Chapter 161 - 161 Hello, Weapons
Steve was troubled in the factory president's office.
Around him, research on gunpowder had begun based on Gaster's studies. Not for the sake of improving daily life, but for use as weapons.
While Gaster's whereabouts remained unknown, if other nations were advancing weapon development, it was natural for them to prepare as well, but if powerful weapons were developed, the misery of war would increase.
Steve, who was troubled like that, had an ill-tempered air radiating from him, so Nick and the other employees sensed it and did not approach. Only his childhood friend Bella treated Steve exactly as usual.
She brought tea to the president's office.
"I've made tea."
"Thank you."
Steve stopped his thoughts for a moment when Bella arrived. Then he took the tea.
When receiving it, Steve stared fixedly at Bella's face.
"What's wrong?"
Bella, feeling suspicious, asked.
"I was thinking insurance might be necessary."
Steve answered. Although he had stopped his thoughts to receive the tea, he immediately started thinking about weapons again. He thought he should have Bella hold a means to attack from a long distance outside the blast range, just in case he was blown up.
Steve had once made a weapon that shot bullets using a spring, but now he wanted to do it with gunpowder, meaning he wanted to make a gun.
Regardless, once gunpowder spread generally, they would eventually reach guns sooner or later. If that were the case, he thought it might be fine to make guns now.
Bella, who had not heard that explanation, did not know what insurance meant.
"What do you mean by insurance?"
"I'm thinking of giving Bella a new weapon."
"I'm already fully satisfied with the one Steve made for me."
Bella liked the spring-powered gun she had used since childhood and had no intention of using other weapons now.
Steve tried to persuade such Bella.
"This time, it might be dangerous to get close to the enemy. I'll show you now."
Saying that, Steve took Bella's hand and teleported. The place they teleported to was a desolate plain in the Archibalt Territory where no one approached. Since grass would not grow, there were almost no animals, so there was no need to approach.
In such a place, Steve created gunpowder with magic. It was yellow powder-like picric acid. Bella watched it next to Steve.
"What is this yellow thing?"
"It's an explosive drug. It's dangerous, so move a little away."
The two moved away from the location of the picric acid for a moment.
From a distance, they fired a fireball into the picric acid, and it exploded the moment it hit. Bella was startled by the explosion sound and the flash.
"What was that?"
"It seems to be what Gaster was researching."
"So it's not magic, then?"
"Yes. Right now I used a fireball for detonation, but detonation can also be done with the power of science. You don't want to engage in close combat with an enemy holding such powerful weapons, do you?"
"Of course not."
"That's why I want to make a weapon that can attack from far away and give it to Bella."
Steve made a gun and bullets with magic. The gun was a revolver, and the bullets were 9mm. He should have made them .38 inches, but Steve was unfamiliar with inches and familiar with millimeters, so he made 9mm bullets. Steve loaded the bullets made by magic into the gun. Bella watched with interest as Steve loaded one bullet into the cylinder at a time.
"Since I made this for the first time, I'll try the test firing."
Saying that, Steve held the gun with both hands and used a body strengthening magic on himself. Then he created an iron plate target 20 meters away and pulled the trigger aiming at it.
Bang
A gunshot was heard, and soon the iron plate made a sound. Bella widened her eyes in surprise and looked in that direction to talk to Steve, but Steve was still concentrating on the target, the iron plate, so she stopped herself from speaking.
Since the first shot went well, Steve fired the remaining bullets into the iron plate.
After finishing firing all of them, Bella spoke to Steve.
"That was amazing. I understood something was fired, but it was too fast to see anything."
"Do you understand that if these were mass-produced, the way war is fought would change?"
"More than enough. But with those, it seems okay if you wear an iron armor."
What Bella was looking at was the iron plate that had caught the bullets. With 9mm bullets, they could not pierce the iron plate.
Steve ejected the empty casings from the cylinder.
"With this, the power is still small. We just need to make bullets with more power. However, the recoil will be larger in return."
Since the 9mm worked well, Steve made .22LR and .44 Magnum bullets, and revolvers to fire them. In the end, Steve made inch-sized bullets.
He handed the .22LR revolver to Bella.
"Never look down the muzzle. Then, put in the bullets like I did before, pull the trigger, and the bullet will fly out. Aim using these iron sights as a guide."
After explaining how to use it simply, he handed over the bullets.
Bella put in the bullets by watching and imitating, held the gun with both hands, and took a stance with her waist lowered. Then she pulled the trigger aiming at the target.
Pan
A light gunshot sound was made, and the bullet hit the target. With .22LR, of course, it bounced off the iron plate.
"The recoil wasn't as much as I thought."
"That was a weak bullet. Try this next."
What Steve handed over was the revolver for 9mm that he had used himself just now. Bella pulled the trigger in the same way. Because of the recoil, she missed the target this time.
"It's completely different."
"Right. And, here is one with even more power."
Saying that, Steve showed a revolver loaded with .44 Magnum bullets. Because his body was strengthened, he could suppress the recoil, and the bullet perfectly pierced the iron plate.
Bella couldn't help but clap.
"The sound is completely different. And when it hit. But that's impossible for me."
"Then another type of gun appears."
Steve made a break-action rifle. The stock was made of round steel, and he aimed it against his shoulder. When he pulled the trigger, the bullet pierced the iron plate. After loading 9mm bullets and test-firing, he handed it to Bella.
"Try using the shoulder rest. The bullets are 9mm, so it's the same amount of gunpowder as the second gun just now."
"Same as before? But it pierced the iron plate."
"That's thanks to the long barrel. A longer barrel increases power. When jumping, the longer the run-up distance, the farther you can jump, right?"
A longer barrel increases the acceleration of the bullet. The rotation of the bullet stabilizes, and the combustion gas accelerates the bullet for a longer time. To make Bella understand this mechanism, Steve explained it using the relationship between run-up and jumping. It was a bit different from the actual principle, but Bella was satisfied with that explanation.
Then, receiving the rifle from Steve and hearing the explanation on how to use it, she aimed at the target. Her posture was what is called standing. Shooting while standing.
When Bella pulled the trigger, this time the bullet hit the target.
"The recoil comes, but I understand it's manageable because I'm pressing it with my shoulder. But it doesn't go where I aimed. With this, the spring gun I have now is better."
"The disadvantage of the spring gun is bullet loading. With a gun, loading the next bullet can become automatic."
With a blowback assault rifle, even against multiple enemies, the firing speed would not be a bottleneck. With a spring gun, that is not possible. It is the same as not being able to rapid-fire a crossbow.
"Um, I want to try shooting a gun with automatic loading too."
"It's difficult to make right now. I kind of understand the mechanism, but I don't know if it will work."
Steve had an interest in guns in his previous life and had researched their mechanisms. So, while he could easily reproduce a revolver, he did not yet know if he could reproduce blowback or short-recoil guns.
"So, are we mass-producing this in the factory?"
"No, I won't do that. I don't want this to spread. Well, regardless, such weapons will be developed over time, but I won't take the lead in doing so, and in the factory, unless there is a special request from the country, I intend not to make weapons. I don't want to do work that will make someone hate me."
This was Steve's belief. If he was going to make something anyway, he wanted to make something that would make everyone happy, and conversely, he did not want to do work that would make people hate him. Even so, if the country was in a situation of perishing, he would cooperate reluctantly. Before such a situation arose, if Steve went out to battle, most things would be settled, so he thought he would not have to make weapons.
"So, this is for me exclusively?"
"Yes. If something happens to me, or if an enemy with a new weapon appears while I am not around, you will use it."
"Then I must practice."
Saying that, Bella smiled brightly.
When Steve saw that smile, he felt guilty but still created additional 9mm bullets.
"Practice. I am prototyping another gun."
"Understood."
Bella took the bullets, turned her back to Steve, and looked toward the target. Steve proceeded to prototype the assault rifle with Bella's gunshot sounds as BGM.
The assault rifle made relying on memories of his previous life was incomplete and did not work well.
The automatic handgun made for distraction succeeded. This was because his experience of taking apart model guns many times had been useful.
In the end, he could not make the assault rifle work well, so he decided to return to the mansion for now.
Even after returning to the mansion, since Bella wanted to do shooting training, Steve urgently built a shooting range for Bella.
If Steve was doing such things, naturally Christina and Nancy would notice. The two came to the shooting range.
"Sir, what is this?"
"In case the missing researcher Gaster completed a new weapon, I gave Bella a new weapon as well. This is a facility for practicing that. Bella, show them."
At Steve's signal, Bella nodded.
Then, she aimed at a target 50 meters away with a break-action rifle.
Note: The targets were set up from 20 meters in 10-meter increments, with 50 meters being the furthest. The iron plate of the target was 25.4mm thick. It was a thickness that could not be pierced unless using an anti-material rifle with armor-piercing rounds.
When Bella hit the target, the two were surprised.
"I couldn't see it."
"What was that just now!?"
The two asked Steve for an explanation. There, Steve told them the gun's mechanism and the purpose of making it this time.
After hearing the explanation, Nancy asked Bella to shoot again. She wanted to catch the bullet's trajectory with her eyes. Just now, she did not think it was such a big deal, and the bullet hit the target before she could concentrate. So, this time she intended to concentrate from the beginning to see.
"Shoot."
Bella signaled and pulled the trigger.
"I managed to see it, but just seeing it is not enough to dodge it."
Nancy managed to catch the bullet with her eyes. She had such extraordinary dynamic visual acuity, but she judged that moving her body to match the bullet was impossible.
"What a terrifying weapon. Did the missing researcher make this?"
Christina pointed at the gun Bella was holding.
"No, this was made to counter that. The enemy is researching weapons that explode and scatter small stones and iron fragments, so I wanted a means to attack without getting close."
"Do you intend to mass-produce and deploy these?"
"No, I intend to give this only to Bella. If this spreads, war will become even more miserable. Well, inventions will be made and spread over time. Bella, show them the pistol too."
Saying that, Bella took out the revolver.
"Try firing continuously."
"Understood."
Bella fired continuously, hitting the target with all of them.
Steve was satisfied with the result and turned to face Christina.
"Like this, there are things that can fire continuously faster than arrows. Right now, I am trying to make something that can fire even more continuously and has higher power."
Hearing that, Nancy made a frustrated face.
"With this, sword training becomes meaningless. With just Bella, any country's army can be easily annihilated, can't it?"
"Not really. Guns and bullets are lumps of metal, so they are heavy, and there is a limit to the amount that can be carried. Also, since gunpowder explodes inside the barrel, it generates tremendous heat. If you fire continuously, it will break. In the end, you cannot handle war alone. However, if guns reach the soldiers, it might change."
"Sir, can I have one too?"
Begged by Nancy, Steve nodded. Nancy also began handling guns from this day. However, in her case, her desire to find the weakness of the opponent holding a gun to fight with a sword was strong.
And so, Steve proceeded with the development of the assault rifle.
Thank you always for your typo reports.