Chapter 52: Gap Moe
The next morning.
The girls who focused on mental strength went to the Transcendental University, while the girls who focused on physical strength stayed on Furnace Island to continue honing their skills.
Only Asker, who had just advanced to level 5 (and temporarily had no need for potions), and Hood remained in the workshop of the barracks, researching something.
“I suddenly discovered a fatal flaw in your team.” Hood said suddenly, operating the machine.
“What flaw?” Asker asked, folding his arms.
“The girls under your command have no distinctive personalities.” Hood commented.
No distinctive personalities? Right, Asker immediately understood what he meant.
He had discovered and personally trained these girls from the rookie stage to their current level. The advantage was that they grew faster and wouldn’t take any detours. The disadvantage was naturally that their fighting styles also converged towards his own, lacking some individual characteristics.
No matter how arrogant Asker was, he didn’t dare to say that his fighting style was completely flawless. If the whole team had the same style, and then someone specifically targeted them… that would indeed be a tricky problem.
“It seems I need to give them more opportunities to explore on their own.” Asker pondered. “Let them freely develop and form their own personal fighting styles.”
Hood: ???
“I’m not talking about fighting styles, I’m talking about personalities!” Hood corrected him. “Don’t you think the girls under your command all lack distinctive personalities?”
“What do you mean by distinctive personalities?” Asker was completely baffled.
“For example, let me give you an example.” Hood said, “Eleanor, the righteous knight, can we add the personality tag of being old-fashioned and rigid?”
“Like, a mechanical idiot who can’t use a mobile phone at all; easily gets lost; will stand up for the weak when they are bullied; although tough, she also has a gentle side, especially fond of small animals…”
“And Peggy, we can give her the yandere attribute. For example, secretly stalking you every day, gritting her teeth when she sees you talking to other girls, hiding eighty kitchen knives in her clothes…”
“Are you writing a novel?” Asker interrupted him, exasperated. “Where did all these messy attributes come from?!”
“Without attributes, your harem is very boring!” Hood strongly protested.
“We are a mercenary group, not a harem group.” Asker emphasized. “A mercenary group doesn’t need to specifically collect people with distinct personalities, we only need potential seedlings, then train them into reliable fighting forces, and finally send them to the battlefield.”
“That’s so boring.” Hood complained.
“It doesn’t need to be interesting.” Asker said, “Winning is all that matters.”
“Keep winning.”
Hood was stunned for a moment, suddenly feeling that this guy was a bit scary in some ways, his stubbornness.
“And another thing.” Asker sighed helplessly. “Did you get those tags from novels and anime? Works of art use some distinct personality tags for expressive purposes.”
“But look at reality, do you see anyone like that around you? Easily gets lost, is this guy’s brain underdeveloped? Secretly hiding dozens of kitchen knives, is there really nothing wrong with this person’s psychology? Shouldn’t they be sent to a psychiatrist?”
“It’s precisely because reality is so bland and boring that we need to find some fun!” Hood cried out indignantly. “You sinful normie! You’ve already built a harem, and you still want to destroy the dreams of us harem fans! Can’t you give people some room for imagination?!”
“What does that have to do with me?!” Asker was also a little annoyed. “It’s not like I decided their personalities! And you keep accusing me of having a harem, do you want me to open a hole in your head first?”
“What’s wrong with men having a little imagination!” Hood hurriedly covered his head. “I’m just trying to make them more cute!”
“Sorry, then I’m really not cute enough.” Eleanor’s voice came from outside.
The two turned their heads stiffly and saw Eleanor leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed, a speechless “Look what you two are arguing about” expression on her face.
“When did you arrive?” Asker asked with a dry laugh.
“When you said ‘I have no distinctive personality’.” Eleanor said lightly.
“Uh… oh right, Hood is developing a new weapon for you!” Asker quickly changed the subject, winking at Hood. “Hood, quickly bring it out.”
“Huh? But that’s…” Hood hadn’t reacted yet.
“It’s the new weapon I developed for Eleanor.” Asker emphasized.
Hood was speechless and took out a streamlined sword from the workbench.
Hearing that there was a new weapon, Eleanor’s attention was immediately drawn.
Although it looked like a sword at first glance, its blade was extremely narrow, with a cold and chilling luster. The slight curve made it more like a knife, and the blade was covered with dense patterns.
“The Thermal Blade!” Hood held it up and said boastfully, “Made of ultra-high temperature resistant tantalum hafnium carbide alloy, with a three-dimensional network of hollow channels inside, powered and heated by a single-phase nuclear fusion battery, using a heat pump to circulate flame-retardant and thermally conductive oil in the channels, so that the edge of the sword can be directionally heated to over several thousand degrees Celsius, enough to cut through the steel structure of powered armor.”
Eleanor took the Thermal Blade and pressed the switch as Hood instructed. As expected, the blade turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the air began to become scorching hot.
She casually swung it and slashed at the pile of steel next to her. Like a hot knife through butter, the Thermal Blade easily cut the steel into two pieces, the cut slightly melting.
“It looks pretty powerful.” Eleanor commented. “But, this weapon wasn’t made for me, was it?”
Asker was silent upon hearing this. As expected, he couldn’t fool her.
As a tank, Eleanor’s main role was to draw enemy aggro, so what suited her was not a high-damage output weapon, but a control weapon with high durability and a wide attack range, such as a spear or a broadsword.
“Then I’ll take it to Peggy for you.” Eleanor put away the Thermal Blade and turned to leave. “Anyway, you two talked bad about her, I hope she can forgive you for the sake of this weapon.”
“Wait, Eleanor!” Asker hurriedly called out. “Don’t tell her, don’t!”
“Just kidding.” Eleanor turned around and winked.
“After all, I’m not always so rigid.” She said playfully, as if she had successfully pulled a prank.
The door closed again, and Asker finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Good, no misunderstandings.
He looked at Hood and found that the boy was staring blankly at the door, two streams of blood slowly flowing from his nose.
“Hood, are you alright?” Asker asked in surprise.
“Gap moe…” Hood murmured.
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