Chapter 14: The Crossbow Cannon in the Gun Cabin

Taking advantage of the darkness and chaos, Da Fei rushed into what seemed to be the corridor of a collective dormitory to enter the next cabin. Then he quietly squatted by the wall next to the door, not even daring to breathe loudly.

At this time, the boss should have returned to its place, right? Da Fei sneakily poked his head out to look back, and sure enough, the silhouette of the boss blocked the exit of the passageway once again. At the same time, Reconnaissance Skill did not trigger an alarm, which meant it could not detect things behind it.

Da Fei sighed in relief. Now it's time to search this cargo hold, hoping it would yield some rewards for him.

Da Fei cautiously searched along the wall. This cabin did not smell of decay, but instead, there was a faint scent of machine oil.

—System Prompt: You have found a damaged Crossbow Cannon. (Large item, cannot be carried with you)

Da Fei was taken aback! A Crossbow Cannon? The renowned one from War Machine Science?

Da Fei carefully felt and examined it, and sure enough! It was a damaged Crossbow Cannon! The Crossbow Cannon, known as the Assassin of bosses!

—System Prompt: You have found Crossbow Cannon Ammunition. (Large cargo, cannot be carried with you)

—System Prompt: You have found Mechanical Repair Tools.

—System Prompt: You have found a fishing rod.

There's ammunition too! And repair tools! Could it be that this Crossbow Cannon is still operable? That's right, how could an exploration ship sail without being armed? With strong winds and long distances at sea, bows and arrows are ineffective, so the Crossbow Cannon is the main weapon in combat! This means this is the ship's Gun Cabin! The ships in this game are completely designed in an ancient style; in movies, the battle between sailing ships is just the two fleets lining up side by side, opening their gun ports on the hull, and then bombarding each other, a competition to see who has more cannons and who is more durable!

If that's the case, there might be more than one Crossbow Cannon in this Gun Cabin! Da Fei continued to search in the dark, and surely he found another 16 Crossbow Cannons, eight on each side, all fully stocked with ammunition, but none intact; the damage was severe!

It seemed there were no enemies in the entire Gun Cabin, and at the far end of it, there was a tightly locked iron door with nowhere to go. According to the usual conventions of the game, the only way to break out of a dead end is to kill the boss.

I understand now!

As a seasoned gamer, what's the purpose of such a scene appearing in Newbie Village? Of course, it's to teach newcomers about War Machine Science, and to hand out a Crossbow Cannon as a gift! In such a deserted Newbie Village, my Reconnaissance Skill appeared in such an ingenious way, and the Crossbow Cannon is presumably in the same vein!

A normal player starting out who chooses War Machine Science from the beginning would surely be taking quests or apprenticing at the machine workshop in the city by now, trying to save money to buy a discounted Crossbow Cannon, right? The only difference with the city workshop should be that there is no mentor here, and one must learn on their own!

The old rule: find the War Machine Science Skill Book, which must surely be placed in a corner of the cabin!

With the Skill Book in hand, it is possible to repair these Crossbow Cannons. The Crossbow Cannon is powerful and comes with a built-in special skill of knockback and piercing, making it possible to defeat that powerful zombie at the door!

Of course, even if it's not for killing that zombie boss, as Da Fei, who is determined to go out to sea and trade, learning about war machines is a combat skill that should be acquired. When neither Reconnaissance Skill nor Sailing Skill can outperform the pirates and one is about to be cornered by them, the Crossbow Cannon is the last line of defense. Moreover, when encountering a Sea Monster, a powerful self-defense weapon like the Crossbow Cannon is also needed.

Let's introduce War Machine Science here.

—War Machine Science: Increase the durability and effectiveness of Crossbow Cannons, Siege Machines, and Healing Tents. And can repair damaged war machines.

War Machine Science's sub-skills typically include Crossbow Master, Siege Master, Tent Master, Combat Repair, and Explosive Bombs. War Machine Science covers three types of machines and has a dazzling number of sub-skills that can be combined with other skills, such as the Triple Crossbow, Burning Crossbow, Enchanted Crossbow, Sulfur Rain, Plague Tent, Plague Siege Machine, Machine Destroyer, and so on. To fully learn this system requires a significant number of Skill Points.

War machines do not receive bonuses from the Hero Attack and Defense Attributes or other combat skills, and a player can only carry one of each machine type, so there is no need to spend too many Skill Points on a single machine. Generally, players choose to specialize in either Crossbow Master or Tent Master. As for Siege Master, that's thinking too far ahead; sieging is not something current players need to consider.

Now let's talk about the Crossbow Cannon.

—Crossbow Cannon: Attack 5, Defense 5, Life Limit 100, Basic Killing 1-2, Attack Speed 5, Move Speed 1, special skill: Knockback, Piercing.

—Knockback: Enemies hit by the Crossbow Cannon have a certain chance of being knocked back.

—Piercing: After the Crossbow Cannon kills an enemy, the momentum of the attack can hit the enemies behind.

These are the factory attributes of the Crossbow Cannon. For each level upgrade in War Machine Science, the Attack and Defense of the Crossbow Cannon increase by 5 points, Basic Killing by 1 point, and Life Limit by 100 points.

Although the attack and defense of the Crossbow Cannon are not affected by the Hero's attack and defense attribute bonuses, the damage it deals is indeed related to the hero's attribute points. Different from the normal calculation of troop damage, the damage of the Crossbow Cannon = Basic Killing of the Crossbow Cannon × total value of the Hero's strategic attribute points!

For example, at level 6, Da Fei now has 5 Attack, 0 Defense, 0 Magic, and 0 Knowledge, making his total strategic attribute points 5, and so the damage of the Crossbow Cannon is 5–10, reaching the killing standard of a level 4 troop. The significance of this formula is that the stronger the hero, the better they are at utilizing the Crossbow Cannon.

Thus, even heroes who do not specialize in combat skills can still unleash the power of the Crossbow Cannon with higher levels, which means that even if Da Fei wants to be a merchant, it's completely worthwhile to learn the Crossbow Cannon.

If one learns the Master-level War Machine Science, then the attributes of the Crossbow Cannon will be: Attack 30, Defense 30, Life Limit 600 points, Basic Killing 6–7, and with Da Fei's total 5 attribute points, the damage using the Crossbow Cannon would be 30–35, nearing the killing power of a level 7 troop! If the sub-skill Crossbow Master is learned, that means firing twice per round, doubling the damage!

That means, new players starting with the Crossbow Cannon are essentially carrying a level 7 troop with them. Moreover, it does not occupy a tactical position of the hero, thus, it's an additional type of troop. For beginners, this is a powerful remote firepower point that allows them to challenge stronger monsters, especially those ranged monsters that ordinary players would not dare to approach.

Therefore, during the open beta, players who started with the Crossbow Cannon or the medical tent were collectively referred to as starting with the machinery build, with an obvious advantage.

If a player levels up to 30, the total value of strategic attribute points obtained from leveling up alone can reach 50 points, resulting in the Crossbow Cannon inflicting a final damage of 300–350, far surpassing any conventional troop, so high that it's practically untouchable! Annihilating level 7 troops with one shot is a breeze, and ordinary soldiers are obliterated by scores in a single cannon fire, especially at sea where it's a real test for the quality of the ship!

In summary, the Crossbow Cannon, known as the boss killer, is a boss-like entity in itself! Of course, such a boss can only be carried by the player in one piece.

Speaking of which, it's time to talk about the disadvantages of the Crossbow Cannon.

Although the Crossbow Cannon is like a boss, it's bulky and inconvenient to aim, with a low hit rate against moving targets, and a slow fire rate. Once enemies close in and circle to the back of the Crossbow Cannon, one can only watch without being able to do anything, and it is even more helpless against Flying Soldiers.

During the open beta, the value of the Crossbow Cannon on the battlefield was simply a 600-Life Limit sandbag, attracting the first round of bombardment from the opposing Magic Forces. In any case, it also made a significant contribution. Therefore, in the later stages, the presence of the Crossbow Cannon becomes more subdued.

Then, the biggest disadvantage arrives: the Move Speed of the Crossbow Cannon is only 1! That is, a maximum Move Speed of one meter per second, meaning players moving with the Crossbow Cannon are as slow as turtles, and even with the Master-level Logistics Skill learned, it doesn't get much faster. Plus, it can only travel on main roads, not shortcuts! Of course, the solution is to disassemble the Crossbow Cannon into parts for packing, but before battle, it takes a long time to reassemble. If the enemy finds and charges during the assembly process, then it's as if this skill was never learned.

Following that, the repair of the Crossbow Cannon must involve carrying spare parts, which is costly.

Lastly, players with a Crossbow Cannon can only win battles, they cannot afford to be defeated. Once defeated... Well, finally, one no longer has to worry about slow marching.

In summary, the Crossbow Cannon can provide immense combat support and exhilarating victories in the early stages for players, but it can also shatter players' hopes. How to use it depends on the players' training and thinking.

For Da Fei, none of these disadvantages exist. Because naval and land battles are entirely different concepts.

Ships are moving castles. As long as you can get your hands on the ship, then the Crossbow Cannon fires from within the Gun Cabin, and enemies looking to destroy the Crossbow Cannon must first blow away the Gun Cabin, while the hull outside the Gun Cabin is the thickest armored part of the entire ship. So, there's no need to worry about the Crossbow Cannon being rendered useless right at the start of the battle.

Mobility is also not an issue—the cannon goes with the ship.

The hit rate is even less of an issue—the targets in naval battles are pirate ships; you can't miss even if you're blind, right?

In fact, historically, various super Giant Cannons were equipped on ships. Only ships are the true home for the Crossbow Cannon. So this skill, Da Fei is definitely going to learn!

...

At this point, after half a day of exploration, Da Fei finally found a book in a chest. There it is! He moves close and looks carefully—indeed, it's not a golden Skill Book, but the "Manual of Crossbow Cannon Maintenance and Repair"!

—"Manual of Crossbow Cannon Maintenance and Repair": Auxiliary item. Equipping this item grants the Crossbow Cannon disassembly and assembly skill.

Ha! It turns out to be an Equipment Bar item similar to the Black Magic Book! I see now!

In the game, besides the traditional slots for weapons, armor, rings, and trinkets in a player's Equipment Bar, there are also a few slots for auxiliary items, and various items that add skills, Morale, and luck are equipped in these slots.

Although I didn't find the Skill Book for War Machine Science, the effect of this equipment book is even better because it does not require Skill Points to learn; just equipping it is enough! Even if I were to find a Skill Book, I wouldn't have the Skill Points and would still be able to do nothing but watch.

It seems that the purpose of this scene fits my expectations perfectly—to have me dismantle these damaged Crossbow Cannons completely and then use the intact parts to reassemble a new Crossbow Cannon! This is indeed presenting me with a Crossbow Cannon! What for? Of course, to pound the zombie BOSS blocking the door! It's facing away from me at the door, just waiting for a blast from behind! Even without War Machine Science, the Crossbow's 100 Life Points are no joke!