From the Soul Motion Machine onwards, the Mechanized Douluo

Chapter 252 Hybrid System! Soul Motion Engine! Steam Turbine! [Please Subscribe! Please Vote!]

In the massive dock of the Soto Shipyard, Chen Lin, leading the Sea Soul Mercenary Group, found Barry, the shipyard's manager—also known as Prince Barry of the Barak Kingdom—amidst the curious gazes of the shipbuilders.

Because the Barak Kingdom is bisected by the Barak River, allowing direct access to the sea, its shipbuilding industry is very strong. Prince Barry of Barak naturally possesses profound shipbuilding knowledge. Upon learning that Soto City was going to establish a large shipyard, Barry, unwilling to continue being a playboy, directly joined the Soto Shipyard and became a junior leader. Ultimately, relying on his excellent connections and vision, he successfully became the director of the Soto Shipyard in less than half a year.

"This Soul-Guided Steel Armored Ship was originally somewhat overweight, but our Soto Shipyard made some progress in two areas during the research and development process. One is materials science. The iron and steel department developed a type of lightweight steel that is about three times stronger in hardness and toughness than ordinary 100-refined steel, but only half the weight of 100-refined steel. This finally allowed the weight-to-buoyancy ratio of this steel armored ship to reach a safe range."

Barry was a chubby young man of sixteen or seventeen, with a kind face and a very reliable demeanor. He was wearing a slightly dirty blue and white work uniform and a hard hat. Standing next to Chen Lin, Hague, and Haihun, he proudly pointed to a steel behemoth in the dock.

The steel behemoth was over seventy meters long and over twenty meters wide, entirely made of metal with intricate silver patterns on its surface, and was being continuously covered with interlocking armor by the workers who were working on it.

For the newly established Soto Shipyard, being able to build a steel warship over 70 meters long from scratch in less than six months is already an achievement of explosive productivity!

Although the steel warships will take some time to be officially completed, and the armor painting process is still not finished, this is already the result of Barry pushing the Soto shipyard's production capacity to its maximum.

Furthermore, as Barry looked at the Soul-Guided Steel Armored Ship in the dock, a hint of undisguised fervor and pride flashed in his eyes.

King Barak, Barry's father, instructed Barry to cultivate relationships with the Chamber of Commerce in Science and Technology, especially with Chen Hong of the Chamber. However, after making these connections, Barry discovered that Chen Hong seemed to have an endless stream of tasks. To fulfill his father's mission, Barry decided to emulate Chen Hong and find something to do himself. Upon hearing that the Soto Shipyard was expanding its workforce, he leveraged his connections to secure a minor leadership position within the factory.

Barry had initially thought he'd at least be promoted to deputy factory director or something, but ended up as a middling manager, which initially made him a little uncomfortable. However, his dissatisfaction was quickly dispelled by the formidable technological prowess of the Technology Chamber of Commerce.

When Barry was in the capital, he studied at the Barak Shipyard. After all, it was one of the few industries that the Barak Kingdom could be proud of. As a prince, Barry had to study there from a young age to facilitate his future management.

That's why Barry was able to rise so quickly within the Soto shipyard, because he was very adept at management.

What shocked Barry about Soto Shipyard was that it could directly access the internal technology reserves of the Chamber of Technology!

For example, each department within the Science and Technology Chamber of Commerce compiles any new technologies or materials they discover into a booklet. If other departments need materials in a particular field, they can check the Science and Technology Chamber of Commerce's internal technology reserve booklet to see if they have the materials they need, such as soul-guided metals with different effects or cement of different strengths. Relevant departments can directly use the technologies in the booklet to have the Science and Technology Chamber of Commerce produce the relevant materials.

Furthermore, if the technology reserve booklet doesn't list the materials and technologies you need, you can submit an application to the relevant departments to request time to develop a project plan and implement the technology you require. Of course, this will require waiting, and the process may take quite a while.

The first problem encountered by Soto Shipyard, led by Barry, after designing the ship's blueprints was that the all-metal ship was too heavy. If various functional weapon modules were added to the ship while keeping the buoyancy constant, it would cause the hull to become too heavy and exceed the safe weight-to-buoyancy ratio.

Barry had only two solutions in mind: either increase the ship's width and volume, or find a way to reduce its weight and make room for other functional weapon modules.

Finally, it was said that the mysterious young guild leader Chen Hong had given some pointers to the soul masters in the iron smelting department, and soon Barry had access to lightweight steel, a material suitable for shipbuilding.

"And the second area is a breakthrough in the field of soul tools!"

Barry excitedly explained to everyone, "A completely new type of artifact rune, lightweight, capable of reducing its own gravity!"

"Of course, compared to lightweight steel, lightweight artifact patterns have too many limitations. They need to be constantly activated. If the ship is always overweight, then once the soul energy is exhausted, the ship will be at risk of sinking."

"However, we still applied this latest technology from the Soul Guidance Device Department to this Soul Guidance Steel Armor Ship, increasing its maximum theoretical cruising speed by 50%!"

"Furthermore, due to the presence of lightweight steel, our research team at Soto Shipyard redesigned an additional power system for the steel-clad warship, transforming it into a hybrid system!"

"Hybrid system?" Hague looked confused, as did the Sea Soul Mercenary Group members behind him.

Chen Lin then chuckled and said, "Hehe, please forgive me, Commander Hague, but Factory Director Barry uses too much technical jargon, which makes it a bit difficult for you to understand."

"Let me explain to you. The first power system of the Steel Armor Ship is Soul Motion. That is, as long as the Soul Master brothers of the Hague Mercenary Group inject their Soul Power into the Soul Storage Device, the Soul Motion System, which consists of two large Soul Motion Engines, will be activated inside the Steel Armor Ship to propel it forward."

"The second power system is steam-powered. To put it simply, you just need to keep adding coal to it. The coal burns continuously, producing a large amount of steam in the boiler. The steam then drives the turbine to rotate, and the steel armored ship will move forward. It serves as a power system that complements the Soul Dynamics."

Coal exists in this world (the formation principle of coal means that almost any world with carbon-based life exists with coal), so the steam turbine was eventually created by the Soul Mentor of the Science and Technology Chamber of Commerce after Chen Hong's suggestion.

(End of this chapter)