Chapter 330: Reverse Engineering

The next day.

After a long while, Axel stood in his laboratory once more.

He wasn’t there to concoct new potions or recipes to make everyone stronger, though. After all, he’d already reached the pinnacle of that. Something that even gods would covet.

Instead, what he was doing was...

"Mmm..."

Sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, and meditating.

He wasn’t trying to cultivate the Dao, though. He was simply deep in thought. Thinking of ways he could boost Axevaria’s overall strength. Not the individual strength of the top fighters, but the strength of the whole.

Of course, it’s not like he had no ideas either.

The very first thought he had was to make weapons.

At present, he had already unlocked all the manufacturing pre-requisites for making the recipes he’d "stolen" from the big companies. Trismus’s Singularity Warhead and its launcher, Kalbi’s interdimensional Teleporter, and Krypton’s Void Energy Core.

The problem was that those were still in the crafting queue, with over a week left before completion. There was no telling when the next attack would arrive, so they needed something much... faster.

Axel’s mind considered this and that, simulating their futures, and figuring out the best path they could take.

Then, slowly, he opened his eyes.

"Navi, Mimir, I need the help of both of you." He called to empty space.

The next moment, two small figures appeared floating beside him. A penguin in a suit, and a black-and-white cat.

[Now? I thought Contractor already forgot about us.]

Navi jabbed jokingly.

Axel turned to the two and... didn’t smile.

"Well, there’s a lot of things you haven’t explained to me either, as if you’re avoiding it." He said. "Like that time inside my soul, when you two came in human form to help save me."

Right.

Axel was curious about that too.

He didn’t know that Navi, his little penguin system spirit, and Mimir, the one they’d picked up along the way, could take on a humanoid form. And as if knowing about his curiosity, Navi and Mimir had avoided coming close to Axel this entire time.

As if afraid he would ask them something they weren’t prepared to answer.

[About that... There’s a deep reason—]

"Wait."

But just as Navi was about to spout excuses, Axel raised a hand to stop him.

"I didn’t call you both to interrogate you. If you don’t want to talk, then that’s fine. Everyone’s got a secret or two, after all." He said. "Instead, I want you two to help me break this down into a blueprint."

"Break down...?" Mimir finally spoke, curious. "You mean, reverse engineering blueprints? Navi, you can do such things?"

[Ahem! Of course I can! There’s nothing I can’t do~!]

Hearing the two’s exchange, Axel noticed a discrepancy. ’By the sound of it, Mimir can’t reverse engineer blueprints from products?’ He thought.

But her previous owner had left her behind together with a few finished aircraft, as if knowing the "next" system user would be able to extract the blueprints from that.

Of course, Navi had already reverse engineered those long ago. It was even automatically listed in the shop, earning a pretty penny. But it was too complicated for regular people to use.

Thus, Axel pointed at a different item in his inventory.

Navi, peeking over his shoulder, shuddered upon seeing it.

[Y-You want me to reverse engineer a fucking mothership?!] He growled.

Right. The one he was pointing at was the very mothership Rochelle had brought the first time. The mothership that spanned a few hundred kilometers across, and carried thousands of different turrets altogether.

"What, you can’t?" Axel grinned, then turned to Mimir. "Looks like your little hubby is too incompetent, Mimir."

"That..."

[Hey, watch what you’re saying! Defamation is a crime!]

Rising to the bait, Navi crossed his flippers while standing, or floating, before Mimir. [I was shocked at what you wanted, but it’s not like I can’t do it!] He declared.

"Good!"

Axel smiled, seeing that things had gone according to plan.

"Then, how long will it take?"

[A year!]

"FUCK! TOO LONG!"

[Hey, you’re the one who dumped an almost impossible mission on me in the first place...]

"Still, if we wait that long, Axevaria will have vanished from the map long before that!" Axel shook his head, then continued in a calmer voice. "Anyway, that’s assuming you work alone, right? What if I work with you, along with Mimir and Bellachrona? You think we can speed it up?"

[Bellachrona? That time-element dragon...?]

Navi paused for a moment, as if calculating.

Then...

[If it’s that, then one week.] He said. [We should be able to finish the blueprint in one week.]

Navi’s database contained all sorts of recipes, after all. Even though Trismus had a slightly different version, it wouldn’t be difficult for Mimir to "update" his database with the latest information.

Axel also had his laptop, equipped with a powerful scanner, which could technically scan the entire ship for them. Although it couldn’t generate a complete blueprint from just that, it could still help shorten the time needed.

And with Bellachrona’s help, they could even work with time accelerated around them.

This way, even if it would normally take months, they could finish the project several times faster!

"One week..."

Axel hummed, then nodded.

In one week, Eve’s custom gun would arrive.

In one week, the crafting of the warhead and launcher would also be near completion.

And now, the completion of the blueprint was added on top of that.

With this in mind, Axel went to see the girls on his way to get Bellachrona.

But to his surprise, all of them were together in the castle, sitting around the dining table as if in the middle of a meeting.

"Girls? What’s wrong? Did something happen?" Axel asked, eyeing each one of them seriously.

As if to represent them, Beatrix rose from her seat and met Axel’s gaze, a faint smile across her lips.

"King Axel, all of us want to ask for some time off."

And declared as such.

"Time off?" Axel raised a brow, checking everyone’s faces. "Time off for what?"

This time, it was Fenrir who stood up, paced toward Axel, and pulled his collar—planting a kiss on his lips. A brief one, lasting barely a moment.

"It’s something we need to do. So just give us permission and don’t ask more." She said.

"Fenrir..."

For the first time, Axel felt Fenrir’s voice waver. As if she was caught in some internal turmoil.

He scanned everyone’s faces once more, seeing that they all wore the same serious look. As if, even without his permission, they would move on their own either way.

Such a level of resolution wasn’t something Axel could stop. Nor did he have the right to.

"Alright, alright." He raised his hands in surrender. "I don’t know what you want to do, but I can guess... Just remember, stay safe."

"Yes!"

The girls answered in unison.

And just like that, Axel, the girls, and Trismus, along with the other big companies hunting for Axel, started their one week preparation.