Chapter 219 - 201 Barren Latovia

[New Research Personnel Joined: Otto Gunther Octavius]

[Description: Outstanding achievements in the fields of atomic physics, materials science, computing, and many others]

[New Research Personnel Joined: Adrian Tums]

[Description: A master in the fields of electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, and fluid dynamics, with outstanding achievements]

[New Laboratory Established: Electronics and Mechanical Engineering Laboratory]

[Description: Undertaking research on prosthetics technology, electronic engineering technology, and mechanical engineering technology]

These events had two scientists and engineers sincerely joining Lille’s company and project team.

These two were indeed heavyweight contenders, Dr. Otto needed no introduction, but the key figure here was Adrian.

Lille had no concept of what a "world-renowned engineer" was, until Adrian pulled out several safes’ worth of patent documents.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that if Adrian had shifted his interest in the flight suit to business operations even slightly, he could have established an engineering and high-tech machinery company on the scale comparable to Osborne’s.

However, this elder had only just returned to normal with the help of the biological laboratory and probably wouldn’t be able to dive into work for the short term.

At the moment, in the laboratory, Dr. Otto was studying the octopus exoskeleton that Lille had taken off.

"Incredible..."

Dr. Otto looked at the octopus exoskeleton, then at Lille, his face full of disbelief.

This set of exoskeletons was a neutered version compared to the octopus arms in various Marvel works.

To adapt to the limitations of the human brain hardware, they reduced the number of built-in joints, lightened the weight, shortened the length, and significantly reduced the possible motion states of the machine, which also reduced the amount of computation.

This also led to the exoskeleton not being as sturdy as imagined, so it suffered severe damage upon landing.

But that wasn’t the point, the point was...the exoskeleton’s neural linkage circuitry and the processor carrying the auxiliary AI had burnt out.

After looking for a while, Otto slowly said, "It looks like you’ve injected yourself with a pharmaceutical, but...that must have hurt, right?"

Otto was no fool.

Humans normally couldn’t endure that kind of burn injury; Lille definitely injected himself with Lizard Potion a hundred percent.

But the Lizard Potion only granted regeneration ability, high temperatures were still hugely lethal to carbon-based life forms.

That feeling really hurt—however, Lille was cheating; if we’re talking about pain, stubbing a pinky toe against a table leg was far more intense than the pain of burned nerves.

"It did a bit, but I’m naturally not very sensitive—Doctor, I wanted to check on the AI inside.

On that day, I must have momentarily lost consciousness due to the rapid ascent, but the octopus arms didn’t let go..."

Instantly, Otto understood what Lille meant, "You mean, the AI took autonomous action in that instant? That shouldn’t be..."

But nothing was out of the question.

Every version of Dr. Otto believed that the octopus arm AI wouldn’t develop its own consciousness, but the truth was, every version of the octopus arms produced an AI with an extremely high level of autonomous consciousness, even capable of altering a human brain through neural linkage—

You should know that in the Cyberpunk World, this feature had a resounding name: relic.

The current version of the octopus arms was smaller in size, lower in power, made of inferior materials, and equipped with a weaker AI, but that didn’t mean problems couldn’t arise.

"I can attempt to restore the content inside...but from what I’ve seen so far, no matter what happened to the original AI, it should have been destroyed."

"There’s another thing; I want to change the shape of the Data Knife. I might need to use some of the materials processing equipment in the lab."

"Oh, feel free to use it as you like. After all, I’ll be one of your employees in a sense, in the future."

[Biological Laboratory Project Progress:]

[Partial biomacromolecule cultivation technology has been perfected.]

[Involved Researchers: Professor Connor, Dr. Otto]

[Description: Utilizing molecular sieves to filter usable macromolecules from hematopoietic devices, such as the transgenic chlorobilin used for immune suppression]

[Professor Connor is conducting further research: using cell adaptation technology to overcome the effects of the Lizard Potion and cultivate tissues and organs.]

Indeed, Dr. Otto began working for Lille as well.

There had been new progress in the experiments with the Lizard Potion; Dr. Otto had used his equipment to replicate the molecular sieves and cell adaptation devices of the world of 2077.

The demand for immunosuppressants, such as the need for similar pharmaceuticals after every prosthetics implant surgery to overcome immune reactions in the world of 2077, went without saying.

Chemical pharmaceuticals were far weaker in effect than the chlorobilin from the Lizard Man and also had significant side effects.

If injected with the Lizard Potion, Conners would only become another rampaging Lizard Man antagonist, but if one delved deeper into research...

Who knows what other values it could bring to this world.

...

Having dealt with the knife, Lille met with the Latovian youth named Christopher in the laboratory—

Lille was certain of one thing: there was no Doctor Destruction in this world, at least not yet.

Latovia was still in the era of feudal rule, where fertile lands meant feudal lords treated people as assets, and the crops they grew barely sustained them, yet the taxes were not light.

At the same time, wars occurred fairly often, big and small.

However, besides the times for tax collection, one hardly saw the feudal lords and their lackeys, nor did one see the lord’s troops except when trying to escape taxation.

On this land... one might almost say that people were still living in the Middle Ages, farming with primitive tools, migrating with the changing weather, and if the harvest was poor, preparing to starve.

Theoretically, the country had a not-so-small territory, but its population was less than a million; the feudal system simply couldn’t maintain such a large land, and it gradually degenerated.

However, on the other hand, the Eastern Europe in the Marvel World was much larger and more fragmented than the Eastern Europe Lille knew; wherever the land was vacant, it was either war-torn or fallow.

As for human settlements, the entire country only had one royal city; besides that, there were only villages in the mountains, with almost no industries other than agriculture, nor were there other resources to develop industries.

So, when a Latovian came to the United States and saw New York, everything here seemed so unreal.

Christopher stood dumbfounded, staring at the outside world, his chest filled with indescribable emotions.

It wasn’t resentment, anger, loss, or envy.

It was simply shock, a shock at things he couldn’t understand.

"...When I was young, the Elder Council of our tribe told us there were houses bigger than our villages and several times higher than the king’s castle...

As a child, I believed it, but as I grew up, I thought it was nothing but a fairy tale, and now... it’s all real!"

The United States, to Christopher from the backwoods, was nothing more than a legend, and New York was something he thought existed only in fairy tales.

Even though they also had radios, for Christopher, it seemed more like an inexplicable magic tool, narrating fairy tales...

Lille asked, "Don’t you have a fixed residence?"

Christopher shook his head, "No, our Tribe is nomadic, precisely to evade our lords—

While wandering is hard, it’s better than having our wives and daughters taken by the lord every now and then."

Indeed, Latovia still maintained the ancient feudal "right of the first night" which meant taking the bride to the castle for "honor" on the wedding night, and in Latovia, this right was even more unrestrained.

Having said that, he looked with curiosity at everything in the office.

Lille saw the disparity of the world in this boy.

In this world, humans could land on the Moon, yet some still lived in the Middle Ages.

But he also noticed some details: "You said... your elders told you about the outside world?"

"Yes, we also had classes, in mathematics, history, literature, but unfortunately I didn’t bring my textbooks, or else you would understand.

They always say education is important."

"Have you heard of someone named Victor von Doom? Or anyone with the same surname?"

"No," Christopher shook his head, "but I don’t know as much as the old people in the tribe do, I can go back and ask them."

Lille stroked his chin, pondering over the matter.

He could claim to have half Latovian ancestry, his mother being a pure Latovian.

Although his relationship with that backward country wasn’t particularly strong... helping them would be a small effort.

And... geographically speaking, Latovia was well suited for developing agriculture; perhaps he might plant Choon No.2 wheat there in the future?

However, helping... had to start with changing their mindset.

Lille said slowly, "Christopher, this is modern society, where people aren’t someone’s appendages; there’s basically no need to worry about food, clothes, or a place to sleep, and you don’t have to worry about robbers breaking into your room at night with knives.

Do you want Latovia to become like this?"

Christopher nodded emphatically.

Why did he participate in what they called an "experiment"?

He didn’t even understand what the experiment was, he just thought it was a wizard trying out a new spell on him.

His only goal for participating in the experiment was this: influenza was a highly fatal disease to them; even with diligent medical care, two out of ten might die, and others could end up with lifelong ailments.

If one day, his tribespeople could live in buildings like these, where wind couldn’t enter and snow couldn’t bury, living together warmly...

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

"That’s good, you’ll live here for a while then, and see what modern society is like."

Lille beautified modern society, but even the worst areas in the United States were better than the feudal society of Latovia.

The first thing that needed to be changed was their mindset.

His own mother being a Latovian, he could take it as helping his mother look after her countrymen.

[Unstable Energy is about to erupt]

[Countdown: 48 hours]