After Duanmu Huai returned to the mothership, the first thing he did was summon Kukulu.
However, this once lively and adorable girl now looked utterly haggard, as if she had been indescribably abused by several hundred burly men for days and nights before finally being rescued.
"Are you all right? Is your body okay? How about your mental state? Are you fine?"
Looking at the girl in front of him, Duanmu Huai froze for a moment. As the only and most important person in charge of his "military-industrial department," Kukulu might not be responsible for frontline combat, but ship maintenance, upkeep, weapon manufacturing, repairs, and the like were basically all handled by her…
"Ah, Knight Lord…"
At this moment, Kukulu was like an addict who hadn't gotten her fix. She shakily raised her hand, waved weakly at him, then let it drop—looking half-dead.
"I'm fine. I've just been reading books nonstop lately. My head hurts…"
"Uh… that's understandable…"
Hearing Kukulu's reply, Duanmu Huai broke into a cold sweat. Of course he knew why Kukulu had gone from a lively and adorable girl to looking like a ghost.
Simply put, Kukulu's intelligence was extremely high, and she was quite clever. She also had considerable talent in weapon and vehicle design and manufacturing. At least in Duanmu Huai's eyes, Kukulu was a very responsible person. The problem was that the gap between the era she came from and the technological civilization of the Human Imperium was simply too vast.
As a result, Kukulu had to desperately make up a huge amount of foundational knowledge.
For example, materials science, missile dynamics, structural mechanics, and so on—and for each of these disciplines, she also had to thoroughly study their prerequisite subjects. This was completely normal. For instance, if there was a paper on materials science that used calculus, and you didn't understand calculus, what could you do?
You could only cram, what else could you do? Otherwise, if you couldn't even understand how their calculations were derived, how could you possibly understand the content of the paper?
The difference was that most people only had to deal with one or two subjects, while Kukulu had to deal with many disciplines at once.
It was like being a ship designer—you not only had to know how to design ships, but also how to forge steel, smelt iron, and build electronic control systems… Well, for Kukulu, this really was a bit too much.
Fortunately, Duanmu Huai had finally found a technology that could help Kukulu escape from this sea of suffering. Nanotechnology should be able to help Kukulu solve her current problems. After all, judging from the Life Cube, most things in the Dark Age of humanity were almost entirely completed by intelligent machines themselves. Mm… of course, that also led to the Iron Men Rebellion.
"All right, don't be so depressed. I've found you something good that can help you solve your current difficulties."
"Huh?"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's words, Kukulu—who had been swaying left and right as if she was about to faint—immediately lit up.
"Really? Knight Lord?"
"Yes. You should know about nanotechnology…"
"Ahhh—Knight Lord, please don't mention nanotechnology, I'm stuck on that right now…!!"
Before Duanmu Huai could even finish speaking, Kukulu suddenly covered her ears with both hands, squatted down, and shouted.
Looks like she was already on the verge of psychological trauma.
"All right, this isn't your problem."
Facing Kukulu's near-collapse, Duanmu Huai coughed lightly. Most of the technology Kukulu was currently studying came from the previous demon planet, war planet, and the Imperial Library's archives. However, those civilizations themselves weren't particularly proficient in nanotechnology, and some of their research even went in completely the wrong direction. When Duanmu Huai brought back the Vestige Manifest back then, Kukulu had complained to him that the Forerunners' nanotechnology was far too complex, completely beyond her current ability to analyze. At the time, Duanmu Huai had only told her to take it slow.
After all, the Inquisition was currently short on manpower, and the lack of high-end technological talent from spacefaring civilizations was its greatest weakness. That was why Kukulu, who came from a medieval magic civilization, had been forced to fill the gap.
If Duanmu Huai hadn't had cheat-like things such as the Void Dockyard as a player, forget a fleet—he might have had to start all over again from smelting iron and forging steel, retracing the entire path of human civilization just to build a warship.
"In any case, I've obtained something good…"
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai explained the Life Cube's technology to Kukulu. When she heard that this thing could automatically transform according to a designated framework, Kukulu was overjoyed. However, she soon discovered a problem.
"But Knight Lord, this thing requires program compilation… I don't know how to do that."
"You don't need to worry about that. I've already found someone to assist you with that work. She's very good at it."
The person Duanmu Huai was referring to was naturally Lorena. After all, among his subordinates, there was no one else more proficient in information technology and programming.
"That's great…"
With the most critical issue resolved, Kukulu finally let out a long sigh of relief and plopped down on the floor. The slow progress of the mothership's modification had made her extremely anxious. She had even lost quite a bit of hair, to the point where she had started worrying about going bald. Now it seemed that, at the very least, she could avoid that fate.
"All right, go back and get some rest. You look exhausted. We'll deal with the remaining issues later."
"Okay, Knight Lord."
With her mind finally at ease, Kukulu relaxed and happily turned around to leave. Duanmu Huai watched her back and helplessly shook his head. Of course, he hadn't treated this weapons expert poorly. However, Kukulu's abilities were limited, and being able to make it this far was already quite impressive. Even after bringing Lorena in, it still wasn't enough…
Sigh, where could he find more talent to recruit?
Duanmu Huai helplessly opened his system and glanced at the world modules he owned.
Holy City, Manaria, and Regnis were all out. Skyrim was also out. They were all medieval civilizations. Even if there were exceptionally talented scientists there, recruiting them wouldn't immediately translate into combat effectiveness. The best approach was still to recruit directly from space-age civilizations—but that was no easy task. After all, people from the space age weren't as easy to fool as those from medieval times.
Not to mention that many people in space-age civilizations were mad scientists—types that, by the Inquisition's definition, would all be branded heretics and executed on the spot. Bringing those back to the Inquisition was definitely not an option. As for ordinary scientists, they weren't that useful either, and you still had to guard against them being corrupted by the Deceiver.
So this was very troublesome.
At present, Duanmu Huai had Shirley handling biochemistry and Lorena handling information networks. But that still wasn't enough. Kukulu was barely holding up the military-industrial sector and could only ensure that things didn't go wrong when following the Void Dockyard's procedures. Simply put, Kukulu was a qualified overseer, but not a qualified scientist—well, she came from a medieval civilization, so one had to be understanding.
What Duanmu Huai needed next was an expert in mechanical engineering.
For that matter, ordinary mechanical engineering wouldn't cut it. If he had to say…
"Hmm…"
Duanmu Huai looked at the Dream Crystal in his hand.
Let's go back to Venus Island and ask around.
At the very least, that place was, in its setting, a near-modern high-tech world… right?
Thus, Duanmu Huai quickly opened a passage, arrived at Venus Island, and found the girls there to explain the situation.
"A genius scientist with sufficient strength?"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, Honoka and Marie Rose looked at each other.
"Uh…"
The girls thought for a moment, then Honoka spoke hesitantly.
"Well… I'm not really sure right now, but I can help you ask around. Maybe someone knows."
"Marie will ask around too."
"Mm, please do."
However, at that moment, someone suddenly interjected.
"If that's the case, then I have a candidate."
"Oh?"
Hearing this voice, Duanmu Huai lowered his head and saw that right in front of him stood a petite girl, staring at him without blinking, her crimson eyes fixed on him.
"Sha… do you have someone you'd recommend?"
Looking at this little girl, Duanmu Huai felt a headache coming on. She was constantly thinking about becoming his wife and showed no intention of compromising. It left Duanmu Huai speechless. He had no interest in such a young girl, but since she was providing a lead… well, he might as well hear her out.
"I've only heard about it."
Sha stared at Duanmu Huai and spoke quietly.
"In a city called Kastam, there are beings known as the Four Witches. One of them is extremely skilled at making weapons like tanks and artillery. I think she should meet your requirements."
"The Four Witches… aren't those mages?"
Hearing Sha's answer, Duanmu Huai felt somewhat disappointed. He would much rather get a normal scientist than some mystical, superstitious mage. Still, having a lead was better than none. Looking at it optimistically, perhaps the reason she was called a witch was because her inventions were so advanced that people couldn't understand them.
"Where is Kastam?"
Although Duanmu Huai felt that Sha was probably digging a pit for him, manpower was in short supply. Pit or not, he had no choice but to jump.
"I'll take you there."
"No problem. Let me call Olgis and Kura as well."
Duanmu Huai wasn't stupid enough to go alone with Sha. If one day he woke up and found her riding on top of him, there would be no way to explain that.
Of course, Duanmu Huai didn't miss Sha's soft "tsk."
As expected, this little girl was definitely planning something.
(End of Chapter)