it also exudes the same enticing, fresh aroma, making it difficult for Hrag to take things seriously.

On the other hand, there's the Ursus people, heavily armored with large shields... the more he looks at this combination, the more familiar it seems.

"【Stewed pork bone anti-riot door panel】."

Milan explained, "It weighs thirty kilograms and has a design that also functions as a weapon, capable of smashing and ramming. The materials used are bamboo components, which have been reduced in weight based on [Lightness 1], and the [Bone] material base provides [High Calcium] toughness. Apart from its insufficient fire resistance, it has virtually no drawbacks."

"However, just in case, I still equipped them with daggers... well, enough for basic self-defense."

The dagger, made of bone and bamboo, weighs about five kilograms. For them, it's indeed enough to rely on the [Piercing 1] property as a toy for emergencies.

"As for the crossbowmen, I probably don't need to introduce them. They use the same crossbows and arrows as Nain, except that in addition to the special arrows, each person is also equipped with eight ordinary arrows; after all, you know, crossbows are different from melee weapons, once they are used, they are really meant to kill..."

Milan was still rambling on, showing off like a craftsman showing off his work or a child showing off his toy, but the more Hrag listened, the stranger it seemed: Milan was getting carried away and spouting all sorts of things. At first, it sounded like he was introducing military equipment, but then game jargon started popping out one after another.

The old man, of course, didn't understand what "lightweight" and "high calcium" meant, and could only ponder the meaning of "resistance" based on the names. But that didn't stop him from trying to understand what he could—he could understand that Milan wasn't the kind of person who played with human lives and wouldn't actually equip his subordinates, whom he cared about training, with toys.

Although this person's understanding of "toys" may be different from that of ordinary people.

"Stewed bones"... especially after he had repeatedly tried to understand and confirm that he hadn't misheard or misunderstood, and that what smelled so delicious was indeed the "stewed bones" he was thinking of...

“Stop, Mr. Jung, stop.”

Hrag quickly waved his hand and said, "I have to admit that I may have been away from the front lines for too long and my understanding of technology and military equipment has fallen behind... These things sound really incredible to me."

"I can hardly imagine the actual effects of these equipment just from descriptions. This is related to how I will develop training programs and make judgments on actual combat situations."

He frowned slightly and said cautiously, "Would it be convenient for you to demonstrate for me?"

"Oh, that's easy, it's my job."

Milan clapped his hands: "Alexei, have someone demonstrate, using the usual targets."

"Yes, my lord!"

Alexei nodded in agreement.

Milan may not know martial arts, but he certainly didn't skimp on providing these people with the conditions to familiarize themselves with weapons: for training purposes, he specially stacked solid wood blocks vertically in an open space, with wool carpets wrapped around them, so they could practice swinging and slashing.

The melee fighters who were called upon immediately stepped forward, one wielding a bone pickaxe and the other a bone axe, and swung their weapons at the two training dummies.

——Boom.

Tinker's Construct Pickaxe comes with the [Pierce 1] tool attribute, easily piercing through thick wool carpets and embedding itself deeply into solid wood blocks; the short-handled axe is slightly inferior in piercing performance, but it still easily chops through wool carpets, leaving a deep groove in the solid wood.

Hrag's pupils contracted slightly.

Next came the defensive test: one shieldbearer raised his large shield in an awkward defensive stance, while another team member acted as an assistant. To better demonstrate the strength, he did not use the Tinker's Soul Axe issued by Milan, but instead used Boris's treasured Ursus Saber.

He showed no mercy in front of Milan and Herag, unleashing the full power of the Ursus TM Bear, slashing heavily against the shield.

Surprisingly, Herag could tell that the shield was clearly made of lush bamboo and wood, with bones and the stewed bones that Milan had mentioned embedded inside and out. Yet, it did nothing under this single, unadulterated strike—it didn't even leave a trace on the shield's surface, let alone impact the shield bearer.