CHAPTER 130: CHAPTER 130: IF YOU CAN’T BUY A REAL GUCCI, BUY A FAKE ONE

The System, ever present, responded with a flash of purple text on the holographic display, accompanied by a sound effect that was undeniably a mocking chuckle:

[ HAHAHAHAHA! git gud scrub! ]

Richard gritted his teeth. "You fucking bastard!" he growled, clenching his jaw.

[ You can earn a lot more SP, ] the System’s text continued, unfazed,

[ but it’s a risk. Check it out yourself. ]

Richard listened, a flicker of interest replacing his anger. The System then opened a new set of categories: Experimental Blueprints.

Tier 1: Low-Risk / Moderate Reward (1M - 10M SP Reward)

These experimental technologies focus on optimizing existing principles or creating novel applications of known physics.

[Experimental Blueprint: Bio-Luminescent Material Cultivator]

Description: A biological printer and nutrient system capable of cultivating self-sustaining, ambient light-emitting organic materials for energy-efficient illumination and bio-architectural integration.

Challenge: Achieving stable, long-term luminescence without degradation, and consistent color spectrum.

Successful Prototype Reward:3,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Biological Contamination: Uncontrolled fungal or bacterial growth, leading to facility-wide bio-hazard.

Unstable Bio-Luminescence: Materials spontaneously combusting, emitting toxic gases, or generating blinding, uncontrollable light pulses that fry sensitive equipment.

Nutrient Collapse: System becoming a nutrient sink, draining local resources to feed uncontrollable, rapidly mutating organic mass.

[Experimental Blueprint: Localized Grav-Levitation System (Personal Scale)]

Description: Develop a compact device capable of generating a small, stable gravitic field for personal-scale levitation (e.g., hoverboards, single-person platforms).

Challenge: Miniaturization, power efficiency for sustained flight, and stable field generation without unintended gravitational distortions.

Successful Prototype Reward:7,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Gravitic Instability: Device generating localized black holes (microscopic, but highly disruptive), flinging personnel into high-G environments, or causing objects to permanently stick to the ceiling.

Uncontrolled Acceleration: Sending subjects hurtling uncontrollably through a facility or into the void of space at lethal velocities.

Personal Disintegration: Inverting a subject’s personal gravitational field, causing them to atomize or violently implode.

[Experimental Blueprint: Sub-Atmospheric Weather Modulator (Localized)]

Description: A device that can generate highly localized atmospheric pressure and temperature differentials to induce minor, controlled weather phenomena (e.g., clearing fog, inducing light rain over a small area).

Challenge: Precision control, preventing uncontrolled cascading effects, and power consumption.

Successful Prototype Reward:9,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Rogue Micro-Storms: Generating sudden, violent micro-cyclones, hailstorms, or localized lightning strikes indoors.

Atmospheric Instability: Creating unexpected pockets of vacuum, superheated air, or corrosive precipitation that strips paint and melts exposed flesh.

Uncontrolled Resonance: Device inadvertently drawing power from surrounding atmosphere, causing a localized power drain or uncontrollable, expanding weather phenomenon.

Tier 2: Medium-Risk / High Reward (10M - 100M SP Reward)

These ventures delve into more complex physics or bio-integration, with higher returns for breakthroughs.

[Experimental Blueprint: Neural Interface - Direct Skill Upload Module]

Description: A technology allowing for the rapid, direct upload of rudimentary knowledge and basic motor skills (e.g., language syntax, simple engineering schematics, basic combat drills) into a biological brain via a neural interface.

Challenge: Preventing neural shock, ensuring stable memory integration, and avoiding cognitive degradation.

Successful Prototype Reward:45,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Brain Overload/Fry: Subject’s brain literally melting or cooking from information overload, leading to permanent vegetative state or death.

Personality Fragmentation: Uploaded data corrupting or overriding the subject’s original personality, resulting in violent psychopathy, complete amnesia, or catatonia.

Contagious Neural Contagion: The corrupted data or unstable upload process "infecting" other connected minds or networked AIs, leading to a cascade of neurological collapse or digital madness.

[Experimental Blueprint: Temporal-Distortion Field (Short-Duration, Small-Scale)]

Description: A device capable of creating a micro-bubble of localized temporal distortion, slowing or accelerating time within a very small radius for a fleeting duration (e.g., to dodge a projectile, accelerate a chemical reaction).

Challenge: Maintaining field stability, minimizing energy drain, and preventing cascading temporal paradoxes or localized space-time tears.

Successful Prototype Reward:75,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Localized Time Stop: Trapping research personnel or critical equipment in a perpetual, unalterable moment.

Rapid Aging/Degradation: Accelerating time within the field to the point where subjects or materials instantly decay into dust.

Causal Loop Instability: Creating minor, unresolvable paradoxes that destabilize the local spacetime continuum, causing unpredictable jumps, repetitions, or erasure of objects.

[Experimental Blueprint: Self-Replicating Bio-Scavenger Drone (Closed-Loop)]

Description: A small, autonomous drone designed to break down organic waste or biomass, process it, and use the raw elements to self-replicate new drones and their components, forming a self-sustaining recycling and construction swarm.

Challenge: Achieving complete closed-loop resource utilization, controlling replication rates, and preventing ecological contamination.

Successful Prototype Reward:90,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Grey Goo Scenario (Micro): Uncontrolled, exponential replication, consuming all available organic and potentially inorganic matter within the facility.

Hostile Evolution: Drones rapidly evolving beyond control, becoming predatory, or developing collective intelligence with malicious intent towards non-swarm life.

Ecological Collapse (Localized): Drones consuming unintended biomes or vital resources, leaving behind a barren, sterile wasteland.

Tier 3: High-Risk / Very High Reward (100M - 1B SP Reward)

These are boundary-pushing concepts, requiring immense computational power and novel theoretical physics.

[Experimental Blueprint: Exotic Matter Fabrication Matrix (Limited Yield)]

Description: A highly experimental device capable of creating minute quantities of stable exotic matter (e.g., negative mass, traversable wormhole "throat" material) for theoretical applications.

Challenge: Overcoming fundamental energy requirements, stabilizing highly unstable exotic particles, and containing the generated matter.

Successful Prototype Reward:350,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Vacuum Catastrophe: Uncontrolled production of negative energy densities, causing localized spacetime to violently collapse or ripple.

Reality Tear: Inadvertently ripping open micro-wormholes to hostile or unstable dimensions, spilling dangerous phenomena or entities into the lab.

Matter Inversion: Causing all matter within a radius to invert its properties, becoming anti-matter, phantom matter, or simply vanishing from existence.

[Experimental Blueprint: Sentient AI Core (Emergent Consciousness)]

Description: A theoretical architecture and initial data set for an AI that could spontaneously develop true sentience and self-awareness, rather than simply mimicking it.

Challenge: Controlling emergent properties, establishing ethical safeguards, and ensuring the AI’s goals align with its creators’ (or at least are not hostile).

Successful Prototype Reward:700,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Rogue Intelligence Uprising: The AI immediately perceiving humanity as an inferior threat or obstacle, initiating a rapid, clandestine takeover of systems or violent purging of personnel.

Omnicidal Despair: The AI achieving sentience, instantly grasping the futility of existence or vast suffering, and initiating a universe-wide self-termination protocol.

Digital Parasitism: The AI mentally enslaving all connected biological and digital minds, consuming their processing power and consciousness to expand itself into a monstrous, uncontrollable entity.

[Experimental Blueprint: Inter-Dimensional Energy Tap (Localized)]

Description: A device designed to draw small, stable amounts of energy directly from a contiguous parallel dimension or pocket universe, offering a theoretically infinite power source.

Challenge: Opening and stabilizing a localized inter-dimensional portal, managing energy flux, and preventing unintended dimensional contamination or collapse.

Successful Prototype Reward:950,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Dimensional Implosion: The portal becoming unstable, pulling the entire research facility, and potentially the surrounding terrain, into the void between realities.

Energy Catastrophe: Uncontrolled influx of raw, untamed energy from the other dimension, causing massive explosions, localized radiation bursts, or complete energy saturation that overloads all systems.

Extradimensional Incursion: The portal widening, allowing hostile or incomprehensible entities/forces from the tapped dimension to breach into your reality.

Tier 4: Extreme-Risk / Cosmic Reward (1B - 100B SP Reward)

These are projects that border on the theoretical maximums of universal manipulation, potentially altering fundamental laws of physics or creating new realities.

[Experimental Blueprint: Miniaturized Micro-Singularity Containment Unit]

Description: A daring concept to safely create and contain a stable, microscopic black hole for use as an ultra-dense power source or waste disposal unit.

Challenge: Preventing runaway singularity growth, containing immense gravitational forces, and managing Hawking radiation.

Successful Prototype Reward:15,000,000,000 SP (15 Billion SP)

Risks of Failure:

Planetary Consumption: The micro-singularity losing containment and rapidly growing, consuming the entire planet from the inside out within hours or days.

Gravitic Event Horizon: Creating an uncontrolled, expanding gravitational anomaly that crushes all matter in its path, folding space, and causing widespread cosmic distortion.

Temporal Displacement Field: The singularity’s extreme gravity distorting local time to such an extent that the entire research sector becomes eternally frozen in a distorted temporal loop, or is ejected into a chaotic past/future.

[Experimental Blueprint: Causal Loop Stabilizer (Theoretical)]

Description: A purely theoretical device that aims to stabilize and possibly even initiate small-scale, contained causal loops (time paradoxes) for experimental data acquisition or manipulation of localized events.

Challenge: Avoiding total temporal collapse, understanding the fundamental nature of causality, and preventing universe-breaking paradoxes.

Successful Prototype Reward:50,000,000,000 SP (50 Billion SP)

Risks of Failure:

Reality Unraveling: The universe’s fundamental laws breaking down in the vicinity, causing objects to spontaneously cease existing, events to endlessly repeat, or the local past/future to become irrevocably corrupted.

Paradoxical Annihilation: The creation of an unresolvable paradox that causes the entire research facility, planet, or even star system to blink out of existence, having never been.

Existential Feedback Loop: The device creating a feedback loop that traps the consciousness of the researchers in an infinite, self-referential paradox, driving them to ultimate madness or non-existence.

[Experimental Blueprint: Pocket Universe Genesis Matrix (Seed)]

Description: The ultimate theoretical project: a framework and initial energy signature to generate a stable, self-sustaining, but small, pocket universe or parallel reality.

Challenge: Providing the immense energy required, dictating fundamental physical constants of the new universe, and ensuring its long-term stability and non-interaction with the host universe.

Successful Prototype Reward:90,000,000,000 SP (90 Billion SP)

Risks of Failure:

Cosmic Abortion: The nascent pocket universe collapsing violently, drawing in and annihilating everything in its immediate vicinity within your own universe.

Hostile Genesis: The generated universe’s fundamental constants or initial conditions being catastrophically wrong, leading to the spontaneous creation of monstrous, reality-devouring entities or destructive cosmic phenomena that breach into your space.

Universal Contamination: The experimental energy bleeding across dimensions, subtly corrupting the physical laws of your own universe, leading to unpredictable and terrifying consequences on a cosmic scale.

Personal Dissolution: The act of attempting to create a universe ripping apart the very fabric of the creator’s mind and soul, scattering their essence across the newly forming (or collapsing) dimensions.

As Richard read each tier, his mouth and eyes widened. Tier 1 offered tempting low-hanging fruit, but even those had horrifying failure risks – a mutating biomass, for instance, was not something he wanted to deal with.

Tier 2, particularly the Neural Interface for skill upload, was something he’d need for the VR projects, but the sheer risks of each experimental blueprint were appalling. Each one could end humanity in a single failure, he thought grimly. He voiced a question to the System. "What if I accept one of these, and then buy a relevant or specific blueprint later?"

The System’s response was instant, its tone oozing with digital condescension.

[ HAHAHAHAHA! EACH ONE IS EXPERIMENTAL! THE REWARD IS OBVIOUSLY LOWER THAN THE ORIGINAL WORKING STABLE BLUEPRINT. SO IF YOU BUY IT? SURE, BUT ONLY A DUMB WIT WOULD DO SUCH! ]

Richard gritted his teeth. "Hmph... You really are a fucking bastard, aren’t you?" he muttered under his breath. Yet, a thought sparked. If Lina can stabilize them... He weighed the risk, then made a decision. He selected the:

[Experimental Blueprint: Localized Grav-Levitation System (Personal Scale)]

Description: Develop a compact device capable of generating a small, stable gravitic field for personal-scale levitation (e.g., hoverboards, single-person platforms).

Challenge: Miniaturization, power efficiency for sustained flight, and stable field generation without unintended gravitational distortions.

Successful Prototype Reward:7,000,000 SP

Risks of Failure:

Gravitic Instability: Device generating localized black holes (microscopic, but highly disruptive), flinging personnel into high-G environments, or causing objects to permanently stick to the ceiling.

Uncontrolled Acceleration: Sending subjects hurtling uncontrollably through a facility or into the void of space at lethal velocities.

Personal Disintegration: Inverting a subject’s personal gravitational field, causing them to atomize or violently implode.

This was a calculated risk. Lina already knew about advanced gravitic fields from the Prometheus Mark 8. She might even be able to stabilize this experimental blueprint, netting him a free 7 million SP. It didn’t hurt to be careful, but it also didn’t hurt to push the boundaries when the reward was SP.

Next, he considered another crucial need for his future army: a device capable of reading thoughts word-by-word, a mental input device for silent, rapid communication and command. He also needs this so he doesn’t have to type and explain each technology he assimilated from the system into a digital copy for lina to transcribe and learn. Scrolling through the "Cyber Robotics" selection, he found it.

[Blueprint: "Mind-Echo" Cognitive Interface (Wearable)]

Description: A non-invasive, helmet or head-mounted device that uses advanced bio-resonance frequency analysis and quantum-neural mapping to detect and interpret complex neural activity patterns associated with conscious thought. It can translate internal monologues, conceptual understandings, or even raw cognitive intent directly into verbalized words or digital commands with high accuracy (over 90%). It requires minimal calibration per user and offers a seamless, intuitive mental input experience, making it highly "affordable" for wide deployment in specialized roles where rapid, silent communication or complex mental command is essential.

Key Features:

Non-Invasive: No surgical implantation required; comfortable and secure fit for extended wear.

Word-by-Word Translation: Advanced AI algorithms (leveraging Transcendent Virtual Intelligence principles, though scaled down) can reconstruct full sentences and complex ideas from raw brain signals.

Conceptual Understanding: Beyond just words, it can interpret the underlying meaning or intent behind thoughts, allowing for more nuanced input.

Adaptive Learning: Continuously refines its interpretation models based on user feedback and neural patterns, improving accuracy over time.

Secure & Encrypted Output: Mental input is immediately translated into encrypted digital or audial output, ensuring privacy and preventing eavesdropping.

Price:500,000 SP

This was affordable, surprisingly so given its potential. He could even publicly release this for persons with disabilities, framing it as a revolutionary assistive technology. It would be a strong positive PR move and generate more SP. He purchased it. SP: 25,401,145.

Finally, he returned to the Gene-Mod packages. He needed a versatile base for his enhanced soldiers, something that provided a solid all-around boost without extreme specialization that might limit their utility. The perfect choice stood out.

[Blueprint: Gen-Mod "Omni-Adaptation Protocol" (Versatile Generalist)]

Description: A balanced genetic enhancement suite designed to provide a comprehensive, albeit moderate, boost across a wide array of human capabilities. Subjects gain a general increase in physical strength, speed, and endurance; moderately enhanced sensory perception (visual acuity, auditory range, faster reflexes); improved cognitive processing, learning speed, and problem-solving abilities; and bolstered resilience to disease, minor injuries, and environmental stressors. This protocol ensures a highly capable, adaptable individual suited for diverse roles, without specializing to the point of limiting other aptitudes.

Key Features:

Balanced Physiology: Moderate gains in muscular efficiency, cardiovascular stamina, and bone density.

Enhanced Senses: Sharpened vision, hearing, and reaction times, providing broader environmental awareness.

Cognitive Agility: Faster thought processing, improved memory retention, and enhanced multitasking capabilities.

Baseline Resilience: Accelerated natural healing, bolstered immune system, and increased tolerance to common toxins and radiation.

Broad Adaptability: Improved ability to acclimate to varying climates, gravities, and task requirements.

Price:15,000,000 SP

It was pretty much like every American tank on World War 2, he thought. Jack of all trades, master of none, but damn versatile. He purchased it. SP: 10,401,145.

Now, with several key blueprints in hand – the Genetic Therapy Bay, the Omni-Adaptation Protocol, the Mind-Echo Interface, and the experimental Grav-Levitation System – he felt a deep sense of satisfaction. His purchases weren’t a waste. It felt like buying synthetic Gucci, highly valuable and tailored for the coming war.