Chapter 1091: Chapter 42: I Have a Pretty Good Idea
As a sparring partner, Wang Yunxiao personally experienced the combat proficiency of these Sea People’s warriors.
Objectively speaking, their combat skills are indeed impressive. Fifteen of them have already cultivated the Garrison Soldiers Dharma Gate and show clear signs of having undergone extensive training, able to advance and retreat with ease, and maintain order in attack and defense.
Without wearing that armor, compared to his family’s team, they achieve approximately a thirty-to-seventy level.
With the armor on, it’s about sixty-to-forty, of course excluding the assistance of Chen Yan and Little Gourd on Wang Yunxiao’s side.
This is only on land; if it were underwater, Wang Yunxiao believes they could unleash even more formidable strength.
However, after sparring with them, Wang Yunxiao also detected the problem with this armor.
It has enhancement capabilities, but not significantly so.
Mainly designed for operations in the special environment of the deep sea, it reduces the power of the Heavenly Armor by ninety percent, equivalent to a beggar’s edition.
The most important feature of the Heavenly Armor, the Yuanqi Eight Trigram Furnace providing propulsion and short-term jet flight capability, was directly removed.
At hundreds of meters deep underwater, that thing is indeed useless, possibly even slower than one’s own swimming pace.
The main problem now is how to add more functionality to it without increasing too much weight, so as not to affect the Sea People’s warriors’ mobility.
“What are your thoughts?”
Master Cai inquired beside him: “If you were to wear this armor, where do you think improvements could be made?”
The Sea People’s warriors lying helter-skelter on the ground stayed silent, yet all ears perked up.
At first, they didn’t take Wang Yunxiao seriously. In the army, the strong are always respected. This young lad looks gentle, with tender skin and flesh, presumably with no great skills.
As a result, when they all attacked together, they couldn’t even touch the corner of his clothes and were subdued without a hitch.
Defeated sincerely and convincingly.
“Indeed, I have some thoughts, but I would like to understand what kind of enemies they usually have to fight?”
After pausing for a moment, Wang Yunxiao spoke: “You mentioned those Deep Sea Tribes, how are they different? And the Sea Serpent Clan, what exactly do they look like and what kind of attack methods do they use?”
“I’ll show you the video.”
Master Cai led Wang Yunxiao to the adjacent data room, where two Sea People’s youths jumped into the pool and fished out a giant nautilus with a diameter exceeding one meter.
Wang Yunxiao: …
Not quite what I imagined, but having something to watch is fine.
Master Cai explained to him: “This is not ordinary seafood; it’s an illusionary Mirage capable of storing images under the sea.”
He picked up a small hammer next to him, gently tapping it twice on the shell in a specific rhythm. A dreamlike mist was immediately ejected from the shell’s breathing pores, forming a colorful image in the air.
This was a video of Sea People Tribe warfare, interspersed with images of sea serpent attacks.
After watching, Wang Yunxiao remained expressionless.
Might as well not have watched it.
Not that the video had no value, but the warfare tactics on both sides were too primitive.
Riding fish, wielding bone weapons, charging at each other.
Nothing flashy, just thrusting directly; if one spear thrust didn’t kill, they’d pounce to wrestle and bite.
Some Great Witches of the Sea People can summon ocean currents, breaking the opposing charge formation and sweeping people away.
Some Great Witches can summon giant beasts, namely the Sea Serpent Clan to launch attacks.
In the murky, dark seabed world, a grim, bloody mouth suddenly descends from above, swallowing both warring sides without distinguishing enemy from friend, and then writhing its massive body away from the battlefield, awaiting the next call.
According to proportional scaling in terms of size, the sea serpent in the video is approximately forty to fifty meters in length, lacking scales.
Precisely, it lacks the backward-facing scales like Godzilla.
The evolutionary direction of organisms often greatly differs from an author’s groundless imagination.
Larger marine creatures often evolve smoother body surfaces, essentially due to the impact of water resistance on their swimming speed.
Looking back at the armor designed by the Equipment Division after watching the video, Wang Yunxiao discovered its ingenious aspects.
The main function of this thing isn’t combat, but survival.
The Sea People Tribe reproduces quickly, and has a violent nature, not afraid of death in fights and showing no regard for their tribe’s casualties.
But such a combat style is hard to convert into a modern army’s.
New recruits die too quickly, leaving neither time for training nor for growing up.
This armor removes the protection of the limbs, considering both weight reduction and the Sea People’s robust vitality, even if their arms or legs are chopped off, they can regrow.
Extra protection is added to the chest and neck, as these are the true vital parts; carelessly being bitten on the neck typically offers no chance of survival.
It retains the basic mechanism assistance of the Heavenly Armor, essentially exoskeleton power support, with tiger claw-like weapons added to the hands, catering to the Sea People’s accustomed close-quarter combat style.
However, the downside is that this thing isn’t highly resistant to corrosion.
The corrosiveness of seawater is quite dreadful, with finer components more prone to wear and tear in the water.
“Master Cai, have we considered using plastic?”
After pausing in thought, Wang Yunxiao asked.
“Plastic?”
Master Cai was taken aback for a moment, pondered a bit, then shook his head and said: “Plastic is corrosion-resistant, but too soft and prone to breaking.”
“I remember shark teeth can easily break, right?”
Wang Yunxiao turned to the Sea People youth beside him and asked.
The youth was stunned for a moment and scratched his head, saying: “Shark teeth do tend to fall out, but the hardness is decent; we often use them to make jewelry.”
“I noticed in the video earlier, during battle you bite off your enemy’s flesh and eat it directly, correct?”
“Yes, according to our customs, consuming the flesh of the enemy can make oneself stronger.”
“Can you digest plastic?”
“Never tried.”
Wang Yunxiao nodded and said to Master Cai: “I have an idea, since the sole attack method of the Sea Serpent Clan is swallowing, what if we make a batch of plastic armor for it to consume? If it can’t digest, will it not die?”
Master Cai was dumbfounded, momentarily frozen, his brain stalled.
“It’s worth a try!”
Unlike him, upon hearing this idea, the Sea People’s youths all became excited: “I think it makes sense! Worth trying!”
“Then… what if it doesn’t eat?”
Master Cai was at a loss for how to refute, managed to squeeze out a sentence: “The Sea Serpent Clan has a certain level of intelligence, it’s not a fool.”
“If it doesn’t eat, then it poses no threat.”
Wang Yunxiao shrugged: “Unless they can evolve another attack method, like firing a laser cannon from the mouth or something.”