Crack—
A strange, tearing sound split through Leo's head as his main consciousness switched back to the Cyberpunk world.
[Unstable energy burst countdown: 12 hours]
[Energy burst density and intensity increasing]
[Time synchronization error detected]
[Little Octopus: Boss, something's wrong!]
A bizarre dizziness lingered in his brain. Leo reached for the computer and plugged in the neural interface.
He was inside the Aldecaldos factory now. The computer was one of the internal network ports—once connected, the backup servers' computing power was mobilized at full scale.
The problem Little Octopus noticed was the same one Leo saw: in the instant the worlds switched, the data density received in the Marvel world multiplied geometrically.
In other words, one second passed in the Cyberpunk world, while ten seconds passed in the Marvel world—and the data volume multiplied accordingly.
The one good thing was that Leo had run into this before. While developing the cross-dimensional production system, he'd already noticed the issue, so the whole system didn't collapse.
The two worlds flowed at different speeds, but only an observer like him could perceive it as a problem.
For the servers, the spike in data density meant higher processing difficulty. But for the machines, dual timestamp authentication prevented production errors, because both worlds used a 24-hour clock.
The downside was that it would overload the servers directly. Thanks to the huge number of backup servers, it wouldn't instantly blow up the cross-dimensional production system—but clearly, if this state persisted long enough, the servers could crash.
If the flow-rate gap widened further, the current servers wouldn't be able to hold.
Fortunately, the 1:10 ratio quickly eased, fluctuating between 1:2 and 1:3.
But before Leo could breathe out, the numbers on the system panel began to jump abruptly!
[Unstable energy burst: 12:11]
[Unstable energy burst: 10 hours]
Leo stared at the numbers, a flood of thoughts flashing through his head.
If the world-jumping was caused by some special experiment Roxxon was conducting in secret, then as Roxxon's resources grew, they would definitely increase the frequency of those experiments.
Meaning the intervals between jumps would get shorter—exactly what was happening now.
So what would happen when the interval hit zero?
[Little Octopus: Boss, this feels really bad. The race is about to start—what if we get clipped by the timing?]
Leo pinched the bridge of his nose.
[Leo: It's fine. We've got plenty of points we can use to switch home field. Let's check the car.]
Everything that could be done in the Marvel world had been done.
Sinking the carrier. Shattering the Sixth Fleet's plan to seize Somalia directly. Building a frontline at Galkayo. Protecting the logistics system of southern Africa.
Africa's mineral resources were extremely abundant. Even if they were fully sanctioned one day, they wouldn't just drop dead immediately.
In the short term, the U.S. military definitely wouldn't launch another offensive. The popular vote was only a few days away; once it ended, the next president was basically decided, and policy could shift.
All Leo had to do was hold the foundation and economic mass they had now, so that when Barnes took office and reversed the offensive, they could withstand the gap Roxxon left—
At least withstand part of it. That would flip the strategic posture. Without the U.S. military, Roxxon would find it hard to organize a sufficiently professional army in the short term.
Stretch the timeline out, and Leo was confident he could remove Roxxon's influence from the world through a relatively peaceful economic transition.
Even if something went wrong and the presidency ended up with the opposition, they'd still gain a significant buffer window.
After turning it over again and again, Leo shook his head. Now he needed to focus on what was happening here.
Bang!
The one-piece forming machine opened, and a complete vehicle body shell appeared in the center of the floor.
The shell used the same armor-piercing alloy Osborne Group had originally applied to the Rhino armor and the tips of the Scorpion suit.
After multiple rounds of experiments by the engineering group and the materials lab, they finally identified and found a superior forming solution—
[Chrony Titanium Alloy]
[Description: A superalloy mainly composed of titanium, nickel, tantalum, with trace amounts of gold and silver.]
[At the nanoscale, a high-pressure electron beam is used to control metal nanopowder into a special structure, then sent into an environment exceeding 10,000 atmospheres for high-pressure sintering. Forming temperature must exceed 3,500°C.]
[Once formed, it is difficult to machine further; only laser surface polishing is possible.]
[Reverse engineering successful]
[Technology Points awarded: 500]
[Current Technology Points: 15,000]
"One last attempt. The best result."
By the console, Mitch watched the data, visibly excited.
This attempt produced the most ideal process data and the most ideal exterior inspection readings.
The first step of Chrony titanium alloy processing wasn't something a slapdash crew could solve: you had to control nanoscale metal powder, then manipulate it with an electron beam.
Luckily, this "nanoscale" wasn't so tiny that it became impossible—at the moment, the working scale of their nanosurgical robots could barely meet the requirement.
They programmed and modified the nanosurgical robots, electrified them, and had them control the powder at nanoscale to complete the mixing.
This plan was refined by Dr. Otto, but unfortunately, nanorobot production was a technical craft, and ultraminiature chip manufacturing exceeded the machining capabilities of both worlds, so all the raw material for that part had to be bought on the black market, and it wasn't cheap.
Then came the ultra-high-pressure, ultra-high-temperature sintering. If they hadn't gotten that high-density precision machining equipment from Maelstrom, they really couldn't have pulled it off.
Honestly, good stuff—Maelstrom had no education, they didn't even know how to use it.
But accordingly, the raw materials, the nanosurgical robots, and the electricity burned every time they powered up that machine…
It really made you feel how money wasn't worth a damn anymore—there were even plenty of things you couldn't buy without connections.
Still, the result was worth it. Just looking at the frame made you feel its brute force.
V and Jackie practically pressed their faces against the glass, eyes wide as they watched:
A lot of street kids had no interest in learning tech, yet they were full of desire for every kind of industrial product.
But watching this process… the two of them suddenly felt like they should study hard. If you couldn't understand the tech, fine—but if you couldn't even come up with words of amazement, that was just embarrassing.
Lasers swept back and forth across the freshly finished frame and the body shell, preparing for assembly.
As the temperature dropped, laser polishing ended. The shell revealed a mirror-smooth surface—sleek lines, sharp and hard-edged.
Workers loaded with assembly programs began building and assembling the chassis and internal framework with tense focus—
Every part was delivered from another one-piece forming machine. Wearing exoskeletons, the workers removed their assigned parts and worked with moving mechanical arms, precisely positioning alloy plates weighing hundreds of kilograms onto the assembly platform.
Deep-blue welding arcs flashed continuously, piece by piece, stitching together the "Legend" chassis. The blast-proof surface was composed of dozens of small, movable Chrony titanium blast-proof metal plates. As for why they were controllable, because they would integrate into Mackinaw's unique AI central control.
The chassis, suspension, drive motors, and other systems reached an octo-arm-level of super-fine mechanical precision.
The outermost blast armor would shift microscopically in response to explosions, and when necessary, trigger the internal electromagnetic locking system, deflecting and altering blast and attack angles to achieve reactive-defense effects.
The suspension would respond to road changes on the millisecond level, providing stiffness adjustment of ±20%.
The tires were equipped with an electrostatic adsorption system, delivering absurd levels of grip—if necessary, in theory, it could even climb walls.
In addition to these passive defense systems, the intelligent targeting system inherited from the Kang Tao Yinglong had been completely refit into an AI-controlled active defense system. The body carried 20 micro defensive-missile ports, with a capacity of 120 rounds.
When the body assembly finished amid the electric light, two high-mobility Burst Gonkai motorcycles were sent into the cargo bay, along with a bio-powered XS-1 power armor custom-built for Jackie.
The rear cargo bay was a full-on armory. It also included the weapons Leo's trio might use in everyday operations: the electromagnetic sniper rifle Nekomata, the assault rifle Achilles, the heated knuckle gauntlets, and the smart SMG Yinglong—plus corresponding mod parts and ammunition, to handle as many situations as possible.
Of course, there was also a high-energy edible-fluid storage tank—
Jackie's pantry.
The core driving this behemoth was the Mackinaw Company experimental engine, refit by Dr.Toomes using advanced turbine sets—
Now it had a name:
["Vulture" turbocharged engine set]
[Description: Improved efficiency based on Mackinaw Company's original, slightly increased volume, added an electrical energy conversion system and parallel drive-motor linkage.]
[5,800 horsepower. Maximum thrust 260 kN. Lets this beast run like a race car.]
[Developer: Dr.Toomes]
[Note: Experimental device, but with slight configuration changes it could be mounted on a tank—maybe even some small aircraft. I'll try it.]
[Also, prepare a large enough fuel tank. Otto's battery is good, but it's not enough.]
Bang!
The shell slammed down. Final assembly was complete.
Current surged. System self-check began. Reactive armor and active defense systems started to move—
The beast came alive.
"Holy…" V's eyes looked like they were glowing. "That's insane."
Jackie's hand swung around behind him without a target, like he wanted to pat Leo, but he also didn't want to take his eyes off the beast.
"Mano… how much is this thing?"
"1.5 million. That's the cost. If we sold it—"
[Transfer: +1,000,000 eddies]
[Transfer: +500,000 eddies]
Before Leo could finish, the two of them sent the money at the same time, then charged straight into the floor like they couldn't wait another second.
"Oh, right." Halfway there, V turned back. "You owe me!"
Debt +500,000.
Leo nodded expressionlessly and started to stand up as well, preparing to go down and inspect it.
But the moment he rose, he felt warmth by his ear.
His ear was bleeding.
And it wasn't just this body bleeding.
[Little Octopus: Boss…]
[Leo: Not a big problem. At least we've still got a few months to live.]
[Leo: Enough time to screw up Roxxon and Night City.]