The Arbalest had indeed been almost completely torn apart, as if it had been disassembled piece by piece.
But Kain had done his best to preserve one thing intact: the Lambda Driver unit.
Because at present, there was only one Lambda Driver unit.
And Mithril had no way to build a second one.
The person who had possessed the manufacturing technology had gone too deep into the Whispered domain. In other words, he had dived too far into the depths of his own mind to pry out even more technical knowledge. As a result, his mind broke down, he went insane, and then killed himself.
And as for the Lambda Driver system, Kain could now confirm that it was pure black technology, the kind of thing that would still count as black tech even in the Warhammer universe.
If this thing could be mass-produced and fielded, ordinary soldiers would be able to display powers similar to those of psykers. Superpowers born from technology, not superpowers driven by Warp energy.
If Warhammer's tech base could miniaturize it enough to fit inside power armor, it was hard to imagine how much of a boost it would provide.
Of course, the best outcome would be a major improvement in efficiency and output.
Otherwise, if it were reproduced exactly as it currently was, the effect would not actually be that impressive. For ordinary soldiers, the cost would not be worth it. Converting mental energy into brief bursts of high damage would probably be less effective than simply relying on a normal enhanced body's longer combat endurance and cumulative output.
It was like the difference between a warrior and a mage.
A mage could unleash high damage in a short burst, but once their mental energy was exhausted, their whole body would go limp and they would be left at the mercy of others.
A warrior, on the other hand, might not match that peak damage, but could keep fighting and outputting for a long time through sheer willpower alone. In the end, the total accumulated damage might actually exceed that of the mage, who still had not recovered.
And this time, Kain's feat of tearing the sea apart had left him feeling a little wrung dry.
Even now, his brain still felt like the morning after drinking far too much, a pounding, sluggish hangover.
And for something this valuable, there was only this one unit at the moment. He still was not even sure whether it remained in good condition.
That said, Amalgam had also developed Arm Slaves equipped with Lambda Driver systems, so there might be a way to get more from that side.
Hm?
A reminder from A2 told him to get ready to receive something.
At the moment, he was rapidly burning through his 3000G data allowance, moving goods back and forth between three different worlds.
For example, A2's side was sending over some useful technology and products to Tessa's world, or to Saeko Busujima's side.
And Saeko, in turn, had traded over more of the Earth Elixir she had been producing to Tessa's side, since they were providing some conventional weapons in exchange.
Also, after nearly ten thousand years of exploitation, A2's Earth had become a place where certain rare metals were difficult to obtain.
Tessa's side happened to have them, and they were already refined finished products at that, so they could be traded over directly.
Right now, everything was already prepared at the base and would be transported over for exchange.
"Mr. Kain, we'll be there very soon."
Tessa's voice came through his earpiece. She was currently in a warehouse on an uninhabited island.
The goods he acquired would be placed on the island, disguised as though some mysterious faction had transported them there for a secret exchange.
Otherwise, if too many things just appeared out of nowhere aboard the ship, it would create a huge problem.
"Got it."
He logged out of Hyperdimension Channel.
These past few days, more and more people had started paying attention to it.
And in some cases, the Works on his side and Kuroneko's side had noticeable differences.
Take SAO, for example. The version Kain knew, the light novel, included the Progressive arc. In other words, it told the story of SAO mainly from Asuna's point of view.
But Kuroneko's side did not have Progressive. Their version followed Kazuto Kirigaya as the male lead instead, and its details were far thinner than Progressive's.
As for the authors, the pen names were different, and their real names were also different.
No, not exactly different. More like they were similar. The names sounded the same, or almost the same, with only slight changes in pronunciation or written form.
Like the difference between two kanji both read as "Sa."
Over the past ten days, the returns he had gotten through Kuroneko's side had already reached nearly a hundred coins.
In addition, during these days they had also been discussing the progress of the energy bar and what specific factors affected it.
In the end, they had summarized the following theories.
First, the more people watched, the faster the energy bar rose.
Second, the more exciting and emotionally charged the story became, the faster the progress.
Both of those were fairly obvious.
What mattered was the deeper analysis that followed.
The energy filling the bar was definitely not coming from nowhere. It had to be absorbing something.
So after seeing Madoka appear, and after considering technology like the Lambda Driver that directly involved emotions and mental activity, Kain began to suspect that one possible source of the energy was emotion itself.
"Mr. Kain, the speedboat we prepared for you is waiting at Lock Three..."
...
The hangar.
"Are you idiots or what? Do I really have to explain this all over again?"
Kaname Chidori now looked exactly like a teacher scolding hopeless students who still did not understand after being taught several times. She looked thoroughly fed up.
"This part needs to connect to this interface. Like this."
She demonstrated it for him yet again, handling the system adjustments with the easy confidence of a true Arm Slave expert.
"Ohhh, amazing."
Kurz's praise sounded a little exaggerated, but it was completely sincere.
This high school girl standing in front of him really looked like an expert who had spent over a decade immersed in Arm Slave development.
Was this how terrifying a Whispered was?
"Miss Mao, this component still won't work."
"Huh? If it won't work, then strip it from Kurz's M9."
"Hey, hey, why mine? Why not yours, Chief?"
"Then take his."
Kaname did not hesitate in the slightest before designating that frivolous idiot's Arm Slave for dismantling, ordering one of its parts removed and installed into the brand-new M9 they were currently assembling.
And she did have the authority to do it. Tessa had given her that authority, because they were now helping Mithril assemble a second new Arbalest.
The Arbalest itself had originally been an M9 model with a Lambda Driver unit added to it.
And since the Lambda Driver unit had remained almost perfectly intact, in theory they could reassemble a prototype machine using existing M9 parts.
Under normal circumstances, nobody could have done that, because no one knew how to adjust the Lambda Driver unit or integrate it during assembly.
But Kaname had discovered that she could.
"So that's how it works..."
She stared at the data on the Lambda Driver unit. It was the exact data produced when that guy had used it.
He was way too clever. How had he even managed to operate this system like that?
It really was almost like that old turtle hermit from a certain franchise firing off a Kamehameha.
Of course, the reason he had used a pose like that when launching it was because he needed to fire the warhead outward. He could not just place it directly in front of the machine, or the force of launching it would have destroyed the cockpit too.
"Is this guy a monster? Why are the peak and valley fluctuations here this insane? He pushed it to the nanosecond level? No wonder his brain overheated. His mental CPU must've been smoking."
Kaname muttered in astonishment.
At the same time, she understood even more clearly just how absurdly capable that guy really was.
She could now say for certain that he definitely was not a member of Mithril.
If anything, he was more like a guest.
As for his real identity, Tessa had told her to think it over carefully before making any decision.
In other words, she needed to decide whether she wanted to return to school and live as an ordinary person, or become someone like Tessa and stand beside her as a companion.
So Kaname was still hesitating.
But before she made that decision, she wanted to give that guy a gift.
That gift would be a newly reassembled Arbalest.
"Nanosecond level?"
Melissa Mao, standing nearby, froze for a moment.
That was not human anymore, was it?
Could that guy actually be some kind of robot wearing human skin?
"Everyone, next we'll be stopping at that island. We'll be resting there for a day."
That announcement suddenly cut in.
"Oh? So that means we can have a beach party, right? And drink as much as we want? Boss Tessa, you're the best."
"Party my ass. Forget drinking. Finish assembling this thing first!"
Kaname ruthlessly shattered the blond idiot's beach party dream.
"Boss Tessa?"
"Just bear with it and work harder. Hurry up and finish it. I'll help too."
As she said that, Tessa rolled up her sleeves and prepared to help Kaname with some of the adjustments.
They wanted to finish assembling the new Arbalest as soon as possible.
And the fact that they were rebuilding it as a gift for him had not yet been mentioned to him at all.
It would be a small surprise.
"By the way, Boss Tessa, what happened this morning? Why did you suddenly order biohazard decontamination again?"
Kurz asked curiously.
Melissa beside him also looked puzzled, because Tessa had specifically called in female crew members with the equipment at the time.
Then, after hearing the question, the two of them saw both Kaname and Tessa go rigid at the same instant, their faces flushing red at alarming speed.
"Why are you asking so many questions? Get back to work. Sergeant Weber, if you keep running your mouth, I'll leave you behind on TDD-1 for duty."
Tessa seemed to flip moods on the spot and issued the threat immediately.
The question had clearly stepped on some hidden tail.
And the truth was that, in the end, she and Kaname really had let Mr. Kain help unlock the suits.
Otherwise they simply would not have been able to hold it any longer.
Even though the YoRHa No.2 Type B outfit had a function where that C-shaped component, attached to that snugly fitted area, could release something and even help discharge it, neither of them could bring themselves to just let it happen without taking the suit off.
In the end, because they had been pushed to the limit, they had no choice but to let Mr. Kain unlock them.
And the unlocking could be done simultaneously.
In other words, he could touch the C-shaped components on both of them at the same time and unlock both together.
But the instant he made contact, something happened.
That C-shaped device gave off what seemed like a tiny electrical discharge, and the result was extremely, catastrophically bad. Everything went out of control.
And then, after being processed through that C-shaped component, it was dispersed as a mist.
That scene had been so intense it had nearly made her black out.
So Tessa had immediately ordered Melissa to bring over the equipment for a full "purification."
They could not let that strange mist spread.
Because that, more than anything, would have been the most direct and undeniable form of evidence.
(End of Chapter)
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