Chapter 754

In the factory, amid the roar of steam and metal, a boring machine stood towering like a steel beast. Workers slowly hoisted the rough cast-iron cannon barrel into the center of the machine with chains and pulleys.

As the water-driven flywheel thundered to life, the boring tool pierced the barrel like a precise surgical knife. Sparks mixed with iron filings and sprayed like golden rain, filling the air with the searing, metallic tang of hot iron.

The workers no longer needed to rely on touch and experience to hammer away repeatedly. The boring machine's gears and connecting rods advanced with the steady rhythm of a mechanical pulse, shaving the inner walls of the barrel smooth as mirrors, with an error no greater than the thickness of a coin.

Amid the mist of coolant and steam, the barrels on the production line completed their transformation one after another. Their once-rough cast-iron bodies were given standardized curves and calibers, lined up with copy-like uniformity on the inspection tables, reflecting the cold pursuit of perfect repetition in industrial civilization.

Sunlight slanted through the factory's tall windows onto rows of pitch-black cannon barrels. Their cold, straight metal axes seemed to announce the arrival of a new era—the manufacture of war machines had finally leaped from the fingertips of craftsmen into the absolute realm of steel and mathematics.

The Royal Army generals from Crystal Radiance watched the scene solemnly. Each of them wanted to say something, yet none of them could utter a word. Before visiting, the scene they had imagined was one in which skilled master craftsmen led their apprentices in lifting heavy iron hammers and pounding away, just as blacksmiths across the continent had done for centuries.

Although their creations were more ingenious—using violently expanding gas to propel Metal Projectiles—the way these miraculous