After the dishes were served, the two men's relationship began to warm up amidst the clinking of glasses.
"Fujiwara-san told me that the moment she called, you immediately agreed to dispatch the Police Guard to rescue me. I was very touched when I heard that. Come, I'll toast you again."
Given their professions, neither man wanted to drink alcohol, so they were both having sparkling beverages.
"Not at all, not at all, no need to be touched. The duty of the Police Guard is to eliminate Monsters and protect the citizens; it's just my job," Hamaka waved his hand and drank the beverage with Aomori.
"I have to be honest, I truly admire you heroes, that you have the courage to actively fight these kinds of Monsters. If I'm being honest, when I went to examine the corpse of that Centipede Monster, I couldn't even muster a sliver of will to resist when standing in front of it."
"One cannot generalize about the physiques of different people. Perhaps I came to this world for the purpose of eliminating Monsters," Aomori replied lightly, before shifting to another question: "Hamaka, your Police Guard was responsible for handling the Monster corpse in the end, right? Did you notice anything unusual about it?"
"Unusual? The only thing that qualified as unusual was... its head. That section of the corpse was just an empty husk. At the time, we thought it was just Tatsumaki-san's morbid sense of humor and didn't look into it further."
After the Martial Arts Tournament, Aomori had stated in an interview that he was rescued by Tatsumaki.
"Just an empty husk?"
Did Elder Centipede pull off a cicada shedding its shell maneuver and escape? It was highly likely. The vitality of those bugs is tenacious; in the original work, Elder Centipede might have used a similar trick to narrowly escape from Blast.
"Aomori, is there a problem with that?"
"I suspect it might not be entirely dead."
"Ah?! This, this, this..." Hamaka stood up in shock. If a huge Monster like that were to make a comeback, the trouble would be immense.
"It's fine, it's not a big problem. Even if it survived, it won't recover for at least two or three years. There's no need to be overly anxious about it right now."
"That's true," Hamaka sat back down and drank some beverage to calm himself.
After a brief silence, Aomori raised a topic: "Hamaka, do you intend to stay with the Police Guard forever?"
"Why do you ask that?"
"Because anyone with eyes can see that the Police Guard's situation isn't good. Despite your dedication, Hamaka, a clever housewife cannot cook without rice. Against the Centipede Monster this time and last time, conventional weapons and equipment are completely ineffective. Do you want your team members to sacrifice themselves in vain?"
"Ai~" Hamaka finished his drink in one gulp, let out a burp, and sighed helplessly.
Aomori patted him on the shoulder and said softly, "Speaking from the heart, you, Hamaka, are the only Police Guard Chief I truly respect. You're the only high-ranking official I've ever seen who leads from the front and cares so much for the citizens."
"Aomori..." Hamaka was deeply moved.
"As a friend, I want to help you."
"H-how can you help?"
"I'll take you somewhere in a moment, and you'll know."
"Alright!"
…
After the satisfying meal, Aomori got into Hamaka's car, heading to the Purple Shield company.
Upon reaching the destination, Hamaka realized. "This is the robotics company you endorsed, right?"
"That's right. To be frank, I am the boss of this Purple Shield company."
"No wonder!"
Aomori always went for high-end endorsements, representing major brands. When he suddenly became the unlimited-term spokesperson for a robotics company, the company's products became a huge hit, and people widely speculated about Aomori's relationship with it.
"I didn't intend to hide it, but it's not the right time to make an announcement yet. Let's go, I'll give you a tour."
"Oh, okay."
With the aid of capital, the Purple Shield company had been completely renovated, brimming with technological flair. Even the main entrance was a spiral induction door commonly seen in sci-fi movies.
They proceeded along a dedicated viewing path, first arriving at a product display area.
The current display area contained only a sparse dozen products. Domestic cleaning robots and butler robots accounted for the majority and were currently Purple Shield's main source of profit.
Next, they observed the research scenes in the laboratory and the assembly lines in the production workshop. Walking along, Hamaka was dazzled and thoroughly impressed by Purple Shield's external presentation.
He couldn't help but exclaim, "In just a few years, this will be another super conglomerate."
Finally, they arrived at the spacious product testing area, where many technicians were busy working.
"This is the product testing area, where we check the performance of our products. We have many unreleased new products here. Hamaka, would you like to try one?" Aomori asked with a smile.
"Hmm, I suppose so." Unable to resist the warm invitation, Hamaka agreed.
He walked past the diverse products, momentarily unsure which one to try.
"Let me recommend one." Aomori led Hamaka to a steel suit secured to a large box and said, "This is Purple Shield's latest model of single-soldier exoskeleton armor."
"It looks amazing." Hamaka immediately loved its rugged appearance.
"It has a new feature: it can be worn autonomously, greatly reducing manpower and time."
Aomori instructed Hamaka to step inside the large box and stand in the designated spot. After pressing the start button, mechanical arms automatically disassembled the steel suit, fitting each component onto Hamaka's body. The entire process took no more than 20 seconds.
"Wow, cool!"
After putting on the single-soldier exoskeleton armor, Hamaka was as excited as a child.
After a brief familiarization with the controls, Aomori led him to a large metal plate over three meters tall.
"This is memory metal. No matter how much force it receives, it can restore its original shape. At the same time, we can roughly calculate the value of that force based on the degree of deformation. Now, try to hit it with all your might."
"Alright!"
Hamaka aimed at the center of the metal plate and punched with all his strength. Accelerated by the suit's thrusters, the punch violently smashed a deep indentation into the metal plate.
The display screen above showed the number "24376 kg".
"24376 kg? Did I really hit with 24 tons of force?" Hamaka was astonished. That was enough force to smash an armored vehicle.
Afterward, Hamaka effortlessly lifted a tractor using the exoskeleton armor and dismantled it with two punches.
"This feeling is incredible." The sheer power was captivating.
"In addition, it also has a managed mode, making it easy for laymen to use."
"Hamaka, think about it. If the Police Guard members could all wear this single-soldier exoskeleton armor, they could easily deal with common Monsters, right?"
"Yes!" Hamaka immediately said, without waiting for Aomori to speak: "I'll buy it! I'll buy all of them!"
But the words were barely out of his mouth before he regretted them. They didn't have enough funding. Where would they get the money to buy all this exoskeleton armor?
Yet, not buying it was unbearable.
He was conflicted, distressed, and worried.
Just then, he heard Aomori say, "No. Discussing money hurts friendships between friends. I'll gift you a batch of the single-soldier exoskeleton armor."
"I don't know about that," Hamaka was conscious of his public image.
"What if it's the fee for the Police Guard to endorse our company?"
"Endorsement fee?"
"Exactly. The Police Guard endorses the Purple Shield company, and the Purple Shield company provides equipment to the Police Guard for free. This is a win-win situation, isn't it?"
There was one more important reason Aomori didn't mention, which was to strengthen the armed forces of Z-City and curb the development of the Monster Association.
So, this was another triple win!
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You can read the ahead chapter on Patr-eon if you're interested: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]