The Patient with Fear of Insufficient Firepower

To be honest, Fan Yu was deeply shocked by the idea Jiang Ming had proposed.

In a Soul Engineer's ingrained way of thinking, soul tools had to be made by Soul Engineers through the carving of arrays.

That was not only because making soul tools required the support of Soul Power, but also because even for a Rank 1 soul tool, its array was not something that could be carved casually.

Using soul tools to make soul tools—almost no Soul Engineer had ever had such an idea. Because after every Soul Engineer truly completed a soul tool, they would understand just how difficult making one was!

Carving Soul Tool Arrays by hand was already extremely difficult, let alone using soul tools to make soul tools. In the eyes of an ordinary Soul Engineer, that was practically impossible!

"To be honest, I don't really agree with this idea of yours."

Fan Yu shook his head and said in a low voice.

"Using soul tools to make soul tools is theoretically feasible. But do you know the technical difficulties involved?"

As a high-level Soul Engineer, even without having tried it yet, Fan Yu could already imagine just how many difficulties there would be.

How would the Soul Power output be solved?

How would the array carving be solved?

Even the materials themselves would be a problem. A Soul Engineer could modify an array according to the shape and special properties of the materials, but a soul tool could not.

To put it bluntly, soul tools were dead things, while people were alive!

Many problems were not problems in human hands, but once placed in mechanical hands, a whole pile of issues would appear!

"I know."

Jiang Ming nodded and said seriously.

He had not yet tried building a Soul Tool Production Line, so he did not really know how difficult it would be, but in his previous life, the emergence of the production line concept had accompanied the Industrial Revolution!

Jiang Ming knew how epoch-making the Industrial Revolution had been. By comparison, the difficulty of a Soul Tool Production Line was obvious.

But even so, Jiang Ming still wanted to create this kind of production line.

For no other reason than that manually making soul tools as a Soul Engineer was far too inefficient!

If it was for personal use, or limited to a small group, then it was completely enough.

But if it was put into war, that efficiency would be far from enough!

Especially when the number and quality of Soul Engineers in the Sun Moon Empire clearly far surpassed those of other countries. That kind of efficiency would form an enormous suppression!

"You know that, and you still want to make this? Don't even mention that you're still a Rank 4 Soul Engineer right now—even if you were Rank 6 or 7, or even a Rank 8 Soul Master, the success rate of making this thing wouldn't exceed one percent!"

Fan Yu truly could not understand. Jiang Ming was undoubtedly a genius when it came to soul tools. Some of his occasional innovative ideas could even inspire Fan Yu himself, full of ingenuity, so he supported most of Jiang Ming's ideas.

But this idea—Fan Yu really was not optimistic about it!

The probability of realizing this idea was far too low! Moreover, without even starting, he could already see a whole series of troubles to come. It would consume time, energy, and money, and the chance of failure was high. What was the point?!

"Teacher Fan Yu, I still want to give it a try."

Jiang Ming still did not waver.

"Why? I need a reason."

Fan Yu frowned tightly and asked in a low voice.

"Because... war!"

Jiang Ming spoke slowly, his gaze firm, his eyes persistent.

"War?"

Hearing that word, Fan Yu's expression turned a little strange.

A twelve-year-old student had proposed making a Soul Tool Production Line, and the reason was war!

The sense of dissonance was so strong that for a moment, Fan Yu did not even know how to criticize it.

"Teacher Fan Yu, you should be very clear about the Sun Moon Empire's level in soul tools, right?"

Suddenly, Jiang Ming shifted the topic a little, leaving Fan Yu somewhat unable to react.

He subconsciously nodded. In terms of soul tool development, the Sun Moon Empire's level was far above the other three empires on the continent. This was common knowledge acknowledged by the Soul Engineer world.

Jiang Ming continued, "The Sun Moon Empire's foundation in soul tools is too strong. Teacher Fan Yu, as you know, I come from Clear Water City in the Heaven Dou Empire.

Clear Water City is a city in the north of the Heaven Dou Empire that borders the Sun Moon Empire.

Over the past few decades, Clear Water City and Ice Snow City on the Sun Moon Empire's border have had many clashes."

A trace of reminiscence appeared in Jiang Ming's eyes.

"Over these years, Ice Snow City has constantly used Soul Rays and Soul Cannonballs to suppress Clear Water City. Even though in recent years, the Heaven Dou Empire has also provided Clear Water City with soul tools such as Soul Cannonballs and Soul Rays.

But the gap is simply too great!

The ratio between the Soul Rays we possess and those of Ice Snow City is twenty to one! The ratio of Soul Cannonballs is even greater!"

At this point, Jiang Ming took a deep breath, looked at Fan Yu, and said in a low voice, "Teacher Fan Yu, every soldier in our Clear Water City has come down with an illness called Fear of Insufficient Firepower!"

If it came down to the strength of their Soul Masters, Clear Water City was not weaker than Ice Snow City at all. It could even firmly suppress them!

But the firepower of Soul Tools was too strong! When Soul Rays and Soul Cannonballs filled the sky and flew toward you, when your whole body was surrounded by firelight, when agonized wails and screams echoed in your ears—that kind of fear, that kind of despair... Teacher Fan Yu, can you understand it?"

As Jiang Ming spoke, his emotions unconsciously grew agitated.

This was the pain of every soldier of Clear Water City!

And Jiang Ming, who had lived two lives, understood that pain even more deeply. The history of the two worlds was, to a certain extent, almost the same.

Fan Yu fell silent.

He looked at Jiang Ming, and seemed to understand why this child, only twelve years old, was so intensely obsessed with Soul Cannonballs and powerful Soul Tools.

"I don't want Clear Water City to be suppressed by Ice Snow City's Soul Cannonballs and Soul Rays again!

I want the soldiers of Clear Water City to be able to use those Soul Rays too, and to have enough Soul Cannonballs!

I want to surpass Ice Snow City. I want to turn it around and use Soul Cannonballs and Soul Rays to suppress them! Let them experience this fear too!"

A rare viciousness appeared in Jiang Ming's eyes.

Those who had never experienced that kind of war could not imagine that fear and despair, that sense of powerlessness. It was unbearable! Fucking unbearable!

After a few seconds, Jiang Ming's emotions eased slightly.

"Before coming to Shrek, I had been researching Soul Cannonballs the whole time, and failed many times. It wasn't until I met you that I succeeded. After that, I turned all my money into metal materials and spent a full three months before I managed to make fewer than a hundred Soul Cannonballs!"

"Too slow! That efficiency is far too slow! Clear Water City has too few Soul Engineers, and the entire Heaven Dou Empire has too few Soul Engineers. At this rate, we'll always be suppressed by the other side!"

"And the only way is to change the method: use a production line, split up every step of making Soul Cannonballs, and use large-scale Soul Tools for mass production! Only then can we overtake them on the curve while having far fewer Soul Engineers than the other side!"