6919  Happy Gun

When Ves entered the firing range used for testing experimental weapons, his attention immediately drew towards a series of energy pistols.

Each of them had been made with basic luminar crystals. The craftsmanship left much to be desired, but there was no need to care too much since they were only prototypes.

"So these are your new X-ERC luminar crystal weapons, right?"

"All of them are indeed my latest works." Harry Kaikkonen proudly said. "The theory behind them is not particularly complicated, but it has taken a large amount of trial and error to make them practical and remove most of the glitches."

The X-ERC luminar crystal pistols gave off different vibes to an individual as sensitive as Ves.

The types of hyper materials used to make the individual guns obviously aligned to very specific emotions. This caused the weapons to attract E energy of different emotions, which could infect people who came close enough.

The effect grew more confusing when Ves stepped close enough to become affected by the 'auras' of multiple pistols at once.

He simultaneously felt the inclination to feel angry, embarassed, sad and digusted at the same time!

Of course, Ves easily managed to maintain his composure.

Harry did not make use of high-quality hyper materials, and the weapons were far too small to attract enough E energy to produce a particularly strong effect.

"Interesting."

"That is one of the problems with bringing multiple X-ERC luminar crystal weapons together." Their maker said. "I have yet to devise an effective solution to negate this problem. Unless you are piloting a mech with Lufa as the design spirit, it is detrimental to carry armaments that respond to different emotions at once. I can only dim the effects of the hyper materials, but I cannot disable them entirely, so it is highly advisable not to mix them together."

Ves nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. I can understand the rationale of trying to cover for multiple different scenarios, but if the result is that you get bombarded by multiple different emotional inducements at once, then I do not think anyone would be crazy enough to do this. I hope you will be able to solve this problem."

"That depends on advancements in hyper technology. The only effective solution to isolating the effects of hyper materials is to move them out of the area or put them into a container made with materials that inhibit the passage E energy. Neither of them are practical."

Ves believed that if a mech pilot truly wanted to carry multiple different X-ERC luminar crystal armaments, he could pilot a mech that was equipped with multiple weapon containers.

If he wanted to channel the power of anger, he could retrieve an A-ERC gun from a box and make use of its superior firepower.

If he wanted to utilize a more penetrating weapon, he could put the A-ERC weapon back into its box and pull out a G-ERC pistol instead.

However, Ves did not evaluate this idea highly. All of this switching around was not only a hassle that was prone to sabotage and interference, it also took up way too much capacity for way too little firepower and utility.

Harry did not approach the table that held all of the experimental armaments, but instead moved to a lane that was further away before pulling out his personal sidearm.

Naturally, Harry had made a luminar crystal weapon for himself. He put much more craftsmanship and thought into his personal gun.

Although it had not reached masterwork quality, Ves could pick up the love and attention that Harry had put into its creation.

"This is an older U-ERC luminar crystal pistol that I have yet to update." The Journeyman explained to Ves. "This means that it can respond to any emotion. I have already lowered its setting so that its basic energy output matches that of the prototype weapons. Now, I will proceed to channel numerous different emotions before firing a shot for each of them. You should pay close attention to the firepower and other effects induced by my tech."

Ves took this seriously enough to call up an interface that connected him to the extensive sensor suite of the firing range. This would allow him to observe all of the objective data.

Of course, the sensor systems were not yet able to measure everything related to E energy. Ves could only rely on Blinky's sharp senses to serve as an acceptable substitute.

"Please proceed, Harry."

I will proceed to fire a baseline shot while keeping my mood as neutral as possible. I will then proceed to fire shots while feeling angry, sad and so on. I will try to cycle through every emotion that corresponds to the X-ERC luminar crystal weapons that I have made."

Harry did as he said. As a mech designer, he was not really capable of evoking strong emotions on demand.

He particularly struggled with evoking strong feelings of sadness, love, altruism and anger.

The man did slightly better when evoking feelings of shame and pride. He probably thought about the worst and best moments of his relatively short mech designer career.

Ves did not judge Harry on his relatively lackluster performance. He already figured out that this test was about relative values as opposed to absolute values.

In other words, it was much more important to make comparisons rather than trying to reach high scores.

"Now that you have measured the baseline data, I will proceed to release a test shot with each of my new X-ERC luminar crystal prototypes."

Harry first activated the safety and put away his U-ERC sidearm. He then moved to the table, picked up the nearest X-ERC gun, and moved back to the lane.

Ves could already tell the weapon corresponded to excitement, joy, happiness and exuberance.

Harry already began to smile as he not only allowed the 'happy gun' to affect his mood, but also actively fed and reinforced it as much as possible!

"Hehehe… hahaha…"

Despite feeling happy to the point where he was about to laugh like he was attending a cabaret show, Harry still managed to exercise enough discipline and control to raise his rifle, aim at the target in front of him, and pull the trigger.

The new E-ERC gun corresponding to Excitement launched a golden beam that was distinctly brighter and more colorful than the ones that came before.

However, Harry's joyful mood clearly affected his aim, causing the energy beam to drift too much to the right.

"Impressive." Ves said as he studied the data on the two times where Harry evoked the power of happiness to enhance his energy attacks. "There is a 30 percent difference in firepower."

"Thank you, sir. This is because wielding an E-ERC weapon already primes me towards feeling excited. I only need to feed it in order to make it stronger. The E-ERC luminar crystals used to make this weapon are also specialized to convert this specific emotion into higher output. The downside is that trying to evoke other emotions will invalidate the performance increase. Firing this weapon will be no different from firing a non-ERC energy weapon."

Harry demonstrated this by deliberately trying to feel as depressed as possible before launching a shot.

The energy beam was no longer as powerful or remarkable as before. It was just a plain red beam that struck with ordinary power.

"Is there any negative scaling?" Ves asked. "If you feel the opposite emotions, will the firepower of the X-ERC guns actually decrease?"

"Thankfully no. You can't sabotage yourself to that extent. From what I have been able to test, both the positive and negative effects of using ERC luminar crystal weapons disappear when you are evoking no emotions, weak emotions, non-relevant emotions or opposite emotions. When I hold this particular gun, the only emotion that can alter the damage output is joy."

That was good news. Harry's new X-ERC weapons would have been a lot more dangerous and troublesome to wield if it was sensitive to all of those additional factors.

"Let us measure the performance of the remaining X-ERC guns when they are in your hands."

They completed the second round of tests. Harry picked up and put down each and every prototype weapon one by one, often requiring time to acclimate himself to a new emotion.

In each and every case, the effects applied to the energy beams fired by the X-ERC guns were superior.

While that meant a major decrease in firepower when wielding the G-ERC pistol, this was an intended outcome as Harry already ascertained that feeling sad and gloomy produced that particular effect.

The good news was that the penetration power of this weakened energy beam had drastically improved. It had burned much deeper into the target than normal, which was particularly useful for damaging sensitive and vulnerable internal components.

Of course, most other emotions produced a more general increase in damage output. Harry's inclination as a person still remained relevant, but each different X-ERC gun made it a lot easier for him to strengthen the right emotions.

Once the test session came to an end, Harry put down his last gun and moved towards Ves.

Both of them studied the collected data. Just as expected, the numbers for the second round were all higher than the numbers of the first round.

"I would say your new development is great progress." Ves commented. "Wielders of your X-ERC firearms can not only exert better control over the damage output, but also produce stronger effects. The downside is that they will lose the versatility offered by your original U-ERC armaments, but that is not a big deal for most people."

Harry nodded in agreement. "My X-ERC armaments have a much lower skill threshold. It barely takes any training for any soldier or mech pilot to exert a reasonable amount of control over the energy weapons. I do not think that their invention has phased out my U-ERC weapons. I believe that highly trained and superhuman mech pilots such as Saint Davia Stark can make the most out of the versatility of U-ERC luminar crystal weapons."

"I agree. Another issue of concern is that wielding an X-ERC weapon will constantly alter your mood. It is difficult for a mech pilot to muster up much enthusiasm for a fight when he feels sad. It is also difficult for him to exercise restraint when he is wielding an energy weapon that is constantly encouraging him to feel happy or angry. The stronger the X-ERC weapon, the more difficult it is for the wielder to remain sober. There are legitimate concerns about whether such a weapon can impair the judgment of the wielder."

This meant that mech pilots needed to be careful about their choice of weapons. X-ERC weapons were simpler and could easily produce better results, but they could alter the behavior of their users when it was not desirable.

U-ERC weapons were a lot more difficult to utilize. It was also harder to use them at their full potential. However, their lack of mental influence meant that the wielder was always the one that shaped his emotions, and not his weapons.

"Now that you have been introduced to my latest invention, which type of luminar crystal weapon do you prefer to wield in person?"

Ves already smiled. "I need power rather than versatility. The Defiled Light Project should center around an X-ERC luminar crystal blaster."

"Since that is the case, which particular emotion do you want to associate with your weapon? It is best to pick one that is easy for you to evoke and strengthen on the battlefield. I do not recommend you select an emotion that you are uncomfortable with and cannot easily draw upon in difficult situations. I suggest that you select the emotion that you experience the most when you are in a stressful and dangerous situation."

Ves already knew what to pick when Harry gave out his advice.

His hand reached out and picked up the prototype E-ERC weapon.

He grinned as he appreciated its promising effects. "This one fits me the best. Whenever I am under pressure, I always feel excitement as long as I am working towards a solution. It is really easy for me to feel joy whenever I am making substantial progress. This happy gun will represent my future!"

Ves could not wait to wield a gun that literally became stronger when he felt amused!

He fully became invested with a project that could essentially weaponize his own joy!

"Hahahaha! This will be great! Killing enemies will make me happy, which will subsequently help me kill even more enemies, which will fuel my joy even further! This is the best possible positive feedback loop for myself! It's perfect, hahahaha!"

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