Chapter 547.1: Phase Neutron Extermination Strategic Orbital Gun

In the elevator.

Eberts reached out and pressed a button.

As the elevator began descending, he suddenly turned to Chu Guang and asked with a smile, "Have you heard of Project Torch?"

"The device for restarting the world?" Chu Guang gave him a surprised look, not expecting him to know about Shelter 0.

But on second thought, it made sense.

The old monster had lived over 100 years, it was inevitable he would have heard some strange rumors.

Eberts smiled and nodded. "Yes. Since you know about that, then I can keep this simple."

Chu Guang replied, "You mean that weapon is similar to Project Torch? Is it going to destroy organic cells through a neutron plume, killing everything on the surface?"

Eberts chuckled and shook his head. "Close, but that's an oversimplification. A simple neutron plume can't restart the world. There are many ways to defend against a nuclear strike. For example, a deflection shield based on anti-gravity principles can effectively redirect neutron plumes. So if we want to kill the organic life inside the shield, we have to crack the shell first. That’s why Project Torch has two stages. First, a planetary-scale phase oscillation to disable anti-gravity systems and shields. Second, releasing the neutron plume to wipe out all organic life on the planet."

Although he only understood part of it, Chu Guang couldn’t help but praise, "Clear logic."

Eberts smiled. "It’s efficient."

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Chu Guang glanced at Eberts. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the guy had a screw loose. He became visibly excited whenever talking about methods and tools for killing, completely unlike the mindless or grumpy type androids from the Enterprise.

This fellow is a dangerous man... I better get Little Seven to keep a close eye on him...

As Chu Guang was thinking that, the elevator dinged and stopped, the alloy doors sliding open on both sides.

"We're here." With a graceful gesture, Eberts stepped out first, leading Chu Guang toward the core area of the Boulder Town Arms Industry Tower.

They immediately entered a spacious room that resembled a command center.

Directly opposite the entrance, a giant screen hung on the wall. At its center floated an abstract azure blue planet, surrounded by dense gray fog.

As expected, the thick gray fog was orbital debris. Just as the Enterprise had claimed, the density of this debris had reached the point of diminishing the planet’s annual average surface sunlight.

That was a good reason why the winter was so damn cold.

Chu Guang scanned the room, then focused his gaze on the massive screen in front of him.

"This is?"

"Heavenly Tribulation."

"Huh?"

"The name of this system. Its full name is the Phase Neutron Extermination Strategic Orbital Gun, we can call it the SOG," Eberts said with a smile, then continued, "What you're looking at is one of the greatest weapons of the Prosperity Era! It was also the inspiration behind Project Torch! With a single shot, it can vaporize all organic life in Clearspring City. There's no more efficient slaughter tool."

"It can't restart the whole world, but wiping a city off the map is no problem."

Hot damn! Calling it an efficient slaughter tool was something else...

Chu Guang's face was filled with astonishment, completely drawn to the screen. He started to imagine firing it at the Hive in Clearspring City, but that thought was quickly dismissed.

The weapon had previously been held by the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, then distributed to settlements under its management.

If it were really that efficient, the committee would've used it already, instead of dropping a less efficient nuke on the city center, or launching some desperate Wislander Project due to prolonged casualties.

Chu Guang figured another possibility. The weapon’s effectiveness against shelters couldn’t be confirmed.

Even in the current age, many shelters in Clearspring City remained sealed, continuing missions assigned two centuries ago.

Slime Mold was a major threat in the wasteland, but not the only one.

Perhaps the cost was just too great, so great that even when the committee fell apart, it hadn’t used Heavenly Tribulation to clear the Hive.

Eberts turned his gaze from the pensive Chu Guang to the screen showing the azure planet shrouded in gray fog. With a smile like he was admiring a treasure, he explained, "It's lying dormant within that fog, drifting with the orbital debris. There are almost no means of locking onto it. Even the owner of the weapon doesn't know its exact orbit... but that doesn’t matter. Once it is awakened with the key, it can be deployed above any region of the planet at your command."

"Of course, the system has its weaknesses. It takes 24 hours to charge. Once it exits silent mode, it lights up like a beacon. There are many ways to detect its position, calculate its orbit, and determine its target coordinates..."

"Even with defense systems and deflection shields, 24 hours is more than enough time for many things to happen."

After spending some time explaining the weapon system, Eberts stood back while Chu Guang absorbed it all. Then Chu Guang asked, "Does the Army have a similar weapon?"

A crafty smile appeared on Eberts’ face. "Who knows? Why don’t you fly it over Triumphant City and find out?"

Even though it sounded like a joke, he wasn’t. In fact, there was even a hint of provocation and anticipation as he spoke.

Chu Guang rolled his eyes and ignored him.

Using a 200 year old trump card that everyone pretty much knew existed to threaten a survivor faction that had lasted a century and a half on the wasteland?

That was asking for death.

The logic was simple. There might be other settlements like Boulder Town west of the Great Desert, but the Army had still conquered most of the continent. Yet, Triumphant City remained untouched.

It was obvious.

Heavenly Tribulation did have some deterrent power, but deterrence was never absolute.

Two centuries was enough time for the Army, the Enterprise, and the Academy to devise countermeasures, and to prepare other cards of their own.

What truly maintained the validity of treaties wasn’t just the high cost of breaking them. It was probably that no one really cared enough to bother.

Whether the Army, the Academy, or the Enterprise, those long-established survivor factions with clear strategies and firm convictions, none of them truly believed Boulder Town could stir up any real trouble. Even if it rotted to the core, the damage would at most ruin a province or so.

A bunch of well-fed pigs wouldn't have the guts to fire recklessly.

Take the Enterprise, for instance. If the Highest Council really thought Boulder Town was a problem, they would simply spend some money to buy the weapon back from the nobles.

The fact that they hadn’t said a lot. Chu Guang couldn’t help but think of something else.

The Enterprise’s embassy had surely received word of Boulder Town’s upheaval. How would the Highest Council view the New Alliance inheriting Heavenly Tribulation?

Watching Chu Guang’s expression, Eberts slowly continued, "... Theoretically, Heavenly Tribulation could even break through the Divine Shield System. But it only has one bullet in the chamber. The energy overflow from firing will destroy the weapon itself. It’s said that the point of this system was never to eliminate anyone, but to uphold an ancient agreement that all survivor factions would refrain from interfering with one another, and work together to end the Wasteland Era and seek a future for civilization."

"I heard Fang Ming say the first-generation residents entrusted Heavenly Tribulation to it partly because they feared their descendants wouldn't have the courage to hold back, and partly because they feared they would lose their reverence for the covenant and use a weapon that should never be used."

"Tsk, tsk... Our first survivors really were smart. I’ve only seen them in the screening room, but it’s like they foresaw what would happen a century later. You know what? During the final vote, those pig-headed nobles in the inner city actually considered firing it at you guys. Haha, I almost laughed out loud. Those fools know nothing. They are arrogant and conceited, it’s hard to believe they were anyone’s descendants... What do you think your descendants will be like?"

Eberts looked at Chu Guang with anticipation, but Chu Guang didn’t want to engage with the twisted guy and answered casually, "That’s a long way off."

Eberts shook his head with a smile. "It’s not far at all. One second... A hundred years... It’s all a blink of an eye to me. What must come will come. I just hope you won’t end up being as boring as these people."

"Enough crap. Tell me how to use this thing." Chu Guang cut him off impatiently.

He already understood the key considerations for operating the Heavenly Tribulation system. Everything else was just useless.

Eberts smiled. "Mr. Fang Ming gave you a drone, didn’t he? Did you bring it?"

"Yeah." Chu Guang nodded, taking out the compact projection drone and casting him a questioning look. "What now?"

Eberts reached out and gently accepted the drone from him, tracing its contours with his finger as his eyes flickered slightly.

"Ah... Mr. Fang Ming’s ashes."

Seeing the weird AI start to drift off again, Chu Guang coughed lightly.

Eberts snapped back to reality, offering a friendly smile as he continued, "Sorry, I lost myself for a second... The authorization process is quick. Just give me a moment."

Taking the drone Fang Ming left behind to the console, Eberts extracted a memory card from it and inserted it into the computer. Fang Ming’s AI data had been fully wiped, but the activation code for the Heavenly Tribulation system had remained with it to the end.

Lines of code flashed across the screen, transferring Heavenly Tribulation's authorization from that room to Shelter 404.

From then on, there would be no need to enter the room specifically, so long as he was within signal coverage of Shelter 404, and the uplink to the transmitter remained intact, Chu Guang could issue the order to activate Heavenly Tribulation from high orbit into standby mode.

With Little Seven’s confirmation, Chu Guang verified that Heavenly Tribulation was currently dormant among the orbital debris and could be activated at any time.

Because activating it would reveal the weapon’s orbital coordinates, and there was only one shot, Chu Guang refrained from testing its functionality further.

It was a mutually assured destruction switch. That was the only thing it would serve as.

He sincerely hoped that day would never come when he had to truly use it.

...