Rat-tat-tat. Rat-tat-tat.

Bone-gold rounds poured from the firing port, suppressing the death-eaters on Great Vajra's left flank — heads down, unable to return fire effectively.

The bone-gold rounds were substandard stock — Activity Values between 0.2H and 0.3H, already showing meaningful degradation in effectiveness against higher-evolved targets. Fortunately, sharkskin armor wasn't particularly high-Activity either. Shen Cong had sensed the rat-catching unit's sharkskin during the previous engagement: 0.5H to 0.8H range. The best sharkskin, apparently harvested from oversized Jin-Skin Dolphins, could withstand both boiling-radiation gun fluid and centipede bombs. What he was facing now was probably not the best grade.

He'd done the rough math on this problem during downtime — a quick attack-versus-defense assessment for the core weapon system, imprecise but useful as a personal guideline.

Evolved beast body versus bone-gold weapon: When the target's Activity Value exceeded the weapon's by a factor of roughly ten, the weapon's sharpening effect couldn't penetrate. Around five times, significant kinetic force was needed to add to the sharpening to achieve penetration. Below five times, sharpening rapidly dissolved the target's defensive Activity and tore through.

Rule of thumb: a 1H target needed at least a 0.2H weapon to break through.

The standard varied considerably by creature type — creatures with exoskeletons defended better than those without, soft-bodied creatures poorly compared to scaled or armored ones. Hard zones on any given creature defended better than soft zones. So the rule was a guideline for his own analysis, not a reliable constant. Real combat required finding the weak point.

Human jin people and iron people had very limited external defense — the Activity enhancement on biological tissue had natural ceilings. When Shen Cong had tested himself at 2H Activity Value, a 0.1H bone-gold weapon could barely penetrate below the skin into muscle. Anything above that threshold would injure him.

Bone-gold armor versus bone-gold weapon: When the armor's Activity Value exceeded the weapon's by more than five times, the sharpening effect couldn't touch the armor. Between two and five times, significant kinetic force combined with sharpening could eventually break through. At less than two times the difference,…