Chapter 458: To Treat Murphy’s Anxiety, Brother Loyalty Brought Out an Epoch-Making Product!
Although cuddling with Tris made him feel relaxed, the shadow in Murphy’s heart wasn’t dispelled by this. After sending Tris back to her secret laboratory in an intimate manner, Murphy thought that since he couldn’t sleep anyway, he might as well go out for a walk.
So he spread his wings and took flight once again.
This time he didn’t need Revnor to guide him through the darkness, instead just following his instincts to soar across his vast territory, flying wherever he pleased, treating it as a vampire-style high-altitude joy ride to relax.
After seeing himself getting further and further away from the Crimson Citadel, Murphy suddenly realized something he had never paid attention to before.
Speaking of which, since vampires emerged on the continent and established their own civilized settlements until now, Murphy was probably the vampire lord who actually controlled the most territory throughout history.
Although Transia had nominally belonged to the Blood Vulture Clan for the past 400 years, even beggars and gnolls on this land knew that the Seicob territory had never truly been under Salrokdar’s control.
That Blood Vulture Patriarch’s grip on the southern and western regions was also very weak. It could be said that during Salrokdar’s era, the core area truly controlled by the Blood Vulture Clan was just around the Count of Kadman’s territory.
While the Thorn Clan had a small principality on the border of the Nordtov Kingdom, its area was about two-thirds of Transia, which was already considered quite an impressive force among vampire political entities.
The Wolfsbane Clan nominally controlled the dark zones of Greenleaf Island, but everyone knew that order in these dark zones relied entirely on King Louis turning a blind eye. Once that “Sun King” really set his mind to it, with the Golden Flower Kingdom’s current prosperous national power, a month-long “crackdown on darkness and evil” would be enough to cripple the Wolfsbane Clan.
Other clans needed no mention.
The Blood Pact Knights had no territory, the Blood Dread Clan had been drifting on the sea for 200 years, and the main body of the Secret Blood Clan had vanished from the continent after the last Black Plague with only two or three remaining active in the night, even Tris couldn’t confirm if they still truly existed.
As for the Mad Blood Clan…
That cursed clan had been sealed in the Sacred Blood Land since the beginning of the era until now, they had never truly set foot on this continent, so discussions of vampire affairs in the current era generally don’t include these fellows.
Thinking through all this, Murphy found that he had unknowingly achieved quite a remarkable feat. No wonder Lord Payne was so polite to him… Perhaps before Murphy realized it himself, the experienced elder had already recognized that this young vampire was a “rare commodity”?
Thinking of it this way, Murphy felt a bit proud.
He had built everything from nothing, starting from scratch, gradually developing the nearly extinct Blood Vulture Clan to its current state step by step.
Although the clan was still far from recovering to its peak, with more and more players becoming vampires, both Murphy and Tris could be certain that when the Black Plague arrived, the Blood Vulture Clan would once again become a major power capable of fielding nearly a thousand Black Iron warriors at once, and after the Black Plague ended, it probably wouldn’t be an issue for Murphy to assemble a “Silver Hundred Squad”.
“Once I have the situation in Transia fully under my control and survive the Black Plague, I’ll need to consider expanding territory and reclaiming lost lands.”
Murphy reduced his flight speed from supersonic to cruising speed in the air, also descending from high altitude to a low-altitude cruise of several hundred meters. He thought to himself:
“It hasn’t even been half a year since the Ten-Year War ended, and the people in East Prussia and the Kafhoka region still have some centripetal force towards the Portia Federation. Especially in the Kafhoka region, the northerners’ brutal suppression has already caused many people to harbor resentment.
This is a good opportunity.
But if we continue to delay things won’t be good, that Wolf Queen won’t allow the Kafhoka breadbasket to remain outside the northern political system for long…
Huh?
What the hell is that thing up ahead?”
The vampire lord’s attention was suddenly drawn to a point of light flying back and forth in the darkness ahead. He raised his head and squinted, adjusting the focus of his vampire eyeballs.
After a second of fine-tuning, he clearly saw what was in the distance in the night, it was a little player riding on a wind griffin. If he remembered correctly, this fellow’s ID was “Thirty-Year-Old Tobacco Mulberry”?
Seemed to be a professional pilot.
What was he planning to do up here at an altitude of 1,000 meters in the middle of the night? Did he have something on his mind and couldn’t sleep like Murphy?
Murphy’s face broke into a mischievous smile.
He called upon shadows to shroud himself and stealthily approached Tobacco Mulberry who was adjusting his wind griffin’s flight posture, planning to give him a scare as a prank between a main storyline NPC and his dear little players.
However, just as Murphy was sneaking closer, he heard Tobacco Mulberry shouting at someone on the other end of the computation bead:
“First test of napalm incendiary bomb ready! Wind speed normal, flight speed reached expected value! Ground target locked, ready to drop! Observation posts pay attention to explosion effects!
3, 2, 1!
Bombs away!”
“Holy shit!”
Murphy was startled by Tobacco Mulberry’s shout, but before his eyes Tobacco Mulberry had already let out a blood-curdling scream, then opened the latch under the wind griffin.
A black round object plunged towards the ground along the wind griffin’s flight trajectory, while the wind griffin quickly climbed after being relieved of its weight. The bomb that had been crafted into an aerial bomb style just happened to graze Murphy’s body as it fell.
These little troublemakers had even installed a buzzer on the bomb, making it emit a sharp piercing sound as it fell, quite reminiscent of the death wail of WWII’s heroic Stuka.
Murphy watched Tobacco Mulberry pull the reins to make the wind griffin rapidly climb. He hurriedly flapped his wings to climb as well. Just as they quickly ascended to an altitude of 1,000 meters, with a huge boom, a dazzling fireball erupted below accompanied by the release of heat, spreading across the wilderness below like a prairie fire.
Who knows what these troublemakers added inside, making the flame eruption both quick and fierce, almost instantly engulfing the entire target area they had set up in the wilderness.
Those fortresses built with wooden boards and scarecrows placed in dug trenches were all consumed by the flames, plunging into a fiery hell in an instant.
“This isn’t right, is it?”
Murphy hovered in the air looking down.
Recalling the war documentaries he had watched before, in his memory, this kind of light incendiary bomb that could be dropped by aircraft shouldn’t have such extensive power and flame spread range.
And wasn’t this thing supposed to be difficult to make? How did they come up with a finished product so quickly?
Could it be that some more remarkable talent had entered the game?
But that’s not right!
He had been reviewing all the little players who recently logged into the game, and no “kidnappable talent” in this field had been recruited.
Before Murphy could fly down to discuss the hazards of reckless arson with the group of “pyromaniacs” cheering on the ground, he saw Tobacco Mulberry who had just flown away swaying back on his wind griffin, and this time there was another bomb slightly smaller than the previous one suspended under his wind griffin.
This thing had a strange honeycomb-like shape, looking like many small bombs crudely fixed together.
Murphy immediately became interested.
He stealthily approached again, wanting to see what kind of hellish weapon Tobacco Mulberry was going to drop to the ground this time?
“Second test drop of incendiary bombs! This time we’re using Brother Loyalty’s self-made white phosphorus bombs, the range will be larger, vampire brothers serving as observers retreat to the safe zone!”
Tobacco Mulberry, wearing WWII-style flying goggles, shouted at the computation bead fixed on his arm:
“Remember to release the skeleton army in the blast range as damage comparison objects before leaving, this is a power test! We need to verify if white phosphorus bombs can cause enough damage to the skeleton army.
Bomb drop countdown 1 minute!”
“!!!”
Murphy’s expression was completely unable to maintain composure when he heard this shout.
If he remembered correctly, weren’t white phosphorus bombs prohibited from use in warfare? Apart from some heartless bastard countries, any nation that had even a touch of “civilization” had already banned these weapons.
However, even Murphy who knew nothing about engineering was aware that the technical requirements for white phosphorus bombs were actually not high, at least insignificant compared to the horrific damage they could inflict on biological targets.
Using this thing against soldiers of other countries was indeed somewhat inhumane, but it was very suitable for eliminating skeleton armies.
This made Murphy also start to anticipate the results of this white phosphorus bomb test.
He patiently waited hovering in the air. After one minute, Tobacco Mulberry again simulated an air cavalry bombing posture, dropping the honeycomb-style white phosphorus bomb suspended under the wind griffin at the predetermined speed and altitude.
The same falling trajectory, the same buzzing wail.
However, this thing disintegrated and ignited at an altitude of 100 meters, illuminating the night over this wilderness with several hundred bright “sparks” flying about, that was the white phosphorus being ignited by the heat generated from friction with air due to its extremely low ignition point.
Each scorching point of light dragged long flame trails as they rained down upon the wilderness, beginning to attach to and burn any objects in the blast zone below, not stopping until they had reduced themselves and everything around them to ashes.
Setting aside the damage and destruction involved, the “falling starlight” performed under the night sky looked exactly like a brilliant fireworks show, causing little Sharon who was standing at the observation platform with Brother Loyalty and the arsenal designers watching this scene through telescopes to express sincere emotion.
“So beautiful.”
She said:
“Just like when I was 12 years old and my father specially held a birthday party for me, that night my engineering tutor also made fireworks to celebrate my birthday.”
“If you knew what kind of terrible results your handmade things would cause on battlefields between humans and humans, I estimate you wouldn’t be able to feel happy anymore. Compared to what we just dropped, all the evil acts you knew before seem as cute and harmless as dolls held by little girls.
If there really is a hell in this world, I guess all of us have already written our names in the hell visitor register by now.”
Brother Loyalty beside her made a small complaint.
Although little Sharon had hammered out the white phosphorus bomb blueprints he provided, when he first sought “professional” opinions, he really hadn’t thought this thing could actually be produced under Transia’s industrial standards.
The facts proved that white phosphorus bombs were indeed not difficult to craft, and the steam engineers of this world were not completely ignorant of chemical substances like white phosphorus.
After Brother Loyalty described the properties of white phosphorus, Sharon quickly brought him the actual substance.
This substance was called “Bach’s Fire Wax” on this continent, said to be a special substance discovered by the outstanding halfling mechanic Mr. Bach Gaslamp when he was young, and halfling engineers would use it to make some complex ignition devices.
According to Sharon, there were applications of white phosphorus in some weapons made by halflings, but the halfling engineers of this world obviously hadn’t gone so far as to truly weaponize this thing.
Perhaps they knew this thing could be used as a weapon, but they had always kept it secret, until otherworldly visitors revealed to Sharon another use for this thing besides fire starting.
Sharon only knew this thing was very powerful, but she still remained ignorant of the horrific nature of white phosphorus bombs.
“The damage test results are out.”
The arsenal designer with the ID “Night Phantom Bat Puppet” ran to Brother Loyalty’s side with a small notebook, reporting to him:
“We threw 30 skeleton soldiers into the blast zone. After the test bomb exploded and burned fully, only 5 remained mobile, the rest all suffered varying degrees of severe burns, over 12 skeleton soldiers were completely burned to ash.
It’s been proven that the attached burning state of white phosphorus can completely destroy low-level skeleton soldiers’ bodies, and the high temperature it releases is also enough to destroy their undead consciousness maintained by netherworld energy.
I estimate we may have really found a new method to deal with skeleton armies, and its large-scale instant effect is definitely more useful than flames, after all this thing can’t be extinguished with water!”
“Good, then put it on the urgent production list.”
Brother Loyalty took the record book and glanced at it, saying:
“Besides making aerial bombs for high-altitude dropping, also make a batch of white phosphorus dragon’s breath rounds to equip shotgunners.
Skip the grenade modifications.
This thing is too dangerous, one throwing mistake could easily take the whole trench of other brothers to meet Avalon together.
But we can consider making artillery-fired white phosphorus shells.
The effects of the napalm incendiary bombs from the first test were a bit subtle…
We only achieved this kind of intensity of coverage burning by adding combustion gold powder to it, proving that alchemy in this world really can’t do without the wonderful thing that is combustion gold.
Adding combustion gold to the downgraded incendiary bombs that Pigeon made can completely transform them, I can hardly imagine the devastating consequences when real napalm bombs are completed and then have combustion gold added.
Now it seems that Brother Bat’s plan to burn the swamp flat really has some possibility of being achieved.
The premise is that we need to get enough combustion gold as an accelerant, ah, the problem is Transia doesn’t produce this stuff, this is really giving me a headache!”
“For combustion gold, Lady Tris should have some in stock.”
Little Sharon beside him said:
“I can write to some old friends of my tutor at the Shaldor port, asking them to help send some combustion gold over, but the timing might be a bit tight.”
“Combustion gold is mainly mined by brass dwarves, right?”
Murphy’s voice suddenly sounded beside Sharon and Brother Loyalty, the vampire governor emerging from the shadows waved to indicate the surrounding guards need not salute.
He looked at Sharon and said:
“I heard Tris say before that although halflings first discovered combustion gold hundreds of years ago, they had to rely on brass dwarves’ talent in mining to obtain sufficient amounts of combustion gold?”
“Mm, that’s right.”
Sharon said:
“There’s currently the largest known combustion gold mine on the continent near the Brass Fortress in the Dark Mountains, and the circulation of this thing on the continent is basically monopolized by the brass dwarves’ mining companies. Many people want to connect with the brass dwarves, but as the race with the worst temper among the three dwarf races, no, among all races on the continent, brass dwarves are unwilling to deal with those harboring ulterior motives.
To make large-scale purchases from them, just establishing connections would take a very very long time.
Lord Murphy, do you have connections in this area?”
“No no no, I don’t know any brass dwarves.”
Murphy shook his head and said:
“But I know a silver dwarf marshal, and that fellow has some status in dwarven society. I also know a vampire elder whose opinions even the elf king has to listen to regarding matters of the Black Plague.
Combining these two, I think we can sort out the combustion gold matter before the Black Plague arrives.”
After speaking, Murphy turned his head to look at Brother Loyalty. He stared at this otherworldly special agent leader, and after several seconds of silence, he said:
“I know that using such weapons may bring you strong feelings of guilt and unease. I can guarantee they won’t be used in combat with any civilized forces, we are vampires but we are not beasts, this thing is inhumane for any sentient life with feelings.
But my arsenal leader, I need you to manufacture more of these world-shocking weapons when the Black Plague occurs.
I need many many more.
List them as first priority for production!
I can allocate all the resources you need, and by the way use the war in the Foul Swamp as a testing ground for new weapons.
I want to give my generals and my soldiers some confidence, I want them to know we have the ability to stop and repel the gnoll threat.”
“At your command, Lord Governor.”
Brother Loyalty stood at attention and responded:
“I will make a list for the administrative department, as long as resources are in place, we can start production immediately! However, I need to recruit a batch of trustworthy workers locally to specifically produce these weapons, this concerns Transia’s military secrets, I cannot hand them over to the Carpe family’s workers to make.
Once the principles are understood, with the level of engineers on the continent, it would be very easy to replicate.
Secrecy is essential.”
“Mm, we still have many unemployed blood servants.”
Murphy said softly:
“Perhaps it’s time for their twisted and fanatical loyalty to be put to proper use.”
