Experimenting

Waldo asked the shelter's intelligent assistant, "Is there any way to reduce the charging time of the Energy Shield?"

The intelligent assistant, having misunderstood the question, asked him to repeat it. Waldo's lips trembled slightly, and after taking a deep breath, he said with determination, "I want to reduce the charging time of the Energy Shield."

The intelligent assistant quickly responded, "Alright, let me check for you. Please wait a moment." After a brief pause, the assistant provided an answer that left Waldo frustrated.

"Dear survivor, the remaining charging time for the Energy Shield is seventy-one hours, fifty-eight minutes, and forty-five seconds. You can expedite the charging process by consuming additional energy."

Without hesitation, Waldo asked, "What kind of energy is needed?"

"The fastest energy for charging the Energy Shield is electrical energy. We have detected electrical energy in your shelter. Shall I establish a charging channel for you?"

"Go ahead," Waldo accepted without refusal. But he couldn't help but wonder, how much time could be saved by speeding up the charging process.

The intelligent assistant paused briefly and then gave a precise answer, "With the additional charging, the Energy Shield's charging time will be reduced to six hours."

Although Waldo slightly frowned, crossing the charging time down to six hours was still quite impressive. However, he still felt some dissatisfaction and was worried that something unexpected might happen within those six hours. Yet, he knew that perfection was impossible in such situations.

Waldo urged the intelligent assistant to activate the charging channel without further delay. "Alright, the charging channel has been established!" The mechanical female voice of the intelligent assistant surrounded Waldo's ears.

As the charging channel was connected, Waldo saw a faint, almost transparent, glass-like shield hovering in mid-air above the villa. Electrical currents flowed through it, resembling the body's veins. Waldo was curious, so he approached the S Alloy walls and reached out to touch the edge of the Energy Shield. However, he found nothing but emptiness, realizing that the shield was intangible.

During the six-hour charging window, Waldo inspected the automatic defense system and S Alloy walls to ensure there were no maintenance issues. He then adjusted the surrounding surveillance cameras before returning to his bedroom to rest.

The night passed uneventfully, with the system's notifications for unlimited supplies of 30mm machine gun rounds and the completion of the Energy Shield's charging.

"Waldo, the Energy Shield is fully charged now. After the first charging cycle, it will automatically absorb natural energy for continuous supply," the intelligent assistant informed him.

Excited, Waldo rushed out to see the newly charged Energy Shield.

Looking at the empty space with no visible objects, Waldo blinked his eyes, not entirely sure.

"Yesterday evening, there was a transparent film-like substance, and now it disappeared after the charging is complete?" Waldo stepped out of the S Alloy walls.

Dressed in his combat suit, he cautiously tapped a spot about one or two meters outside the S Alloy walls—the limit of the Energy Shield's range.

A ripple! Waldo felt resistance as he attempted to move his fist forward, but it couldn't advance further.

The spot where his fist met the resistance was within the protective range of the Energy Shield, and ripples formed around his fist, like water waves.

As if straight out of a sci-fi movie, there was an invisible force field generating ripples in mid-air.

Waldo exerted more force, causing the ripples to become stronger and more evident. It seemed like the energy was equally distributed throughout the entire Energy Shield, absorbing the force of his punch.

Waldo now had a rough understanding of how the Energy Shield worked. He was curious about the level of damage it could withstand.

He took out a critical hit warrior knife and other cold weapons like crossbow arrows. The Energy Shield easily blocked these attacks, which Waldo had anticipated.

As a platinum-level defense system, it wouldn't be worth much if it couldn't even withstand cold weapons.

Next, he tried hot weapons. Waldo pulled out a pistol and fired two shots, his eyes widening as he witnessed the bullets being stopped by the Energy Shield as if frozen in mid-air before dropping to the ground.

However, in that brief moment, Waldo noticed the pause clearly. He then decided to test even more powerful weapons, taking out grenades and throwing them into the air.

The grenades exploded, and the Energy Shield activated, blocking all the shrapnel from the explosion and even bouncing it back to the ground.

Waldo was taken aback. He was concerned that the Energy Shield might malfunction, but it proved to be reliable. If it had failed, the grenades would have caused a huge mess in the courtyard.

The noise generated by Waldo's experiments woke up Alanna and Helen. They rushed out, thinking that Sheriff's forces had arrived at their doorstep.

To their surprise, they saw Waldo in combat gear testing the Energy Shield.

Waldo pulled out more powerful hand grenades and threw them into the air. The Energy Shield intercepted the explosion's shrapnel and even rebounded it back.

Other survivors in the villa area also woke up due to Waldo's experiments. They cursed loudly, threatening to confront the one causing the commotion. But when they saw Waldo in his white combat suit, they swallowed their words. Recently, the stories about Waldo's feats had spread like wildfire—snatching platinum-level supply boxes from the police, Saturn, and the Drug Lord teams, even beheading two deputy leaders in the old city.

They had nicknamed him "Flathead Brother." Although many survivors still didn't know his real name or what he looked like, they knew he was a young man based on the videos he occasionally released.

Waldo then tried shooting with an AK47. The muzzle emitted fire, and the spent casings fell to the ground, but even this hail of bullets had little impact on the Energy Shield.

Waldo put away the AK47 and stretched his arms, which had become a bit sore from the prolonged experiment. He approached the shield once again, carefully observing.

Seeing the nearly undamaged Energy Shield, Waldo couldn't help but marvel.

"Energy shield energy loss: 1%, recovering."

Indeed, this was a true platinum-level supply!