Edith and Polu turned out of the forest, and the pickup truck drove along a low fence on the gravel beach.
In front of them was the peak in the center of the island. This peak, whose name no one knew, was covered with white snow that had not completely melted, and it was shining brightly in the sun. The wind was very strong today, and the clouds in the sky were changing rapidly.
From their gaps emerged a blue sky that looked like another ocean.
Edith looked at the broad gravel beach that stretched all the way to the foot of the mountain in front and suddenly ended with a cliff, and said:
"The scenery here is really nice. Don't you think it's more suitable for living? Why use such a beautiful place as a shooting range?"
"It's beautiful. I didn't think much about it when I chose this place. It just so happens that the view of this gravel beach is very good, and there are no trees or creatures. There is no need to worry about people entering by mistake. There is still a cliff at the end, so it is safe to conduct experiments.
Besides, this piece of land is completely weathered gravel left by repeated erosion by ice and snow. Apart from admiring it, I really can’t find any other use for it.”
Polu said it didn't matter, and Edith listened very casually, just asking.
The steam train continued to move along the path formed by rolling back and forth. Not far from the woods, there was a stone arch that was so common on the island that it almost became a standard building.
After turning a corner, a platform protruding from the ground emerged from the stone arch. On the platform, a huge sculpture-like figure sat on the charger, with a thick pipe inserted behind his back, his head lowered.
at every turn.
The huge figure immediately attracted Edith's attention. She squinted her eyes and looked carefully before asking with some uncertainty: "Is that a statue?"
"No, it's a golem. It came from Star Island."
Polu looked at Constance, who was motionless, and was a little concerned: "He is Constance, um... why is he not moving? The energy circuit installed on him last time..."
At this time Edith turned her head sharply:
"Wait, what did you just say? Constance? Why does this name sound familiar to me?"
She turned her head again and looked at the shiny shell and exquisite textures of the golem. She felt that the more she looked at it, the more familiar it looked, but she was a little unsure: after all, those weapons were full of personal style and the decorations used to distinguish them.
All have disappeared.
She looked like she was recalling something, and she clapped her hands violently until the truck almost reached Constance's feet:
"Oh! I remembered, these are the golems used to house the souls of warriors! But I remember that they were all damaged in the battle again and fell into a deep sleep. Why did you put him here?"
"He asked to sit here."
Edith was obviously stunned: "Himself?"
Then a look of surprise appeared on her face: "He woke up? Didn't he never try to wake him up because he didn't have enough materials to make new golem parts?"
"We have transported a lot of golem fragments back, and the refinery is re-separating the materials."
Bolu looked at her: "You know so much."
Although her makeup remained meticulous, her eyes still showed a tired look unintentionally.
He hesitated for a moment before asking: "Why do you look so tired?"
"It's really tiring. Although the battle is not intense, it's still a bit unbearable to come here every day." She changed the subject again: "This type of golem is of a very high level. Is your body a new creation? Is it so powerful?
"
Polu thought of the terrifying and breathtaking one-time molding process, and smiled bitterly: "Don't be ridiculous, we can't make something so powerful in a while. This is me, um... and my little apprentices.
Let’s use the intact parts from other golems to assemble and repair it together. Okay, let’s get out of the car.”
After getting off the car, Polu waved to Constance: "Brother, brother, are you okay?"
The silent statue suddenly turned its head, and Constance's rich, mechanical voice rang out: "Is something wrong?"
"It's nothing. Seeing that you haven't moved, I'm a little worried that your energy circuit is broken."
Polu raised his head and answered.
"It's just a habit I developed in the past. I just don't move much when I don't need it. Are you going to test it again today?"
Having said this, he seemed a little dissatisfied and fiddled with a huge wooden stick that looked like it had been lifted directly from the woods: "When are you going to let me walk around as I please? Although the scenery is nice, I can still stand up and take two steps.
, but sitting at the door with my back always being held by a cable always gives me some unpleasant associations. By the way, what about the energy-saving mode you mentioned?"
"Brother, you also know how much energy you consume when you move. You can only use cables to provide energy on weekdays. Just to let you walk, do you know how much copper is spent on these 100 meters of wire? How about you
Go lie down in the house? You don’t think you’d like it either. As for the energy-saving mode, this is under study... I have guests here, so let’s go and get busy first.”
Poru answered without changing his expression. He introduced Edith to Constance, changed the subject by the way, and walked towards the stone arch with the closed door. He lifted the password protection of a small door and opened the door.
Edith made a gesture of please.
Then she froze.
Under the light of the stone arch, she saw a row of strange and huge machines. In the empty hall, they reflected the cold light, and the thick barrels were raised high - she felt that she saw it correctly -
Pointing to the roof, they were densely packed, like a forest. She took two steps back and looked at the sign on the door, which read several words: Weapon Automation Research Institute.
The concept of this weapon was somewhat beyond her understanding.
She always felt that weapons should be knives, guns, swords, bows, or even any random thing that could be held in hand and wielded, but those were the size of a house, and some might even be strange machines the size of a low sentry tower.
Questioned: "You told me this is your weapons research institute? Is this a weapon? What does automation mean?"
She frowned and repeated this awkward combination of words a little awkwardly.
"As for automation, it's a bit difficult to explain. Anyway, you can understand that this is a place where research is done to reduce manual operations as much as possible."
"What about these machines? It's not like I've never seen your artillery before. Why are there such huge and complex structures under the artillery here?"
"It's still for automation. This is what I said, a weapon that can completely replace the smoothbore cannons I sold. It has just been finalized and we haven't used it ourselves yet? This is 20, this is 55, this is 100
.”
"Not to mention anything else, doesn't the 100-gun can only fire long steel rods?"
Looking at her suspicious eyes, Bolu was not in a hurry: "It's okay, I just called someone on the dock, and they will come and demonstrate it to you in a while."
"It's not that I don't believe what you said, but how can it move with such a large volume? Is it for the golem?"
"No, it is too wasteful for the golem to carry this thing. In fact, it does not need to move, and it is impossible to move. It has only one purpose, and that is to sit on the ground and deal damage. Harm! You are not treating it as a magic tower.
Is that good?"
"There is no need to keep feeding cannonballs into the magic tower."
"Then think about it from another angle: Is there a great mage in the magic tower? The gap between the upper and lower limits is huge. Are there so many great mages? And the cost of building the magic tower, wow. I wanted to build a mystery lock at the port before, but then
After asking about the price, I didn’t dare to think about it a second time! This is the friendly price of Xingdao. This turret, that’s it.”
Bolu patted the April Rain MK2, which was inconspicuous among a bunch of steel behemoths: "With the financial resources of your elves, I think every village can insert several of these!"
Edith, who had seen the machine gun before, pondered for a while and made an evaluation.
"Isn't this just four cannons put together? Not to mention, in a village where there is often only one road, this thing should be very effective."
"It looks simple, but in fact it is a new quadruple gun."
Before he could introduce himself, the roar of a tractor sounded outside the door, so Polu motioned to Edith to come with him:
"The artillery shells should be coming. They will go to the testing site first. Let's go and have a look."
Going out from the other end of the building, the loaded ammunition truck has begun to be unloaded. Beside it, on three platforms composed of thick steel beams, there are three different types of ammunition trucks that are about the same size as a house.
A square iron box. The rear half of the hoarding was removed and set aside, revealing the complex pipelines and mechanical devices inside. Many workers were pushing carts back and forth, while others were loading cannonballs into various
In the ammunition loader.
"Which one are you going to start with?"
Polu clicked on three iron boxes: "They are all of the ground defense type. From left to right, 20 turns, 55 doubles, 100 singles, from flat shot to high shot, all are acceptable."
"Gakkai? I don't quite understand why you have such a deep obsession with cumshot?"
Bolu opened his mouth, not knowing how to explain to her his bone-deep fear of lack of anti-air firepower.
"It seems that places with mage towers don't have this kind of problem?" he thought in his mind.
Fortunately, her attention was quickly attracted by the shells jammed into the magazine one after another. This made her feel very strange: "Why are there so many shells?"
"I'll use it for test firing."
"Test firing? Wait, you mean so many shells will be used in one test firing?"
"Yes, that's true. Otherwise, you won't be able to feel what weapon automation is."
This made her laugh: "Then the cost of your demonstration is a bit high? It will take many days of production, right?"
However, Polu waved his hand indifferently: "Don't worry, my ammunition factory has been expanded. Later, you can select anyone to fire."
"Are you going to show me that your weapon usage limit is low?"
Edith rolled her eyes: "No, I've known it for a long time. Your sniper rifle has already caused many rangers who are still in the training period to ask where they can buy it?"
"Oh! Are there any orders? What do they think?"
Boru suddenly became energetic!
"It's easy to use, but it's too ugly. There are orders, but we don't plan to let them use sniper rifles so early."