Officer Ch'en saw that something seemed to be amiss here, likely unexplainable in a short time, so she exchanged greetings with Li Lin and went to the police department first to handle matters. Meanwhile, Li Lin sat down at the table with this short-haired girl, his head just as full of question marks as hers.
Rhine Lab had been having a hard time recently, and the entire Columbia was also plagued by continuous warfare. Although not yet reaching the level of total war, intense conflicts had already caused large amounts of capital outflow and technical talent flight.
Although the trend wasn't very obvious, areas not considered particularly critical had already begun to tighten gradually; some strategic departments had begun downsizing and consolidating, preparing to contract forces for a major event. And regrettably, Mayer was among them.
Mayer's Lutra Workshop was a workshop under Rhine Lab, responsible for the research, development, maintenance, and replacement of Rhine Lab's high-precision technological equipment. But this workshop was created as a replacement technology reserve to avoid being constrained by Raythean Industries. And now, having reached a life-or-death juncture, Rhine Lab could only sacrifice the pawn to save the king, selling off the original series of reserves entirely to temporarily overcome this difficult period. So, bioengineering series workshops received large capital injections, while other types of workshops became somewhat nominal. Especially after the war began, this phenomenon became even more pronounced.
The robotics workshop, which consumed large amounts of funds, could serve as a technology reserve during peacetime. But after the war era began, apart from biotechnology advancing by leaps and bounds, the economic exchange ratio of other series technologies wasn't very favorable in comparison, so Rhine Lab implicitly proposed dissolution.
Although Lutra Workshop seemed cost-effective, its mechanical structure and related research had almost no significant connection to bioengineering, and there were many similar outsourced workshops. Plus, Mayer herself disagreed with many experiments lacking a bottom line—this was the main reason—so Rhine Lab parted ways with Lutra Workshop. Mayer left with nothing , carrying her data and confidentiality agreements, drifting to Lungmen.
However, the developments in Lungmen were somewhat magical. Originally, Mayer thought she would work for some industrial or technology company in Lungmen, and applied accordingly. But unexpectedly, Lungmen's top leader, Wei Yenwu, actually sought her out. Even more unexpectedly, no domineering CEO plot occurred here; instead, Mayer, burdened with a heap of non-compete agreements, was assigned to participate in the activities of a secret department. And she was funded to establish another small workshop. Then she was just thrown to the equally bewildered Li Lin like this, sent off as a so-called gift.
Comparing notes, both were full of question marks, completely unaware of what the people above were thinking. It was as if they simply found something amusing and just threw the matter over. No reason, no thought, completely sudden.
A superior's sudden whim, and the two involved parties could only sit at the edge of the table complaining to each other.
"Is that so? Rhine Lab…"
Li Lin recalled the symbols and company names he saw on the forums back then, nodding with some emotion.
"I still remember this company. They were very famous on the online forums back then, said to be a very eye-catching technology group. Didn't expect there were so many internal issues. Even the officials could split and attack each other. You guys were quite unlucky."
"I don't have any particular feelings about it. Rhine Lab's atmosphere already had some problems; it was fine at first, but later started messing around randomly. I still remember a supervisor asking me alone to operate a centrifuge for six hundred people's samples, and also demanding sedimentation speed and adsorption rate. Six hundred people, eh? This thing is already impressive with ten people per group, asking me to do six hundred per group, how could I possibly manage?"
"Wow, sounds very stupid. Took way too big a step, right?"
"Tell me about it. And saying things like, Raythean Industries can do it? Raythean Industries can do it too? Raythean Industries this, Raythean Industries that. Raythean Industries specializes in doing these things; I'm just a workshop. What I'm good at isn't manufacturing medical equipment or large industrial equipment; what I'm good at is miniaturized machinery, right?"
"Miniaturized machinery? Like this?"
"Yeah, this child is called Meebo, very cute right? Although they are machines, I gave each of them a serial number and a name. They have different uses."
Upon hearing her professional specialty mentioned, Mayer immediately perked up, excitedly holding the little machine in her hands and introducing:
"This is mechanical Meebo number 45, my latest work. Main function is detecting the safety of the surrounding environment. Can detect rising Originium environment concentration within ten minutes, and can also extract some feasible suggestions through data calculation, and can even autonomously implement some construction functions."
"Is that so? A crude version of the universal insect machine."
"Universal insect? What's that?"
"Oh, an industrial machine used after large-scale Catastrophes to rescue injured personnel and survey the geological environment."
Touching the small Meebo, Li Lin said casually:
"Appears like a multi-segmented insect, has considerable resistance to impact and radiation, multi-joint movement allows free movement in complex geographical environments. Even under nuclear radiation—oh no, Originium radiation conditions, it can work for several days. Unless the critical point is reached and the material itself cannot resist, otherwise it's a machine that will keep working. Behind it is often an entire exploration team, used for surveying and mapping and opening the first route."
"But honestly, I always felt that thing was very ugly, and very unreliable. Didn't prove very useful during several Catastrophes. In the end, still had to rely on human lives to fill the gap. If a fully enclosed, self-propelled, self-operating machine could be manufactured, that would be okay, but I remember it seemed to have been built, yet wasn't used…"
"…"
Seriously, old man, where exactly are you from?
Mayer looked at Li Lin sitting beside her, holding Meebo and talking eloquently, the expression on her face seemed somewhat off.
The information she received was to listen to this Li Lin's ideas and concepts then conduct scientific research and development. Mayer initially felt it should be a very simple job, but carefully listening, this boss claimed he had nothing, yet everything popping out of his mouth was top-tier industrial design from Raythean Industries; Mayer suddenly felt somewhat uneasy.
"By the way, if this thing of yours is so powerful, you must have used genetic algorithms, right? What has it learned over so many years? Don't make it like an AI joke."
"Ge-genetic algorithm? Is it Raythean Industries' genetic algorithm?"
"Raythean Industries' genetic algorithm? Is this thing monopolized? I remember it wasn't very common…"
That really was a good thing.
Looking at the Meebo in his hand, shaped like the mechanical dogs of the past, Li Lin opened the sealed doors of memory and couldn't help but sigh with emotion