035: Fully Automated
John initiated the review, and his prosthetic eye began to flicker as a torrent of data surged before him.
It felt somewhat similar to viewing the blueprints for the Black Spider.
After parsing the contents of the inquiry protocol, John realized that none of his current equipment could support it—the scan results indicated insufficient load capacity.
He turned his attention to the crate at his feet.
Inside was the familiar Hound excavator, the raw material for modifying the Black Spider. As an all-terrain machine from Jinkry Heavy Industries, while it possessed powerful excavation, collection, and transport capabilities, its load-bearing capacity did not meet the standards of Transport Protocol 308, and its mobility was barely passable.
To transform it into a Black Spider, other components would be required.
John was no longer the vagrant squatting in a restaurant lounge; he now had money in his pocket and plenty of time. He could select legal materials on a terminal and wait for a drone to deliver them to his door.
Wait—what if?
A flash of inspiration struck John.
He picked up his water glass and turned to look out the window, where heavy-duty transport drones from Iron-Bond Logistics crisscrossed the city skyline.
The specs of that hardware should meet the requirements, right?
John was an alumnus of Iron-Bond Logistics. The best transport drones in the city were held by corporations; if one wanted to acquire a private unit, they had to spend a fortune finding a broker on the streets.
He didn't consider buying a new one. Instead, he got up, returned to his workshop, and took down the EMP emitter Gino had given him.
John had never claimed to be a law-abiding citizen.
He first cleared the area around his living room, then added all the materials he would need later to his shopping cart on the website, filling the drone's load capacity to the brim to ensure that a heavy-duty model would be dispatched for delivery.
Several hours later, a shipping notification arrived.
A six-rotor cargo drone crossed the sky-car lanes of Danny Street. It hovered steadily past neon signs, arrived at the roof of the apartment building, and descended floor by floor to the balcony outside John's room, scanning for a landing point.
John stared at the giant crate it was carrying and wore a satisfied smile.
The transport capacity of this thing definitely met the standard.
He raised the EMP emitter and fired at the transport drone.
*Bang, hum—*
A specialized magnetic field swept through the living room like a thunderstorm.
John’s apartment appliances were fitted with shielding layers, resulting only in a brief flicker and some static, but the drone hovering on the balcony took the electromagnetic attack head-on.
An invisible, massive wave rolled over it…
It tilted outward as if struck by a heavy blow, its indicator lights flashing erratically. After colliding with the wall and the railing, it plummeted straight down.
John lunged forward and grabbed it.
He lived on the fifteenth floor; if it fell any further, both the Black Gold Gang and the Eden City News would be hunting for the culprit.
***
The corporate device emitted intermittent electronic noises, like a drugged sex-bot making a final struggle before passing out.
"War, warning... you are engaging in... illegal attack on Iron-Bond Logistics corporate assets. Please... please immediately... cease infringement. Error report sending... abort... retry..."
John pulled out his prepared tools, skillfully pried open the cover, and plugged a data cable into the diagnostic port.
The Black Light swept through.
The internal state was disastrous, as if the ground had been bombed and then relentlessly crushed by a heavy asphalt paver.
Gino’s electromagnetic gun was truly formidable.
Its interception effect was devastating, but it issued an overheat warning after a single shot. The internal ICE firmware was fried instantly, and the experimental-stage Plato chip was declared ruined. In that sense, the cost was staggering, but fortunately, John still had another set on hand if he needed it.
The transport drone lay paralyzed in the center of the living room.
He ran an extension cord from the workshop, set up several mobile devices, and began to inspect the drone:
Half of the internal circuits were burned out, but the main structure was intact; the equipment shielding from Iron-Bond Logistics had blocked most of the damage.
John dismantled the shipping crate—first using an EMP to shoot it down, then using the goods it delivered to repair it.
It felt a bit surreal.
He wore a tank top stained with industrial waste oil, standing on a thick, anti-scratch workshop mat. Behind him were two mobile spotlights, and the three monitors at his side flashed with complex parameters.
The setup was like that of a technician from Jinkry Heavy Industries.
But this knowledge came from the Black Light.
When the relevant blueprints were received in John’s mind, information regarding equipment debugging and program compilation appeared automatically. He didn't need to hesitate; his hands could work as standard and beautifully as a textbook.
He wasn't joking—as long as he had sufficiently good equipment, he could easily replicate the original factory's precision.
Finally, there was the program editing.
It was as if John had handed his brain over to an autopilot. Densely packed, explosive data turbulence flashed across the screen; the contents that paused briefly looked more like garbled code, completely different from the characters seen on the public network.
What exactly were these compilation packages downloaded from the Black Light?
John couldn't understand the text, nor did he grasp the specific logic operating between the protocols and the programs. If he had to explain it to someone else, he wouldn't be able to do it at all, yet his hands typed on the keyboard faster than the highest-speed prosthetic limbs.
The progress bar on the screen finished loading.
[-Please rename the device-]
John pondered for a moment, looking at the giant promotional poster outside the window, and chose a name in the depths of his consciousness.
[Device: Captain]
[Status: Transport Protocol activated, connected to Equipment Management Center, standby.]
He clicked on the detailed information of the transport drone in the device center managed by the Black Light. In addition to the equipment parameters and the operation of each component, there was the system it carried.
[Module Slot 1: Jinkry V8 Integrated System]
[Module Slot 2: Eden City Level 6 Cruise (including satellite synchronization and LAN calibration)]
[Module Slot 3: [Vacant]]
John activated the transport protocol, and the operational status of the device before him changed.
[Program loading...]
[Description: Complying with Transport Protocol Code 308, self-transferring critical materials, no specific route set yet.]
John understood the purpose of the program.
From now on, "Captain" would only serve him, traveling throughout Eden City to deliver goods—specifically, those things that were inconvenient to make public.
Such as the Black Spider.
Captain could pack up the newly arrived Black Spider and deliver it to the landfill outside the city, or send excavated materials and props back to the rental apartment. As long as a certain quantity was reached, it would start running back and forth.
John brought out Plato’s ICE firmware again and replaced the firewall of the six-rotor cargo drone. This was experimental defensive firmware, equivalent to adding a shield to Captain at the data level.
The Black Light incorporated it into its monitoring system for 24-hour supervision:
Not to mention hacking, even an abnormal scan would trigger an alert for John. Having gone to such great lengths to provide protection, unless it was subjected to violent bombing, ordinary technical means would truly have no way to stop it.
John removed the cover plate marked with Iron-Bond Logistics and installed a solar collector to solve its future energy problems. He didn't remove the charging port, so it could still charge itself in an emergency.
Captain took off steadily.
It had changed employers and started its new job. Because it was connected to the Black Light database, it could precisely avoid every reported flight path while flying between the skyscrapers.
John cleaned up the wreckage in the living room and threw his grease-stained tank top into the mesh basket.
The operational status of the device flashed before his eyes.
Captain’s maiden flight landed successfully; the coordinates were at Eden City Landfill No. 3.
Black Spider No. 2 had arrived safely and started work. The windfall collected by No. 1 and the raw materials for the special inhibitor were being loaded. Once packed, Captain would return to the Danny Street apartment following the latest route.
This transport line was settled.
The data stream flashing in John’s prosthetic eye vanished. The man in the mirror looked slightly haggard. He couldn't help but wonder—could he earn some extra money by using Captain to run transport or pick up goods for others?
He thought about it for a moment and dismissed the idea.
Captain’s program was not convenient to make public for the time being. Every move on the streets was watched by someone, and if he were targeted by a corporation, it might cause trouble.
The secrets of the Black Light were growing.
John had barely managed to gain a foothold; perhaps it was time to complete the only main mission in his mind.
Investigating the truth of the accident might lead to a better understanding of the Black Light.
John finished washing up and collapsed onto the sofa. A day and a night of running around, combined with modifying the equipment, had completely drained his energy.
He couldn't help but drift into a deep sleep.