"How is it?" Luke asked with a smile as he looked at Snooker who took off his helmet.
"I remembered some bad things." Snooker's voice was a little low.
Luke shrugged. "Even though you've already signed the contract, there are some things I think I should ask again."
Hearing this, Snooker looked up at Luke who was walking up to him.
"What did General Evra tell you?" Luke pressed a piece of dark chocolate into his hand, motioning for him to eat it. "This is a product of my lab. It tastes like chocolate, but it can soothe the aftereffects of a flood of memories."
Snooker did not refuse Luke's kindness. He took the chocolate handed to him by Luke with his only intact left hand, and skillfully bit open the package with his teeth. Almost like stuffing it, he stuffed the ten-centimeter-long, half-an-adult-palm-wide dark chocolate into his mouth. While chewing silently, he looked at his mutilated right arm, and the expression on his face seemed to be reminiscing.
"He just said that you might have a way to get me back to normal."
"Didn't he mention the risks?"
"I don't care about that." Snooker swallowed the chocolate in his mouth in a big gulp. Perhaps it was due to psychological factors, but he felt that his previously turbulent mind had indeed calmed down a lot, allowing him to think more. "For me, I can return to normal. Those risks don't matter to me. They don't care either."
Snooker was referring to those people outside who had signed contracts like him.
"Do you long for the battlefield?" Luke took an information document compiled by Bai Hou, glanced at it and then asked.
Snooker was silent for a moment and nodded.
"Why?"
"Besides the battlefield, I don't know what else I can do?" Snoke said calmly. He had seen many retired soldiers, many of whom had difficulty finding a new way of life. The skills they brought with them from the military had reduced them to pawns of gangs or mercenary groups. And for those like him who retired with injuries and no family, most could only drown their sorrows in alcohol, aside from finding work as a mechanic.
"I've read some of your information. After retiring, you didn't give up on yourself like many others. On the contrary, you're very self-disciplined." Luke said, observing Snooker, who was silently looking at him. He smiled with satisfaction and didn't ask any further questions or test his judgment. Instead, he said directly, "If you're eager to fight on the battlefield, then perhaps we can sign a new contract."
Snook remained silent, as if waiting for Luke's next words. However, Luke didn't intend to continue. He whispered to the person next to him to take his place and screen the samples on his behalf. He waved to Snook, who stood upright, indicating that he should follow. The two men made their way through the crowd, across the room, and into another place that resembled a laboratory.
Along the way, there were more and more access control systems and cameras, and even with Snooker's experience and keen eyesight, he couldn't find any blind spots. Luke led him all the way here, using facial recognition, and stopped at an elevator that went directly to the third underground floor. The elevator door opened to both sides, and the scene that followed was so stunning that even Snooker, with his calmness forged on the battlefield, couldn't help but lose his mind!
A ten-meter-tall mechanical creation, with its brutal and untamed savagery, filled his entire eye sockets! Snooker's eyes were completely blinded by it, absorbing nothing else. Although it looked ugly, with all sorts of exposed mechanical parts and a dense web of circuitry that would make one's scalp tingle, like a half-finished product within a half-finished product, this didn't in the least detract from Snooker's first impression of it.
"What is this? Some kind of mechanical armor?" Snoke asked Luke for the first time, pointing at the behemoth he saw, his eyes completely focused on him. He even saw a man with a muscular build and a similar temperament to his own, who must have been a soldier. He was shirtless, with several researchers constantly assembling and locking some kind of equipment onto him. It looked like one of his arms was covered in a robotic arm sleeve.
"You can think so." Luke glanced over there casually.
Mecha is a man's romance, this statement is correct.
But he had seen this kind of romance too many times in a certain world, and his heart had long since calmed down. Moreover, in his understanding, the saying that mechas were a man's romance should be corrected to mean that all metal creations imbued with mechanical beauty and violent beauty were a man's romance.
"What are they doing?" Snooker's face showed a rare look of interest.
Seeing him like this, Luke simply turned around and walked over with him: "It's just an experiment, you can take a closer look."
Snooker paused near the railing of the testing area, watching the experiment unfolding nearby intently. His eyes nearly lit up when he saw the experimenter in the robotic arm clench his fist, and the giant metal creature behind him, which he had been keeping an eye on, also raise its metal arm and clench its fist in sync.
"The synesthesia system combined with the machine creates a near-synchronized synchrony between human and machine. How's it going? How does it feel?" Luke explained, as if he knew what Snook was thinking. Of course, he didn't elaborate on the technology involved; that was unnecessary for Snook.
"Is this the technique that can restore me to normal?" Snooker turned his head and looked at Luke with a burning gaze.
"Of course not." Luke directly denied Snooker's speculation and continued under his stunned gaze, "Do you know how expensive it is to create a synaesthesia system these days? Ordinary limb amputations don't require this kind of technology. To put it bluntly, the price of ordinary smart prosthetics is already a burden for ordinary people."
"Of course, you're different." As Snooker's enthusiasm cooled, Luke reminded him, "New contract."
"New contract?" Snooker chewed the words between his lips. He knew that the new contract might have some harsh conditions, or other conditions, but he didn't care. The moment he saw the big guy, he had already developed a good impression of this place.
"It's just a long-term security contract," Luke said bluntly. "I need you to help me build a powerful elite team, one that will obey me alone. You can choose your team members, preferably those in your same situation. I can provide you with the best weapons and the most powerful equipment, and keep them updated over time."
All you have to do is help me resolve some hidden troubles and enemies, and verify the equipment data and usage experience you use."