The shouting of the Scholar of the West had alerted not just Ayse but the other researchers in the laboratory instance as well. They hurried towards her allocated lab as she happily showed everyone the prototype she had managed to reverse engineer.
It was not as small as the previous Steam Tech and instead had the appearance of a box with an antenna on it. For this particular research, Gold had personally gone out to help capture a few live Demon Rat samples (by killing all but a dozen and beating the rest to an inch of their life) that were placed in a prison cell and fed regularly while the System strictly monitored their behaviour.
No one was allowed to be near the Demon Rats in case they tried to do something like overpowering them and running rampant. The System did not wish to waste any souls resurrecting the researchers because of some simple blunder, so it had created a four wall prison cell where the food was thrown from the ceiling.
The walls were made of thick concrete which rendered the Demon Rat’s attempt to escape futile. Not only that, they were at least twenty metres tall with self repairing features. Even if they spent all their time and frustration to make a dent on the wall, it would be restored soon after. So far, those Demon Rats had not reached such a point of desperation, despite the many attempts.
The concrete wall was too smooth to be grabbed, and soon the Demon Rat captives realised that it was useless wasting energy and they more or less accepted their fate mostly by spending large amounts of time sleeping. However, today was special. The ceiling was fully open with a number of humanoids looking down at them.
Their hearts were boiling with rage as they shrieked loudly at their captors until one of them pointed a pointed stick at them. Soon their raging attitude was soothed without any assistance, and they started to become passive and returning to their lethargic lifestyle.
“See, it works! It managed to pacify them, but I haven’t figured out how to input the commands to get them to move like the Steam Tech prototype.” Weslie sighed, but Ayse congratulated her for managing to duplicate the signal used.
“Although I know it is not complete, I could use further input from engineering experts to be able to insert commands for them to move,” Weslie said as she threw a few baskets of food down while closing the ceilings and leaving them to the dark corners of the prison cell.
“I’ve received confirmation from the System that it had managed to convince a foreign engineer into our ranks, but it will take some time before he starts working for us. Meanwhile, give me the schematics of the Steam Tech. I’ll see if I can find a way to include Lost Tech into it. If I succeed, we might not even need the new engineer’s help.” Ayse replied.
Weslie began to send the data via the System’s projected console.
“But do you think wireless is the best? Since we have the Bug Steam Tech prototype in our hands and the signal, why not make a remote control that controls the Bug Steam Tech instead?” Orwell, one of the Elfish Humanoid Researchers who were there to witness the demonstration questioned.
“Yeah, we can perhaps use the Lost Tech for that, if I am not wrong… We should still have the Lost Tech Signal Amplifier blueprint lying around.” Geddie, another Elf researcher, commented upon hearing Orwell’s opinion.
“But I am not very sure how the Demon Rats will react to the signals produced by the Lost Tech amplifier. We will have to try out to learn if the Litoride Ore played an important part in this mind manipulation technique.” Weslie said.
According to her, Litoride itself was still a mysterious ore which had yet to be thoroughly researched. Even the analysis from the System was insufficient as it only indicated multiple unknown elements that were not yet discovered by the Scholars.
“We can give it a try. Orwell and Geddie. Recreate the Lost Tech Signal Amplifier and see if the signal from the amplifier works on the Demon Rats. Oh and tell Gold to get more fresh batches of Demon Rats too. We need a control group as well as to see how many Demon Rats can the amplifier be used on.” Ayse ordered, and the two other researchers began to work on it.
“Weslie, take a small break. Focus on other things instead. Perhaps a breather will give you better ideas on how to tackle the situation. Again, you’ve done well in replicating the signal source.” Ayse said as she dispersed the entire group of researchers off.
“But Ayse, one less hour devoted to this will mean that the Demon Rats have an upper adv-” The Head Orc researcher placed her finger on Weslie’s lips.
“Melis, bring this little girl to the Dungeon City Fortress and show her the Agriculture Sector 1 and 2. Let her familiarise herself with how the System raises the cattle.” Ayse pressed on an announcement speaker option on the projected System console.
“Now.”
“Aye, Mdm!” Melis, who came rushing into Weslie’s lab, grabbed the Scholar of the West by the waist and teleported her to Agriculture Sector 2.
“Ow.” Weslie seemed to knock her head on the ground, but when she looked around, the scholar was surrounded by many cattle from Jin’s world. The cow right beside her was chewing the grass nonchalantly as it snorted towards Weslie and Melis.
While the scholar showed off reflexes slower than a tortoise, Melis had already put up a barrier, stopping the snort’s phlegm in time before it reached them.
“Oops. Did not mean to teleport you straight here. When I heard Ayse’s instruction, this was the first place that came to mind. Right beside Sally.” Melis gleed as she stood up and hugged the cow right beside her.
“You could have given me some time to pack my stuff or something before coming here.” Weslie sighed in defeat and yet couldn’t be angry at someone who obviously loved animals so much.
“Nope can do. When Ayse tell you to take a break, you have to take it no matter what. She doesn’t care if the brain of yours is working 24 hours, but she demands that you are out of your lab every now and then.” Melis explained Ayse’s way of working.
“She knows that if we were to say later, the work in our labs will once again attract us to their side and consume us again. This is to ensure that we are not overly obsessed by our research, especially now when we have an immortal body by the System. We have all the time in the world. There’s no need to rush, unlike the days where our time was limited.” Melis said as she rubbed Sally’s chin.
“I see…I shall take your advice and listen to Ayse’s command then.” Weslie smiled at Melis as she stood up to take a stroll around for a moment.
“Oh, if you have time. Pick the farm products on the ground if possible. The System already marked them with a slight glitter, so it’s easier for you to see one. Don’t want you to accidentally step on an egg that was left on the ground.” Melis smiled as she threw a storage ring towards the scholar.
Weslie nodded her head and proceed with the menial task as a way to relax.
