Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Pleading: Please, don't!

Frustrated: Sent

Acceptance: Okay, that's settled then. I'm going to lie down.

In psychology, the developmental stages of human emotions such as sadness and despair.

Chapter 22. 45 Artists

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Crossing the streets on the outskirts of Agor, the once bustling avenues were now submerged by the sea. Dark blue ripples climbed the supporting pillars and modern buildings, forcing the group to choose to pass over the city's rooftops.

In such situations, Rosemary's greatsword and abilities play a crucial role. When encountering buildings of varying heights or too far apart, her greatsword and various obstacles can be transformed into steps and stepping stones, allowing the team to pass through.

The advantage of not having to go down below is that, apart from a very few flying Terrorfish, you don't have to face those hidden in the water, the cultists and Agor Fusionists inside the buildings.

However, the downside is that those who want to explore the city of Agor and try to find some usable relics will find virtually nothing. The outer area is a civilian and industrial zone with low-rise buildings, dotted with various vertical plantations and food processing plants; unfortunately, these areas have all been occupied by the enemy.

Those believers who are devoted to the deep sea and whose minds are completely integrated with it, as well as the mutants who have become dull and manic due to eating the flesh and blood of the sea creatures, all stay inside the buildings instead of climbing onto the rooftops. This greatly reduces the combat pressure on the Inquisitors.

"Bang!" Amidst the roar of the hand cannon, a wrecked dinosaur, its body mostly gone, tumbled off the edge of the building.

“You are indeed more suited to marksmanship,” the Grand Inquisitor said thoughtfully. “In the future, you can try using two hand cannons to attack, to maximize your ability in this area.”

“Yes, Master.” As an apprentice, Elini thought for a moment, then bowed her head to indicate that she had heard. Her talent in swordsmanship was indeed quite average, but she was very talented in shooting.

“Use this,” Frostleaf handed the junior judge a box of ammunition. “I got it from the other judges at the docks. This trip will use up the ammunition very quickly.”

“You seem very experienced?” Elena opened the hand cannon's reel, emptied the six spent cartridge cases, and reloaded it with new ammunition.

"You've started using Kazdel's technology now too?" Frostleaf pointed to the square barrel of her hand cannon, which clearly showed traces of Kazdel's electromagnetic acceleration technology.

"The new hand cannon designed by the Brotherhood of Craftsmen of the Inquisition does indeed use some of Kazdel's technology, as well as your unique ammunition system. The Inquisitor's hand cannon used to have too large a splash area and could only fire one shot. This one is much better."

With its electromagnetic acceleration barrel, six-round cylinder, and double-action firing mechanism, it would be even better with a loader. It's a weapon with a distinctly American flair, and I would suggest that Elena go down the American-style iaido route in the future.

"Looks like even an old dog can learn some new tricks~" Kal'tsit glanced at the junior inquisitor who was loading ammunition, and then at the old-fashioned hand cannon on the senior inquisitor's waist.

"Some old dogs are too attached to the past to learn new tricks. I still trust my old buddies a bit more. I wonder which type you are, doctor?"

"..."

"Once we cross that line, we enter a residential and commercial area. We have to cross almost the entire city to reach the research area."

Why are they so far apart?

"Would you put something that could kill the entire city at any moment in the city center? We'll be facing more than just monsters." For example, the gates between the isolation research zone and other areas, and the wide transport highways between the commercial and industrial zones.

"Get ready for battle, it won't be so easy from here on out. Is anyone having trouble walking?" Kal'tsit solemnly took out a syringe from her coat pocket. "I have enough medicine here."

"Thank you, but let's talk about it when I'm too old to walk."

"Need any help?" The kitten looked up at the others; her greatsword could act as an elevator.

"This kind of thing should be left to the elderly!" The judge jumped down from the edge of the warehouse and landed steadily on the road, rather than in the seawater-soaked rail transit system below.

"Bang!" The old-fashioned hand cannon was very useful when facing a large number of enemies. The scorching shotgun shells swept across most of the street, and the accompanying Originium shockwave lifted the Terrorfish high into the air. Then, the blade that followed cut through the Terrorfish's body.

"Hey!" Elene landed right behind her, tossing her lantern upwards to attract the attention of a Sea Monster, a Naraka Summoner. She plunged her sword into the Sea Monster's body, activated her Originium Arts, and kicked it high into the air with her slender legs. Then, she abandoned the hilt and fired all six Judgment Bullets, filled with Sacred Flame, into the sea monster's body, tearing it to shreds.

“You are indeed suited to using a hand cannon…” The Grand Inquisitor tossed his hand cannon to Elene. “Although it is quite old, it is still reliable.”

"Thank you." Elena picked up her sword, quickly reloaded, and returned to alert status. The other operators, except for Kal'tsit who was carried down by the M3, all jumped down on their own—well, except for Kitty who landed using a technique similar to sword control.

"Hurry up, they've spotted us." A mutant pointed between the buildings, and some daemon and sea monsters climbed up the road pillars. "The commercial area is ahead; the monsters will only be more concentrated there!"

"There's no safe spot, so we have to rush to the target location in one go."

"Action!" The Rhodes Island group took off running towards the commercial district at top speed, with sea monsters constantly being attracted behind them.

"I'll stop them!"

"Me too!" The greatsword crashed into the monster horde with a clang, and flying spikes gushed out like a fountain, scattering in all directions. The little judge half-squatted on the ground, his hands crossed, using the old-fashioned hand cannon's shockwave and shotgun shells to clear the area and knock back enemies, while the new-style hand cannon followed up with a shotgun. In those one or two seconds, he directly chopped off a head from the enemy group.

"Retreat!" She put away her hand cannon, turned and ran, with Rosemary close behind. Although Rosemary had short legs and walked slowly, she could use her telekinetic arms to drag herself and move quickly in an almost floating manner.

"I've run out of hand cannon ammo, but I still have some here." Frostleaf's waist pouch seemed bottomless, magically producing a new box of ammo.

How much ammunition did you bring?

"Better safe than sorry~" The consensus among all the operators who participated in the Kazdel Civil War and the Counterattack War is to carry as much ammunition as possible, because in a real battle, even a lot of ammunition will burn up quickly.

The Inquisitor's Hand Cannon, which requires manual reloading, is already a very conscientious weapon. Those truly unscrupulous automatic weapons that can achieve seamless firing with an empty magazine are ammunition destroyers.

For example, the other two Rhodes Island operators carrying support rifles had huge backpacks half full of ammunition. In addition to the eight magazines hanging on their bodies, there were also packs of 800 loose bullets in the backpacks.

Thankfully, Terran has an amazing physique and an exoskeleton to assist him, otherwise he would have been crushed by the weight of that load long ago. The benefit of having so much ammunition is that his firepower is simply beyond imagination.

The fierce rain of fire briefly suppressed the sea monsters' offensive, but this was their territory. Soon, under the long-range firepower of the Agor mutants and fusionists, the Rhodes Island group was still forced to flee in panic. One of them even fell. The survivors could only scavenge the remaining supplies on his body before leaving the corpse there to be swallowed by the Netherworld.

While Kal'tsit and her party were slowly making their way through the city of Agor, the second round of polar exploration was also entering its final stage. In the end, the Great Yan managed to get the ceremonial armor back. The Zhenbei General's Mansion immediately welcomed back the ancestor's relic, chose an auspicious day, opened the ancestor's cenotaph, and buried the armor.

"Susie, here's your new drone." Several small drone boxes were placed on the dormitory table. "I picked them up from the logistics department for you."

"Are we about to head into the polar regions again?"

"Well, this is the last time this year. If we want to go again, we'll have to wait until next summer." The last battle was too intense, and the expedition progressed very poorly. This time, it shouldn't be so troublesome. The polar behemoth will go directly to the previous docking point and then carry out recovery and search operations in the dispatch area.

"Will we encounter that kind of thing again this time?"

"Probably not?" As it turned out, the demons were not stupid. The polar behemoth had to return to the starting point for repairs before it even reached the end point of the previous battle. This time, the demons not only reduced the number of fragments but also increased the number of fused bodies, as well as a large number of ranged attack units.

"We need to develop new interception and weapon systems." The doctor abandoned his plan to conduct one last exploration before the summer was over, and this time the operators had to stop before they could even disembark.

"By the way, what about the exploration of the Great Yan?"

"They succeeded this time, but they didn't get very far." Thanks to the dense array of beam cannons, the demons didn't cause much trouble for the Great Yan Fleet. However, they didn't get very far before they began collecting demon crystals and excavating relics from underground.

Kazdel, Polar Antiquities Research Institute. "I'm going to perform a magic trick for everyone." To Old Xia's left were clusters of white crystals, and to his right was a dense green unidentified substance in a culture jar. "These are purified white crystals, and to the right is a high concentration of demonic cell synthesis. Can you guess what I'm going to conjure?"

“A demon!” Xia Qiu raised his hand and exclaimed.

"No, guess again?"

"Um, pizza?" Lily of the Valley said that as long as it wasn't pineapple flavored, it would be fine.

“Okay, if you really want pizza…” A device resembling some kind of educational projector rose up, a white crystal was placed on the platform, and then demonic cells poured into it. A glowing ring device slowly moved down, and when it rose again, there was a large slice of pizza on the ring.

"How did you do that?" Lisa (Lily of the Valley) touched the pizza. It was cold and felt strange, but her sense of taste and smell told her that it was a pizza.

"Pizza?" Xia Qiu looked at the round, seaweed-like thing on the plate with a puzzled expression.

"Fantasy Material, a kind of synthetic compound made by adding demon cells and white crystals, can induce hallucinations. Whatever you want to eat or see will appear in that form."

"What's the use?"

"It can be used on camouflage armor. Oh, Lisa, don't eat it! You can't eat this stuff."

"Oh~" She had originally wanted to take a bite, but since she had already said so, she decided against it.

"Essentially, it is still a fusion of white crystals and demonic cells. The illusion system can only maintain a very short range of influence nearby. However, in the future, it should be possible to develop a large-scale influence system based on this principle."

"Did you make this?"

"To be precise, it was something we researched together." It was something developed by the most intelligent group of early Terran technicians and the most intelligent researchers of modern Terra, plus the knowledge of an alien visitor.

"What a boring invention." Xia Qiu said that the invention was really boring, even though it looked like a gimmick.

"By the way, has the rocket problem been resolved?"

"We've solved a small part of it, and we can launch the real satellite soon," Xia Qiu said after thinking for a moment. Her long brown hair was tied up in a ponytail, draped over her neck, and hung down in front of her, giving her an air of intellectual sophistication. She had many suitors within the research institute, but unfortunately...

In her eyes, perhaps more than two-thirds of the researchers were as intelligent as a smart gorilla? Only a few people, such as Eyjafjalla, could get along with her, not just because of the difference in knowledge and intelligence. After all, it is difficult to measure such things purely in this way. However, her high intelligence and keen perception allowed her to clearly distinguish the other party's emotions and intentions.

They're either like male dogs in heat, simply after her beauty, or they're after the power and resources behind her. Such extremely purposeful suitors, lacking the intelligence to disguise themselves, naturally don't end up well.

The Antiquities Research Institute is a newly established department dedicated to the research and development of antiquities recovered from the polar regions. However, its current achievements are few and far between. The most significant results are Old Xia's organic synthesis equipment and some of the results of the Doctor's Demon Collection Tower project.

Others have either been eliminated long ago, lack widespread adoption, or simply cannot reduce their cost-effectiveness, or their processing capacity is simply insufficient.

"Iberia's order, I need your help." Nian walked into the research room, touched Xia Qiu's head, messing up her hair that she had finally managed to straighten, which aroused the latter's anger. She inherited her mother's hair texture, which caused hairs that looked like a cowlick to stick up on the top of her head from time to time.

Swire's hair is coarse and stiff, possibly due to genetics as a tiger-type Terran. As a result, she needs to spend a lot of time and energy taking care of her hair. Xia Qiu also inherited this hair type, and her hair often curls and sticks up on its own.

"What form?"

"The order for improved hand cannons. The Iberian Tribunal needs to produce a batch of new hand cannons, but their Brotherhood of Craftsmen is in trouble, and we have to handle it."

"Specifically?"

"The materials are not strong enough to withstand prolonged firing, and there are also issues with the encapsulation of the Olympic ammunition. They have their eyes on our wet-component ammunition technology."

"A biological sample?"

"No need. They've sent over the principle behind the Sacred Flame ammunition. It seems to have nothing to do with genes themselves, but rather with a specific type of nerve impulse."

"Understood." In all of Terra, besides the Doctor, Old Xia is the only neuroscience expert. For researching precise neural technologies that connect with living organisms, you need to find the Doctor, but for simple and straightforward mass-produced neuronal components, Old Xia is the one to go for.

In medical applications, Lao Xia is no match for the PhD, and in eDonkey, he can probably only assist the PhD. But when it comes to turning these biological devices into mass-produced standard parts for use as ammunition, you can only ask Lao Xia. It's not that the PhD can't do it, but that he can't do it at a sufficiently low cost and with a foolproof production method.

The workshop from years ago, "This is the sample sent by the Iberians, their latest hand cannon."

"Such a classic American Iaijutsu weapon." It really is classic: a silver-plated, angular barrel with Inquisition inscriptions, a beautifully machined crescent-shaped magazine, a mahogany handle inlaid with ivory, and a grip carved with Inquisition motifs.

"A classic .45 ACP, with a single-action trigger that exudes a sense of history, can I collect one of these?"

"Is this popular where you live too?"

"Nonsense, who wouldn't want to hunt with such a fine revolver on an agricultural planet?"

"Can......"

"Those who use electromagnetic shotguns are all newbies. Only newbies would use a weapon that has no gunpowder smell, no strong recoil and roar, and can be equipped with all sorts of attachments. Uh, there are also professional forest rangers, but those are work weapons, which are two different things!"

Tourists who go hunting on the agricultural and forestry planets wouldn't use such advanced equipment. If the Council's Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism Department hadn't repeatedly issued documents reiterating this, they wouldn't even dare to bring locators and protective gear, and would just venture into artificial primeval forests that span tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Some even dared to venture into protected areas for economically important animals, incurring astronomical costs for search and rescue every year. However, most colonial authorities tolerated this for the sake of the huge tourism revenue.

Lever-action rifles, revolvers, double-barreled shotguns, and semi-automatic shotguns are already considered low on the pecking order. Hunting with an electromagnetic rifle... unless you're a complete newbie, you'd probably be expelled from the Interstellar Hunting Hobby Association.

And what's at the very top of the hierarchy of contempt? It's hunting with crossbows, bows and arrows, and spears—unfortunately, such masters are extremely hard to find.

"However, the barrel needs to be redesigned."

"How do we renovate?" Nian rolled up his sleeves, ready to get started.