Haibolun Industrial Park.
Luke Lab.
Luke was controlling the robotic arm, carefully inserting a crystal blue, translucent chip filled with fine lines inside, only 1 cm long and wide, and 0.5 mm thick, into a round tower-shaped slot.
[Installation completed]
[Lock activated]
[Do you want to activate the device? ]
Luke cautiously retreated more than ten meters and activated a series of laboratory protective measures before saying to Queen Bai, "Activate the device."
"Device activated."
On the lab monitors, and before Luke's very eyes, the palm-sized, round, tower-shaped device suddenly emitted a brilliant blue light. The next moment, everything around it, including the lab bench it rested on, vanished in a flash, as if encountering a blue black hole. The round tower, having lost its platform, plummeted to the ground.
"The experiment was successful. Congratulations on successfully creating wearable space equipment." Bai Hou's voice was filled with anthropomorphic joy as she congratulated Luke.
Luke shook his head. His original plan was to transform Dark City into a semi-dimensional space using energy stacks, but even with the mages' utmost dedication, the project would still take quite some time to complete. The only good news was that most of the Dark City's energy core materials had been processed and could be delivered for transformation and assembly.
During this free time, Luke also needed to re-verify and experiment with his techniques, especially the vast amount of knowledge he had just gained from the Rubik's Cube. Although he hadn't digested much of it, and had only grasped a small portion, it was enough to give Luke more inspiration and modifications for the construction of Dark City. Of course, he also needed to seize this time to verify some of the pre-existing technologies. Then, he would take the revised blueprints and go to the Mage King to order a new batch of dimensional materials.
Now that he was halfway to his goal, there were many things he could consider. For example, could he improve the civilization level of the atrium? After all, the accumulation of knowledge would be of great help to his perfect promotion.
"Proceed to the next step of the experiment," Luke ordered. Putting the item away was only half the battle; getting it out intact was necessary for the experiment to be considered a complete success.
[Do you want to activate the device? ]
"yes!"
As Luke's voice fell, the surface of the round tower-shaped device was once again covered with azure light, and the objects that had been swallowed by it before reappeared in the same place intact.
There were no accidents in the collection and release. Even though there was a strong premonition of success at the beginning of the experiment, to be rigorous, it still needed experiments to cooperate and prove it.
"Save the experimental process." Luke ordered.
[Saved]
The White Queen quickly gave her answer.
"Let's proceed to the next experiment, living body storage," Luke ordered.
[The experimental mice are ready]
The robot controlled by the White Queen placed the cage containing the white mouse into the storage area of the round tower-shaped instrument. She controlled the robot to retreat, restarted the surrounding laboratory defense system, and asked Luke again.
[Do you want to activate the device? ]
"Yes." Luke said.
The disappeared azure light reappeared on the surface of the round tower-shaped object, and then all the surrounding objects, including the little white mice in the cage, were swept away by the azure light and disappeared from the laboratory monitor and under Luke's eyes.
This time, without Luke saying anything, the White Queen started the release process again.
The mouse was still alive, but appeared frightened. This indicated that a living being within the space wouldn't die for a short period of time, at least not for an instant. However, this didn't mean that a living being could survive in this space for long.
Will there be any sequelae after going in and out?
If so, how will the sequelae manifest? Will they endanger the lifespan and health of the living being? Will they lead to death for some reason?
If not, how long can a living organism survive in space? According to the principle, space is a closed space and cannot sustain life for a long time.
The purpose of this experiment is not to verify whether life forms can survive in space, but after achieving the goal, it is possible to continue the experiment and accumulate observations for future goals.
If the storage and release functions work without any surprises, then the rest will be based on your thoughts, allowing you to store or release specific items at specific locations. For example, if you want to store a needle? The device will need to read your thoughts and not store other items within the storage range if there are other items.
This may sound difficult, but the simplest approach initially is to simply control the output energy. With a sufficiently robust algorithm, this should be achieved at least eighty times out of a hundred. With more sample data and richer experimental data, the success rate would be even higher! Going even further, the weight and volume of objects can be estimated visually by human consciousness or calculated with some measuring equipment. This result can then be fed back to the spatial equipment, which then uses the equipment's built-in conversion formula to control the output energy.
The same applies to release.
Of course, if you're unconvinced by the convenience and speed of mind access, or have concerns about it, you can also use voice control, image control, or other control methods. This simply involves replacing the mind access module with an intelligent system control module. While this latter control mode may introduce some inaccuracies, as long as the intelligent system is sufficiently intelligent, it can achieve similar results, albeit without the speed and accuracy of a mind access system.
Luke allowed a hundred flowers to bloom, because at least they could add to his technical reserves in other areas. He needed them anyway, and it was all profitable.
If he encountered another Chitauri invasion, he wouldn't need to lug around two metal bodies. Of course, this was just a transitional phase. Once he successfully built Dark City and channeled all his energy into creating a demi-dimensional plane, Luke would have a readily accessible, integrated material warehouse, arsenal, laboratory, energy room, and mechanical troop reserve.
After installing the Rainbow Bridge technology, it could occasionally serve as a means of escape and a summoning tool, which greatly enhanced his originally insignificant sense of security.
Is it necessary to continue upgrading the chip master machine technology?
After completing today's experiment and cleaning up the experimental site, Queen Bai asked Luke.
"I'm too busy to do anything else. I'm not interested in upgrading the chip motherboard technology right now. You can expand the technology on your own, and after the division, hand it off to researchers in other labs for research and brainstorming as usual."
"In addition, you'll need to allocate some computing power to mass-produce the existing mother machine." Luke nodded. He planned to postpone all technical and equipment upgrades until after the establishment of Metal City. However, he could assign more work to Heberon's researchers in the early stages. Besides technical upgrades, he couldn't be expected to do everything, right?
The latest mother machine used in the lab to create and cut spatial storage chips is probably version 2.0, already an upgraded version. Its cost and materials are so expensive that even Luke feels a pang of pain. It even uses rare dimensional materials processed by the mages! These materials aren't readily available to the mages. Furthermore, the Sorcerer Supreme has nearly exhausted his entire fortune to build Luke's Dark City. After all, anything that the Ancient One has dumped into the warehouse must be a rare dimensional lifeform or a precious material.
Luke was now thinking about finding alternative materials, even if it meant sacrificing some of the mother machine's performance. As long as it could be mass-produced, it would be fine. Adding to the supporting facilities, this was a project far more complex than even a so-called chip.
…
Somewhere in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s detention base.
"A new supernatural being? Not a so-called Inhuman?" Nick gently jumped from the landing helicopter, the hem of his black windbreaker swaying chaotically in the strong wind. He strode into the base, seriously asking Hawkeye Clint Barton who was meeting him.
"You'll know once you take a look." Clint Barton handed a file bag in his hand to his superior.
Nick reached for it, quickly opened the file, and pulled out a stack of papers. On it were portraits and identification information for several people: five living, two deceased. Five of the seven had no personal connections, and the remaining two were brothers. All seven's identification information was normal, at least up to a month ago.
But after the Chitauri invasion, they disappeared for a while, and during this time, several of them seemed to have been wiped off the Internet. When they reappeared, they had changed.
"Mechanized?" Nick finally understood why Agent Clint was so certain it had nothing to do with the Inhumans, because these individuals had all undergone a degree of mechanization, or perhaps Chitauri humanization, transforming into beings that were half mechanical and half flesh.
"Yeah, whatever that physical change is, they can also use some special abilities, like shapeshifting?" Clint said a piece of information that made Nick's eyes narrow.
Agent May, who was following Clint, held a tablet in his hand. He opened a video and placed it before Nick's eyes. The video showed the two brothers among the seven. Their mechanization was more advanced than the other five. One on the left side, the other on the right, had already begun to transform half their bodies into machines. In the video, the brothers' mechanized arms transformed into cold weapons, showing off their abilities like weapons masters.
The enemy's transformed weapon was undoubtedly lethal. Had the capture team not been an elite group equipped with beast-class gear, the moment of contact would likely have resulted in casualties. This was especially true given the enemy's wielding of a Chitauri energy spear. Despite the sacrifice of two agents, and for safety's sake, the team dispatched the two resisting agents before the enemy could unleash their Chitauri energy weapon.
Agent Mei clicked on the remaining videos, all of which showed footage corresponding to the individuals listed in the profile. Without exception, these individuals possessed some degree of mechanized features, and depending on the specific area of mechanization, their abilities varied widely. For example, one possessed a diamond-shaped metal inlay resembling a third eye on his forehead. This mutant's abilities incorporated a touch of energy attack and mental intoxication. He was also the most challenging of the captured mutants. It took the death of two agents and the serious injuries of six others for Agent Mei, armed with the Mind Ring, to successfully capture him.
"What do you think is the reason for their transformation? Is it a mutation caused by some alien virus? Or is it some unnatural product?" After entering the base and watching the video and the paper information in the file bag, Nick looked at the five mutants being monitored by the camera through the screen in the main control room of the base and asked in a deep tone.
Clint and Agent May exchanged a glance. They both knew exactly what their boss's phrase "unnatural product" meant. If it was unnatural, then it must be man-made.
Clint retracted his gaze and said, "We've interrogated them separately, and the information we obtained is inconsistent. Two of them have gaps in their memories. They lost their memories of certain days, and we're trying to find a way to help them recover their memories of that period."
The other three were quite normal and explained some things. It seemed more like they had undergone some kind of abnormal transformation after deep contact with the Chitauri corpse.
"In other words, the worst case scenario. Alien virus, together with man-made disaster?" Nick threw the file bag in his hand onto the table in the monitoring room, pulled out a chair next to him and sat down with ease, rubbing his forehead with one hand, and said calmly.
"Based on the current intelligence, that's true," Clint replied in a low voice.
"Who is it? Stark Industries? Heberon? Vanguard Technologies? Or someone else?" Nick pointed out several companies that had the technical capabilities to achieve this in a short period of time.
Of course, Nick didn't think that Heberon and Stark Industries would get involved. After all, both of them were personal participants in the war that day, and even troubleshooters.
A man who is now a little weird is either appearing in media magazines to be interviewed, acting as the spokesperson and spokesman of the alliance, or staying at home in his Stark Tower playing table tennis, researching and renovating something.
The other was in hiding as usual, working tirelessly on his Metal City. According to Phil Coulson, the construction schedule was already full, yet Luke was still pushing for it.
After some research on the Chitauri, Nick admitted that the two men were possible. But he didn't think they would do something so out of character and behavior. One was arrogant and complacent, the other was motivated by profit. Their skills weren't that crude.