The current A40 is as fragile as dried tofu, easily taken down with a mere blow. This can’t go on; it must be upgraded.
The power supply system at Shijin Mansion hasn’t gone fully online yet. Xu Yang closed the doors and windows, leaving only a single lamp and a complete set of intelligent terminals in the middle, before immediately embarking on formulating an appropriate upgrade plan.
Xu Yang, as the boss, was responsible for making the final decision. Taro Tanaka, a genius in Synthetic Human development, provided the main suggestions. A40, as a frontline fighter, had a say in the matter. Additionally, Xu Yang contacted Miyazato Kazama for her outside advice on military equipment.
When Miyazato Kazama received Xu Yang’s call, she was still eating instant noodles, her hair laden with colorful curlers, planning to make her hair appear fluffier. She sat hugging her tablet, watching a comedy variety show.
In her room, her three glowing amber spirits were laboring arduously: one analyzing the academic journals from the Taixi Continent Research Center, another repairing a joystick twisted out of shape by 102, and the third was bent over the terminal, repeatedly testing a new neural algorithm model.
Upon seeing the call from Xu Yang, Miyazato Kazama quickly got up from the bed and joined the communication channel.
"Hello," she said, without turning on her camera, slowly removing two pink curlers from her hair.
"So and so..." Xu Yang stated his intentions.
Xu Yang had his camera on, so Miyazato Kazama could see A40 and Taro Tanaka.
This man had a vast reputation in the academic world, graduated from Lundinium University, and had made significant contributions to the field of third-generation Synthetic Human intelligence. He’d been ensconced in eyeball robots from his adolescence, never leaving them.
The Z12 Research Institute responsible for robotics technology had tried multiple times to recruit Taro Tanaka, but no offer was tempting enough for him. Consequently, Kyoto Infinity outright acquired the company he previously worked for. Yet even that didn’t sway him; Taro Tanaka simply resigned from his original company and moved to Aizu City to start his own small business.
Since he was starting from scratch, Taro Tanaka’s business hadn’t been very noticeable; he ran it quietly and kept a low profile in research and development, and so he gradually vanished from Kyoto Infinity’s view—unexpectedly showing up again now.
"I see, I understand," Miyazato Kazama replied after listening to Xu Yang, feeling somewhat reassured. "The Colosseum Arena competition might be terrifying, but A40’s logistics team is equally splendid."
A40 sat cross-legged.
This was no mere flattery.
Engineered by the corporate giant Xu Yang, robotics expert Taro Tanaka, and Miyazato Kazama, a level-two research officer from the Z1 Military Equipment Research Institute—such a technical support team already had considerable scale, enough to make many corporations blush with embarrassment.
Not alone, what was there to fear!
"When I design a combat robot," Taro Tanaka said, "the first step is deciding on a battle style. For A40, there are two possibilities. One is to reach ’excellence’ in all aspects, to face any potential threat with balanced capabilities, which could also help it master various martial arts techniques. The other is to specialize intensively in one combat strategy, making its mode of combat singular but more effective."
"A40, if your goal is the pinnacle of martial arts, you need to make yourself flawless," thought Xu Yang, then said, "But if you want to do well in this competition with limited time available, you can only choose the path of specialization."
A40 couldn’t decide quickly.
Either strive to become an unparalleled ultimate combat master or become a terrifying Evil Beast specialized in one aspect.
The former was to build momentum over time, while the latter was a decision for immediate gains.
At this moment, A40 found the choice too difficult to make.
There were about seven days left until the main event, and even if it practiced non-stop, there would only be just over 160 hours available for improvement, making the first path a moderate one that ultimately wouldn’t amount to much, resulting in a swift exit from the main competition.
If it solidified the second type of fighting style, focusing only on 1-2 combat techniques, its combat power would naturally greatly increase, but that would also make A40 more extreme and forever cut off from the peak of martial arts.
A40 looked down at the Fury in its arms.
"I want to train all aspects of my abilities," it said.
"Honing a single combat method to its limit isn’t necessarily incapable of making one a top expert," Xu Yang said. "Your most distinct combat method right now is your fast attack. If you delve deep into this area, you could very likely become the premier fast attacker in this competition, which would help you overcome the current difficulty."
"Just having one killer move does not qualify as martial arts," A40’s computing core began to heat up. "Moreover, in the Colosseum Arena, there are all kinds of combat scenarios. If your methods are too singular, in the end, you won’t get far."
"Then, this upgrade will focus on compensating for your weaknesses," Taro Tanaka interjected. "First is the armor upgrade. Your main limbs are made of steel, your joints and hands out of cheaper aluminum, shielded with Kevlar in vulnerable spots. Your current martial arts style is entirely based on your speed, while heavy armor would greatly slow you down, reducing your combat effectiveness. I will only replace your chest and joints with real military composite armor coatings, which should increase your protection by about 40%."
"What about Mythical Metal?" Miyazato Kazama speculated. "If we place an order today, we should be able to get some Fenrir metal or Yan Duo metal before the competition begins."
"Both these types of Mythical Metal are superior to conventional human materials, and their market prices are rising," Taro Tanaka turned to Xu Yang. "But they’re also more expensive to produce, estimated to cost 4.5 million Funds."
"We can’t afford to skimp on materials now; let’s go ahead with the Mythical Metal modifications," Xu Yang nodded.
"In addition, I’ll push a new combat AI solution update pack to you, which is currently in the testing phase," Taro Tanaka said to A40, "It’s still unstable, but it can double your real-time battle processing speed, which means providing a more precise battle model construction and path selection."
"And I’ve checked the data again," Xu Yang flipped through the Colosseum Arena’s introduction, "I found that electronic warfare and communication warfare are usable, but there’s little actual application at the moment. If you can send a Trojan program to interfere with the operation of the robotic opponents during the fight, mechanical enemies won’t stand a chance either."
"It can’t initiate hacking by itself," Taro Tanaka pointed out, "If it can’t be done, it can’t be done."
"I’ll write a program that runs and sends automatically," Xu Yang said, "The enemies in the arena are already used to biological toxins, but as far as current intelligence goes, they haven’t dealt with the latest computer viruses."
"Poison for living creatures, and poison for inanimate ones," A40 admired, "That’s true power."
"If you want to improve mobility, a military device called the Solo Storm Backpack can solve the issue of flight," Miyazato Kazama suggested, "It’s convenient for entering the battlefield and escape; and since you are a Synthetic Human, it’s entirely feasible to install modifications on your back."
"I will give your sensory system a comprehensive overhaul," Taro Tanaka declared, "Apart from the basic vision sensors, I will also integrate a brand-new upgraded suite of night vision, thermal sensing, and simulated olfactory modules."
"Here, I just scraped together a large number of combat archives and potential opponents’ combat videos, which are suitable for you to practice and download as you learn," Xu Yang provided A40 with a massive integrated document, which was like a giant experience pack, perfectly fitting its combat learning system.
The three of them poured endless technology, imagination, and intelligence into A40, commencing with comprehensive high-frequency training for the official competition.
By 2 a.m., they had done everything they could do.
Taro Tanaka lay hunched on the ground, dragging a wire with his slender limbs to charge himself, then shut down his systems and rested inside his eyeball robot, while Miyazato Kazama also yawned and went to sleep.
A40 ran to the open space in the mansion to practice swordsmanship. They had offered it so much help, and A40 could only repay them with an absolute, flawless victory.
During the martial arts practice, a large amount of new data was accumulated, with many new files in the storage urgently needing to be dealt with.
It had to do something that was extremely difficult for it... Memories of Huang Feng occupied most of the space in its storage. It had to personally move all the memory files related to Huang Feng to a new disk, planning to transfer them back after the entire battle festival was over.
Every recorded date with Huang Feng was transferred out, one after another, vanishing from A40’s memory files.
"Boss," A40 turned to Xu Yang, "what am I fighting for the championship for?"
"I misspoke, for ’martial arts,’" Xu Yang took the memory disk from A40’s hand and put it away, "The rest, you can remember after you’ve finished the fight."
"Okay, for ’martial arts’!" A40 nodded vigorously.
Xu Yang still had energy to spare, and could take a walk; in fact, while working just now, he always felt he was missing something.
He drove the Innovation back to the apartment where he had previously stayed. Through Du Qianqian’s door, he could still see the light; Xu Yang knocked, and Du Qianqian slowly came to open the door.
Now, Du Qianqian had changed to a new hairstyle, short in front and long in back, with short hair falling on both sides of her face, accentuating her delicate features. Her makeup was mature, her lips a blood-red, and she wore deep blue colored contacts, looking strikingly alluring. She was dressed in a white short T-shirt with a black bow tied at the chest, a red-gold-edged short skirt, and black leggings, barefooted. To Xu Yang, she indeed looked completely transformed, as if she had grown up overnight.
"Good evening," Xu Yang greeted.
"No message, no notice," Du Qianqian drew out her words, "I thought our boss had gotten lost in the city."
"Alright, we’ll leave at dawn," Xu Yang said casually, "Head to the new home—Shijin Mansion, or back to the industrial park, your call."
"Where will you go?" Du Qianqian positioned one foot behind the other.
"Shijin Mansion," Xu Yang explained, "I need to decorate it nicely enough; I have to personally design and arrange facilities for each floor, which is going to take quite some time. It will become our new headquarters in the future."
"Okay, boss," Du Qianqian clapped her hands, "compliment me as pretty, and I’ll go to bed nicely, how about that?"
"Beautiful," Xu Yang acknowledged, "Really good looking."
"Thank you," Du Qianqian smiled and sat back on the soft pink bed.
"Then, see you tomorrow," Xu Yang backed away and closed the door.