After returning to his rented apartment from the military management zone, Xing Chen immediately pulled out his phone and entered the game group number Yu Bo gave him.
After answering a series of verification questions, he successfully joined the group chat.
The group chat wasn't big, with only about twenty-something members, and half of them were offline.
“Welcome, newcomer. Send a picture to show your strength.” The group owner, Aviation Smith, seemed to be glued to his phone twenty-four hours a day, immediately coming out to welcome Xing Chen.
Send a picture, what kind of picture?
Xing Chen glanced at Theresa; the girl felt his gaze and turned her head.
Then, Xing Chen snapped a picture and sent it to the group.
“Oh oh oh, you’re so strong, brother.” The administrator, War Beast Deployed, suddenly popped up, “As expected of someone introduced by that adult.”
That adult? Who?
Wait, he seemed to have realized something.
Theresa also leaned her head over, wondering what Xing Chen had been taking pictures of.
“Brother, you smell so good.” A netizen named Theresa’s Pero happened to pop up at this moment.
Xing Chen immediately fell into a very awkward situation.
“Xing Chen, why is his name… uh… my dog?”
“Actually, your name is quite common in games here, and as for Pero, it probably has nothing to do with Terra.”
“I see,” Theresa easily trusted those close to her; the Seer was like that, and Xing Chen was also like that.
After explaining, Xing Chen was about to close the group chat, who knew if more outrageous things would pop up later.
Just then, an administrator with the ID “That Adult” appeared, telling everyone in the group to be more reserved and not let the newcomer misunderstand.
When That Adult spoke, the online group members immediately became much more sensible.
“Xing Chen, aren’t you going to change your group nickname?”
“Okay, okay, I’ll change it right away.”
With that, Xing Chen changed his name to War Designer.
Xing Chen’s purpose in joining the group was clear: to extract useful technologies for Terra from these true geniuses.
Or to disseminate the technological ideas he had acquired on Terra.
As for connections, did he, a person who wouldn’t live for many more years, still need to care about such things?
“Does anyone know how to build a missile engine?”
After Xing Chen typed, the group members did not immediately reply. This was understandable; they were all people with important jobs in reality and couldn't always be staring at their phones chatting with group members.
So, he took Theresa and went for a walk outside.
Mainly, they went to the department store to see if there were any military model toys for sale.
However, after circling the mall, the two of them couldn't find the models they wanted.
“Things related to the military probably wouldn’t be sold directly like this.” Theresa saw that Xing Chen was quite tired from shopping and wanted to persuade him to go back.
“Don’t underestimate our enthusiasm for military equipment.” Although he was buying it for Theresa, it also fulfilled his childhood wish.
After leaving the mall, Xing Chen pulled Theresa towards the pedestrian street.
Soon, Theresa discovered a place where children gathered.
A simple (but incredibly difficult) ring toss game, where parents brought their children, or couples just threw rings around and got some trendy trinkets.
But occasionally, high-value collectibles would be given out here, such as models of fifth-generation fighters or toy hypersonic missiles.
“Xing Chen, should we play a couple of rounds?” Similar mini-games existed on Terra, but Theresa had never played them.
More importantly, the person she liked was beside her, and she wanted to show off a little.
After all, in the first two hundred years of her life, she had never been in a relationship. The Sarkaz of Kazdel also didn't seem to have a tradition of dating; everyone seemed to just live together.
Except for rare encounters like a young mercenary and a stranded merchant girl — a cliché story, but one that was hard to come by.
Powerful people, whether physically or intellectually, should be more popular, she thought.
“Of course.” With that, Xing Chen took out money and bought several metal rings from the boss, letting Theresa throw them for fun.
She first threw a few at close range to get a feel for it, then started challenging the ultimate grand prize.
However, she threw several in a row, and even if they landed, they would slip to the ground.
Xing Chen took this opportunity to glance at the chat group; no one had replied to him.
Could it be that his question was too boring for them?
Meanwhile, Theresa quickly ran out of the rings Xing Chen bought for her. The people around, seeing her waste all the rings on the grand prize, began to mock her subtly.
“Xing Chen, let’s go…”
The girl was a little disappointed. Xing Chen glanced at the crowd in front of the stall and then scanned a QR code to buy her some more.
Naturally, Theresa failed again. For a moment, she began to doubt if there was something wrong with her abilities.
Xing Chen handed her a few more rings, but this time, he leaned close to Theresa’s ear and whispered something to her.
Theresa suddenly understood. This time, she became very serious about throwing the rings, rubbing them constantly in her hands.
Many people, hearing about a clueless person here, also came to watch the show.
After rubbing the rings enough, Theresa threw one, and it perfectly landed on the most difficult missile model.
Before the boss could even figure out what had happened, Theresa struck again, landing a ring on the fighter jet toy on the other side.
“Xing Chen, I got it.”
“Mm, Theresa is amazing.”
Afterward, on the way back, seeing that there were few people around, Theresa quietly asked,
“Xing Chen, how did you know that ring wouldn’t fit over that prize?”
“They’re just earning a bit of hard-earned money, making kids and couples happy.” Xing Chen placed the model carefully in the car and shared his thoughts with Theresa, “It’s like fighting a war; many victories and defeats are actually decided off the battlefield.”
“So that’s why you had me make so many preparations?” Theresa understood quickly, “But always cheating isn’t very good, is it?”
“So we also cheated a little, by making that ring a bit bigger,” Xing Chen hadn’t intended to make it difficult for them; earning money isn’t easy these days, “You see, you lost so many times, but you also got it back by cheating. It’s normal for war to have wins and losses; the key is how to win the last round.”
Theresa nodded; she had experienced this firsthand. No matter how much she won before, she lost the last time.
“But aren’t you afraid she’ll come and hit you? If I weren’t with you…”
“I’m not worried at all, okay? Look at how many people were standing around when you were throwing the rings.”
“But they were just watching the show.”
“That’s true, but what the boss did did indeed harm their interests. It’s just that the loss wasn’t big enough to get angry about. Some things don’t weigh much until you put them on a scale, then they can weigh a thousand pounds. If we started it, what would they do?”
Theresa fell into thought and quickly understood Xing Chen’s meaning.
Back at the rented apartment, the two of them unpacked the models and checked their condition.
“Wait, these aren’t scaled-down models.” Xing Chen didn’t know the actual dimensions of these items, but through some data and his own estimates, he found that they didn’t match the sizes of these toys.
“Then can’t they be used?” Theresa worried that these non-standard models would mislead Rhine Lab’s developers and thus harm the Sarkaz of Londinium.
“It’s fine, not a big problem. We’re just a mentor, giving them the general direction; the specific details still need to be determined by them based on actual circumstances.”
“As a mentor, wouldn’t it be better to give them all the details directly? It could also prevent them from taking detours.”
“That’s true, but how long can I stay with them? They’ll soon realize that they still have to rely on themselves.”
“Hmm, I really hadn’t thought of that…”
“Given the lifespan of the Sarkaz, it’s normal not to have thought of it.”
After repacking the models, Xing Chen and Theresa each did their own thing for a while. Soon it was past midnight, and time to sleep.
“Why haven’t the group members replied to me yet…”
“Xing Chen, are you still waiting for a reply?”
Theresa had already showered and was ready for bed, finding Xing Chen still waiting for replies.
“I did so much today, I’m already very tired. Let’s get some rest early,” Theresa said, sitting beside Xing Chen, “Come on, relax.”
“It’s okay, I can’t sleep anyway…”
Before Xing Chen could finish speaking, Theresa reached out and pulled Xing Chen into her arms, rubbing her head against his as if he were a shelf. “Hehehe, it feels so good.”
Feeling the weight on his head, Xing Chen no longer had the heart to care about the chat group.
“You haven’t done that to anyone else, have you?”
“No, it’s uncomfortable.” Theresa caressed Xing Chen’s neck with her hand, then activated a perception-blocking spell. Even if he didn’t sleep, resting was still possible.
Xing Chen’s vision went black, and when he saw light again, it was the next morning.
Theresa went to prepare breakfast. He took out his phone in bed and found that the red dot for group messages had already soared to 99.
Scrolling up to his own message, a group member named Tianya Liubiling directly uploaded the engine blueprints for the V-series missiles, as well as fragments of blueprints for some relatively recent foreign missile engines.
Xing Chen tried to save them, but on his phone, they turned into a different image.
Couldn’t download and save? Screenshotting was too blurry.
Xing Chen could only rely on his memory to forcibly remember some technical details.
Logically speaking, a human brain certainly couldn’t remember that much information, and he didn’t have hyperthymesia.
However, for some reason today, his mind was exceptionally clear, and all the details were almost unforgettable.
It was just that his eyes hurt a bit, similar to Theresa’s overuse of the Civilization’s Continuation on Terra.
The subsequent discussion topics were completely unrelated to Earth’s missiles.
For example, if space warfare were to occur in the future, which would be more effective: missiles or sub-light mass drivers.
However, everyone agreed that the Rods from God would definitely be useless.
Flipping through a few pages, the content of the discussion was all about another Terra. Just as he was about to give up, That Adult started a topic, asking what it would be like to develop missiles on the Terra continent.
It is well known that two things hinder the development of high-altitude technology on Terra: one is the active Originium dust in the high atmosphere, and the other is the barrier layer that renders Originium Arts ineffective.
The second difficulty posed no obstacle to human technology, but the large amount of active Originium particles in the air would severely damage human engines.
This was very fatal to Terra’s aerospace technology, so everyone believed that they should pass through the Star Gate and develop aerospace technology on Tau-2.
But then, the person named Aviation Smith brought up a point: could they design two power systems?
When flying at low altitudes and through the barrier layer, conventional engines would be used. Upon reaching the active Originium layer, the special engine would be powered by absorbing active Originium from the atmosphere.
Xing Chen found this idea very interesting, but currently, detailed data about the active Originium layer and the barrier layer were unclear.
It was even unclear whether these two atmospheric layers were at the same altitude.
Xing Chen didn’t read the rest of the academic debate; it was all specialized knowledge, constantly filled with experiments and data.
“Theresa, do you think this aircraft design proposal has a chance?”
“Let me see. Two flight power systems should be fine.”
Theresa could only perform limited analysis with her witchcraft knowledge. Not many Sarkaz looked up at the sky; she was already busy enough trying to feed so many mouths every day.
“Let Nastya handle the low-altitude flight system; I don’t have any good ideas for that. But if active Originium particles are subjected to high-speed collisions… perhaps we could thicken the armor, or divert some energy to generate a shield.”
“Speak a bit slower, I’m writing it all down… Okay, next question, what about the high-altitude power system?”
Modern human aviation engines inject fuel to combine with oxygen for more complete combustion.
“But Originium doesn’t work that way. Larger, more intact Originium can provide more powerful energy.”
Theresa reproduced a large Sarkaz witchcraft array in the air with silk threads; the Originium powering it was several times the size of a person.
“So the energy efficiency of Originium dust might be insufficient?”
“That’s not a problem. I can provide some flying witchcraft models; these spells consume very little energy, or I can use my Originium Arts to gather the dust.”
Theresa added several ancient Sarkaz terms to her notebook.
“But you’re right, a power decrease is inevitable.” Then, Theresa put down her pen on the table and smiled, striking a nonchalant pose.
“However, we don’t have flying objects targeting mid-to-high altitudes. Archers can deal with drones just fine, but who can hit something truly flying in the sky?”
“Eh, is that so?” Xing Chen really wasn’t clear about these matters.
“Of course. Take the Steam Knight, for example. Two hundred years ago, Victoria hadn’t yet installed flight systems on their armor, and we could still fight them. Modern Steam Knights fly into the sky at the drop of a hat. Those things don’t fly very high or for very long, so my brother still has to bring them underground before dealing with them.”
It seemed to be the case, but all of this had a prerequisite: the barrier layer and the active Originium layer could not be at the same altitude.
Otherwise, an engine powered by absorbing environmental Originium simply couldn’t be realized.
Also, editing combat protocols would require knowing specific data. If the altitude was miscalculated, the outcome would basically be nothing but a crash and loss of life.
Theresa seemed to have no good solution for the measurement work. She could solve the problem of the silk threads, but what about the test flight device?
She couldn’t possibly ask Theresis for his airship, could she?
Directly manufacturing a flight device was also an option; they had no objection to putting their lives on the line. However, what about the cost? The aerospace industry is an extremely money-burning industry, and if the two of them didn’t want to spark a bloody conflict with Rhodes Island, they could only play a time-difference game, and the time cost would be even more unacceptable.
At this moment, Xing Chen thought of some people.
He just didn’t know how many of those Sarkaz people, who were dedicated to developing flight devices, would have survived that civil war.
“Theresa, do you have any way to find some craftsmen from Kazdel?”