Chapter 573: Project Ultron
Three weeks later;
"Day 20, Experiment no. 36. Subject: Rank-8 Robot."
Mark carefully inserted a 1cm*1cm chip into a cube-shaped core made of titanium alloy.
After successful insertion, he placed it on one of his palms and used the other to pour ether energy into it, giving it the necessary power.
Soon, all the markings that appeared on the core were filled with blue light, making it seem like a burst of energy trying to escape a maze that has no exit, once the notification received by Mark about the completion of this step, he went on inserting it into the chest of a Rank-8 robot, "Alina, switch on the battery."
While the core could be supplied the power through his ether particles as its needed energy, the robot, on the other hand, needed a battery as the power source as it runs on electricity.
But, creating conventional batteries is a time-consuming task and he doesn't want to stop the production of his weapons, now that they went into the market a week ago, resuming his business.
A store was set up in atleast one city of every state of the alliance and the grand opening happened a week ago.
Things haven't been as smooth as he expected, atleast in some states like Eastern Sun due to Ouyang Zen's dissent to let his public access to the firearms and Qilin Empire, where the Ming dynasty or its people not being able to get used to a new type of weapons that could actually hurt them if they are not careful.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty was quick to act. Within just one week of its release, Emperor Ming passed an order to put an age restriction on firearms and explosives.
Anyways, back to the factory, Mark opted to use electric current-filled scrolls available in the market, each costing up to 3 gold coins and supplying electricity to at least 5 electric fans and 6 bulbs for a whole day. A scroll can also be used to charge the rank-1 robot to full.
It was expensive for normal people but for the rich, it didn't cost much.
Mark didn't hesitate to use 120 of them at the same time, supplying the electricity to the Rank-8 robot, which had its energy depleted completely on purpose.
As a huge amount of current passed into it and charged its battery, causing it to go overload, the excess current automatically made its way to the core inserted in its chest.
"I have destroyed 35 Rank-8 robots so far. This is the 36th. Due to the incident, I now only have a Rank-10 robot, 5 Rank-9 robots, and 17 Rank-8 robots. Most of the destroyed robots are missing too, along with the weapons given to them. Who knows where they all ended up in? If this ends up in failure, I will lose another prized robot, which is even of a higher grade.
Then, I would have no choice but to abandon this project…"
Mark was too nervous at this point, hoping that the rank-9 robot would not be destroyed by the overloading caused by the cube. Due to the fail-safe he built inside, there won't be an explosion but if all of its transistors, wires, and battery end up dead, the rank-9 robot will become nothing but a lump of titanium and adamantium alloy.
Five seconds passed, ten seconds passed, twenty seconds passed, and Mark's facial expression changed.
After a whole minute, Mark's face was now filled with excitement as he saw the cube continue to glow, integrating with the robot's system. "Good, so far so good. All we need is now to wai…"
At once, the floor started shaking all of a sudden. Mark lost his balance and was about to fall. The robot's dead eyes glowed blue and it disappeared, reappearing behind Mark, catching him in a fraction of a second. Mark's eyes met with its eyes and the robot spoke, "Master, are you alright?"
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"Hmm?" Not only did the robot speak to him when it didn't have any voice modulator but the voice was also too familiar to him. "Ark?" he wondered out loud.
The robot helped him to stand up straight and went down to one of his knees like a knight, "Integration successful, Master."
"Wait a second. How?" Mark's eyes widened as realization dawned upon him without hearing its explanation, "I created the core and its quantum chip based on the data extracted from your core instead of Alina because yours is superior to hers. Of course, it is going to be your copy. F**k, here I thought I could make a new one."
The robot rose to its feet and replied, "Master, you lacked the proper equipment to build a new one from scratch. You need a computer with specialized software to get started. You don't possess the knowledge to build such a thing. But, now, with me here, your creation ability will not be limited to weapons."
"Hmm… with Ark acting as my substitute, I think it is possible," thought Mark in his head.
In reply, a notification screen floated before his eyes.
*Ding! Now that I was integrated with the robot's nanochip, as long as the core is intact, I can establish a connection with every other robot that has a similar nanochip even from a distance. Essentially, apart from the higher quality robot (Rank-10), I could now control every other robot that is 500 meters around my body.
However, I recommend building more cores to give intelligence to every robot here, in order to improve work efficiency.
"Ultron…" Mark's eyes lit up.
Ever since he got a robot from the system, he always had a fascination with commanding robots like how this character named Ultron did it in a movie franchise, back in his past life.
However, after using the robotic army, it didn't feel like it. Instead, he felt more like a necromancer who is using an undead. But, with added intelligence to the robot, where its main consciousness lies inside him, he felt like his dream could be achieved.
While there was also a worry of losing control over the artificial intelligence that keeps on learning new things, he was confident in destroying them too, with his newfound strength. But, it isn't also the time to think about unnecessary things. He felt like this was the time to focus on development.
Slightly tweaking his intended plans, Mark then spoke to the robot, "Your name will be Ark Prime from now onwards. I give you permission to name the robots you will give intelligence to."
"I understood, Master," The robot placed his arm to its chest and bowed its head slightly.
Mark continued, "Your first task is to give intelligence core to all the robots here."
"Understood, master," The robot nodded, but then it replied immediately, "However, I recommend Master to do this task."
"Me? Why?" Mark was taken aback by its request. It's Day 1 of its creation and it is already disobeying his orders?
The robot clarified by explaining, "When the Master creates the core, the master's ether energy is being integrated with the core, and I could extract a basic or a variant attribute from it, giving its properties to the robot. This body has inherited the element of space." Following its words, the robot created a set of black portals, one before it and the other ten meters away.
It walked into it before walking out from the other.
"The f**k… you can do that?"