Vienna, Hofburg Palace.
Franz resumed his daily work. A special bullet model lay on his desk.
An X-shaped incision had been carved into the bullet's jacket, and the lead core bulged outward through the cuts. Burrs from lathe work still clung to the edges of the lead core, like the unpolished blade of an instrument of torture.
This was the Weapon Development Bureau's latest product. Franz naturally knew what it was: the infamous Dum-dum Bullet of later generations.
The Austrian military had originally poured vast sums into developing white phosphorus bullets. More than ten weapons test firers alone had been lost.
But their materials science and gunpowder technology simply could not keep up, leaving them no choice but to abandon the project for the time being.
Unable to make headway with the ammunition itself, they turned to its shape instead. Before this Dum-dum Bullet was delivered, Franz had already seen countless bizarrely designed bullets.
There were wolf-tooth bullets, arrow-shaped bullets, snake-shaped bullets, ring-shaped bullets, cross bullets—especially for exorcism. In short, there was nothing they could not make, only things one could not imagine.
The Dum-dum Bullet was born largely because the war between the Austrian Empire and the natives had grown increasingly fierce.
Put simply, the Austrian Empire's colonial forces had pushed the natives to their limit, leaving them no choice but to fight for their lives. The Austrians, meanwhile, were unwilling to bear losses, and that was what gave rise to all manner of terrifying weapons.
The Austrian Empire's colonial troops urgently needed weapons powerful enough to end the war. The Dum-dum Bullet's high lethality and crippling rate happened to meet the Austrian military's demands.
According to figures provided by the Austrian military, combat efficiency against the natives rose by an average of 150% after using Dum-dum Bullets, far