Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!
Chapter 43: This is in the Bag

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: This is in the Bag

Half an hour later, the four-member team returned to their residence.

It was already 10:30 PM. The celebration outside was still ongoing and bustling, but the expressions on their faces were far from relaxed.

Lei Jie inspected the three fairly good-condition batteries they had just purchased and said:

"They look very new, probably taken from some sealed equipment."

"We just conducted a power test. The voltage and current output are quite stable, and compared to brand-new batteries, the performance degradation should be minimal."

"All three of these batteries can be used on the exoskeletons we found. I even suspect they were originally dismantled from an exoskeleton."

"If that’s the case, things are a bit complicated."

"Is the Holy Blood Temple using the Mechanical God Sect’s hand to test us, or has the Mechanical God Sect discovered the situation in Xia Ma Town and is using these three batteries to probe us?"

After Lei Jie finished speaking, Chen Jian shook his head and replied:

"I’m not sure, but it’s one of these two possibilities."

"The Holy Blood Temple has the motive to do this, and if we calculate the timing, the news from Xia Ma Town should have reached them by now."

"However, their actions seem a bit too crude. In this day and age, can they really find three perfectly working batteries from a random night market without it being exaggerated?"

"Who knows..."

Shen Yue continued to speak as he tried to load the sleeve arrow into the launcher:

"It’s impossible to understand them using our logic, but what if we try a different way of thinking?"

"Maybe the miners of Xia Ma Town were insignificant to them. What truly mattered was that someone looted Xia Ma Town and took something away."

"And these things happened to be useful to them, yet they didn’t know what to do with them."

"If it were me, I might use the same method to test—of course, I’d do it more smoothly."

"Indeed....."

Chen Jian pondered for a moment and continued to speculate:

"If this logical deduction can proceed, it means they still have similar exoskeletons at hand that they can repair once they grasp our technology."

"Only then would their series of actions have a reasonable explanation."

"I think so too."

He Shuo nodded and then asked:

"Is there a possibility for us to directly cooperate with them and get a hold of the remaining exoskeletons they have?"

"If the problem with Xia Ma Town is no longer an issue, then I believe cooperation isn’t out of the question."

Chen Jian shook his head and replied:

"The premise of cooperation is exposure, which isn’t favorable for us. The Holy Blood is fine; we have no conflicts of interest with them, but the Mechanical God Sect’s ideology aligns with ours fundamentally."

"However, I do have a compromise—let the Holy Blood go and request the items."

"If they don’t give them, then their intention behind sending the batteries is clear, and it implies we’ve been targeted. We should prepare for confrontation."

"If they give them... that’s even better."

"Maybe, we’re overthinking everything. They might simply not realize the importance of these things, and they were stolen and sold by some internal staff."

"Could they really be that foolish?"

Shen Yue asked incredulously.

"Why not..... during the Qing Dynasty, even cannonballs and gunpowder were taken out and sold."

"Don’t overestimate human nature, especially during chaotic times."

Chen Jian gestured with his hand and decisively said:

"Two-pronged approach, I’ll go contact Xu Lie, and you three can study the equipment."

"Lei Jie, see if you can repair the exoskeleton."

"He Shuo, disassemble the sleeve arrow and get the launcher ready."

"Shen Yue, give them both a hand."

"Let’s aim to get everything ready in a day or two, so when we go to scout the city, we’ll have a better chance of success!"

"Understood!"

The three of them answered one by one, and Chen Jian pushed the door open and rushed to Xu Lie’s residence without delay.

Two hours later, Chen Jian and Xu Lie settled the details, fabricating a story convincing enough to be believed.

And with this story, Xu Lie wasted no time and immediately reported to the Holy Blood Temple, planning to use his team’s achievement of "slaying a level-five beast and creating opportunities to annihilate the Blood Skull Camp" to exchange for the equipment Chen Jian desired.

For Chen Jian’s team, the remaining time was just about waiting.

Fortunately, the waiting wasn’t dull.

They spent four to five hours first disassembling all the sleeve arrow missiles at hand, identifying the functioning components, and then reassembling them to finally get six "usable" sleeve arrow missiles, bypassing the difficulty of repairing precision electronic components.

Afterward, they spent nearly 10 hours dismantling the exoskeleton into parts to understand all its operating principles.

This step was quite complex for Chen Jian, Shen Yue, and He Shuo, but Lei Jie managed it with ease.

That’s exactly what he does!

He was originally a top student from the Electronics Science University, majoring in electronic engineering, enlisted through a direct placement, and was initially trained as a technical troop, but with all-round development, he eventually ended up in the team.

Dismantling small gadgets like these wasn’t a challenge for him. Chen Jian had even witnessed him tear down the remote weapon station on the team’s Humvee while pretending to do maintenance, making a complete mess of it. The team’s combat commander at the time was a major general who had seen big scenes, yet was still quite vexed, and threatened to discharge him if the weapon station couldn’t be restored.

Obviously, since Lei Jie stayed, it meant he successfully restored it.

So, even though the scattered parts almost covered the entire ground floor living room, Chen Jian still had full confidence in Lei Jie.

"How is it? Easy to repair?"

Chen Jian asked.

"Not easy to repair, lacking parts."

"Two bearings are broken, completely irreparable."

"One multi-stage hydraulic cylinder has a small crack on the outside, and one swing hydraulic cylinder is rusted. We don’t have the tools for precise grinding or welding."

"The motors are all usable, but I’m not familiar with this stepper motor model. If I really want to figure it out, I would need to disassemble it and study it carefully to ensure it can be repaired in the future if it breaks."

"But for now... let’s hold off."

"There are issues with the cables, but nothing major."

"The computer is long known to be unusable; it’s better without it, but the sensors are all good, which is great."

"Other than that, there aren’t any major problems. The full-frame titanium alloy just needs a bit of polishing and lubrication to be usable."

"To be blunt, for us right now, being one step away from being operational might as well span two entire industrial + information eras..."

Lei Jie sighed, and Chen Jian patted him on the shoulder and said:

"Think positively, maybe it’s three eras?"

"It’s fine; we’ll eventually find replacement parts. No need to rush..."

"Knock, knock!"

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden knock at the door of their residence.

After confirming the identity of the visitors, Chen Jian opened the door.

Standing outside were Xu Lie and Li Shi, and behind them was a cart covered with canvas that looked quite heavy at first glance.

"Is this the stuff I asked for?"

Chen Jian asked.

Xu Lie nodded and replied:

"Yes, plenty of it."

Chen Jian exhaled lightly and continued to ask:

"What did they say?"

Xu Lie gestured for Li Shi to move the stuff inside and then replied:

"They said these things are broken, the most valuable batteries inside are already gone, so they can give all the rest to us."

"They also asked me what we wanted this junk for, saying even the Mechanical God Sect’s grand cathedral couldn’t figure out the principles of these items."

"And that these special metallic materials aren’t valuable, they can’t be made into weapons."

"... What did you say?"

"As per your instructions, I told them these things could be assembled into armor racks for our own use."

"Very good!"

Chen Jian nodded in satisfaction. By this time, Li Shi had begun moving the damaged exoskeletons into the room.

At a glance, there were at least over ten exoskeletons on the cart.

Lei Jie watched the incoming items intently, performed a brief inspection, and then gave Chen Jian a thumbs-up.

Then he said:

"This is solid!"