628 Prototype Part 1 (2/2)

But the white-haired young man seemed completely unconcerned. He just looked at him, with a slight smile that seemed to say he already knew what he was thinking.

Although he had not yet spoken, his pitch-black eyes expressed what he was thinking very clearly.

It'd be nice if you didn't give me any trouble.

It'd be best if you didn't.

Without knowing why, Zebra averted his gaze, looking back at Newton ferociously.

”We had a deal.”

”The deal was that after you had completed the experiments, I'd let you go, not to let you stay here free of charge just to stand there blinking at me.”

With Ye Qingxuan there to protect him, Newton was not afraid of anything, and with this bolstered confidence began to berate Zebra. ”What are you standing there for? Are you waiting for lunch? Get started!”

Zebra unwillingly swept his eyes over them, then took two steps back and stood firmly in the middle of the testing site.

”Begin the first Net of Aether music theory transmission test!”

The metal pipes on the wall transmitted the researcher's voice. On the other side of the wall, instruments of harmonious melody were already wedged into the floor, with many cables stretching out from them. They were tangled up into a hopeless mess, and were thrust through interfaces in the wall.

Deep beneath the floor, an enormous hub began to turn.

Six newly made external combustion engines that had originally been Sterling model engines fired up. This massive amount of power started the aether furnace, and flashes of aether sprang out from within. Under the shifting of the instruments of harmonious melody countless cables surged methodically, illuminating the alchemy array in the testing site.

The flashing metal reflected off the floor, the ceiling and the walls.

A burst of static electricity appeared out of thin air, making a loud humming sound. Newton's hair stood on end, making him look like a half-bald hedgehog. It was incredibly ugly. But Ye Qingxuan was not affected at all. Not even his fingers were shaking.

This degree of electrical field disturbance caused by the friction from the turbulent aether was, as far as he was concerned, not worth wasting his power to smooth out. The Symphony of Predestination's own gravitational force was enough to quash these insignificant ripples.

Newton glanced angrily at Ye Qingxuan. This guy was purposely watching him make a fool of himself!

After a short while, the joyful voices of the workers came through the pipes, ”The harmonious melody repeater has successfully started!”

At this point, even Ye Qingxuan was surprised.

He never would have thought that in only half a month Newton could have already taken the first step in realizing the framework of the Net of Aether.

Even though he had provided the basic structure of the music theory, and there was a method that could be used to decipher the pattern, and he had three Royal Musicians cooperating with him on this, to have done so much work in such a short time was no mean feat.

This was the benefit of having a top researcher. Before the research had even started he had already ruled out over 70% of erroneous research paths, saving huge amounts of time and resources.

”This is within expected parameters, nothing to get excited about.”

Newton smiled coldly and waved his hands, ”As long as there aren't any problems with the theories or the calculations, even a pig could follow the steps to set these things up. Only you wouldn't have to pay a pig three times the salary of a white-collar worker. Continue the experiment, the next part is the most important.”

After saying this, he turned towards Zebra, still standing there in the center of the testing site, and looked at him expectantly.

At the urging of the voice coming through the pipe, Zebra walked forward, and reluctantly started dressing himself in the equipment laid out on the workbench.

A helmet, gloves, vambraces, a breastplate...

It looked like a suit of broken armor, covered in patches and weld marks, with cables wrapped all around it. It had to have been extremely heavy. A scrawny person wouldn't have been able to wear it.

Each part of the heavy carapace had lock catches that could be fastened to each other. By the end, Zebra was completely covered save for his left arm and shoulder.

Even while wearing the heavy equipment Zebra still moved about freely and unrestrained. He raised his left hand curiously, and stared at the interface in the middle of his palm and at the crude buttons on his left hand and arm.

Finally, he looked at the wire that he was dragging under his feet.

The wire was directly connected to a hole in the floor, and ran down to the next level. It looked like it must reach to some huge piece of equipment.

At the moment he finished putting on the armor, the musical notes engraved into the arrays lit up, including the ones tattooed on Zebra's skin.

The arrays had linked the symbols carved into his flesh with the suit of armor. The aether circulation was complete.

”Bridging complete!”

”A1, from this point forward give a detailed report of everything that you feel,” the researcher said through the pipes.

”A little...hot...”

Zebra's writhing body had not quite adapted to the recently created aether circulation. He looked at the glowing music notes tattooed on his skin, ”It really itches. It hurts a little bit, but I can take it.”

”Excellent. Let's begin. We'll need you to be patient for a few minutes. The process might be a bit difficult for you...”

Before he had finished speaking, a shudder went through Zebra's body, and his face became ashen. He gritted his teeth and a hideous look passed over his face. In the corner, several machines monitoring his vital statistics emitted an ear-piercing noise.

Zebra gave a sharp cry.

The heartbeat monitor began to flicker wildly, indicating that both his hearts were beating like crazy, and that there were abnormal secretions of various hormones, muscle spasms, hyperaemia, and swelling.