"????"
Shamila, who had been looking down and writing, stopped her pen mid-stroke and snapped her head up.
Her mouth hung open, her pupils contracted, and she stared at the nonchalant Luca in utter disbelief.
She wasn't the only one.
Even the company employee temporarily acting as their driver for the new car couldn't resist the urge to turn around and look at the future heir of the company.
However, perhaps remembering his generous salary, the driver summoned immense willpower to face forward again.
But while he "focused" on driving, his ears were perked up, and his eyes kept darting to the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of Luca.
"Ma... Master, isn't that inappropriate? You're still young, that... that kind of thing..."
Hearing Auntie Shamila's stammering, nervous voice, Luca twitched his lips and forced himself to maintain a calm tone.
"Auntie Shamila, what are you thinking? I just need these things for my next invention. Just prepare them for me."
"But, but Master... the company doesn't make products like that," Shamila stammered.
"... I didn't say get them from the company. Just like the medical equipment, buy them from outside sources."
"O-Okay."
Seeing Luca's determination, Shamila bit the bullet and wrote down the word "vibrator" on the paper.
However, for this specific order, she decided not to delegate it to anyone else. She would purchase everything herself.
After all, she was a middle-aged woman. Though unmarried, she knew her way around shopping for these things and felt no shyness about it.
Her nervousness earlier stemmed purely from a maternal worry that Luca might be developing... strange habits.
Now that she had calmed down, she didn't dwell on it.
She stole a glance at Luca and found the boy staring blankly into space again, lost in thought.
Shamila sighed silently.
I wonder if Little Luca is thinking about a new invention or missing his parents.
Either way is fine. At least having something to keep him busy is good.
After carefully putting away the list, Shamila turned around and started pondering.
Should she have the temporary driver fired from the company, or just transfer him to a factory far away from the New York headquarters?
Meanwhile, seeing Shamila stop paying attention to him, Luca breathed a sigh of relief and sighed inwardly.
Being rich really is great.
If he didn't have the company and funds, preparing all these materials himself would be a nightmare. Ignoring the cost of trial and error, just finding the right items that met the "Synthesis Material" requirements would take a lot of effort.
But it looks like I'll need to hire a professional assistant to handle these trivial matters. Shamila is a soldier at heart; asking her to work as a housekeeper and secretary is really pushing her.
But that brought him back to the issue of controlling the company and funds.
Either cure Gina or get control of the company. I need to find a breakthrough soon!
...
An hour and a half later.
Greenwich, Connecticut. Seaside Villa.
It was approaching evening.
Looking at the piles of random items filling the villa's living room, Luca rubbed his throbbing temples.
"Auntie Shamila, go notify the combat squad to return and handle the material procurement first. Those two things are critical."
"As for this mess, I'll deal with it slowly myself."
After sending Shamila away, Luca slumped onto the couch in the middle of the living room.
This villa was an Aurantius family property in Connecticut.
Although not in New York City, it wasn't far from Lower Manhattan—just over an hour's drive.
Originally, the family of three would come here occasionally on weekends to escape the hustle and bustle of Manhattan and relax.
But now, with the Upper East Side apartment heavily damaged and Manhattan under martial law and chaos...
Luca had temporarily moved here, turning a "vacation spot" into a permanent residence.
Well, "permanent residence" was a bit of a stretch since Luca had spent most nights at the hospital recently.
As for the pile of junk in the living room...
Some were procured by subordinates under Luca's orders, and some were sent directly from the company.
It was a hodgepodge of daily necessities, toys, models, weapon samples—everything imaginable.
The main reason for this was that Luca still didn't fully understand how to trigger the "Core Components" of his cheat, or what kind of items qualified as one.
All he knew was that indirect images like photos or videos didn't reveal the glow of a "Core Component."
Helplessly, he had ordered people to buy random things and send them over for him to inspect personally.
But now it seemed this method was inefficient.
At a glance, Luca hadn't seen anything emitting the unique white light of a "Core Component."
"Looks like I can't keep doing this. It's too inefficient and troublesome to clean up."
"However, when I saw the Avengers, basically everyone had a Core Component on them. Starting with plot characters seems to be a viable strategy."
Then, Luca thought of the [Kick-Enhancement Shoes] he was wearing. Its "Core Component" was just an ordinary item found in a shoe store, with no fancy origin.
"Maybe going shopping and filtering through malls in bulk is also a good path."
While calculating these possibilities, Luca didn't start opening the packages to check them one by one.
Instead, he walked directly toward two boxes placed in the corner of the living room.
One was larger and printed with the Aurantius Industries logo. Clearly, these were the custom parts Luca had ordered from the company.
As for the smaller box, from the outside, it looked like an ordinary red medical kit with a white cross on it.
However, in Luca's eyes, this box was emitting a unique, glowing white light.
Yes, the reason Luca chose to come home today after spending so many days at the hospital wasn't just to sift through random items for new synthesis opportunities.
More importantly, he had indeed found another new "Core Component" during his time at the hospital.