Chapter 79 of 100

Chapter 79

16 min read3,950 words

In any era, any country, and any region, education will have some inherent flaws and shortcomings. The education in any school also serves the interests and needs of those in power. The rulers of Black Flame City need their schools to mass-produce the screws that keep the big machine of Black Flame City running—soldiers, farmers, and workers in reserve. Therefore, most of the school curricula are related to these professions, laying the foundation for these careers. As for how to set traps and how to capture low-level beasts, such courses are, to be honest, something that students have rarely encountered.

Even in the eyes of many teachers, trap-setting is a very marginal and unnecessary course. Why learn these boring things? Anything that can be trapped by simple traps and mechanisms is usually a low-level beast of little value, like tigers and wolves. And anyone who reaches the level of a 5th-grade warrior can easily deal with these beasts, tearing them apart with bare hands. Why bother setting traps for such things? It would be better to focus on cultivation and strive to ignite more bright points in the body. Things that can be trapped are of little value, and valuable things cannot be trapped by such low-cost earth and wood mechanisms. This is the awkwardness of trap-setting and mechanisms. Schools do not offer such courses because cultivating independent and unbound hunters does not align with the interests of Black Flame City's rulers. Teachers do not teach such courses because, in their view, setting up a course unrelated to personal combat power and bravery to deal with a few low-threat, low-level beasts is completely redundant. In this era, personal combat power is the king, and everything else is insignificant.

As a result, students from Black Flame City and the entire Andaman Alliance generally do not take the role of low-level traps seriously, and most people know almost nothing about them. In Zhang Tie's memory, during his entire academic career, there was only one time, in a survival class last year, when the teacher mentioned in passing—sometimes, setting traps can be a bit useful!—but how many students would take such a casual remark to heart?

These trap-setting methods are survival skills that low-level pioneers have developed in the wild, and naturally, few people look upon them favorably. If it weren't for his experience working in a general store, Zhang Tie would not have been exposed to this knowledge. This survival training in Wolf Valley has given Zhang Tie the opportunity to put the traps he learned to good use...

Without those few golden thread fish as a foundation, Zhang Tie would not have had the confidence to encourage everyone to try the trap strategy. But those golden thread fish made Zhang Tie believe that the things Tang De taught him were valuable, at least for this training. The national education system of Black Flame City indeed teaches many basic things, but during the limited compulsory education stage, there are many things that cannot be learned in the schools protected by the city's tall walls.

To the few guys in the Brotherhood who had never encountered trap-setting, setting traps seemed to be a highly technical and mysterious task. In some boring knight novels, the traps set up are filled with lethal mechanisms and are incredibly complex, making people feel intimidated and unable to understand the intricacies. These are just the products of some bored people's imaginations. After Zhang Tie explained in detail, everyone was enlightened. In the wild, the most effective and simplest trap for low-level beasts, a powerful trap that anyone can master, is simply—digging a pit! A pit more than five meters deep is enough to trap most of the beasts and animals in Wolf Valley. Once the beasts fall into the pit, they become live targets for everyone, and the "Iron Gate—T21" brought by Bali is sufficient to deal with whatever is inside.

The next morning, Zhang Tie woke up at around six. When he woke up, the entire Wolf Valley had not yet fully awakened from the quiet night. Apart from the occasional bird or insect call, the entire valley was still asleep. Shaven had been on watch during the second half of the night. After waking up, Zhang Tie went to the stream to wash up and then let Shaven go back to sleep. He sat in a tree hollow, took the "Iron Gate—T21" used for night watch, and began waiting for the other guys in the Brotherhood to wake up.

This was the first time Zhang Tie had seriously studied the "Iron Gate—T21" since arriving here four days ago. Compared to the various hand-crossbows made by humans before the Great Catastrophe, the "Iron Gate—T21" is much more powerful. Before the Great Catastrophe, humans were in the era of firearms, and with so many powerful weapons available, they did not put much effort into cold weapons. Many technologies were not applied to cold weapons. However, in this era, when cold weapons have become the mainstay of warfare, those technologies that were once unrelated to cold weapons have reappeared and gradually pushed the power of cold weapons to the extreme.

Just like the lightweight pulley composite crossbow in front of Zhang Tie, the most distinctive feature of this crossbow is the hydraulic assist cocking slide on the bow body. This hydraulic assist cocking slide works similarly to a jack but is more complex with the addition of some gear mechanisms. Using this hydraulic cocking mechanism, an ordinary person can easily cock a bowstring that would normally require a strong man to exert over 200 kilograms of force. The hydraulic assist cocking slide, combined with the standard crossbow bolt magazine developed from the concept of firearm magazines, makes this crossbow weigh around thirty kilograms, far exceeding the weight of ordinary crossbows. However, the great weight also brings great power. Theoretically, if this "Iron Gate—T21" were in the hands of a person with immense strength, the theoretical firing rate of this lightweight pulley composite crossbow could reach over 120 bolts per minute.

Of course, in the hands of Zhang Tie and his group, firing ten bolts per minute is already quite difficult. Over the past two nights, they tried it, and even with the pressure adjustment knob on the bow body set to one-eighth, it took Shaven and the others considerable effort to cock the bowstring by moving the hydraulic assist cocking slide back and forth eight times. Baghdad could only manage to cock the bowstring twice before his hands ached, even with the pressure adjustment knob set to one-fifth. This morning, while no one was paying attention, Zhang Tie tried setting the pressure adjustment knob to one-fifth. With his right hand holding the bow body and his left hand operating the hydraulic assist cocking slide, he could only manage to cock the bowstring twice before his left arm and muscles started to ache and feel weak.

Playing with the "Iron Gate—T21" this time confirmed two things for Zhang Tie. First, his current strength as a 1st-grade warrior is indeed about the same as the black-skinned Baghdad. Second, the "Iron Gate" series of crossbows are indeed powerful weapons. The crossbow brought by Bali is just a lightweight one, and Zhang Tie can't even imagine what a heavy one would look like.

While playing with the crossbow and getting familiar with its feel, Zhang Tie also visualized the abacus of "Zhu Xin Shen Suan" in his mind, waiting for the others to wake up. After "Zhu Xin Shen Suan" reached its peak with seven levels, capable of performing calculations in the millions, Zhang Tie has started to push towards the eighth level, capable of performing calculations in the tens of millions. Over the past few days, whenever he had time, he practiced intensively. Now, in a quiet environment, he can spend about two minutes visualizing the eight-level abacus and slowly perform some eight-digit calculations...

With his mental power increasing sevenfold and all his senses becoming more acute, Zhang Tie has noticed that each time he practices "Zhu Xin Shen Suan," the golden abacus that dissipates after practice adds a bit of mental power. Although he doesn't know why, practicing "Zhu Xin Shen Suan" really does increase one's mental power, which greatly excites Zhang Tie. He has already started thinking about how to share this discovery with his older brother. And also with Tang De, after the incidents with Hack and Snider, Zhang Tie has always felt he owed Tang De a favor. Perhaps he can repay this debt with the secret of "Zhu Xin Shen Suan"... A cultivation method that can increase mental power is something Zhang Tie has never even heard of in his fifteen years of life. He believes his gesture is already significant. Since Tang De said that the abacus technique cannot be passed on to outsiders, Zhang Tie has no intention of breaking Tang De's rules, so he cannot share this with the Brotherhood for now.

About an hour after Zhang Tie got up, Bali and the others gradually climbed out of the tree hollow. The first one out, Bali, still had sleep in his eyes. Seeing Zhang Tie sitting in the tree hollow, he was quite surprised, "Wasn't Shaven on watch last night? How did it become you?"

"I woke up early today and couldn't sleep, so I let Shaven go back to sleep."

Bali didn't say anything more but quickly climbed down the tree and went to the stream to wash up. After Bali got up, the others also gradually woke up...

After everyone was ready, except for Shaven who stayed at the treehouse base, everyone else was eager to follow Zhang Tie to see the trap he set up to catch golden thread fish using the stream.

After confirming that no one was following, the six of them carefully followed Zhang Tie to the stream where he set up the trap yesterday. As soon as they reached the stream, Bali and the others were stunned. In the early morning, at the river mouth of the stream, a section about two meters long was filled with fish of various sizes, from palm-sized to chopstick-length and even finger-length, all splashing and struggling to swim upstream. This scene was somewhat unexpected even for Zhang Tie, who quickly went to the small pool and quietly picked up the branch covering it...

Like a treasure pot, after a night, the number of fish in the small pool had not decreased but increased. There were at least five fish larger than the small golden thread fish from yesterday, and there were also over ten to twenty fish of various sizes. Everyone was overjoyed...

Bali felt that bringing Zhang Tie into the Brotherhood was the best decision he had ever made. This guy, who is usually quiet at school, always comes through in critical moments, bringing surprises and earning respect...

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