Chapter 264: with translation of title

Swan Castle

Your Majesty, the Three Capitals Railway will officially open the day after tomorrow; tomorrow you need to attend the opening ribbon-cutting ceremony, scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine.

The so-called Three Capitals Railway refers to the railway that starts from Aaron Leyin City, passes through Kao Silver Moon City, and then reaches Levinde's Bai Jin Cheng.

This is the first railway on the continent, 1800 kilometers long, double-track, with a total cost of 120 billion kla.

Not only does it pass through three capitals, it also goes by seven major cities and seventeen towns, forming a major transportation artery in the southeast direction.

White Gold City

How to get there? Naturally by taking His Majesty the Emperor's dedicated transport plane; you can reach Leyin City in two hours.

Levinde's White Gold City

Aaron Lion Military Factory

Now she is nineteen years old, her figure fully developed; the purity of a maiden and the charm of a young woman are mixed together, making her as tempting as a ripe, juicy peach.

Apocalypse War Chariot

Special Lightning War Chariot

Fire God Cannon

Omnidirectional Anti-air Annihilation Light

No way, the emperor's affairs are truly too many; without using Laifu's database, he often ends up in a half-amnesiac state.

Ghost Cloaking Array

Water Surface Floating Array

Legendary 8 Defense Strength Cage-type Cockpit

Alice placed a picture album beside Luosen: 'The Armageddon Tank, full title *Special Lightning Tank*, will be the army's main combat magical device.'

Length 30 meters, height 8 meters, width 8 meters, weight 150 tons, the hull made of rune-forged divine steel, the track wheels made of hardened krypton gold.

In terms of power, it uses phlogiston pure water batteries as energy source, six super electric motors directly drive it, peak power 4200 horsepower, maximum speed 70 kilometers per hour.

In terms of armament, it is equipped with one 155mm caliber Vulcan cannon, two omnidirectional anti-air annihilation beams, and four high-power metal storms.

Controllable Nuclear Fusion

Air-Space Mothership

Propellant-less Spaceship

Then he didn't pay much more attention to it, after all, in an era with aircraft and warships, tanks have a role, but it's not especially strong.

But he never expected that these engineering mages would actually produce a tank, and even come up with such a crazy contraption.

If such a contraption were to appear on the battlefield and form a cluster in scale, it could definitely push back the Holy Elven Empire's earth dragon legion head-on.

Looking at the Apocalypse Tank's ferocious appearance and the weapons emitting a chilling aura, Luosen really did like it, and he praised: 'Not bad~~very not bad~~'

The royal scribe beside him immediately recorded his words: 'His Majesty the Emperor, upon seeing the Apocalypse Tank, praised it as not bad.'

Black Stone

Every word of the emperor is watched, every attitude is pondered.

Now that he has praised it as not bad, the difficulty for the tank research institute to seek funding will instantly drop manyfold.

He secretly admonished himself: 'I must keep my mouth in check.'

Alice also said: 'The Truth Magic Ring led by Mage Cavendish has once again reached a new milestone in the conversion efficiency of pure energy.'

Now it has achieved a maximum conversion rate of 8%, and has accomplished the breakthrough result of 'energy self-sustenance'.

Engineering Mage

By then, the brand-new power-energy law ring will be installed on the object awaiting lift, and together with a load of up to 100 tons, it will levitate into the sky.

Luosen's eyes lit up: "Not bad, it's already approaching practical use, but what is the current shortcoming?"

"The biggest shortcoming is the power source."

"According to the data provided by the Cavendish Laboratory, the power-energy law ring requires a huge amount of power supply when operating; burning Black Stone can yield enough power, but it is difficult to sustain."

"Mmm~~~ Black Stone is indeed not enough for this thing's consumption."

Luosen took the relevant data handed over by Alice, examined the latest Truth Law Ring's data carefully, and at the same time his main body allocated part of Laifu's computing power to help.

After careful calculation, it was found that the brand-new power-energy law ring's performance seems to have already approached the threshold of nuclear fusion.

On Earth, using magnetic confinement for controlled nuclear fusion yields results far inferior to pure power-energy confinement.

As long as the latest power-energy law ring's efficiency is increased a bit and its strength limit raised a bit, it can be used to create a power-energy confinement law ring, achieve controlled nuclear fusion, and thus obtain an immensely powerful power source.

"If controlled nuclear fusion is achieved, combined with a self-sustaining power-energy law ring, then we could build an aerospace mother ship difficult to achieve on Earth, even a propellant-less spacecraft!"

Then interstellar travel would become immediately possible, and its efficiency would far surpass that of Earth's chemical rocket spacecraft.

Luosen felt his heartbeat quicken slightly, then he loudly praised.

"This result is wonderful! It's practically a miracle! The money was well spent!"

The secretary immediately faithfully recorded the emperor's words: "His Majesty saw the power-law ring, praised it to the utmost, and called it a miracle."

Alice whispered a reminder: "Your Majesty, the Cavendish Laboratory has received a total investment of about 60 million Ogre, which has caused other laboratories to feel somewhat psychologically unbalanced."

60 million Ogre equals 90 billion Clare's funds, indeed making many mages envious, their eyes turning blue.

Luosen smiled and said: "This is worthwhile. I have a premonition that once the Cavendish Laboratory's research results are put into practical use, they will thoroughly change the world."

Naturally, this sentence was also faithfully recorded by the secretary into the emperor's records. Next, Alice continued reading the schedule, and Duke Luosen listened attentively, striving to maintain the image of a perfect emperor.

But in the underground laboratory, Luosen's main body had no time to spare for this effort.

He slapped the experimental table hard with his palm, and a national curse burst from his mouth.

"Damn it, I knew this witch had no good intentions!"

"Why?"

"Because the magic book she gave, 'Legendary Grand Mage's Hat', is genuine, but it has loopholes, and not just a few."

This is a soul-assisting magical device.

The effect is simple and brutal: it raises the mage's 'basic' soul strength, achieving a Legendary soul strength +2.

Note, this is a basic attribute.

After the increase, mana generated from the soul can continue to benefit from various enhancement effects of other Legendary magical devices.

For example, when Luosen wears this hat, his basic soul strength rises from Legendary 3 to Legendary 5, making him a Legendary 5 mage.

The Legendary Crystal's focus effect on his mana becomes +5, and the Wave Superposition Focus Technique increases to Legendary +15.3.

The effect is astonishing.

However, its structure is extremely complex and finicky, and the principle is obscure and hard to understand.

If an ordinary artifact mage simply imitates the construction, they can also produce a usable Legendary hat.

But Luosen has obsessive-compulsive disorder; he insists on fully understanding it.

The difficulty is also truly high, mainly due to the astonishing amount of calculation.

If relying solely on Luosen himself, it would likely take a thousand years to figure out, but using Laifu's supercomputing power greatly saves his time.

After fully understanding it, he discovered at least three major loopholes, eighteen medium loopholes, and twenty-three minor loopholes.

'These loopholes are so numerous they practically exceed the number of windows in Earth's window system.'

What to do? Of course, plug them.

Because this device directly links to the mage's soul.

If someone exploits this loophole, they can silently enter the soul to do harm—mildly causing unconsciousness, severely turning the person into a puppet.

Luosen is certain that this Witch intends to exploit the loophole to control him.

But the device is indeed a good thing.

So he began plugging the loopholes one by one.

After plugging them, feeling uneasy, he repeatedly tested; once confirmed problem-free, he began designing his own unique Legendary Archmage's hat.

Having understood the principle and having a ready-made reference, the design posed no difficulty.

It was quickly finalized, ultimately achieving a +3 increase in basic soul strength.

In other words, wearing the hat makes him a Legendary 6th-rank mage.

Then the ordinary focus effect becomes Legendary +7, and Wave Superposition Focus can reach Legendary 16.2, nearly catching up to the Witch's Legendary 17.

During the crafting, many more ideas came to mind.

'I can feel that this path still has plenty of potential for improvement.'

'If the Witch is truly mortal, she must also be using this to boost her own soul strength.'

'Since she can reach Legendary 17, I probably won't be far behind.'

'But I currently lack the relevant knowledge; in the short term I probably can't improve further.'

'Wearing a hat all day isn't practical; one can't wear it twenty-four hours a day, can one?'

'Mm~ got it, I'll shave my head and then design a 'Perfect Wig of the Legendary Archmage'.'

This way he can wear it twenty-four hours a day without raising suspicion.

He also doesn't need to worry about hair growing back; given his current understanding of the human body, preventing his scalp from growing hair is trivial.

About a month later, he successfully crafted a Legendary wig.

He tried wearing it on his head.

The moment he put it on, he felt his soul tremble slightly, obviously much stronger.

What surprised him most was that Laifu's computing power also increased.

The increase was not small—it more than doubled!

'What a great thing!'

Once the Legendary wig is worn, Luosen knows he probably won't be able to take it off for the rest of his life.

'From now on, not only must we strive to improve this device, but we should also make several more in case it breaks and becomes unusable.'

Next, he prepares to meet this sinister Witch.

'Over the past six months, although I haven't figured out the Elves' fruit, I have thoroughly understood the body and soul of the Lower Elves.'

'Fortunately, Laifu's computing power has surged, so I will create a perfect Lower Elf doppelgänger to deal with the Witch.'

'The Witch's methods are not ordinary; her true form must also be dealt with.'

'If a fight really breaks out, we'll all go together.'

(End of chapter)