Chapter 90: Ma.s.sive Stockpile! The Dread Of Firepower!
“Good quality! I relied on my own ability to create a good quality product!”
Picking up the iron axe, Su Mo carefully looked at every mark hammered on it. After examining it from top to bottom three times, Su Mo still felt very happy.
“I’ve finally achieved entry-level status. This is without question a great improvement!”
Su Mo took out a piece of wood and lightly swung down with the axe. With a clang, the wood split apart.
It was like slicing through water, without any major resistance during the whole process.
Compared to a “productive” tool like this, even a chainsaw would not have the same level of efficiency, much less an axe produced on Earth’s a.s.sembly line.
“Sure enough, other species may have physical or supernatural advantages, but humans…”
“Human beings have always had the advantage of a brain full of wisdom and imagination, and a pair of hands to produce well-made tools!”
“Who cares about some fireball technique! Technology is the strongest weapon!”
Su Mo placed the iron axe aside and returned to the living room.
As expected, a new video had appeared on the TV and, using his recent forging process as the basis, it was now showing an even more standard method of forging an axe.
After reading it through swiftly, Su Mo gave up the idea of continuing to study and attempt it.
As humans, one should not be too greedy for meritorious work.
The previous knowledge had not been fully integrated yet, and rus.h.i.+ng to learn new techniques would be too hasty. If his foundation was unstable, it would be difficult to make proper progress in the end.
Returning to the initial screen, Su Mo sat on the stone bench. He closed his eyes and refreshed his mind before starting a new recording.
This time, what he needed to create were not tools, but… picric acid!
“Although the picric acid that was made in a hurry last time was upgraded to a “good” quality because of the workbench, there were no additional attributes. Perhaps there was a problem with my steps and preparation methods.”
“Even so, it was still quite powerful. However, what I need now is more stability, I must find a good way to safely detonate it!”
Looking at the picric acid manufacturing flow chart that he obtained from the trade with Tundra Shelter, Su Mo frowned and thought about how to make bombs.
The reason picric acids were eliminated were because they detonated very easily; a slight touch would cause it to explode.
Whenever it received a violent impact, the picric acid would explode immediately. Not to mention that it had no armor-piercing ability whatsoever.
Moreover, if you put too much of this thing in, then you would end up within the explosion radius of your own bomb. Too little, and it would lose its lethality.
Of course, the best solution was definitely to make landmines, and then lure the enemies over to trigger the explosions and kill the enemy.
“It’s too bad that, if I want to make landmines, my crafting ability alone is insufficient, and the raw materials I have are not good enough!”
“It seems that only the most primitive explosive packs can be used to deal with the current situation!”
After he figured out his plan, there was only one task left—prepare a large amount of picric acid raw materials!
Just like what was required in many games, one needed to prepare their weapons and ammunition before fighting monsters. Sitting in front of the workbench, Su Mo patiently completed each step.
From the preparation of sulfuric acid and nitric acid, to phenol disulfonic acid!
Su Mo watched every step from the tutorial on the TV screen repeatedly, trying to achieve the best results with all his might!
Finally, the prepared nitric acid was introduced into the phenol disulfonic acid. After the nitration reaction was completed, fresh picric acid was produced!
This time, Su Mo looked at his production again, finally showing a satisfied look.
[Picric Acid Explosive, Trinitrocresol (Good)]
[Description: A strong explosive made by the entry-level craftsman “Su Mo”. Hardly soluble in carbon tetrachloride, slightly soluble in carbon disulfide, soluble in hot water, ethanol and ether, and easily soluble in organic solvents such as acetone and benzene. The preparation method strictly followed scientific methods and has thus achieved a “good” level.]
[Properties: Melting point: 121.8°C, Boiling point: >300°C (Explosion)]
[Special ability:
Stability: The process of preparation was scientific and reasonable, which increased the stability of the explosive. (It will never explode below 300 degrees)]
[Comment: Ignite it well, and everyone will be happy! Ignite it poorly, and the whole village gets to feast at your funeral!]
“Although exploding at 300 degrees will make the explosive crossbow arrows a thing of the past, it has become more suitable for making explosive packs!”
Looking at a full kilogram of picric acids in front of him, Su Mo gently filled a small basin with all the picric acid crystals.
During the next half-day, sitting at the workbench, Su Mo tirelessly repeated this dull process endlessly.
Every time Su Mo wanted to give up, he would turn and look at the growing pile of yellow crystals in the corner, ramping up his excitement once again!
Five kilograms of toluene, plus all the saltpeter he had robbed previously, managed to produce a total of 30 kilograms of picric acid.
After conversion, it was a full 60 catties of explosives!
With these proportions, Su Mo intended to make 3 packs of 10-catty, 5 packs of 3-catty, and 15 packs of 1-catty explosive packs.
The former was intended to destroy enemy buildings, and the latter was to be used as a weapon in fixed locations!
Explosives like these were often tied up to look like quilts in movies.
These kinds of explosive packs were called propellants. They used bulk powdered explosives, spread between cloth and paper, wrapped up like a package, and then tied in the corners with rope.
Su Mo cut up the moldy sheets he previously used to load things into pieces and tore off the pages from the notebooks he obtained from the ruins.
The picric acids were added proportionately, before being wrapped in a cloth and fastened with scotch tape, to complete each simple picric acid explosive pack.
In between the explosive packs, Su Mo added in some gunpowder to ignite the explosives.
Now, everything was ready. The only thing left was the fuze to initiate the explosion!
There are many types of fuzes, including impact fuzes, proximity fuzes, combination fuzes, time fuzes, command fuzes, and many others.
“Hehe, the manufacturing process of the fuze is very complicated, and there are a lot of things needed, but…”
“I have the system!”
As soon as he thought of the system, Su Mo immediately felt refreshed. He laughed before focusing mentally to summon the system interface.
Tapping on the creation interface, Su Mo whispered, “System, create the simplest impact fuze; the cheapest one.”
[Detected creation requirements. Retrieved landmine impact fuze. 90 survival points required.]
“Landmine impact fuze? What?” Seeing the system prompt, Su Mo curiously tapped on the card for the landmine impact fuze.
There was a line of neatly written text description on the card:
The oldest landmine impact fuze. Its ignition is powered by the gravity of the falling rock. The trigger mechanism consists of an iron needle, a rotating steel (iron) wheel, a falling rock, flint, and a pulling rope.
When setting up, tie the two ends of the rope to the falling stone and the steel (iron) wheel respectively, then set up the rope as a trip rope, and place the falling rock in a high position.
When a person or animal trips on the rope, the falling rock falls from a height. When it falls, it drives the steel (iron) wheel to rotate, rubbing it against the flint and igniting the gunpowder fuze, which in turn ignites the charge of the mine through the fuze.
“From the year 1560? Is this an impact fuze from the 16th century?” Su Mo smacked his lips while thinking about it, then he decided to give up on this ancient trigger device.
Although this kind of device was cheap, it had very low practicality. There was only 60% written down in the column of its trigger success rate, which was extremely unstable.
“Retrieve the cheapest impact fuze from the 19th century”
[Detected creation requirements. Retrieved mechanical pressure fuze. 99 survival points required.]
“Okay! This will do!”
Hearing that the price of the mechanical pressure fuzes was not as high as a bowl of lamb stew and two steamed buns, Su Mo’s eyes flashed brightly. He did not hesitate to exchange his points for 5 mechanical pressure fuzes.
495 survival points were deducted. Then a green light shone out and began to flash on the workbench in front of Su Mo!
Almost similar to 3D printing, a green frame structure gradually began to take shape. After three to five seconds, five disc-shaped devices had been formed.
From his perspective, Su Mo could see the generation process of each component inside clearly, as well as the principles and method of triggering.
Unfortunately, before Su Mo could examine it in detail and memorize them, the five completed discs fell onto the workbench with a m.u.f.fled bang.
Su Mo opened the card of the mechanical trigger fuze and, after reading it for a while, memorized the method of using it.
Regarding this sort of impact fuze, as long as the safety mechanism had been removed, and it was placed on the explosive pack, any person who stepped on it would trigger the detonator below, thereby detonating the picric acid explosive pack.
At that time, all the enemies that were chasing would taste the power of “scientific” magic!
A catty of explosives is not enough? Then I’ll give you ten catties!
Any kind of fireball technique, or any kind of ma.s.s numerical advantage, would become a joke under the “dreadful firepower” of the Chinese people.
“System, how many survival points are needed for a 10-minute time fuze!”
[Detected creation requirements. The time fuze is found (length 10 minutes) and the survival points required are 20 points.]
“So cheap?”
Flipping the introduction card, Su Mo was surprised to find that the time fuze only needed 2 points a minute. For every minute it extended, the demand would increase by 2 points.
After thinking about it, Su Mo spent generously and exchanged 3 sticks of 10 minutes, 5 sticks of 5 minutes, and 15 sticks of 3 minutes.
He spent a total of 200 survival points.
What appeared this time was a very simple object, looking just like a string. It just needed to be ignited and it would slowly start to burn. When the time was up, it would ignite the gunpowder in the middle of the explosive pack…
Boom!
Turning his head and looking at the darkening sky outside, Su Mo mouthed the word, “boom”!
“It won’t take long…”
“Early tomorrow morning, I’ll let the kobolds know what art truly is!”