Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: Spiral Wings Assault
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A few hours earlier…
A single Oguri walked into the makeshift encampment fortified with wooden palisades.
The Oguri, dressed in an angular woolen coat and wearing a tricorn hat, smiled contentedly as he entered the camp.
The soldier Oguri saluted and spoke with his yellow beak.
"Lord Golt, you've arrived?"
"How are the preparations coming along?"
"The slaves are wrapping the rubber for the 'Spiral Wings.'"
Golt Tevari of the Fabirang Alliance nodded and looked toward the back of the encampment.
At the rear of the camp were wooden axles fixed in place on one side, rubber bands wound around them, and pulleys connected to those bands.
Rakshasa slaves, bound with rubber chains, were vigorously winding the pulleys connected to the rubber.
Afterward, the rubber bands wound onto those pulleys would be transferred onto the flying machines called Spiral Wings as a whole.
And the moment those wound rubber bands were released, the Spiral Wings could carry two pilots and load stones capable of delivering fatal blows to enemies on the ground.
'These Spiral Wings are the main force of the Fabirang Alliance. Through them, our alliance will write new history in the New World.'
The Fabirang Alliance, having fled from the eastern continent—still unreachable from the First Continent, Blackrin—called this the Fourth Continent the New World.
Fortunately, from the Fabirang Alliance's perspective, the civilization level of the New World's natives was extremely primitive.
The moment they saw the rising Spiral Wings, they panicked, unable to regain their composure amid the ensuing hail of stones.
By disrupting enemies from the sky and then attacking their main forces on the ground with sawblade chariots, they had already conquered many native tribes.
Golt liked this race called the Rakshasa.
'They can wind in half a day what would take me all day. If we capture more Rakshasa slaves, conquering the New World will be a simple matter.'
The foundation of the Fabirang Alliance's power was rubber propulsion.
These rubber bands, with their tremendous elasticity, could be wound to the limit their supports could withstand, and that stored power was used to automatically operate mechanical devices.
The problem was that winding these rubber bands made from Duduba tree sap required enormous strength and time.
To make a Spiral Wing fly for about three hours, one had to wind nonstop for a full day and a half.
This meant preparations for launching one Spiral Wing had to start two days in advance, with at least three people taking turns to wind it.
Moreover, due to mistakes, accidents, or wear on the winding axles, if an axle broke, not only did they have to rewind from scratch, but countless people were killed or injured by the furiously snapping rubber bands.
'But by enslaving the Rakshasa, our Oguri can now focus purely on combat.'
Golt believed rubber propulsion had tremendous potential.
However, the Fabirang Alliance of the past had been driven from the Old World before they could fully realize that potential.
'Rubber propulsion ultimately requires slaves. In the Old World, finding such slaves was difficult, with all the restrictions and high prices. But here in the New World, it's different. With a little effort, we can get free slaves.'
Golt envisioned the day the Fabirang Alliance would challenge the Old World again, advancing rubber propulsion technology through these slaves and discovering new innovations.
But Golt had noticed uninvited guests in this New World, which was to become the Alliance's new foothold.
'The Golden Bird with Folded Wings was right. There are non-native races beyond those mountains.'
Golt's subordinates had only observed from a great distance, so they didn't know exactly what kind of foreigners they were.
The Oguri knew of the distant western continent—the Third Continent—even in the Old World, so they could guess these intruders came from there.
'But no flying machines were found among them. They surely lack this sacred rubber propulsion technology. Or perhaps their continent unluckily has no Duduba trees.'
That was truly fortunate.
Without rubber propulsion technology, from Golt's perspective, those intruders were just primitives with rudimentary tech.
'This might even be an opportunity.'
Since arriving in the New World, Golt hadn't had many chances to demonstrate his abilities within the Alliance.
Capturing slaves through aggressive conquest alone wouldn't secure high power.
'No attack order has come from the Triad Council yet. But what if I launch a preemptive strike on the enemy?'
A Spiral Wing could carry two pilots, one rubber propulsion axle, an auxiliary emergency power axle for contingencies, and a heap of stones for attack—that was its full capacity.
'But after using the emergency power and stones, there should be room to capture those outsiders. If I can extract their information, my position in the Alliance will solidify further.'
Golt said,
"Hurry it up a bit. I'll be joining today's operation myself."
"Even you, Lord Golt…?"
"Yes."
The Oguri soldier saluted and replied,
"An honor."
Golt was one of the nobles who had commanded the Fabirang Alliance's retreat to the New World.
Thanks to that successful retreat, Golt was an idol to some soldiers.
Golt lightly returned the salute, and the Oguri soldier cracked his whip, urging the slaves onward.
Golt thought the operation would end successfully.
'…It should have, surely…'
Having crossed the mountains with only two losses could be called lucky, and discovering a fearless small enemy unit was fortunate too.
But when the Spiral Wing's pride—the stone drops—failed to work, Golt was dumbfounded.
"…A shield that tough and sturdy?"
Of course, as a noble of the Fabirang Alliance, which prided itself on civilization, Golt knew shields strong enough to block stones could exist.
He just hadn't expected beings without rubber propulsion to possess such things.
Golt confirmed they hadn't inflicted any significant damage on the enemy.
"This won't do. Retreat!"
Golt considered it fortunate that the enemies hadn't counterattacked with arrows and turned the controls.
That was when it happened.
A roar like a beast echoed, and the Spiral Wing's axle shattered.
Golt didn't know exactly what had happened, but he realized it was an enemy attack.
"Lord Golt!"
"…Damn it!"
The rubber unleashed furiously, snatching the assistant pilot behind Golt with a band and flinging him far away, then wrapping and smashing the remaining body of the Spiral Wing as it unwound.
"Damn it!"
Golt crouched low to avoid the rubber bands, gripping the controls desperately to somehow land the broken Spiral Wing without passing out until he succeeded.
Runda, who had watched the entire battle unfold, stared in bewilderment.
"What the hell was that?"
Wisdom replied,
"It's the 'path we didn't choose.'"
Runda looked at him quizzically, and Seong-un answered.
"It means technology can develop in a biased direction. In Lost World, standard builds progress similarly—either slower or faster—but there can be playstyles that deviate."
Runda sorted through what she'd heard.
"Uh… so… while we were making steel and gunpowder, those guys developed rubber propulsion tech?"
"Yeah."
"…Why?"
Wisdom answered.
"Biased technological development isn't that surprising. For example, on Earth, certain pivotal inventions led to completely different paths afterward. Technological progress requires exchange. Many technologies spread through interactions with other nations. The famous story of the Aztecs not inventing the wheel is well-known. It's not solely because of that, but they didn't use wheels properly and felt no need for wide roads. Meanwhile, their obsidian blades allowed them to perform invasive surgeries that medieval Europeans couldn't dream of, advancing medicine."
As the other players listened intently, Wisdom waved lightly.
"Ahem. Separately, in Lost World, rubberpunk was briefly known as a speedrun build in the early days because it allowed rapid scientific progress."
Runda raised her hand and asked,
"Hey, Wisdom. Besides flying machines, what else can they make with that?"
"The issue of needing manual labor to wind the rubber, and the limits of materials that can withstand its tension, prevent high-level tech. But they can use gears. That helicopter has a surprisingly complex structure. Cars, simple automata for basic tasks, primitive calculators are possible."
Krampus said,
"Come to think of it, I saw a video once."
Runda asked back,
"What video?"
"'Computing Tech Demonstrations in Lost World' or something. It showed if you could make a rough computer with bizarre playstyles, and now I realize rubber propulsion was one of them."
"Rubber bands for that…?"
Wisdom said,
"Theoretically, nothing stopping it."
Seong-un said,
"Unfortunately, those guys—or rather, the player controlling the Oguri—haven't reached that stage. If the Oguri were that smart, they wouldn't have launched this attack."
Krampus asked again,
"Then why did the enemy player misjudge?"
"Could be a mistake from managing a large territory. Or overconfident, since this attack worked until now."
"Maybe that's the mainstream meta on the First Continent?"
Seong-un cut in.
"I hope so. Then I'd order full-rigged ships built in Blackrin right away and head to the First Continent."
"No?"
Seong-un nodded.
"Unless something totally absurd happens, I doubt it. Rubberpunk fell out of use because rubber bands waste manpower and resources heavily, have low technical completion, dropping win rates, and require the special resource Duduba trees, making it a freak playstyle. I think they probably got eliminated from First Continent power struggles…"
Seong-un watched Basen and the Pangollians rushing toward the crashed flying wing.
"Now we can confirm."