The Industrialist

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[Available Currency] 225,000 units

[Latest Transaction] Payment to Damian 80,000

[Scientist Rank] Electrical Tier 1

[Intelligence Level] 0 – pending completion of course

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Lance understood Jaqi's predicament. She's just doing her job to go about all merchant stores auditing smuggled goods. Lance's predicament was he lacked the legalities of such materials.

Then he remembered the dummy business name for the procurement of Quantum Flux Capacitors that he could leverage as a temporary front for his Omnexus Market stall.

He named the business, Berkleys Inc., a company that would connect with legal customs brokers, which was also connected with the rebel faction or the Outsider market for that matter.

Lance went to the Sectoral Local Government Units under the branch of GLD to submit legal documents that were to be forwarded to Jaqi's office.

He used his leverage as one of the representatives of Customs and Border Defense (CBD) as the weapons inventor and a little bit of an 'under-the-table' scheme of about 3,000 units to the Desker back at S-LGU. With this, Jaqi's office sent a response letter to his Market business with a penalty of 20,000 units for selling merchandise that lacked documentation.

'Jaqi had been fair with her work even though he personally knew Jaqi," Lance thought.

The raucous grew about all the stalls in Omnexus market being issued the same penalty. All of them were selling bootleg products. The stall owners aired their frustration to their stall neighbors, not directly to the Committee for Illegal Scrap Use (CISU). They know the kind of power the Lerics hold, preventing further business pressure of almost unknown guidelines of the S-LGU.

His three days' absence in the office of BCD was backed up by his valid reason for raw material procurement. If they wanted to produce a high-powered weapon, then they would let Lance procure Masterworks and Rare-level components beyond the reach of legitimate sources.

He went back to the office as the Capacitors were delivered.

He declared it about 14,000 units each per Capacitor which would give him an extra 6,000 units for his own pocket. The e-blueprints were then handed down to the manufacturing team to proceed with the prototype.

With the available raw materials that he procured from various sources, the prototype building took only three days. The formation and fabrication of the casings were easily built by the available fabrication equipment. What gave Lance a challenge was the stability of the components – adaptive power core, Ion repulsor coils, arc igniters, and other intricate schematic electronic connections, and the fusion of the poisoned nectar to the generation of Kinetic Energy as its firepower. The Beast Bane Railgun supported the name. Its form and size were intimidating enough and could be sufficient for level 3 and level 4 Abominants.

What's good about this was that its high-powered Kinetic energy had been fused with the poison Nectar, delivering poison as kinetic energy exploded, together with the poisoned nectar. Two devastating energies against a monstrous Abomination.

Three CBD staff hauled the prototype railgun from the shop floor to Leric's office, one carried on its a meter-length square-like nozzle and a bulk body of the Laser-generating compartment held by two men.

They placed it on a sturdy table inside the office of the CBD Head.

"Mister Leric, I present to you the Beast Bane Railgun!" Lance said enthusiastically. "Serious Kinetic Firepower, glazed with Poison mist, and fire rate of 15 blasts per minute."

Leric ambled around the prototype in a stern inspecting way.

"Looks good. Have you calculated the range?" Leric asked.

"Not yet, Mister Leric. Theoretically, its generation of kinetic energy could reach ten miles," Lance responded.

"Ten miles? Wow! I have heard that this weapon before the Nuclear World War was used by naval operations and could even reach far targets on land," Leric was enthused.

"We must test it, Mister Leric. We don't have a testing area for such a powerful weapon," Lance said. "I already tested the components' functionality and compatibility without firing, and it worked."

"Ok, let's take it to the testing site?"

"Within the walls?" Lance asked.

"Nope. Outside the walls. It is there we test out the bombs, especially new prototypes."

Mister Leric brought Lance and a few other staff to the outside of the Western Wall. Half a mile away, the testing site was composed of a wide clearing with a high, beaten cliff wall at the far end. The site was fenced with a mini shelter situated five meters from the cliff.

And the entirety of the testing center was fenced with an electrified barbed wire.

Two Government All-terrain Range Rovers parked behind the shelter. They mounted the BeastBane Railgun on a sturdy tripod with a flexible rotating bearing that could enable the operator to move about his aim.

Leric and Lance stood behind the Railgun operator and the latter aimed at the large wall cliff.

Without further presentation and discussion, the operator pushed the button for a trigger. It hummed for half a second and the railgun released a bluish kinetic energy, recoiling the upward, and dispersing strong winds as it triggered. The bluish kinetic energy became like a translucent laser light disrupting the surrounding space of the beam and clashed against the cliff, decimating a large hole in it as the dust settled.

Chester Leric applauded the presentation.

"Now, aim at farther on the side, and let's see how far it goes," Leric commanded.

The operator followed as instructed and fired the railgun again but intentionally missing the wall. The kinetic beam flew right passed the large cliff wall reaching the dark overcast and creating a large hole in a dark cloud, with signs of descent.

"Impressive, Lance," Leric said another applause.

"With your given budget, how many can you make?"

"With a 200k budget, Mister Leric? I can make six of them. But with the available components and materials, we can make ten!" Lance said.

He had to point it out that the production should increase to sell off the collected Quantum Flux Capacitors.

"Let's make ten," Leric commanded.

"Copy on that, Mister Leric."

"Good job, Mister Berkley. With this, as promised. You will become a Weapons Division Supervisor, handling three inventors as your subordinates. Of course, your compensation will be tripled, 15,000 units a month. What say you?"

Lance agreed. He needed to climb up the Government ladder to garner more influence and control. He needed Leric to catapult his career and gain more units in the process.

"You are an Electrical Tier 1 right?"

"Yes, Mister Leric."

"You have the same position as Jaqi, my daughter. If you want to augment more of your scientific ranking, propose this Railgun invention of yours to the panel. I am sure they will be delighted to compensate with rankings and monetary value."

It was amenable for the inventor to propose his inventions. It would provide him a concept of a model citizen in the city of Axe Central.

"What's next, Sup?" Leric teased.

"What do you have in mind, Mister Leric?"

"BioBombs!" Leric said eagerly.