After finishing the meal, Ryuji strolled around the Mechanical City.
The brick walls of the original Roran towers were now fixed with five-centimeter-thick solid steel plates using screws and gears, combined with axles and chains. Bridges were built to connect the various towers.
The original Roran area's buildings would be reconstructed as the central administrative zone, spreading outward to establish slightly shorter tower buildings as the military management zone. Further out, even shorter buildings would serve as the commercial zone, and then... and so on.
Using height levels to divide different zones, establishing a 3D city on flat ground.
But now, aside from the flight system area in the military management zone, even the administrative zone hasn't been fully reconstructed. Completing the entire construction plan is a long and arduous task!
After about an hour, Ryuji had toured the entire Mechanical City.
Then, he didn't know what to do.
Although he said he would rest for two days, after getting used to a busy life, suddenly having free time felt a bit uncomfortable.
"Should I go read a book?"
Ryuji scratched his head, feeling somewhat lost.
Although reading was a good way to pass the time, unless encountering unavoidable circumstances, he would set aside two hours every day to read. Now, using time specifically meant for rest to read felt a bit wasteful to him.
But besides reading, he couldn't think of anything else to do for leisure.
The Mechanical City wasn't built up yet; it was still only as big as the original Roran.
Although called a country, Roran only had an area of over three hundred towers, with less than a thousand citizens… it's not even as big as a small town in his previous life's New York, so there were no fun places.
"It seems I'm already accustomed to being busy. Might as well go back and do experiments!"
In the end, Ryuji sighed and ended his vacation early.
...
This time, Konoha compensated Sunagakure with 330 million ryo.
300 million was compensation for the Mechanical Bird and the Iron Fortress; 30 million was compensation for the 31 Sunagakure's Shinobi.
Yes, you read that right.
Thirty-one lives, even including two elite puppeteers who had mastered advanced Medical Ninjutsu and four elite Chunin bodyguards… even after tenfold compensation, their value was only one-tenth that of two puppets.
Although sad, this is the reality of the Shinobi World. A Shinobi's life isn't worth much.
Of course, one could also say Ryuji's puppets were too valuable.
War machines crafted with technology ahead of its time… the power they could unleash was definitely stronger than 310 Chunin. If sold separately, even at 500 million ryo each with no after-sales service, they'd be snatched up.
Because Chunin are everywhere, but machines like these can only be made by Ryuji.
And they are indeed worth that price.
Considering Konoha was mostly destroyed and, combined with the six-month-long war, their finances were tight, demanding 1 billion in compensation was something they couldn't afford.
Ryuji, who didn't intend to push Konoha to a dead end, factored in Konoha's financial situation and quoted a price of 300 million.
This way, Konoha would suffer heavy losses but not be struck down so hard that their front lines would collapse.
As for Ryuji taking a loss... how could he possibly take a loss?
The two machines were worth 1 billion, but what was truly valuable was Ryuji's knowledge and technology. In terms of material cost alone, it was only about 50 million.
Moreover, he recovered the wreckage of the Mechanical Bird and the Iron Fortress. Many components could be melted down and remade, so it wouldn't cost much at all.
"The Mechanical Bird is excellent for transportation and aerial firepower, absolutely essential. But the Iron Fortress..."
Ryuji pondered slightly, seeming somewhat hesitant.
The Iron Fortress was designed to prevent being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, aiming to quickly eliminate enemies who weren't strong individually but were numerous.
But after his body became a Sage Body, his Chakra, stamina, and mental energy were all abundant, and his recovery ability was incredibly strong.
Against human wave tactics... unless the numbers reached a certain level, they wouldn't be effective against him.
Therefore, was it still necessary to build the Iron Fortress?
"It is necessary!"
After some thought, Ryuji reached a conclusion.
He himself might not fear human wave tactics, but that didn't mean he could quickly eliminate enemies.
If a situation arose where enemies needed to be cleared quickly, the Iron Fortress could provide significant assistance.
Moreover, although Iron Fortress was originally designed to counter human wave tactics, that didn't mean it was useless in battles against powerful individuals.
Its various weapon systems, even the immensely powerful Railgun, could provide great help to Ryuji when facing powerful enemies, whether in close combat or long-range sniping.
Just like during the battle with Danzo.
If the threat of Iron Fortress sniping from the shadows hadn't distracted Danzo, making him wary, Ryuji wouldn't have achieved victory so easily.
Of course, its weaknesses were also very apparent.
That is, its large size, cumbersome nature, making it easily destroyed by experts.
But now, with Iron Fortress's wreckage in hand, melting it down and remaking it wouldn't cost much, so making one wouldn't hurt.
"Besides Mechanical Bird and Iron Fortress, Armor also needs to be completed as soon as possible."
The power of the exoskeleton armor was less than the Sage Body's own power, so it naturally lost its utility. As for the Armor derived and expanded from the exoskeleton armor, although its burst power surpassed the Sage Body, it was extremely limited.
And the weaknesses of Armor, with its inability to fully synchronize with the spirit and its cumbersome movement after wearing it, made it somewhat of a liability.
After all, Ryuji himself was already at the pinnacle of Kage-level strength. Wearing Armor would make him slightly stronger, but still at the pinnacle Kage-level, while adding two weaknesses.
Against an average Kage, Ryuji alone was enough.
Against another pinnacle Kage, wearing Armor might give an advantage, but it would also make it easier for the opponent to exploit weaknesses and turn the tables.
Aside from the auxiliary system having an advantage in predicting landing points for instantaneous movement techniques, which were otherwise unpredictable, the rest wasn't worth the drawbacks.
Therefore, developing new armor was necessary.
However, creating armor with performance superior to the Armor while also improving upon its weaknesses wasn't easy.
No, forget performance superior to the Armor; just improving the weaknesses while maintaining the same performance was a difficult task.
The weaknesses of Armor were that the auxiliary system couldn't achieve 100% synchronization with the spirit because the artificial soul was digitized, lacking the emotions a human should have.
And the cumbersome movement was due to its large volume.
To improve these two weaknesses, the armor's weight needed to be reduced, and the synchronization between Armor and his spirit needed to be increased.
But to ensure performance while reducing burden...
If such technology existed, Armor wouldn't have had these weaknesses when it was first created.
As for increasing the synchronization between the auxiliary system and the host's soul, the only way was to give the artificial soul all the emotions of a normal human.
But doing so would cause the auxiliary system to lose its artificial intelligence-like support capabilities.
Although Ryuji now possessed more knowledge and better technology than when he created Armor, solving these problems was still difficult.
But Ryuji had a very flexible mind. Since improvement was difficult, why not redesign it entirely?
The armor worn by Gareth and his group didn't possess any inherent power, but when worn, it reacted to the human body, enhancing physical capabilities and Chakra amount, and even allowed them to enter a Sage Transformation to achieve increased strength.
So why not change his approach and create something similar?
Sage Transformation armor was all bikini-style, three-piece, using very little material… definitely lightweight.
He just needed to improve the amplification effect and design it into the style he wanted.