Chapter 416 - 279: Paper to Steel, Glue to Weld (Part 2)

Chapter 416: Chapter 279: Paper to Steel, Glue to Weld (Part 2)

Thousands of tiny, sand-like pellets burst from the bullet. Floating in the air, they instantly triggered dozens of explosive Magic Arrays that bombarded the Earthworm.

The shot was far more effective than Zog had anticipated.

He’d imagined it might pierce the Earthworm or shatter its carapace, but he never expected to blow the poor creature into a messy pulp.

That wasn’t an exaggeration.

After dozens of explosions, the two-meter-long giant worm was like a watermelon dropped from a high-rise—smashed to smithereens, its guts splattering everywhere.

The display of power left all the spectating researchers speechless.

After a moment, Yuno regained his composure and asked, "You call this thing a gun?"

But, out of professional instinct, the chief researcher was more concerned with how such an effect was achieved. "What in the world is that bullet you used?"

In his judgment, the bullet had to be something special. A single bullet enchanted by an Enchanting Mage could achieve a similar effect.

But that wasn’t a practical solution for them. Having a Mage enchant bullets one by one would be far too expensive.

Zog, of course, realized this as well. He asked, "Your bullets aren’t individually enchanted, are they?"

"They’re not," Peter replied. "I never took any Enchantment-related courses in night school. This just uses knowledge of Inscriptions that I learned in my introductory Magic class."

"Inscriptions?"

"That’s right." Peter took out another bullet and carefully disassembled its tip.

"The tip of the bullet is inscribed with a Rune that makes it shatter on impact, which is why it bursts open when it hits a target."

Zog understood. So it was a shotgun shell disguised as a slug.

Peter continued, "I originally planned to fill the bullet with something like iron pellets to increase the area of impact, but the power would have been too low. However, I learned in class that a few basic Inscriptions can form a Magic Array with a single effect. So I kept trying to figure out how to make the ejected pellets carry the necessary Inscriptions and form the array."

At this, Zog recalled that the bullet they had just fired wasn’t filled with iron pellets. It contained something much smaller, and in far greater numbers.

Zog had a good idea of how Peter had done it. "If you can’t control the position of the ejected pellets, you just increase their number so that some of them are bound to land in the right place to trigger the Magic Array?"

"Yes, that’s exactly it," Peter said excitedly. "I discovered that the discarded Magic Energy Stone fragments from the Factory were small enough and numerous enough to carry the Inscriptions. A simple Magic Array doesn’t require the Inscriptions to be perfectly aligned, as long as their relative positions are close enough. So, just as you said, some are bound to trigger it."

Peter confirmed Zog’s theory.

So, what ultimately dealt the damage wasn’t the bullet itself. The bullet was just a delivery system, responsible for getting the Magic Array onto the target and then activating it to land the strike.

’What a cunning approach.’

"The only thing is, the process of making the bullets is incredibly time-consuming. I’ve only managed to make five so far. If there were a more efficient way to add the Inscriptions, we could mass-produce them," Peter said, pointing out the current bottleneck.

"That can be done. If it’s just a single Inscription, a junior Enchanting Mage could inscribe a whole box of fragments with a single Casting," one of the spectating Enchanting Mages commented.

"And the materials for the gun itself?"

Zog could tell just by looking that the gun wasn’t made of any proper materials, but he asked anyway just to be sure.

"It’s all cobbled together from materials I salvaged from the construction site," Peter answered.

’A junker’s moment of glory.’

’Construction site scrap, factory waste, and a process that allows for mass production... this spelled a future of limitless potential.’

Zog immediately started assigning tasks. "Alright, you’re not an intern anymore. As of today, Peter, you are one of the lead researchers for the Shenke Affiliated Institute’s firearms division. Someone will be in touch with you about your salary, research funding, and workspace."

Then he turned to Yuno. "Does the institute have any spare personnel? And I don’t mean interns."

Yuno shook his head. The Shenke Affiliated Institute was so short-staffed they wished they could split one person in two.

In fact, they had tried. They had Doudou create duplicates of the main researchers, but the plan ultimately fell through. The duplicates’ thoughts and ideas often diverged from the originals’, sometimes leading to serious disagreements and causing project efficiency to drop.

The brain is a marvelous thing, isn’t it?

"In that case," Zog said, "I’ll figure out a way to transfer some people over from Twin Tower City. I’ll also get you some Mold Mages. These bullets have huge potential, and they should be capable of more than just explosions. Also, that military enthusiast forum—Peter, you’ve had your eye on some of those users. Just tell me who you think has promise, and I’ll poach them to be your colleagues."

In short: provide all necessary resources, optimize Peter’s gun, create a mass-produced model, and maintain strict confidentiality.

While this weapon couldn’t be considered a divine artifact and was nowhere near as effective as a High Tier Magic Item, its strength lay in being cheap and plentiful.

A Legendary Weapon was certainly tempting, but for the price of one, you could probably produce a thousand Magic Shotguns.

Magic Shells—that was the temporary name Zog had given this type of gun.

One versus a thousand... it was hard to say which was truly more powerful.

Once the design team was established, Zog laid out some additional requirements.

For instance, all of the gun’s parts needed to be detachable and replaceable. Durability was a key metric; it had to withstand hot and cold weather, sand and water exposure, vibrations, and impacts. The more rugged, the better.

He also mentioned the targeting system. With an ideal effective range of two hundred meters, aiming with the naked eye would be difficult. Then there was the magazine; it needed to hold at least three to five rounds. That way, when facing Magical Beasts—or whatever else they might encounter in the future—there would be a margin for error if a shot missed.