Drift Integration Test

"Just that?" Snoke was somewhat surprised. He had already prepared himself for Luke to make some harsh demands, like signing away his life or something, but all he wanted was for him to help establish and prepare a Security Squad? It was not that it would be difficult—it was simply too easy. So easy that he could hardly believe it.

"Other than your experience and skills, what else do you have that I would value? Your connections in the military? Do you still have those?" Luke chuckled. "Your squad can serve as a reference model for the military in the future. Once I upgrade you, perhaps your retired equipment can still be sold for a good price."

"If I sign the New Contract, will I be able to operate that big thing?" Snoke pointed at the half-finished Mechanical Creation still undergoing tests.

"That is just a Test Subject." Luke spread his hands and answered honestly. "It does not have much practical use, but it looks intimidating on display." If it were not so extravagantly wasteful and liable to squeeze funding for Hebron's other research projects, Luke would have liked to build a truly massive one. But there were no Kaiju in this world. If he built such a huge mech, aside from letting it gather dust as a display of his technological prowess, the only option would be to break down and sell its supporting technologies to recover the cost.

"A Test Subject?" Snoke was stunned. He looked again at the Mechanical Creation, brimming with technological beauty and violent force, then at Luke's helpless expression. For a moment, he could not tell whether Luke was being sarcastic or genuinely thought that way.

"Stop looking. Those are just distractions for other people to see." Luke called out and led him farther into the lab.

"I always thought Stark Industries was the name to look to for military technology." Snoke had become more talkative, even sounding somewhat emotional. As a soldier of war, if one asked him which military contractor's products he knew best and was most willing to use, then without question, at least eight out of ten soldiers would answer Stark Industries. Snoke had personally used Stark Industries products, and they were indeed excellent.

"Tony Stark and his father, Howard Stark, truly are extraordinary geniuses. Naturally, their products far surpass those of others." Luke did not wish to say much on the matter and led Snoke to the next area.

"This is what I prepared for you. It was somewhat rushed. Your equipment still needs to be made." Luke looked at the Iron Armor before him with some dissatisfaction.

But Snoke no longer had the mind to pay attention to Luke's words. If the Mechanical Creation from before looked like a half-finished product, then the unpainted, bare-metal Iron Armor before him looked like a perfect work. Even if its creator was dissatisfied, that did not affect the image taking shape in Snoke's mind.

"Can it be used?" Snoke could not wait to personally test the creation. Luke shook his head without hesitation. "This is a Prototype built for my body type."

"All right." Snoke was somewhat disappointed.

"Your body data has already been collected. Your new arm will be a version customized specifically for you. It has more functions, so you will need to wait a little longer. If you really cannot wait, I can arrange for someone to prepare a simple backup for you first," Luke said.

Snoke touched his severed arm and shook his head. "No need. I can wait."

As he was leaving, he looked back once more at the Prototype Luke had mentioned. "Does your security require equipment of this level? Equipping an entire squad? If that squad wore these and was armed with some weapons, they could start a small war and conquer a minor country."

"Who do you think I'll be facing in the future?" Luke gave Snoke a strange look.

Hydra, mutated humans produced by various viruses or research, all kinds of troublesome underground organizations, and a whole bunch of followers of bizarre so-called Dimensional Demon Gods. Then there were sorcerers, and perhaps even his potential future teammates. And that was only on Earth. This planet was far too full of hidden power. Given Luke's cautious nature, no amount of vigilance was excessive.

Snoke was left somewhat dazed by that look.

Another week passed.

The testing grounds at Luke's Lab, Hebron Industrial Park.

The Iron Armor on Snoke's body opened, revealing his slightly panting face.

"How long?" Snoke asked the researcher recording the data nearby.

"Ten minutes," the researcher answered quickly.

"Only ten minutes?" Snoke felt the soreness in every muscle of his body and sighed.

"Maintaining Drift Stage 4 for ten minutes is already remarkable." The researcher greatly admired Snoke. As one of Hebron's core researchers with access to many classified projects, he had studied in depth the Drift System that Luke had improved, restored, and redesigned. At the same time, he had been utterly astonished by it.

The system tightly linked machinery to the human body through Neurons, allowing a person to control the machinery as naturally as their own limbs. This process was divided into the Drift System Five Stages.

Stage 1 came with a slight sense of awkwardness, and controlling one's armor required assistance from the Intelligent System.

Stage 2 allowed one to control their body as naturally as a Normal Person, without any so-called delay.

Stage 3 allowed one, while integrated with the armor itself, to connect with the armor's Intelligent Subsystem. It gave one the feeling of Deus Ex Machina—you yourself became the machine. The five senses and other functions transformed into technological organs such as radar. Both data processing and reaction speed rose by an entire tier.

Stage 4 was an even deeper stage of integration. It allowed one to bring out one hundred percent of the armor's performance and power, even through Overclocking. At this stage, immense physical strength was consumed to bear the strain caused by the armor's overclocked performance, along with the mental pressure brought by massive amounts of data processing. At this stage, both the person and the armor itself were in an overloaded state.

The highest stage currently achieved in testing was Stage 4. Yet in the eyes of the many researchers aware of it, this stage was already inhuman. The deeper the Drift Stage, the more tightly one integrated with the armor and Intelligent Subsystem. While the armor's performance and combat power became stronger, the pressure placed on the Neurons and body also increased.

That was why the researcher said with admiration, "Among everyone tested so far, the best result was only barely crossing the threshold into Drift Stage 3. In Drift Stage 4, your reaction speed and the depth of your integration with the machine already qualify as superhuman. At the very least, you have brought the armor's performance to its absolute limit! If you go any further, unless your armor is upgraded along with you, it will instead be unable to keep up with your growth."

PS: The author group was discussing material today, and American Comics came up as a genre that was becoming a little unpopular. Its Upper Limit was not high, while its Lower Limit was very low. To write something truly good, you either had to follow comic plots or create more original ideas. Otherwise, writing it the way people used to would not produce very good results.

I truly have not read many comics. So all I can do is try to write something different within the same events. There may be other attempts in the future as well. If there are parts I do not write well in the future, feel free to point them out, but please do not flame me.

PS2: Today's increase in bookmarks was not as high as it had been over the past few days, but Tuesday Readership should have passed the mark. Thank you, everyone!