"Oh!!!" A cute cheetah cub ended up in Claudia's hand as the Princess gently held the cute feline in her hands.
At that moment, the black-haired girl tried to use her Quantum Brainwaves to mould a connection between herself and the small creature.
To her surprise, it was not hard. But the ability to do so has piqued her interest.
"That's it! I will name you Gary the Cheetah!" The girl proudly declared.
Marcus chuckled at the name, and Anna massaged her forehead as she realised that her daughter inherited her husband's naming sense.
"Are you sure?" The Emperor leaned into her side and whispered something.
"Remember, Alexander? The mighty Knightmare that can transform into a bug?" Marcus teased his wife.
"...W-What's wrong with that? Besides, I was a teenager when I made it!" The Empress tried to defend herself. She is not the only one who can pick up on thoughts with their Quantum Brainwaves!
"Hmm, I guess… anyway, I am picking one for myself." Marcus walked over and selected a Cheetah cub for himself.
"Sure thing, boss." The Emperor picked a cute cub for himself.
While the whole situation looks cute, Marcus is teaching his daughter some responsibility, and he does so; this was not a simple cat but a predator with sharp claws and teeth.
But he did something else; he piqued his genius daughter's interest.
The girl who had been interested in the mutagenic essence of plants was now interested in animals and in controlling them with Quantum Brainwaves.
In the future, she will be the one to create the special Xenomorph brigade, a unit in the army that controls mutated animals using their brain waves.
Sometimes, simple family moments can inspire the most impactful things in Imperial history.
~~~
Once back from a short trip, Marcus continued to work on his suit, but now he had a permanent companion in his workshop.
While he wanted to name him 'Tim the Terminator', Anna opposed it. So he went with a mythical animal; Nemeas sounded cool. Pity that his Cheetah didn't have golden fur, but it was fine as it is.
After getting pets like that, the Emperor received an order for milk; since the cats were still small, they needed it.
'They still have the teeth even at this stage.'
"I can't believe you just went and picked a literal predator from a zoo." Wang Liu Mei commented with a curious tone as she watched the sleeping cub in a simple fenced corner of the workshop.
There was a literal 15-metre drop in his workshop that one needs to be wary of, especially for a small and cute animal.
"Not a zoo, but yeah." The Emperor replied as he turned around and looked at his gorgeous wife.
She no longer calls herself Wang Liu Mei; his Empress used the wedding to change her name. She was simply known as Mei Anaheim.
"Hmm… I suppose you can use your brainwaves to control the cat later on."
"No need. Cheetahs don't see us as prey. They usually hunt small animals; we don't trigger their instincts." He shrugged his answer.
"...hoh, is that so?" His wife placed her hands on her cheeks as she watched her latest fascination in the workshop.
"I am surprised that you gave one of these to your daughter. They still have teeth and claws."
"Right… because she doesn't know what to do. But she knows how to mutate plants." The Emperor rolled his eyes.
"...Fair point, none of your kids fall into the norm." Mei chuckled as she got up and walked over to him.
Her gaze ended up on the suit that was getting assembled.
For now, all she saw were the boots. Armoured boots, but she saw concept art. The Imperial army will have quite the make-up once Marcus finishes these armours.
~~~
After the Emperor finished the boots, the gauntlets were next. He wanted to go with a battery, but there had been considerable technological progress in GN technology.
The ex-Celestial Being people created a warship-sized GN Drive, and the opposite was true as well. They created small ones. Small ones were good for Police use. The Knightmares used by the police force utilise small GN Drives.
Marcus used that tech to power his Power Suit.
He placed the GN drive on the back, between the Resonance Wings.
Midway, he realised that with GN tech and gravity resonance, the power suit would have absurd manoeuvrability… reminding him of those supernatural shonen animes he used to watch back in his old-old days.
That means that technology is so good that it's beginning to approach the realms of supernatural and arcane.
For now, the Innovator Emperor made a simple version of gauntlets. The chest piece had a simple GN slot and resonance wings. There were no weapons at the moment. Marcus can add those later on.
"What do you think?" Marcus pulled back as he looked at his handiwork.
A full body armour was floating before him. It was close to 2.5 metres; the spread wings make the armour around 4 metres wide. But these things are to cast a 'bubble' of anti-gravity that allows the soldiers to move like a fish in water.
It would react to the neural interface of the wielder of the armour.
What the Emperor was trying to do. It has developed countermeasures against Elemental Zero technology.
The element allows for bullets to weigh nothing or a lot. Yes, bullets, imagine using something as primitive as bullets.
The last time he saw a bullet in his reality was when the Independence War and the Conquest of the World were still a thing. That's twelve years ago.
Those weapons are in museums now. Beam technology is the current standard, and police are using electric-based weaponry.
Yes, electric, meaning that if something like robbery is happening, which is an extremely rare case. The police will use stun weaponry that will make the robber shake for days. It's a reminder not to be stupid and break the law.
The voltage is borderline deadly; that, of course, changes in a murder situation…
[I would say it's something unique. It's been a while since you made something that couldn't end life on a planet, Your Majesty.]
His AI sarcastically commented on his five years of development of Solar Cannon.
"Very amusing, Legion." Marcus picked up his feline friend and got comfortable in his fancy seat.
But then he chuckled, realising something amusing.
He felt like a Bond Villain! He was Underground, creating something that would change the world, and on top of that, he had a 'cat' on his lap.
'Like Giovanni with his Persian.'
The Emperor chuckled even more; it was 'iconic'.
[Jokes aside, I did some rendering and pushed the armour through several physics engines.]
The blueprint turned into a proper 3d image, showing a cross between an Iron Man suit and a Gundam.
"Nice. Swap the head unit with the Andraste-inspired model."
[As you wish, rendering.]
"Very good. You may begin manufacturing." He nodded at the new head.
[Very well. Placing an order for a scaled-down GN drive.
Estimated delivery date: month and 1 week, 2 days, and 23 hours 57 seconds.]
Marcus grimaced at the waiting time. But he expected that; pseudo-perpetual engines take time to assemble.
"Yeah… regardless, begin assembling the rest. I am going to do something else."
As he said that, he picked up the cheetah he had in his hands and looked at its cute face. Honestly, even when it grows up, it will still be a cute little predator that is capable of ending lives.
~~~
As time went on, Marcus got another hobby: raising a pet. It has been a while since he had a pet. Last time it was…
'When was it? Damn…'
He was certain that he didn't have something like that. The closest to a 'pet' was when he would 'relocate' girls… but hell, that is not even the right category.
So it was his previous life when he had two dogs and a hamster at one point.
That was about it. He always wanted one of those big ones like a wolf, or a tiger, hell, lions are good pick, but those are deadly if something goes wrong.
Once a lion accepts you as a member of a pride, you can even smack them; they won't do a thing. He is sure he could use his Quantum Brainwaves to communicate and make the animal accept him.
But that's beside the point. He decided on a bit more 'harmless' towards humans, and that was Cheetah.
However, he never considers how Claudia will become obsessed with the whole Quantum Brainwaves-controls-animals part.
"Dad! What do you think!? Could it work!?" The Princess was basically bouncing around as she showed her new project.
"...Hmm…" Marcus began to read what she had prepared. One could imagine some childish doddles from her, but that was six years ago. By this point, he was reading a scientist's report.
"Mutagenic energy isolation… You want to target specific cells that react to their surroundings. Interesting. But you do realise that the adaptation you are targeting could backfire if the organism realises that it should adapt from your control." He pointed out to her.
"That already happened, remember?" The Emperor looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
GN technology opened a huge can of worms, literally, given how many traits that particle has.
One of them is mutagenic evolution. Originally, it was supposed to evolve humans to the next level overall.
The biology division of Academy City found another use for it.
And that was rapid mutation and evolution to their surroundings.
Instead of slow adaptation and genetic splicing to adapt plants for Centauria's sun and the new world.
They decided to 'rush it' and modify the plant with a genetic mutagen.
Now, to do it, they found which atoms do that, then tried to synthesise that.
It took a while, but they were successful, thanks to Anna, and of course, Claudia followed suit and learned from her.
The synthesis was a success, and now there was a mutagenic liquid capable of evolving plants. All they needed was energy, so they used mineral-rich water and phosphorus-rich soil, along with the mutagen.
And bam… the next thing they knew, the lab was a jungle, and it was growing at an insane pace.
That led to quarantine, and then Scientists decided to send the section of the lab into the sun because it was too dangerous.
Thankfully, Marcus was paranoid enough when he designed Academy City. He saw enough movies where shit like that ends up as the main villain of some scary movie.
He didn't want to fight self-made plant monsters alongside the Reapers.
"Moh! That was last year! Besides, Mama fixed it. It was an overload on a specific cell; we already learned that we need to spread the energy out." Claudia puffed, she was there! It was scary… and cool!
The Princess never saw plants grow so fast!
"Yeah, so if you want me to approve this, you will need the whole project set up. You know that, right? Allocating budget and building another space station just for this."
The Emperor explained to her as he stroked his cheetah's fur. He does feel like a Bond villain; he is about to consider mutating animals.
Well, it was in the plans when he was considering ecology for new worlds. So why not start early?
"Hmph! Leave it to me! I will speak with Mama Leila! She will approve that in no time."
"Puppy eyes?" Marcus deadpanned
"Puppy eyes." Claudia seriously replied.
"We will see. Leila has been developing immunity towards it, most likely because you are not a baby anymore." The Emperor chuckled as he remembered that.
"We shall see! Anyway! I am going back to my drawing board!"
With that said, the girl dashed away; she was back with her high levels of energy.
In the meantime, Marcus read through the papers.
'She really is my daughter… one of the core usages is military deployment of animals that evolve depending on battlefield requirements.' He read through the paper with a raised eyebrow.
One of the first proposals is the expansion of the Empire's borders through the colonisation of new worlds, where they could introduce animals, and the other is the military use of claws, fangs, and sharp points.
'A Xenomorph army… that could be useful as shock troops.'
'Hmm'
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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