Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 114: Electromagnetic Pulse
Although you can legally buy and sell firearms within Eagle Country, the regulations vary from state to state. Purchasing a gun from a licensed dealer almost always requires a background check, a gun license, and so on.
Furthermore, gun stores typically don’t sell fully automatic rifles. They mostly offer "neutered" semi-automatic versions.
So, for Shen Feng, going through legal channels was basically useless.
He hadn’t planned on buying guns through normal means anyway.
It was far more convenient to find illegal private sellers.
Besides, he planned on buying a few other things in addition to guns.
After all, ordinary firearms were little more than decorations against the Gray Tide.
He had already contacted a seller on the dark web on his way to Lincoln City.
In Eagle Country, the dark web was an extremely convenient channel.
Especially for Shen Feng.
Ordinary people might find the so-called dark web mysterious and sophisticated, but in Shen Feng’s eyes, it was no different from the surface web.
From his and Jingwei’s perspective, the supposed top-tier hackers and assassination organizations on the dark web were basically running naked in broad daylight.
They could see them with perfect clarity.
Although Nebraska was nicknamed the "state where birds don’t even bother to shit" and often called "the middle of nowhere"—a sparsely populated, giant rural expanse—wherever people gathered, so did sin.
Shen Feng found a Chinese restaurant and ate some dubious-looking Chinese food, then hailed a cab and slipped inside.
"Hey, where to?" The taxi driver asked, looking curiously at the young man in a mask and sunglasses.
Judging by his skin and appearance, he was probably of Asian descent.
Shen Feng was about to answer but froze for a moment.
’Although my Silicon-Based Brain can understand English, my mouth is still carbon-based and can’t quite keep up!’
’My high school English was pretty spotty, and for a moment I just stammered, unsure of what to say.’
’BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my god, even the Savior has moments like these!’ Jingwei’s consciousness roared with laughter, nearly convulsing. ’Let me just check your English exam scores... looks like you barely passed! HAHAHAHA!’
’Just help me already!’ Shen Feng retorted furiously in his mind.
’I’ve been playing the cool, aloof guy with the mask and sunglasses this whole time, and now my cover’s about to be blown!’
Teasing was one thing, but in the next instant, Jingwei took control of the silicon-based framework in Shen Feng’s chest and spoke in a standard Wall Street business accent:
"178 P Street, thank you."
The driver paused for a second, then nodded and started the car.
The entirety of downtown Lincoln City had virtually no skyscrapers. It was mostly comprised of low-rise buildings, just a few stories high, giving the whole area an old yet tidy feel.
After all, the area was vast and sparsely populated; even other Eagle Country People rarely visited Nebraska.
Shen Feng watched the pedestrians outside the car window, paying special attention to their eyes, searching for any hint of madness or self-destruction.
Thankfully, he found none.
Soon, he arrived at an inconspicuous house in the suburbs and stepped up to knock on the door. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
A grumbling voice rang out. A tall, heavyset black man with dreadlocks pulled open the door. A strange odor immediately wafted out from inside, along with the sound of rap music—the kind about gold chains and fancy watches.
"The buyer," Jingwei said curtly.
The man froze, peered out at the street, then gestured for Shen Feng to come inside.
Shen Feng stepped inside to a scene of total squalor. Clothes and food wrappers were strewn everywhere, contributing to the strange smell. Two women with vacant eyes lay on the sofa, staring into space.
Shen Feng said nothing, simply walking toward the back of the house.
The heavyset man paused, stunned, then hurried to catch up. He was about to lead the self-proclaimed buyer, only to find that the man seemed to know the layout better than he did.
After they passed through a few rooms and turned at the end of a hallway, the heavyset man opened a hidden door. A sunken, basement-level storeroom immediately appeared before Shen Feng.
Unlike the squalor outside, this storeroom was neat and well-organized.
Guns. Dozens of them covered the walls, and there was even a heavy machine gun. It was quite an arsenal.
In the center of the storeroom, seven or eight people sat around a table, sorting through a pile of pillboxes.
The group was a mix of black and white, men and women. As soon as Shen Feng appeared, they all snatched up the guns on the table and turned to look at him.
"Mike, what’s going on?" asked the man at the head of the group, a somewhat wiry man with a full head of dreadlocks.
Shen Feng glanced at the man and immediately confirmed his identity.
Maurice Brown. A former soldier from Eagle Country’s Strategic Command, the leader of a small local gang, and the owner of this illegal arms dealership.
Of course, selling guns was just a side hustle. His main business was drug trafficking.
Mike, the heavyset man, quickly said:
"This Asian kid says he’s the buyer. His accent is exactly like one of those damn Jewish bankers on TV! Were you raised on the stock exchange or something?"
He directed the last question at Shen Feng.
Maurice looked at Shen Feng and asked, "Saint Spear Mayor?"
Shen Feng nodded. "That’s me." This was his alias for dark web transactions.
The sound of his voice immediately drew gasps from the others. That accent was too damn perfect!
But on second thought, it made sense. The kid was clearly from East Asia, likely of Chinese descent. Math was in his blood; it wouldn’t be surprising at all for him to work in finance on Wall Street.
His age?
Age doesn’t matter for a math prodigy.
Maurice waved a hand to quiet his crew, then walked to the side and brought over several cases.
"The goods you ordered are all here."
Business was business. He hadn’t gotten to his current position by getting worked up over little things.
A smooth transaction was the only thing that mattered.
He didn’t care if the guy was the Saint Spear Mayor or just some Asian kid. The client had already paid the deposit in Bitcoin, so the best thing to do was complete the sale.
Shen Feng nodded and opened the first case.
Inside was an automatic rifle with four magazines, a Shotgun—which he was personally partial to—and a hundred rounds of ammunition.
He opened another case to find several grenades, including fragmentation and flashbang types.
Then came the third case.
Inside was a bizarrely shaped gun. Coils were wrapped around its barrel, and a bulky power supply, which looked like a battery pack, was situated underneath.
Shen Feng’s eyes lit up.
This was the main prize he’d come for.
An internal prototype from the Eagle Country military: a miniaturized Electromagnetic Pulse Gun!
The name Nebraska comes from a Native American Language (Sioux Race), where it means "flat."
Though it was a godforsaken place, its unique central location and flat terrain had made it the long-standing headquarters for Eagle Country’s Strategic Command.
The headquarters of Eagle Country’s Strategic Command is located at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. It was formed in 2002 from the merger of the Eagle Country Aerospace Command and the Strategic Command, with the goal of integrating space, information warfare, and offensive strike capabilities to carry out space and global strike missions.
The base wasn’t far from Lincoln City.
And Maurice Brown, the man standing before him, had once served in Eagle Country’s Strategic Command before leaving the military after an incident.
But he still had connections within the military, which allowed him to occasionally get his hands on some exclusive hardware.
This miniaturized Electromagnetic Pulse Gun was one such item, obtained through his inside channels and recently listed for sale on the dark web.
Of course, the price was anything but cheap.
Shen Feng inspected the Electromagnetic Pulse Gun and nodded with satisfaction.
Truth be told, the device itself wasn’t complicated; you could even build a crude one with a normal camera, some coils, and a battery. The real challenge was combining miniaturization with high power output.
The technological prowess of the Eagle Country military was quite impressive.
The focused electromagnetic pulse wave from this Electromagnetic Pulse Gun had a theoretical range of three to five thousand meters. It could generate an extremely powerful alternating electromagnetic field (commonly known as an EMP), creating destructive currents and power surges to destroy a target’s electronics.
In layman’s terms, it fried circuits by inducing a powerful, instantaneous electrical current in the target.
And theoretically, as long as it had a steady power supply, it had no limit on the number of times it could be fired.
In addition to the Electromagnetic Pulse Gun, the case also contained several small, powerful, miniaturized Electromagnetic Pulse Bombs.
Against a Nanomechanical Cluster, conventional weapons were useless. Only something like an EMP weapon would have any effect.
The copy of *Nanomechanical Principles* that Shen Feng had obtained mentioned this very point.
"What are you buying this thing for?" Despite priding himself on being a professional seller, Maurice couldn’t resist asking. "Planning to take out the computers at the stock exchange?"
Shen Feng gave a knowing chuckle. He didn’t answer, but asked a question of his own:
"Have you guys heard of Wuyou Town?"
At the mention of that name, the faces of the seemingly fearless gang members changed instantly, and a look of terror flashed in their eyes!
