Chapter 515: Bomb Gun

The scene before his eyes shifted, Lei En returned to Gela Morgan's teleport hall.

The surrounding Extreme Warriors saluted in unison.

"Boss!"

Gela Morgan Castle is the hub of all Lei En's teleport arrays; the sole Astral Crystal Pillar is installed here, so the Extreme Warriors stationed in the hall are the most numerous—a full squad of twelve, all from the Xicarius Detachment.

Additionally, two squads of Gunwing Knights are on guard outside; Lei En has also set up multiple protective formation arrays, making the place as solid as a gold wall.

Akaland, who arrived via teleport, scanned the scene and found this squad of Extreme Warriors even more formidable, exuding a dangerous aura that made even he, a legendary Mid-stage Mechanic, shiver.

He finally could not hold back and asked, "Lei En, how many Extreme Warriors do you have now?"

Because Extreme Warriors, in front of outsiders, always wear blue armor and helmets, it's hard to distinguish them by aura alone, let alone count them.

Anyone who watches Lei En shares one impression: in the past two years, Extreme Warriors have multiplied, appearing from nowhere.

In fact, it's not only Akaland who is curious; many in the Empire also want to investigate.

The Makurak people are a barbarian tribe on the plateau, with some historical reputation; individually they are only relatively strong among barbarians, yet after allying with Lei En their strength has surged to an exaggerated level.

Some forces even sent agents covertly to the Saen Plateau to probe the Makurak tribe, but as soon as they neared Astat City they were cleared out by the stationed Extreme Warriors.

"If anyone dared to ask me that, I'd have already hammered their head to bits," Lei En said coolly, staring at Akaland.

Akaland tucked his neck back, and the curiosity on his face vanished.

"Hahaha… just kidding, you actually took me seriously," Lei En laughed, patted Akaland's shoulder, and clasped him as they walked out.

"That's not funny at all!" Akaland, irritated, brushed Lei En's hand away.

Now Lei En's name reverberates throughout the Empire, and his war hammer is equally famed, having blown enemies' heads apart in battle countless times, terrifying many; the fate of Kangjiatuo's king serves as a warning. Moreover, Lei En's solemn expression just now touched on the Extreme Warrior secret—who knows if he'll suddenly swing a hammer at you?

Lei En released his grip, smiling without a word.

Akaland, being considerate, did not press further, passed through the castle interior to the front hall. Before leaving, he looked at Lei En who had sent him out, opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

Seeing him hesitate, Lei En noted his conflicted soul emotion, and said:

"Whatever it is, speak quickly."

Akaland hesitated for a few seconds; as Lei En was about to lose patience, he finally spoke, "Then I'll say it."

"Hurry, I have other matters." Lei En took out a communicator and glanced at the time.

"Take a look at this."

Akaland pulled an item from a dimensional-space ring; Lei En's expression instantly changed, for it was a submachine gun—the Gunwing Knight's submachine gun—its blackened barrel gleaming with metal, looking heavy.

"Where did you get it?" Lei En asked.

He examined the submachine gun closely; its shape was identical to the one he had forged, and when he took it in hand he immediately sensed something off—its weight was wrong, the internal structure slightly different, not cast as a single piece of activated metal but assembled from separate parts, resembling a normal firearm.

Akaland's face turned serious, replying, "It appeared at an auction in Thus: Thus: Shengangcheng a few days ago, was bought by the Mechanical Guild Branch Leader there, and was delivered into my hands."

Lei En nodded.

He stroked the submachine gun in his hand, considered, and said, "To the Mechanical Alchemy Chamber." Akaland followed him back into the castle, and the two soon entered the spacious Mechanical Alchemy Chamber.

Here, Extreme Warriors also stood guard; Akaland curiously surveyed the room's equipment, a full array of mechanical tools, some of which he couldn't even name.

Tables were piled with vast amounts of alchemical materials, protected by rune formations, clearly Lei En's private studio.

One side of the Mechanical Alchemy Chamber housed a small shooting range.

Lei En stood at the firing end of the range and said, "This submachine gun is a replica; that auction should have featured more than one, right?"

"Yes." Akaland withdrew his gaze from the alchemy chamber, "There were fifteen in total, all bought, and even the cheapest fetched 1,200 Gold Shields!"

Akaland gave a bitter laugh, "Who doesn't know the fame of the Extreme Warrior? And the Gun Wing Knight, three years ago relying on the assault rifle in his hand, swept across Kangjiatuo's Transcendent Army; who knows how many people lurk in the dark just to get the secret of the assault rifle."

Akaland forced a wry smile, "Who doesn't know the reputation of the Extreme Warriors? And the Gunwing Knights—three years ago, with their submachine guns, they swept through Kangjiatuo's Transcendent Army; countless people have been secretly watching, just to obtain the submachine gun's secret."

"To be honest, if the Mechanical Guild weren't cooperating with you, I would have acted quietly myself."

The Soul Eye saw that Akaland was telling the truth; the imitation assault rifle had nothing to do with the Mechanical Guild.

The Soul Eye saw that Akaland was speaking truthfully; the replica submachine gun had nothing to do with the Mechanical Guild.

In fact, years ago when Lei En decided to equip Gunwing Knights with submachine guns, he had already prepared himself for the leak. After all, Gunwing Knights are merely low-level Transcendents, mostly rank one or two, fearless on the battlefield but unable to fend off the prying of higher-level Transcendents in peacetime.

Since two years ago, Gunwing Knights have been deployed to cities across the Augustus Principality, far from Jin Gang Fort and Gela Morgan, and their camps have frequently suffered raids.

These shadow warriors' target is the submachine gun!

Most thieves were discovered in time and slain on the spot, but a few highly powerful Transcendents succeeded, including legendary shadow warriors, leaving the Extreme Warriors helpless.

There were even two or three occasions when Gunwing Knights were ambushed while patrolling the city, resulting in casualties, and the submachine guns were stolen.

Lei En erupted in fury and personally set out to investigate.

But he wasn't omnipotent; he only recovered part of the submachine guns, with several still missing.

After interrogating those captured, he found they weren't sent by any major faction; some were merely opportunists hoping to sell the submachine guns for profit, while others were backed by "Gunslingers," a Transcendent profession that craves submachine guns.

From the earliest submachine gun disappearances to now, a year and a half later, replicas have finally appeared on the market.

So Lei En was not very surprised.

As expected, those submachine guns have already fallen into the hands of major powers and have been studied countless times.

Lei En shook his head, raised the replica submachine gun, and fired at the target.

Gunfire rang out, lasting only a few seconds before stopping; pits appeared one after another on the target opposite, its power extraordinarily great, even somewhat stronger than that of a genuine assault rifle.

The gunfire roared for a few seconds before ceasing; the opposite target bore numerous holes, its power extraordinary, even surpassing that of a genuine submachine gun.

Lei En ejected the magazine, extracted a single bullet, examined it twice, and couldn't help but smile.

"It's just an imitation of the appearance and structure." Lei En returned the gun to Akaland, "It still uses ordinary combustible rounds, no different from a regular soul gun."

"It's only the exterior and structure that are replicated," Lei En returned the gun to Akaland, "It still uses ordinary fuel bullets, no different from a typical soul gun."

The submachine gun's overwhelming power lies chiefly in its specially made caseless bullets.

These bullets have only an outer shell made of fuel; inside is Lei En's "invented" proprietary propellant, which requires only one‑twentieth of soul power to ignite, allowing Gunwing Knights to fire in unrestricted burst mode.

Lei En noticed this during the test firing.

【61】 This replica submachine gun consumes a great deal of soul power, far exceeding that of caseless bullets; its ammunition has a cylindrical metal shell filled with fuel. He is a legendary Wizard, able to withstand such soul consumption, whereas ordinary gunslingers cannot.

Thus, it is essentially no different from the previous soul gun, at most it can fire continuously.

If the shooter fires too rapidly, the soul power cannot be infused into the fuel‑element bullet, and many high‑level shooters' unique elements and techniques cannot be employed, leading again to a deadlock.

"So the problem lies in the bullet," Akalande said with a look of realization.

Lei En looked at him with a half‑smile, "Can't you guess?" As the distinguished vice‑president of the Mechanical Guild, with countless capable subordinates, could he not see the problem? This replica submachine gun must have been studied by him countless times.

"Cough…" Akalande showed a hint of embarrassment.

Lei En didn't want to expose him, so he shifted the topic and asked, "Did any special submachine‑gun bullets appear at the auction?"

Gun‑wing knights usually carry at least five loaded magazines; when the submachine gun was stolen, a batch of bullets went missing as well.

"Special bullets?" Akalande shook his head oddly—was this bullet wrong? He quickly caught on and, curious, asked, "What do the submachine‑gun bullets look like?"

Lei En directly took out a square shellless bullet and tossed it to him.

"Square bullet!"

Akalande was astonished; he had never imagined such a bullet existed. Once he got the shellless bullet, his "metal sense" activated instantly, perceiving its subtlety, his face filled with awe as he praised, "What a brilliant idea!"

He pored over the shellless bullet in his hand, soon feeling a hint of doubt: "Only the outer shell is made of fuel element, yet the interior isn't hollow; it must contain a non‑metal material. This must be the submachine gun's greatest secret, right?"

"Yes."

Lei En then handed Akalande a genuine submachine gun, "You can try it."

"Alright!" Akalande was overjoyed, skillfully disengaging the safety, aiming at the target, and firing, emptying all thirty rounds from the magazine in one go.

After ceasing fire, his eyes widened.

"So that's how it is!"

"Firing so many bullets, the power isn't small; one bullet equals a ring of magical missiles, yet it consumes so little soul power!" Akalande couldn't put the submachine gun down, exclaiming, "No wonder the gun‑wing knights, though merely low‑tier superiors, can maintain such overwhelming firepower."

He pinched the shellless bullet, held it before his eyes, and asked Lei En, "Is it okay?"

"You can try it," Lei En nodded.

Akalande thought for a moment before moving.

He cautiously marshaled his soul power, a pale green flame sprouting from his fingertips like hair‑like strands, encircling the shellless bullet and beginning to cut inward.

This green flame is the mechanic's "Smelting Fire".

A Mid‑stage mechanic's fused Main Soul is called the "Mine Acid Fire Insect"; this peculiar giant insect feeds on metal and can spew green flame to melt metal. Once a mechanic masters it, the fire can be used for rapid smelting of metal, as well as repairing, strengthening, and restoring various mechanical devices—an essential element for every mechanic.

The Smelting Fire's temperature isn't high, and it appears rather unremarkable.

However, it is still a flame, transformed from soul power, and upon contacting the shellless bullet's fuel‑element shell, it ignited instantly.

Bang!

The bullet exploded, the projectile skimming Lei En's face as it flew away, leaving a faint smell of gunpowder in the air.

Akalande, unwilling to give up, asked Lei En for another shellless bullet to try; it exploded again quickly. Lei En simply gave him a fully loaded magazine containing thirty bullets.

Bang bang bang bang…

No matter how careful Akalande was, the bullets kept exploding one after another.

After realizing this method didn't work, he abandoned the "Smelting Fire" and tried brute‑force disassembly, which also failed. The square bullet is flawless; its surface has no seam, and any slight deformation of the casing ignites it.

He even used an ultra‑thin, lightweight, sharp short sword, slicing the bullet in half at top speed, yet it still exploded before he could see its interior.

After more than ten minutes of fiddling, all the bullets in the magazine had detonated.

"How did you do it?" Akalande asked, thoroughly impressed and a bit frustrated.

He had too many questions.

Beyond curiosity about the shellless bullet's interior, he wondered how Lei En forged the fuel‑element into a casing, as if it were cast solid.

Lei En had long anticipated this; otherwise, the auction house in Thus: Thus: Shengangcheng would have featured more than just replica submachine guns. Its receiver structure was altered to accommodate standard fuel‑element bullets, and firing now requires ejecting the shell, making the overall mechanism more complex, reducing both accuracy and rate of fire.

This is only the first layer of protection.

Lei En believes someone will surely devise a way to extract the propellant from the bullet; after all, there are countless wondrous spells in the world.

Then they'll face the second challenge: how to decipher the gunpowder's composition?

The propellant of the shellless bullet is his own refined version, completely different from the dwarves' "fire sand"; its composition is complex, and the refining method is the ancient Solvent Method, a system entirely distinct from Ai Lun E Si's alchemy, with no involvement of supernormal power.

If one attempts to uncover the propellant's composition and manufacturing method through alchemy, it may never yield results.

There is also the bullet's primer; its decryption difficulty is hardly any less than that of the propellant.

The principles of chemistry and alchemy are fundamentally different. If the approach is wrong, no amount of effort will succeed.

Lei En is confident about this.

The submachine gun and shellless bullets have been in outsiders' hands for nearly two years, and so far only inferior replicas have been produced, confirming his prediction. Those who obtained the submachine gun couldn't replicate the genuine article, so they auctioned a batch of fakes to cloud his vision.

Perhaps they've already exhausted all the shellless bullets.

"I definitely won't tell you how to make shellless bullets," Lei En smiled, looking at Akalande's eager expression. "A few years ago I refused you and that mysterious guildmaster, but circumstances have changed now."

"What do you mean?" Akalande's eyes lit up, his face full of anticipation.

"Those shooters crave submachine guns so much; I shouldn't monopolize them, lest people keep ambushing the gun‑wing knights and cause unnecessary casualties," Lei En paused, then continued, "I authorize the Mechanical Guild to produce submachine guns, with me supplying a limited amount of bullets, but the guild must ensure it can monopolize the trade and prevent replicas from circulating on the market."

Akalande was greatly delighted, yet he wasn't blinded by profit.

"The Mechanical Guild alone probably can't suppress those forces," he thought it was a bit tricky, probing, "Could Weizelan also get involved?"

Lei En considered for a moment, then nodded, "Sure."

"Then there's no problem," Akalande felt much more at ease; with Anxiwodasi, the Holy Soul Wizard, as backing, his confidence grew, and he asked, "What about profit? How will it be divided?"

This is a huge deal; profit sharing must be clarified beforehand.

"I take half for myself," Lei En said in an unrefusable tone. "Weizelan's Fu Kong Cheng gets ten percent, and the rest goes to the Mechanical Guild."

"Alright!" Akalande immediately agreed.

He understood that the crux of the deal wasn't profit but the massive boost to the Mechanical Guild's overall strength; after all, mechanics heavily rely on soul guns! Mechanics below the legendary tier are far weaker in combat than other superiors, only slightly better than shooters, and the submachine gun perfectly compensates for this shortfall.

After discussing a few cooperation details with Lei En, Akalande could no longer sit still; he hurried out of the castle to petition the mysterious guildmaster.

This time Lei En only delivered him to the entrance of the Mechanical Alchemy Chamber and then halted.

When he was alone in the room, Lei En walked to one side of the indoor shooting range, and a brand‑new firearm appeared in his hand.

Its shape resembled a submachine gun enlarged by two sizes, its total length under a meter, massive and heavy, seeming to weigh at least a hundred pounds; the overall structure was both intricate and fierce, the barrel gleamed with simple red runes and energy lines, the caliber was astonishingly large—large enough to fit an adult man's thumb—and the thick grip did not look meant for ordinary people.

Just by looking at the gun's appearance and style, one could feel a soul‑shaking aura.

Lei En activated Blood Frenzy, his body swelling by a layer; his enlarged palm could barely grip the stock, he aimed at a target a hundred meters away and pulled the trigger.

Boom!

The gunshot rang like a sudden thunderclap on flat ground, shaking the entire Mechanical Alchemy Chamber; the massive recoil slammed into his arm, causing Lei En to furrow his brows.

If an ordinary person had fired it, the recoil would have shattered the whole arm.

Yet the shot's power was terrifyingly dreadful; the target opposite was completely pulverized, leaving a half‑meter‑diameter crater in the wall, with spider‑web‑like cracks spreading around, as if struck by a cannonball.

Lei En nodded with satisfaction, thinking to himself, "Bolt Gun, finally lives up to its name."

(End of chapter)