After a soft sigh of admiration, Shane withdrew his gaze from the window.
He turned his attention back to the workbench, focusing on the Hummingbird drone he had created.
After a month of intensive research, he had finally overcome the last technical hurdle of the Hummingbird.
Before him now sat a unit that had successfully passed several tests—a product backed by mature technology, ready for mass production at any moment.
If he were to hand this drone over to the Lark Company right now, the company’s valuation would skyrocket several times over upon its public listing.
But Shane had no intention of doing that.
After all, the future value generated by this invention belonged to him, whereas the future value generated by the company belonged to the board of directors.
How could he selflessly gift his own money to others?
He only held a thirty-percent stake, and it wasn’t even certain that those shares would remain his in the end.
Setting aside thoughts of the Lark Company, Shane re-examined the design of the Hummingbird drone before him.
Originally, it had been an ugly product with significant flaws.
But now, after Shane’s deep research and reconstruction, it was transformed.
The drone had shed its previous defects—the unsightly appearance, the poorly placed camera, and all the other issues that were glaringly obvious at a glance.
The current drone possessed a perfect form; it was essentially a mechanical bird draped in feathers.
Furthermore, during the process of modifying the Hummingbird, Shane had moved away from the limitation of strictly using a hummingbird’s appearance.
He had programmed a vast array of natural bird templates into the drone’s design database.
This meant that as long as the model was available, the Hummingbird drone could technically be any bird—a sparrow, a swallow, a hawk, and so on.
This would prevent the awkwardness of an “unreasonable” bird appearing in certain environments during military reconnaissance missions.
Of course, the drone still had significant drawbacks, such as increased manufacturing costs and a short battery life that led to poor endurance.
Moreover, the drone could not transform.
If the military were the hypothetical buyer, they wouldn’t just buy a single drone; they would need to purchase an entire set.
This increased the procurement cost, and Shane wasn’t sure if those big shots would accept it.
However, Shane suspected they probably would.
After all, a higher price tag only increased their profit from kickbacks!
“Alright.
The Hummingbird is done, but since I don’t have a use for it yet, I’ll mothball it for now.”
After a long look, Shane locked the Hummingbird drone in a safe.
He copied the data from the air-gapped computer onto a hard drive and then destroyed everything in the lab related to the Hummingbird. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Once everything was done, Shane sat in his chair with two bare wires laid out before him, his face full of anticipation.
“Time to trigger a Flash of Insight.
I still can’t ask for cloning technology yet; that’s too advanced.
If I actually trigger that, I’d probably be studying it until the day I die.”
Ever since he had gained a better understanding of the limits of his ability, Shane had temporarily lost interest in cloning.
It was too profound, and he didn’t quite dare to attempt it.
After long consideration, he had decided to go for an artificial intelligence-related technology first.
That way, he could have an auxiliary assistant—something like Iron Man’s Jarvis—to help him rapidly push through the research progress of his inspired products.
“Let’s begin!”
As Shane concentrated, all the energy in his body gathered in his brain.
Simultaneously, he quickly gripped the wires to ensure that an energy deficit wouldn’t plunge him into a state of extreme weakness.
[BB-8 Intelligent Auxiliary Robot (Limited Version)]
[Technical Description: BB-8, a multi-functional astromech AI robot, precisely replicating the short cylindrical body design, primarily focused on system maintenance and emergency support.
Unlike conventional industrial robots, it is equipped with an AI core but lacks self-learning capabilities.
It can independently perform fault diagnosis, encrypted data transmission, and other tasks.
Featuring a modular chassis, it comes equipped with mechanical arms, holographic projection, data interfaces, and various other components.
It is waterproof, pressure-resistant, and durable in extreme environments.
It can be deployed by a single person and operates silently, making it an all-purpose partner for battlefield support and scientific research.]
As time passed, a vast amount of data regarding the intelligent auxiliary robot flooded into Shane’s mind.
“This is a lot of data this time, but this design…?”
Shane frowned, pondering the gourd-shaped robot in his mind.
“Isn’t this a machine from that space opera, Star Wars?”
“This thing doesn’t have a self-learning function!
It hardly counts as artificial intelligence!”
He quickly identified its origin and was quite dissatisfied.
“Compared to Jarvis, this is just artificial idiocy!”
“Wait, it seems it has a physical body, while Jarvis doesn’t.
Damn!
Since it’s not the full BB-8 data but a limited version, this thing is basically a toy.”
“Aside from being cute, it has almost no advantages.
Whatever, at least studying it should be simple.”
Shane was very unhappy with the newly acquired BB-8, but there was nothing he could do.
Once the data was fully downloaded into his brain, he released his numb hands.
While the current passing through his body during the activation of his ability didn’t cause permanent damage, the sensation was still there, and it was quite unpleasant.
Once the numbness faded, Shane quickly entered the BB-8 data from his mind into the computer.
At the same time, he began searching for knowledge related to AI and robot manufacturing on another networked computer.
He intended to use the original BB-8 data as a base and steer the research toward modification from the very start.
He didn’t want a mere gourd-shaped robot.
At the very least, it needed two hands to help him pass wrenches or hold a welding torch.
“Damn it!
Jarvis could automatically assemble Tony’s Iron Man armor.”
“With my luck, I still have to do everything myself.”
Shane’s grumbling echoed through the lab, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for his research.
As time slowly ticked by, the progress bar for data entry rose rapidly.
Just as he finished inputting the data, his phone rang, interrupting his flow.
“Hi, Boss!
I think you should come to the office for a meeting.”
Shane picked up the phone and answered.
Bernie’s voice came through the line.
“Hm?
Is there a meeting today?”
“It’s about the product expo and the second round of funding.
We’re looking at 15 million dollars this time.
You wouldn’t want to miss that, would you, Boss?”
Hearing Bernie’s words, a smile curled on Shane’s lips.
“Of course not.
How could I possibly miss such an important moment?”