Lord of the Sky City

The cost of developing the new armor had completely exceeded Rocky's imagination, and it even surpassed the maximum financial burden he could bear!

When Hammerfire produced the fifth version of the improved armor and started to work on a comprehensive upgrade to the next version, the one million Gold Coins provided by Rocky were entirely spent...

To the average person, such spending would be unimaginable because only a few months had passed since the beginning of the Rune Armor project. Yet they had already spent over a million Gold Coins in such a short period, burning cash even faster than indulging in eating, drinking, and gambling.

But this was the reality, and not only was it a fact, but in the eyes of people like Orton, it wasn't even surprising because even a few million Gold Coins being spent on the research process of ordinary technology or techniques would be considered quite normal, let alone their research on Rune technology, which was of the topmost tier.

In fact, knowing that Rocky had limited funds, Orton and his team had been trying to be as frugal as possible throughout the research process. For instance, despite Hammerfire manufacturing exactly five versions of armor, in order to save funding, only one set of each version was made. Under normal circumstances, for experiments of this level, at least a dozen sets of experimental battle armor would be needed.

Moreover, with only one set of armor available for testing, Orton and his team could only conduct repeat experiments on this sole set of armor. They wouldn't design and produce the next version until they had completely worn out and scrapped the current set of armor after combining the experimental results. It was a level of frugality that couldn't possibly be further stretched.

Yet even under such constrained research conditions, the progress made by the several masters was quite remarkable. After the fifth version of armor testing concluded, most of the technology used for the armor had been successfully improved through incessant trials. This meant that by the time the sixth version of the armor was manufactured, the new White Demon Armor would be fundamentally finalized!

Once the armor was final, it meant that the theoretical part of the research was completely finished, and the study would officially enter the practical operation stage.

During this phase, the White Demon Armor, driven by Rune technology, would undergo a series of experiments under Rocky's operation, while Orton and his team would use the data from these experiments to make further adjustments to the armor.

This meant that the research on the Rune Armor project had reached mid-course and was taking a significant step towards success!

But, just at this moment, the research funding provided by Rocky had run out, and they couldn't produce the sixth version of the armor...

For everyone involved, this was a significant setback, yet there was nothing they could do about it. After all, research depended on money to continue, and without it, regardless of the ideas, nothing could be researched. Money was necessary for ideas to be realized.

This situation caused immense anxiety for Orton and his team, and Rocky was just as anxious.

Orton and his team were anxious because they were top masters of their era, who had come together to research tirelessly for months, and just as the armor they had painstakingly developed was about to enter practical operation, they had to stop research due to lack of funding – how could they be content with that?

Rocky was anxious too because he was the one truly spending the money, and one million Gold Coins had been exhausted, yet all he had to show for it were a pile of data – wasn't this equivalent to one million Gold Coins just drifting away like water!

In this situation, both Orton's team and Rocky wanted the research to continue, but where would the money come for that?

To solve this problem, they had no choice but to come together to discuss strategies.

"Aileen, how much money can we still draw from the city's funds?"

After Orton and his colleagues arrived at Rocky's study, Rocky immediately asked Aileen.

"At most three hundred thousand, that's the limit I can manage. If we use any more, the city simply won't be able to cope,"

As the finance officer of Thunderhawk City, Aileen was clearer than anyone about how much money was in Thunderhawk City's treasury and how much was needed to maintain city operations. Therefore, without even needing to think, she immediately answered that Rocky could only contribute an additional three hundred thousand Gold Coins to the research.

However, upon hearing this number, Orton and his colleagues shook their heads again and again, and even Rocky sighed, knowing all too well that three hundred thousand Gold Coins was simply not enough.

But this was the limit Thunderhawk City could offer, and even these 300,000 gold coins were only available thanks to the fortunate circumstances following Rocky's assassination attempt. According to Aileen's original plan, these 300,000 gold coins were meant to pay the protection fee. However, due to Rocky's assassination attempt, Eternal City waived Thunderhawk City's protection fee for three months, which is why this sum was available. Otherwise, she wouldn't have had even these 300,000 gold coins.

As a result, everyone began to discuss countermeasures, looking for ways to gather enough research funds.

After much discussion, they could only think of two methods.

The first was for everyone to pool their money together. Rocky could still contribute 300,000 gold coins, and other researchers like Orton were masters in their field. Although they owned no industries, it was still not a problem for each of them to contribute hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Thus, by pooling together, they could raise another million gold coins for research. If they had an additional million in funds, according to Orton and others' estimates, they might not be able to achieve much, but they could complete this phase of the research.

But this method had one problem: it was not sustainable.

The research on Rune Armor was not something that could be finished in a day or two, a month or two. Even if the new White Demon Armor was fully successful, it wouldn't mark the end of the project. Far from it, in fact—it would just be the beginning! The successful development of the White Demon Armor would signify the opening of a new field in Rune Armor, revealing many aspects to delve into deeper. Only then would the Rune Armor project really commence!

As the research deepened, funding would be consumed like a bottomless pit. What would Rocky and his colleagues do then?

Would they tighten their belts and pool money together again? Even if they were willing, they wouldn't be able to raise the funds!

So this method could only temporarily alleviate the urgent problems but wouldn't solve the issue completely.

As for the second method everyone thought of, it was to seek investors.

Perhaps by approaching businessmen like the Chambers of Commerce or current Armor manufacturers or by turning to City Lords, whether ordinary ones or alliances like the Sky Alliance. In short, they needed to find wealthy individuals to invest in the Rune Armor project. With their support, the financial issue would be resolved permanently.

In fact, more than ninety percent of current research is carried out in this manner, with one party providing funds while the other conducts the research.
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However, there was also a significant issue with this approach, that is, the necessity to share the research results with the investors.

The project Rocky and Orton were working on was their private venture, meaning that any successful outcomes belonged to them alone. But once they sought investments for their research, even if funding was no longer an issue, the results would no longer belong solely to Rocky; they would have to be shared with the investors.

This was clearly not what Rocky wanted to see. It wasn't because he was stingy and wanted to hide and hoard the runes as treasures; the research they were conducting was just too important to him.

Once the research on Rune Armor succeeded, it would become the core technology in the field of runes. And as long as he held this core technology, even if Rocky publicized Mana Runes to the world, allowing everyone to know of their existence and start researching them, he would still maintain a leading position because he had the core technology!

In the realm of technology, the principle of staying a step ahead is immutable. If you control core technology, you will inevitably lead the competitive research race, and the Rune Armor research represented such core technology.

In this scenario, once outsiders entered and had access to their research results, Rocky would lose his advantage completely.

With that, the group found themselves at an impasse, unable to think of a solution that would meet both needs.

However, it was at this moment that Hammerfire suddenly spoke up.

"City Lord, lad, I might have a way to alleviate the financial strain temporarily, although this method is quite dangerous..."