I Want to Build Transformers

Time slipped away day by day, and over a month passed in the blink of an eye.

For that entire month, Li Si had barely logged off, maintaining a rigid, triangular routine.

Classroom—Library—Home; day after day, never once interrupted.

Thanks to his elective courses, his schedule—which originally hadn't even reached four classes—was now packed tight, even on Saturdays and Sundays. His daily tasks had become a fixed source of two hundred points of general experience every day.

Those two hundred points of general experience translated into nearly three and a half hours of accelerated learning time. Li Si didn't waste a single second of it; he had essentially read every book that interested him in the entire Midtown School of Science and Technology library.

The results of such diligent study were substantial.

----Knowledge Panel----

Mechanical Knowledge LV4: (4780/10000)

Biochemical Knowledge LV2: (300/1000)

Network Knowledge LV3: (180/5000)

Energy Dynamics Knowledge LV2: (850/1000)

Physics Knowledge LV2: (650/1000)

Material Knowledge LV1: (470/500)

Linguistic Knowledge LV2: (380/1000)

Mathematical Knowledge LV2: (530/1000)

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All eight common branches of knowledge had been unlocked.

The targeted experience from reading books, combined with the general experience accumulated over the past month and a half, had been poured almost entirely into Mechanical Knowledge, directly boosting it to LV4. While the increase in power was terrifying, it also helped him build a profound foundation in mechanical engineering.

The other branches of knowledge hadn't been neglected either. Reading during his spare time and the targeted experience from his courses had pushed most of them to LV2. Network Knowledge, which he had prioritized as his second focus, had even reached LV3 after he invested a small amount of general experience.

Although these LV1 and LV2 skills were still significant weaknesses compared to his primary focus of Mechanical Knowledge, they were more than sufficient for the early stages.

To put it without exaggeration, Li Si was now a walking library. Especially in mechanics and networking, he was more than qualified to step out and become an academic professor.

However, compared to the rich results achieved in his studies, his romantic life was trending in the opposite direction.

Because he had been so obsessed with his studies for over a month, his relationship with Gwen had remained at the level of ordinary friends—nothing more than greeting each other when they met or chatting briefly when they ran into each other at the library.

As for his other classmates, they had been cast to the ends of the earth. Aside from getting along reasonably well with Peter Parker, the number of people he had spoken to over the past month could be counted on one hand. He was even more invisible than Peter Parker; if not for the fact that he attended class on time every day, the class would likely have forgotten he even existed.

And this situation, it seemed, was destined to continue.

Because Li Si, believing he had accumulated enough of a foundation, was ready to launch his first research and development project—building a Gundam. No, wait, building a Transformer.

It sounded whimsical, but in reality, Li Si had carefully considered the feasibility. He couldn't build the high-precision Mark Armor like Tony Stark, but there was absolutely no problem in building a large robot that didn't require high-precision parts.

For players who hadn't unlocked the Full-Immersion Virtual Mode, it was impossible to merge blueprints without the R&D skills inherent to the Scientist template. But for him, the R&D skill wasn't indispensable.

The R&D skill in Full-Immersion Virtual Mode simply allowed him to enter a state of higher focus, making it easier to integrate what he had learned. Even without this skill, it would just be a bit more troublesome and less efficient.

In fact, wanting to build a robot like a Transformer wasn't as difficult as one might imagine—at least not for him.

The technological age was an era of resource integration. Looking at the tech products on the market, who actually invents and manufactures every single component themselves?

The most obvious example: smartphones.

Almost all mobile phone manufacturers don't produce components; they don't even produce the phones themselves. What they provide is an idea, an exterior design, and an internal structure that integrates parts produced by component manufacturers. Even the production process is outsourced to contractors.

The difficulties in building a Transformer were similar to designing a phone: nothing more than exterior structural design, power supply devices, mechanical arms for the limbs, and the core control program.

Was that difficult?

Not at all!

Even a typical tech geek on 21st-century Earth could build a decent-looking model. It would just have a shorter battery life, stiffer movements, inferior materials, and mechanical arms that weren't flexible enough.

With Li Si's current accumulation of knowledge, he was fully capable of solving these difficulties. Moreover, there were so many high-tech companies in the Marvel world; there was no shortage of parts. Whether it was materials or components, the resources available were far superior.

"The main focus is the mechanical arms, the transformation structure, the energy source, and the control program!"

Sitting at his desk in the classroom, Li Si casually listed his thoughts in his notebook, completely ignoring the still-charming sociology teacher on the podium.

"Robot technology in the real world is also quite advanced; some classic structural cases should provide a reference..."

"Energy technology can also be obtained through the real world. I won't dream of military-grade nuclear batteries, but enhanced lithium battery technology and graphene battery technology should meet short-term needs. These can all be searched for on search engines..."

"As for the control program, I shouldn't hope for a strong artificial intelligence. Even Tony Stark's Jarvis hasn't reached that level, and a weak artificial intelligence is as good as nothing—there's no need for it..."

"I'll tentatively write only basic operating programs. If I isolate it physically, there won't be any security issues... I can finish this myself if I spend a little time..."

"The biggest difficulty is funding..."

Writing this, the pen in Li Si's hand paused.

He hadn't spent the entire month just studying. He had also used his network skills to take on quite a few jobs on the dark web black market, accumulating over a hundred thousand dollars in savings. But to build a robot, that was likely far from enough.

He was building this robot to participate in the first Spider-Man side quest. A confrontation with the Lizard was inevitable, so the materials used and the parts for the mechanical arms absolutely could not be subpar.

Even if he sacrificed some strength in other areas, that hundred thousand dollars probably wouldn't be enough to build the robot, let alone the heavy firepower he planned to equip it with. All of that required cold, hard cash.

"Forget it, I'll just take the risk and pick up some intrusion jobs if I have to."

After a moment of hesitation, Li Si cast the problem to the back of his mind for the time being.

In reality, if he were truly willing to go all out, his current abilities would be more than enough to breach certain banking systems and siphon off a significant amount of capital from their dead or bad accounts.

However, such actions involving the economy were far too dangerous; once investigated by certain omnipresent departments, the outcome would undoubtedly be disastrous.

After all, many departments in America had dealings with tech giants like Stark Industries, and even vital institutions like the Department of Defense possessed copies of artificial intelligences, making counter-tracking far too simple.

Not to mention the existence of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra; the waters of Marvel Earth were incredibly deep, and even if the current version had yet to see the emergence of transcendent-level combat power, it was still far beyond what he could handle right now.