Chapter Forty-Seven: Bullet Reloading Equipment

Reloading bullets with black powder is remarkably inexpensive; three silver dollars can buy a large barrel of black powder, enough to reload several thousand rounds. Mercury fulminate is also available at the foreign trading firms, and only a small amount is needed for priming, keeping costs low. What’s truly essential for reloading is having the casings and the projectiles. Casings can be gathered at the shooting range, and with a manual press, bullet heads can be fashioned from copper sheets.

If reloading bullets is only for marksmanship practice, even the cost of the projectiles can be saved; after firing, the bullets can be retrieved and reshaped for reuse. Chen Hao’s emphasis on mastering this skill is mainly for early-stage practice with firearms; he estimated the cost of reloading a single bullet at about two copper coins, ten times cheaper than buying from the foreign trading firms.

Captain Steve kept his promise. After teaching Chen Hao how to reload bullets, he returned to the barracks and brought out the equipment for manual reloading. The captain cast a covetous glance at the large saber in Chen Hao’s hand. “Mr. Chen, here’s the equipment you requested. Additionally, I have a small favor to ask: would you trade your saber for a Mauser G98 rifle?”

During their previous conflict, Steve had witnessed the saber’s sharpness; even the bayonet forged from the finest steel for the Mauser rifle had been notched by it. The captain was highly interested in this mysterious Chinese treasure blade, but Chen Hao had no intention of trading it. Not only was the Yanling Saber the property of Wang Wu, even if it were his own, he could not bear to part with it.

The Mauser G98 rifle was indeed alluring, but as the game progressed, Chen Hao was confident he could acquire one himself. Wang Wu’s Yanling Saber was not a common item like the horse-cutting swords found in blacksmith shops; it was likely a unique special item, unobtainable once lost.

“I’m sorry, Captain. This blade means a great deal to me; I cannot trade it,” Chen Hao refused Steve’s request.

“That’s truly unfortunate,” Captain Steve replied, not displeased by Chen Hao’s refusal, and still handed over the equipment.

The bullet reloading equipment was not complicated, but it weighed over ten kilograms, exceeding the carrying capacity of Chen Hao’s pouch. As Chen Hao was about to ask the pale little demon to help store the item, Liu Zixuan handed him a blue cloth pouch. “Leader, mine should hold it.”

Liu Zixuan was straightforward by nature; when she disliked someone, she said so directly, and when she admired someone, she made no attempt to conceal it. Seeing Chen Hao’s surprise, her cheeks flushed. “Leader, I was hostile to you because we haven’t met a decent person in the game. So I just assumed you were a villain from the start.”

Lin Xiaofeng smiled wryly. “Honestly, we've had rotten luck; nothing has gone smoothly since entering the game...”

The four had never met in real life. The youngest, Chen Feng, encountered a special monster while fighting an opium addict and obtained a quest item, only to be blocked by someone wielding a butcher’s knife. Liu Zixuan was the first to step forward in his defense, but proved no match for the enemy. In a critical moment, Lin Xiaofeng and Yudie happened by and lent a hand, killing three of the butcher’s knife’s henchmen.

That was how the four met; by killing the butcher’s men, they stirred up a hornet’s nest and were relentlessly pursued. Even after being killed once, the butcher’s knife would not let them off, so they had no choice but to seek out remote areas around Penglai County to level up.

Because both Yudie and Liu Zixuan were beautiful women, men would often try to join their party during training. To impress the women, each man who joined pretended to be the top expert in the world. Yet when the butcher’s knife and his gang appeared, these so-called “experts” quickly admitted they were mere bystanders and slunk away...

When Chen Hao appeared, he carried himself like a true master, but his arrival coincided with the group’s suspicion—everyone assumed he was just another pretender. Within the group, Lin Xiaofeng acted as leader, but his gentle temperament made him unsuited for villainy; Yudie was quiet and serene; the youngest, Chen Feng, was shy and thin-skinned. Thus, only Liu Zixuan could step up and play the role of antagonist to Chen Hao...

Hearing Lin Xiaofeng’s account, Chen Hao was both amused and exasperated; he had thought only Liu Zixuan bore him a grudge, but in truth, all four had pegged him as a vain womanizer.

Despite their harrowing experience fleeing the butcher’s knife’s gang, Chen Hao did not regret choosing them as teammates. Their ability to remain united and avoid blaming each other in adversity was a reassurance. Besides, their strength was not truly lacking; without his memories of the next ten years and his familiarity with the terrain, even Chen Hao would have struggled to escape the butcher’s pursuit alone. Lin Xiaofeng and the others had only died once due to being caught off guard, yet after days of being chased by nearly a hundred men, they not only survived but raised their levels to seven—surely, they had their merits.

Chen Hao accepted the blue cloth pouch from Liu Zixuan; it had ten slots and a carrying capacity of twenty kilograms, quadruple that of his starter pouch. Such pouches were valuable in the game and unavailable for purchase in the county; Liu Zixuan had acquired hers through a lucky quest reward.

Each slot in the pouch could hold one item, regardless of size, as long as there was space and the total weight was not exceeded. The pouch was essential for players; when entering the city, if guns were not stashed in the pouch, carrying them openly would invite scrutiny from NPCs, and possibly arrest.

Having completed the German garrison’s martial contest and learned the bullet reloading skill, Chen Hao was now ready to practice marksmanship. The six set off for Penglai County; midway, they encountered a lookout placed by the butcher’s knife. Seeing Lin Xiaofeng’s group with Chen Hao, the lookout hurried back to report.

“Boss, those four have teamed up with Chen Baxian for protection. Should we still go after them?” a henchman asked the butcher.

“Damn it, forget it!” the butcher cursed. “There are plenty of easy targets around Penglai County; why mess with the tough ones? Tell the brothers not to provoke those four anymore.”

Back in Penglai County, Chen Hao asked the pale little demon to accompany Lin Xiaofeng’s group in leveling up, ensuring they reached level ten swiftly, while he himself headed to the Li residence.

Having become Li Pisun’s student, Chen Hao could visit the Li estate daily for scholarly guidance. With Li Pisun’s instruction, mastering the Analects would come much more quickly.

The gatekeeper, Old Qian, informed Chen Hao that Li Pisun had gone to the county office. Apparently, Wang Mingyuan, the Prefect from the provincial capital, had arrived in Penglai to oversee the Wang Wu saber case. Wang Mingyuan was Li Pisun’s student, and the county magistrate had invited Li Pisun to accompany him.

Li Pisun’s absence did not disappoint Chen Hao; on the contrary, he smiled. Li Pisun’s residence being searched without cause had surely left him incensed. Wang Mingyuan’s arrival to oversee the Wang Wu case must be connected to Li Pisun, and County Captain Liu Shengkui was bound to suffer.

If the Stone of Three Lives had indeed reported Wang Wu for hiding in Li Pisun’s estate, it would not end well for the accuser either—he was certain to pay dearly.

(P.S.: Previously, I wrote that Li Pisun’s student was the investigating magistrate Wang Mingyuan, but after checking, the position was abolished during the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, so I changed it to Prefect. Many readers have strong opinions about Liu Zixuan’s character, but I feel that conflicts born of misunderstanding—and the subsequent admiration after clearing them up—better highlight the protagonist’s exceptional qualities. If you have thoughts, please leave a review, but specify what exactly is unreasonable. If your reasoning makes sense, I’ll accept it. If you simply comment, “You didn’t write it my way,” or “Why do you keep doing this,” or even drag in my previous book, I’ll delete those posts—because lectures from on high about how I should write really sour my mood. Ah! Just knocked off the new book rankings; four chapters today, please click and recommend, and one more chapter tonight.)