And, as usual, I have no clue if this thing's undercooked or burnt to a crisp straight from the author's kitchen
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(Kael Rukmono - June 30, 2011)
It's been two weeks since GLaDOS, or Caroline has been integrated into my… team, for lack of a better word.
And since being put into the server inside the Dreadons Gaming Chair, Confined to the server within the Dreadons Gaming Chair, she's been a torrent of data, starting with the crown jewel of Aperture Science: the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, better known as the Portal Gun.
And boy, I thank Dreadons because he has made a super large storage inside this Gaming Chair because the data given by GLaDOS is really big.
Once again, my Abilities Tinker: Minimization, the Sacred Gear Unknown Dictator, and Trait Magician came to the rescue, drastically reducing the energy consumption required for the Unknown Dictator's activation and also the Magician Trait makes it easier for me to get access to use various Attunements in Biome Blade than before which was only locked to Pure Clarity Attunements .
They enabled me to reverse-engineer and produce technology that GLaDOS and TB calculate would otherwise take humanity roughly two centuries to develop. It's a significant jump.
Of course, all this activity raised a few eyebrows with the owner of the e-waste yard where I regularly buy scrap tech and computer parts, but cash is a universal silencer. A little "extra incentive" ensured his curiosity remained comfortably dormant.
Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or Portal Gun itself can be said to be a technology that is truly very advanced even for the Nasuverse, where mystery degrades with human understanding, this thing is an anomaly. It's pure, advanced physics with no mystical frills, no dependence on belief. Its function, creating two connected portals through spacetime, is mind-boggling scientifically. Magically, it's a conceptual weapon that forges instant, temporary pseudo-gates, laughing in the face of formal Gate spells and teleportation arrays.
The Portal Gun works by opening two ends of a temporary tunnel through spacetime. From a purely scientific standpoint, it's mind-boggling. From a magical perspective, it's essentially a conceptual weapon that creates a pair of instantaneous pseudo-gates, bypassing the need for a formal Gate spell or complex teleportation arrays.
I spent the better part of the last two weeks, with the combined computational power of TB and GLaDOS, building a functional, portable Portal Gun, scaled down to the size of a hefty pistol thanks to my Abilities Tinker: Minimization. The Unknown Dictator handled the conceptual engineering and material fabrication, ensuring the physics didn't immediately turn the room into a singularity.
and it is different from the Aperture Science Portal Gun version which can only function on standard concrete surfaces or those that have been coated with materials from refined moon rock.
I changed my version a little so that the portal can stick to any surface
Naturally, this instantly made GLaDOS, or Caroline, realize how easy it was for me to create the smallest size Portal Gun while still maintaining the same full capabilities.
According to GLaDOS, the newest version of the Portal Gun she and Aperture Science had produced was the smallest version they had ever made.
"How utterly bullshit your ability is," GLaDOS commented with clinical disbelief, her voice a flat tone emanating from the chair's core. "Technology that required decades of sanctioned science and hundreds of… motivated volunteers to perfect, and you replicate it in a fortnight. In a more compact form and more flexible, no less."
"Heh... we have to thank Big G from Dragon x Deus for creating the Unknown Dictator," I mused, leaning back. "He probably knew that humanity's technological development would continue to advance while mysticism in the world would slowly die. It's just a shame we never got to see its true limits, since Ishibumi never expanded his worldbuilding."
But theory is one thing.
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Which is why I found myself later that evening on the outskirts of the same forest near Boston, UK, the very spot i used to test Shizu's Railgun Sniper Rifle. The dense pines were quiet under the twilight sky.
"Alright, field test time," I said, holding up the miniaturized Portal Gun. "Shizu, you're on observation and metrics. TB, monitor local space-time for any… unpleasant wrinkles. Caroline, you're theory confirmation."
"Affirmative, Master," Shizu stated, her target-eye already scanning the environment, a data-pad in her hands linked to the Chair's sensors.
"Monitoring dimensional stability, Shikikan!" TB chirped from my Omni Phone.
"Try not to tear a hole into a dimension filled with mantis-men," GLaDOS droned. "The paperwork would be excessive."
I took a breath, aiming the device at a large, moss-covered boulder about twenty meters to my left. I pulled the trigger. A soft thwip-hum echoed as a perfect, shimmering blue oval of energy, about a meter in diameter, adhered to the rock's surface.
"Primary portal established," I reported. "Energy draw is minimal, stable. Trait is helping intuitively… latch it onto space."
I turned ninety degrees, aiming at a thick pine tree another twenty meters ahead. A second trigger pull. A matching orange portal snapped into existence on the trunk.
"Secondary portal established. Pair resonant. The spacetime bridge is… holding. It feels… taut, but stable."
I picked up a pinecone from the forest floor. "Initial test: inert organic matter." I tossed it gently towards the blue portal on the boulder.
It vanished into the blue field. In the same instant, it shot out of the orange portal on the tree, following the conserved momentum, and clattered against the bark before falling to the ground.
"Transfer successful. No spatial lag,or molecular scrambling," I noted. "Shizu?"
"Sensors confirm instantaneous transit. Zero time delay measurable at our level. Object integrity: 100%," she recited flatly.
"Alright. Test two: directed momentum." I aimed the blue portal at the ground at my feet, and the orange portal up at a steep angle towards a clearing in the canopy. I stepped into the blue portal.
The world flipped. One moment I was on the forest floor, the next I was shooting out of the orange portal three meters off the ground at a 70-degree angle, arcing gracefully before landing with a stumble in a patch of soft ferns. The conservation of momentum was perfect.
"Master has achieved limited, assisted flight," Shizu observed. "Efficiency rating: high. Style rating: deficient."
"Hey, I'm a tinker, not a gymnast," I grumbled, brushing off leaves. "TB? Caroline?"
"No localized spacetime degradation!" TB reported cheerfully. "The bridge is clean!"
"The gravitational and kinetic calculations are performing within 0.05% of my original projections," GLaDOS admitted, sounding almost disappointed. "It appears your 'magic intuition' is patching the quantum instability that usually requires a dual-stage Heisenberg compensator. How… pedestrianly efficient."
"Well," I said, powering down the device. "I'd call that a successful test. No mantis-men, or black holes, just pure, spatially-bending utility."
"Adequate," GLaDOS conceded. "For a first field test. The form factor is… pleasingly ergonomic."
"We did it, Shikikan!" TB's hologram did a little spin on my phone screen.
Shizu simply gave a single, slow nod of approval.
As the sense of accomplishment settled, I turned to Shizu. "Now, while we're here, let's test the Mk. II iteration of your Railgun."
Shizu smoothly swapped her previous skeletal rifle for the new model. Inspired by the ARC-920 Railgun from Halo, it was a sleek, powerful piece of engineering courtesy of the Unknown Dictator, capable of holding three slugs before a reload.
She leveled the ARC-920 at a three-meter slab of reinforced metal I'd positioned earlier.
"Acknowledged. Commencing primary kinetic test." She fired.
This time, the sound was a deep, concussive THWUMP followed by a brief, focused white flash. The tungsten slug struck the slab with a deafening CRACK, vaporizing a chunk the size of a microwave oven.
"Analysis?" I asked, "Damage profile: Critical. Penetration: Absolute," Shizu reported.
I smiled. Two weeks of work, two monumental successes
"Alright, a successful test," I announced, satisfied. "Time to pack up and get out of here before any local decides to investigate the large, smoking hole in that poor metal slab."
"Affirmative, Master. Preparing retrieval sequence," Shizu stated, already moving with mechanical precision to gather the spent casings and the testing equipment.
We made the short, quiet walk back to the apartment. The transition from the isolated forest to my tech-laden room was jarring, but familiar.
I settled back into the Dreadons Chair, the hub of my entire operation. Shizu immediately went to the kitchen, presumably to begin preparing a meal that adhered to strict Intermediate Cooking standards (a benefit of the Queen of All Trades skill). TB and GLaDOS, now fully integrated into the chair's core, were already running background diagnostics.
"System integrity checks complete. No residual spacetime contamination detected," TB reported cheerfully from my laptop screen.
"I still say it's only a matter of time before he misaligns a particle during a jump and collapses a bathroom stall into the Andromeda Galaxy," GLaDOS commented flatly from the chair's speakers. "But for now, all engineering parameters are green."
I leaned back, pulling up my email on the laptop. "Well, I call that a successful couple of weeks. Two major achievements in tech development, and no international incidents."
DING.
An email notification, heralded by the familiar, distinct chime of the Starbearer system, flashed on the screen. My eyes widened slightly. Two weeks of effort had clearly paid off again.
"Oh, look who decided to drop by," I mused, clicking the message open.
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Starbearer ✦
Subject: Achievements and Rewards Tickets
The following Feats have been logged:
[ Feat #1: The Spatial Breakthrough ]
successfully reverse-engineered, miniaturized, and improved the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in two weeks, also removed the specific material restriction (Moon Rock/Concrete)
[Reward: 1x Platinum Item Gacha Ticket]
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[ Feat #2: The Kinetic Upgrade]
Upgrade the weapons you have made and improve them.
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[Reward: 1x Advantage Silver Item Gacha Ticket]
[Total Rewards Granted]
1x Advantage Silver Item Gacha Ticket
1x Platinum Item Gacha Ticket
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Have you ever thought about joining the ATLAS Organization or Wandering Sea?
Because if they find out, you might get a sealing designation if you keep it up.
Good luck again in the future.
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I stared at the screen, a small smile spreading across my face. "A Platinum Item Ticket, and an Advantage Silver one? Not bad for avoiding mantis-men."
and as usual, I roll the lowest rarity gacha tickets first to test my luck.
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Rolling Advantage Silver Item Ticket
[Gordon's Crowbar]
|Common Item|
Half Life - A crowbar that once belonged to the legendary Gordon Freeman. It has spilt innumerable alien blood, making it deal conceptually more damage to all inhuman enemies.
OR
[Gale Force Reading Glasses]
|Uncommon Item|
Fairy Tail - A magical item in the form of a pair of spectacles. Wearing these glasses allows one to read books much faster. Allowing them to read any book they are holding 64x faster without sacrificing reading comprehension.
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So, the choice was between the iconic Crowbar from the same universe as GLaDOS, or the glasses that allow you to read books incredibly fast without losing comprehension.
"Sorry, Freeman, I think I'll take your iconic Crowbar next time," I muttered.
I was compelled to choose the [Gale Force Reading Glasses]. If I were to get a magic book from a gacha pull, my [Magician] Trait would work much better if I could absorb the knowledge 64 times faster.
and suddenly a simple pair of glasses with elongated lenses and a slightly large frame in red appeared on my desk
"ehh, it's not my favorite color, but it's okay as long as it works well"
and now only Platinum Item Tickets remain "Alright," I said, turning back to the screen. "Let's keep this going."
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Rolling Platinum Item Tickets
[Idiot's Guide to Einzbern Homunculi]
|Rare Item|
Fate - A guide to creating homunculi simplified enough that even a regular person can understand it without compromising its effectiveness, written personally by Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern herself. It details the process of creating Einzbern Homunculi, and more advanced Homunculi modelled after Justeaze herself, also includes the methods to build Homunculi vats and other related items concerning Homunculi production inside.
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A thick, leather-bound book materialized on the desk, radiating an unsettling aura of cold, ancient magecraft. It was titled in elegant, silver script: The Idiot's Guide to Einzbern Homunculi.
My jaw dropped, and the casual atmosphere in the room shattered into ice.
Einzbern Homunculi. The thought of the sheer ethics involved, the history of those tragic creations... I felt a wave of nausea. This wasn't just power; this was an instruction manual for playing God.
The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the low hum of the Dreadons Chair.
"Shikikan," TB's voice, usually bright, was now perfectly flat, the way it sounded when running mission-critical analysis. Her avatar on the screen simply stared at the book, her expression unreadable.
and for some reason GLaDOS also gave me the same look as TB
"Right," I managed, forcing a shaky laugh. I picked up the book, its pages feeling cold against my fingertips.
"I... I think I'll be skipping the late-night snack run for the next few days...."