Munitions Empire

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"Heard the rumor?" In a dimly lit tavern in Brunas, a man leaned close to his friend with a mysterious air and whispered. His expression was wildly exaggerated, as if he were about to divulge a secret that would shake the heavens.

His friend, holding a glass of wine, frowned and looked at him, completely clueless about what terrifying secret he was about to share: "Heard what?"

They were all old buddies, after all. Coming out to drink was just about boasting and shooting the breeze; didn't they all know each other's backgrounds?

One was a foreman of a dock's loading team, with dozens of loaders under him and a little money in hand, enough to be considered middle class. Although he lived comfortably, he was neither filthy rich nor nobility.

The other was a minor clerk in the Brunas City construction department, responsible for managing the logistics of city construction materials. He held a bit of authority, but not the guts to take kickbacks and engage in corruption—just a simple clerk.

What earth-shattering secrets could these two possibly know? Isn't it all just hearsay and gossip?

But when drinking, national secrets and shocking confidential matters will always be evergreen topics. Debating and casually joking while eating and drinking is as normal as it gets for two men.

The foreman from the docks earnestly began with a so-called secret that was enough to make anyone burst into laughter: "Dragon Island... there are actually dragons living there..."

Mr. Clerk, who lived a routine life of just going to work and returning home, couldn't possibly believe such things: "How is that possible? Who told you this? It can't be true."

Although many islands in this world remained undiscovered or had only been recently discovered, the existence of dragons was something nobody would believe.

Dragons had long been extinct; this was an accepted fact. It wasn't possible for living dragons to be on Dragon Island or else it would have been widely known.

These days, if someone found a living dragon and caught it to sell tickets, they'd probably make a fortune. Such a creature isn't some kind of secret that needs to be kept.

Seeing that his old buddy didn't believe him, the small dock boss immediately began with a familiar prelude, swearing by it: "My brother's friend, you know him, that sailor... hasn't he always been running transport with the Great Tortoise sailing ship?"

These sorts of claims were always about a friend of a friend, a brother's friend, a friend's uncle's son-in-law's friend's brother's cousin from next door...

In short, "I have a friend, I have a relative, I have a friend of a relative"—this is the usual pattern for starting off a story.

It's like a sort of disclaimer that says, "It's not me who's claiming this, but if you want someone to blame, then go find someone else, I'm just sharing the gossip."

As expected, Mr. Clerk knew the person and was quite familiar with him: "That drunkard? I know him, did he make up another story to tell you?"

"Well... it's not made up, did the Great Tortoise not just make a delivery of fabrics to Dragon Island?" started the dock boss, assuring his claims from the beginning of the story.

"And then? He saw a dragon?" asked the clerk as he took a sip of his drink and let out a satisfied sound, enjoying the moment and encouraging his friend to continue.

Chatting or rather, shooting the breeze, requires a back-and-forth banter during these social gatherings for the conversation to flow.

If you don't pick up where the other left off, the topic dies, the atmosphere turns awkward, and the drinking session ends unsatisfactorily, right?

Since they were old friends for many years, they could definitely keep up with each other, so there was no fear of dead air.

The foreman from the docks nodded affirmatively: "Yeah, he saw it, there's something flying in the sky over Dragon Island!"

"Something flying in the sky?" raised his eyebrows, the clerk thought maybe his friend had mistaken something else for the so-called dragon.

Nowadays, there are just too many things that can fly in the sky: it wasn't unusual to see a large kite, and hot air balloons were no novelty in Brunas either.

"Yes, something's flying in the sky!" The dock boss tapped his head and took a swig of his drink.

Brunas beer, made with updated brewing equipment and added hops, had a better taste and became more popular.

This type of processed beverage was becoming increasingly favored and quickly became widespread in taverns. Compared to the costly Brunas 3-year or the even more exquisite Brunas 4-year, the more affordable beer became the staple drink of the masses.

Meeting up with buddies for a drink at the tavern after work became a leisure activity for many men and a new source of income for the Silver Fox.

The clerk scoffed dismissively: "What's so strange about that? Things fly in the sky over Brunas too, hot air balloons."

Clearly, he was being somewhat argumentative.

A sailor who could go to Dragon Island had certainly stayed in Brunas. If he couldn't recognize hot air balloons, which were visible almost every day, wouldn't he be a fool?

The Brunas hot air balloon industry was remarkably developed, having reached a level of affluence where the nobility would hire hot air balloons to hang advertisements in the sky for weddings.

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Every day, as various malls open, companies recruit, and new products are advertised, hot air balloons hang in the sky, displaying banners.

As expected, when teased by a friend, the man on the pier immediately explained, "No, not the kind that stays still! It's up in the sky, flying!"

"Hmm, an airship? Is it very big?" The clerk, who had seen much and knew better, scoffed.

Airships, being more advanced than hot air balloons and not yet fully popularized, were indeed rare.

But mingling in Brunas, all were the favored children of the gods, the cream of society—who hadn't seen a bit of the world?

Nowadays, Brunas had already opened airship passenger and cargo routes to Ice Crystal City, with exorbitantly priced tickets that still attracted many of the Nobility like moths to a flame.

It was akin to a holiday, or more precisely, an experience. For just a few dozen Gold Coins, they could truly fly once, and the nobility thought it well worth the price.

Moreover, with such stability and the ability to sit by the porthole sipping wine while overlooking the earth at not a slow speed, it suited their noble status, didn't it?

The man on the pier nodded in agreement before adding, "I asked him the same thing, and he said it wasn't an airship—it's... how should I put it, much smaller than an airship, and much faster... He said it whooshed away in a blink!"

With the increasing number of airplanes, gliders, and primitive commercial airplanes on Dragon Island, keeping them completely secret and out of sight was nearly impossible.

Some airfields were built next to Dragon City, so when planes took off or landed, they were naturally seen by some of the residents of Dragon City.

The airfields constructed in the central part of the island also saw an increasing number of planes—just the Camel Fighters alone had been produced by the dozens.

These machines were unlike Battleships, which took a year or even several years to build. They had a simple structure, were small in size, and could be produced in the dozens in just a day if mass-produced in earnest.

What really limited the number of aircraft of the Great Tang Group was the scarcity of pilots. It was difficult to cultivate this profession, which relied entirely on the accumulation of time.

Training pilots from scratch was a complicated matter, requiring at least dozens of hours of training flight time for them to fly independently.

The first batch of pilots had no choice but to grope their way, and many bold maneuvers had to be discovered through trial and error.

If it weren't for Tang Mo providing comprehensive textbooks and personally explaining the theoretical knowledge of flying to the pilots, the training speed of Great Tang Group's pilots would have been even slower.

Even so, Great Tang Group now had a few hundred candidates capable of flying planes or gliders.

To meet these individuals' flying needs, Great Tang Group arranged a sufficient amount of flight training every day—inevitably, someone would fly beyond the designated boundaries, allowing the people of Weigang or Dragon City to witness it.

And more and more people were seeing it.

Especially the locals on Dragon Island, who had seen such flying objects soaring far away in the sky on several occasions.

Yet what they saw was not necessarily any specific type of airplane but rather various strange and curious things.

As a result, the stories passed around varied widely. Some claimed to have seen a very small flying monster, while others described something quite large.

What some saw could have been just a small training glider, and others, perhaps, a large twin-engine airplane with three engines.

The Great Tang Group alone had three types of training gliders, and adding dual-seat trainers and actual fighter planes, the variety in aircraft only increased.

When rumors about dragons filled the air, those with insider knowledge heard that a secret factory on Dragon Island was where Great Tang Group was constructing numerous gigantic airships.

Word had it that these airships were bigger than the cargo airships, equipped with more engines, and could be armed to attack the enemy while flying...

Of course, such news only circulated among the higher echelons; it was beyond the average person's earshot. The most they could do was gossip about certain inert gases produced in their factories being dispatched to a secret base in the heart of Dragon Island.

"So, how much did that drunkard drink…" The clerk, who prided himself on his worldliness, arched his eyebrows with a spot-on expression.

He believed such tales to be complete nonsense. Besides hot air balloons and airships, only birds could fly in the sky!

"You don't believe it?" The foreman of the port's dockworkers, also uncertain of the truth of what he heard, asked somewhat apprehensively.

Emboldened by alcohol, the clerk banged forcefully on the table in front of him, boasting arrogantly, "How could I possibly believe... If what he said is true, then I'll eat this table!"