Chapter 522 - 327: A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings in Deepwater City (2)

Chapter 522: Chapter 327: A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings in Deepwater City (2)

"I want to support your reforms, with my full support. But not just for building the army of the Northern Domain, but here as well. I need you to be a pioneer for the new system," Zog said with gravity.

The sudden, delightful surprise made Figxin freeze for a moment, then she excitedly agreed.

Zog’s attitude was far better than even her most optimistic expectations.

’He really is a more radical Dragon than I am.’

Building an army is no small matter. The Contract between Zog and Figxin was upgraded, right there in the office and under Elsa’s watch, to the highest level: a blood pact.

One of Zog’s favorite types of Magic was the Contract.

’It’s truly a wonderful thing, an incredibly effective way to reduce the possibility of betrayal.’

Suspicion, after all, is a major cause of tragic endings.

This matter was also recorded in the Han Xin and Lu Wan’s Biography.

Having established the plan to reform the army, Zog began to instill his philosophy in Figxin.

’Even if you’ve never seen a pig run, you’ve at least eaten pork, right?’

With his years of internet experience, when it came to armchair generalship, Zog was more than just a pretender.

He talked about rules—about ensuring orders were followed and prohibitions were enforced. Absolutely clear rules were of the utmost importance.

Without clear rules, chaos was inevitable.

The most fundamental point was the compensation for soldiers of every rank. A professional army must have a professional income; it could no longer be sustained by the "right to plunder."

Furthermore, private looting should be strictly forbidden.

Once you opened that door, even a crack, it was inevitable that the soldiers would develop a bandit-like nature.

The people of Feilin had never held the army in high regard; soldiers and bandits were always considered two sides of the same coin.

Sometimes, the army was even more terrifying.

Beyond prohibiting private looting, there also had to be a comprehensive code of conduct for soldiers, regulating every aspect of their behavior.

They could probably take a page from the "Knightly Virtues" and make that the standard for the new army.

Only an army with sufficiently high moral standards could win the support of the common people; otherwise, all they would inspire was fear.

There also needed to be a system for rewarding military merit and punishing dereliction of duty.

Building morale was important, but that didn’t mean material support wasn’t.

Figxin agreed with all of this.

In her twenty-odd years of life, she had never met a—uh, being—whose ideas were so perfectly in sync with her own.

Every suggestion was a perfect fit for her needs, and she had considered many of them before.

Of course, there were also things she had never thought of.

For example, improving the soldiers’ literacy. They needed to be able to read. Officer evaluations couldn’t just be based on combat prowess; their level of education also had to be part of the assessment system.

Figxin thought for a moment and immediately understood the reasoning behind it.

Just like how workers also needed to be literate, as technology advanced, the equipment soldiers used would surely become more and more complex. Literacy would help them learn new things, and it would also enable officers to better study new tactics.

Besides, reading more would also help soldiers understand the philosophy of the new army, so they weren’t just mindlessly obeying orders.

However, there was one thing Figxin didn’t immediately understand.

"Why the emphasis on formation drills, military bearing, and barracks upkeep?" She hadn’t yet connected these things to increased combat effectiveness.

"To improve teamwork and discipline," Zog explained. "This kind of training builds conditioned reflexes in soldiers. When faced with a sudden emergency, they can obey out of instinct. On the battlefield, reacting even a second faster is crucial."

Figxin wasn’t the only one; quite a few people questioned the usefulness of formation drills and barracks upkeep.

They saw it as formalism, something with no practical purpose other than wasting time and energy.

But the truth is, no matter where you go, any army that’s even slightly modern chooses to emphasize these things, just with different points of focus.

Marching in formation, folding blankets, polishing leather shoes, or performing rifle drills—different armies have their own brand of "formalism."

Because practical experience has proven that this stuff really, truly works.

"These demands, precise down to the smallest details of daily life, not only increase efficiency but also help new recruits identify with the group more quickly. Uniting people from different places is no easy task."

Figxin nodded thoughtfully. She seemed to be starting to understand.

After Zog’s lengthy lecture, Figxin was raring to go, eager to start building her new army without a moment’s delay.

She had rediscovered a motivation she hadn’t felt in a long time.

But before getting to work, she made a request to Zog: could he design some inexpensive Magic Weapons for melee combat?

This actually served as a reminder for Zog.

The Gunnery Department had always designed various firearms and ranged weapons.

But there was still a place for close-quarters combat.

Moreover, many Professionals specialized in melee. Once they closed the distance, traditional weapons were more effective for them.

For these special units, within seven paces, a gun wasn’t necessarily faster or more accurate.

And since there were Magic spells that could interfere with other Magic, their current equipment, which was almost all magical, was severely lacking in physical damage.

Therefore, weapons capable of dealing physical damage were also necessary for Ordinary soldiers.

Inspired by Figxin, Zog decided to expand the Gunnery Department into an Armory, establishing R&D divisions for different types of weapons.

He gathered a number of artisans from the Dwarves and Elves, paired them with researchers from the Deep Research Institute, and formed a melee weapons R&D team.

He even personally drew up a blueprint and smugly showed it to the artisans and researchers.

"Behold! This is my design—the Chainsaw Sword!"

Actually, a similar gadget had already appeared as an item in *Doomsday Warrior*.

It was just that the version in the game was only a prop and couldn’t inflict much effective damage.

Zog put his brilliant mind to work and improved the design into a Chainsaw Sword that he believed could be lethal.

’So cool.’

However, after a few glances, the artisans and researchers present gave a remarkably unified assessment.

"Pure industrial garbage."

Zog gritted his teeth, repeatedly telling himself: ’These are tech people. They’re just blunt. Be patient. Daring to point out the boss’s shortcomings is a virtue...’

And their judgment that the thing was industrial garbage was indeed well-founded.

"It’s too heavy. And what about endurance? The Magic Energy required to keep the chain moving wouldn’t be low."

"How are you supposed to keep the teeth sharp with frequent use? Enchant each individual tooth? That’s just stupid."

"With such a complex structure, it’d be hard to guarantee reliability. The failure rate would probably be high. And what if the chain breaks? It could cause friendly fire."

...

The group of humans, Dwarves, and Elves chimed in one after another, tearing Zog’s Chainsaw Sword to shreds.

Oh, no, it wasn’t completely worthless.

After spending more than ten minutes finding all sorts of flaws, they unanimously found one good thing about it—the only good thing.

"It may be garbage to use, but it looks pretty cool," a Dwarf Artisan said, stroking his beard.

"I agree. It is cool."

Once they had finished their discussion, Zog tried to save face. "Haha, my design... well, it was just intended to cast a brick to attract gold," he said, using an idiom he’d adapted since Feilin had no concept of jade. "I was hoping to stimulate your creativity and get some better designs. Hahaha..."

Although these people were a bit sharp-tongued, their professional expertise was undeniably high, and they quickly came up with several different proposals.

"Simple Enchantment probably won’t work. It’s hard to control costs, and it would be too expensive to achieve a sufficient effect."

"Seconded. I think we could make a breakthrough with temperature. Not a Flaming Sword or an Ice Sword, but using the metal itself to conduct heat for high-temperature cutting, or cold for low-temperature cutting. It should be effective against conventional Armor."

"The Runes for temperature control don’t require much Magic Energy, and they’re stable. It should be feasible."

"How about this idea? It’s inspired by the Chainsaw Sword. If rotation is too hard to control, what about vibration? That should be controllable."

"You mean...?"

"Make the weapon vibrate at a certain frequency. It would consume less energy than a chainsaw, be easier to make, and more stable. High-frequency vibrations would also significantly increase the damage."

"That makes sense."

And just like that, the newly formed melee weapons R&D team quickly settled on two directions.

Thermal cutting and vibration cutting. They began their research and development work immediately...