Vermilion Bow and Plain Gift

Ailu detailed his understanding of the "Deboning" plan and the preparations made by the Temple of Light. During this process, he primarily "guided" the Dark Side of God's assassination squad on how to infiltrate the dwarven guards by exploiting gaps in their defenses, while also ensuring he himself remained uninvolved. Star Pickaxe was the supreme ruler of a vast dwarven kingdom, his power far exceeding that of the Final Bone Mad Machines. According to diplomatic protocol, the first meeting should be between Su Ming and His Majesty Star Pickaxe Saluo City.

With the help of Ailu, the Dark Side of God's assassins from the Temple of Light had ample time to prepare and detailed inside intelligence. Coupled with their calculated attack on an unsuspecting target, the success of this assassination plan was extremely high!

The staff member listening in from the next room wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"No wonder you were so proactive in pushing forward the meeting between His Majesty and Su Ming," Wanshi said thoughtfully.

"It wasn't him," the Minister of Investigation corrected. "His Majesty requested to see Su Ming; this matter has nothing to do with Ailu."

"Exactly, don't assume I'm behind everything," Ailu said helplessly. "The Temple of Light has sent a total of twenty Intermediate Rank and High Rank assassins—I'm worried they might take His Majesty Star Pickaxe with them!"

"That's strange." The Minister of Investigation frowned. "The Temple of Light has clearly deployed a large force in our Saluo City, determined to take it. Why would they send a small team to Red Ridge Mine to make a rash move?"

He thought about it for a long time, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't figure it out.

Ailu raised his glass and took a sip of ale.

"After the Red Ridge Mine incident, I was arrested by you very quickly. These people from the Temple of Light must have already fled completely." He continued, revealing everything he knew.

The entire Security Investigation Department was mobilized and, based on intelligence provided by Ailu, rushed to several secret locations of the Temple of Light. Although they anticipated that the locations would be deserted, the necessary search work still had to be carried out.

As a reward for Ailu's cooperation, the Minister of Investigation poured him another glass of ale.

This clearly encouraged Ailu.

"There's one more thing," he said hesitantly, "The Temple of Light seems to have a backup attack plan... but let me make it clear, I only know a very vague bit about it, it seems to be related to our crystal mine."

"Anything more specific?" The Minister of Investigation frowned even more deeply. The Dwarf Kingdom was vast, with more than twenty crystal veins of varying sizes and countless mines. This was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"I only overheard a few words by chance," Ailu quickly explained, sounding somewhat helpless. "I'm not sure if I misheard. You should also know that I'm not actually well-liked by the people at the Temple of Light."

The value of a spy lies in its usefulness; no one would entrust core secrets to a pawn that could be exposed at any moment.

Ellen's intelligence report did indeed put the Minister of Investigation in a difficult position.

With so many mining areas, it's impossible to launch a comprehensive investigation based on just a vague statement. The Security Investigation Department also doesn't have unlimited manpower, especially with His Star Pickaxe's meeting with Su Ming imminent, security and preparations are already incredibly complex.

Especially because of the assassination attempt, His Majesty Star Pickaxe Pick has broken with convention and chosen to visit Dragon Valley to meet with Su Ming. However, Wanshi offered a compromise suggestion. "Why not have the Mining Department take the lead in organizing a nationwide 'Major Inspection of Mine Safety Production'? We can send in some agents to work with mineral inspectors to thoroughly investigate all the mines?"

"That's a great idea!" The investigation minister's eyes lit up, and he expressed his agreement.

"The upgrade failed?" Jin Rongjia asked, holding his teacup in surprise.

The Little Spiky Head sitting opposite him was currently being controlled by Su Ming. The verification of the super-large electromagnetic cannon was about to begin, and the first batch of core components had been transferred to another world and were being installed intensively next to the Celestite Hydropower Station.

To ensure the project's success, Su Ming and the support team on Earth needed to communicate multiple times a day, frequently exchanging data and plans. What Su Ming just mentioned was the modification of the White Bone Mark.

"Is it a problem on our side?" Jisu immediately asked anxiously. He was in charge of upgrading and optimizing the outer energy net runes of the White Bone Mark.

Su Ming raised his skeletal hand in a reassuring gesture, "The problem isn't on our side. In fact, to be precise, this matter is... half successful."

Su Ming and Zijin joined forces to weave the updated runes into various parts of the White Bone Mark, and dynamically activated them. The control mode of the White Bone Fortress was successfully transformed into a dual-node connection anchored by the souls of the two.

"However," Su Ming continued, "The mental contract mode with the Bone Dragon couldn't be adjusted accordingly. Therefore, the new energy transmission structure of the White Bone Mark cannot be implemented yet and can only operate in compatibility mode."

"This won't do!" Jisu frowned. "This will severely limit your energy output. You'll be in serious trouble if you encounter high-intensity combat!"

"Zijin and Chloe are already working hard to find the root cause of the problem," Su Ming explained. "It's understandable that something might go wrong with this kind of unprecedented, super-large-scale rune-based modification."

Jisu thought about it and realized it made sense; which game doesn't have some bugs or something when it's released?

The conversation then shifted back to the deployment plan for the satellite electromagnetic railgun.

"We have officially named this heavy-duty railgun ' Vermilion Bow '," Jin Rongjia said.

"Although I'm terrible at naming things," Su Ming said jokingly, "I'm quite disappointed that you didn't use the name 'Gunpowder Sister'." "No," Gunpowder Sister was actually the winner of our vote, Fengshou interjected, his expression somewhat subtle, "But a certain leader believes that if we insist on using this name, it must be 'localized' in translation."

"Localized translation, huh?" Su Ming asked, puzzled.

Jisu casually tossed over a piece of paper listing several candidate names. "Guardian Angel" received the highest score, but it was crossed out with two strikethroughs, and next to it was written, "Electric Goddess".

Su Ming was silent for a moment, then said, "... Alright, this translation is quite neat."

Jisu displayed a detailed structural diagram of the "Vermilion Bow" electromagnetic railgun on the large screen in the conference room. The complex conduit and coil structure rotated slowly. "Not counting the track base and support structure, the total weight of the core launching device has reached 1,100 tons," he explained.

As the commissioning process progresses, the equipment size is expected to increase further.

"With that size, I feel like it could be mounted on the Pansy as its main gun," Su Ming immediately said, his eyes filled with envy.

"As long as your ship can supply electricity." Jisu chuckled, pointing to the blueprints, "' Vermilion Bow ' is a super-heavy-load design, its goal is to accelerate ' Plain Gift ' to an initial velocity of one thousand meters per second and launch it."

The name "Vermilion Bow Plain Gift" refers to the divine bow and arrows used by Hou Yi to shoot down nine suns, a gift from the Heavenly Di Jun.

A speed of one thousand meters per second is not surprising; the projectile speed of experimental electromagnetic guns on this side of the Earth has already exceeded five thousand meters per second.

But Su Ming's gaze was fixed on the slender "Plain Gift" on the screen. "A bullet fifteen meters long, is it that long?"

"The actual rocket booster section used for launch will be much thicker than this," Jisu added. "During our testing, we used a solid metal rod of the same weight, which also weighed eighty tons."

"... If this thing hits someone, it will definitely hurt a lot!" Su Ming clicked his tongue.

At this scale and speed, the conventional concept of "momentum weapons" pales in comparison.

"Is it possible for us to turn the ' Vermilion Bow ' into a sea-based platform and deploy it for launch from the equatorial sea?" Jin Rongjia suggested. Equatorial launches can save up to 15% of rocket thrust consumption, resulting in a considerable efficiency improvement.

"Based on a 30% energy efficiency rating, ' Vermilion Bow ' would consume 170 billion joules of electrical energy in a single launch." Jisu shook his head in disagreement. "Even at 100% power, when the Celestite Hydropower Station is charging at full capacity, it would still take three minutes to fully charge!"

Su Ming was somewhat astonished. The Celestite Hydropower Station, with its four 250,000-kilowatt generating units, already ranked among the largest hydropower stations on Earth. "Even if the energy problem is solved," Fengshou added, "The 80 -Pansy projectile accelerating to one kilometer per second, the recoil force at the moment of firing would be enough to suddenly reduce the speed of the 10,000-ton ' Pansy ' by sixteen knots; the hull and keel would likely disintegrate on the spot."

"So the muzzle of this thing... can't actually be pressed down at all?" Su Ming of another question.

He had originally hoped that the anti-aircraft guns would be laid flat—although the "Vermilion Bow" wasn't an anti-aircraft gun, there were no military courts in this other world, were there?

"That's right," Jisu affirmed. "The Vermilion Bow ' can only be fixed on land and launched vertically upwards. Otherwise, I can't imagine any platform that could withstand such a terrifying lateral recoil impact. In fact, if it weren't for the large-scale magic array on the magic side to buffer and absorb it, we would probably have had to build a super concrete base comparable to a small mountain to withstand it."

"What a pity." Su Ming changed the subject. "The Gospel Material were already completely disassembled from the statue of the Heavenly Father of the Gospel." This was done quite early. During the Battle of Sacred Mountain, Su Ming obtained the internal structural diagram of the Heavenly Father of the Gospel from Katharine. Shortly after Newman arrived at Dragon Valley, Su Ming arranged for him to remove 141K of atmospheric pressure superconductors from the statue. Now, these materials are securely stored in the core area of the "Pansy".

"I've already done a full test. It's a full thirty kilograms, all of it is a single piece of superconducting material with completely consistent properties and quality," Su Ming continued.

Inside the meeting room, a chorus of slurping sounds immediately filled the air.

"Mind your manners!" Jin Rongjia sternly reprimanded, wiping his own mouth. "Once we successfully deploy the satellite on the other side, the Sangzi Project's interdimensional communication will truly be implemented. Then, you can study these treasures as thoroughly as you like." Sangzi's experiments have revealed a delay of 2.5 to 2.7 milliseconds in interdimensional communication between Su Ming and Earth. This isn't simply a time delay, but a spatial misalignment. At the speed of electromagnetic waves, this delay covers a distance of 800 kilometers. Therefore, both sides must use multiple communication devices, forming a communication array to "net" the signal, and these devices need to be distributed over a distance of at least 800 kilometers.

To achieve this plan, on Su Ming's side in the other world, it can only be done through satellites—and multiple satellites are needed.

Even future advancements in space exploration will depend on this system. Therefore, the mass satellite launch plan has suddenly become a high-priority project.

"This is the technical solution for making superconducting tape from the Gospel Material." Jisu handed a memory card to Su Ming, "Be sure to conduct small-scale testing and verification first, in milligrams!" he instructed with concern.

"Millions? Is that enough to stuff into a tweezers?" Su Ming complained.

After the discussion was completed, he prepared to disconnect the remote connection, and everyone in the conference room went back to their respective work.

"Oh, right," Fengshou reminded her at the end, "Tell Miss Qiu to come back quickly; she needs to catch up on her missed lessons!"

"No problem." Su Ming agreed, then remembered something, "Could you make your phones a bit more sturdy? One of our customers in this other world isn't having a very good experience with them."

The three men looked at each other in disbelief. They had already used a reinforced structure, so the wheels hadn't caused any damage.

"If we're going to enhance it further, could we increase the weight a bit?" Jisu asked.

"It's alright, as long as it's durable," Su Ming replied.

As Su Ming refocused his gaze on the office at the Ruby Base, he happened to catch a glimpse of a three-legged Skeleton Pig limping in through the doorway, its empty ribcage making a soft clattering sound with its movements.

[Su Ming!] Miao Xin's voice was filled with anger, [Help me get revenge!]

"Who would dare to bully you here?" Su Ming asked, his voice filled with surprise.

[That damn Newfoundland!] Miao Xin hopped on the ground with three hooves, making a crisp clattering sound, [It snatched my left hand!]

"That's called the foreleg," Su Ming pointed out. "Also, with your strength, how could you lose to him?"

Miao Xin was extremely agile in physical combat, and this pig skeleton actually possessed genuine high-level undead power that was disproportionate to its appearance— Su Ming had spent a lot of materials to complete the spell.

Logically speaking, she could easily bully Beginner Rank- level combatant. Besides, a dog that had transformed from Quail didn't have any special abilities.

["He"?] Miao Xin caught the word, but didn't have time to delve into it right now. [It was because he had a purple baby dragon helping him; that little dragon sneezed and sent me flying!]

A purple baby dragon, Little Zisu? Then the so-called sneeze must be the breath of this baby dragon.

"Did you wander over to the medical center?" Su Ming asked, rubbing his temples.

[That's right!] Miao Xin shook her remaining right foreleg, [This is the pig you raised, go and get your revenge!]

Su Ming had been busy with work for a long time and it was time for him to take a break. He decided to visit the medical center and convey Fengshou's message to Miao Xin to return to Earth for classes.

"[No way!]" Miao Xin jumped up as if her hair had stood on end. "[You have no idea how torturous those damn theory classes are! Those textbooks, if piled up, would be taller than me!]" "[You can apply to switch to electronic textbooks.]" Su Ming suggested, snapping his fingers crisply.

[Ah!] Miao Xin's consciousness projection was severed, and the Skeleton Pig immediately collapsed to the ground.

[Focus on your lesson, you're welcome!] Su Ming waved his hand at the void.

Upon entering the medical center, Su Ming saw Miao Xin's pig's hoof bone on the lost and found counter on the first floor. He was about to reach for it, but was deterred by the teeth marks on the bone and a layer of sticky, shiny saliva.

"What brings you here today?" Stacy's voice came from the side. She was holding a whiteboard, clearly having just finished her rounds. "To retrieve Gundam parts." Su Ming gestured for Ruixiuli to find a crumpled paper bag and put the drool-covered pig's hoof bone inside. Su Ming looked around but couldn't find the Newfoundland dog. "Where's the Quail?" he asked. "Your 'pet therapy,' still not working?"

"No, the results were actually surprisingly good." Stacy's lips curled into a slight smile as she tilted her head. "Now it's the Quail ' workday—come with me!"

Su Ming followed her out of the medical center, through several factory buildings that reeked of machine oil and metal, and arrived at a silver-gray experimental building inside the base. This was where researchers skilled in alchemy conducted various tests and research.

But Stacy didn't take him upstairs; instead, she led him into the monitoring room on the first floor. On the wall, several screens were divided into smaller images, displaying the situation inside the laboratory building.

On one of the main screens, there was a human-shaped figure of Quail. He was engrossed in operating something in a laboratory filled with instruments.

Two alchemist assistants were helping him, passing him tools and materials.

"Don't go in and disturb him," Stacy said. "Quail can't handle more than two people around him right now. But you see, his condition is improving day by day."

Su Ming clapped his hands lightly, "Not bad!"

"Quail is actually very cooperative with treatment," Stacy said with a hint of relief. "He's intelligent and understands that we mean no harm. He's also eager to overcome his mental obstacles and has been working hard to adjust."

Su Ming nodded. He saw Quail processing a low-quality magic crystal, placing it into an alchemical reaction dish covered in runes. "What is he doing?" Su Ming asked.

"These were hauled back from the ' Flocculent Stone ' mine; the impurity content is alarmingly high, rendering them completely useless by conventional standards," Stacy explained. "The Quail, knowing this, volunteered to try and find ways to utilize them."

The "Flocculent Stone" mine was a crystal vein that Su Ming discovered a few days ago during a geological survey using Rainbow Drone. Unfortunately, after digging it up, he found that the mineral quality was extremely low and the crystals were filled with flocculent impurities.

"Although Quail may be very powerful, does he have any ideas or new breakthroughs for solving this difficult problem that has plagued the alchemy world for many years?" Su Ming asked.

To be chosen by the Temple of Light and confined to a basement for research, Quail's technical skills and knowledge must be exceptional. However, there are countless inferior Magic Power crystal mines in the Taya Plane, and many people have had similar ideas and devoted a great deal of energy to researching them.

If this problem were easily solved, it wouldn't have taken until now.

"Quail said the Ruby Base uses a lot of unique technologies in its production process," Stacy said. "He's been studying these technologies and believes that the key to solving this problem might lie within them!"

That's a good idea!

Su Ming nodded. "No wonder when the Quail turned into a dog, it loved to crawl into the workshop."

Stacy covered her mouth and chuckled. "The Dog Form actually solves the problem that Quail in human form are afraid to go to crowded places to observe and learn."

As she spoke, her tone turned to complaint, "Quail has been engrossed in his research lately, but that Skeleton Pig keeps bothering him! This morning I even had Little Zisu act as his guard."

Su Ming was speechless. So that's why Miao Xin was scolded by Little Zisu.

He summoned the head of the experimental area, "Give this Quail researcher full freedom and provide him with the necessary amenities!"

"Yes!" the person in charge replied.

Su Ming's gaze returned to the screen, Quail the slender figure of Quail, engrossed in his experiment. He added, "He's officially promoted to intermediate researcher, and will receive full salary according to his rank."

"Okay!" the person in charge replied.