Chapter 600 - 571: Electric Propulsion Engine Project

"Damn, what does it take to get this buff?"

"Uh... eat more, hit the gym regularly."

There were many children outside the clinic toilet, and when Jack stepped out, the kids looked at him and exclaimed, which he responded to while taking big bites of his meal, answering the children’s questions.

The EBM Stadium was busy and chaotic, with the smell of motor oil and welding lingering in every corner of the passageways.

The three walked past the shattered stands to survey the center of the stadium—the site of an accident—

A giant nuclear-powered airship had crashed here.

The entire structure of the airship was completely deformed due to the crash, with countless cargo containers piled up; massive green bundle cables dangled from the airship’s power core, and occasional violent electrical sparks erupted around the cables and equipment, falling like rain.

It was the body of this colossal beast that supplied all the vendors and facilities inside the EBM Stadium.

Netherworld Dog soldiers patrolled the area continually while cheap aerial transport units—these air cargo containers, known as Bumblebees, produced by the Caucasus Group from the New Soviet Union—would occasionally fly by overhead.

Bumblebees took away the containers that had been checked and still had goods, which were then hauled away by Bolatsk trucks, also manufactured by the Caucasus Group.

The heavy industrial equipment of the Caucasus Group was not common in Night City, but it was almost ubiquitous here, largely because this place was, in a way, more international than Night City:

The status of Dog Town in the global underworld was clearly higher than Night City’s position in the global economy.

Lille followed the traced cables with his gaze toward the airship’s nuclear power core, and V also leaned on the railing:

"Wow... this primitive? I remember you saying this is a nuclear-powered airship— they just yank the wires out like that; won’t it explode?"

Lille nodded slightly, "If I’m not mistaken, tripping the circuit and starting fires are common here; as for explosions... fission cores aren’t that easy to blow up.

Instead of worrying about explosions, people should be more concerned with the radiation levels here."

"It sure is a big one..." Jack commented as he looked at the airship, "These super freighters are always so impressive, no matter when you see them.

How much money do you think this company lost? Hansen really is unreasonable."

Lille glanced at the Netherworld Dog soldiers who had just passed by, "Hard to say how much money they lost, it might just be a loss on the surface.

Stop mentioning Hansen’s name all the time."

"What, does this warlord still have a right to his good name?"

"It’s hard to say," Lille continued walking, "Hansen himself might not care about a few mentions by Dog Town folk, but if his soldiers make an issue of it, he probably won’t intervene."

There were myriad issues in Dog Town; if Hansen were to care about such things, this place might be raided tomorrow.

Especially now—since Lille wiped out the stronghold of the Voodoo Gang in Taiping State, directly crushing their commonly used subnet protocol "Sea God."

The Voodoo Gang was a significant element of Dog Town, and such incidents definitely affected the regional ecosystem.

V, having finished admiring the airship, quickly followed Lille, "We came here to find equipment that could save your life; what’s your plan?

The stuff you seem to be buying is not of low importance; the black market here might be good, but surely they don’t have what you need?

If we need to move up a tier and let Hansen know we’ve smuggled ourselves in, we..."

The items Lille bought at the toilet clinic were indeed high-end: cell adaptation, tissue culture chambers, stem cell culture and vitality detection instruments, mechanical simulation devices...

But these items certainly had nothing to do with saving his life; after all, Jack could carry it all by himself.

"It doesn’t matter; when we were outside Dog Town, he didn’t want us coming in, but once he saw we were here, there’s not much he can do.

As for the equipment, in this place, money alone won’t do; having only money will get you robbed."

The closer they walked toward the front, the closer they got to the wreckage of the nuclear-powered airship; one could even hear its engines still humming.

Little Flat Head, the robot, had already left Lille’s hands and crawled along the walls and rubble, up to the engine.

The power grid for the nuclear-powered airship had been located, supplying the entire EBM Peizhuo Petrochemical Stadium and nearby facilities; now it was time to scan the power system of this machine.

It was evident from the still slightly operating thrusters that locals who hacked the system had not completely cracked it; instead, they deceived the core into thinking it was still operating by keeping the engine running and diverting the electricity to other equipment.

This is a common way to hack, convenient and safe, and unlikely to trigger the device’s anti-hacking mechanisms causing an explosion, but the downside is that it wastes a lot of electricity.

As Little Flat Head arrived at the scanning location and found an exposed cable to insert the probe, the entire system’s scan map appeared in Lille’s mind.

This system encompassed Hall thrusters, ion thrusters, and electromagnetic plasma thrusters, three types of electric thrusters with their own advantages, which adjusted under different working conditions to ensure energy consumption was in the optimum range, supporting the huge airship to cross the ocean.

A rather advanced propulsion system.

[Munemasa: Electric propulsion... Only the main thruster is still usable, the structure is very advanced, it seems to be of European design.]

[Lille: Have you seen something similar?]

[Munemasa: I hacked into an airship used for transporting servers when I roamed the old net.]

[Lille: If I provide you with the conditions, is it possible for you to make one...]

[Munemasa: I haven’t designed an aeronautical-grade engine, and the database is also lacking experience in this field, but I can tell you’re very good at it, so it’s entirely possible.]

[Munemasa: I have observed the system used by Da Mai, and this system could totally support a Vector Engine, but I think the designer restricted the power of the fuel chamber.]

The Vulture Engine indeed restricted the power provided by alcohol 2 fuel, because in the Marvel World, mass-produced engines were purely electric rather than fuel-based.

It must be said that Munemasa’s observational skills were indeed sharp, even though he wasn’t a spacecraft design AI, he was still able to deduce some things based on existing physical models and known intelligence.

The only mistake was: Lille wasn’t an expert in spacecraft device design either. Of course, he did know some design knowledge about ballistic weapons, albeit more traditional.

The less traditional part, he had learned from Adrian at most, but to say he could independently design such a level of electric propulsion was still a bit of a stretch.

[Lille: I’ll open up the research interface for you.]

After receiving a positive response, Lille proceeded to open some design and advanced machinery research lab interfaces from the Atlas Group.

[New Project Creation: High-Power Propulsion System]

[Research Laboratory: Atlas Group Advanced Machinery Research Institute]

[Description: The history of fuel propulsion is long, but it is difficult to miniaturize. Successful lighter-than-air vehicles require high-power electric propulsion systems.]

[The Atlas Group/Caucasus Crime Organization needs a self-developed small-scale electric vector thruster.]

[Lille: Dr. Tums, there’s a new research AI and several new electric propulsion designs for reference, I’ve opened up the access interface.]

After sorting these out, Little Flat Head simply stopped at the interface of the nuclear-powered airship and entered a dormant state.

Little Flat Head’s field of view was actually shared, and even if Jack and V weren’t looking, they could tell that one of the visual interfaces was closed.

So V raised an eyebrow, "Did you leave Little Flat Head up there? The confidence you spoke of... don’t tell me you’re threatening Hansen with this bomb, saying if he doesn’t sell, you’ll blow this place up?"

"I said before, nuclear reactors are not that easy to blow up, and besides, what’s the use of threatening Hansen, it’s not him who’s selling."

"If it were someone else talking, I’d be deeply affected. But you... never mind, what do we do now?"

"Same as before, first snoop for information, then look for merchandising avenues, looking for partners.

Although Hansen won’t go to great lengths to kick us out, we can’t start off using our outside reputation here, otherwise, he’d have to react more drastically.

Wait till I figure out the web of interests in this place, by that time he’ll help us find stuff."

Jack and V didn’t quite understand all of this, but they were used to Lille’s approach—

Anyway, someone was going to be unlucky.

The three of them walked towards the outside of the stadium, with V continuing to ask, "So, what exactly are we doing now?"

"Everyone comes to Dog Town for a reason, some to escape enemies and warrants, others for business. Now, we need to craft an identity...

Jack—have you ever thought about being quite the sports star?"

Jack was taken aback...

"Me?"