Chapter 393: German AS-1 and A Small Gift
"Of course."
Seeing Anna looking a little disappointed, Kate facepalmed herself in the head.
"Ahem, Anna, you forgot what you asked him here in the first place?" Kate reminded.
"Oh, um, we recently developed a lot of new weapons, and we were wondering if you could approve them."
"Me? Did Yezi said no to it?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"He... He said some of the weapons are impractical, but I feel like there are uses to it and not to mention he——"
"Okay, I\'ll go check it out tomorrow with you guys."
Xiaoyun quickly interrupted as Anna\'s voice started to get louder and louder, almost as if she was trying to prove a point.
"Thank you."
As Anna bowed down in gratitude, Xiaoyun turned his attention over to Kate.
"Hey Kate... When are you done with your break?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"My break? I thought you would never ask that. I thought you had forgotten all about me——"
"I just didn\'t want to bore you with being next to three sweaty men making plans," Xiaoyun argued.
After a short silence, Kate spoke up again.
"Whenever you need me... You\'re the boss, not me."
Xiaoyun froze for a second, seeing Kate shyly looking down at the bed as she said it out loud.
"I, um, I\'ll tell you when I go out again. See you guys tomorrow."
As Xiaoyun ran out of the room, Anna finally couldn\'t hold in her laughter. She couldn\'t believe Kate\'s shy face.
"When did you blush so much?" Anna curiously asked as the laughter echoed in the room.
"Shut up!"
Kate quickly lunged over to Anna, pinning her down as she tickled the side of her belly.
"Okay, I\'m sorry! Please stop!" Anna pleaded as a little bit of tear began flowing out of her eyes.
"Hmph!"
Experience tales at m-vl-e-mpyr
---
The next day...
After breakfast, Xiaoyun left with Kate and Anna and went straight to the only remaining heavy industry factory in Luoping.
As they walked down the streets, all of the older factories had been converted into German or Russian logos on top.
There was a clear split, as Anna owned half, and the three Russians owned the other half.
"Geez... there are so many military factories," Xiaoyun murmured, unable to believe the scale right before his eyes.
Despite walking for almost ten minutes, they were still walking past different stores.
"Well, most of them don\'t actually make guns. Some were just for military uniforms and other support equipment." Anna replied.
"What happened to the other private businesses that were contracted with the military?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"All of them went bankrupt since they didn\'t have enough to be profitable. The military only had occasional small orders that couldn\'t justify it.
Especially when the private demands were destroyed after... more clothes started coming in from the outside." Kate replied.
"Outside?" Xiaoyun asked in confusion.
"Yeah, outside. You know, why make the cloth when you can just loot entire cargo ship of cloths from before the outbreak?"
"I see..."
"So anyway, Anna and I brought all of them up to produce multiple military gear since we\'re the only ones supplying it now.
You could say we had a monopoly on the army\'s supplies... No lie, Anna and I are probably richer than you."
Xiaoyun was a little stunned by Kate\'s answer, even a little alerted by the fact that a military monopoly existed.
But he quickly dismissed it in his head, realizing the danger he imagined was based on his doubting both Anna and Kate.
Deep inside, he had accepted and put the two on the same level of trust as the other girls, albeit not as much for Anna yet.
"Ahem, how about the Russian ones?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"They got 0% of the orders for everything... except rifles."
Anna looked down in disappointment as she opened the door to her office, taking a seat as the other two sat before her.
"How much is it exactly?" Xiaoyun asked again, wanting to know the answer.
"They produce ninety-five percent of the rifles," Kate responded before Anna this time.
"What! How the hell did they get all those orders?"
"The army preferred using higher caliber weapons since the zombies had been increasingly getting tougher and tougher.
Their AKM is just too good at its job. But that\'s why I brought you here today—to show you my newly designed rifle."
As Anna bent down below the desk, Xiaoyun\'s heart started racing a little as he saw the bullet\'s caliber brought up to the table.
It was using the same round as the Karabiner 98k, a 7.92x57mm that was much bigger than the AK\'s 7.62x39mm.
"It\'s based on StG 44 with K98k\'s ammo. It can act as a rifle and a submachine gun in both long-range and short-range."
Holding the gun in hand, Xiaoyun could feel the immediate weight as the rifle was already fully loaded.
Still, it was lighter than an AKM because it didn\'t have a big wooden stock at the end.
"Why did Yezi reject this design?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
The two fell into silence, as neither of them wanted to answer. Eventually, Kate revealed it.
"It costs more, and it takes a lot longer to make. Yezi didn\'t feel the need to replace the AKM yet."
Xiaoyun thought for a second, then got up from his seat.
"Let\'s me try out first before I conclude."
---
As the three of them stood at one of the test ranges, Xiaoyun slowly raised the rifle and aimed at one of the targets.
With a steady hand and aim, a loud bang rang as he pulled the trigger.
A single bullet landed right at the center of the paper target before making a dent in the concrete wall behind it.
"It\'s pretty stable for a semi-automatic. Most people could definitely get used to using this." Xiaoyun commented as he flicked it to automatic.
This time, he didn\'t try to aim the rifle.
Instead, he lowered himself to the ground, holding it up into the air as he pulled the trigger.
Within seconds, the rifle tried to fly upward, but Xiaoyun quickly yanked it back down as it continued to fire.
When the entire mag was emptied, Xiaoyun stood back up to examine the damage to the target.
"Not too hard to control for covering fire under cover. This gun is pretty good." Xiaoyun complimented it as he put it on the table.
"Thank you——"
"But I do have one small concern. The bullet size is great, but it\'s going to be pretty heavy to transport."
"I know, but it\'s something we have to do if we were to keep up with the zombie\'s defense," Anna argued.
Xiaoyun didn\'t argue back as he knew that was the partial reason for this rifle\'s existence in the first place.
\'What did you name this rifle?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"AS-1, or Anna Sturmgewehr one... It just means assault rifle," Anna clarified after noticing Xiaoyun\'s confused face.
"Not a bad name... How about this? I\'ll place an order for 20,000 AS-1 to be delivered within a month."
"Two months. I can\'t go any faster than this." Anna instantly rejected, trying to bargain her way out.
But Xiaoyun shook his head, not giving her any room even to try to lower the date.
"I like this rifle... However, if it can\'t be produced at a mass scale, I cannot issue it for the whole army."
Seeing Anna looking a little disappointed, Xiaoyun decided to cheer her up a little.
"But that doesn\'t mean there would be no order for this. I\'m still going to order 20,000 to test it on Lingang\'s division."
"Thank you!"
As Anna hugged Xiaoyun in excitement, Kate suddenly felt a little jealousy building up in her heart.
It quickly vanished as the two separated from each other, with Anna grabbing the rifle before heading back into the office.
"Do you have any other weapons you want to show me?" Xiaoyun asked curiously as he sat in his seat.
"I got a prototype for a tank, but it\'s still in the blueprint with the engineers," Anna replied as she went over to her drawer again.
Before Xiaoyun could react, Anna suddenly threw a gun into his hand, with a full clip along with it.
"I was planning to give you this before you left... Don\'t take it the wrong way, okay?
I didn\'t spend that much time on it. It only took me less than a month to make this."
Anna\'s face started to blush as her brain quickly added the last part to avoid sounding as if she was giving him a date gift.
"Thank you. Wait..."
As Xiaoyun examined the pistol in his hand, it looked awfully familiar to a game his dormmate had once played on the computer.
With a silencer attached in the front and a smooth black frame, he realized it was a Beretta 92.