Snow Weasel's Precious Piggy Bank

Although Snowsant Crane was tricked quite badly, compared to her experience in Columbia, this small setback is almost negligible.

Back in Columbia, her few research findings were plagiarized and registered under someone else's name, securing research funding. She, in turn, repeatedly missed out on more research opportunities due to discrimination and exclusion.

There were times when I only ate one piece of bread for two days, but fortunately the water in the research institute was unlimited, so I could drink as much as I wanted.

Compared to that kind of life, Bai Ye is like paradise.

Although there isn't the "research team" Bai Ye promised, the facilities are complete, and the research atmosphere is very free. Bai Ye will only assign a project and then leave it alone. Snowsant can arrange the rest herself.

Of course, what Bai Ye didn't know was that what truly attracted Snowsant to stay and work here was what he initially thought was the least noticeable and least attractive point—the Lobotomy Institute provided room and board.

Yes, compared to things like research atmosphere, equipment, and research team, when Snowsant saw the "meals and accommodation included" clause in the contract, he signed his name without hesitation.

When Bai Ye learned the truth, he was at a loss for words, both amused and exasperated.

Compared to its early days, Lobotomy Corp has undergone a complete transformation.

After a year of development, there are no longer just Miss Snowsant Chicks here; instead, there are multiple research groups, each studying different topics.

Apart from the special "Stone Coffin" group, which was located in the Core City of Chernobog, the rest of the research groups are currently in Lungmen.

Of course, there is also a very special research group – the "undead" research group.

They specialize in studying the undead, which are the Players.

The group currently consists of only Bai Ye, and Typing Girl who is nominally in charge of organizing materials for Bai Ye and handling various matters before the publication of the book.

Neither of them will stay in Lungmen for long; it's essentially an empty shell.

Apart from that, the other research groups are all in Lungmen, each working on the various tasks assigned to them by Bai Ye.

In addition to frequent exchanges with the academic community in Lungmen, the Lobotomy Institute also regularly engages in extensive exchanges with its counterparts at Rhodes Island.

Because of this incident, Dr. Kal'tsit explicitly forbade Bai Ye from poaching people from Rhodes Island with overly generous offers.

It can only be said that she thwarted Bai Ye's plans one step ahead.

Bai Ye has only visited Lungmen a handful of times, and the opportunity to come here is even rarer. Although they communicate frequently via email, at least half a year has passed since the last time he visited.

Many new employees don't even know who the boss of the research institute is.

"Mr. Bai Ye, what brings you here!"

Snowsant ran down the corridor and suddenly saw Bai Ye walking beside her, so she quickly stopped.

Perhaps because she was too surprised to see Bai Ye, the girl's eyes widened, and she almost fell over due to her clumsiness.

Fortunately, a gust of wind blew by in the Bai Ye and caught her.

"I'm sorry!" Snowsant, like Jessica with her cat head, has eyes that easily become teary.

"You're a supervisor now, and you're still so reckless?" Bai Ye couldn't help but laugh.

Snowsant, however, was only focused on apologizing.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

"..."

Bai Ye said no more; this personality trait might really be unchangeable.

Fortunately, Snowsant's abilities are not a problem. As a veteran of Lobotomy Corp, she is now the head of the Engineering Department, and her main research topic is Powered Armor.

Bai Ye came to the company this time to check on the progress of the project's research.

"We already have the basic framework and design plan. The researchers at Rhodes Island have helped us a lot, and an anonymous expert has also given us a lot of advice."

"However, the prototype is not yet complete. Some materials have not yet arrived, so we have to wait for a while."

When talking about her work, Ms. Snowsant stopped being nervous and reported the situation to Bai Ye one by one.

As they talked, the two walked to the Powered Armor Development Section, a specially set-up department led by the Engineering Department and composed of temporary personnel drawn from other departments.

Miss Snowsant is naturally the manager here.

In the development room, a 3D projection model of the Powered Armor floats in mid-air and rotates continuously.

Compared to the previous "Bastion" model of Powered Armor, this one has been significantly improved in many ways. It is more slender overall, making it look more agile and less bulky.

Compared to the boxy "Fortress," this set is clearly much more aesthetically pleasing and perfectly matches Bai Ye's imagination of Powered Armor.

What will the progress be by the end of the month?

Bai Ye reached out and waved his hand above the model, disrupting the 3D projection and making it somewhat blurry.

Snowsant opened the terminal to confirm:

"Um..."

"Only the core part and one arm."

Snowsant handed the terminal to Bai Ye.

"What if we expedite the delivery of the materials?"

Bai Ye took the terminal and pressed for an answer.

"Well, if all the materials can be obtained, there will be no problem and the main body can be completed, but we won't be able to equip it with firearms."

Bai Ye nodded.

The thermal weapon module is integrated with the entire mech and can be directly controlled by the pilot through a neural connection system, freeing up their hands to perform other tasks.

Therefore, the requirements for this thermal weapon system will be higher, and it may not be ready in the short term.

"One melee weapon is enough."

Bai Ye put down the terminal.

"By the way, boss, the movement concept of this Powered Armor is quite novel. It uses the thrust of the thruster nozzles to achieve short-term airtime and jumping, which may be difficult for the operator to control."

A researcher nearby offered a reminder.

"It's okay, this project is already in the training log."

Bai Ye shook his head.

When he was training Melantha, he gave the girl special training in this area. The method was very simple: he trained her by using wind power to simulate jets, so that Melantha could adapt to this way of moving and fighting.

Once Powered Armor is donned, the original two-dimensional combat will transform into a three-dimensional combat. The increased mobility represents a leap forward in the pilot's combat capabilities, but the difficulty of operation will also increase exponentially.

Fortunately, Melantha has excellent physical attributes and coordination, so there shouldn't be any problems operating her.

Bai Ye began to look forward to his apprentice's future performance.

Chapter 83 Snowsant's Precious Piggy Bank

Bai Ye was looking at the terminal, but something felt off. He looked up and found Snowsant staring at his feet.

Somewhat puzzled, Bai Ye lifted her foot and saw a coin lying at her feet.

Just as he was about to bend down to pick it up, the Snowsant suddenly ducked down and darted over, running to Bai Ye's feet and picking up the coin.

"?"

Bai Ye stepped back, startled by Snowsant's actions.

"Cough cough..." Snowsant only realized what she had just done after she stood up. She stood there blankly with the coin in her hand, her head down, as if she was about to cry at any moment.

"What's wrong? Is it something very important?" Bai Ye asked, trying to smooth things over.

It's probably something like a lucky coin.

However, the Snowsant hesitated and didn't say anything. Instead, it swayed and reached out to grab a jar on the table, but it stumbled and almost fell over again.

However, the fingertips that were trying to grab the jar only collided with it randomly, causing the jar to fall off the table and onto the ground.

The lid fell off, and the coins and debris inside scattered to the ground, yet remained suspended in mid-air.

"Ah—Mr Bai Ye?!"

The Snowsant, who was originally going to pick up these things one by one, was surprised to see the coins floating in the air, as if something was supporting them from below, like an invisible hand.

Bai Ye clapped his hands, and all the coins gathered together and were held in mid-air.

"Be more careful next time."

Bai Ye smiled at the little girl, then took the jar from Snowsant's hand, waved his right hand, and let all the coins in mid-air flow into it.

Snowsant watched as Bai Ye put the jar back on the table, blinked, and seemed not to have reacted yet.

"I already said there's no need to be nervous. Did my sudden arrival put more pressure on you?" Bai Ye said with a smile, trying to comfort him.

"Um... Mr. Bai Ye, do you think I'm... weird? Having so many coins around me?" Snowsant somewhat embarrassedly.

"Well, I don't think it's a big deal. If these things are important to you, then it's perfectly normal to keep them safe." Bai Ye smiled.

"Well, it's not that important..."

Snowsant was a little embarrassed as she opened the lid of her piggy bank:

"For example, these metal tokens from the arcade are used as change by vendors in Lungmen... When I found out the next day, I wanted to confront him, but the unscrupulous merchant had already been arrested by the Lungmen Guard Department, and his stall had been shut down."

"If you had met me sooner, I would have helped you find Chief Chen ..." Bai Ye once again inadvertently showed Snowsant his connections and the fact that he was "colluding" with the current director of the Guards Bureau.

"This is Gaul- Bronze Ridge? Hmm, it's a pity it's rusted. If the rust could be removed, someone might be willing to pay for it." Bai Ye found a coin from the now-extinct country of Gaul among the various counterfeit coins, game tokens, and small odds and ends in the jar.

Actually, these coins weren't very valuable. When Gaul still existed, roughly ten bronze riyals were equivalent to one Lungmen Dollar. But back then, probably no one would have been doing such small-scale exchange business.

Fortunately, the value of things is often revealed after they are lost. For example, when Gaul still existed, some wines were not actually that expensive, but after Gaul fell, due to the loss of the production techniques, the prices of some wines began to soar.

However, Bai Ye knew that what he said was actually meant to comfort Snowsant.

Because things are valued for their scarcity.

These coins were widely issued in Gaul at the time, and even decades after the country's demise, they were still commonplace and worthless.

Similar to the coins, there were also Columbia Gold Certificates that Snowsant carefully hid in his piggy bank. However, whether as Players in the past or living on the Terra after his transmigration, Bai Ye had never known that Columbia had ever issued gold certificates of this denomination.

It's probably counterfeit money.

However, the Snowsant was still put away.

Bai Ye understood that this little girl wasn't collecting things like stamps at all; she simply couldn't bear to throw them away.

Perhaps because of the many hardships it has endured, the Snowsant's frugality has reached a pathological level.

Poverty left a deep mark on her. Even now, as a department head at a well-known scientific research company in Lungmen, she still cannot change her demeanor.

In fact, if she weren't wearing her employee badge, other people would probably mistake her for a researcher's assistant.

Bai Ye looked through Snowsant's collection with mixed feelings of amusement and exasperation. The little girl was very grateful that Bai Ye didn't laugh at her for her strange hobby, but patiently listened to Snowsant tell the stories behind the coins.

Perhaps because of Bai Ye's actions, some researchers in the lab who secretly harbored prejudice and ridicule towards Snowsant also learned a lesson—even the boss himself did not develop prejudice against this poor little girl's strange hobby, so what reason did they have to ridicule a young, frugal, and capable girl?

Ultimately, the topic returned to the Powered Armor itself.

"I noticed that the style of this armor is quite different from the armor commonly seen in Columbia nowadays."

Snowsant looked at the 3D projection floating in mid-air with some curiosity.

Yes, this structure somewhat subverts people's imagination of Powered Armor.

After all, in their view, such armor probably doesn't offer much protection and doesn't seem very reliable.

In fact, after Bai Ye presented his sketches and requirements, many people felt puzzled and confused.

"Because the design philosophy was different from the very beginning," Bai Ye explained, holding up his finger. "Adding layers of armor to enhance defense and using harder alloys to make the outer shell more robust—this is the design concept behind Columbia's current cutting-edge Powered Armor models."

"However, what I want is greater mobility and smoother movements, so that the user is no longer a bulky lump of iron, but becomes more flexible."

The Snowsant blinked:

"Would this kind of equipment be used in combat?"