Cave Refuge

Although Zachary did not understand how those metal armors were able to achieve full-body defense by merely covering a few key areas, just like in video games.

But judging from the attire of so many front-line personnel on the streets, this kind of metal armor had at least become very popular here.

In no time at all, Zachary found a store selling this kind of armor, and as he had guessed, this store was a court-run store.

Upon entering the store, he saw a dazzling array of metal armors displayed in the counter, and the store was bustling with customers. However, a large monitor overhead provided detailed introductions to these metal armors.

After carefully reading all about the metal armors, Zachary had a preliminary understanding of them.

Firstly, the defensive performance of the armor was not solely reliant on the metal's own toughness but on the energy within the user's body for defense.

Because of this, the appearance of the armor was actually not important. The strength of the defense was actually related to the thickness of the energy within the user's body.

Besides, armors made from different manufacturing materials would use different amounts of instant energy when calling upon the energy within for defense.

Normally, the more energy consumed instantly, the stronger the shield's defensive power would be, but naturally, the higher the price of the armor.

Moreover, the larger the area of the body covered by the armor, the less energy was wasted when using it for defense. But at the same time, the larger the coverage area, the more metal required and thus the higher the price.

However, no matter how large or small the area of the body the armor covered, the defensive power of the protective shield formed by the same quality metal was the same. The difference was only in the amount of energy naturally consumed when forming the shield.

The monitor above kept scrolling and playing defense tests of various metal armors. The lowest grade metal armor could already withstand small-caliber handgun shots from medium and long distances. The strongest metal, even when fired at point-blank range with a pre-disaster sniper rifle, could hardly break the armor's generated protective shield.

After watching this explosive promotional video, Zachary felt something was not quite right. After pondering for a while, he finally realized why he had that feeling.

It turned out that although the video showed practical tests, it neglected the condition of the users. Even with the most expensive metal, if the user's strength was inadequate and couldn't supply enough energy for the shield, then the shield's defensive power after being formed would not reach the performance shown in the video.

Zachary initially thought it was some powerful black technology, but upon his evaluation, while it could still be considered black technology, its practical effectiveness was far from as attention-grabbing as its appearance had suggested.

Perhaps many people had already thought of the key issue, but no one had articulated it clearly.

Zachary felt this gadget was somewhat of a white elephant because forming a full-spectrum protective shield required consuming the user's internal energy.

Although Zachary did not know whether this consumption was a one-time affair or whether it would use up the energy within the user to offset the damage from enemy attacks after the shield was formed.

If it was the former, it would be manageable since one could determine how much energy each use consumed, allowing the user to be more comfortable in combat.

But if it was not a one-time energy shield creation but an automatic consumption of internal energy to replenish and offset enemy attacks after its creation,

Then, if the enemy's attack frequency or the damage caused far exceeded the user's total internal energy, it could be that the user's energy would be instantly depleted by the enemy's attacks as soon as they engaged.

It was like a mage wearing a life-saving ring (using mana to offset damage taken from attacks.) Once surrounded by monsters, the mana would instantly drop to zero.

Without a life-saving ring, one could escape directly from there using teleportation when besieged by monsters, even if their health bar dropped instantly.

But with a life-saving ring, if surrounded by official duties, the mana would bottom out instantly, leaving no chance to escape.

Of course, there were pros and cons. If one had an abundant amount of internal energy, then wearing this equipment was most suitable, or for special personnel who needed strong life-saving abilities, this equipment would be most suitable for them as well.

In short, this type of equipment had a high cost-benefit ratio for most martial artists who faced equally matched opponents or were in one-sided battles, but for those who often needed to challenge higher levels, it was a burden.

However, after browsing the store, Zachary still casually bought a few sets. After all, if everyone else was wearing this equipment and he was the only one not doing so, it would make him stand out like a crane among chickens.

At this time, it was better to blend in with others and lower the enemies' guard.

Besides, Zachary bought several more sets of metal armor because he wanted to use his artifact refining abilities to understand the construction of this equipment. Since this type of equipment was already mass-produced, the manufacturing process should not be too complicated, and cracking it should not be difficult.

After leaving the armor store, Zachary also saw a gun shop. In many battles, it had been proven that in some situations, using firearms was indeed more convenient than using magical weapons like flying swords.