Chapter 1371

That's it... can it get any more pathetic?

The young man was, after all, still young; after a brief moment of discouragement, he expressed his thanks to Elder Zhai and the others, saying he would keep working hard.

Lin Cheng nodded.

Actually, this young man also illustrated one thing—just how boring the lives of the elderly were! The empire was severely lacking in entertainment; many retired elderly could do nothing all day but stay home. Those in relatively good health could at least keep a pet.

But what about those elderly who weren't in good health? Pets were all tamed from magical beasts, and the history only went back a few hundred years. Just as the young man said, one couldn't be too careful—one mishap in ten thousand was still too many.

If he could sell voice-controlled metal pets, perhaps he could bring some joy to the elderly with limited mobility throughout the empire. At the same time, he could also make wheelchairs, so that elderly people with limited mobility could go outside.

Thinking this, Lin Cheng took out his little notebook and jotted down the ideas for metal pets and wheelchairs, to promote them if the chance arose.

He marked one point in particular: entertainment projects were yet to be developed!

After the first young man finished, the pace of the smiths slowed considerably.

Lin Cheng seriously suspected that first young man was a plant.

After waiting nearly another half a shichen, the second smith finally finished and raised his hand. After evaluation, his work received three points—the concept was a vibrating stick.

Lin Cheng's mind immediately went somewhere dirty, and even the way he looked at that smith changed.

Yet the man was perfectly serious, explaining in detail that he wanted to forge a kind of vibrating long stick, paired with a specially made spearhead. When attacking magical beasts, the continuous vibration would inevitably inflict severe tearing wounds on the beast.

Only then did Lin Cheng realize he had been overthinking.

He had to admit, the idea was good, but implementing it would be extremely troublesome.

Because while the vibrating special spearhead tore at the magical beast's wounds, it would also put the user in an awkward position—the vibration effect would affect them just the same.

At that point, forget about dealing with the magical beast—the user probably couldn't even hold on. If the vibration frequency was too high, the user would hurt themselves before hurting the enemy; if the frequency was too low, it would have no effect at all.

This concept was simply... better than nothing.

Like chicken ribs—tasteless to eat, a shame to throw away.

Afterward, smiths began raising their hands one after another to signal completion. Lin Cheng and the others saw all manner of concepts—for instance, an automatic sunflower-seed sheller, an automatic peeler, an automatic bathing machine, and automatic cooking. The automatic feeding one was just too much—Lin Cheng rejected it outright.

He had truly seen for himself what it meant that laziness is the primary driving force of human progress.

Later on, he encountered many more talented individuals.

A smith who was both single and ugly directly designed a metal puppet; seeing the drool practically running down his face... Lin Cheng grew solemn, hesitating over whether to tell him that if he swapped the metal for plastic, the effect might be even better.

There was also a short smith who designed spring-loaded shoes, saying he would demonstrate on the spot—what are you trying to do? Fly up to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the sun?

Another designed a flying-wing device, whose appearance was extremely similar to the six-armed flying apparatus Lin Cheng had once designed. This smith, Lin Cheng thought very highly of—he was clearly more promising than the others.

If he could succeed, it would undoubtedly be a great meritorious deed for the empire.

To that end, Lin Cheng even specially gave him a few pointers, indicating that the smith had no problem with the design, but the method of transporting energy via magic crystal needed improvement, and the choice and optimization of inscriptions should be simplified further—more inscriptions meant more simultaneous operations and greater energy consumption.

For a flying apparatus that itself required energy to fly, this was a massive flaw. The choice of inscriptions should prioritize effectiveness, not a greater number of functions.

"Thank you, Master Lin Cheng, for your teaching. I will keep it firmly in mind."

Lin Cheng nodded, paying it no further attention.

He had only offered a couple of pointers; the specifics still depended on what the other party did.

After a period of scoring, whenever Lin Cheng came across a concept he liked, he would offer the creator a pointer or two. At the same time, the smiths' many concepts also filled him with inspiration, and he couldn't help recording them all in his little notebook, to be developed later.

Finally, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived—the mysterious smith's work.

The masked mysterious smith was the most arrogant smith Lin Cheng had ever seen. He didn't even open his mouth to introduce it; he simply placed his work in front of the judges—and his work was a gun!

A long-barreled flintlock. Regarding inscription engraving, he didn't try to include as many as traditional smiths did, but used only three inscriptions to empower it: Speed (Concealment), Strength (Sage), and Power (Eagle Eye).

The remaining inscription (Nightmare) was engraved on the specially made copper bullets.

A dual strike of magic and physics.

Immediately, the mysterious smith skillfully loaded the flintlock, then aimed the muzzle at the ground not far away and gently squeezed the trigger.