Wilderness: I Tame Beasts to Survive-Chapter 47 - 46: Firearm Production Line

When the group returned to the dormitory area, the lights in the temporary conference room of Building A were still blazing.

Dean Wu and several other teachers who had not gone out were pacing anxiously in the hallway.

It wasn’t until he saw Han Ning and the others arrive at the head of the group that a look of relief finally appeared on Dean Wu’s face.

"You’re back? Is anyone hurt? Dr. Chen!" Dean Wu strode over to Lü Xiuning’s side, glanced at the leaders of the group, and then scanned the people behind them.

When he saw several unconscious people being carried by their classmates—one of whom had a thigh that was completely gone, his skin a deathly pale—the joyful expression on Dean Wu’s face instantly vanished.

"I’m here. Please carry the injured into the infirmary next door."

Just then, the young and beautiful Dr. Chen hurried over, having already put on her mask and gloves.

"The others just have superficial wounds and are fine for now. Dr. Chen, please take a look at his injuries."

Standing in the second row, Liu Zhiran carried the unconscious Zheng Zhibin to a bed in the infirmary.

Dr. Chen bent down, lifted Zheng Zhibin’s eyelid to observe it carefully, then took out a stethoscope and listened to his chest for a moment. "There’s no immediate danger to his life," she said. "We still need to determine the cause of his unconsciousness. Everyone else, please step out for now. Nini, Ke’Er, you two stay and help me."

As she spoke, she straightened up and continued, addressing Dean Wu, "It could be a concussion, or possibly brain stem damage... Dean Wu, we should probably prepare for the worst."

"Understood. We’ll be right next door. If you find anything or need anything, let us know immediately." Dean Wu waved his hand, signaling for the onlookers to leave, keeping only the two female students serving as medical assistants to help Dr. Chen.

Everyone else lacked medical knowledge; crowding in here would only get in the way.

Everyone left the infirmary and went to the conference room next door.

A few students carefully laid the lifeless bodies of Chen Ningchuan and Zhao Wei flat on the floor, using a bedsheet to cushion their mutilated forms.

Lü Xiuning looked sorrowfully at the students on the floor and recounted to Dean Wu and the other teachers, in full detail, the story of their expedition to the East Gate.

Dean Wu and the other teachers listened quietly. Their grave expressions only softened slightly when they heard how Yin Yi had suddenly evolved, helping everyone break through their predicament, and how everyone’s strength had noticeably increased.

"Dean, it’s true that the Silver Lotus Wood played a huge role in the battle, but I think a major reason we were able to return relatively smoothly is thanks to these automatic rifles we just acquired. They were indispensable." Lü Xiuning took out an automatic rifle, stroking it thoughtfully.

"When facing a horde of beasts numbering in the hundreds or thousands, it’s difficult for the Silver Lotus Wood to protect all of us at once. If we want the ability to defend ourselves in a critical combat situation, it’s essential to equip everyone with a firearm."

Han Ning, standing to the side, thought Teacher Lü Xiuning’s words made a lot of sense.

If not for those dozen or so fully automatic rifles, it would have been difficult to fend off the attacks of hundreds of snakes, a dozen Tree-men, and the two most powerful Soul Beasts, even with Yin Yi’s immense power and the help of the other Silver Lotus Woods.

The destructive power of a single bullet could at least severely injure a Soul Beast on the level of an ordinary Demon Eye Frog. A hit to a vital spot was a guaranteed kill.

And against slightly stronger Soul Beasts, like Entry Level II or Entry Level III, they were still quite effective.

It was true their physical fitness had improved, but they were still flesh and blood. They couldn’t just tear Soul Beasts apart with their bare hands.

Dean Wu looked thoughtful. "Xiuning, are you thinking...?"

Lü Xiuning laid out his idea. "Dean, didn’t you use to work in a military-industrial department when you were younger? Could you organize a few of the mechanical engineering teachers in the academy to try and rig up a firearm production line?"

’The Dean used to work in the military industry?’

When Teacher Lü said this, all the students looked surprised.

"I did work in the military industry, but I was mainly involved in the research and development of engineering equipment." Dean Wu frowned and thought for a moment. "Putting aside whether our academy’s machining center can even produce firearms, where would we get the raw materials needed for guns and ammunition?"

As everyone knew, both firearms and bullets required high-quality steel.

And bullets needed gunpowder.

Lü Xiuning looked troubled as well. "Getting steel won’t be hard. The metal we could salvage from all the equipment and building materials around the academy would be more than enough for several hundred guns. Getting gunpowder, however, is the difficult part."

Han Ning recalled some information about gunpowder and spoke up. "Doesn’t making gunpowder require saltpeter? We can try to look for some when we’re out on expeditions."

"What about the labs? Does the School of Engineering’s laboratory have any potassium nitrate in stock?" Liu Yueming asked.

"They should... but not in large quantities."

Dean Wu took out a pen and paper and began to write as he spoke. "I think this is feasible. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and try to make fully automatic rifles right off the bat. A shotgun, with its relatively simple structure and no rifling, could be our first target."

"However, the task of gathering materials will have to fall to you teachers and students." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"No problem, Dean Wu. Just tell us what materials you need, and we’ll do our best to help gather them," Han Ning said, exchanging a look with the other students and patting his chest in assurance.

Dean Wu was nearly sixty years old, so it wasn’t realistic for him to go out on expeditions with the young students. Aside from handling command duties, he was happy to be able to use the knowledge in his head to help everyone increase their strength.

"Um... firearms are useful, but at best, they’re only a supplementary tool. If we want to expand our area of activity, the most important thing is still to continuously strengthen our Contracted Soul Beasts."

Liu Yueming, thinking of the Iron-toothed Giant Snake whose defense was difficult to breach even with automatic rifles, added, "With the academy’s current technological level, we can’t develop highly lethal weapons in a short time. The priority for development must still be on cultivating Soul Beasts. The guns we have now can only kill weaker Soul Beasts. They aren’t very effective against relatively powerful ones."

"Yue Ming is right," Lü Xiuning agreed. "The teachers and students who frequently go on expeditions can focus on cultivating their Soul Beasts. Those who don’t like fighting can try to join the technology research effort and figure out how to maximize our technological productivity with our limited resources."

"Mm, leave the work of establishing the gun and ammunition production line to me," Dean Wu said. "You all don’t need to worry about it; just focus on cultivating your Soul Beasts."

Dean Wu nodded. "The situation over at the machining center for the mechanical engineering-related majors is still unclear. We need to find time to go on an expedition to scout it out and clear all the Soul Beasts along the way."