When Danny held the gun, his first feeling was that its center of gravity had shifted, and the overall weight had increased – if he didn't look at the extra barrel beside the original one, it was essentially a very ordinary bolt-action rifle, no different from those used by most soldiers in the Musketeer Battalion. Judging from the craftsmanship, it was also clearly inferior to his accustomed precision rifle. The most striking change was undoubtedly the metal tube on the side, which extended all the way to the gun body and was connected to the bolt.

"Looks like this is the key to the weapon's ability to fire continuously," Danny thought.

He expertly leaned over and aimed at the target, pulling the trigger, but his gaze wasn't fixed on the muzzle as usual. Instead, he kept a close eye on the iron tube on the side of the gun.

Accompanied by the tremor of the bullet leaving the chamber, an incredible scene unfolded – although everything happened in the blink of an eye, Danny, as a sharpshooter, still saw the entire process of the bolt's movement. Almost at the same time as the shot rang out, the long rod hidden inside the iron tube seemed to be pushed out by something, driving the metal arc at the end to move backward together.

And this arc was connected to the bolt. According to common sense, the bolt in its locked state couldn't be pulled out. If he forced it, the result would either be the rod stopping or the long rod breaking. However, the bolt popped up along the trajectory hollowed out in the center of the arc, releasing its locked state and smoothly ejecting the spent casing.

Afterward, it was a completely reversed process. The long rod retracted back into the tube, simultaneously returning the bolt to its original position, and the bolt head fell back into the bottom along the arc, relocking the chamber.

"Truly... a brilliant design!"

Danny marveled inwardly. This component was so simple that even an outsider like him could understand its principle at a glance. Simply put, it used the long rod of the second iron tube to replace manual hand motions. And the ingenuity lay in the fact that the long rod only relied on linear forward and backward movement to achieve four changes: lifting, pulling, pushing, and pressing. Without the user's intervention, it automatically completed the preparation for the next round of firing.

On a whim, he fired off all the remaining bullets. Smelling the intoxicating aroma of gunpowder, a long-lost voice reappeared in his ears.

"Nineteen out of twenty, you missed one shot," Maiya chuckled. "What's wrong? Is the new weapon not easy to use?"

"Just not used to it yet. If you don't believe me, I'll hit the bullseye with every shot in the next round."

"Uh... don't believe what?" An astonished voice interjected.

Danny suddenly snapped back to reality. He wasn't on the battlefield at the moment, but in a shooting range surrounded by a crowd of people. Turning to look at the bewildered commander of the Artillery Battalion, he pretended to be nonchalant and shook his head. "No... I was just talking to myself."

"Not even satisfied with a score of nineteen out of twenty, you truly are the sharpshooter of the First Army." Vanna patted the other man on the shoulder and asked expectantly, "So... what do you think of this gun?"

Danny was also somewhat aware of the "covert rivalry" between the Artillery Battalion and the Musketeer Battalion, but since it was all for serving His Majesty, he didn't want to conceal his appreciation for the new weapon. "Apart from its stability and weight, it's almost impeccable. If possible, I hope the weapons of the Precision Shooting Team can also undergo similar modifications."

In terms of accuracy, at least at 50-meter and 100-meter targets, its performance wasn't much different from ordinary rifles. The increased weight was disadvantageous for standing shooting and charging with the gun, but that wasn't a problem that precision shooters needed to consider, and it should be the same for the Artillery Battalion.

And the ability to fire continuously was the greatest advantage of the new weapon – in the case of a missed shot, the action of pulling the bolt would cause the head to shift, the muzzle to rise, and it would take several breaths to re-lock onto the target through the scope, often resulting in the loss of the original target. This made the interval between their shots much longer than that of ordinary soldiers. But this test-fired musket could obviously improve on this point. He only needed to slightly adjust the muzzle to immediately correct the second bullet. Especially when enemies swarmed toward them, he could almost imagine the scene of quickly taking down clustered targets.

Hearing such praise, Vanna couldn't help but grin. "This is just an immature design at the moment. If you can help us improve this weapon together, I'll have more confidence when I apply to Iron Axe."

His idea was very simple:

If the Precision Shooting Team really used the burst-fire musket designed by the Artillery Battalion, then his victory over Brian would be confirmed.

Danny's idea was even simpler – he himself was filled with love for weapons that could efficiently kill devils, and the aroma of gunpowder during the test firing could bring Maiya back to his side. "I'm very willing to serve, Commander."

The two men smiled at each other and reached an agreement.

...

When Roland learned of this news, it was already several days later.

The increasing number of Artillery Battalion soldiers visiting the Mechanical Second Factory attracted the attention of the factory director. Since the military was involved, the director didn't dare to stop them rashly and instead reported the news to the Administrative Office, which was eventually passed on to Anna, the Minister of Industry.

Looking at the sample reproduced by Anna, Roland couldn't help but smile wryly. The design of this recoil mechanism, completely exposed, was simple and crude. Although it could meet the requirements for continuous firing, the complex outdoor environment could easily cause malfunctions, requiring more effort to maintain.

In that case, it seemed to be suitable for artillerymen who didn't have many opportunities to fire their guns.

"What do you think?" Anna asked with a smile.

"Well... although there are still many areas for improvement, it's a good sign." Roland said with ease, "At least it shows that they've started to learn to think about what kind of weapons they really need. Besides, the advantages of this gun are also very obvious. It can be directly modified from existing rifles, which is affordable even with existing resources."

Of course, as long as the entire army doesn't switch to it – otherwise, the consumption of bullets would be an astonishing number. In addition, front-line soldiers supported by heavy machine guns don't have as urgent a need for burst-fire weapons as artillerymen do.

"If that's the case, then I'll give them a hand," Anna nodded.

With the Queen's assistance, the new weapon was quickly finalized – the bolt and piston components, which were connected like clasps, were replaced with a smaller latch structure, and a shell was added to the connection between the two, effectively reducing the vibration of the stroke and greatly reducing the rate of jamming. After a portion of the gas tube was separated, the new weapon finally transitioned from being handmade to being officially modified. At Roland's suggestion, this burst-fire rifle was named after Vanna.

After the news spread, the number of modification proposal letters received by the Engineering Department suddenly increased several times.

Roland was naturally happy to see this change.

Or rather... after the widespread implementation of elementary education, he was finally seeing the first signs of growth.

This was far more gratifying than a new weapon.

But the unexpected joy didn't stop there.

Serin, a high-ranking witch from Taquila, sent a report stating that she had made a key breakthrough in the study of the Ceremonial Cube.

In the sixth batch of cube prototypes, she had found a way to significantly reduce the consumption of uranium wafers.