Chapter 1323 - Flaw (1/2)

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.