“I knew you’d understand, Comrade! This is indeed how a man’s weapon should be!” Werner said.
“Pile Bunker?” Myuhi asked.
“Stake of the fuel bunker? What does that mean?” Aristel asked.
Compared to Shinichi, who remained calm despite his surprise, and an enthusiastic Werner, the two girls couldn’t understand at all.
Part of the reason was because the difference in translation software caused their device to translate Shinichi’s words literally.
Seeing their confusion, the passionate engineer laughed.
“Fu fu fu, you’ve finally said the words I’ve been waiting to hear! Allow me to explain(・・・・・)!! Pile Bunker is—!”
—Pile Bunker.
An imaginary weapon that often appears in games and other fictional work like the snake belly sword.
It shoots out a lightning-fast metal spear or stake to penetrate its target.
And although it’s one of the harder weapons to handle among Werner’s creations, it possesses terrifying destructive power.
It has a much simpler design compared to something like the snake belly sword, so as long as one has the technology and materials, producing it isn’t a problem. There also aren’t many problems in using it so long as you don’t consider ‘using’ it in live combat.
After all, you could just smash your foe with it or shoot them with it—
“—But of course, it’s not without faults. For one, you have to be really close to your opponent to use it. Also, when creating something with a lot of firepower behind it, bigger sizes and greater recoil are natural consequences. The design(gimmick) also makes it so that there’s a time lag between successive attacks. The stake has to go back to normal first after being thrust out, and if you shoot it out completely, it needs to be replaced. Even I can tell that that’s a fatal weakness for this super close-ranged weapon.”
Werner might have been chasing after his romance, but he still knew about the defects of these fictional weapons.
In fact, it’s precisely because he wanted to solve those problems that he studied Garesto’s technology.
“If you miss your first attack or fail to finish your opponent with it, you’ll quickly find yourself in trouble,” Aristel said.
When she imagined what it would be like to use the weapon, she frowned.
Since using the pile bunker resembled a striking motion, a blade or a lance seemed more appropriate.
“Any of the romantic weapons that rely on a killing blow are more or less like that. The size and the recoil problem has been fixed to some extent thanks to Garesto’s technology, and the power is also a lot greater than expected… Or at least, I think so anyway.”
Although he spoke as if everything was fine, when he said the latter pats of his speech, his confidence grew weaker and his eyes swam.
“You think? What happened to all that confidence from before!?” Aristel asked.
“It worked well in the simulations, but… I’ve never actually tested this thing, so I don’t know for sure,” Werner said honestly.
Apparently, he didn’t feel like hiding anything anymore after revealing so many of his defective weapons.
“W-Well, I guess that puts us in the ‘gray’ then, right? As in no laws have really been broken yet, so that’s good?”
“Ha ha, well, either way, no one knows how strong it actually is, so it’s probably fine.”
Aristel saw the weapon as a problem from the start, but she had no intentions of actually pursuing the issue.
Their exchange put a damper on the mood a bit, but even Werner didn’t actually know how to deal with this weapon.
“…That thing really packs a punch, though,” Shinichi muttered to himself.
For some reason – perhaps because he wasn’t paying attention to the conversation – Shinichi looked at that weapon with a nostalgic and pained gaze.
The others noticed him muttering something, but they couldn’t quite make out what he said.
“Shini… Ahem, Nakamura-san, what’s the matter?” Aristel said.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about that pile bunker. It’s probably really strong,” Shinichi said.
“You bet it is! This is the romance of us men crystallized!! It can penetrate anything!” Werner said.
“…Isn’t that different from what you were saying just awhile ago?” Aristel said.
“I really can’t tell where this kid draws the line between dream and reality,” Myuhi said.
While Werner was excited to have his comrade’s acknowledgment and the girls were wryly smiling, Shinichi remained quiet at the side, not giving voice to his thoughts of ‘I had to take a blow from that thing directly once, so I’m talking from experience here.’
At the back of his mind flashed a blonde sister wielding a stake on her left hand.
When he first saw it, he wondered why the divine weapon of a fantasy world looked like a pile driver, but it turned that it was actually a divine spear projector, and she just used it in a strange way. Of course, he only found that out later.
As he thought back to how painful it was, he grabbed the Crescent Moon(Memento) beneath his clothes and spoke.
“So, this is a defective product too, right? What’s the reason?”
Because of everything he’s showed them until now, Shinichi asked Werner that with a voice full of conviction, and the latter found his eyes swimming again.
“Umm, that’s, how to put it… Just don’t laugh, okay?”
“There’s nothing funny about your defects, Werbra-kun, so you don’t have to worry there.”
Myuhi nonchalantly said those poisonous words with an adorable smile, and Werner’s smile twitched.
He found it hard to say it since the problem this time was a bit different.
But it was a bit too late to be hiding a weapon’s defect, and he wanted to get their opinions too anyway, so he just honesly told them.
“………It’s heavy. Like really really heavy.”
“Huh?”
“Like I said it’s so heavy you can’t carry it around normally! Someone with a B Rank strength like me can only lift it off the ground a few centimeters even with full strength!”
Werner yelled, embarrassed. If one were to look at the weapon, they’d see that it’s sunk into the ground even though it was just lying there.
In fact, it wasn’t just sunk, it was sinking. When the three saw that, their eyes twinkled.
“Just how heavy is that?” Myuhi asked.
“Ku, ha, I… Even with my Rank A in strength, I can at most just hold it up,” Aristel said.
Aristel gave it a try and lifted it with both hands. She staggered as she did, but she was eventually able to hug the weapon and keep still.
Using Garesto’s standards, a B Rank of strength should allow one to easily(・・) carry up to 150kg (331 pounds).
At A Rank, 200kg (441 pounds) can be carried easily.
The way she saw it, the weapon likely weighed over 500kg (1102 pounds).
Also, there were various differences between ranks once one has reached the limit, so there’s no clear specification for each rank.
Some A Rank could have strength similar to that of an A+, while there are also those who are closer to an A-.
“Uu, haa haa… Why is it so absurdly heavy?”
Aristel asked as she found herself gasping for breath after putting down the weapon.
Impressed that she was able to hug it – though it was about as one would expect from the Special Class – Werner answered with a wry smile.
A reason so dumb it made one want to retort with a ‘hey’.
“A-At first, I wanted a good size to make it easy to use, but along the way, I realized that it wouldn’t be durable enough, so I tried to make a metal that went beyond the resources we students could use. I’ve been researching it all this time, actually, and this year, I was finally able to complete it, so I used it on that, and…”
“But that metal was so heavy and this weapon turned out like this? But you should’ve known that beforehand, so why did you even bother?” Aristel asked.
“W-Well, you see, when I realized how I’d finally be able to complete it, I got a bit too excited, and I completely forgot about the weight.”
Hey.
Werner laughed, but everyone looked at him coldly.
He was so preoccupied with his romance and ideas that he kept on being careless with the other parts.
“Because of that it became really durable, but it also became really heavy.”
Werner said with a fed-up face as he lightly patted the sinking pile bunker on the ground.
It was rough, but Shinichi felt a ‘hardness’ from it.
Unfortunately, even he would have a hard time using it with its weight like that.
If he had to go through so much trouble just to use it, he might as well just use that energy to beat his opponent up instead. That would be much faster.
Shinichi was realistic like that.
“Do you have any way to solve it?” Werner asked.
That’s why when Werner asked him that, he made a bitter face.
“…Why would you ask that to me when I’m the least informed one here?”
“Because you’ve always had an idea until now. This was your idea too, right?”
He said as he spun the red compressed air gun in his hands that he’s already finished tuning.
There was evident expectation behind his gaze. Apparently, he didn’t even think it was possible for Shinichi to have no ideas.
Shinichi sighed a little and then scratched his face as though troubled— And then a strange light shone on his eyes.
“If you give the snake belly sword, that gun, and this one to me for free, I can tell you my idea.”
Speechless. That was everyone’s reaction. Shinichi had even included the pile bunker.
It was true that his advice helped Werner resolve the issues surrounding his weapons, but he was still clearly asking him to hand over such expensive weapons.
It was an outrageous demand, but Werner had already received a lot of help from Shinichi.
That’s why Shinichi was demanding so much.
Werner realized that too which is why he covered his face with his hand.
“Achaa… You got me there. I never thought that’s what you’d ask for in exchange. Alright. How about this? If your idea goes well I’ll give you all three; otherwise, I’ll only give you the gun and the sword. Deal?”
Despite the outrageousness of Shinichi’s request, Werner still agreed. Shinichi was a little surprised at that.
“You sure accepted easily even though you were so averse to having your toys destroyed,” Shinichi said.
“Because I love my creation. But at the same time, it’s also because I made them that I want to give them to someone who can use them and provide them an environment where they can really shine.”
He was a little sour after being told to hand everything over, but he shrugged his shoulders and offered his hand with a smile.
Shinichi shook it firmly and said.
“I’m from the D Class, though, so it’s a bit doubtful how much shine they’ll be seeing.”
“Ha ha. That’s true.”
“In that case, how about you sign a trial(test play) contract instead? It’s a bit rare for a student of a D Class, but these are barely legal weapons we’re talking about, so I think it’s best to keep things as legal as possible,” Aristel suggested.
There were strict rules surrounding the transfer and lending of weapons between students too.
But seeing how Shinichi was knitting his brows, Myuhi made a fed up face as she realized that he didn’t know about this either.
“Icchi, you probably don’t know, so let me explain. There are restrictions placed on which products made by the technology class students of other classes can test. This is to prevent strange weapons from spreading and from technology leaking. Because of that uncontrolled mass testing of weapons is prohibited, but testing weapons by contracting a specific individual to get their input is permitted,” Myuhi said.
“Well, we do have to pay out a reward, but it’s still a lot cheaper than going to the official places for that, and we’re in the same school too, so we can expect results real quick,” Werner said.
“It’s a good experience for the other students too, and if the students like the test product, they can request to have it instead of the reward money. I’m fairly sure this was written in the admission guide, though,” Aristel said.
Shinichi was able to understand since they explained it so well, but at the same time they couldn’t help but look at him with a questioning gaze that seemed to ask, ‘why didn’t you know this?’
“…I didn’t have anything like a terminal on me when I got here, so while I did get some printed pointers, that was it…”
When Shinichi told them that all he got was a thin pamphlet, everyone finally understood why he was so clueless.
Most documents and communication in this school were done via a terminal.
The simplified fosters – that is the iFosters – were already commonplace, so it usually wasn’t a problem, but for a returnee like him who didn’t even have a PDA, it was quite troublesome.
Information within the academy was also strictly being protected, so his family couldn’t send him a terminal either.
Students like him did appear from time to time, so the girls were quickly able to understand.
“Well, let’s talk about whether we sign a contract or not later. You just found out about it now anyway. More importantly, what idea do you have to improve the pile bunker?”