Chapter 391: Chapter 390: Salt Explosion Technique, Reaction Shield

Reactive Armor!

Reactive Armor is a type of specialized armor mounted on the surface of modern Earth’s advanced tanks.

The reason for its existence is that with the development of modern Earth’s technology, the destructive power against tanks has become increasingly strong, with the widespread application of individual anti-tank weapons, continuous upgrades to special ammunition such as armor-piercing bullets and armor-shattering bombs, making tanks extremely vulnerable.

To make tanks less vulnerable, the best method is to crazily increase the thickness of the tank armor. However, when the thickness of the tank armor reaches thousands of millimeters, a problem arises–not a problem of craftsmanship, but one of agility.

The armor is very heavy, and the thicker it is, the more cumbersome the tank becomes, and the worse its mobility, to the point where it can’t even go off-road or travel over bridges. To prevent tanks from turning into immobile fixed artillery positions, there is a limit to how thick the armor can be.

Thus, the highly expensive Reactive Armor was invented–enhancing tank defense greatly without reducing their agility.

Reactive Armor, called armor, is actually a type of inert explosives, placed in parts of the tank that are likely to be attacked. It remains unchanged against small impacts, but once the force of the impact reaches a preset limit, it explodes–utilizing the explosion to counter-annihilate the power of the “anti-tank weapons.”

For example, when an armor-piercing bullet hits a tank, it explodes with a metal jet traveling at 8000-10000 meters per second which can penetrate even the thickest armor. However, if the tank is equipped with Reactive Armor, the Reactive Armor will explode at the same time as the armor-piercing bullet takes effect, creating an explosion of comparable size that greatly reduces the effectiveness of the high-speed metal jet, mitigating the damage to the tank.

Simply put, Reactive Armor is a self-sacrificing setting; when faced with a high-power attack, it offers a relatively small sacrifice in exchange for a stronger defense for a short period of time.

Attack is the best defense. In a sense, Reactive Armor is equivalent to using attack as defense.

The characteristics of Reactive Armor greatly strengthen the defensive power of the tank and reduce the chance of the tank being destroyed. It is adopted by many countries and many types of tanks.

Of course, it has its drawbacks:

First, it is very expensive, not something that any tank can be equipped with.

Second, it can’t be reused; once used, it’s scrapped, and without replenishment, it has only one chance to be used. Third, if there are friendly infantry nearby, reactive armor can cause accidental injuries when activated.

But these drawbacks do not need to be considered by Richard for now; he only needs to follow the principle and use magic to create a prototype to test the effect.

…

He got to work.

Richard once again took out the ink-like viscous non-Newtonian fluid from the Space Iron Ring and used magic to control the formation of a new shield, floating in mid-air. Then he cast a spell and released several “Single Ring Explosion” sparks onto the surface of the shield.

After completing these tasks, Richard pushed the shield away to a safe distance, took out Magic Salt, adhered it to the surface of the shield, and then bombarded it with a Magic Salvo.

The Magic Salvo shot out, striking the surface of the shield, and a strong white light erupted.

“Boom–Boom!”

Two explosions rang out, one after the other, so brief they were almost without any interval–calling them two sounds was more like a single sound.

When the shockwave of the explosion slowly dissipated, Richard looked towards the shield, and saw that although the entire shield was battered, it remained largely intact.

Walking closer, looking at the back of the shield, he found no significant damage; the principle of Magic Salt’s armor-shattering bullet attack had not come into play at all.

Richard knew clearly in his mind that he could control the timing of the “Single Ring Explosion” sparks’ trigger on the shield. Just now, he made the explosion slightly later than the activation of the Magic Salt. And if he made the explosion coincide with the effect of the Magic Salt, or even blasted the Magic Salt particles ahead of time to prevent the destructive force from hitting, the damage to the shield would be even less, achieving an absolute victory in a contest between shield and sword.

Of course, speaking of which, this absolute victory can only happen once–if the shield cannot be restored to perfect condition in time, if there isn’t a “Single Ring Explosion” to continue masquerading as Reactive Armor, the defensive power of the second defense will be significantly reduced.

Looking at this, the sword is still stronger.

On this matter, Richard had no dilemma; after all, whether it was sword or shield, they were all his own methods. It didn’t matter which was stronger, as long as they could enhance his own limits, and could perform as expected when facing the enemy.

After tidying up the Magic Test Field, Richard stepped towards the main laboratory to return, thinking about a few things as he walked.

There should still be room for improvement in the Magic Salt Attack method, the Non-Newtonian Fluid defense method, and he needed to dedicate time later to continue improving them. In addition, he needed to give both a name.

Considering the method of magic salt attack, where magic salt is at the core and explodes to exert its effect, it could be called… Salt Explosion Technique.

Hmm, Salt Explosion Technique.

As for the non-Newtonian fluid defensive method, which appears as a shield and employs the principle of reactive armor, it could be called… Reaction Shield.

Hmm, Reaction Shield.

Once the names were determined, it was time to consider how to use the Reaction Shield.

Because the Reaction Shield was made of a large quantity of non-Newtonian fluid, it would be too time-consuming and prone to errors to extract and solidify it from the Space Iron Ring during critical combat situations. One solution was to carry the non-Newtonian fluid on one’s person, storing it underneath or in the layers of clothing.

In this way, it could be quickly accessed in dangerous situations.

Moreover, there was another advantage; clothing that stored non-Newtonian fluid could serve as a liquid bullet-proof vest, with an effect even better than the modern Kevlar fiber vests on Earth, essentially preventing the possibility of sneak attacks, being ambushed, or stabbed from behind.

However, if one really wanted to implement this, the clothing design would have to be taken into consideration to ensure the non-Newtonian fluid storage wasn’t too obvious, to avoid being considered a freak or raising premature suspicion.

With these thoughts in mind, Richard walked into the main laboratory, approached the circular experimental table, spread out a Papyrus Scroll, and, holding a quill, began to jot down his ideas while attempting to design clothing suitable for combat.

“Ah, this could be considered an alternative type of Wizard Robe,” Richard muttered to himself, holding the quill.

As far as he knew, on the East Coast, there were such things as large magic tools called Wizard Robes. A genuine Wizard Robe, from the material to the lining, to the special buttons, to the decorative brooches, was made of magic material and was extremely expensive. Aside from a very few wizards, there was simply no one who could afford to wear it.

And his would be considered the civilian version of the Wizard Robe.

“Shh, shh, shh…”

After adding a few more strokes to the Papyrus Scroll, Richard suddenly thought of something.

He turned his head abruptly and looked towards Pandora. Richard figured that since he was going to be wearing a combat suit, logically, Pandora should have one too.

“Pandora!” he called out, turning his thoughts into words.

“Hmm?” Pandora responded, looking up.

Richard saw that Pandora was diligently cleaning a balance scale.

That balance scale was something he had Alex commission a craftsman to make. Due to subpar craftsmanship, the balance scale was exceptionally large and heavy. The two arms of the balance scale looked like swords, with the middle support resembling a pillar, and it was quite hideous. If it weren’t for the fact that it had been adjusted and the precision was acceptable, he really might have thrown it away.

At that moment, Pandora was wiping it down when she was called by name, and immediately turned her head, curious. Because her attention was diverted, she did not control her strength well. Visibly, the place where the scale was grasped made a “crack” sound as it was crushed inward, exposing the broken metal edges, pointing towards Pandora’s delicate skin.

And then…

And then… there was no further incident.

A dragon, if it could be so easily injured, what kind of dragon would that be?

As for the idea of using a liquid bullet-proof vest to protect a dragon… better forget about it.

Pandora asked Richard, “What’s up?”

“Well…” Richard rubbed his forehead and said, “Well… it’s nothing much. I was just thinking… um, you work efficiently and clean things up nicely, so… keep it up.”

“Oh, okay!” Pandora nodded assertively, turned back, and continued her task cheerfully. As she wiped, she noticed that the balance scale seemed a bit tilted, as if she had damaged it. She quickly snuck a glance, thinking she had gone unnoticed, cautiously straightened it with her hands, and placed it back in its spot, guiltily wiping down other things.

Richard took in the whole scene, pretending not to have noticed, while continuing to design the combat suit and thinking, “It looks like I need to add a balance scale to the next list for Alex, uh, make it two…”

…