[TN: Sup guy,s been very busy this week, but worry no,t here are the four chapters I owned this week from Monday to today, enjoy]
It has to be said, Frank is a natural-born combatant.
This was Frank's first recorded use of the exoskeleton in actual combat.
And on his very first mission, he already pushed the entire exoskeleton system to its limits. From the monitoring data, it was clear where the weaknesses of the suit lay.
The entire exoskeleton revolves around three key aspects: energy supply, biocompatibility of implanted components, and software.
The Tactical Walker Type-2 Exoskeleton uses lab-grade materials generously provided by Dr. Otto and Dr. Toomes.
High-strength alloys, carbon fiber composites, high-performance plastics, and advanced ceramics—
These materials were originally meant for their respective groundbreaking mechanical projects. They are expensive and difficult to mold.
Compared to the widespread use of bioplastics and various metals in the Cyberpunk world, this gear stands out as high-end and costly.
Its main advantage lies in extreme strength, but biocompatibility is poor, still falling short compared to the various prosthetic implant materials used in the Cyberpunk world.
In intense combat, the body experiences high acceleration, causing some organs to shift, compressing components, which leads to inflammation and worsens rejection reactions.
Currently, the only solution is to rely on the same kind of bio-filters and cell adapters used by Leo and Jackie, along with carefully administered chlorophyll-based immunosuppressants extracted from reptilian-modified organs.
Next is the software.
Unlike in the Cyberpunk world, where Leo can just plug and play with most implants, making small or large software tweaks on a common foundational logic...
Here, everything has to be built from scratch.
Writing software based on an existing operating system is one thing—writing the operating system itself is another. And what International Gene Cooperation Inc. needs to do now goes even further: they must start from basic machine language design.
Due to a completely different hardware base and architecture compared to the Cyberpunk world, they must start from the ground up, taking careful steps forward.
Even under these conditions, Leo managed to complete the most basic version of "Sandevistan."
To be precise, it's just a neural acceleration program that uses similar neural electric stimulation to speed up reaction time while coordinating motors for faster physical movement.
If compared to the "Sandevistan" effect (a kind of time-stop), the similarity is only about 3% to 7%.
Still, this is just the beginning—stable operation itself is a win.
The exoskeleton currently runs on batteries, graphene batteries salvaged from Dr. Otto. The advantage is that they are compact and easy to shape.
These batteries are almost like a single sheet pasted on the exoskeleton's back and have some structural strength. They were originally used in octopus arms.
While the batteries perform excellently, they are very expensive.
And there's a particularly annoying issue: when battery capacity drops to 10%, power output drops significantly.
Honestly, this performance is a far cry from what's depicted for Doctor Octopus in various works.
Come to think of it, everything Leo has encountered from the Marvel universe so far seems to be much less exaggerated than the source material.
Still, it's enough for him to claim a top ecological niche in the Cyberpunk world.
Frank has already completed five missions. The first was the rescue in Gunner, while the others were more like unexpected incidents.
As Leo reviewed the combat data, V sent a new message:
[V: I finished watching it and actually fell asleep.]
[V: That was so boring.]
In the other world, V had just ended her braindance session in her small apartment.
This was the first time she ever fell asleep while watching a braindance.
While Leo adjusted parameters and ran simulations on his computer, he messaged back:
[Leo: That part was kind of dull, but why are you only replying now?]
V removed the braindance gear and made a face.
She got out of bed and walked to the vending machine, grabbing a bag of XXL burritos, glancing at the wall clock.
She had actually slept for a full 10 hours!
Turning around, she looked at the empty room and noticed how different it smelled from Leo's place.
Suddenly, she coughed—
The air system was humming, and instead of the smell of baked cookies, tea, or flowers, the room was filled with the scent of oil and plastic.
The warm wooden floors and walls were now replaced by metal panels. Even though NightCorp had replaced them with a matte-textured pale yellow finish for better comfort,
it was still cold.
This tiny room had once been the little space she dreamed of having.
But now, it suddenly felt like something was missing.
A flash of the woman from Leo's braindance crossed her mind.
Feeling a kind of familial warmth she had never experienced before, her loneliness intensified in that moment.
She stared blankly at the slightly messy room.
Everything around her suddenly went quiet—
Only the soft hum of the vending machine restocking remained.
Click-clack.
"Damn... this feels weird."
V flopped back onto the bed, unable to find the words to describe what she was feeling.
But then, glancing at the chat window, that feeling vanished instantly.
She suddenly found herself interested in the next braindance.
[V: That's it? Just that one? Pretty cool, though. Where'd you get it?]
[V: This editing style... isn't this, what do they call it? Stream-of-consciousness or something?]
[Leo: At best, you could call it realism. I used... some techniques to make it.]
[V: Heh—some techniques? Sounds shady to me.]
[Leo: I'll send you the next batch of braindances later. Did you get any info on the guy selling black-market braindances?]
[V: Jimmy Kurozaki. Has some ties to the Maelstrom Gang. Waiting on Brick and his dimwit brother to confirm his location.]
[V: Should be confirmed soon.]
[Leo: Make sure to recover the cyberpsychosis braindances he has. Don't watch them yourself—those can cause neural damage.]
[V: Do I look like the kind of idiot who watches random mystery braindances?!]
Leo really wanted to jump out of the screen and smack her on the head, yelling:
Can you please take things seriously?!
[V: Wait, you're not coming?]
[Leo: Gotta stay here and edit your braindance. You and Jackie handle it. Or let David take a crack at it.]
[V: You're not coming?!]
[Leo: I'm not going.]
Suddenly, there was a pause—no messages for a minute.
Then a system prompt popped up:
[Otherworld Event: Your door has been forcibly opened. V has dragged you out.]
[V: You're coming too!]
You have been dragged away by V. To take further action, invest Tech Points to perform complex maneuvers.
Leo: …
Fine, whatever. Drag me away. Not like this is some high-risk op—at most there'll be a few military drones.
Back in his world, in the lab, Professor Connors and Michael were fine-tuning Frank's neural circuits.
Of the three issues previously mentioned—software and the biocompatibility of certain implants—
None were truly unsolvable problems.
With rising market demand and a flood of civilian cybernetic products, the constant investment, adjustments, and iterations would eventually get things on track.
The real bottleneck, however, was still energy.
Prosthetics could be powered by simple recharging, sure.
But for a large, mobile, and independent organization or entity, energy issues posed many constraints.
For example, the Vulture Combat Suit's energy system and the Death Trooper's specialized ammo both relied on extremely rare and high-energy materials—
They had to find out what energy tech the enemy was using—and surpass it.
Leo actually had intimate knowledge of an energy technology that could easily fulfill both long-term endurance and burst power needs.
A dangerous, yet captivating force.
He looked up—
toward the sun.
Nuclear energy.
[Dr. Otto: Leo, we've finished analyzing the fuel cells and bullets from the Vulture Combat Suit.]
[Leo: I'm on my way.]