Another relatively peaceful week passed after Reid's "private meeting" with Selene. During this week, the outside world essentially confirmed the performance of the Lightwave Thruster, affirming the feasibility of the Jupiter exploration mission.
The various nations' doubts about the New Misurugi Kingdom's new warship naturally ceased, as it was an interstellar exploration vessel and thus not subject to the jurisdiction of the Earth Sphere Peace Accord, even if it were built.
However, the nations would certainly monitor the warship's use strictly. If it were ever used for military purposes, the New Misurugi Kingdom would inevitably face a backlash from global public opinion.
Fortunately, for now, the Jupiteris was a symbol of the coming era of peace. The New Misurugi Kingdom even offered 100 slots to foreign scientific personnel to join the exploration.
However, the competition among researchers from various countries for these slots was far more intense than Reid had imagined. Many veteran scientists in their seventies and eighties wanted to join the expedition.
For these senior figures in the scientific community, who had already achieved both fame and fortune, a trip to Jupiter before they died was the perfect capstone to their lives. If they were unlucky, they could still return within a year to be buried on Earth.
As a result, in all three nations of the Earth Alliance, elderly men who should have been practicing Tai Chi in the park were seen engaging in no-holds-barred brawls at the entrances of their capital's science academies.
As for the younger generation, they didn't even dare to speak loudly in front of these former mentors.
On the rare occasion one tried to object, they were shot down with a single sentence: "You still have decades to live. I don't even know if I'll live another ten years. What's wrong with letting me go first?"
To be honest, neither Reid nor Une wanted to take these old men with one foot in the grave to Jupiter. These slots were meant to attract young foreign researchers.
With a year-long journey and 90% of the crew being Reid's people, they could surely turn some of them.
Therefore, the New Misurugi Kingdom simply announced that individuals over the age of 60 could not participate in the exploration. The reason given was that this was the Lightwave Thruster's first ultra-long-range interstellar voyage at an unprecedented speed, and the physical condition of those over 60 could not be guaranteed to withstand the rigors of long-term space travel.
This reason from the New Misurugi Kingdom was quite grand and proper. The various nations also didn't want these old men, who had contributed so much to their countries, to die in space. So, the old men could only stay home and furiously curse the New Misurugi Kingdom for not understanding the saying, "Though old, Lian Po can still eat." The selection process in each country returned to normal.
Subsequently, the nations received news that the New Misurugi Kingdom had rejected D.S.S.D.'s application to terminate the Starlight Transmitter research.
At the same time, they learned that Reid had, in turn, injected a large sum of funds into it. This drew the attention of the other four powers in the Earth Sphere to this research.
After some investigation, although some suspected that the project leader, Selene, had traded her body for the investment, more people preferred to believe that Reid saw the project's potential. After all, the Lightwave Thruster also used solar sail technology, making Reid an absolute expert in this field.
So, not only was the Starlight Transmitter project revived, but the other four powers in the Earth Sphere also gritted their teeth and contributed resources on par with the New Misurugi Kingdom, just to be able to share the results as soon as they were produced.
Reid had no intention of stopping the other four powers from investing. If they couldn't invest, they would surely do everything in their power to sabotage the project. In that case, no one would get the Starlight Transmitter, which would be an even greater loss for Reid, who needed to conquer other worlds.
In any case, the cost of converting the Starlight Transmitter into the military-use Voiture Lumiere was very high. Without a Factory Module, the other nations would be unable to mass-produce and deploy it.
For now, that was the situation with the Lightwave Thruster. Without a Factory Module to assist, even with the ground-based factories working as fast as possible, building the Jupiteris would take over a month. And without the 100% precise component construction of a Factory Module, it would be considered a success for the New Misurugi Kingdom's industrial system if the ship was completed in two months.
Of course, if it still wasn't built after two and a half months, Reid would use the Factory Module to fill in the gaps and ensure the ship was delivered and launched within three months. However, the domestic military factories would definitely have to undergo a major overhaul at that point.
The most crucial reason Reid came out of seclusion two weeks after these two announcements was to preside over the demonstration experiment for the Advanced Medical Pod.
Getting Andrew Waltfeld to be the guinea pig was a simple matter of asking. The ability to restore a severed limb and an eye was enough for Andrew Waltfeld to have the guts to try it directly, even if it meant being a pure guinea pig.
After all, in his own words, how could the Desert Tiger have the heart of a rabbit? He wasn't afraid of being completely naked in front of a crowd. It was definitely not because he was scared by the price list for normal treatment.
Since Andrew Waltfeld himself agreed, his superior, Lacus, naturally wouldn't object. In fact, she also came to the demonstration, following behind Reid with a smile on her face, helping to entertain the foreign guests.
Reid couldn't shake the feeling that Lacus was plotting something against him, which was why she was being so well-behaved. It made the hairs on his neck stand up.
Fortunately, no one caused trouble before the demonstration began. With the future health of numerous wealthy individuals in the Earth Sphere at stake, financial consortiums from all over the world were ensuring the security of the surrounding area.
The entire process was live-streamed (with critical areas censored, and on-site viewing from a distance) and was expected to last three to five days (depending on the actual regeneration speed). After his severed limb's wound was anesthetized and incised, Andrew Waltfeld was placed into the Medical Pod.
At the same time, his missing right eye was being re-cultivated after obtaining cells from his left eye. Once cultivated, it would be reinstalled into his right eye socket, and the nerves would be reconnected by nanomachines.
The entire process went very smoothly. Thanks to the powerful physique of a Coordinator, it didn't even take three days. After 69 hours, Andrew Waltfeld's left hand and leg had regrown, and his eye had been reinstalled.
When Andrew Waltfeld was reawakened and saw his complete limbs and full field of vision, he disregarded his nakedness and cried his eyes out outside the Medical Pod.
However, no one would laugh at him at this moment. He recovered his composure quickly, and by the time the medical staff put a patient gown on him, he had already controlled his emotions.
However, his newborn limbs needed a period of rehabilitation to be used normally, so he limped to the stage for the interview.
During the interview, the guy flaunted his tender, baby-like hand and foot the entire time. Contrasted with his own bronze skin, if the growth process hadn't been live-streamed, others would have thought his limbs were transplants from someone else.
Fortunately, the demonstration experiment had already proven that this Advanced Medical Pod could regenerate severed limbs. According to the data Reid released, aside from organs like the spinal cord, most of the human body's internal organs could be regenerated and replaced with a complete one, as long as healthy cells from the person's own organ were provided, guaranteeing no rejection.
Of course, the price for treatment using this Advanced Medical Pod was astronomical; common people couldn't even dream of affording it.
However, the New Misurugi Kingdom also offered Standard Medical Pods. Treating lacerations and puncture wounds was a matter of minutes, and bone fractures could be healed after soaking for a few more days. If a person's internal organs were severely damaged and their life needed to be sustained, as long as it wasn't the heart or brain, sustaining them for over ten hours was not a big problem.
To put it bluntly, the biggest customers for these Standard Medical Pods were the military. Ordinary people, aside from those who wanted to recover quickly after surgery, had no need to spend money on a Medical Pod. After all, a person could self-heal from ordinary flesh wounds in a dozen or so days.
However, functions like limb regeneration and organ replacement were in a league of their own. In the CE Universe, the success rate for such surgeries was extremely low, whereas the Advanced Medical Pod could guarantee a success rate of over ninety percent.
So, when Andrew Waltfeld's demonstration experiment succeeded, a group of high-ranking military personnel from various countries immediately applied to use the Advanced Medical Pod.
The treatment fee given by the New Misurugi Kingdom was astronomical, but for these soldiers who had status but had lost their health, money was a trivial matter.
Seeing this, Reid didn't reject them all. He chose one person each from the East Asian Republic and the Eurasian Federation for treatment, and they were cured four days later.
Afterward, reservations for the Advanced Medical Pod were closed. The New Misurugi Kingdom announced to the public that they needed to reintegrate the experimental data and would give further notice on when it would be available again. In the meantime, those in need could purchase or lease Standard Medical Pods.
This action by the New Misurugi Kingdom was just short of explicitly saying, "Come and buy our expensive Standard Medical Pods. Once you've bought enough, the Advanced Medical Pod will be available to you again."
However, at this time, the various nations had just been fleeced by Orb's rebranded Minovsky Particle nuclear fusion reactors, still had to allocate funds for their own domestic research on them, and had just invested another wave of capital into D.S.S.D.'s Starlight Transmitter project. They were truly out of money.
It was important to know that although the Earth Sphere Peace Accord limited the number of armaments for each country, every power was secretly developing the latest MS models.
After all, the conflict between the Atlantic Federation and PLANT had not been resolved, and the New Misurugi Kingdom was on the rise. How long this fragile peace could last was a complete unknown to the higher-ups of each nation.
Perhaps everyone should call the current peace the calm before a much larger "storm."
Therefore, among the four powers of the Atlantic Federation, the East Asian Republic, the Eurasian Federation, and PLANT, only PLANT, which had earned a lot of money from its industrial trade with the New Misurugi Kingdom, could officially purchase a large number of Standard Medical Pods to unlock the use of the Advanced Medical Pod.
The other three nations more or less needed help from their domestic private capital.
The East Asian Republic was the fastest. They quickly raised the money, perhaps because every smoker smoked two extra packs of cigarettes, and the price of cigarettes went up. (The author's real reason can't be written, so everyone can just imagine it.)
In the Eurasian Federation, the European nobles made a move. They were already planning to purchase a large number of Standard Medical Pods for private use. After the government conceded some power, the two sides naturally hit it off.
As for the Atlantic Federation, its domestic big medical capital directly bought a sufficient number of Standard Medical Pods. However, they would surely find a way to pass this cost onto the common people. In the future, if you got into a car accident in the Atlantic Federation, it was best not to fall unconscious and be taken away by an ambulance.
Of course, there were actually high-ranking and powerful people from all countries who privately contacted Reid and Ange about using the Advanced Medical Pod.
Reid didn't actually offend anyone. As long as the benefits were in place, these people could secretly use the Advanced Medical Pod.
However, the related technology for the Advanced Medical Pod was top secret, so these people could only come to the New Misurugi Kingdom for treatment.
It was worth noting that the invention of the Advanced Medical Pod was credited to Nanai Miguel's name. During this time, it was said that Gilbert Durandal was having a massive headache.
This was because the system had given her a historical identity as a senior researcher at the PLANT Genetic Research Institute.
Although she had gone through the proper procedures to leave the PLANT Genetic Research Institute and join the New Misurugi Kingdom, the people of PLANT didn't care about that. The netizens there were no different from those on Earth. Without any instigation from other countries, they threw all the blame for internal suppression and poor judgment onto the PLANT Genetic Research Institute.
The current director of the PLANT Genetic Research Institute was forced to step down for letting such a researcher go, and even Durandal, who came from the institute, was implicated.
Reid expressed that he was just a spectator in this incident. Currently, PLANT's diplomatic representative, George Adamant, was saying every day that he wanted to meet Nanai Miguel.
Unfortunately, Reid took all the blame, stating that his country's national treasure scientist was not available to see guests, and asked George Adamant to pass a message to Durandal: "Arrogance is one of the greatest obstacles to scientific progress."
Reid's words were a blatant mockery of the PLANT Genetic Research Institute for losing a talent because they looked down on research into human evolution.
Of course, Reid was also laying the groundwork for himself here, hinting that he was also researching human evolution, as a preemptive measure for the future reveal of Newtypes.
George Adamant didn't actually expect Reid to let him see Nanai Miguel just like that. If their roles were reversed now, PLANT would absolutely hide the person in a place no one could find, to prevent Nanai Miguel from being targeted by any other power.
However, Reid didn't come out completely unscathed. Lacus helped a lot with the reception and then, under the pretext of humanitarian aid, managed to get ten Standard Medical Pods from Reid for free.
Of course, the reason of "humanitarian aid" alone wasn't enough to get free Medical Pods from Reid. The key was that Lacus simply played rogue. If Reid didn't approve it for a day, she would go to the Royal Palace every day to squat and wait for him (having already convinced Ange to give her access). She used all sorts of cute and coquettish tactics.
Reid expressed that he didn't dare to "eat" this girl, nor could he drive her away, so he finally had to give in.
In short, with the exposure of the Advanced Medical Pod, Reid once again harvested a wave of private wealth from the three Earth Alliance nations and successfully recouped the money PLANT had earned from him for industrial equipment. It was a perfect conclusion.
At this point, there wasn't much more oil to be squeezed from the three Earth Alliance nations and PLANT. Reid also prepared to genuinely lie low for a while.
Reid needed to convert the money he earned into national strength, quickly fill in the system's technology tree based on the tech he had on hand, and open up some not-so-advanced technologies (which were still cutting-edge for the CE Universe) to external research institutes, thereby rebuilding the foundation for the New Misurugi Kingdom's scientific research.
However, this was a gradual process. After entering June of CE 72, Reid once again gathered his people to prepare for another assessment mission.
After this assessment mission, Reid planned to rest well for a few months. Murrue's due date was in two months, and Reid had to be there to accompany her during this time.
(End of Chapter)