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Chapter 88 The Outsider’s Contribution
Peter was full of surprise as he never imagined Leo, who just declined him, had suddenly agreed to help him.
In Peter’s view, Leo presently was an enigmatic and formidable being. In fact, he was already worshipping Leo a little.
It wasn’t Peter’s fault that he easily developed a sense of reverence for Leo. After all, he never figured out why he suddenly gained amazing powers after being bitten by a spider. Peter firmly believed that there should be other people that were similar to him.
Peter himself was able to climb walls after being bitten by a spider. What if someone was bitten by a fly, can they fly? What about being bitten by a snake, can they dig underground? How about being bitten by a chameleon, can they camouflage?
He had gained his superpowers when he was still young. At that time, he was often mesmerized by these kinds of questions.
Although all these years he hadn’t met any similar people, he was convinced since he was a very living example.
Now, Peter felt he had met the same kind—— Leo!
He even felt Leo was certainly being bitten by a wisdom-filled and powerful being and that was why Leo’s mutation was exceptional.
Of course, Leo was unaware of Peter’s thoughts and even more so unaware he had gained a fanboy.
“Peter, I’ll say it upfront. I’m funding you to develop a mechanical prosthesis with profiting in my mind. So, during the process, we must pay attention to the trade-offs since it’s impossible to make everything perfect. There’s even a possibility we may end up with failure. As for this, you must be mentally prepared for it.”
Seeing the thrilled and overjoyed Peter, Leo decided to pour a bucket of ice water on him and give him a dose of the vaccine. Peter immediately nodded. As long as Leo was willing to fund the project, he was happy enough.
Since something came up all of a sudden, Leo was unable to leave Otto’s laboratory for the moment. He had to stay and carefully discuss the details of the funding with Peter and Otto.
Moreover, the “Neural Arms” was a hopeless project and it surely was unable to satisfy Peter and Otto in the requirements for a mechanical prosthesis. It must be given up and another method must be searched.
Leo should carefully consider how to swiftly yet perfectly develop a mechanical prosthesis that fit the requirements. As this mattered the evaluation of the mission and the mission rewards for low evaluation generally were garbage. Only the highly-evaluated mission rewards could be helpful for Leo.
Seeing Leo sitting back on the chair and beginning to chat with Peter and Otto, the outsider Bucky was extremely bored. He was sitting by Leo’s side and began to fancily shuffle the deck of cards in his hand, making soft rattling noises.
Although Leo right now was discussing with Peter and Otto, he was able to split his attention because of his remarkable mental strength to ponder ways to achieve a high evaluation. The male’s sixth sense told him that if he wanted to complete the mission, it wasn’t as hard as he imagined.
Leo believed he certainly overlooked something and that was why he failed to break the current situation. It was an important matter but failing to recall it was unbearable for Leo, causing his mood slightly irritated.
Right now, the rattling noises from Bucky’s shuffling were ear-splitting. Since Leo had better hearing than common people, Bucky’s shuffling noises were like a rumble in his ears. Thus, Leo subconsciously looked at Bucky’s hands, preparing to stop Bucky’s boring behavior.
With a pair of gloves on his hands, Bucky was proficiently rotating the cards with his ten fingers. Leo, out of the blue, had an inspiration, abruptly recalling what he had overlooked.
Bucky, this fellow, wasn’t he a disabled person? He didn’t have his left arm!
However, carefully looking at him, which part of him looked like a disabled person?!
Bucky’s metal arm or specifically the “Muscle Sensing Technology” was the key to creating a flexible mechanical prosthesis.
The difficult obstacle had been resolved and there was hope for receiving a highly-evaluated mission. Smiles instantly bloomed on Leo’s face.
Peter keenly perceived Leo’s expression change and hurriedly asked, “Mr. Erwin, is there anything that made you so happy?”
“Peter, I suddenly recalled a very mature technology and there are no side effects at all,” Leo answered in a merry mood. “We can rely on this technology, creating a flexible mechanical prosthesis that’s on par with the ‘Neural Arms’.”
“Is that true?!” Before Peter could even answer, Otto suddenly jolted up and exclaimed, “Is there really such a technology? Mr. Erwin, please tell me about it.”
Leo, Peter, and Bucky were startled by the excited Otto. Otto also realized his misaction and laughed in embarrassment while apologizing, “Sorry, I just heard the goal I had for years suddenly had the possibility of achieving and got too excited. I’m sorry, very sorry!”
Is Otto slightly mentally challenged?! Did the debuffs from the ‘Neural Arms’ cause him to be incorrigible? Otherwise, why was he always yelling all the time? No manners at all. However, Leo wasn’t angered by Otto’s manner since Otto was poor enough. It was acceptable to be tolerant of him.
Thus, Leo explained the general idea and framework of the “Muscle Sensing Technology” to Peter and Otto.
“That’s great, this technology is so amazing!” Listening to Leo’s explanation, Peter couldn’t help but marvel. “Dr. Octavius, with the support of this technology, I believe we can develop a suitable mechanical prosthesis soon enough.”
Otto, on the other hand, wasn’t as passionate as Peter. Instead, he began scrunching his brows, returning to his initial unexcited state. For some reason, Otto was slightly disappointed and saddened after listening to Leo’s explanation.
“Dr. Octavius, Dr Octavius…” Under Peter’s constant calling, Otto came back to his senses. “Peter, you’re right. With this technology, you certainly can fulfill your dream.”
In Peter’s mind was the scene of the bright future, so he failed to notice Otto used the term “your” instead of “ours”.
“Mr. Erwin, the Intracranial Transmission Technology can be replaced by the Muscle Sensing Technology. This way, we only need to solve the problem with the power source, then we can successfully develop a desired mechanical prosthesis.” Peter clearly was ecstatic as his motivation had returned, full of energy.
At this point, Leo revealed another great news, “Peter, I have another technology here that fits the power source condition of the mechanical prosthesis.”
Next, Leo briefly introduced the “Miniature Highly-compressed Battery” to both of them.
The mechanical prosthesis didn’t need to be as strong as Bucky’s metal arm. Its purpose was for users’ daily needs such as walking and carrying stuff. The consumption of energy was naturally lessened by a lot.
Leo estimated that a single fully charged Miniature Highly-compressed Battery could sustain the mechanical prosthesis for almost an entire day of time. In fact, if the power source could last through the daytime and the user charged or changed the battery at night, then it could be considered a success.
Furthermore, the size of the battery was small, a single mechanical prosthesis could install three to five batteries. That way, the mechanical prosthesis was worry-free of the power source issues. Besides, the cost of making the battery was inexpensive and it’s rechargeable. So, it’s relatively affordable.
In other words, the Miniature Highly-compressed Battery perfectly complemented the mechanical prosthesis’ power source.
If that was the case when Leo unearthed the flaw of the “Neural Arms”, why did he mention he couldn’t think of any alternatives for the expensive Nuclear Microreactor?
It was natural since there were no benefits!
Besides, Leo, at that time, was refusing to invest in the ‘Neural Arms’, so the more flaws it had the better.