“As expected of an orange, rare-tier entry. It can even forcibly add a ‘Close Protection (Nighttime)’ mode to a ‘trash can’ that doesn’t have any related programming!”
Early in the morning, Feng Xue turned his head and looked at the peerless beauty he had spent half the night shaping. He could not help sighing with emotion. Unfortunately, she was a security robot. Even with developer mode, she was merely a three-no whose body was very honest, but whose program gave no feedback.
That made Feng Xue, who had originally intended to make a long, straight black-haired beauty, decisively abandon his first XP system. When it came to three-noes, they really did suit pale colors better. Mm, white hair and red eyes were quite good.
“No, I am not a three-no. This is simply my first time carrying out a ‘Close Protection (Nighttime)’ mission, and I lack relevant data. I require a certain amount of time to learn. In addition, after this hardware update, this unit has not yet adapted to its new performance. If you need to alter my behavioral mode, please download a new personality template or enable learning permissions. Also, if you dislike the brainwave link function, you may choose to disable it, but after this function is disabled, this unit’s support speed will decrease. For your safety, please consider carefully.”
“Fine, fine…” Hearing the mechanical sentry’s protest, Feng Xue waved his hand very casually and had no intention of canceling the brainwave link. With the entries [Human] + [Plague], he was not worried about anyone using it to attack him. As for an AI, he had nothing to be embarrassed about.
However, for the time being, he had no intention of granting [Human] to the mechanical sentry. Although an AI had its rigid side, its learning ability was still stronger than a human’s. More importantly, if he added the [Human] entry, his cheat ability would no longer work on her. As purple equipment, the mechanical sentry’s rating was equivalent to a five-star cybernetic body (Note ①), meaning she could have two traits and two skills. At the moment, he did not have any particularly suitable skills or traits on hand, so naturally he could not waste her potential now.
“Oh right, do you need to go wash up?” Feng Xue stood up and looked at the messy bed, his brows rising. Hearing this, the mechanical sentry immediately shook her head. She picked up a cable and connected it to her neck. Along with a burst of cold blue light, her appearance instantly became completely refreshed:
“This unit has a self-cleaning system. It only requires regular energy replenishment. Compared to that, I believe you should give me a name.”
“That’s easy.” Feng Xue glanced at the “human heart” that grew larger as she charged, silently giving himself a thumbs-up in his mind for adding an energy storage module. After thinking for a moment, he gave his answer—
“I’ll call you Lika. Mm, that’s the nickname. Full name: Futilika.”
“Received. Registered name changed: Futilika.”
Lika nodded, expressionlessly reaching up to support the high-energy fat generated by the energy storage module. Her expression turned subtle as she said:
“I believe there is a problem with the design of the energy storage module. There is sufficient space inside the unit. Why prioritize storage in a location that changes the external form? Moreover, according to testing, when energy is consumed, it is instead consumed from the internal reserves first. I think you may have reversed the logic when upgrading the hardware.”
“No, not at all!” Feng Xue decisively shook his head. “High-energy fat has quite good cushioning properties. Aside from serving as backup energy, it also functions as soft armor.”
“Then why are only two locations being filled? Shouldn’t it be…”
“When it comes to design, I’m the professional. Your specialty is security.” Feng Xue interrupted Lika’s question. Although Lika was curious, she still obeyed the order.
After settling things with Lika, Feng Xue’s main body went to the bathroom to shower, while a portion of his consciousness transferred over to his substitute, continuing the matter that had been delayed yesterday because he had spent the entire night sculpting a person and “testing performance”—
Creating John.
Yes, Kong Wu had not gone to box for half a month already. Considering the popularity of the intermediate matches, quickly making a John to fill the spot was the proper choice.
John’s main design was already in place. The head was still the classic Combat Endurance Rocket Head, but the design had been slightly modified, and the cybernetic eye had also been changed to Abomination paired with Precognition and True Stare.
The torso was still the Benevolent Chest, Talented Shoulders, Virtuous Back combination, paired with Spinosaurus and Nigerundayo. However, Great Strength was finally laid off and replaced with the Mirage System. The Meat Maitreya energy system was also replaced with Lightweight and Temperature Maintenance.
The left arm was Second Son, Great Strength, Output Depends on Roaring, paired with the Army Breaker Hidden Sword. The right arm was Tomboy, Charge-Up, Stealth Breaker, Great Strength, paired with the Golden Cicada Hidden Sword.
As for the legs, Feng Xue used the technology from Punchline (rocket hand) and Chaos Spiral (drill hand) to improve the original cheap Great Strength legs. Although they did not reach four-star, they did substantially increase the output that the Great Strength skill could enhance. Unfortunately, he did not produce an entry like Rocket Flying Kick.
In addition, Feng Xue also made three guns for John: a close-combat handgun, a light folding rifle for long-range sniping, and finally a magazine-fed shotgun for groups. All three guns were rated blank slate, so he could only add the Quick Shooting trait, but they were all equipped with Perfect Reload magazines, as well as bullets mass-produced with [Army Breaker] and [Cheap Goods].
After this series of adjustments, John, with a construction cost of two hundred thousand, surpassed Kong Wu in strength and became the most expensive character Feng Xue had created.
In truth, most of that money had been spent on piling up materials. If he could fully digest the technology behind [Explosive Arm], he was confident he could lower the cost of [Tomboy] to within ten thousand. But just making one Explosive Arm would cost several million, while researching the technology inside would require him to grind away at it with time.
Feng Xue was a practical person. He knew very well that in scientific research, there would always be something better. Rather than wait until he believed his “divine technique had reached perfection” and then emerge with a decisive battle weapon he had barely practiced with, it was better to proceed one step at a time and make things along the way. Even if there was waste, it would accumulate experience for his subsequent research.
As for studying, of course he would not stop that either. In any case, his main body would basically be staying at home during this period. If he did not do research, was he supposed to spend every day polishing close-protection security with Lika?
But come to think of it, Old Jiang’s craftsmanship really was quite good. That thing of his really could turn corners!
…
Entering battlefield: Garbage Dump
Preparation time: 57 seconds
Battlefield intensity: Low
Extraction condition: Reach the extraction point (marked) and remain there for 15 seconds to successfully extract.
Extraction time limit: 6 hours
Extraction failure: Loss of synchronization
Random side missions:
1. Precision Recycling: Collect five items rated 3-star or above (0/5)
2. Garbage Cleanup: Kill 20 scrap pickers (0/20)
3. Wasteland Ghost: Complete extraction without engaging in combat
…
“Tsk…” Feng Xue, entering fully equipped, glanced at the side missions with a somewhat subtle expression. First, he ruled out the second one. If it were killing Scavs or gangsters, he would not even blink, but when it came to scrap pickers, unless they took the initiative to attack, Feng Xue did not intend to make a move against these people who were already living such difficult lives.
As for the first one, today was not garbage day. If he wanted to get materials rated three-star, he basically had to go fight elite mobs, and even then, they might not drop anything. As for the third, that would depend on whether the people in this garbage dump had any sense.
“Speaking of which, I need to test this new hand too. At the very least, I have to figure out the charge-up exploding hand. If it blows up now, I’ll only lose tens of thousands of points. But if I only discover at a critical moment that a flesh-and-blood body can’t explode, that would be way too stupid!”
Note ①: Equipment rarity is roughly gray two-star, white three-star, blue four-star, purple five-star, orange six-star. One-star has no rating.
But it is still the same as before: star rating represents technological advancement, not combat strength. For example, Purple Mood is rated as a five-star cybernetic body, but that thing clearly has no offensive power. Still, its technology is at that level, so that is what it is.
The mechanical sentry is the same. As a top-tier security robot manufactured by a large corporation, its technology is five-star, but its actual combat strength is probably only quasi-five-star.
After all, cybernetic bodies only consider one-sided performance. Energy can be handled by a dedicated energy cybernetic body, and control can be issued directly by the human brain or an auxiliary brain. But a robot is an integrated unit. It has to consider control, energy, combat, and a whole series of other factors at the same time.
This is somewhat like what was mentioned earlier, where a full set of five-star gear can reach six-star performance. This robot can actually also be understood as a pile of four-star cybernetic bodies complementing one another, barely reaching a five-star rating.
Note ②: John has three four-star cybernetic bodies: the cybernetic eye and both arms. The protagonist’s four-star cybernetic bodies cost around sixty thousand to make (because his technique is not yet up to par, he has to pile up materials in many places—for example, stacking ten cheap power supplies into one high-performance power supply, which means it is not cheap at all). Add in some experimentation, and roughly two hundred thousand is no problem. As for Kong Wu, only the Second Son arm is four-star, and his total construction cost was just over seventy thousand, which he earned back in his very first boxing match.
P.S.: Originally, I still planned to give the first time to Tutu, but after thinking about the character setup, I still felt that a human-machine pairing needed a real machine after all (laugh).