Chapter 9

Keqing was torn. She had seen Jake's ingenuity and appreciated the weapons he could create for the weaker soldiers who hadn't crested over the stage of Body Refinement and into the Innate stage of Martial Arts that allowed the users to have stores of internal ki they could use for supernatural martial arts.

But fighting a horde for unknown gains... Was frankly not worth it. But as she saw Jake pull large boxes out of the trailer filled with larger 'guns' of a different design she raised an eyebrow before biting her lower lip as she glanced at her lieutenant who was looking through some binoculars atop one of the nearby cliffs into the surrounding mountains.

"The Devil Apes are coming!" He yelled and she grimaced before nodding at the news as she used her elemental lightning from her Vision to teleport atop the truck and shout out.

"Men, en-place these guns on the town's choke points to deal with the chaff. I will take care of any peak body refinement monsters and if the Alpha comes out!" She yelled while I worked to move things around with my setup as the ingots got sent into the constructor to make iron plates.

I didn't try to get in the way of the guards and my frenzied movements as I set up the sound array to surround the driller and other machines with three layers of iron plates to cancel out the noise were only interrupted as I could hear the whirl of the soldier's pulling the lever on the rotating mini-gun to build up the momentum.

And then a roar sounded out to match the distance screeching coming ever closer as one Gatling gun after another sent a stream of solid steel rounds down range.

For a couple of minutes, there was only the sound of gunfire drowning out the sounds of my machines as I frantically gathered up the iron plates and using my prototype build gun with I used it to replace the ground underneath the machines with thick solid metal plates which began absorbing the powerful vibrations from the machines so hopefully no deep horror was awakened.

Then I began to use the build gun's powerful magnetic welder to begin cold welding the plates together using the science of magnetically forcing the atoms to merge together into a single cohesive hole which with the build gun using the electromagnetic field would destabilize the atoms already which made the combination effect all the easier.

But as I began working on throwing a roof atop the driller a heavy thump rang out along with a scream behind me, making me whirl around and for the first time I saw a true demon beast rather than a spirit in the Ju-On I saw previously.

The Devil Ape was fucking ugly. It had dark filthy fur covered in mud and old gore, its body was the size and shape of a gorilla but its thick tree trunk-like arms had red glowing tribal tattoos across them.

The monster roared and even as I went for my gun I got with my reincarnation in Fate Bringer, I froze as a purple blur zipped through the devil ape and the monster collapsed, utterly cut in half with Keqing yelling out. "Continue your work!" 

My Gatling guns worked well in stemming the tide of monsters as beyond the stream of steel rounds sent through the thick whirling barrels tearing holes through the monsters at the speed the bullets were going through. The sheer noise, I imagine was terrifying the monsters.

Thankfully using my new build gun I was able to cold weld and fuse all the plates together into a large box surrounding the driller which heavily cut down the noise and then I began working on covering up the still loud but much quieter forge and constructor.

"How much refined iron are you making?" Keqing demanded as she watched the iron plates I hadn't used yet slowly stream into the storage shed I made and thankfully it also worked with some game logic in having some internal storage fuckery going on inside of it.

At Keqing's question, I chewed only my lips as I did some mental math before I pointed at the constructor and answered frankly. "I am nowhere near going at max efficiency as I could have three forges working with up to six constructors basically to churn out a lot more... But for now, with only one constructor I am putting out thirty of these iron plates per minute." I answered.

She boggled at my answer. As think about this, a single line of machines working at piss poor efficiency as even the machines weren't getting the full power. Were putting they out thirty iron plates a minute with each, being a meter wide and being an inch thick. In reality that was a fuck load of material!

If I had dozens of these setups or setups with better efficiency and the machines to make much better power. I could build a dome or a box around the mountain we were on with a concrete machine getting the local limestone in less than a week for the machines running. Though the actual building of the dome to surround the sector... Was a whole different beast in reality.

But Keqing was looking more towards the bigger picture as she muttered. "So much metal, even the ingots coming out of the forge would help so much with the metal shortages in Liyue..." She visibly took a breath and looked at me seriously as she ordered. "Jake, I don't know what to do with the value you have within your inventions if this continues... But these machines are now considered pivotal for the survival of Liyue!" She yelled and even amidst the sounds of the Gatling guns shooting at the terrified Devil Apes who were now running I could hear the guards cheering.

I wasn't sure what she meant. By calling my machines 'pivotal' for the survival of Liyue but I just nodded and said evenly. "Alright then." But she clasped a surprisingly soft hand on my shoulder as she said frankly. 

"Thank you for accepting responsibility... Welcome to the Liyue Qixing and I will make sure none of the Noble Clans or other entities mess with you. Just keep being a genius, Jake." She announced and I froze as Keqing giggled at my expression before I could reject being drafted she skipped away with electro energy radiating off her before she seemingly teleported away and I saw her land atop one of the decrepit buildings and begin swiping her sword towards the distance sending arcs lightning that caused explosions in the distance.

"And they call my shit loud," I muttered before shaking my head with a wry smile as I took a breath and looked at the bright side of things... 'Maybe I can hook up with Ganyu?' I thought jokingly before my face went flat as I realized with this cultivation element in the world, Ganyu was likely part of the cultivation side of things and may not even live in Liyue.

'Nooooo the Cocogoat can't be waifued!' I thought with some despair before sighing and getting back to work reinforcing the walls surrounding the machines and with three layers of inch-thick iron plates surrounding the machines. The noise was cut down extremely.

So with the machines silenced a good bit I climbed up the ladder on the side of my truck and I looked off into the distance and saw Keqing was carving an oversized gorilla into chunks with her lightning arcs carving large furrows into its flesh before she teleported behind the gorilla and decapitated it after landing on its right shoulder.

-

After I got the machines quieted, I began the lovely task of changing the machine's output from iron plates to copper even though the trace amounts of copper in the ground made the efficiency even worse than the iron. I still got the copper plates and wiring I needed to use the build gun to build more machines.

"Jake... Is that thing a cultivator tool?" Keqing asked curiously as she watched me carefully using the build gun to put together a Satisfactory biomass burner. 

To her question, my lips twitched as I paused before shaking my head and said wryly. "I mean no insult Keqing, but if I tried to explain the science and how this thing works... You wouldn't understand half my words, but no. At its core, it is mundane science but far more advanced than others would understand." I said with a shrug at the end. 'Keqing still thinks it's magic though.' I thought with some amusement.

"Guards!" I called out making the men look towards me and I pointed at the wood-chipper-like end on the biomass burner. "Can you guys start stuffing the corpses of the devil apes inside the bio-mass burner? Also, we can also put the wood into it, and in doing so. I can make my machines work faster!" I explained and the guards shrugged got a couple of carts and used their supernatural martial artist-gained strength to throw the corpses of the Devil Apes into the biomass burner.

'So the local monster flesh is far more energy-filled than I thought." I thought with a frown as the biomass burner could only take a good fifth of what it should have been able to before its safety features blocked off the grinder for more materials.

So in essence, I needed to keep in mind. Certain materials in this fantasy world would react very differently than they should if I tried working with them, with the same recipes and construction methods I could with other materials. "I sent a talisman to Lady Ningguang, she is making her way here with her elite guard Jake," Keqing spoke as she jumped down from her perch atop one of the ruined buildings.

'Ningguang? Oh, oh... I don't know what she is going to be like here in this universe?' I thought before nodding as I took out some paper and began designing the layout for a machine plant to output all three main materials I would need for the simpler Satisfactory machines until I could get to the machinery used in stuff like Deep Rock Galatic and its heavy weaponry.

"Anything I should know about your boss?" I asked frankly and Keqing snorted at my question as she dryly retorted.

"Yeah. Be useful, and have a weakness she can leverage to keep control over you... You are already highly useful as your technology makes zero sense and is highly useful. But as for weaknesses... She will prod you most likely, just be respectful and she will find something else to keep her interest eventually."