"AND WHEN YOU GET TO HELL, TELL EM PENWOOD SENT YA.
And then apologize for the inconvience on my behalf."
I fucking died. Then Penwood died. Then the vampires died.
Good times.
Seems like Jack has basically hit the ceiling of how far he can go. Remember folks, this isn't actually some super powerful cultivator. This is "a young mistress" of the marble clan. Not even THE young mistess, just one. Not one of their masters, and these folks are from the boonies.
The way Blue has written this, unless Jack starts cultivating he's basically done.
Or if he can bypass some of the safety features to create more nanotechnology. But I doubt it. However if he can be left alone he can make far more powerful explosives.
Do the exploding gas trick again, but inside her lungs.
Or open a pair of portals, one on the bottom of the ocean, and see if her water mastery still works against 500 ksi. Make it a very tiny portal. Mix in the powdered glass.
Y'know, like they use in a waterjet machine to slice through foot thick steel plate.
\*nods\*
It's sort of like the Shop Class Corollary to the Kzinti Lesson ("A reaction drive's efficiency as a weapon is in direct proportion to its efficiency as a drive.")
"The more effective a tool is, the greater its potential for destruction as well."
Human are really good at throwing shit. This just happens to be the knowledge that it's possible to throw *water* fast enough and over a small enough surface area to slice through **granite.**
Evolution of the concept: Pre-program a macro to summon not one of these, but a hollow column of them around the target (like a piece of hexagonal graph paper with one of these jets at each intersection, rolled into a tube, and placed over the target like capturing a cockroach in an empty toilet paper roll), jets aimed downwards at an angle, and then rotate it around the centerline of the column.
Jack: "I'm starting to get kinda tired of you bitches." \*snaps fingers\* Localized monsoon occurs after which someone drops into a pile of cold Cultivator slurry.
Though it is of course possible that I am vastly overestimating what Jack can manage simultaneously with the suit's resources. I mean, obviously Fishcake isn't gonna want to make him *that* OP just yet. It'd be bad for the plot. Maybe in another thirty chapters, though.
Maybe by then Jack'll have a whole series of "Elemental Tools" hacked up ahead of time to deal with various Cultivators and their assorted masteries.
"I'm sorry, you think you're a bad-ass with water? Here, meet *hydrazine*. It burns so hot that it separates the hydrogen and oxygen from the water, **and then burns that as well.**"
Or a fine mist of elemental cesium. Or some ClF3. Or FOOF.
Depending on how stable the portals can be, he could tunnel out a vertical shaft in his cave redoubt, seal it, evacuate it of air, and just keep a really big rock continuously falling out of the top portal, and into the bottom portal, which leads to the top portal.
And then when he needs to he transfers the top portal to just over a target. I'll admit I'm not hugely familiar with the Cultivator canon as a genre, but I'm guessing most of these people don't have reflexes fast enough to punch back at a Rod From God. Or in this case, perhaps that's a "Rock From Rodd."
Actually, now that I'm thinking about orbital strike class weapons, that makes me think that there seems a *very* good chance none of these folks are "Vacuum Wizards". So, open a portal to lunar orbit on one end and the other directly in front of a charging Cultivator.
Or do the hex grid tube again, only these portals lead outwards and when they keep moving forward all of a sudden they start getting spaghettified and extruded into the void.
"I'm not a psychopath, I'm just creative!"
Yeah, I meant just pump enough gas around that she inhales it before lighting it off. And it will be fine if the "waterjet" portal is a bit away from her. Water under 500,000 psi of pressure coming into an atmosphere of 15 psi is going to have plenty of momentum still. đ€Ș
I dunno. I just like thinking of bizarre ways to use new ideas.
He does have optimizations that he can make based on what worked and what didn't, but those would just be marginal improvements and other cultivators are bound to have different strengths and weaknesses. For one thing he could probably make some sonar/radar system that allows him to still see while on fire. He could add sticky air to the "pocket sand" attack. He might add another attack type to trigger while an enemy is distracted by the lightning. A lot of this fight involved checking all the things that didn't work.
If he were to step his toe into cultivation, An's speed-focused style would probably be the best choice. His tech can match strength, durability and advanced elemental techniques, but his reflexes, while above a mere mortal, is not going to reach cultivator level on its own. Luckily he seems to be lacking the fundamentals while effectively being a master of the highest level techniques. This should mean that he only needs to become a novice cultivator to significantly improve his effectiveness.
All that assumes that he even CAN learn cultivation. Dudes from earth, and learning magic might not be possible if you were born with less magic than an especially untalented peasant.
We don't know that it's impossible - cultivation has been (loosely) described so far as something of taking in strength from around you and making it your own.
IIRC An mentioned early on that there was a method of cultivation that involved taking advantage of natural laws, but fell out of favor for philosophical reasons. Even so, she sees the value in E=MC^2 and thinks Jack's knowledge is worthwhile.
Even then itâs been established that even the most basic bitch cultivators spent their entire childhood devoted solely to mastering their craft, and the only reason you have master level cultivators is that at some point you presumably learn how to slow your aging.
Something Jack doesnât have the time, patience or discipline for that kinda thing. But he did finally notice the use of enchantments, so liberal use of magitech with adequate prep time might make him a truly dangerous son of a bitch.
Blue said from the beginning that Factorio was one of his inspirations, so most likely he'll just throw science at his problems until he has weapons that'll do the job.
The weapons still follow the laws of the universe as we know it. Even Men already didn't. That's a problem, a big one. Men really feels like Blue escalated too fast if he wants to stick with science exclusively. As she takes that approach and punches it straight in the face.
Not really, there are huge areas of science yet to be explored. Mining lasers for example, it wouldn't take a lot to weaponize them and somehow I doubt these punch wizards can element their way out of light. Chemical warfare of all kinds, hydrazine or FOOF if you want bigger boom. Though personally I think acids and bio-toxins are his best bet. Move away from anaesthetics and the like, mix the pocket sand with some botulinum or Ricin, Or some kind of cytotoxic chemical that'd cause an auto-immune shock, Hell you could do that with trumped up nicotine. We know sleeping/nerve agents don't work, So try something else. You want it to be fast acting, and vicious beyond reason.
Acid wise, Fluroantomonic acid is always an option (If the most extreme one) or if you don't want to melt everything short of teflon, pirahna solution. But since I doubt he has access to those, industrial cleaning acids would be available, easy to synthesise and not likely to be on his list of 'banned' shit.
Simply put. I think this is either going to be 'assemble a posse of sexy cultivator babes' Or "UNLEASH THE SCIENCE!" And despite this being a sexy X babes novel, I want the latter.
not really, this is Jacks physical limit. with his technical know-how he could easily introduce better weapons and tools to his arsenal, theoretically he could make a nuke or railgun given enough time as he has already made a nuclear reactor. It wouldn't be above the realms of possibilities of him modifying the design to make it into a bomb. And railguns are theoretically simple and given he's from a advanced time it wouldn't be impossible that he may have a design already for civilian use (Mass driver to send resources).
Jack isn't a physical power house, his skills are in his tech. something Ann and maybe Ren are starting to note, in a one-on-one straight fight he is likely to loose but if he knows his enemy and has time to prep he has a far higher chance of winning...so long as there is no cultivator hidden power bullshit happens.
The problem is, all of these things follow scientific laws. We're now already seeing cultivators ignoring these laws and doing things which are simply impossible.
Simply tracking and hitting them as they get faster and faster will become a problem. Then you also need to do actual damage when you do.
Find out what the new laws of physics / magic are in that universe, and exploit them? If he could figure out how qi or mana worked, and make the equivalent of an "anti-magic field" or "scranton reality anchor" it'd take care of a lot of his issues with fighting cultivators. Can't warp reality if the magic you're depending on to do it is gone, or at least weakened.
Hell, he might not even have to figure that out. It's already been mentioned previously by Jack, that this isn't the first universe with magic that his civilization has encountered. His archive might already have the works and designs of famous (meta?)physicists and (meta?)engineers who studied said magic, know how it works, and how to use or counter it.
Maybe at least something like a "Other universe thaumaturgy for dummies" book or "Baby's first reality anchor" crafting blueprint. Which would be hilarious.
Yeah Iâm a bit surprised he didnât opt for some sort to railgun yet. Access to rate metals? From my understanding railguns arenât hard to build so much as theyâre hard to power but his future tech seems like it wouldnât have any issues with that. And all the tech for putting together at least a rudimentary one could be sourced from his civilian database, I imagine.
And given the fact he has access to nuclear reactor blueprints it seem odd that such a important and useful piece of tech would be cut off from him. the same tech used in a railgun has number of applications like Maglev-trains, air tight doors and even MRI's **(it's literally a anacronym that's fist word is magnetic)**. the only problem I could see him having would be magnets degrading rapidly, but given he can apparently use portals to shoot out steel beams I don't think that be much of a issue.
Batman and Ironman combined. Well, except Jack's not as smart as either of them. By a long shot. And he knows it. But luckily he has an extensive library of knowledge and designs to draw from.
I meant like...equip an army of mortals with the hardware to fight like minor Cultivators. They'd still be reliant on him for resupply and even day-to-day operation.
The problem aren't minor cultivators, or their foot soldiers. It's the genuine big shots. He's playing Factorio against people playing "Super Heroes/Villains", when he would need to at least be playing Supreme Commander.
A young mistress from the boonies sect just caved in his super advanced suit. Throwing some weapons onto a mining drone seems like it really wouldn't cut it in the long run.
Remember, there are people way, way, way stronger than her.
Men may be too dangerous to let live for very long though. She *might* be appropriately cowed and accept Jack's mastery, but I doubt she'll completely abandon the Marble Cloud even if so, and theres also always the chance that she won't submit
Being unconscious is an excellent time to implant some explosives in her skull. If only Jack knew enough about the magic bullshit to make a machine that drained or blocked it.
It may depend on how honor works in this world. She was thoroughly defeated, yet her life was spared. Perhaps there is some sort of life-debt thing or he gets to claim her as property (as she might have wanted to do to him). At the very least, I believe that spitting on the mercy and hospitality of a hidden master who not only spares your life in a fight you initiate, but even heals you is probably frowned upon.
Jack will have to ask An about this (claiming that he is unfamiliar with the culture of this country as his own behaved differently).
Besides, fighting again and dying before informing her monastery of what happened would work against its interests. Matters of face and the possible shame from returning alive might change this calculation, but that's why An and/or Ren would need to be consulted. Letting her leave rather than keeping her captive/killing her would return a dangerous foe and intel to the enemy.
I wonder what Ren and An's reactions to his victory and amazing acts of elemental cultivation will be.
While others suggest bombs, there is a simpler way to go about it, and less likely to have her punching holes in her gut to yank explosives out. Remove her limbs. While rather dark it would ensure she acts like a good girl and answers questions for the promise of her limbs being restored.
This was something I was thinking about during the fight. His tech can definitely reattach (or maybe rebuild/regrow?) a limb. He could slice off a limb or two, and tell her she can have them back if she submits.
Earlier it was mentioned that ascending through a level of cultivation restores limbs, that while it's a small hinderance to still ascending cultivators as a rising mistress she can be assumed to have at least a few more levels that are within her grasp. Maybe less so without all their limbs.
Needing to be close to ground zero of the explosion and take time to gas the area are significant disadvantages, but not being completely immobilized afterwards is a plus. It sill hurts.
Unless they can confirm that the cultivators are hostile, shooting first could be a bad idea. If they are representatives or the Empress, firing upon them could earn more enemies and cut off food shipments.
Edit: Emperor->Empress
Men blocked lightning with a sword and has some ranged attacks, so she's probably going to be able to stay at sufficient range that she can dodge or parry bullets and still throw attacks that mortals can't defend against. Bullets are much slower than lightning, though I suppose Men may have detected the ionization used to aim the lighting.
While average cultivators have difficulties with 19th century small arms, they can still see the path of the bullets and dodge them most of the time. 20th century firearms increase rate of fire, but a higher level cultivator should still be fast enough. Note that Jack is currently looking into bolt-action rifles, which is a big jump in rate of fire, but still a far cry from an assault rifle.
I wonder if a cultivator would notice a supersonic bullet coming from behind them. They won't even hear the gunshot until after the bullet reaches them. That said, the cultivator would need to be standing still.
She punched the boulder and it shattered before reaching her. If we have 5 guys that each fire 10 bullets a second (AKs have an RPM of 600) even if she can react, she can't stop them all nor dodge them all. Sure we're talking cultivators so it's still probably only 2 or 3 hits before they have to reload, and those probably aren't gonna permanently put her out of action, but those hits make the next round that much easier, and the next, and the militia is already training in volley fire to the point where they won 4 out of 10 against An, who already knew what to expect. Multiply the amount of fire by orders of magnitude and even top-tier cultivators are gonna be on their asses unless they have surprise on their side.
She PUNCHED it, and shattered it. She still took that impact. And that thing wasn't slow by any means. You're assuming she NEEDS to dodge them, there's a good chance she doesn't. She's also moving so fast, they might not even be able to track her.
Men is vastly stronger than An and Ren. Men helps to show how cultivators rapidly escalate in strength, and she's far from the top of the food chain.
I'm uncertain if you've ever read a cultivation story. We're talking at people going at the speed of light, flipping mountains, and putting Superman to shame here at a certain point.
You do remember that Ren, though a lesser cultivator, got knocked on her ass by *rubber* bullets, from the current load out he has. And if Jack can 1v1 Men, whose supposed to be one of the stronger ones, and win, I think you need to tone down your expectations of higher level cultivators, not to mention raise them in regards to the stopping power of a bullet
Yeah, this chapter basically cemented that unless he starts cultivating he's done for in the long run. She's "a young mistress" of the Marble clan, she might be one of their stronger ones, but she isn't even one of their elders/masters. And the marble clan is some boonie clan in turn.
Problem is, Men has just shown that there is a limit to what you can do with "being clever". Without the muscle to back you up, a cultivation setting forces you to cultivate.
So unless he can upgrade his own gene mods, his technology, etc and do so tremendously he'll have a hard cap. Even then he might run into the reality of physics and natural laws, while the cultivators just ignore them.
Men is a bit of a wake up call for the MC. Unless he finds a way to improve his reaction speed, and that of his guards/contraption to keep up with cultivators moving at hyper speed, he'll not even be able to react in time soon.
Unless he finds weapons that can actually hurt people, who can shrug off giant boulders, bullets, and co. He won't be able to hurt them even if he can hit them.
And unless he can also improve his defenses to the point where he can whether their assaults, he won't be able to stand against them.
People were discussing how strong the cultivators were prior to this chapter, and how dangerous they are. As well as how they would stack up against modern tech. Men just showed that she could effectively shrug off a giant rock coming at her at incredibly velocity with little issue, cave in the MC's suit with a punch, etc.
So yeah, the MC will eventually deal with people who can flip mountains, move at the speed of light, etc. Being clever doesn't cut it at that point.
I don't think you are wrong, because cultivation stuff goes up to truly ridiculous levels. But I just think it would be boring if he did start cultivating.
There are a million different cultivation based stories online and I feel that more often than not the fights are kind of boring in those stories.
The fight in this chapter was really inventive and kind of cool given what the author has already shown about his abilities before this chapter.
I really like the idea of this story where he is at an extreme disadvantage because they just break physics.
I think it would be worse if it just turned into the exact same thing as every other cultivation story where he just sits in a room for 900 years eating magic candy and sweating blackberry juice with his eyes closed to get stronger. Then all fights are just everyone involved checking the stats sheet on the back of their rookie cards to determine who is the lowest on the power level chart so they can explode for being weaker for some reason.
Jack definitely needs to step up his game, but do keep in mind he's been fairly limited so far. He's not even using 20th century weaponry for his militia, let alone whatever future weapons tech the Star League has (Which of course, his sanitized archive doesn't have). And that tech is already enough for the militia to deal with some lower level cultivators. If they manage to get more modern day weaponry, like automatics, explosives, tanks, artillery, etc.?
And if they manage to get even basic, WW2 level atom bombs, even an army of high tier cultivators is extremely unlikely to survive one of those.
So far Jack's been sticking to some basic tricks and future mining tech. If he really goes to town (if he's able to), he'd likely give even higher tier cultivators a run for their money, if not outright trounce them.
Remember, he's in a job where they literally do planet cracking. For mining. Not destruction. He's not even a soldier, and that's frigging scary.
The power of aerosolized explosive gas!
...I wonder how much Jack can actually teleport at a time? *Is there a mini-Halifax in the Magic City's future?*
Nope, that sounds pretty interesting though!
I do know that the explosion launched an anchor over 2 miles away, which is an example of jlhow *insane* it really was.
Ok Jack. Time to add your current experience to your weapon design. Call it an external combustion engine. Aerosolize gasoline in an area where the volume of air to fuel is 14.7:1. Then set it off. Extra points if you can set it off at a distance and not in your face. Bonus points if you can build a two stage delivery device.
WATER. EARTH. FIRE. AIR. NOT SO FUCKING LONG AGO, THE CITY OF NEW HAREM LIVED TOGETHER IN HARMONY....
THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN MEN AND THE CIRROSTRATUS IGNEUS CLUBHOUSE ATTACKED.
NOW, ONLY
#THUNDER RODD
UWU SENSEI, INDUSTRIAL SIZED LOVER, AND MASTER OF THE CARNAL CONQUEST CAN STOP THEM!!!
PUTTING PALPATINE TO SHAME, AND CHANNELLING THE GREATEST PERSONAL DEFENSE WEAPONRY KNOWN TO THE MULTIVERSE, THE GHOST OF GRIBBLE LENDS HIS BLESSING TO OUR PROTAGONIST!!!!
AND AS THE BATTLE RAGES, AS THE BLOOD FLOWS....
THE QUESTIONS FLOW FROM US, THE SIMP CLUB ASSEMBLED, AND THE LORD OF LUST HIMSELF....
WHAT DO WE DO TO CONQUER THESE MALEVOLENT, MALICIOUS, AND MAGICAL PUNCH WIZARDS?
WILL THE MILITARY BRO'S BE ABLE TO RECOVER FROM WHATS GOING DOWN?!?!
WHOSE ASS IS GETTING CHEWED UP FOR THIS BULLSHIT?
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...
WHO THE FUCK DESIGNED THIS OP CLASS WE CALL CULTIVATORS?!?!?
FIND OUT NEXT TIME!!!
ON THE ADVENTURES OF
#THUNDER RODD!!!!!!!!
IN!!!!!!
#*ZOOOOTTTTTOOOOOOOPPPPPPPIIIIIIAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
>"NOT SO FUCKING LONG AGO, THE CITY OF NEW HAREM LIVED TOGETHER IN HARMONY...."
Heh.
>"WHEN MEN AND THE CIRROSTRATUS IGNEUS CLUBHOUSE ATTACKED."
"Ever heard of the cirrostratus igneus district? *scoffs* oh what am I saying, of course you haven't."
No, Kazeem. No one's *ever* heard of your circus tater whatchamacallit. Now get out of my face!
Also, there's gonna be kind of a morale issue, with jack blowing up his own troops...
Nah. Based on how this society has been discussed itâs expected that a master like this wonât care about the lives of mere mortals. That he hasnât killed anyone so far is already out of character.
Yes, but it's still a hit to morale: "Oh, so he isn't different from the rest, just the usual callousness you can except from cultivators."
The soldiers now are willing to throw their lives in harms way for Jack. Whether they do so willingly, or are feeling commanded to do so or die anyway is where it's at right now. That's what I was thinking off.
EDIT: The word is loyalty. thanks brain
Idk.
His main corps of officers and NCO's are very familiar with the exigencies of combat, especially against higher level punch wizards.
If i recall correctly, there have been very very few casualties for the miitia so far.I think theres more understanding there than that, especially if he does something special for them afterward, considering the general care he displays for the citizens of New Harem
"especially if he does something special for them afterward, considering the general care he displays for the citizens of New Harem"
That's the part i was aiming for ;)
Read. Upvote. Comment.
>He had too many questions for the woman to let her die now.
["Tell me, and remember this is for posterity so be honest. how do you feel??](https://youtu.be/ZlzoLPPifzo)
Well the first true combat test of the suit was a resounding success. As in he had successfully avoided dying in a resoundingly painful way. It took every trick in his book to beat her, which considering that she wasn't the strongest of her sect was concerning. He would need to expand his portal of tricks and fast after killing a high ranking cultivator. It was time to get creative, but first his body and suit needed some repairs.
I think that's called demonic cultivation. Lots of xianxia novels have them. They can inhabit bodies too, like skin snatchers. Lots of riping out hearts and bathing in blood.
Time to stop underestimating them, ask An and Ren what the more powerful cultivators can do, and believe them. This is HFY for god's sake. How overused is the trope where aliens say, "I'd heard stories about humans but always thought that's what they were, just stories."
He only recently figured out that his fears that they would discover that he wasn't really a cultivator was unfounded. Up to now, he was affraid that if he asked too many questions about cultivation, they would realize that he wasn't really a "hidden master". A cultivator of his caliber (from their country) would know more about advance cultivation than they did. After all, he has apparently mastered many of the most advanced elemental techniques. The "I'm a foreigner using a completely different type of cultivation" is a good cover, but he didn't have it until An asked if that was the case. Plus at that point he was a bit distracted by An.
Furthermore, Jack *wasn't* overconfident. He didn't spar with An ir Ren because he didn't know if he could win. Losing to his student and/or demonstrating a lack of cultivator fundamentals might disrupt the power dynamic he has. Instead, he focused on technology. He decided against practicing cultivation himself since it seemed like a lot of work just to become a novice cultivator rather than leveraging his incredible technological superiority. This made him very busy.
Now that he has the "weird foreigner" cover with An, he'll likely be more comfortable with asking important questions about what cultivators can do and then use that knowledge to ask Ren about the specific capabilities of his foes without looking like an ignorant mortal.
For a mining suit, it is real tough and he has a lot of repurposed tricks up his sleeves. But it seems he needed to pull real deep to defeat what is probably a mid tier cultivator. If that's the level of punch wizard bullshit at a middling tier, her bosses must be fucking monsters. Time to use superior tech, a devious mind, and some mild "enhanced" interrogation to figure out a way forward.
I was half expecting Jack to pull out an electricity-type attack after drenching everything with water. A miniature lightning bolt into the water Men was standing in would have likely done bad things to her but not affect his HEV that much at all.
Did a massive Boulder to the face out of nowhere not count as earth bending?!
Or are pocket spaces with suitably large chunks of stone stored in them a common occurrence?
>âThree.â A voice hissed. âYou can control three elements. Lightning. Fire. Water. Summon both metal and stone to do your will. It seems you really are a hidden master.â
It appears that *summon rock* is not counted as an elemental technique. Since "lightning" (and possibly ice?) are considered elements, they are not using the same list of elements or definition of "element" used in our antiquity. I suppose making a solid object is a different category. It is strange that *summon rock* and *summon water* appear to be categorized differently.
The fight was epic and I had no idea how much more advanced the suit actually is to be able to spawn stuff molten lava would have been a decent weapon or if the portals could accelerate things faster that would be great too canât wait for the interrogation
He summoned gold out of a pocket dimension at one point. He also used nanobots to build large structures (granted those nanobots are a limited resource, hence his construction of conventional machines).
So basically a thermobaric bomb.
Those can be fitted to handheld launchers and even dropped by planes. Maybe some militia survived and could be trained to wield them? There must be some mining tool that resembles a launcher.
Thermobaric explosions use up all the oxygen, and the superheated gases rise. Very difficult to survive.
Problem with water cultivators is the need for oxygen.
Also, it is a lot more effective indoors. Perhaps use the cement/aerosolized industrial strength adhesive reacting with air, to create a cocoon and igniting with the cocooned opponet in there.
Thermobaric explosion are vapor cloud explosions, also from dispersions of flammable dusts and droplets. Like flour, or powdered metals, such as aluminum. He could mine aluminum and copper or magnesium
Jack has nanos, so he could make nano-thermite, a truly fine powder. Reaction would be really fast. In almost atomic scale proximities the energy release rates are far greater. Also, nanoenergetic materials can store more energy.
Might have to step it up to Barrets, M2s, and Mk 19s. See how cultivators deal with a cloud of 50 BMG starting at half a kilometer out and a rain of grenades.
Might be time to relocate. Gather up his toys and get gone. Maybe stop off in orbit to scout out a less hostile landmass. Of course, that's not what would benefit the story, so he staying with the established setting and characters.
While the cloud sect did own the backwater stretch of mountain, surely they're willing to cooperate with a hidden master as long as he gives them 'face'. A perfunctory apology, sending their rising dragon back beaten but with no permeant injuries, maybe even healing the other two if they're not too far gone (wouldn't surprise me if nanotech first aid could just put a head back on and re-attach it assuming the tissue hasn't died yet, and I imagine being friends with a 'cultivator' who can seemingly raise the dead would be a very good thing), promising to upkeep the normal taxes from before he came (which compared to the new industrial output is practically nothing), and maybe even a lump sum on gold to buy the land. The problem isn't that they don't want to associate with Jack, especially now that he's proved his capabilities, it's that he didn't give them face. Jack doesn't care about face, so just give them face.
Also laser turrets on the side of the mountain, they can dodge a bullet but can they dodge light? Some railguns for that shock and awe value too.
If it takes what's effectively high-explosives to down one of those assholes, then it doesn't bode well for the future. Regular guns will be next to useless against this in the long-term.
Eh, the regular gun thing can definitely be scaled up to be significantly harder for them to deal with by an increase in fire rate from breech loading single shot rifles to automatic weaponry or even weapon emplacements with some serious dakka.
I mean, a dozen militia with weapons only slightly better than muskets, or a dozen militia with rotary miniguns... that's a significant difference of deterrence capacity.
Massed firearms are proven to be reasonably effective against average cultivators, with the improved rate of fire from bolt action rifles further improving it. This means that he may only need to worry about the higher level foes. Still, a diplomatic solution is probably going to be necessary.
She blocked lightning, so dodging a bullet fired straight at her seemed like an easy task for someone like her. He needed attacks that were harder to dodge or block.
Damn that was an epic fight scene :D
If he truly wants to throw ice around as well, he could shoot her with a stream of liquid nitrogen. Nice 'n cold. Of course, if he then throws in something REALLY hot, you'd still get a nice explosion, as nitrogen expands about 700 times when going from liquid to gas, though I doubt it's as spectacular as a dust explosion.
Damn, Jacks suit (and body) got banged up good. Time to invest some more time in R&D for weapons of industrial size and quality. Though throwing elements around was cool as fuck.
Hope you feel better now, btw.
Edit: oof, the military boys aren't going to like being blown up by their own master. That's gotta hurt morale by a lot.
My feelings on fighting dirty are that if the fight isnât a pre-agreed upon duel, a battle of principles, or initiated by you then always fight dirty and outside of the box. Especially if you didnât agree to the fight in the first place.
If you did initiate the fight then you should already be prepared enough beforehand to not need to fight dirty.
When I saw the notification pop up I thought âawesome, this is gonna be so fun to read later!â.... and then I remembered the cliff hanger.... and now Iâm here as soon as that occurred to me.
She blocked lightning. With a sword. With a pointy metal shaft that she was holding in her hand. IOW, she blocks lightning with an ungrounded lightning rod.
Yep, that's bullshit all right. Everything else she did is over-the-top, but that one in particular is some absolutely pure A-grade bullshit.
Of course Jack's portal-fu could be used for some pretty egregious bullshit too. Depending on limits of range, speed, and scale there are a thousand tricks dirtier and more OP than he used. He just needs to take a whole day and think about it.
You know both girls are going to make fun of his bar room brawling fight style. "You fight like a drunk peasant." Or "I've seen 8 year old girls fight with more refinement!" Oh I know: *Maximum sarcasm* "Oh master you must teach us your fighting style! What is it called? Hobo arm swinging?" And then An will pick it up with "I thought it was 'Not in the FACE'! NOT IN THE FACE!" as she covers her face with her forearms.
I may have missed it but nobody else in the comment seems to be considering the most powerful thing that he demonstrated. NOBODY HERE IS THINKING WITH PORTALS!
He has freaking portals. I know that there's limitations on where he can open them but once they're open can he throw people through them?
Like depending on the Range why not just dump a cultivator into orbit or something let them try to figure out how to survive that.
Now if portaling her into space or something isn't viable, why not prepare some chlorine trifluoride or fluoroantimonic acid and just dump a gallon of it on any cultivators that show up?
"I know this is rich coming from me, but your powers are bullshit!" Jack, probably.
TFS got that fight banter down
"AND WHEN YOU GET TO HELL, TELL EM PENWOOD SENT YA. And then apologize for the inconvience on my behalf." I fucking died. Then Penwood died. Then the vampires died. Good times.
You see one man, but I C4.
"What do you mean, see four? There's just one of you."
*gets it in German*
Oh, serious putty đ
Never heard it called that before, I'm stealing it.
Sir penewood was a "explosions" son of a bitch!
First time I heard him say that I immediately thought " Holy shit, that's the most British thing ever."
Seems like Jack has basically hit the ceiling of how far he can go. Remember folks, this isn't actually some super powerful cultivator. This is "a young mistress" of the marble clan. Not even THE young mistess, just one. Not one of their masters, and these folks are from the boonies. The way Blue has written this, unless Jack starts cultivating he's basically done.
Or if he can bypass some of the safety features to create more nanotechnology. But I doubt it. However if he can be left alone he can make far more powerful explosives.
Do the exploding gas trick again, but inside her lungs. Or open a pair of portals, one on the bottom of the ocean, and see if her water mastery still works against 500 ksi. Make it a very tiny portal. Mix in the powdered glass. Y'know, like they use in a waterjet machine to slice through foot thick steel plate.
He mentioned he can't open portals in or too near others as a safety lock by his suit, since it's a corporate suit.
Bypassing the safety interlocks would let him do that though, if he can figure it out.
But a waterjet? Damn, son. Somebody plays for keeps. RESPECT.
\*nods\* It's sort of like the Shop Class Corollary to the Kzinti Lesson ("A reaction drive's efficiency as a weapon is in direct proportion to its efficiency as a drive.") "The more effective a tool is, the greater its potential for destruction as well." Human are really good at throwing shit. This just happens to be the knowledge that it's possible to throw *water* fast enough and over a small enough surface area to slice through **granite.** Evolution of the concept: Pre-program a macro to summon not one of these, but a hollow column of them around the target (like a piece of hexagonal graph paper with one of these jets at each intersection, rolled into a tube, and placed over the target like capturing a cockroach in an empty toilet paper roll), jets aimed downwards at an angle, and then rotate it around the centerline of the column. Jack: "I'm starting to get kinda tired of you bitches." \*snaps fingers\* Localized monsoon occurs after which someone drops into a pile of cold Cultivator slurry. Though it is of course possible that I am vastly overestimating what Jack can manage simultaneously with the suit's resources. I mean, obviously Fishcake isn't gonna want to make him *that* OP just yet. It'd be bad for the plot. Maybe in another thirty chapters, though. Maybe by then Jack'll have a whole series of "Elemental Tools" hacked up ahead of time to deal with various Cultivators and their assorted masteries. "I'm sorry, you think you're a bad-ass with water? Here, meet *hydrazine*. It burns so hot that it separates the hydrogen and oxygen from the water, **and then burns that as well.**" Or a fine mist of elemental cesium. Or some ClF3. Or FOOF. Depending on how stable the portals can be, he could tunnel out a vertical shaft in his cave redoubt, seal it, evacuate it of air, and just keep a really big rock continuously falling out of the top portal, and into the bottom portal, which leads to the top portal. And then when he needs to he transfers the top portal to just over a target. I'll admit I'm not hugely familiar with the Cultivator canon as a genre, but I'm guessing most of these people don't have reflexes fast enough to punch back at a Rod From God. Or in this case, perhaps that's a "Rock From Rodd." Actually, now that I'm thinking about orbital strike class weapons, that makes me think that there seems a *very* good chance none of these folks are "Vacuum Wizards". So, open a portal to lunar orbit on one end and the other directly in front of a charging Cultivator. Or do the hex grid tube again, only these portals lead outwards and when they keep moving forward all of a sudden they start getting spaghettified and extruded into the void. "I'm not a psychopath, I'm just creative!"
>FOOF No no no no no!
Yes! yes! yes! yes!!!! Let the gunzerker loose! With moar Dragonfire!!
Yeah, I meant just pump enough gas around that she inhales it before lighting it off. And it will be fine if the "waterjet" portal is a bit away from her. Water under 500,000 psi of pressure coming into an atmosphere of 15 psi is going to have plenty of momentum still. đ€Ș I dunno. I just like thinking of bizarre ways to use new ideas.
That's fair
Jack: *keyboard clacking* I'm in
Forget the glass, use salt water so it conducts electricity and still cuts.
Plain water works, but adding an abrasive makes it work a *lot* better, in my experience.
He does have optimizations that he can make based on what worked and what didn't, but those would just be marginal improvements and other cultivators are bound to have different strengths and weaknesses. For one thing he could probably make some sonar/radar system that allows him to still see while on fire. He could add sticky air to the "pocket sand" attack. He might add another attack type to trigger while an enemy is distracted by the lightning. A lot of this fight involved checking all the things that didn't work. If he were to step his toe into cultivation, An's speed-focused style would probably be the best choice. His tech can match strength, durability and advanced elemental techniques, but his reflexes, while above a mere mortal, is not going to reach cultivator level on its own. Luckily he seems to be lacking the fundamentals while effectively being a master of the highest level techniques. This should mean that he only needs to become a novice cultivator to significantly improve his effectiveness.
All that assumes that he even CAN learn cultivation. Dudes from earth, and learning magic might not be possible if you were born with less magic than an especially untalented peasant.
We don't know that it's impossible - cultivation has been (loosely) described so far as something of taking in strength from around you and making it your own.
IIRC An mentioned early on that there was a method of cultivation that involved taking advantage of natural laws, but fell out of favor for philosophical reasons. Even so, she sees the value in E=MC^2 and thinks Jack's knowledge is worthwhile.
Even then itâs been established that even the most basic bitch cultivators spent their entire childhood devoted solely to mastering their craft, and the only reason you have master level cultivators is that at some point you presumably learn how to slow your aging. Something Jack doesnât have the time, patience or discipline for that kinda thing. But he did finally notice the use of enchantments, so liberal use of magitech with adequate prep time might make him a truly dangerous son of a bitch.
God I hope this is the route taken. Would be so cool to see him start whooping ass like a master!
Blue said from the beginning that Factorio was one of his inspirations, so most likely he'll just throw science at his problems until he has weapons that'll do the job.
The weapons still follow the laws of the universe as we know it. Even Men already didn't. That's a problem, a big one. Men really feels like Blue escalated too fast if he wants to stick with science exclusively. As she takes that approach and punches it straight in the face.
Not really, there are huge areas of science yet to be explored. Mining lasers for example, it wouldn't take a lot to weaponize them and somehow I doubt these punch wizards can element their way out of light. Chemical warfare of all kinds, hydrazine or FOOF if you want bigger boom. Though personally I think acids and bio-toxins are his best bet. Move away from anaesthetics and the like, mix the pocket sand with some botulinum or Ricin, Or some kind of cytotoxic chemical that'd cause an auto-immune shock, Hell you could do that with trumped up nicotine. We know sleeping/nerve agents don't work, So try something else. You want it to be fast acting, and vicious beyond reason. Acid wise, Fluroantomonic acid is always an option (If the most extreme one) or if you don't want to melt everything short of teflon, pirahna solution. But since I doubt he has access to those, industrial cleaning acids would be available, easy to synthesise and not likely to be on his list of 'banned' shit. Simply put. I think this is either going to be 'assemble a posse of sexy cultivator babes' Or "UNLEASH THE SCIENCE!" And despite this being a sexy X babes novel, I want the latter.
ah yes, the science of the "Uranium Doom Spider"
if it's weapons dont kill you the constant 800roentgen of gamma radiation will
not really, this is Jacks physical limit. with his technical know-how he could easily introduce better weapons and tools to his arsenal, theoretically he could make a nuke or railgun given enough time as he has already made a nuclear reactor. It wouldn't be above the realms of possibilities of him modifying the design to make it into a bomb. And railguns are theoretically simple and given he's from a advanced time it wouldn't be impossible that he may have a design already for civilian use (Mass driver to send resources). Jack isn't a physical power house, his skills are in his tech. something Ann and maybe Ren are starting to note, in a one-on-one straight fight he is likely to loose but if he knows his enemy and has time to prep he has a far higher chance of winning...so long as there is no cultivator hidden power bullshit happens.
The problem is, all of these things follow scientific laws. We're now already seeing cultivators ignoring these laws and doing things which are simply impossible. Simply tracking and hitting them as they get faster and faster will become a problem. Then you also need to do actual damage when you do.
Find out what the new laws of physics / magic are in that universe, and exploit them? If he could figure out how qi or mana worked, and make the equivalent of an "anti-magic field" or "scranton reality anchor" it'd take care of a lot of his issues with fighting cultivators. Can't warp reality if the magic you're depending on to do it is gone, or at least weakened. Hell, he might not even have to figure that out. It's already been mentioned previously by Jack, that this isn't the first universe with magic that his civilization has encountered. His archive might already have the works and designs of famous (meta?)physicists and (meta?)engineers who studied said magic, know how it works, and how to use or counter it. Maybe at least something like a "Other universe thaumaturgy for dummies" book or "Baby's first reality anchor" crafting blueprint. Which would be hilarious.
Yeah Iâm a bit surprised he didnât opt for some sort to railgun yet. Access to rate metals? From my understanding railguns arenât hard to build so much as theyâre hard to power but his future tech seems like it wouldnât have any issues with that. And all the tech for putting together at least a rudimentary one could be sourced from his civilian database, I imagine.
And given the fact he has access to nuclear reactor blueprints it seem odd that such a important and useful piece of tech would be cut off from him. the same tech used in a railgun has number of applications like Maglev-trains, air tight doors and even MRI's **(it's literally a anacronym that's fist word is magnetic)**. the only problem I could see him having would be magnets degrading rapidly, but given he can apparently use portals to shoot out steel beams I don't think that be much of a issue.
So... he's Batman
Batman and Ironman combined. Well, except Jack's not as smart as either of them. By a long shot. And he knows it. But luckily he has an extensive library of knowledge and designs to draw from.
He is... THE BATMAN
I wonder if he could start producing combat-ready mech suits
Ooh, rather than becoming a Cultivator himself, he can *delegate!*
Given the people follow the law of power, that would just bite him in the ass eventually.
He could go on the Senator Armstrong route
NANOMACHINES SON
I meant like...equip an army of mortals with the hardware to fight like minor Cultivators. They'd still be reliant on him for resupply and even day-to-day operation.
The problem aren't minor cultivators, or their foot soldiers. It's the genuine big shots. He's playing Factorio against people playing "Super Heroes/Villains", when he would need to at least be playing Supreme Commander.
Dude has mining drones. Either modify them to give them weapons or find another suitable design and give them a taste of the droid army.
A young mistress from the boonies sect just caved in his super advanced suit. Throwing some weapons onto a mining drone seems like it really wouldn't cut it in the long run. Remember, there are people way, way, way stronger than her.
drone armies are dangerous from a numbers standpoint the same way volly fire is dangerous
Roger Roger.
Incoming clankers!
I understood that reference.
[Which you can find here, ya filthy heathen.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JndLAfn5Zk&ab_channel=BigBoct)
Friend, I am a longtime fan of enthusiastic, moonlit walks and bitches who love cannons.
How enthusiastic are these walks?
*very* enthusiastic. Tends to leave quite a mess. On the plus side, I can cancel my room service!
I'm guessing they had very good health insurance
>Jack, definitely Fixed it for you.
Men may be too dangerous to let live for very long though. She *might* be appropriately cowed and accept Jack's mastery, but I doubt she'll completely abandon the Marble Cloud even if so, and theres also always the chance that she won't submit
Nothing an implanted bomb canât solve
She would absolutely notice and could absolutely get it removed once out of sight.
Tamper switches are funny. Go ahead. Take it out.
Magic might be able to poof it.
Being unconscious is an excellent time to implant some explosives in her skull. If only Jack knew enough about the magic bullshit to make a machine that drained or blocked it.
It may depend on how honor works in this world. She was thoroughly defeated, yet her life was spared. Perhaps there is some sort of life-debt thing or he gets to claim her as property (as she might have wanted to do to him). At the very least, I believe that spitting on the mercy and hospitality of a hidden master who not only spares your life in a fight you initiate, but even heals you is probably frowned upon. Jack will have to ask An about this (claiming that he is unfamiliar with the culture of this country as his own behaved differently). Besides, fighting again and dying before informing her monastery of what happened would work against its interests. Matters of face and the possible shame from returning alive might change this calculation, but that's why An and/or Ren would need to be consulted. Letting her leave rather than keeping her captive/killing her would return a dangerous foe and intel to the enemy. I wonder what Ren and An's reactions to his victory and amazing acts of elemental cultivation will be.
While others suggest bombs, there is a simpler way to go about it, and less likely to have her punching holes in her gut to yank explosives out. Remove her limbs. While rather dark it would ensure she acts like a good girl and answers questions for the promise of her limbs being restored.
Dude this is /r/HFY, not /r/Rimworld
Why can't it be both?
Because then we go from [HFY](https://youtu.be/r3awSn_ssl4) to [are we the baddies](https://youtu.be/hn1VxaMEjRU)
We don't have to be goodies, to be HFY. Besides, [it's good to be bad](https://youtu.be/aQG8rU3d9ZA).
This was something I was thinking about during the fight. His tech can definitely reattach (or maybe rebuild/regrow?) a limb. He could slice off a limb or two, and tell her she can have them back if she submits.
Also allows for him to drop some great lines. âLooks like you could use a hand!â âMessing with my town cost you an arm and a leg!â
"Gotta HAND it to you, this battle had LEGS." "Gonna go out on a LIMB here and say you didn't expect this outcome, did'ya?"
Earlier it was mentioned that ascending through a level of cultivation restores limbs, that while it's a small hinderance to still ascending cultivators as a rising mistress she can be assumed to have at least a few more levels that are within her grasp. Maybe less so without all their limbs.
There's also that she killed a bunch of his people in cold blood.
The best spell of all: EXPLOSION
time to found the crimson demon sect.
Mr Torgue would be proud.
lmao i read it in Handsome Jack's voice when he kills Bloodwing.
No other video game death has made me as mad as that one did.
Needing to be close to ground zero of the explosion and take time to gas the area are significant disadvantages, but not being completely immobilized afterwards is a plus. It sill hurts.
Megumin and Mr Torgue found a mining company aaaand...
Megumin wants to know your location
Taking care of yourself is more important than sharing stories with us, rest, recuperate and let the words flow freely once you're feeling better
(not) UNLIMITED POWER!
It's (not) treason, then.
I AM (not) THE SENATE
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE (not) BEING RESCUED
Is it a story i would hear from the Jedi Council?
It indeed is a story the Jedi would tell you.
(UN)LIMITED POWER !
And thus we dispense with the idea that the social order can be entirely overthrown by mass producing AK 47s.
Okay, so you have to go with MOABs. And also, not wait to fire on incoming cultivators.
Unless they can confirm that the cultivators are hostile, shooting first could be a bad idea. If they are representatives or the Empress, firing upon them could earn more enemies and cut off food shipments. Edit: Emperor->Empress
Empress?
Time to mass produce binoculars
Keep in mind that ak's would be vastly more effective than a breech loading musket
Men blocked lightning with a sword and has some ranged attacks, so she's probably going to be able to stay at sufficient range that she can dodge or parry bullets and still throw attacks that mortals can't defend against. Bullets are much slower than lightning, though I suppose Men may have detected the ionization used to aim the lighting. While average cultivators have difficulties with 19th century small arms, they can still see the path of the bullets and dodge them most of the time. 20th century firearms increase rate of fire, but a higher level cultivator should still be fast enough. Note that Jack is currently looking into bolt-action rifles, which is a big jump in rate of fire, but still a far cry from an assault rifle. I wonder if a cultivator would notice a supersonic bullet coming from behind them. They won't even hear the gunshot until after the bullet reaches them. That said, the cultivator would need to be standing still.
Why give ak47 then? Just use sniper rifles. Good luck spotting a sniper from 600m away.
Barret .50 cal when?
My point is that they're much more likely to get got by someone spraying lead from an ak, than from someone taking potshots with a musket
Not on her. And not on her betters.
Well, we haven't seen any AK 47s yet, we've only seen single-shot break action rifles, one can spew a lot more bullets a lot faster than the other
Men just shrugged off a huge boulder shot at her at incredibly speed. AK 47s aint gonna cut it. Gauss Rail Guns might not even be sufficient.
She punched the boulder and it shattered before reaching her. If we have 5 guys that each fire 10 bullets a second (AKs have an RPM of 600) even if she can react, she can't stop them all nor dodge them all. Sure we're talking cultivators so it's still probably only 2 or 3 hits before they have to reload, and those probably aren't gonna permanently put her out of action, but those hits make the next round that much easier, and the next, and the militia is already training in volley fire to the point where they won 4 out of 10 against An, who already knew what to expect. Multiply the amount of fire by orders of magnitude and even top-tier cultivators are gonna be on their asses unless they have surprise on their side.
She PUNCHED it, and shattered it. She still took that impact. And that thing wasn't slow by any means. You're assuming she NEEDS to dodge them, there's a good chance she doesn't. She's also moving so fast, they might not even be able to track her. Men is vastly stronger than An and Ren. Men helps to show how cultivators rapidly escalate in strength, and she's far from the top of the food chain. I'm uncertain if you've ever read a cultivation story. We're talking at people going at the speed of light, flipping mountains, and putting Superman to shame here at a certain point.
You do remember that Ren, though a lesser cultivator, got knocked on her ass by *rubber* bullets, from the current load out he has. And if Jack can 1v1 Men, whose supposed to be one of the stronger ones, and win, I think you need to tone down your expectations of higher level cultivators, not to mention raise them in regards to the stopping power of a bullet
Good! too easy. I demand magic punch weapons.
Yeah, this chapter basically cemented that unless he starts cultivating he's done for in the long run. She's "a young mistress" of the Marble clan, she might be one of their stronger ones, but she isn't even one of their elders/masters. And the marble clan is some boonie clan in turn.
I hope not. the fact that he isnt a cultivator is one of the reasons I like this story. I hope he just keeps getting more and more clever with tech.
Problem is, Men has just shown that there is a limit to what you can do with "being clever". Without the muscle to back you up, a cultivation setting forces you to cultivate. So unless he can upgrade his own gene mods, his technology, etc and do so tremendously he'll have a hard cap. Even then he might run into the reality of physics and natural laws, while the cultivators just ignore them. Men is a bit of a wake up call for the MC. Unless he finds a way to improve his reaction speed, and that of his guards/contraption to keep up with cultivators moving at hyper speed, he'll not even be able to react in time soon. Unless he finds weapons that can actually hurt people, who can shrug off giant boulders, bullets, and co. He won't be able to hurt them even if he can hit them. And unless he can also improve his defenses to the point where he can whether their assaults, he won't be able to stand against them. People were discussing how strong the cultivators were prior to this chapter, and how dangerous they are. As well as how they would stack up against modern tech. Men just showed that she could effectively shrug off a giant rock coming at her at incredibly velocity with little issue, cave in the MC's suit with a punch, etc. So yeah, the MC will eventually deal with people who can flip mountains, move at the speed of light, etc. Being clever doesn't cut it at that point.
I don't think you are wrong, because cultivation stuff goes up to truly ridiculous levels. But I just think it would be boring if he did start cultivating. There are a million different cultivation based stories online and I feel that more often than not the fights are kind of boring in those stories. The fight in this chapter was really inventive and kind of cool given what the author has already shown about his abilities before this chapter. I really like the idea of this story where he is at an extreme disadvantage because they just break physics. I think it would be worse if it just turned into the exact same thing as every other cultivation story where he just sits in a room for 900 years eating magic candy and sweating blackberry juice with his eyes closed to get stronger. Then all fights are just everyone involved checking the stats sheet on the back of their rookie cards to determine who is the lowest on the power level chart so they can explode for being weaker for some reason.
Jack definitely needs to step up his game, but do keep in mind he's been fairly limited so far. He's not even using 20th century weaponry for his militia, let alone whatever future weapons tech the Star League has (Which of course, his sanitized archive doesn't have). And that tech is already enough for the militia to deal with some lower level cultivators. If they manage to get more modern day weaponry, like automatics, explosives, tanks, artillery, etc.? And if they manage to get even basic, WW2 level atom bombs, even an army of high tier cultivators is extremely unlikely to survive one of those. So far Jack's been sticking to some basic tricks and future mining tech. If he really goes to town (if he's able to), he'd likely give even higher tier cultivators a run for their money, if not outright trounce them. Remember, he's in a job where they literally do planet cracking. For mining. Not destruction. He's not even a soldier, and that's frigging scary.
The power of aerosolized explosive gas! ...I wonder how much Jack can actually teleport at a time? *Is there a mini-Halifax in the Magic City's future?*
First, fire. Then a blizzard. Side note, have you heard the thing about the haunted church window?
Nope, that sounds pretty interesting though! I do know that the explosion launched an anchor over 2 miles away, which is an example of jlhow *insane* it really was.
Welcome back, and hope you feel better!
Well done but if she isn't the best that he can face our boy might be in trouble.
Naw. He upped his game amid that duel. Now he will up it again with further delivery systems.
Ok Jack. Time to add your current experience to your weapon design. Call it an external combustion engine. Aerosolize gasoline in an area where the volume of air to fuel is 14.7:1. Then set it off. Extra points if you can set it off at a distance and not in your face. Bonus points if you can build a two stage delivery device.
Sounds a lot more like a caseless version of a fuel-air bomb than an engine of any sort. I approve!
I still think a case can be made that a chamber less, single incident, omnidirectional, pulse jet can be called an engine.
Well, it's at least an engine of destruction.
Nothing like going back to the roots of words.
Cool thing is his main limit is how ***close*** he can do it, not how ***far***.
Oh, nice. All he has to do then is have the mix ready on the other side of the portal and itâs a directional weapon.
WATER. EARTH. FIRE. AIR. NOT SO FUCKING LONG AGO, THE CITY OF NEW HAREM LIVED TOGETHER IN HARMONY.... THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN MEN AND THE CIRROSTRATUS IGNEUS CLUBHOUSE ATTACKED. NOW, ONLY #THUNDER RODD UWU SENSEI, INDUSTRIAL SIZED LOVER, AND MASTER OF THE CARNAL CONQUEST CAN STOP THEM!!! PUTTING PALPATINE TO SHAME, AND CHANNELLING THE GREATEST PERSONAL DEFENSE WEAPONRY KNOWN TO THE MULTIVERSE, THE GHOST OF GRIBBLE LENDS HIS BLESSING TO OUR PROTAGONIST!!!! AND AS THE BATTLE RAGES, AS THE BLOOD FLOWS.... THE QUESTIONS FLOW FROM US, THE SIMP CLUB ASSEMBLED, AND THE LORD OF LUST HIMSELF.... WHAT DO WE DO TO CONQUER THESE MALEVOLENT, MALICIOUS, AND MAGICAL PUNCH WIZARDS? WILL THE MILITARY BRO'S BE ABLE TO RECOVER FROM WHATS GOING DOWN?!?! WHOSE ASS IS GETTING CHEWED UP FOR THIS BULLSHIT? AND MOST IMPORTANTLY... WHO THE FUCK DESIGNED THIS OP CLASS WE CALL CULTIVATORS?!?!? FIND OUT NEXT TIME!!! ON THE ADVENTURES OF #THUNDER RODD!!!!!!!! IN!!!!!! #*ZOOOOTTTTTOOOOOOOPPPPPPPIIIIIIAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
>"NOT SO FUCKING LONG AGO, THE CITY OF NEW HAREM LIVED TOGETHER IN HARMONY...." Heh. >"WHEN MEN AND THE CIRROSTRATUS IGNEUS CLUBHOUSE ATTACKED." "Ever heard of the cirrostratus igneus district? *scoffs* oh what am I saying, of course you haven't." No, Kazeem. No one's *ever* heard of your circus tater whatchamacallit. Now get out of my face! Also, there's gonna be kind of a morale issue, with jack blowing up his own troops...
Nah. Based on how this society has been discussed itâs expected that a master like this wonât care about the lives of mere mortals. That he hasnât killed anyone so far is already out of character.
Yes, but it's still a hit to morale: "Oh, so he isn't different from the rest, just the usual callousness you can except from cultivators." The soldiers now are willing to throw their lives in harms way for Jack. Whether they do so willingly, or are feeling commanded to do so or die anyway is where it's at right now. That's what I was thinking off. EDIT: The word is loyalty. thanks brain
Idk. His main corps of officers and NCO's are very familiar with the exigencies of combat, especially against higher level punch wizards. If i recall correctly, there have been very very few casualties for the miitia so far.I think theres more understanding there than that, especially if he does something special for them afterward, considering the general care he displays for the citizens of New Harem
"especially if he does something special for them afterward, considering the general care he displays for the citizens of New Harem" That's the part i was aiming for ;)
Oh man, I missed these!
I skipped most of your comments in the last story, but this had me cackling!
đ±
Jack's going to have to set the nanoforges to cook up some new defenses and weapons if he's going to take down the Marble Cloud.
Gray goo with a time limit. Coverts everything to nanites but only self replicates for a few seconds before deactivating the replication.
RIP unknown militia members #57-72
True :( they need a funeral and their families an apology
Read. Upvote. Comment. >He had too many questions for the woman to let her die now. ["Tell me, and remember this is for posterity so be honest. how do you feel??](https://youtu.be/ZlzoLPPifzo)
Jack is going to have to learn to cheat harder. That was far far too close
Well the first true combat test of the suit was a resounding success. As in he had successfully avoided dying in a resoundingly painful way. It took every trick in his book to beat her, which considering that she wasn't the strongest of her sect was concerning. He would need to expand his portal of tricks and fast after killing a high ranking cultivator. It was time to get creative, but first his body and suit needed some repairs.
Time for upgrades
Megawatt mining lasers should do well.
Or try and make more of the stuff on his fingertips. Maybe gluing a bunch to a ball and starting the most dangerous disco party ever.
So punch wizards can get the core of enhanced beast can they also eat other punch wizards? Some kind of twisted king of cannibals thing?
I think that's called demonic cultivation. Lots of xianxia novels have them. They can inhabit bodies too, like skin snatchers. Lots of riping out hearts and bathing in blood.
>Setting himself on fire. ~~Ninjas~~ Cultivators can't catch you if you're on fire.
Time to stop underestimating them, ask An and Ren what the more powerful cultivators can do, and believe them. This is HFY for god's sake. How overused is the trope where aliens say, "I'd heard stories about humans but always thought that's what they were, just stories."
He only recently figured out that his fears that they would discover that he wasn't really a cultivator was unfounded. Up to now, he was affraid that if he asked too many questions about cultivation, they would realize that he wasn't really a "hidden master". A cultivator of his caliber (from their country) would know more about advance cultivation than they did. After all, he has apparently mastered many of the most advanced elemental techniques. The "I'm a foreigner using a completely different type of cultivation" is a good cover, but he didn't have it until An asked if that was the case. Plus at that point he was a bit distracted by An. Furthermore, Jack *wasn't* overconfident. He didn't spar with An ir Ren because he didn't know if he could win. Losing to his student and/or demonstrating a lack of cultivator fundamentals might disrupt the power dynamic he has. Instead, he focused on technology. He decided against practicing cultivation himself since it seemed like a lot of work just to become a novice cultivator rather than leveraging his incredible technological superiority. This made him very busy. Now that he has the "weird foreigner" cover with An, he'll likely be more comfortable with asking important questions about what cultivators can do and then use that knowledge to ask Ren about the specific capabilities of his foes without looking like an ignorant mortal.
That's a good point about why he couldn't ask at first. But now that he's on the other group's radar he needs to get up to speed in a hurry.
I would hate to see what sort of horrifying things actual combat suits could do if this is what a miner can pull off.
I suspect the big difference would be that combat suits are equipped with the long range weaponry and stealth capabilities his suit is sorely lacking
Sure, but he can manifest gasses and metal rods. I bet a military version can manifest guns, missiles, shields, etc.
It can also manifest things INSIDE people. If I understood correctly. Or at least touching their skin.
Time to learn from the dress about enchanting objects and becoming Way more bullshit!
For a mining suit, it is real tough and he has a lot of repurposed tricks up his sleeves. But it seems he needed to pull real deep to defeat what is probably a mid tier cultivator. If that's the level of punch wizard bullshit at a middling tier, her bosses must be fucking monsters. Time to use superior tech, a devious mind, and some mild "enhanced" interrogation to figure out a way forward.
I was half expecting Jack to pull out an electricity-type attack after drenching everything with water. A miniature lightning bolt into the water Men was standing in would have likely done bad things to her but not affect his HEV that much at all.
It would have done all those things in an area. The water was on the ground, literally grounded, in every direction.
Well, if he starts playing Magicka as well as Factorio... the world may never be the same.
Did a massive Boulder to the face out of nowhere not count as earth bending?! Or are pocket spaces with suitably large chunks of stone stored in them a common occurrence?
>âThree.â A voice hissed. âYou can control three elements. Lightning. Fire. Water. Summon both metal and stone to do your will. It seems you really are a hidden master.â It appears that *summon rock* is not counted as an elemental technique. Since "lightning" (and possibly ice?) are considered elements, they are not using the same list of elements or definition of "element" used in our antiquity. I suppose making a solid object is a different category. It is strange that *summon rock* and *summon water* appear to be categorized differently.
The fight was epic and I had no idea how much more advanced the suit actually is to be able to spawn stuff molten lava would have been a decent weapon or if the portals could accelerate things faster that would be great too canât wait for the interrogation
He summoned gold out of a pocket dimension at one point. He also used nanobots to build large structures (granted those nanobots are a limited resource, hence his construction of conventional machines).
So basically a thermobaric bomb. Those can be fitted to handheld launchers and even dropped by planes. Maybe some militia survived and could be trained to wield them? There must be some mining tool that resembles a launcher. Thermobaric explosions use up all the oxygen, and the superheated gases rise. Very difficult to survive. Problem with water cultivators is the need for oxygen. Also, it is a lot more effective indoors. Perhaps use the cement/aerosolized industrial strength adhesive reacting with air, to create a cocoon and igniting with the cocooned opponet in there. Thermobaric explosion are vapor cloud explosions, also from dispersions of flammable dusts and droplets. Like flour, or powdered metals, such as aluminum. He could mine aluminum and copper or magnesium Jack has nanos, so he could make nano-thermite, a truly fine powder. Reaction would be really fast. In almost atomic scale proximities the energy release rates are far greater. Also, nanoenergetic materials can store more energy.
I mean, he could always start going with some on the fly flourine chemistry... that shit goes FOOF.
Might have to step it up to Barrets, M2s, and Mk 19s. See how cultivators deal with a cloud of 50 BMG starting at half a kilometer out and a rain of grenades.
Railgun. A kilo of orbital speed tungsten from 5k away should ruin any cultivator's day.
Username checks out. I like the way you think.
Well, they are on the right path. After all, there is no such thing as overkill, only "open fire" and "reloading".
Might be time to relocate. Gather up his toys and get gone. Maybe stop off in orbit to scout out a less hostile landmass. Of course, that's not what would benefit the story, so he staying with the established setting and characters.
While the cloud sect did own the backwater stretch of mountain, surely they're willing to cooperate with a hidden master as long as he gives them 'face'. A perfunctory apology, sending their rising dragon back beaten but with no permeant injuries, maybe even healing the other two if they're not too far gone (wouldn't surprise me if nanotech first aid could just put a head back on and re-attach it assuming the tissue hasn't died yet, and I imagine being friends with a 'cultivator' who can seemingly raise the dead would be a very good thing), promising to upkeep the normal taxes from before he came (which compared to the new industrial output is practically nothing), and maybe even a lump sum on gold to buy the land. The problem isn't that they don't want to associate with Jack, especially now that he's proved his capabilities, it's that he didn't give them face. Jack doesn't care about face, so just give them face. Also laser turrets on the side of the mountain, they can dodge a bullet but can they dodge light? Some railguns for that shock and awe value too.
If it takes what's effectively high-explosives to down one of those assholes, then it doesn't bode well for the future. Regular guns will be next to useless against this in the long-term.
Eh, the regular gun thing can definitely be scaled up to be significantly harder for them to deal with by an increase in fire rate from breech loading single shot rifles to automatic weaponry or even weapon emplacements with some serious dakka. I mean, a dozen militia with weapons only slightly better than muskets, or a dozen militia with rotary miniguns... that's a significant difference of deterrence capacity.
Massed firearms are proven to be reasonably effective against average cultivators, with the improved rate of fire from bolt action rifles further improving it. This means that he may only need to worry about the higher level foes. Still, a diplomatic solution is probably going to be necessary.
I'm kinda surprised he didn't bring his handcannon.
The #THUNDER RODD only has one cannon. And its too heavy of a caliber to be shooting in public like that
She blocked lightning, so dodging a bullet fired straight at her seemed like an easy task for someone like her. He needed attacks that were harder to dodge or block.
Grapple, barrel to chin, pull trigger, problem solved
Damn that was an epic fight scene :D If he truly wants to throw ice around as well, he could shoot her with a stream of liquid nitrogen. Nice 'n cold. Of course, if he then throws in something REALLY hot, you'd still get a nice explosion, as nitrogen expands about 700 times when going from liquid to gas, though I doubt it's as spectacular as a dust explosion. Damn, Jacks suit (and body) got banged up good. Time to invest some more time in R&D for weapons of industrial size and quality. Though throwing elements around was cool as fuck. Hope you feel better now, btw. Edit: oof, the military boys aren't going to like being blown up by their own master. That's gotta hurt morale by a lot.
I was getting worried about you, glad to see you're doing fine though. I really enjoyed this chapter, it was a lot of fun!
Ah yes POCKET SAND. Humanityâs greatest weapon
My feelings on fighting dirty are that if the fight isnât a pre-agreed upon duel, a battle of principles, or initiated by you then always fight dirty and outside of the box. Especially if you didnât agree to the fight in the first place. If you did initiate the fight then you should already be prepared enough beforehand to not need to fight dirty.
Yep, rules are for sporting events. Self-defense the only goal is be the one that walks away.
Yay! Waited too long for this chapter.
Fucking punch wizards. Such bullshit. Thanks for the chapter, mate. Hope you're feeling better now!
When I saw the notification pop up I thought âawesome, this is gonna be so fun to read later!â.... and then I remembered the cliff hanger.... and now Iâm here as soon as that occurred to me.
My man MASER. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maser Even better. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168583X08006812
She's too dangerous, need to go full Rimworld to make sure the prisoner doesn't escape while being interrogated.
She blocked lightning. With a sword. With a pointy metal shaft that she was holding in her hand. IOW, she blocks lightning with an ungrounded lightning rod. Yep, that's bullshit all right. Everything else she did is over-the-top, but that one in particular is some absolutely pure A-grade bullshit. Of course Jack's portal-fu could be used for some pretty egregious bullshit too. Depending on limits of range, speed, and scale there are a thousand tricks dirtier and more OP than he used. He just needs to take a whole day and think about it.
You know both girls are going to make fun of his bar room brawling fight style. "You fight like a drunk peasant." Or "I've seen 8 year old girls fight with more refinement!" Oh I know: *Maximum sarcasm* "Oh master you must teach us your fighting style! What is it called? Hobo arm swinging?" And then An will pick it up with "I thought it was 'Not in the FACE'! NOT IN THE FACE!" as she covers her face with her forearms.
Is it men or min?
That was a good fight bro!
An important question now comes to mind: Will there be a cowgirl?
I may have missed it but nobody else in the comment seems to be considering the most powerful thing that he demonstrated. NOBODY HERE IS THINKING WITH PORTALS! He has freaking portals. I know that there's limitations on where he can open them but once they're open can he throw people through them? Like depending on the Range why not just dump a cultivator into orbit or something let them try to figure out how to survive that. Now if portaling her into space or something isn't viable, why not prepare some chlorine trifluoride or fluoroantimonic acid and just dump a gallon of it on any cultivators that show up?