Chapter 545 - 516 Nuclear Fission and Floating Car

Why was Jack 99% certain that the person coming after them was Susan Frist from fifty years ago, just by the clues of a hovercar and a woman?

This has to do with the uniqueness of the hovercar, In the city, hovercars are a strictly regulated mode of transportation, exclusive to the wealthy and not costly to manage.

Those who can openly drive or ride hovercars over the city are almost always wealthy or important people, besides them, the only other operators are the Terrorist Mobile Team or similar specialized armed forces—

Unrecognized illegal hovercars appearing in the city are conspicuous and fragile, just a few missiles are needed to bring them down.

Therefore, owning a hovercar is a symbol of social power, especially a private one.

How could you believe that someone of such status would drive a hovercar for a life-threatening mission?

So Susan Forrest was indeed special, this elite Lone Wolf was the only one among her peers who was loyal to the New America Federal Government, thanks to her efficient work and unique choices, the government granted her a hovercar.

Beyond the reward, on special missions like today’s, when it was inconvenient for her to chase targets in a hovercar equipped with military technology, she would drive her own hovercar, which to the outside world, seemed like a personal matter.

The Lone Wolf who performed missions in a hovercar, for decades on the American Continent, there was only one Susan Forrest.

The technology of the hovercar’s vector engines indeed has a threshold, but it’s not as high as the social barriers to ensure their presence in society, considering these barriers, many car manufacturers choose to forgo investing heavily in the development of vector engines and their own hovercars.

After all... the number of wealthy individuals is limited, and the market for hovercars is not broad, those who enter the market early can easily monopolize these advantages.

However, criminals on the run wouldn’t consider these things—

What is an international criminal?

Click—

Jack supported the Caster Kai Hovercar with his large hand, V stood by the side of the hovercar, forcefully prying open the iron plate slashed by the Mantis Blade.

The Octopus Arm carefully pulled off the entire chassis of the hovercar.

This was the base of the Caster Kai Hovercar.

[Munemasa: Caster Kai is a type of civilian hovercar, magnetic levitation is a precise floating technology for civilian use, utilizing superconductive coils to generate a powerful magnetic field that interacts with the earth’s magnetism to counteract gravity.]

[Munemasa: More comfortable, but obviously lacks risk resilience, Caster Kai relies on its vector engines for high-speed movement.]

Then the Octopus Arm removed the four vector engines, much smaller compared to the Scorpion-tailed Lion, each engine comprising two groups of thrusters connected in series.

Da Mai’s car shell had been completely cut and disassembled, the Octopus Arm temporarily welded and secured the engines and fuel tanks to the car, and began wiring.

[Munemasa: Compared to military hovercars, it has smaller vector engines and a lighter body, but... this is obviously an upgraded version.]

[Munemasa: There’s one damaged, throw it away.]

Munemasa’s advice in Lille’s head however received a contrary suggestion—

Coming from the Marvel World, the inventor of the Vulture Engine, Dr. Tums, was woken up by Lille in the middle of the night, and then he couldn’t sleep anymore.

[Dr. Tums: Good stuff, a bit damaged, but if in the scenario you mentioned, it’s still worth considering for a simple repair as an emergency propulsion device.]

So, in front of Munemasa, Lille tapped the engine twice, cut open the car’s floor, and welded the device to the chassis.

[Munemasa: ...I won’t stop you if you want to die, but if you crash, remember to throw out my processor core.]

[Lille: Continue, the superconductive coil is damaged, how to fix it?]

[Munemasa: Can’t fix it, just seal it off simply, you better hope the heat pump can keep the temperature continuously at operating level.]

[Munemasa: It’s a bit troublesome, the operating conditions are very unstable, I think you are running out of fuel.]

The earth’s magnetic field is very weak, so to use magnetic levitation to fly, a relatively strong magnetic field needs to be created.

If the coils are not superconductors, producing such a level of magnetic field would consume an entire factory’s electricity and require a huge set of coils.

Superconductors require certain external conditions to maintain a superconducting state, if the operating conditions are unstable, it means that the anti-gravity produced by the magnetic field is unstable, the energy consumption of the circuits is like a roller coaster, and the vector engines must operate at full speed at all times to ensure they don’t fall due to the fluctuating magnetic field.

However, only three vector engines remained somewhat usable.

The remaining hydrogen-alcohol type 2 fuel mix is likely not sufficient for them to escape the Watson District.

But Lille has always been skilled at assembling devices from scraps, and besides, not everything in his hands was junk—

In another world, the nuclear industry was flourishing.

Munemasa had just finished speaking when he saw Lille putting on gloves and reaching into his pocket—

Then he pulled out something... something that caused this AI’s thought process a physical delay:

A 40-centimeter-long highly enriched uranium-235 fuel rod.

The physical delay was due to radiation interfering with the sensors’ ability to gather external data, but it indeed... exceeded its understanding.

[Munemasa: ?]

"Enriched uranium at 90% purity, use it for power."

In Lille’s familiar domain, the Octopus Arm started frantically disassembling the graphene batteries scattered all over Da Mai, as well as the Chroni Titanium Armor Plate.

1.5 kilograms of 90% enriched uranium was still at a safe level, the nuclear reaction was not rapid.

But by controlling external conditions and adding a Neutron Reflector, it could potentially enter a subcritical or even critical state, turning into a high-power nuclear battery—

Lille needed a good Neutron Reflector and a casing.

Removing the battery substance, graphene itself is a good reflection material, and Chroni Titanium, being a titanium-based metal, also possesses excellent mechanical strength and radiation damage resistance.

Lille directly cut off the internal structure of the graphene batteries with a tool, discarded those with battery substance at their core, and preserved the pure graphene casing, carefully covering the outer layer of the fuel rod and securing it.

Little Octopus then picked up piece after piece of Chroni Titanium Armor Plate and placed it over the cabin, creating a hemispherical nucleus.

The sounds of assembly clanked, as if striking Munemasa’s processor.

The things happening were already somewhat illogical, even for it, an AI that had lived for decades, seen countless data, and was honed through numerous battles...

It was momentarily blinded.

Nuclear fuel, who couldn’t recognize it!

A fission battery? Truly impressive, this was the first time it had seen someone actually crafting this thing.

But what Munemasa was bewildered about wasn’t these, but how you could pull something like this out of your pocket... a stick nearly at the level of weapon-grade enriched uranium fuel rod!

You were clearly a clean person just a moment ago, with completely normal radiation levels!

Munemasa, Dr. Tums, and Lille, one familiar with local technology, one with mechanical design, and one with nuclear technology, only this lineup could hastily modify Da Mai into a hovercar in such a short time.

Circuits connected by Little Octopus, Lille looked at the fuel rod in his hand, and slightly shook his head—

Jack and V surely had no idea about the value of this thing.

But Lille was quite moved and felt it quite wonderful.

This was the first batch of nuclear fuel with over 90% purity level produced by the Atlas Group and African Union after day and night efforts, costing over two million US dollars.

In another world, a robot controlled by Lille took this memento from the warehouse, performed interdimensional transport, and placed it back into the display cabinet.

[Interdimensional Material Transport]

[Technology Points -1500]

[Current Technology Points: 20000]

This item would be sent to the mineral museum of the African Union for collection.

Written on the cabinet was this phrase:

"To honor the sacrifices of the past and welcome the prosperity of the future—may we never again pay the price of life for being backward."

"Really well-written."

Lille inserted the fuel rod into the nucleus, Little Octopus covered it with the last plate, sealing the fuel rod within—

The temperature of the nuclear battery started to rise, radiation and heat began to increase...

The engines roared!

"Alright, get ready to take on the Terrorist Mobile Team."