242: Chapter 240 Appraisal of Price, Functions and Progress of the Magic Sniper Rifle

Upon hearing the Director's request, Zhang Mu felt a secret surge of joy.

He would be heading to the Royal Capital soon. Considering the purity and loyalty of the First Army, he couldn't expand the number of Soldiers for the time being.

The only way to currently enhance their combat strength was to strengthen the power of their weapons.

Rhenium was a critically scarce material.

Although Hua Country's own reserves of this rare metal weren't abundant, with the addition of what Ying Country had, it would be enough to manufacture magic-conducting weapons for the current number of Soldiers.

Zhang Mu nodded calmly and summoned Kunpeng to open the light gate, sending the Director out to pick up the people.

He then returned to Qingfeng Hall and took out his tools to upgrade Senior Brother Zhou's Core.

In the past two days, while the old Academicians were talking to him, they noticed that Senior Brother Zhou would occasionally space out.

They thought he was annoyed by their constant pestering, but since it concerned the nation's future, they had to press on despite their embarrassment.

In truth, it wasn't that at all. It was the puppet's Core; because Zhang Mu was limited by his low skill level, he couldn't make it refined enough.

But letting it drag on wasn't a solution either. It would be truly farcical if the puppet's Core overloaded and started smoking on the spot one day.

The tricky part was that Zhang Mu's Puppet Art had remained the same during this period, and he still couldn't produce a Core with superior performance.

After pondering for a few days, he took a different approach and installed an additional Core inside the puppet's body.

Although this required modifying the energy transmission circuits, it was better than letting a malfunction occur.

After tinkering with Senior Brother Zhou's back for half an hour, Zhang Mu straightened up, closed the back cover, and activated the puppet.

Sensing the spiritual light in the puppet's eyes become more agile, Zhang Mu put away his tools and instantly arrived at Geoffrey's laboratory to inquire about the research and development progress of the magic guidance sniper rifles and even magic guidance mortars.

"My Lord City Lord." Wearing a white lab coat, Geoffrey moved aside the glass cover of a display case and walked over, holding a sniper rifle that looked eighty percent similar to a barrett with both hands.

"Believe me, My Lord City Lord, every warrior will love it."

"You've made a prototype in just a few days? Don't they need to rest?"

"Your generosity inspires them." He smiled. "By luxuriously using magic potions as their staple food, they won't feel the slightest bit of fatigue even if they work twenty-four hours a day.

And during non-wartime, I never make them work overtime."

"magic potions can indeed greatly replenish physical energy and maintain mental excitement, but they cannot restore the exhaustion of the soul. In the future, unless there's a mobilization, they should eat more food crops normally."

"As you command."

After checking on the workers, Zhang Mu took the sniper rifle and weighed it in his hands first: "It's easy for a Professional to use, but it's probably a bit heavy for ordinary people."

Geoffrey was somewhat dissatisfied with his evaluation and began to argue excitedly.

He believed that whether in terms of its own functions or strategic positioning, a sniper rifle was not suitable for frontal combat by large army groups.

Even if you fired until the barrel smoked, would adding area-of-effect magic be as efficient at killing enemies as a single thermobaric bomb?

So in his vision, the magic guidance sniper rifle should not stray from its original purpose—sniping High-tier Professionals and generals of the enemy army, drowning the enemy in an atmosphere of panic where they could be killed at any moment by a bullet fired from the shadows, until their spirits broke and their morale collapsed.

In other words, special operations and decapitation tactics.

If it was purely about killing efficiency, Geoffrey stated that they shouldn't bother researching magic guidance sniper rifles and should instead immediately develop magic guidance thermobaric bombs.

And what was the essence of special operations? Small elite units acting independently with high mobility and high concealment.

Under such a premise, the Soldiers who met the criteria naturally couldn't be ordinary people.

Naturally, the weight of the sniper rifle was not an issue at all.

Zhang Mu raised his hand to block the spit flying at his face and explained helplessly, "What are you getting so excited for? I was just speaking casually.

Besides, there are usually High-tier Professionals on the front lines, right?

We still need snipers to deal with them."

The battle against the Kingdom, although a great victory for their side—trading over 6,000 for 100,000 was a brilliant result by any standard.

But it also exposed their own shortcomings.

For instance, thermal weapons do not distinguish between friend and foe.

Reality isn't a 2D shooting game where bullets and shells can't harm teammates.

The outcome for anyone hit is the same.

This great war had relied on the advantage of information asymmetry.

It was undeniable that the Kingdom's commander had the military capability and battlefield adaptability to identify one of the weaknesses of thermal weapons—that they only reached full power when enemies were densely packed—in just a single day.

But ultimately, he knew too little about thermal weapons.

When Zhang Mu was reviewing the battle with Domit, he asked: if the enemy army had sent all their Professionals at top speed to charge into our positions regardless of the artillery fire, and the Soldiers from both sides became entangled, how would you respond?

Bombard the ground with mortars? Drop thermobaric bombs?

That would lead to a court-martial, even though the Saul Continent had no such institution.

If the Kingdom had used that tactic in time, the First Army would have surely been defeated.

Zhang Mu had worried about this at the start of the war; fortunately, the opponent hadn't realized it.

But he couldn't ignore the vulnerability because of that.

He estimated that the Kingdom's commander must have thought of this during the retreat.

Therefore, once Zhang Mu learned that Geoffrey's magic guidance sniper rifle research had begun, he immediately gave it his attention and full support.

If the magic guidance sniper rifle could break through the defenses of High-tier Professionals, and multiple combat squads were formed based on this, it would be impossible for the enemy to use elites to penetrate the First Army's positions and start a massacre in the future.

Muzzles protruding from bushes, lush foliage, and inconspicuous grass would easily harvest their lives.

Zhang Mu held the gun in a standard posture, his right eye close to the scope: "What's the specific performance? What functions were added? Has the lethality been tested? Especially regarding armor penetration."

This 'armor penetration' didn't mean actual armor, but rather the Magic Shields of mages and the hardened skin of knights.

Geoffrey turned to get a piece of paper from his desk drawer and returned: "I've designed two firing modes for the magic guidance sniper rifle.

First is the magic guidance part; I've equipped it with two magic Cores and one Mental Energy Core.

Currently, three sets of magic circles are inscribed: Swamp Art, Wind Sword Art, and Thunder Sword Art, providing a preliminary tactical combination for sniping Professionals.

The other mode preserves the kinetic firing module to be used when encountering ordinary enemy Soldiers during a march, which can save mana."

It was precisely because of the two modes that the magic guidance sniper rifle was somewhat overweight.

"The framework is basically fine. Just develop it along these lines."

After saying that, Zhang Mu rubbed his brow with a slight headache.

There were many magic circles in the Puppet Art skill, but most were low-level magic and couldn't pose enough of a threat to High-tier Professionals.

As for the few high-level magic circles, Zhang Mu currently couldn't inscribe them.

Lacking the templates he provided, the munitions factory couldn't use engraving machines to replicate them for assembly-line mass production.

"Puppet Art levels up so slowly..." he muttered.

"My Lord City Lord, what did you say?"

"Nothing."

Coming back to his senses, Zhang Mu instructed: "Try to add new functions. As for the defect of the low-level magic circles, I'll solve that."

"As you command, My Lord City Lord."

"Also, remember the other magic guidance... let's leave it at that for now."

Mid-sentence, Zhang Mu received a Mental Energy fluctuation from Senior Brother Zhou. The transport plane had arrived at Yuzhang Mountain, and the Academicians were bringing materials to Qingfeng Hall to have their prices appraised.

Activating the Shadow Technique, with a slight thought, he vanished from the spot.

...

Qingfeng Hall.

The three old Academicians walked in front, with Ye Ming a step behind. Behind them were two Soldiers carrying metal boxes.

Crossing the threshold, the old men walked toward the long counter and called out, "Mr. Zhou, the items have arrived. We'll trouble you to help us check the prices."

Senior Brother Zhou's half-closed eyelids lifted as he looked at the open metal boxes on the table, scanning the various items piled inside.

Since it was just for pricing, there was naturally no need to bring everything; bringing one of each type as a sample was enough.

He didn't make a sound, and his calm expression gave nothing away, making everyone feel a bit anxious.

The two Soldiers were fine; they only knew they were responsible for transporting a batch of materials into the "World" and didn't know the specifics, so they weren't worried about anything.

At this moment, they stood straight. Although they were very curious about the Mountain Gate where immortals lived, they didn't look around, only glancing at their surroundings out of the corners of their eyes.

Ye Ming was quite steady, his gaze fixed on Senior Brother Zhou, waiting for him to finish the appraisal.

The three old men were a bit nervous, but having experienced many storms, their expressions didn't show it, though their hands were clenched inside their jacket pockets.

Time passed quietly, and for some reason, Senior Brother Zhou remained silent.

Their hearts rose into their throats, but they didn't dare to rush him, so they could only look around aimlessly to distract themselves.

After a while, there was really nothing left to see, as they had been to Qingfeng Hall many times, so their gazes moved back to Senior Brother Zhou's face.

"Everyone." He looked up and smiled.

Everyone, who had been nearly suffocating in the oppressive atmosphere, let out a breath.

The tense string in their minds loosened slightly, and an old man asked hurriedly, "How is it?"

"Hmm... these." His index finger lightly tapped a stun gun, then poked a high-precision mechanical watch next to it. "You seem to call them... industrial products?"

"Yes," Ye Ming replied.

"Industrial products have the lowest value."

Hearing this, Ye Ming was stunned for a few seconds before saying, "Senior Brother Zhou, it's true that industrial products are replicable, but these are all current cutting-edge technologies. Even we cannot mass-produce them ourselves."

Senior Brother Zhou chuckled. "As far as I know, in today's world, as long as a technology is born, it will sooner or later be produced in large quantities unless restricted by resources. Is that not so?"

"That... yes, but being the first itself has value. Having it now versus having it a hundred years from now are completely different concepts."

"To the Mountain Gate, time is not precious."

The three old men, who were about to speak up for Ye Ming, slowly stopped their movements.

That's right. Because of the limited lifespan of humans, they subconsciously believed that time was expensive, even priceless.

But at the Mountain Gate, powerful immortals lived for hundreds of years at will, and there was even a Kunpeng that was at least several thousand years old.

Being reminded by Senior Brother Zhou, they finally remembered that they were facing existences that transcended common sense.

An old man smiled bitterly. "May I ask, Mr. Zhou, who in the Mountain Gate... has lived the longest?"

"The Sect Master."

"For how long?"

"I do not know."

Hearing this, the old man fell silent.

The answer "I do not know" wasn't meant to hide or cover anything up. It was simply that the Sect Master had lived for too long; Senior Brother Zhou, who was only a few hundred years old, naturally wouldn't know.

Putting aside his internal reflections and envy for longevity, he asked, "Then among the things we brought, which have high value?"

"Hmm..." Senior Brother Zhou reached into the box and rummaged for a while, pulling out a peanut-sized metal block. "This item is acceptable."

Rhenium?

The four of them looked at each other in bewilderment.

To be honest, although rhenium was rare, the fact that it was the most valuable was a bit beyond their expectations.

In their minds, as a sect that had existed for at least ten thousand years, the Mountain Gate shouldn't lack various minerals.

Ye Ming asked in confusion, "Rhenium is also refined by humans. Uh, although Blue Star's reserves are limited, it's inexhaustible in outer space.

Immortal Xu can cross space physically. For the Mountain Gate, it is theoretically also a mass-producible industrial product. Why is there a difference in price?"

"Everyone, there seems to be a misunderstanding."

Senior Brother Zhou waved his hand, and wooden chairs from the corner floated behind them.

Once they were seated, he explained, "The Mountain Gate has no need for anything from your country.

As for the Mountain Gate's trade with you, first, it is because of Martial Uncle's orders, which we disciples dare not disobey.

Second, because the gate is sealed, the people within the sect do not often come here to collect supplies.

I have sat here in Qingfeng Hall for hundreds of years, which is quite boring. It is rare for you all to come, so I thought of finding some amusement."

Ye Ming frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "Sorry, Senior Brother Zhou, I don't quite understand."

"Hahaha... the so-called rarity makes a thing precious. It's not for the Mountain Gate, it's for you!"

The group felt as if an electric current had passed through their bodies; they suddenly understood.

To put it simply, the Mountain Gate wasn't looking for profit; it was "poverty alleviation."

Based on this, the Mountain Gate had given a preferential policy—judging whether an item was precious based on *their* conditions.

Both sides were on the same planet, but the other side possessed military and exploration capabilities far beyond their own. In other words, whatever you could dig, I could dig too, and faster than you.

This couldn't even be called preferential treatment; it was a gift.

The four of them stood up together. "Thank you."

"No need for such formalities." Senior Brother Zhou pressed his hand down in front of him, and an invisible force pushed everyone back into the wooden chairs. "Leave the items with me for now. I will list the manifest shortly. You all can come to collect it later."

Hearing this, the group rose, bowed in thanks, and turned to return to the small courtyard.

The Director and others were already waiting. Seeing them return, they came forward to ask how it went.

Ye Ming briefly recounted the events, and the group then sat around the stone table to discuss.

"You all understood Mr. Zhou's meaning just now. To exchange for stones, we must use things defined as rare by humans."

"Industrial products with recyclable manufacturing materials won't work. Everything from material selection to the finished product must meet the conditions mentioned by Old Sun."

The Director pondered for a moment and said, "But the problem is, ores with high output aren't valuable, and the rare ones... we don't have many either.

Take rhenium, for instance. How much of that stuff is there in the global reserves?"

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this.

The fact was indeed as he said.

After a while, Ye Ming's eyes suddenly lit up. "I understand!"

"Understand what?"

"Immortal Xu is telling us not to be complacent and restricted."

Old Sun reacted quickly and immediately understood. "Go to space?"

"Exactly!" Ye Ming was slightly excited. "Director, do you remember the guess I told you about?"

The Director thought for a moment with a strained face and ventured, "Immortal Xu values our future?"

"Yes, I can't think of any other reason besides that."

"If that's the case," said the old man sitting next to Old Sun, "the direction of the things we exchange for is also clear: focus on aviation."

"Then national defense..."

"You old fellow, not to mention Immortal Xu, just with Kunpeng tumbling in the sea of clouds every day, who would dare to cause us trouble?"

"Uh, true."

"Alright, it's decided then. Little Xu."

"Here." The Director hurriedly stood up.

"Contact the country. Keep a small amount of rhenium for emergencies, and bring all the rest here."

"Yes! I'll get on it immediately!"