Black Gold Modification

"He's called Shimizu. He's in the same Puppet Force squad as me."

Sasori kept it brief.

Ebizo nodded.

He did not deny the word "friend," so he clearly acknowledged Shimizu as one.

It seemed his original approach had been right. Two geniuses of similar age with the same interests were bound to have common ground.

"Mm, Shimizu. I've read about you in Jounin Ishido's report. You're a good kid. Come by more often to play with Sasori when you have time. Come on, you haven't had dinner yet, have you? I'll take you to the best restaurant in the village."

On the third day after visiting Sasori's home, which was also the last day of the holiday, Shimizu exchanged some of the battle merits he had accumulated for training scrolls for two Ninjutsu.

The C-Rank Wind Release Ninjutsu, Gale Dance, and the likewise C-Rank Lightning Release Ninjutsu, Lightning Release: Earth Run.

He had planned this long ago.

What he needed was not to learn Gale Dance itself, but to borrow part of its underlying principles.

Shimizu had previously considered whether he could use the principles of Wind Release: Gale Palm to help the puppet compress and replace its stored gas, reducing the charging time of Pneumatic Fist while making it more powerful.

He had also begun studying Lightning Release so that he could better integrate modern engineering and Puppet Technique in the future by taking advantage of Chakra's ability to manifest electric currents.

His former graduation Jounin instructor, Momi, had believed Shimizu's talent for Ninjutsu was merely average compared with those true geniuses. She had assessed that if he did not choose Puppet Technique and instead followed the conventional path, he could become a Special Jonin once he reached adulthood. If things went especially well, he might have a slight chance of becoming a Jounin.

As long as he was willing to spend the time, Shimizu could still master some basic C-Rank Ninjutsu. B-rank techniques and above, however, were another matter.

"Too bad my Chakra affinities are only Wind and Lightning. If I had Earth as well, I might be able to try learning the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release someday. Magnet Release paired with an Iron Man Suit... the thought is too beautiful to imagine."

That said, Shimizu felt that his Chakra affinities were still fairly compatible with engineering-based Puppet Technique.

Wind Release could enhance pneumatic devices, and there was even less need to mention Lightning Release.

"Besides, Fatty Puppet should be ready for another upgrade."

While Shimizu's main body was busy learning new Ninjutsu, his incarnation in the DC World was also hard at work in the Cole Gang's abandoned factory base.

As the knowledge he absorbed continued to grow, Shimizu's upgrade designs for Fatty and Black Gold through the System Panel steadily progressed. While his main body was occupied with Ninjutsu, his incarnation could start building them directly.

Black Gold's upgrade path was also different from Fatty's.

"Excellent. Dual bulletproof lenses, with Photochromic material applied between them, then wires connected to the Microcontroller pins. That will display the signal data from all Sensors."

Shimizu put away his welding gun and nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the DLP chip, only the size of two fingernails, fixed over Black Gold's eye area.

Further down, a Microcontroller was embedded inside Black Gold.

Connected to the Microcontroller's pins were a Communication chip and an Analog-to-digital converter. The former received sensor signals from the other components, while the latter converted those signals into digital signals before transmitting them to the DLP chip.

The DLP chip then converted the digital signals into image signals, which could be displayed on the glass over Black Gold's eyes through the Micro projector and Lens array in front.

The method was neither particularly clever nor especially innovative. It simply integrated a few industrial components.

But it was practical, and thanks to this world's excellent industrial capabilities, every component he needed could be bought.

Naturally, that required money.

If he were only going for the level of an engineering University student's graduation project, all the components might cost less than two hundred dollars.

But the results would be poor, perhaps even useless.

At the very least, Shimizu could not imagine how an Infrared detector with a range of only one meter or a Sonar detector with a range of only five meters could be of much use in battle.

On the other side of Gotham, Master Wayne of West Gotham's Bat suit used detectors capable of scanning an entire building. Shimizu did not expect that kind of performance, but at the very least, he needed a range of twenty or thirty meters and the ability to see through walls, right?

Unfortunately, large-range detectors were military-grade equipment and were not permitted for sale on the market. Even if they were available, they were replicas.

And each one was rather large, which did not fit Shimizu's goal of miniaturized integration.

Fortunately, he had a good friend: Penguin.

Forget military-grade equipment. As long as the price was right, Penguin could get him genuine military hardware, even tanks.

"Star City Queen Industries' cutting-edge equipment can manufacture Sensors for Underwater detection and medium-range Thermal sensing at centimeter scale. That's truly impressive. I wonder whether my main body can reproduce these things without a complete industrial system."

Shimizu put away his soldering iron and nodded with satisfaction.

Limited by the display equipment and his own half-baked background, with his algorithmic skill depending on how many useful algorithms he could copy and paste from the internet, this sensor system certainly could not provide all-around X-ray vision like Batman's technology.

But it could roughly display data such as the direction and distance of detected heat sources.

That was already enough in battle.

He took out the welding gun and other tools again, dismantling Black Gold.

He was going to install a complete pneumatic system in Black Gold, not just the Air pumps built into its arms. Other areas needed them too.

Most importantly, he needed to install Double-acting cylinders and Metal linkages in the hip joints, knee joints, ankle joints, and other locations.

They were all small cylinders, intended to use pneumatic drive to improve Black Gold's movement speed.

However, to avoid affecting its balance and flexibility, none of these cylinders would be too powerful. Even so, they would be enough to raise Black Gold's speed by another level.

In addition, the pneumatic devices in both arms needed improvement.

Similar Double-acting cylinders needed to be installed at the shoulders and elbows as well.

This could both increase the power of Pneumatic Fist to a certain extent and speed up its punches.

Naturally, this also placed demands on Shimizu's puppet control skills. Fortunately, after reading the notebook Monzaemon had left behind during this period, Shimizu's Chakra control had improved significantly.

Although his incarnation's Chakra quality was somewhat inferior to his main body's, it was still enough to operate it.

It was just that he would most likely find it difficult to control another powerful puppet at the same time.

The clanging of metalwork and the sizzling of welding echoed through the abandoned old factory for the entire afternoon.

It was not until deep into the night that the accountant ran in.

"Boss, Mr. Cobblepot is here!"