Smart Weapon Prototyping

Alaric opened his car door and immediately sat in the driver's seat. The cool air from the AC touched his skin, now clothed in a light gray shirt and a thin jacket over it.

The old jacket still bore the mark of that liquid, which had left a bright gray stain that looked like asphalt. But he had already folded it and put it into a sealed plastic bag in the trunk. There were no physical injuries this time, but his mind still felt the impact.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He hadn't even started the engine yet, and his stomach had already sent signals of hunger that had been held back since earlier.

This was supposed to be lunch time, and we Alaric had planned to stop by that restaurant and eat. But after what just happened, along with Clarissa's warning, his appetite had drowned along with that sudden wave of worry.

He looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. It was still 12:46. There was enough time before returning to the office, or at least before replying to emails and preparing presentation documents for next week. Alaric shifted his thoughts—dwelling on it too long wasn't healthy, he figured.

Lazily, he opened a food delivery app, searching for something light that he could take home. But just as he selected a menu and was about to press "Checkout," his phone suddenly rang. The screen showed a very familiar name: Mom.

Alaric hesitated for a moment before answering the call, feeling a bit drained. But eventually, he tapped the green button and leaned back in his seat.

"Hi, Mom."

His mother's warm voice came through, cheerful as always. "Ric, have you eaten yet, sweetheart?"

Alaric smiled faintly. There was a kind of comfort in hearing her voice, something hard to explain. Maybe... it was just natural. A bond between a child and the woman who gave birth to him.

"Not yet. I was just about to grab something. But I think I'll just get takeout. The first restaurant didn't feel right, and I don't think I have time to look for another one. I'll just order something online and eat at the office," Alaric replied, not mentioning what had happened to him earlier.

"Oh, what a coincidence!" his mom responded excitedly. "I just made your favorite squid in black ink the one with kaffir lime leaves and all those spices. It's a special day today, I made a big batch for the gathering this afternoon."

Alaric could already picture the familiar scent that always filled the kitchen whenever his mom cooked that dish. The chewy texture of the squid, the rich broth with its spicy kick and fragrant lime leaves.

Since he was a child, it was one of those meals that could make him come home early no matter where he was.

"Wait, seriously, Mom?" he said with a small laugh, as if he couldn't believe his luck in the middle of such a messy day.

"Of course! And I made the spice mix extra smooth. Just how you liked it when you were little. Do you want me to pack some and bring it to your office? Or would you rather stop by the house? I can have it ready for you."

Alaric paused for a moment. It felt like something deeper than hunger was calling him home. More than just a meal... it was home. A peaceful place, where no poison or conspiracy could reach him. A safe place.

"Don't worry about it, Mom," Alaric said at last. "I'll just stop by for a bit. I'm not that far from the house anyway." He didn't want to trouble her with going out of her way just to drop off food.

"See? I had a feeling you'd want to come home," she said with a happy laugh.

They ended the call with a few light chuckles. Alaric leaned his head against the seat and stared at the car ceiling for a moment, letting the calmness wash away the tension that had built up throughout the morning.

Her words were more than enough to lift the weight off his mind and bring back a sense of peace after all the chaos and dread earlier that day.

A soft hiss from the automatic air filter broke the silence in the room. Dawn still lingered in the air like digital fog that hadn't yet cleared from a screen. Quiet, cold, and slightly stinging.

Alaric slowly opened his eyes, heavy with fatigue. His body ached from a restless night, tossed and turned by an absurd dream that made it hard to sleep. He had spent hours shifting around, searching for the most comfortable position.

When his eyes finally adjusted to the real world again, he didn't get up right away. He remained still, with only the sound of his own breath in the air.

The pale blue light from the transparent window screen reflected in his vacant gaze, like a monitor with no signal. The drowsiness lingered—not because of a lack of sleep, but because his daily schedule left him with barely any time to rest during the day.

It was as if all the exhaustion came flooding in at night.

For him, sleep was nothing more than a biological necessity. Life was a long-term project. And morning was just a boring reboot process.

The system voice finally broke the silence in the seconds between Alaric's slow blinks as he tried to shake off the remaining sleep.

[System Notification: Skill Upgrade Lv.5: Smart Weapon Prototyping]

Alaric stared at the notification without any expression. No pride. No celebration. He simply murmured, "Finally. This is the skill I've been waiting for."

He slowly sat up, running a hand through his messy hair, then placed his bare feet on the cold metal floor of his home.

He walked to the small sink in the corner and splashed water on his face. His expression was calm—though it resembled the calm of an engineer too used to failure to expect too much.

After that, he sat down at his work desk. That desk was the heart of everything he owned. It was where he built, dismantled, failed, and tried again. And today, it welcomed him with a soft holographic glow: Project Aegis-Veritas.

Alaric exhaled slowly, then stared at the holographic blueprint in front of him, eyes barely blinking. The blue light from the projection reflected in his pupils. His fingers began to move with measured precision, as if he were performing a sacred ritual.

He traced the outline of the prototype with two fingers, then slid it to reveal the inner structure of Aegis-Veritas: a neural-conductive alloy wrapped in a responsive coating, with a central module consisting of an Adaptive Core still in its early concept stage.

There was no real-world reference for this. Alaric knew that if this succeeded, he wouldn't just be building a new weapon—he'd be defining a new category of technology.

"The problem still lies in the neural response latency," he murmured. He enlarged the display of the core chip and pulled data from the folder labeled "Failed Versions 03–09."

Every failure was a lesson. And Alaric had tried nine times without reaching a satisfying result. Version three had exploded due to unstable brainwave resonance. Version six lost connection when the room temperature shifted too quickly. Version nine... hadn't even powered on.

Now, he began to see the patterns, reading and decoding the gaps in machine logic. Then inserting human intuition into them.

With slow movements, he opened the drawer of his metal desk. It clicked. He pulled something from inside: a pale gray synthetic crystal.

It looked unremarkable, but this was the result of an energy synthesis he had collected for a month, drawn from the system's emissions. He called it "Fragment S," a fine shard gathered when the system was at peak activity.

"If I'm right, Fragment S could be the bridge between my brain and the weapon's core."

He placed the crystal on the processing slot. Instantly, the workstation lit up more brightly, detecting the rare energy.

[System Energy Detected – Synchronization Initiating]

[Synchronizing Neural Adaptive Core: 0% → 1% → 7%…]

Alaric's face remained neutral, but his eyes followed every increase in the percentage closely. His fingers moved quickly across the holographic panel, linking pathways to the micro-conductor chip, adjusting the energy flow to avoid overloading.

He knew the system was helping. But he also knew the system wouldn't do everything from start to finish. He was the engineer. The system was just the key. He still had to push the door open himself.

Time passed. The sky outside shifted from dawn to a full-colored morning. But Alaric didn't move. His hands were stained with synthetic soot, and his eyes stung from staring at the light too long, but he wasn't finished.

"If I build it this way... it can shift into shield mode in 0.4 seconds," he thought, as he added flexible circuits made of bio-carbon memory. Then he swapped out the brace with one of his own designs, lighter and able to shift based on the heartbeat of the user.

At the moment the core started to activate, the desk vibrated slightly. A bluish-white light began to glow from the center of the componentlike the first heartbeat of a newborn.

Alaric went silent.

Then his eyes lit up. He could feel that his creation was truly alive. "So this is really how it works."

[Aegis-Veritas Prototype v.1 successfully activated]

[Primary Mode: Blade Form | Secondary Mode: Folding Shield]

[Neural Response Time: 0.21 seconds]