Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, two months had passed.
New York had already stepped into autumn.
During these two months, Xia En basically ignored company affairs, yet a sum of money would be deposited into his account every so often.
A single payment wasn’t much, but added up, it totaled about two million dollars.
Xia En knew very well that this money was procured by Smith.
As for how Smith specifically operated, he had no idea; he only remembered signing a fair number of procurement-related documents.
At the same time, under Bernie’s control, Lark Company had officially gotten on the right track.
The agricultural drones produced by the company had begun selling across the United States and were gradually becoming profitable.
However, based on the current profit situation, the company’s IPO was still far off.
Unless Lark could produce even better products and broaden its user channels beyond the agricultural field.
Xia En never took these matters to heart.
He knew that the Lark drone still had great potential and could definitely be extended into commercial transport and the toy industry.
But to tap into that potential, a core problem had to be solved first: drone miniaturization and communication upgrades.
This technical difficulty wasn’t particularly thorny for Xia En; he was fully capable of overcoming it, but the company’s researchers couldn’t.
Especially Jack, who had been arranged by State Street Global Bank—he was purely a “showpiece.”
He could talk about technical theories for hours, but when it came to actual hands-on work, he was a total disaster.
Xia En really couldn’t figure out how that guy had managed to fool those shrewd Wall Street investors.
However, he didn’t expose Jack.
Instead, he let him keep the position of CTO.
The only price Jack had to pay was that every month he had to apply for extra research funding from finance, but very little of it actually reached the Technical Development Department.
As for why Xia En didn’t give the drone miniaturization technology to the company, it was simply because he didn’t want to waste his own time.
In these two months, Xia En had completely mastered the technology related to BB-8 and had successfully built the first BB-8 unit.
Though the little guy still had some flaws, it was exceptionally useful.
Speaking of which, Xia En couldn’t help but “apologize” to the little fellow.
He initially thought BB-8 didn’t have arms, so at the very beginning, he had planned to equip it with two extra mechanical hand-like devices.
But as his understanding of the BB-8 technical data deepened, he discovered that the little guy came with its own arms.
Moreover, the technology within those built-in arms was extremely high.
With no other choice, Xia En could only dismantle the arms he had previously modified for it.
“I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover, even when it comes to robots.”
Xia En looked at the little guy in front of him.
He inexplicably wanted to ask BB-8’s original designer: Did it really have to be designed this way?
As a robot, its greatest virtue was actually being “cute”—it wasn’t even as good as WALL-E from *WALL-E*!
“BB-8, go get me a Coke!”
“Beep-boop!
Okay!”
Hearing Xia En’s command, BB-8 immediately started rolling.
It rolled all the way to the refrigerator outside the lab, took out a bottle of Coke, and rolled slowly back to Xia En’s side.
“The intelligence is high enough, but it lacks autonomous learning capabilities.
It can’t serve as my research assistant.”
Xia En shrugged helplessly.
“Forget it, something is better than nothing.
What more can I ask for?”
He twisted open the Coke BB-8 handed him, took a large gulp, and then walked back to the workbench.
“Now, it’s time to seek out some means of self-defense.”
With the successful construction of BB-8, his “Flash of Insight” ability had refreshed once more.
[Institute Laser Pistol Technology]
[Technical Description: A cutting-edge energy weapon technology from the game “Fallout 4.” Developed by the Institute based on pre-war laser technology, it is a portable energy firearm system adapted for wasteland combat.
Its core use is for Institute Synth patrols and wasteland target elimination.
It relies on Fusion Cells (micro-fusion batteries) for power, driven by the principle of stimulated radiation light amplification.
The firearm features built-in laser focusing calibration and energy output regulation modules, possessing core advantages of high penetration and low AP consumption.
It also features a modular modification function, making it adaptable for various wasteland combat scenarios such as close-quarters ambushes and medium-to-long-range precision shooting.
Additionally, it possesses attack modes such as focused energy fire, scatter mode switching, and armor-melting penetration.
It combines portability, precision strikes, and adaptable modifications, making it a landmark portable energy weapon technology platform for the Institute to demonstrate technological superiority and control wasteland forces.]
“Holy crap!
It’s actually the Institute Laser Pistol from *Fallout 4*?”
After the ability triggered, Xia En quickly browsed the technical data in his mind and recognized the firearm on the blueprints at a glance.
But what truly surprised him wasn’t this laser pistol, but something else included in the data—the ammunition for the Institute Laser Pistol: Fusion Cells.
“If I can manufacture these Fusion Cells, I’ll be a titan in the energy industry even before Tony’s miniature reactor hits the scene!”
The more Xia En thought about it, the more excited he became.
“After all, Tony would never easily sell his reactor, but my Fusion Cells can be sold freely.”
“And nobody would dare dismantle this thing casually; it really will explode!
The anti-theft technology is practically maxed out.”
However, this excitement didn’t last long before it was doused by a bucket of cold water from the data.
The complex formulas and incomprehensible professional equipment required to produce Fusion Cells made Xia En’s head spin.
“How many years is this going to cost me!”
Xia En couldn’t help but complain.
“Relying on myself alone, it’s impossible to build this.
I have to find an organization with R&D capabilities to cooperate with.”
He knew very well that a high wall stood before him that was impossible to scale alone.
But in the Marvel world, finding a reliable partner organization seemed harder than climbing to heaven.
“Hydra and SHIELD are out.
They have the Tesseract; they wouldn’t care about technology like Fusion Cells.”
“The military?
The Red Room?
No, cooperating with them is too dangerous; there isn’t a single good person among them.”
“The Ten Rings?
Forget it.
Just a terrorist organization, pure suicidal trash.
Definitely can’t touch them.”
Xia En thought back and forth, but he couldn’t find a suitable partner in his mind.
After pondering for a long time, he still couldn’t make a decision.
“Whatever, let’s organize the data first.”
Xia En rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“If possible, I still want to complete it alone.
Miniature nuclear technology is too important; it’s best if it remains entirely in my own hands.”
As he spoke, he entered the technical data from his mind into the system while complaining incessantly.
“Why did it have to be something related to nuclear power?”
“Any research involving nuclear energy—which one isn’t an astronomical investment…”