Chapter 1380: Employees and New Inventions

Putting aside the master and disciples in the sewers, Luke’s days were busy and productive.

He was becoming more and more proficient at operating simultaneously. The coordination between his body and the clone was becoming more and more efficient, and his days were even easier than before.

He wasn’t working alone now. Whiplash Ivan had already “switched sides” and was working for “the bigshot who sells everything.”

In any case, his salary was one thing, and bonus another.

Except for the tens of thousands of dollars that Ivan had received before, the rest of the money he earned was digested internally. He directly bought raw materials and invested them in the development of his own armor.

Apart from closely following Ivan’s armor research, Luke didn’t care about anything else.

There was no chance for this guy to make another mistake.

If he ignored the lives of civilians for the sake of revenge again, Luke would immediately turn him into experience and credit points.

Luke’s trust didn’t come cheap, and the other party only had one shot.

As long as he didn’t cross that bottom line, Ivan could do anything he wanted.

Of course, this also had to do with Ivan’s work attitude.

Whether it was an extremely difficult task or ordinary work, he was very serious when it came to completing assignments, even more so than in making his own armor.

Later, Luke felt that it was too much of a waste of time, and simply arranged Ivan’s work according to priority.

Most of the parts that Ivan worked on were low-grade, which were components for the low-grade armor. They didn’t need to be very sophisticated.

Luke wasn’t like a certain tycoon. As long as there wasn’t a problem with the main performance, he didn’t bother with aesthetics and style at all.

Ivan could take on certain things that weren’t too complicated but which still couldn’t be completed by an A.I. program.

Also, this person was forever obsessed with whips, and the new armor’s weapon was still a whip.

Luke had no intention of interfering.

For him, whatever weapon he could use in passing was the best.

He didn’t have a fixed weapon because he could use all of them pretty much equally; it was just a matter of choice.

Previously, Ivan’s whips could cut with plasma and had electromagnetic deflection, which were very interesting.

Luke’s suit didn’t use all of these, but he tried developing similar functions. In the future, even if he couldn’t use it as a main weapon, he could use it in backup armor or as an external component.

The real surprise for Luke wasn’t Ivan, but Bent Bennett, the weird inventor who had been fired by the Department of Defense and couldn’t even afford a meal.

This guy’s inventions really weren’t suitable for the Department of Defense, since they were… very “costly.”

Of course, the value wasn’t in how much it could sell for, but in the research costs.

Most of the time, when the Department of Defense researched things, it had to be cost-effective.

Given Bent’s wasteful nature, the research costs for his things were too high, and there was little room for maneuver when it came to pricing them. No matter how distinctive his inventions were, the Department of Defense didn’t like it.

But that wasn’t a problem for Luke. In any case, he issued a fixed amount every month, and it was up to Bent how he wasted it.

If Luke discovered something interesting in Bent’s research via the synced backup files, this quota would be temporarily increased.

Bent didn’t know this at first. He thought that the research lab was like the Department of Defense, and that if he ran out of money, he just needed to submit a report.

In the end, in the first two months, the guy used up his funds in less than ten days. He made a waste of the materials he purchased with his quota in the ten days after that, and then could only sit in the lab and wait for the last ten days.

Unwilling to give up, he sent out a few requests for funding, and finally received a reply: “Your funding this month is 0. Please send another application next month.”

Just like that, a senior researcher with a monthly salary of 20,000 actually got the super treatment of working 20 days a month and taking 10 days off.

For most people, this sort of working environment couldn’t be any better.

But for a nerd who couldn’t extricate himself from technology, especially when the technology was only half-complete, it was almost torture.

It was like a gamer halfway through collecting the components for top-notch gear, only to be hit with a power outage for ten days.

After two consecutive months of suffering, Bent finally woke up in the third month and put together a very simple monthly work plan, which cut his “days off” down to three days — because he was still faster at using materials than expected.

What he didn’t know was that Luke was deliberately keeping his credit limit down for the time being, otherwise Bent was capable of using up all that money.

If that happened, this interesting scientist might die of exhaustion, which would be a waste of talent.

Luke wasn’t counting on Bent to save the world. His role was just to provide Selina with special equipment. There was no need for Luke to squeeze his employees dry.

Two months ago, Bent upgraded all the inventions that he had sold to the lab previously, which was one of the reasons why he was using up his funds so quickly. He already had ideas for many things, but didn’t have the money to create them.

Luke naturally didn’t have high hopes for these “toys.”

But starting in the third month, after making up for his “previous works,” Bent switched to research, and just happened to come up with a wondrous invention a few days ago — a paralysis bomb.

It was possible to call it a shock grenade, a stun grenade, or even a “soul-flying” grenade. It only had one function — instant paralysis and loss of consciousness.

Luke tested it with the clone, and it was unbelievably strong.

It took the clone about 40 seconds to regain consciousness, and 90 seconds for it to fully recover movement.

And that was just the power of one paralysis bomb.

For someone like Wade, 10 to 20 of these bombs would be enough to pack him up and ship him off.

One of the advantages of this paralysis bomb was that it had almost no side effects.

Apart from possible damage caused to the heart or brain the way a bullet might cause damage, there were no other obvious side effects.

As for how this effect was achieved, it was too complicated. Luke simply had the A.I. program at the New Hope Research Center continue to run analyses.

But for now, this paralysis bomb was usable.

Secondly, the core of the paralysis bomb was a type of cobra venom that could be used on cold weapons after it was processed.

Luke handled his weapons well, so it would be impossible to get this venom on himself.

This paralytic toxin could only be used to restrain and not to kill a target, and could be adjusted for use on his darts.

Luke didn’t plan to sell such a lethal weapon. Although it had many uses, it was too suitable for doing bad things.

People affected by this paralytic toxin could even have memory loss, as if the period during which they were paralysed never existed. It was very scary.

Because of this invention, Mr. Bent was on Luke’s protection list.

To prevent Bent from becoming suspicious, however, Luke directed his interests to other projects, and gave him bonuses for them. At the same time, it made Bent forget the key data related to the paralytic toxin.

Next year, Mr. Bent’s annual salary and fund would be increased, which could be considered the best compensation for this shut-in.