Dealing with Tris was just a casual matter for Murphy. For him, once he understood the current “decadent” lifestyle of this Blood Vulture Grand Duchess, it was easy to persuade her to do things she was too lazy to do.
Commonly known as improving “subjective initiative.”
But Tris was also an exceptionally stubborn person.
If she didn’t want to do sothing, no matter how much Murphy urged or pressured her, he couldn’t make her lift a finger. This was a unique habit ford from years of being a slacker. With Murphy’s current influence over her, it wasn’t enough to make the Crimson Witch change more of herself for him.
But fortunately, Tris’s current interest in the little players wasn’t less than Murphy, so she was quite willing to provide so help within her capabilities to these brave folks.
And incidentally grab so “benefits” for herself in the process.
Of course, it might be more than just so. According to Lady Adele’s secret surveillance intelligence, thanks to the players’ enthusiastic “donations,” the collection in Grand Duchess Tris’s “private wine cellar” had reached an astonishing scale.
There were rumors that four “scholars” had excavated a noble’s wine cellar from beneath the ruins of the original Kadman City and presented it to Tris. It’s hard to say what the scholars got in return, but such shrewd acts of catering to her interests would obviously receive “rewards” from Tris.
Murphy didn’t care about these small matters.
Tris getting along well with the little players was sothing he wanted to see, after all, Tris was now his “assistant.”
The Governor quickly returned to his own office next door to continue what he was busy with.
When ow King ca over just now, he was writing the content for the next update, specifically the task overview for the third phase of the main quest “Dawn of Transia.”
In the current situation, issuing quests was still the most effective way for Murphy to interact with his warriors. This thing was like a command flag in his hand, always able to make the little players willing to go where Murphy wanted them to.
The vampire lord had already decided to shift the next phase of player focus from continuous fighting to territory developnt.
In another month, Transia would enter winter. The residential area of the Crimson Citadel was already in its final construction phase, followed by the collective farms and residential points in the Seicob territory.
There were still more than 4 months until the Black Disaster arrived. Murphy planned to spend 3 months completing the initial construction of the territory and the excavation and reinforcent of Transia’s southern defense line.
The last month would be spent on large-scale military training, then naturally progress the plot to the second chapter of the main storyline “Black Disaster,” and incidentally unlock that long-promised “mysterious DLC – Mystery of the Dark Mountain Range.”
When this phase arrives, the three-month closed beta test would also be declared successfully concluded. What? You’re saying the dog ga designer has finally had a change of heart and is going to start public testing?
NONONO!
Isn’t there still the inevitably prolonged internal testing to co~
These were all already planned major directions. Murphy now needed to break down these directions into each stage under the advice of Miriam’s administrative team, and appropriately adjust the players’ gaming experience with the plot changes at each stage, in order to perfectly utilize the otherworld warriors’ strength and wisdom where needed.
However, today seed destined to be particularly busy. Just as Murphy had finished typing several hundred words and was preparing to take a break, his office door was knocked again. řÅΝŏᛒÊś
“Co in.”
The lord stretched his body and raised his head, only to see little Countess Sharon push open the door.
This little countess of the Seicob territory had already spent several days in the Crimson Citadel. She was preparing for her engineering shop that would open in the city, and before the shop was ready, she set up a stall outside her room in the Blood Vulture Halls.
Players currently had a strong interest in firearms and engineering items, so these days Murphy often saw groups of little players coming to browse and pick items at Sharon’s stall.
Although Murphy didn’t know how much profit little Sharon made from this, judging from her glowing face and energetic stride, her “contraband” business was probably doing well.
Because Murphy noticed that Sharon had already hired two eloquent girls with so understanding of engineering to help her sell things.
“How are you adapting to life in the Crimson Citadel, Countess Sharon?”
Murphy smiled and invited her to sit in the chair. She grinned on her chubby face and waved her fully recovered left hand, saying loudly:
“Your city is great, Lord Murphy.
The people here are very energetic and they are very hardworking. Your warriors are also very fun to be around. Although they don’t know much about the way of engineering, everyone seems able to express so strange but quite reasonable insights.
I’m already preparing to try making sothing called a ‘microwave’ and ‘shadowless lamp’ based on their suggestions.
But that’s not what I want to discuss with you.
It’s about my apprentice, Mr. ‘Red Loyalty’. He has completed the design of that ‘otherworld style’ weapon you previously ordered, and would like to invite you to receive and appreciate it.”
“Oh? So fast?”
Murphy blinked and stood up, saying:
“But what I wanted wasn’t just a handcrafted unique weapon, that would be aningless for my territory. What I need is a production line. In my estimation, Brother Loyalty would need at least 2 months to complete this task.”
“Yes, originally it would take that long, but I helped too!”
Little Countess Sharon grinned.
She proudly patted her honor student chest and said:
“He was only responsible for providing unique ideas and approaches and giving reference designs. The work of modifying those small machines sent by the Blood Pact Knights was all done by , to be honest it wasn’t difficult.
Because the basic design principles of two different styles of firearms are consistent, it’s just that they have different firing thods due to using completely different ammunition.
In this case, we only needed to slightly modify certain parts of the production line, but ammunition production is still a problem.
Although I’ve done my best to improve that spherical bullet production line, the current output simply can’t keep up.”
“So you’re saying I can quickly have many otherworld rifles, but my soldiers will have to use ammunition sparingly?”
Murphy asked.
Sharon, following behind him, nodded vigorously and said:
“Yes, until we get more advanced production lines with higher output and finish modifying them, your soldiers won’t be able to freely conduct live-fire training. This is a problem that can’t be solved with technique, we can only wait until the Carpe family returns the production lines they took away.”
“Mm, those things are already on the way.”
Murphy consoled:
“Yesterday I received word from the Carpe family, they said they’ve designated a noble lady to be fully responsible for the installation and operation of the production lines in Transia. And I, I plan to appoint you as the person in charge of my first armant factory.”
“? I can’t do it.”
Little Sharon spread her Blood Wings and hovered in the air, walking forward with Murphy while waving her hands and explaining:
“I’ve already accepted an invitation from the ‘Crimson Hamr and Sickle Group’ to return to the ruins of Seicob City with your warriors in a few days. They want to hunt for treasures there, while I need to retrieve so things I left behind when I fled, as well as so ancestral items belonging to the Seicore family that were left in the city.
Just in ti, Uncle Valand has also recruited over 100 new knight recruits, and he will join in conducting new recruit riding training with them on the plains of the Countess of Seicob’s territory.
I estimate this process will take at least half a month, at most one month.
We’ll return before the first snow falls, so I suggest you appoint soone else trustworthy to help you manage the armant factory. Actually, I think my apprentice Mr. Loyalty would be quite suitable.
He has many amazing ideas.
And he has an extrely profound understanding of otherworld weapons, and also has exceptional talent for steam engineering. He learns these things much faster than I did back then.
Most importantly, he’s very loyal!”
Little Sharon shook her head and said:
“I think for soone who would write ‘loyalty’ into their own na, being entrusted with more responsibilities is what they desire.”
“He is indeed very loyal.”
Murphy muttered:
“But I think the object of his loyalty may not necessarily be Transia. However, what you say makes sense. If we want to make otherworld weapons the foundation of our army building, then appointing an otherworld weapons master as the person in charge would be very appropriate.
I’ll consider your suggestion.”
The two chatted back and forth as they left the Blood Vulture Halls and headed towards an open space at the edge of the city’s outer camp.
Compared to the young lady who had only recently started changing her personality, little Sharon was more naturally familiar. This might be related to her experiences over the past two years. In any case, when together with this optimistic and strong little one, Murphy’s mood would also be lighter.
Their current posture looked exactly like a big brother taking his little sister out for a walk. Not only did Murphy think so, but little Sharon also felt that this pleasant way of getting along was completely different from the cold deanor of vampires that she had imagined before. Perhaps it was because both Murphy and Tris were very nice vampires?
It feels like she encountered so strange things while struggling to survive.
Today was a very cloudy day in the Crimson Citadel. Layer upon layer of clouds blocked the sunlight, sparing Murphy and little Sharon from having to endure the sun’s tornt, allowing them to fly quickly under the dim daylight.
When Murphy and Sharon arrived here, Lady Adele and Maxim were already testing the “sample weapons” presented by Brother Loyalty.
Brother Loyalty was a quite extre guy in various aspects.
Murphy had already noticed the restless side hidden in his personality when he was still part of the “tasting party.” Since mixing into this circle, he had been tirelessly discussing so exciting topics that couldn’t pass censorship in most places with other “enthusiasts” on the forum.
And after actually entering the ga, Brother Loyalty quickly advanced this interest to the stage of actually getting hands-on.
Although Murphy only required him to “hand-craft” one firearm to pass, on the table at this “temporary shooting range” were neatly arranged several rifles and various handguns of different shapes.
There was even a “Black Star” that made Murphy’s eye twitch, with even the pentagram decoration on the grip made exquisitely lifelike.
Murphy wasn’t a handicraftsman or an artisan, so he completely couldn’t understand how these weapons with complex structures could be made in today’s environnt where everything needed to be rebuilt.
Without machine tools, was it using primitive mold casting?
But where did you get the molds made with such specific paraters that obviously couldn’t be found online!
Hey, you really can hand-craft everything as a fitter!
But don’t go too far, Transia isn’t lawless either!
“Bang”
Maxim, wearing leather armor, held a classic 98K sniper rifle and fired a shot at a target 30 ters away.
The spinning pointed bullet flew out of the barrel. With the vampire’s supernatural dynamic visual capture, Maxim could clearly see the bullet spinning at high speed maintaining a quite accurate trajectory as it hit the target’s head.
And he could be certain this gun hadn’t been enchanted with any spirit energy techniques. This made Maxim quite satisfied as he pulled the bolt, ejecting the unfamiliar shell casing, and with the help of the little player assistant beside him, pressed in a second pointed bullet.
This ti aiming at a target 100 ters away.
But when it cos to shooting, Maxim was truly an amateur.
The monster lord obviously subscribed to the “bayonets are for real n, bullets are for fools” theory and was a hack-and-slash type character. However, he also knew that for ordinary soldiers, a good gun gave more sense of security than a sword in their hands during large-scale battles.
At this ti, Maxim was using vampire supernatural perception to disguise himself as a “marksman,” but Adele beside him was the real expert in this field.
Years of archery practice plus the shooting talent bonus from being half-elf ant Adele almost didn’t need to aim, wielding two classic Colt revolvers going bang bang bang in wild shooting, basically no possibility of missing from distances of 5 ters to 250 ters.
Murphy didn’t participate.
Although he looked like an otherworlder, he actually knew very well about the performance of these “otherworld style weapons.” He believed that if Brother Loyalty dared to let him co inspect them, it ant this guy was very confident in the performance of his hand-crafted weapons.
Little Countess Sharon was quite excited as she introduced to Murphy on the side:
“When I first saw these weapons and their special ammunition, I also doubted whether using pure dwarf gunpowder could give them adequate killing power, but the fact proved that after adding the magical rifling, these bullets far surpass combustion gold pellets driven by strong kinetic energy in terms of accuracy.
Most importantly, these bullets can have their destructive power enhanced through controlling the powder charge and upgrading the black powder, it’s really a very wonderful approach.
Completely different from the original design of dwarf firearms but equally effective.
And although it’s relatively difficult in terms of handcrafting, when I saw the bullet production line design drawings that Brother Loyalty gave , I have to admit, once such a production line is manufactured, then mass producing these pointed bullets will no longer be a problem troubling us.”
Murphy nodded repeatedly like an “amateur,” thereby deepening his image as an “NPC” who knows nothing.
This disguise had already beco his instinct, just like his catchphrase of occasionally saying “I don’t understand what you’re saying” or “otherworld language is really hard to understand” in front of players.
But after little Countess Sharon finished speaking, Lady Adele put down the gun in her hand and pointed out the biggest problem with these “otherworld weapons.”
“The accuracy is excellent, but the destructive power is too weak.”
Adele drew her crimson hand cannon from her waist, loaded a special combustion gold pellet into the chamber, raised her hand and fired. With a bang, the target at 150 ters completely shattered into pieces.
While at the sa distance, a pointed bullet could at most make a hole.
She demonstrated to Murphy with actual results:
“The addition of combustion gold powder can make ordinary spherical bullets blow up a gnoll’s skull at close range, but these pointed bullets can hardly do that.
I admit they are excellent in terms of killing unarmored targets, however once combat escalates to the supernatural realm, this kind of ammunition that can’t conveniently and quickly add combustion gold powder loses its aning of existence.
Although I’m not a chanic or engineer, I also know that it’s precisely combustion gold that has allowed steam engineering to rapidly develop to where it is today.
Although most combustion gold mines on this continent are monopolized by dwarves and halflings, we can’t give up this kind of weapon that can turn the rotten into the miraculous because of this.”
“Hehe, Mortal wisdom!”
Little Countess Sharon had learned this “catchphrase” from sowhere, making Murphy’s eye twitch again. Hey, don’t learn weird things from them, you little one!
“Let’s open Lady Adele’s eyes, my apprentice!”
Sharon snorted.
As an honor student, she certainly had so aversion to this vampire with an indecent figure like E-Sister, but at this ti it was more of a rebuttal at the technical level.
At Sharon’s command, Brother Loyalty chuckled as he picked up a small box from the table and handed it to Lady Adele with his cool yet creepy black chanical arm.
She took it and opened it to find ten pointed bullets marked with red paint inside. Just from the appearance, they looked no different from ordinary bullets.
She took one and loaded it into the Colt revolver’s chamber, then pulled the trigger again.
This ti the explosive sound of the bullet firing was even jarring to Murphy.
And the pointed bullet that originally had far inferior killing power to combustion gold pellets this ti had faster velocity and stronger kinetic energy when leaving the barrel, penetrating through two trees in succession beyond the extre range before stopping.
“Is this kind of destructive power enough to blow off a gnoll’s head?”
Little Countess Sharon asked with hands on her hips:
“Forget gnolls, even a bugbear’s skull would be penetrated with one shot. If aid well, even a troll’s eyeball would be blown apart.
Who told you these new bullets can’t add combustion gold powder?
We just don’t need to waste it on ordinary bullets.”
“That’s right, for new bullets that focus on penetration power, simply increasing the caliber in the most basic and crude way can solve their problem of insufficient destructive power.”
Brother Loyalty beside her also said seriously:
“We just don’t have suitable tools right now, otherwise I could show you a big baby called an ‘anti-tank rifle.’ Um, of course, following the suggestion of my respected ntor Countess Sharon, we will rena it as ‘Ogre Hunter.’
Besides increasing the caliber, we also have multiple types of ammunition available for selection!
For example, sothing called a ‘gun grenade.’ I can guarantee you that even if filled with just ordinary black powder, it has killing power comparable to combustion gold pellets.
And also, I prepared this!”
Brother Loyalty grabbed a brass “big tube” from his spirit bag, proudly shouldered it, and gripped the firing handle.
Under Lord Murphy’s expression that was about to crack, he announced loudly:
“I call this excellent and efficient anti-infantry and equipnt weapon ‘Iron Fist of Transia.'”
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