CHAPTER 87: MOLECULAR ANALYSER (BONUS CHAPTERS)

"Lucy, what’s the update on your training?" Liam asked as he placed the slab on the long, obsidian table and took his seat.

"I completed it some hours ago and I took the opportunity to go through another reinforced training," Lucy replied, her sweet voice echoing from the laptop’s speaker.

"That’s perfect. Now, let’s see how good you really are. I will ask you different question and you must answer them correctly. I don’t mind you being creative with your answers as that allowed. But they must be correct. Are you ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, tell me..." Liam said, and started throwing very difficult technical, and professional questions at Lucy.

She didn’t disappoint as she answered all the questions flawlessly. Liam was impressed but he wasn’t surprised because he expected that much from her.

He even went ahead to ask her some non-standard questions and her answers made him nod his head, with a wide smile, looking very impressed.

She’s growing very fast. That’s perfect. Her training will be done before noon and I can the trait fusion immediately, and also building the quantum ecosystem.

After more an hour of grilling Lucy with questions, it was time for her start the next stage of her training.

This stage — cultural/social training — will give her the ability to understand why people speak or act the way they do. It will also help her to understand things like humor, sarcasm, politeness, idioms, rituals, body language, emotional undertones... And she’ll begin to simulate emotions.

Though she won’t "feel" them like humans, but by recognizing emotional cues in cultural and social data, she will be able to understand why someone saying "I’m fine" with a flat tone actually means the opposite.

With Lucy’s training underway, Liam decided to return it Earth for a couple of minutes before returning.

He has been in the space for more than a day but only a two minute has passed on Earth.

Liam teleported out of the space to his room. He went to the bathroom to take his bath and wash off the bit of dust he gathered from running and punching the cliff.

After he was done, he put on a clean set of clothes and collapsed on the bed and took his phone out of his phone.

He only needs to spend two or three minutes here before returning to the space, to test Lucy and start the next stage of her training. And this stage will be the last.

After that, Liam can put her to work and see how good she is. What he will do first was the trait fusion.

Lucy will connect to the nanites’ swarm dormant AI and awaken it from its dormant state.

And as for how Lucy will do that? Liam intends to build a program that will act as a bridge between Lucy and the swarm AI.

Right now, the nanites’ swarm AI is inactive, waiting for an "external command interpreter" to wake it up.

But while its AI is dormant, the swarm constantly broadcasts faint carrier signals inside Liam’s body. These signals are low-level EM pulses. Something similar to neural frequency range or MHz–GHz spectrum. These are invisible to humans, but they’re always there like a "heartbeat."

Lucy can pick up his heartbeat using the extremely powerful laptop that can simulate and synchronize with practically any EM band.

Though Lucy can’t "hear" the nanites naturally, she can scan through frequency ranges — like tuning a super-advanced radio — until she locks onto the swarm’s control signal.

And with the bridge, which is the program Liam intends to build, Lucy will be able to establish connection with the swarm AI and give it instructions.

Talking about building a bridge programs, Liam suddenly thought of something. He plan to set up a lab in the space but to procure the equipments he needs to set up a lab would be very stressful.

But there’s no need to set up an elaborate Earth standard laboratory, because there should be something in the system store that should do the work for him.

He has the molecular assembler that can not only create anything by arranging atoms, but can also disintegrate anything atom by atom.

What Liam was trying to drive at was that there’s something called a molecular analyser in the system store. He had seen it when he wanted to purchase the molecular assembler.

And with my current account balance of $178m, I can easily purchase the two versions of it.

Liam immediately opened the system store and searched for the molecular analyser. While he did that, he entered the Dimensional Space.

[Molecular Analyzer]

Cost: 500 SP

Description: A compact, palm-sized scanning device designed for instant field analysis. Uses spectral imaging, quantum resonance mapping, and atomic frequency sampling to identify molecular composition within seconds.

[Molecular Analyzer]

Cost: 1,500 SP

Description: A desktop-sized high-precision analyzer designed for deep molecular dissection. Equipped with spectroscopic arrays, particle lattice mapping, and isotope separation.

***

"A total of $20m for the two? No problem," Liam smiled, as he took his seat.

He quickly exchanged the amount purchased the two molecular analysers.

Immediately, two ripples formed in the space before him. One coalesced above his palm, the other shimmered slightly into being beside the long obsidian table.

The first solidified with a muted click against his skin and Liam smiled when he saw the device in his hand.

In his hand sat the compact Molecular Analyzer. It was a palm-sized, sleek, and as elegant as any high-end smartphone. Its body was a seamless slab of matte obsidian-black alloy, edges trimmed with platinum micro-lines.

The front surface was a smooth, flexible glass-like panel. At the lower edge, just where a thumb might naturally rest, was a slim sliding compartment and it was no larger than a SIM tray. That was where physical samples could be inserted: a shard of rock, a droplet of liquid, a hair, a sliver of tissue.

The screen was currently dark as the device was currently turned off.

"Looks and feel just like a phone..." Liam murmured, turning it over in his hand.

His eyes shifted to the second ripple as it finally condensed into reality, as the larger Molecular Analyzer thudded softly beside the long obsidian table.

If the handheld version was a phone, this one was a workstation. Though nothing like the bulky machines of Earth’s labs.

Its chassis was crafted from a platinum-white alloy with smooth and flowing curves, almost organic in its design. Thin seams of sapphire-blue light ran along its surface.

The central section was dominated by a crystal-clear chamber about the size of a shoebox, encased in reinforced transparent composite.

Liam brushed his hand near it and with a touchless activation, the chamber opened forward with a hiss.

Inside, micro-scaled manipulators hung like crystalline needles, suspended above a retractable sample platform.

On either side of the main chamber, retractable panels housed input trays, one for solid samples and another with slim vials for liquids and gases. A strip of glass ran along the front, doubling as a control panel and status readout.

Liam smiled in satisfaction at the two molecular analysers.

He tapped the handheld against his palm, then glanced at the desktop analyzer. Together, they were perfect.

After admiring the gadgets enough, Liam turned his attention to Lucy who had been waiting for him.