Max Joins the Fray

Queens, at the home of Lee.

Max sat on the sofa, restless and hunched over. Seeming to realize his posture was inappropriate, he quickly picked up the coffee from the coffee table and took small, frequent sips to mask his nervousness.

"Max, don't be so uneasy. Just treat this like your own home."

Lee said helplessly.

"Right."

Max nodded several times, took a few more sips of coffee, and after a moment of silence, finally spoke: "Mr. Lee Stein, you mentioned earlier that you needed my help..."

"I told you, just call me Lee."

Seeing Max still looking restless, Lee Stein sighed and stood up: "Come with me. I'll show you my work."

With that, Lee led Max to his garage—or rather, his workshop.

Clatter!

The roll-up door pulled open, revealing the scene inside.

Max's gaze fell directly onto the robot in the center of the garage; the position was, after all, impossible to miss.

"My God..."

Max stood frozen, muttering to himself involuntarily.

"What do you think, Max!"

Although Lee didn't consider this to be anything with high technical complexity, seeing Max's reaction still gave him a sense of pride and accomplishment.

"This is truly a fascinating big guy."

Max said, his eyes fixed on the giant robot's upper torso, not even turning his head.

It had to be said that even without its outer shell, the charm of the intricate parts and the metallic texture of the mechanical arms was no less appealing to most men than cold weapons or firearms.

"I call him a Transformer, a robot capable of shifting between vehicle and humanoid forms."

Lee smiled as he introduced his masterpiece to Max bit by bit, even showing him a dynamic model of the transformation.

"I've finished the main design blueprints, but as you can see, these messy wires look terrible. I was actually pulling my hair out over it until I met you today, Max!"

Lee Stein tapped his temple, feigning distress, before his tone turned solemn:

"Max, I admire your talent, so I want to invite you to join my project. How about we optimize this big guy together? I'll put your name on the second work!"

"Me? You mean... invite me to help finish it?"

Max looked incredulous, then hurriedly waved his hands: "No, no, no..."

"Ah, wait, I mean I'm willing to help, but this is your work, Lee. You've already finished it!"

Max expressed his thoughts anxiously:

"All I can do is make some insignificant optimizations to its circuitry. You don't need to put my name on it; it belongs to you!"

"Don't refuse, Max."

Lee interrupted him: "This is what you deserve. If there is effort, there should be a reward. If you feel your contribution doesn't match this reward, then you should be thinking about how to do even better."

"This..."

Max froze, then took a deep breath and said solemnly: "I understand, Lee. I will do my absolute best to perfect this big guy!"

"Hey, enough with the dramatics. It's time to officially clock in, Max. I need to finish making these batteries, so come and give me a hand!"

Seeing Max swearing an oath to the air, Lee, who had already walked over to the workbench, chuckled and beckoned him over.

"No problem."

Max responded with great enthusiasm and hurried over.

"This is the battery blueprint, and the appendix is the battery pack design. Take a look and see if there are any issues."

Lee carefully picked up the storage box containing the single-layer graphene and pulled a stack of grease-stained blueprints from underneath, tossing them to Max.

"This is... Lee, your graphene battery technology is already this mature? This performance is five or six times higher than the concept products in the company labs!"

As he flipped through the blueprints, Max became gradually engrossed, only speaking up in surprise after a long while.

"Nothing to be surprised about. The only thing limiting the development of graphene battery technology is the cost of production. Whether the technology is mature or not is just a matter of invested capital and effort."

Lee didn't even look up, focusing on crafting the unfinished graphene battery as he spoke casually: "Max, help me look at the battery pack design. Also, there are all the Transformer blueprints in the laptop over there. Familiarize yourself with the circuits inside first."

"I've already looked at the battery pack, sir. I think we could add a regulator; proper regulation could minimize unnecessary energy loss," Max replied.

"The circuit and energy sections are entirely under your purview. Follow your ideas and get to work, Max."

"No problem, sir."

Max looked excited, ready to dive into the work, and began sketching drafts while reviewing the blueprints.

Looking up at the highly motivated Max, Lee also grinned.

If nothing went wrong, the super-thug Electro Max was already in his pocket.