Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Prosthesis.
Two more inventions are needed to finish the quest. Ryan is now working on something to finish the quest at the same time.
"Compiling code", a progress bar is shown on his laptop. He's making a program that can read the neuron activation on our body, signals that are sent from the brain to move our limbs.
He plans to make a high technology prosthesis that can get feedback from the body.
Theoretically, the prosthesis can make the user feel a sense of distance from the surface they walk on, a sense of gripping things, and a sense of moving their prosthesis as limb rather than some attached-metal on their body.
The technology can also be used by support-type exoskeleton frames. He got the ideas from Avenger infinity War, when he saw the War Machine standing up using an exoskeleton. This invention can possibly make those who are paralysed walk again.
It's gonna take a while to debug the prosthetics code and neural interface. Ryan makes it slowly, any extra time he has, considering that he has a busy schedule now.
He does hope that after finishing the quests,he can go back to the Neet life. There is a prototype right hand prosthetics that he completed in a month, on the table with connection to his supercomputer, to do the debugging.
Gwen walks in on Ryan working, hands him a cup of coffee, and says "You should get some rest. You just finished with the tree's, you deserved it."
She is worried for him. After living with him for a while, she can see that he is the type to never sit still. Writing songs, making a new type of comic he called manga, then doing some experiments again.
"You smell" She says while she hugged him from behind. She doesn't want to discourage him though, but she does want him to rest a bit. He caresses her hand gently.
"I'm almost done. I plan to get some vacation time after this finishes. What do you think about going to the Maldives?" He ignored the snide comment about his odour.
"I have to finish up some research, maybe after that we can go," Gwen replied.
The computer then chimes in, saying that the debugging is complete. "Well now it's time to test it, get some feedback, see if it works." Ryan said, hoping for the best.
This is his own invention, rather than buying items on the trading side, or getting quest rewards. He is pretty nervous about it.
If this works, then the exoskeleton-frame will also work. It's now June 2006. He has like a year and a half left before the plot for the Avenger officially starts. He wanted to enjoy the time before that.
He needs some volunteers for his work. Ryan is going to tell Hiddle about it, to get some veterans who lost their limb as a volunteer, but then Gwen chimes in. "Maybe Rodrigue will be interested, I'll call him to ask."
"Okay, let's call him". He has a good impression on Rodrigue. The always smiling man, even when life pushes him down. Gwen calls her father's former partner.
Rodrigue will come tomorrow. He had nothing much to do anyway, living a retired life. "Hmmmph" He stretches his body. As his work couldn't progress, he decided to take a little break.
While hearing and singing along to music, Ryan dances along to release stress build up. He grabs Gwen and forces her to join in. They are dancing together at night.
The next day comes quickly. Ryan is with Rodrigue in his lab. "See if there's any discomfort, whether the feeling when it touches your skin,when you need to put it on and any feedback from the usage."
Rodrigue is a little awkward using his new hand at first. But as the time passed, he quickly adjusted to it. Albeit slowly, he can even use his hand to write some stuff. It's only because he isn't used to it. When he does, he can write like a normal person.
"This hand is really good, it's leap and bound compared to my previous prosthetics." Rodrigue is excited. But then he asked "This must be really expensive right?"
Ryan touches his chin, he calculates inside his head. "For now it's expensive, but when the mass producing line is finished. I think maybe 5,000 dollars?"
This is his rough estimate. Gwen who heard that and Rodrigue, the potential customer, are shocked.
Ryan saw their reaction, he quickly said "Is it too expensive?I could make it cheaper but it'll lose some functions."
"It's not expensive at all! " Rodrigue interjected with a raised voice. "In fact, it's really cheap."
He had to buy his previous prosthetics for more than 20,000 dollars. Now, he can get a much more reliable item, at a much lower price? If it's not Ryan who said it, he'll think it is a scam.
"I couldn't wait till it's on sale," Rodrigue said excitedly. Ryan breathes in relief. They continue testing for a while.
He becomes a little bit frustrated with Rodrigue after a while "Well you can play and talk about it later but I really need the feedback for now. How about this, you keep the hand for the rest of the week and record it."
Rodrigue scratches his cheek shamefully, he is so excited that he didn't actually say some useful feedback for the hours he's here." I'll give you my recording as soon as possible."
Gwen chimes in " You know, maybe you can cover it up in something to mimic the human hand. All metal looks kind of threatening. "
"There is a silicon based material I'm gonna put into the finished product. It'll mimic human skin, so that the fake arm will look more like a real arm." He thinks for a while before he comes out with this.
Right now the arm looks more like a winter soldier arm. Although it's relatively thinner. He finishes up his work for the day.
Before having the feedback from Rodrigue, he can only work with what he saw. So far, the invention is close enough to what he imagines it would be.
"Gwen, it seems like we can proceed with further testing. A more vast target group is needed." Ryan said.
"Do you still want to keep it under wraps? I think your father already knows about it." Gwen is excited for the prospect of her boyfriend's invention.
If his family company is involved, more people can be reached, and the research will go faster. But she doesn't understand why Ryan keeps it to himself.
"The thing is Gwen, I'm afraid that the military will use it as weapons." Ryan has some worries about it. That's why he doesn't want to make the research public before he's absolutely positive about avoiding the effect.
He encrypted the core program of the prosthetic. If someone tries to reverse engineer it, the core will self-destruct. He could let his company handles it now that he had completed the program.
Ryan told his worries to Gwen, and about his prevention. Gwen nodded in understanding. She also doesn't like the military.
When the plant growth serum is completed, some military officials try to propose to use it as a weapon to destabilise other countries that depend on it."What the?!" It's like a splash of cold water is thrown to her head.
She now wakes up to the reality of the world. This profit centric world didn't care about progression, they cared only about money. She has a bad impression on the military after that.
Ryan and Gwen are finishing up in the lab, before Hiddle walks in. "Young master, Master Tim invites you and your girlfriend to dinner at the Manor tonight."
He hears his girlfriend's opinion before agreeing to it. After Hiddle leaves, Gwen freaks out a bit. " This is my first time meeting your father, what should I wear? What would he think of me? "
Ryan patted Gwen's head before saying." Just be yourself. I'm sure he'll like you."
"Well if he doesn't, that's not gonna change anything anyway, so don't worry about it." He tries to comforts her
Gwen pushes off her unreliable boyfriend's hand, runs off and says "I'm gonna go home to get ready, I'll meet you there."
Dinner with his family went well. "See, you're worried for nothing." Ryan teases. "I think you need to be more worried." Gwen says with dissatisfaction.
" Haha, I know that this will go well, so I'm not worried. Even if it doesn't, I wouldn't sit still if my father bullied you."
"Well I want to believe you," Gwen said with eyes rolling at him. Inside, she does believe in Ryan, but she doesn't want to give him the satisfaction now.
Ryan looked at his cute pouting girlfriend, leans in and says slowly. "I love you Gwen." Gwen's eyes widened,and she replied " I love you too" before kissing him.
She also added "You know that's the first time we said that right?" Ryan smiles, " well then I regret not saying it sooner", seeing that Gwen is very happy now,he does regret it a bit.
Vampire kid : You know, if you take my quest, you've already ⅔ of the way to tier 2.
Hydra :(-_-')
In the trading session, he chatted with his friends when GreenWitch popped up in the chat.
Greenwitch : Hey @Hydra. The serum works! Many people can be saved this winter because food is now abundant.
Ryan smiles reading the feedback. Many people thanked him about his serum in the Interdimensional Trading System, making him feel fulfilled.
Greenwitch : I have made some magic scroll based on my magic. You can grow plant instantly using it. The problem is that one scroll can only be used by one plant.
Hydra: it didn't matter, I can make my experiment time shorter with it.
RetiredMechanic : Kid, I have read your encryption and new program. While your program is a fresh idea, your encryption sucks.
Hydra: (sigh) It's you who are too powerful.
RetiredMechanic : I meant it kid. It really sucks. Go to my page, there's a book called Encryption for Dummies there I just put. It's specially for you.
Hydra : Wait, there isn't a prefix for it? No 'basic' or 'elementary'?
RetiredMechanic : It's a named skill. You can buy it at a higher tier marketplace. It'll help you in what you want to do.
When he reads the knowledge, he realises that he's too naive in making the encryption. "There's a virus style encryption, where a virus will be released to the computer that tries to break it"
"A self-destruct type that can make a powerful explosion."
"A short-circuit type that can burn the core of the technology"
He's getting more and more excited when he digests the new knowledge. In his mind, he thanked the mad old man that forced him to read the knowledge. It cost him 2000 tc to buy it.
The next day, he goes to the company to continue with his experiment. Last night when having dinner, he already told his father about his invention.
He's making the left arm part, the legs part, with various sizes to get data from a wider target group. "This invention is going to be popular amongst veterans." A team member of his research group said.
His father puts together some of the brilliant minds of the company to help Ryan. After a week, the testing period comes.
There's a lot of people that tested the prosthesis. A child that was born with genetic defects, a diabetes patient that has their legs cut off, a veteran who loses their legs in a landmine, and more.
"We needed to make a smart equip function so that children could do this on their own." Ryan told his findings while the team is following him and taking notes.
"A protective layer must be added to avoid rashes from the skin, especially with the leg prosthesis."
"The moving motion of the leg isn't fluid enough, note to study more about how legs more and adds the corresponding adjustment"
A team member raised their hand to ask "But sir, isn't it impossible for prosthesis to mimic a human limb completely?"
"We are only limited by our imagination." It seems weird that a young man is giving a team of research veterans life lessons, but they listen to every word he says like an intern again.
Before, he never would have thought he had the capability to lead, and make something with his own effort. Even the previous 'invention' he made is copied.
Never in his previous life he'd imagined he would achieve what he'd become today. Knowledge helps, but it's the effort that you make to better yourself that counts in your journey.
"We would never know our capability if we let fear of failure drive us, instead of doing what we love.Like I said, we are limited by our imagination."
"YOU SHOULD STOP DOING THAT", Gwen pinches both his cheeks as a protest. She's mad because Ryan tries to push the team under him to the front to take the heat for his invention. Just like what he did to her before.
"And what's with this imagination crap, you shouldn't make a fake speech to try to brainwash those poor guys to get public attention for you !" She said while stretching his cheeks even further.
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