Chapter 116: Chapter 108: Commission: Shadow of the Colossus (Part 2)

Lille watched as Mann Team squeezed into the car and drove away before making a phone call.

Interlocutor: "Old Captain" Muammar Reyes

Dial tone—

Old Captain: "Isn’t this our hottest reincarnation, Mr. Burger King himself? What do you need?"

Lille: "Black Antelope Automobile Company, what do you know about them?"

Old Captain: "Heard they’re using fully automated factory technology, barely seen a soul in there. What about it?"

Lille: "You interested in taking over their plant? It might not have the real fully automated factory tech, but there’s still some assembly facilities that might be of use to your ’automobile business’."

Old Captain: "...You know what’s inside?"

Lille: "Just tell me if you want it or not."

Old Captain: "Of course, I do! Who wouldn’t want a shiny factory to service cars if they had the chance?"

Lille: "Great, I’m hitting Black Antelope tonight. The company’s been involved in some shady dealings, and once the news gets out, they’ll be broke."

Old Captain: "I see, they’ll be chased out by the NCPD when they run out of money—nowadays people disguise illegal dealings behind car sales, utterly... reprehensible!"

The NCPD, to save on administrative costs, would certainly be glad to outsource this work to private individuals.

As for who takes over the factory and how to deal with the facilities and equipment, as long as the new owner pays the land rent on time, they don’t care about that.

Lille: "Glad you get it. I need a multi-functional signal jammer, radar disruption, signal blocking... the whole package."

Old Captain is in the second-hand car business.

And that includes cars he has people steal for him.

So the Old Captain has a knack for signal searching, jamming, and shielding—considering what’s about to be done, Lille needs a jammer.

Old Captain: "Easy, how do you want to pick up the goods?"

Lille: "I’ll give you the location, leave the stuff in a Delamain car."

Old Captain: "Alrighty—trust Big Bro to use Delamain for deliveries, I’ll prepare the stuff—pleasure doing business, anything else?"

Lille: "One more thing—there might be some changes in Saint Domingo, business-wise, lately."

Old Captain: "Oh? Oh... Right!"

Lille: "That’s it for now, we’ll talk later."

Upon hanging up, V next to him asked, "So what do we do? I feel like you’re using them as bait."

"They are indeed bait, but the risk is higher on our side," Lille finished, just as Delamain behind him reminded, "Respected Mr. Burger King, your transportation order is complete. Please come to the workshop to collect your package."

Jack and V cast curious glances at Lille.

Since Lille walked in, Delamain had mentioned that Lille had an in-transit transportation order that wasn’t complete yet.

So what did Lille bring with him?

Seeing the curiosity on their faces, Lille headed towards Delamain’s automatic workshop, waving his hand as he walked.

"Come on, remember what I said? A Marvel agent caught us off guard with specialized equipment.

Now we also need to stock up on similar gear."

...

The cargo transported by Delamain included prosthetic maintenance materials Lille had Old Wei purchase, alcohol 2, and the pet care device Old Wei used for the lyre lizard.

Among these were bioconductors and biological semiconductors, all high-end stuff—some models even utilized single molecule wire materials.

These materials had a characteristic: Equipment made from them could operate stably in a biological environment, which is why they’re also the materials of choice for most implantable prosthetics.

In the case of the single molecule wire, these materials were used to enable an organism to export a strong voltage as needed, making the wire harden.

Lille intended to use these materials to simulate a superpower from Marvel World—

the strong biostatic charge that allows Spiderman to adhere between high-rises.

[Dr. Conners has cultivated a genetically modified spider according to your specifications.]

[Dr. Conners is satisfied with the result as it is his most successful cross-species gene cultivation attempt to date.]

A genetically modified spider.

Limited by its size, the biostatic charge produced by the genetically modified spider isn’t strong in human terms.

But if a human had such an efficient biostatic charge structure, they could gain the powerful biostatic charge of Spiderman—

Of course, powering such an ability remained an issue—yet in the year 2077, Lille had alternative methods.

First, he needed to obtain the arrangements and mechanisms for static electricity generation from the surfaces of these tiny transgenic spiders,

a complex mechanism that the technology of 2011 was nearly incapable of observing.

But a biological modeling device designed for high-end pet care in 2076 could do it.

This was a risky move—Lille himself didn’t know if he could figure it out in a few hours.

In theory, he could use bioconductors to electrify the single molecule wire and simulate biostatic electricity, creating prosthetics or equipment that could adhere to a wall.

But in reality... who knew?

And could the genetically modified spider transport across dimensions?

[Attempting to transmit special organism.]

[Technology Points deducted x2]

[Technology Points -30]

[Current Technology Points: 1270]

Jack and V were so focused on helping Lille unload that they didn’t notice him taking out a spider from his pocket.

After placing the spider into the device, Lille plugged the device’s power cord into Mackinaw’s battery and then put on the technical expert’s gloves to start debugging the device and reading data.

Once that was done, Lille opened a material box that contained several skin-like materials. He was now about to use the technical expert’s gloves and the prosthetic doctor’s gloves to process biological conductors and semiconductors on them and develop a piece of equipment that would allow one to adhere to flat surfaces.

As Lille was about to begin, the system prompt that he hadn’t seen for a long time popped up before his eyes.

[Equipment development detected]

[Activating the assistance mode for development can speed up the development process]

Without hesitation, Lille chose yes.

[Developer’s goal: Use existing materials to simulate Genetically Modified Spider Biostatic to give the user Flat Adhesion Ability]

[Developer’s knowledge: Real-time biological model of Genetically Modified Spider]

[Developer’s resources: C-32-1 Biological Conductor, PEAC-44c Biological Semiconductor, GSF-BNW Biological Semiconductor, Universal Skin-like Material, miniature motor BT-224...]

[Please choose the type of equipment you aim to develop: Implantable Prosthetics/Non-Implantable Prosthetics]

[Non-Implantable Prosthetics chosen]

[Available research templates: Magnetic Gloves (Advanced Warfare from Call of Duty 11)]

Lille felt his thinking speed up, and the sketches of the equipment in his mind became clearer.

Every detail was etched deep in his brain, never experiencing the situation where thinking of one thing made him forget another. The control mechanism of the Spider Biostatic became gradually clearer in his mind, and as different readings popped up from the device, these fused into mathematical models.

His hands moved quickly—his left hand wearing the prosthetic doctor’s gloves kept choosing suitable materials to embed onto the skin-like material while the technical expert’s gloves occasionally fine-tuned the electronic microchips on the back of the skin-like material.

In his mind, Lille was rapidly coding the electric control software for the equipment to be compatible with the Prosthetic System.

The whole process continued without a pause, and Jack and V were stunned—

They had seen those big companies showcase their products on TV shows.

There were mechanically fabricated ones, and those crafted by hand—especially those claimed to be "artisanally crafted." The scene was such that one could never tire of watching it.

Natural materials were concentrated by those deft hands into a small area; materials too fine for the naked eye were tightly arranged on the gloves, creating a spectacle of mechanical beauty.

These were gloves—Jack and V could see that.

And in reality, there was more than just gloves; there were also electrostatic adhesion shoe covers that fitted over one’s feet.

Jack said blankly, "My God...V, have you seen those videos from the Marlorian Company online, where the masters make the guns?"

V seemed to grasp what Jack was getting at, nodding her head profoundly, "Actually, I think this is closer to how Herrera Automobile Company manually builds cars.

But...I’ve never seen manually crafted Prosthetics. I heard those are high-end custom goods, all top secret."

The two looked at each other: This was badass.

Lille covered the arranged Biological Conductor array with gray synthetic material and connected all the pressure sensors, completing the final encapsulation.

[Assisted development mode ended.]

[Calculating the contribution of the assisted development mode to the development...]

[Balancing the Technology Points reward for the first equipment development...]

[Technology Points -800]

[Current Technology Points: 470]

[You have completed your first equipment development: Magnetic Gloves (Basic).]

[Equipment description: Provides flat surface adhesion ability, depending on the surface material, a single module can provide up to 10000N of normal force]

[Note: High energy consumption.]

After the completion, Lille’s attention returned to the spider’s silk gland.

Although it was just a little, it could be used in an emergency.

By extracting the silk from the gland and turning it into liquid form, then storing it in a vacuum container to prevent degradation from exposure to air, combined with high-pressure equipment to shoot it out, one would have a simple Spider Silk Emitter.

Now someone would be cosplaying as Spiderman.

Jack and V rubbed their hands and moved closer, "What’s this?"

"Magnetic Gloves, and there’s also matching footwear. You can... Basically, you can stick to walls wearing them.

But before that, you guys need a little surgery."

Lille took out several micro-generators—he had already connected them in series, converting the implantable Prosthetics into exterior equipment.

Magnetic Suction Gloves consumed a significant amount of power, comparable to some special Prosthetics, like the thermal Mantis Blade.

The surface temperature of a thermal Mantis Blade could even exceed 600 degrees Celsius; at such temperatures, one couldn’t possibly rely on the body’s own energy for power.

The usual solution is to have a built-in micro-generator and ethanol 2 bio-combustion chamber for Prosthetic energy supply.

Without the conditions for major surgery, Lille could only perform "minimally invasive" Prosthetic surgery, so he had to wear the fuel tank outside the body.

"Stick to walls?" V looked puzzled, "Why do we need this ability?"

Lille smiled slightly.

"V, Jack, you know I trust you guys a lot."

The two shivered suddenly—why this sudden cheesiness?

Lille laughed and patted their shoulders.

"I trust you guys... to climb to the top of the Biotechnology Building, tonight, this very night."