Chapter 18: The Mechanical Assistant

Luke dragged a garbage cart taller than himself, swaggering down the streets of New York. He drew every eye; people couldn’t help but turn to look at him.

When he got home, he carried the discarded electronics into his bedroom in batches. His foster mother, Karen, watched in bewildered silence.

Luke quickly found an excuse: “My science teacher at school gave us an extracurricular assignment.”

Karen was half convinced, half skeptical. Was Dawson Elementary’s curriculum really this advanced? She thought she’d glimpsed an air conditioner—was that an air conditioner? Surely she wasn’t mistaken.

Inside his bedroom, Luke took a deep breath and rolled up his sleeves, surveying the heap of junk that now filled the entire room.

First, he took out a pile of magic brake stones from his storage space. After drawing from the magic box for so long, he had accumulated quite a few of these stones. In the Marvel universe, there was no need to use them to fight Anton; magic brake stones must have their own purpose.

For example, he’d recently discovered that these fiery red stones could be used to upgrade explosive contents.

The heat value contained in these stones was astonishingly high.

With nimble fingers, Luke expertly crushed several magic brake stones into fine powder. The resulting sparkling, fire-red powder was mixed into his existing explosive materials.

Since ancient times, humanity has relentlessly pursued the question of how to create bigger explosions. From the first invention of black powder, its composition was constantly improved over centuries. In the modern era, TNT appeared. Later, Oppenheimer put uranium-235 into a bomb and created the atomic bomb...

Technology marches ever forward, advanced materials are discovered, and the power of explosions continues to grow, seemingly without limit.

Through his research, Luke concluded that magic brake stones had enormous potential.

Digging deep enough, could he create something akin to a nuclear bomb? He didn’t know. For now, he was uncertain where the upper limit lay.

His experiments were constrained by conditions—his bedroom was his laboratory, and his tools were rudimentary.

What was certain: just one gram of magic brake stone powder was enough to significantly increase the heat value of his explosives and boost the yield of his grenades.

Lighting a small pile of his previous explosive material on a slip of paper produced a tiny flame barely an inch high.

Now, with the magic brake stone powder mixed in, the same weight ignited on paper sent flames shooting half a meter into the air, nearly singeing Luke’s eyebrows.

Next, Luke found some scrap metal and hammered out a grenade casing from sheets of iron. Compared to a beer bottle, a metal shell increased the internal pressure of the grenade. The greater the pressure inside during detonation, the higher the temperature, resulting in a more violent explosion and more deadly shrapnel.

This improvement instantly expanded the grenade’s killing radius by a level.

And so—clang, clang, clang—the second-generation electric grenade made its dazzling debut!

“In general, this improved electric grenade’s power has at least doubled!”

Luke planned to test it in the field soon.

The second-generation grenade now looked the part; at least it actually looked like a grenade. The workmanship was still rough—handmade, after all. For now, he was focused on practicality.

As for aesthetics?

What’s that—can you eat it?
Once it explodes, everything looks the same.

“Right now, the materials aren’t keeping up with the upgrades to the explosive contents. For now, I have to use scrap metal. Later, if I get better materials—refined iron, steel, maybe even carbon steel—the grenade’s power will have even more room to grow.”

Luke was thinking this when Lotus, who had been watching him tinker for ages, spoke up.

“Luke, with this, can you take out the strongest person in this world?”

“The strongest? Do you mean Dormammu, or the Ancient One?”

“What’s that?”

“My answer is, no. Not even close,” Luke shook his head. “Just these grenades? You want to beat someone at the level of the Sorcerer Supreme? Don’t dream. Not possible. As far as I know, Dormammu is a ruler of an entire dimension—like an Apostle. The Ancient One can match Dormammu and even wields a time-manipulating artifact. What do you think?”

“Then you’re way too weak. These grenades are useless!”

Lotus scoffed at Luke’s efforts and the underwhelming results.

“You can’t put it that way,” Luke rolled his eyes. “Don’t forget, this is the Marvel world, with metals like adamantium and vibranium. Imagine making grenades out of vibranium—just the thought is thrilling. I insist I have plenty of room to grow.”

“Hurry up and get stronger. I want to stir things up! This world needs to know about us Apostles!” Lotus was hopping around, shouting.

“Got it, got it.”

Luke didn’t mind causing trouble, as long as it didn’t involve people he cared about and his own safety was assured. If those conditions were met, he didn’t care how big the mess got.

Over the next few days, besides making and stockpiling more grenades after school, Luke began working on something else.

This thing was crucial! It determined whether his future manufacturing plans could be carried out efficiently. In fact, it was the prerequisite for his next steps.

During those days, Peter Parker noticed Luke’s absent-mindedness.

Aside from their weekend burger-selling gig, where Luke seemed unusually diligent, Spider-Man saw him at school zoning out, lost in thought. Sometimes, Luke muttered while walking: “No, the failure isn’t due to the algorithm,” or “Missing a constant. That constant must be the key to AI creation,” and other strange phrases.

Spider-Man was awed but clueless.

He didn’t disturb Luke—he knew his friend was working on something very important.

A week later—

Luke finally finished.

“Done!”

In his bedroom, Luke let out a long breath, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment as he gazed at the floating, football-shaped machine before him.

He’d spent an entire week, wracking his brain and absorbing all the knowledge the skill book offered, finally building this with nothing but scrap metal.

Strictly speaking, it was no longer just a thing.

Because “she” was an AI—in other words, artificial intelligence!

Yes, artificial intelligence!

This was his mechanical assistant!

The mechanical assistant is the trusty companion of male and female mechanics in DNF. DNF mechanics excel at assembling combat machines, turrets, even armored robots. In battle, the mechanical assistant can assemble machines for the mechanic and possesses high intelligence.

Learning this skill book had been incredibly complex—digesting its advanced engineering and mechanics took up most of Luke’s time. Assembly itself only took two days.

Luke’s mechanical assistant hovered before him, powered by a turbine for lift and capable of short-range, low-altitude flight. It looked like a robot’s head, with a propeller on top.

“Master, do you have any instructions?”

The mechanical assistant circled the room, displaying a pixelated smile on its body.

Luke smiled: “With a wine-red shell, you must be female. Hmm, from now on, I’ll call you Christina.”

Actually, the wine-red color was just rust from the materials.

“Understood, Master. Thank you for creating me.”

The AI’s intelligence was clearly advanced.

“Iron Man has Jarvis; my Christina is just as good!” Luke nodded, satisfied. “Here’s your first command: help me launder the fifty thousand dollars on this card.”

“Leave it to me.”

Christina floated to the computer desk, landed, and deftly extended a USB cable from her body, plugging it in and starting work immediately.

“When we’ve got money, I’ll connect you to WiFi.”

“Yes, Master. I’m looking forward to it.”

AI really was powerful.

In less than thirty seconds, Christina reported, “It’s done. The remaining fifty-four thousand dollars have been routed through multiple transfers and deposited in a new account. There’s no way anyone can trace it now.”

“Beautifully done.”

Luke could finally spend the money boldly.

Meanwhile—

Some casino employees monitoring the money’s movements were stunned to find the card’s balance had suddenly dropped to zero, vanishing without a trace as if it had evaporated.

It was their only lead over the past days. Now, even that was gone.

The furious casino boss smashed his beloved liquor cabinet, at a loss for how to explain things to Mr. Wesley...

Luke felt he could ace MIT’s entrance exam now. He’d built an AI—what else couldn’t he do?

“It’s time for the next step!”

The special skill he had high hopes for—more precisely, a set of blueprints—was even more complex than Christina.

Now, with his assistant’s help, he could begin construction.