Chapter 1323: Flaw

A week later, a strange-looking vehicle drove slowly into the test explosion site.

It was the first crawler tractor ever built by Neverwinter’s Ministry of Industry, constructed from complete blueprints provided by the Design Bureau of Graycastle — but only the base plate matched the prototype. The rest bore no resemblance to it. Thick armor plating covered every side of the body, giving the whole thing the shape of a moving box.

The vehicle drove to the center of the test site, halted before the melted steel tower for roughly half an hour, then turned and drove back south the way it had come.

After covering about five kilometres, a truck pulled alongside and collected all the passengers. The armored tractor was left where it stood in the snow.

The passengers were restless for the entire return journey. They reached Neverwinter from the Great Snow Mountain the following day.

Roland summoned them to the castle as soon as word of their arrival reached him.

“No trouble along the way?”

“Everything went smoothly, Your Majesty.” Phyllis smiled and set a sigil before him. “Summer found the explosion site very quickly — we ended up staying there for less time than we’d planned.”

“I — it’s because you gave me a specific time to work with, so it wasn’t that hard,” Summer said, her voice dropping. “Compared to my other sisters, my control over my ability is really not very —”

“That’s enough, no need to be modest.”

“I — I’m being serious…”

Expression still sober, Roland took the sigil and turned to Momo, who stood beside him. “Sorry to trouble you.”

“Not at all, Your Majesty.” Momo raised one hand to partially shield her eyes — she avoided meeting anyone’s gaze while using her ability — and a moment later lowered it and bowed. “Everyone’s numbers and colors show no notable change from when they departed.”

Only then did Roland release the breath he had been holding. He looked around at them. “Thank you. You worked hard.”

“You too,” the witches replied together.

“Go fill your stomachs first — meals are waiting in the parlor, and there’s as much Chaos Drink as you like.”

He shook his head with a smile as he watched their faces brighten. For the Taquila witches who had also taken part in the mission, no additional reward was necessary; the Dream World was a regular destination for them regardless.

Using Summer’s ability to recreate past events — and watching those reconstructions at a fraction of real speed — had long been the Ministry of Engineering’s most reliable method for identifying what went wrong inside a weapon the instant it fired. Adjusting the playback speed revealed the progression of every development second by second, and most problems could be spotted at a glance.

But the Glory of the Sun was not like other weapons. Dirty bombs that had failed to fully react left substantial amounts of fatally radioactive material at the site. Anyone entering carelessly would suffer severe radiation injury.

To address this, Roland had sacrificed his first crawler-tractor prototype without hesitation, stripping and rebuilding it as a radiation-blocking vehicle. Every surface — sides, bottom — was layered with lead plate, with gold foil and beryllium sheets sandwiched between the layers. Total shielding thickness reached ten centimeters: an effective barrier against photon, electron, and neutron radiation alike. The added weight required the Cube-powered steam engine, as nothing else could move it.

The interior had its own oxygen supply, completely isolated from the outside air and sealed against radioactive dust through the ventilation channel. A thick slab of lead-containing glass — thirty centimeters deep — was mounted at the front for observation.

Roland had also anticipated that the tracks and armor plating would pick up contamination while traversing the test site, and had specifically ordered the crew to transfer to a clean vehicle the moment the armored tractor exited the danger zone, then abandon the tractor in the snow.

Every precaution he could think of had been taken. He had worried all the same.

The final results, mercifully, confirmed a complete success.

With the data in hand, Roland, Anna, and Celine began their analysis.

They used the Sigil of Recording to replay the recreated scene again and again — adjusted to a speed hundreds of times slower than real life. The flaws in the No. 1 experimental configuration emerged gradually from the footage.

“The performance of our explosives is too poor,” Anna said quietly.

“I noticed the same thing — the force of the explosion doesn’t seem to have transferred cleanly to the gun barrel.” Celine bent her main tentacles in a slow nod. “Could batch detonation solve this?”

“Unlikely, in the short term.” Roland rubbed his stinging eyes. Two straight days of watching the explosion recording had reduced the world to two colors: white and blue.

The problems with the explosives had been anticipated. He simply hadn’t expected them to be this obvious.

Neverwinter had long been mass-producing double-base smokeless powder. Not as fast-burning or powerful as high explosives like RMX — but sufficient for the army, where a shortfall in force could always be made up in volume. In the experimental configuration, that logic inverted. The shortfall was undisguisable.

More than a thousand kilograms of explosive had never been part of the original blueprint. Stacked together, the mass was the size of a safe. To channel the blast energy toward the Uranium, Roland had designed a funnel-shaped lens — sound in principle. The recordings, replayed and slowed to a crawl in front of him until white and blue were all he could see in his mind’s eye, showed exactly where it had gone wrong.

The problem arose before the detonation reached the lens at all. The explosive cluster was too large; every point within it detonated simultaneously. The pressure waves from the front and the rear collided and partly cancelled each other. The slowed footage made it plain: those colliding waves had warped the steel lens and the outer shell alike. Energy bled outward instead of inward, and proportionally less remained to drive the Uranium.

Then there was the chain reaction.

The barrel pressure hadn’t held long enough to sustain the fission. Most of the Uranium vaporized from the heat — which crippled the neutron source at exactly the moment it was most needed.

“We’ll have to find other means,” Roland said, spreading his hands. Without electronic detonation control technology, firing every explosive element within a millisecond — the only way to prevent front and rear pressure waves from overlapping — was simply not achievable. Switching to high explosives would attenuate the problem, not solve it.

He could commission the Ministry of Chemical Industry to develop low-velocity explosives and position them in front of the lens to reduce the interference between charges, but developing them would require extensive testing, and success was far from certain. The most reliable path available right now was to compensate for the deficiency in detonation technology through structural design.

“Looks like another late night,” he said, stretching with an exhausted groan.

“I’ll be here with you.” Anna smiled. “What if I offer you a Blackfire massage as a reward?”

Roland sat up immediately. “I’m suddenly full of energy.” He paused. “Is there any other reward on offer?”

“Such as?”

“Let me think — oh, right. The thing you mentioned last time —”

Was this also knowledge from the Dream World?

Celine pressed her main tentacles against her large, flushed face. Then she quietly set them back down, turned, and slipped out of the North Slope laboratory without a word.

Chapter 1323 - Flaw

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations A week later, a strange-looking vehicle drove slowly into the test explosion site. It was the first crawler tractor ever constructed by Neverwinter’s Ministry of Industry according to the complete blueprints provided by the Design Bureau of Graycastle. However, the only thing that was the same was the base plate, its outer appearance did not resemble the prototype at all. The sides of the car were wrapped in thick armor plates, causing it to look somewhat like a moving box. After it drove into the center of the test explosion site, it stopped before the melted metal tower for about half an hour, and then turned around and drove back south in the direction it came from. After it covered around five kilometers of ground, a truck drew up close and picked up all the passengers on the tractor. The box-shaped tractor was directly abandoned in the snow. The passengers were restless throughout the journey, returning to Neverwinter from the Great Snow Mountain the next day. Upon receiving the news of their arrival, Roland immediately summoned them into the castle. “How was it, you didn’t run into any trouble right?” “Rest easy Your Majesty, everything went well.” Phyllis smiled and brought a sigil before him. “Summer found the scene of the explosion really quickly so we stayed there for a shorter time than we thought we would.” “I-It’s because I was given a specific time so it wasn’t very hard,” Summer said shyly, “Compared to my other sisters, my control over my ability is pretty bad…” “Enough, you don’t need to be modest.” “I-It’s true…” His expression still solemn, Roland took the sigil and then turned and looked over to Momo who was beside him, “Sorry to trouble you.” “Not at all, you exaggerate, Your Majesty.” Momo partially blocked her eyes with one hand in order to avoid looking at the king while she was using her ability. A while later she lowered her hand and gave Roland a bow. “Everybody’s numbers and colors have not changed noticeably and are pretty much the same as when they set off.” It was only after hearing these words did Roland heave a sigh of relief. He smiled and said to everyone, “Thank you, you’ve worked hard.” “You too,” the witches replied in unison. “Why don’t you go and fill up your stomachs first? Your meals are already ready in the parlor and you can have as much Chaos drink as you like.” Seeing the faces in front of him light up, he shook his head with a smile. As for the Taquila witches who had also participated in the mission, there was no need to give them any other reward as they were frequent visitors of the Dream World anyway. Using Summer’s past event recreation ability to closely observe the changes that had occured in the instant of a weapon’s activation had always been what the Ministry of Engineering relied on the most for making improvements to weapons. By adjusting the speed of the replay, they could clearly see the trends in the changes that occured every second, allowing most problems and mistakes to be spotted in an instant. But as mentioned before, the Glory of the Sun was completely different to all the other weapons. Especially for dirty bombs that had not finished reacting completely yet, many substances that gave off fatal radiation would remain at the site. If someone were to rashly enter, they would inevitably suffer severe radiation injuries. To tackle this, Roland didn’t hesitate to sacrifice his first crawler tractor prototype and convert it into a radiation-blocking vehicle—he covered all of its sides including the bottom with several layers of lead plates with gold foil and beryllium sheets sandwiched between them. The thickness of the entire thing was ten centimeters, causing it to be a highly effective shield against photon, electron and neutron rays. The increased weight due to the protection required the Cube-powered steam engine to drive it, as only that was the only thing that could handle the weight. The inside of the vehicle was provided with its own oxygen so it was basically completely separate from the outside of the vehicle, removing the risk of radioactive dust entering the vehicle through its ventilation channel. In order to observe the scene of the explosion, a large slate of lead-containing glass was attached to the front of the vehicle, and had a shocking thickness of thirty centimeters. He had also considered that the tractor’s tracks and armor plates might be contaminated when entering and leaving the test site, and especially ordered them to immediately change vehicles after the armored vehicle left the dangerous zone and abandon the armored vehicle in the snow. It could be said that Roland took all the safety measures that he could think of. However, even so, he was still worried. Thankfully, the final results showed that the observation mission had been a complete success. After the data was in his hands, Roland, Anna, and Celine immediately started their experimental analysis. … They used the Sigil of Recording to repeatedly replay the recreated scene which had been made to play hundreds of times slower. Gradually, the flaws of the No.1 experimental configuration emerged. “The performance of our explosives are too poor,” Anna said in a low voice. “I noticed too, the force from the explosion didn’t seem to travel successfully to the barrel of the ‘gun.’” Celine nodded her main tentacles. “Can we use batch detonation to solve this problem?” “I’m afraid it’s unlikely we can achieve that within a short amount of time.” Roland rubbed his sore eyes. Watching the live explosion recording for two days straight had made him feel as if there were only two colors left in the world—white and blue. Although the problems with the explosives had been anticipated, he didn’t think that it would be so obvious. Up until now, Neverwinter had been mass producing double-base smokeless powder. Although it wasn’t as powerful and fast as high explosives such as RMX, it was sufficient for the purposes of the army. Even if the power was lacking, they could make up for it with numbers. However the fallbacks of it became evident when using it in the experimental configuration. Over a thousand kilograms of explosives was most certainly not a part of the original blueprint. When they were piled up, they were as large as a safe. In order for the energy of the explosion to travel towards the piece of Uranium, Roland specially created a lens that looked like a funnel in an attempt to focus the energy of the blast to one point. There was nothing wrong with this idea, but a problem occurred before the detonation reached this step. As the size of the cluster of explosives was too large and every point exploded simultaneously, the energy waves created by the bombs on the front and back cancelled each other out partially—this could be clearly seen in the slowed-down recreated scene. The colliding waves warped the entire steel lens and even the outer shell. This meant that a large amount of energy was used up outside of the ‘gun barrel,’ and naturally less was used to push the piece of Uranium. Next was the chain reaction. The pressure inside the barrel was not enough to quickly stop the fission reaction and most of the Uranium vaporized due to the high temperatures; this in turn weakened the effect of the neutron source. “We can only search for other means,” Roland said with his hands spread out. Without electronic explosive control technology, detonating all of the explosives within a millisecond in order to render the front and rear waves impossible to overlap, was unachievable. Even if they changed them into high explosives, it would only attenuate but not solve the problem He could get the Ministry of Chemical Industry to try and develop low-speed explosives and position them in front of the lens in order to possibly decrease interactions between the explosives, but the process of creating it would involve a large number of experiments, and it might not even be successful. The most reliable method at the moment was obviously to make up for the lacking detonation technology with structural design. “It looks like we’ll have to work overtime tonight as well,” he stretched and said weakly. “I’ll be here with you,” Anna said with a smile, “How about I reward you with a Blackfire massage?” “I suddenly feel full of energy.” Roland jolted. “Is there any other reward?” “For example?” “Let me think… Oh yeah, how about the one you mentioned last time…” Was this also knowledge that they learned from the Dream World… Celine covered up her large, hot and flushed face with her main tentacles, and then quietly left the North Slope lab.