บท 194: Custom Prosthetics for Rhino Armor
"The person who injected the Scorpion serum was afraid the effects wouldn't be strong enough, so they overdosed."
"It seems that the over adaptation from the injection not only alters the mind but also permanently changes the bones and muscles—"
"This is a pathological transformation. His limbs will gradually turn into a scorpion-like skeletal structure, solidified by the armor."
"His skin will be replaced by a chitinous shell, and this shell, when in contact with the skin and nerves, serves as an effective connection layer between the armor and the biological body."
"It's a near-constant cycle of degeneration. The Scorpion armor will eventually turn a human into a true scorpion, both physically and mentally."
"In the end, in most cases, he will die."
The analysis of the Scorpion armor was fully completed in the lab.
The conclusion was that only the craziest of madmen would wear such a suit—or the person wearing it didn't do so voluntarily.
The armor indeed had strong combat capabilities, especially its tail, which was nearly a close-combat armor-piercing weapon. But it had fatal flaws.
The swinging and attacking of the tail generated enormous pressure, which the exoskeleton was designed to withstand.
But this exoskeleton had to be adapted to the nerves, and the adaptation method was to force the body to transform into a scorpion-like shape.
If a person had to become a scorpion to withstand the pressure of the armor, then was it designed for humans or for the armor itself?
The impact of neural interfaces on nerve circuits, the chain reactions between exoskeletons and genetic serums, and the flaws in the soft drive system of the armor—everything had been fully analyzed.
The lab fell silent.
Dr. Otto was particularly shocked—not just by Leo's academic prowess, nor by pity for the tragic fate of the Scorpion.
He also felt a pang of sorrow for himself: The Octopus Arms were an extremely dangerous external prosthetic modification, and the Scorpion was the perfect example.
Even if Leo had solved the chip problem, allowing the human body to bypass AI and directly control these mechanical arms, the thought patterns required to handle four extra arms could still have unknown effects on human consciousness.
After all, even in a cyberpunk world, such large-scale prosthetic modifications were rare.
Moreover, the flexibility of the Octopus Arms was simply too exaggerated—no human brain could properly handle this level of mechanical signal processing. Leo had already run the calculations for Otto using mature theories.
Comparing two worlds, the signal complexity of one Octopus Arm slightly exceeded that of an entire minotaur mech.
The lab was quiet, with only the sound of Leo tapping on the keyboard.
Otto suddenly whispered to Connors, "How old is he? What school is he from?"
"Just turned 18, Midtown High."
"Huh?"
Leo finished typing, and the blueprint on the screen switched to the neural interface designed by Dr. Otto, highlighting the chip inside.
"The hardware bottleneck is here. I've designed a new prosthetic control driver, along with a new chip architecture."
"This architecture can more efficiently handle the conversion between biological and electrical signals."
Generally, the foundation of information engineering is binary logic, but the code used by biological entities—DNA—is quaternary, composed of four bases.
In the cyberpunk world, the chips used for implantable prosthetics had long been designed based on this quaternary conversion.
Advancements in the field of biocomputers also enabled the use of both protein chips and silicon chips to achieve human-machine interaction.
This could exponentially increase the efficiency of data conversion between humans and machines.
"In theory, it can allow the human brain to safely handle the data flow of one arm. However, having additional limbs will still impact consciousness."
Otto glanced at Connors and then at the design on the screen.
[Voltage stable]
[Current stable]
[Data channels stable]
[Safety simulation results: Passed]
"This... is truly astonishing."
Connors had a smug look, grinning from ear to ear.
When Leo had first pulled out something that scared him, Connors had worn the same expression!
After reviewing the design and pacing around while running the calculations in his head, Otto finally concluded:
Four Octopus Arms might be unstable, but one could potentially be stabilized!
They would start with one Octopus Arm!
"This chip looks familiar—oh, right! There was a CPU this year with a similar architecture, I think…"
Leo knew immediately that it was the chip he had outsourced to a factory for production.
So, he said, "I designed it. I still have some, though they perform slightly worse than I envisioned. Current technology can only do so much."
Otto leaned back slightly, then quickly headed towards the storage room. "Let's start right now! I have a batch of synthetic materials in storage. Those are mine—Oscorp can't take them—"
"We're going to make this design a reality now!"
Machines began operating again—
His remarkable inventions, particularly the mechanical arms, could make people forget that he was an authority and expert in multiple fields.
Especially in materials science—those dreamy performances of the Octopus Arms were based on the nanomaterials he had developed.
But in Leo's eyes, it seemed like anyone of significance in the Marvel universe was an expert in materials science.
"Of course we can."
Beep.
[ctOS Emergency Broadcast:]
[A large biological weapon has appeared outside New York University Hospital:]
[Image]
Leo stopped in his tracks and tapped into the television broadcast signal. "Doctor, trouble's brewing. Take a look at this."
On the TV, images of the current street scene flashed by:
A huge, rhinoceros-like suit of armor was charging down the street, crushing everything in its path like a tank!
Thick black smoke billowed from it, and its exaggerated power easily smashed through buildings!
It was a bio-tank!
A group of men in suits, wearing watercolor masks, kept firing at it, even using RPGs, but they couldn't penetrate the surface of the armor!
Gwen kept trying to stop the rhino's advance, but it was impossible—
That armor might not be agile, but it was incredibly heavy!
[Gwen: All of New York is in chaos!]
[Gwen: That rhino charged over from two streets away, and a group of masked people appeared out of nowhere, but their weapons aren't working!]
[Gwen: Can't crack the armor, and there's no slot to use the USB—figure something out!]
Everyone was shocked, and Leo quickly said, "We have to stop that thing. We need a way to pierce the rhino's shell."
"But how?"
Leo quickly entered some data.
In the cyberpunk world, deep-dive hacking relied on the Igarashi-Grabov Transform algorithm, visualizing circuit information so netrunners could manipulate the current and voltage directly using familiar logic.
The USB Gwen was using was based on this concept, allowing her to hack into the circuits.
However, while these USBs could handle simple software programs, if the organization spying on the NYPD was in cahoots with Norman again, hacking wouldn't be so simple.
Leo would need to get involved personally.
"This is a direct hacking device, but I need a weapon that can pierce that massive armor."
Otto immediately thought of something—the Scorpion Armor's tail.
The tail was ejected in a straight line during penetration, and the mechanics behind it were quite complex.
But it wasn't impossible to replicate.
Leo pulled up the Scorpion tail's design, confirming that he and Otto were on the same page.
"I can replicate the armor-piercing mechanism of the tail, but the materials used for the tail look like classified military-grade materials."
"Luckily, I kept some."
Leo pointed to a pile of parts on the table, which included the armor-piercing tip of the Scorpion's tail.
The thing even had a small tube for transmitting biochemical poison, which could be used to insert circuits.
Otto tapped away on the computer, completing the calculations, then roughly sketched out the design.
After sketching, a new issue arose:
Force works both ways. They could create the armor-piercing tip and the power structure, but expecting one strike to pierce the rhino armor was probably too idealistic.
So, how would they handle the recoil force on the user?
They needed an exoskeleton in the design.
Dr. Otto looked at his Octopus Arms.
This was his specialty, but according to their theoretical assessment, even if the structure of the Octopus Arms were simplified several times, the risks of adding external prosthetics would remain high.
Especially since this was meant for combat. In battle, the body's internal environment would change dramatically—who could guarantee that the prosthetic system would continue to function normally?
He hesitated and said, "We could physically block the impact, but mentally…"
"I'll bear it."
Leo spoke up, and Otto was once again deeply shocked. He couldn't help but ask, why?
Why risk being changed, being corrupted by the machines?
But there was no time to explain now. Connors patted Otto on the shoulder.
"This young man is full of mysteries, but everyone has their privacy. So, are you in or not, old friend?"
"…Let's get to work."
"What do I do?" Peter, who hadn't spoken in a while, raised his hand.
"Connect the wires, monitor the ammeter, and report if anything happens."
Before starting, Leo took off his shirt. "Gentlemen, I'm about to show you something... that shouldn't be shared."
This external prosthetic must be compatible with the prosthetic system already integrated into Leo's body.
Inevitably, it would reveal the neural interface embedded in him.
"You are all trustworthy people—so whatever you see here, please forget it once you leave this room."
He removed his shirt.
The three of them were left with their mouths wide open.
(End of chapter)
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