Chapter 1228: NO.132: Try Your Hand First

NO. 132: Try Your Hand First

Trevor Frisson, one of the few digital life forms similarly transformed by Dr. Luo Xia, was the focus of Rhodes Island's main efforts to establish diplomatic relations with the alien world Terra Federation before he was discovered and made public, although some rumors were still not given enough attention.

But Holohaiya Miss, who had not yet joined Rhodes Island at the time, thought this was an opportunity.

Because her original organization, the Melande Foundation, had not yet established any friendly cooperation with Rhodes Island Company, if she wanted to make a demand of them—especially a request for exploration quotas in another world—it was only natural for her to demonstrate her own value.

And her initial choice was to seize the key information about the energy source of Rhine Life's super-large project from the various vague rumors in academia, immediately begin investigating, and even personally infiltrate to confirm.

That was certainly not an easy process, but she indeed succeeded.

The forum comments at that time directly pointed out Rhine Life's General Administration's major uproar, but precisely because of her actions, both sides' company heads, who were turning a deaf ear to outside affairs and focusing solely on their own business, were able to free up time to pay attention to each other.

In this sense, Holohaiya's independent operative actions allowed both sides' endeavors to avoid unnecessary detours.

But obviously, this cannot excuse her operative actions.

For a long time, she was seen as having negative reputation in the eyes of the Rhine Life team, but she obviously didn't care.

What's more, in the otherworld exchange team she had wished to be dropped into, there were hardly any Rhine Life employees.

And the story after that is what she once told Aomo in a bar.

But Frisson's story only officially began after his memory and core were passed through several twists, first taken over by Kailixi, then handed to Luo Xia.

He was temporarily placed into a mechanical small vehicle that, although custom-made, still had hardware levels unable to keep up with pre-civilization standards.

Soon after being sent to the Terra Federation side, he completed a transformation upgrade of his hardware substrate.

In appearance, respecting his wishes, he was made into the likeness of a still-hardy elderly male.

Although his memory metal material allowed easy completion of 'cosmetic transformation', Frisson's information shows he is like a programmer obsessed with plaid shirts, never changing his outward appearance.

One can only say he is indeed satisfied with that British gentleman-like formal attire with a cane, and the particular emphasis on preserving the seams of the mechanized combination is unclear whether it is meant to emphasize his non-human nature to someone.

Perhaps it is for himself.

After all, in the investigation information that Aomo focuses on, this pre-civilization old man's first reaction upon first contacting the alien world Terra was not joy or tears, but shutting himself away in confinement for half a month.

Rather than saying he didn't want to live, it's more like he couldn't accept the joke fate played on him.

But regardless, that was just the period when he had just arrived at the Federation.

Now Trevor Frisson, while still insisting on the appearance of a tin man and unwilling to accept a more simulated artificial body, at least in speech and conduct is completely the model of a kind old gentleman.

Even when he walks over, he still carries an insulated cup in his hand.

"It's really been a long time." He said in an especially nostalgic tone; it seems Holohaiya hasn't looked for him in a long time, which matches Aomo's impression of her.

After all, the feathered serpent is powerful and aloof, and Holohaiya's surface-level information shows she acts alone, only engaging in temporary cooperation without long-term companionship; thus it is natural that Frisson, whom she initially saw merely as a trading asset, would have no further ties after their overlap.

As for that, Frisson doesn't particularly mind.

As an existence that was originally still a digital life, from the moment they first met he had, via permission‑granted access to various surveillances, seen her manner of handling affairs; his obsession with tracing her initial demeanor also left him uninterested, so if it weren't for Aomo seeking him out, he would have had little to talk about with Holohaiya.

This is also quite distinctive, given that as a half‑fan of Gundam, Aomo, upon hearing the other's voice with a hint of electronic processing, still thought he had met some old coot who doesn't believe in the future and likes to throw stones at Earth.

But in fact it turned out to be an old man looking forward to a new journey.

"I thought you would directly look for a solution through the regression study of Origin Stone, but I didn't expect you to look for Mr. Linthon's monster cards."

Monster cards, in Frisson's view, can be considered extraordinarily complete high‑tech artifacts.

The card‑shaped ultra‑high‑density information compression package can be released losslessly while accepting the user's will, and when recompressed it does not interfere with the user's form, only possibly showing a slight assimilation on the mental level.

Its basic idea is largely consistent with the Origin Stone project, but in terms of stability and completion it vastly surpasses the Origin Stone project's product, already being the pinnacle for fellow seekers.

So he has long wanted to study this 'Light‑Country technology crystal (iterated)' in his own way, and he also believes Luo Xia shares the same impulse.

But unfortunately, he cannot convince Luo Xia.

Since he cannot convince the doctor, even if he holds a not‑low position in this Glitz Card Simulation Research Group, he has no right to add procedures on his own.

Moreover, he himself cannot provide a respectable guarantee to borrow other monster cards from Aomo.

And it is precisely at this time, when Aomo proactively came to his door seeking help, that it can be said to have delighted this old gentleman.

One can say that the current pleasant appearance is all for Aomo; if only Holohaiya were present here… one could mostly refer to Frisson's past scenes of arguing with Kailixi.

However, Aomo had also considered the existence of team conflict before pulling people into the group, and his solution was to minimize the chance of these two people talking as much as possible.

Just as now, when Frisson is sighing over Holohaiya's choice, Aomo will speak up before she does.

"In terms of information storage, monster cards are not necessarily not a kind of Origin Stone regression, old sir."

This is the report from not zoning out during the meeting; even as a complete outsider, Aomo has done the basic groundwork.

"That's indeed true." He nodded, Frisson glanced at the person whose speech had been cut off but who showed no anger, standing obediently to the side—Holohaiya, whose appearance differed greatly from his memory.

Although he has no gossip habit, he still couldn't resist the fact that someone in the group kept muttering; the old man at that time merely thought it was the youth's habitual random speculation, but now it seems not entirely baseless.

"Then old sir, there's no delay; let's directly begin trying, believing that your work over there also cannot free up too much time."

While he was still a bit distracted, that special young person had already rolled up his sleeves and pulled out the metal columnar object attached to the blood‑red crystal.

Secret key, or rather, functionally it should be called an information‑extraction compressor.

It is the main improvement target of this effort, belonging to a different technological civilization's artifact than the equipment for producing monster cards, and is the product provided and modified by the chat‑room chief of Gui Yuan Zhi Tang.

Before this, Aomo had also asked in the group how the other party viewed the problem of this equipment leaking out and being modified.

The other party replied completely unconcerned, saying that it's fine if everyone in the chat room is interested in doing DIY themselves, and if they have results they can share them in the chat room, as long as they don't cause trouble and give themselves away.

Listeners complained, 'Where did this Bodhi old ancestor come from?'

One doesn't know whether to say it's too open‑minded, or too trusting of the chat room's screening mechanism.

But regardless, since the other party also supports open‑brainstorming DIY, he felt no burden in launching the project.

What made him especially happy was that, although the old man with a very Summer‑Asia voice kept exclaiming after putting the secret key into the analyzer, listening to his simultaneous muttering suggested that the technological level of this secret key was still within his comprehension.

That's fine.

In such a situation of analysis and modification, the biggest fear is that the other party's technology is so high that to this side it feels like trying to read a heavenly book.

How can primitives chase after coding technology? Miss Tressia's astonishing achievements on the Black Crown truly make it hard to replicate.

Thus, while Frisson was still storing data there, Aomo had already borrowed a blood‑drawing machine from Miss Tressia and turned his gaze toward Holohaiya, who had been nervously and curiously watching Frisson.

Miss Huo'erhaiya.

He called out.

We shouldn't delay; let's first try drawing a bit, how about that?

He spoke with a double meaning, pointing not only to that blood-draw machine, but also to a strange device that holds it.