Chapter 91: Christina's Adventuring Party

Perhaps because Skye was half Chinese, the two of them had more in common, and whenever they were together they always found something to talk about.

Luke stood on the scaffold platform while Skye looked up at the war machine he was modifying. “It’s hard to imagine you built all this by yourself. What’s that?”

Luke looked down and saw that she was studying the flamethrower mounted beneath the mech’s crotch.

Skye’s expression turned strange.

“The M-3 flamethrower. It can project fire as far as three meters, with a spread of four meters. It’s a secondary weapon for the mech,” Luke replied.

Skye rolled her eyes helplessly. Why put it in a place like that?

She said, “You could clearly build a tank, or an airplane, or even a rocket. Those seem a lot more lethal.”

Luke said, “Mechs are the romance of men. You wouldn’t understand. All that machinery and destructive power is enough to get every man’s blood racing and his hormones surging.”

“Men?” Skye said with a laugh. “You, with that tiny frame? You’re just a kid.”

“Who are you calling tiny? Ever seen a Yordle you have to look up at?” Luke called from above.

“A Yordle?”

“Catch me.”

Skye reached out and took him in her arms as he dropped down.

Smiling, she said, “With a frame like yours, sometimes you really make me forget you’re an Apostle.”

“Don’t rush it, beautiful. I’m still growing.” Luke set down his wrench, clapped his hands lightly, and lifted one eyebrow in mockery.

“Who’s rushing?” Skye rolled her eyes again. “Who taught a kid like you to talk so slick?”

Luke shrugged. Women really did seem to like rolling their eyes. Then he snapped his fingers.

The Warlord’s eyes suddenly lit up with a sharp, gleaming effect, accompanied by a cool electronic sound, bringing it one step closer to the look of an anime machine.

“Perfect,” Luke said.

He went over to the computer and checked the complicated readings displayed there. Everything was normal.

“Assistant, how many projects are currently underway? How much processing power do you have left?”

A smiling face appeared on the monitor: long burgundy hair, a delicate oval face, large lively eyes. From the speaker came her reply. “Master, six squads of the Adventurer Corps are currently on missions. My processing power is infinite.”

“I almost forgot. You can route computers all over the world to do the work for you. Be careful, and don’t get caught using a supercomputer.”

“Please rest assured, Master,” Christina said with a smile, her eyes narrowing.

Luke nodded.

The “Adventurer Corps” Christina mentioned was a little game she had compiled on the fly, called Adventures Go Forth. In truth, it was just an intuitive interface for displaying research progress.

Every time a little adventurer squad set out, it meant a new research project had begun. Christina would tap supercomputers around the world to handle Luke’s private work.

The earliest project to be launched was the Pacific Rim Plan.

This plan was intended to develop the ideal operating system for mechs. It would gradually evolve from keyboard controls to joystick-and-pedal controls, with the ultimate goal of brainwave control.

At present, this style of control, with him lying in the cockpit and working the joystick, felt excellent to Luke. He was very much looking forward to unlocking a new way to operate in a few months, one that would allow true human-machine fusion.

Estimated completion time for the project: five months and three days.

“Assistant, show me the progress of all projects,” Luke said before the screen.

At once, Christina’s six major research topics appeared on the monitor.

Besides the Pacific Rim Plan, there were five others running simultaneously: the Curry Stick Plan, the Cult Leader Plan, the Red Cube Plan, the Little Bug Plan, and the 2B Plan.

The Curry Stick Plan was aimed at taking the blueprint for the Invisible Sword, Eleanor, and attempting a proportional scale-up test for a Warlord-compatible mech version.

The blueprint for the Invisible Sword, Eleanor, obtained from Lotus, was a sword meant for human use.

Length: unknown. Width: unknown.

What would actually be produced was only a hilt, with no blade.

It was somewhat like a lightsaber from Star Wars: activated by the hilt, it would release a blade with substance but no visible form, impossible to see with the naked eye.

He had no idea why that famous epic weapon had been mixed in with a pile of divine artifacts. When he found it, he had chosen it almost without hesitation.

Though he also wanted the other sword, Falling Meteor. That sword had stirred up many precious memories. He would only have to wait for next time.

For a swordsman, what could make an opponent more wary than a blade with no visible form?

In their last battle, Tony had clearly calculated the trajectory of his sword strikes.

And given that this was the Marvel world, where science was advanced and magic ran rampant, there would be many more people like Tony in the future, capable of calculating sword trajectories.

A blade with no visible form would perfectly make up for that weakness, leaving the enemy with no trace to follow.

The screen showed that the Curry Stick Plan was expected to be finished in thirteen days.

The Cult Leader Plan took the performance of Soul Devouring Hand in this battle, organized the data, and then began a feasibility study into whether it could be used in conventional combat.

Soul Devouring Hand could absorb energy, which was one of the major discoveries of this battle.

The system had never come with a manual, so all these bizarre skill traits had to be uncovered by Luke himself through repeated real combat.

Through this firsthand experience, he had now come to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of Soul Devouring Hand.

Its advantages were obvious: not only could it absorb blood, it could also absorb energy, which meant it could absorb nearly anything. The absorption speed was also extremely fast; in the blink of an eye, it had drained the Mark VI clean.

In Marvel, this skill could be said to have limitless potential. There were so many strange things here to absorb.

Its weakness was equally clear: whatever it absorbed had to pass through his body. That was obviously harmful to him.

If the system had not stepped in in time to help him resolve it, he might have been blown apart by the saturated energy and died on the spot.

Even now, he still felt a lingering chill of fear.

Even with a pocket full of revival coins, death was still something he wanted to avoid whenever possible.

You could never know what would happen after death, and it was not worth testing.

What if he could not be revived at all? What if the revival coins did not work? Or what if they did revive him, but with side effects—such as losing his memories, losing his personality, and no longer being himself?

After all, this was reality now, and many game mechanics had already been proven not to carry over perfectly into the real world.

A great many skills and items had been altered by the rules after entering reality.

Who could know what the system’s creator had been thinking?

So if he was going to use Soul Devouring Hand again, the first thing he wanted was absolute safety and reliability.

Luke asked Christina to use exhaustive methods, based on the parameters obtained this time, to simulate every possible condition and determine how Soul Devouring Hand could be used both safely and effectively.

Otherwise, he would rather not use it at all.

Estimated completion time for the project: indefinite.

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P.S. It goes on sale next week.