The Industrialist

Three days later.

***

He can breathe better. He surrendered himself to the cushion of his massage chair. His massage chair served as his throne, a king of his little kingdom. His constituents; were scrap piles, Aiveez seedlings, and a caged Zelkian.

The room was slightly bigger than before. He was in his new apartment.

Nothing fancy, just a one-bedroom, one bathroom, and the kitchen was converted into his fabrication area, where his fabrication table now situates. The living room held his massage chair and the piles of pending scraps for selling.

Arranged in his chaotic kind of way.

His sight just played along with the illumination of his room and the corners of his ceiling. It was a little bit more comfortable than the studio-type cabin he once had.

However, regardless of the size of his apartment, and three floors up from the ground, the stench of Steelpoint District still heaved outside.

Fragrance filled the air as seedlings secreted an imperceptible mist wafting invisibly in the confines of his apartment—no need for a Zelkian to fend off the annoying intrusion of Rattus. The Aiveez seedlings could do the trick, theoretically.

However, he housed still a Zelkian in the EazyCage unit. For his experimentation purposes.

He was certain that the mist could repel Abominated creatures. That’s one problem solved - the safeguard of his food supply.

It was unplanned to avail the perks of having an apartment. It was unnecessary at first, and the logistics of the transfer were costly, 50 units, and he hated to do house arrangements.

He needed more furniture for a bigger space. Luckily, he had his ShowerSmart installed where he could enjoy a cold shower for a long time without wasting a scant resource.

Well, in his case, not anymore. His one room was converted to his mini greenhouse where the seedlings were planted. He had these racks that accommodated the pots with soil and sufficient for seedling’s nutrients.

The couch was his bed now.

He had to work. The massage chair was a trap. It ate away significant time procrastinating. He shrugged the thought and forced a surge of motivation from the unknown depths of his consciousness.

A shower was much needed where he could cool himself and wash away the toxins that he got from the outside.

The shower head was somehow calling him to relish a sprinkle of water on his smelly head. It was inviting.

No.

He hauled himself up and went directly to his fabrication table, without looking at any piled scraps on his peripherals.

’A lot to do. Eyes on the price!’ He thought.

"Jasper, scan materials if this suffices our bomb project," Lance said.

"Scanning…" Jasper responded.

___________________________________________________________________

Kilotonic Capacitor - [Explosive] Highly combustible material

Uncommon V15 Magnetic Contactor – [switch] Automatic trigger device.

Common Scrap metal – [bomb casing] Scrapped from the yard

Common Digital trigger mechanism – [initiator] Scrapped from the yard

Unknown Level Aiveez nectar – [Fragmentation] From Aiveez adult flower.

___________________________________________________________________

The day after he visited Axiom Trench, his excitement compelled him to scrap for the remaining bomb components. The scrap metal for his bomb casings were easy to scour. What was challenging was the V15 Magnetic Contactor and the more than 50% shelf life of Kilotonic Capacitor.

The V15 Magnetic Contactors were found in digital residential cleaners that had a mechanical switching device that enabled the unit to turn off at a given time. These were automatic cleaners that mopped the floor, sprayed detergent or wax, and applied the cleaning agents in a programmed sequence.

These type of equipment were still availed by the high-classers. Almost automatically, these scrapped units found their way to the Scrapyard Tier 2 and Tier 3.

Lance was persistent though. Moreover, Jasper had helped a lot in scanning for the desired finds. The Tier 2 Gen AI, Jasper, came in handy for his efficiency in scrapping.

"I think you have everything you need to form a bomb prototype, Master. The question is, how can you make the nectar as your fragmentation?"

"Easy, Jasper. Although, its not easy but the fabrication table will do it for us. We will contain the nectar in small fragile casings. Once our bomb detonates, these casings with nectar will be spread out at a certain coverage and disintegrating the fragile casings thus, releasing the nectar. The nectar will become a mist once it is exposed as the kinetic energy of the bomb will do the trick."

"But first, we need to test the nectar if it really kill an abominated flesh," Lance continued.

"How will you do that, master?"

"The Zelkian."

He placed the EazyCage unit on the Fabrication table. He opened the casing of the unit and exposed a primary metallic cage with the Zelkian inside.

Lance controlled the robotic arms of his fabrication table, with one attached to a scalpel. The second arm went through the gaps between the bars and grabbed the Zelkian’s hind foot.

It squirmed in utter surprise and fear. But the cage was sturdy enough that the Zelkian was seized without a way to escape.

Although the Zelkian rattled the cage with its foot held by the robotic arm, immovable, the first arm with the scalpel invaded the confines of the primary cage and scraped the foreskin of the said creature.

The creature was weakening. It was the invisible mist secretions.

Then the arms retracted after a successful harvest. Afterward, Lance closed the EazyCage and placed the harvested sample in a petri dish.

The Zelkian was saved.

The third robotic arm was attached to a magnifying glass as for the controller’s better magnified view of the nectar’s effectivity.

"Pouring, the nectar now," Lance had the bluish viscous liquid in a test tube and started pouring towards the sample.

As the nectar mixed with the Abominated Zelkian flesh, the black miasma appeared right before an area of the creature’s foreskin disintegrated.

"Jasper, scan the sample," Lance commanded

"Master, I can see the contaminated matter undergone nuclear degradation as the nectar cells contaminated them. Confirmed. It is a poison for the Abominated creatures."

"Ok, let’s commence fabrication," Lance said.

Lance programmed the fabrication table to his desirable input. It was difficult to create compatibility between the scrap components. Well for him, it was an art. As a scrapper for a year, he treated his knowledge of scrap components and their uses as an art.

His canvass was the metallic scraps and components while his paint brushes were the robotic arms of his fabrication table.

The design was intricate to fabricate a prototype bomb. He had his casings as large as a football and the challenge was to design the components to fit them perfectly in a small sphere.

Luckily, the fabrication table with the aid of five robotic arms was designed to convey accuracy.

For an hour of calibration and tedious fitting of components, the prototype was finally finished.

A poison bomb, lying dormant on the table.

"Jasper, scan for compatibility. Check connectivity," Lance asked.

"Scanning…." Jasper said, responded after a few seconds, "Circuit continuity is 100%, Master. Switches and Initiator is in perfect connection with our explosive. Kilotonic Capacitor is at 70% combusting efficiency. It can blow if triggered."

"All we need to do is test it," Lance said.

He took the sample and went out. It was night time and the scrap yard Tier 2 was quiet. He let himself in by the mercy of his registration.

In a secluded corner where no one would see, Lance positioned himself with a bomb on his hand.

The coldness of the night air haunts him still, and the ominous dark corners of the streets that connected his apartment and the Scrapyard.

Despite that, he was prepared to face any criminals that would cross his way.

’Don’t come closer. I have an explosive in my hand,’ Lance thought of a way to fend off them. He would throw the bomb if a criminal individual persisted. Bombs were regulated, not a single one existed in the hands of a commoner. Hence, the possibility that the potential perps would not believe it.

Fortunately, the night was peaceful and no unexpected harm had crossed his path.

Or else, it was the best way to test his bomb. The bluish mist would not kill a perp but the blast would certainly stun and bruise the persistent individual.

"Jasper, brace yourself. Calculate blast radius," Lance said as he stood on a wide clearing enough to test a hand explosive.

He pressed the trigger and an LED light blinked. He designed the bomb to explode in five seconds.

He threw the bomb, farther to where he stood.

Boom!

The explosive was not deafening; however, it would wake nearby cats and rats nesting behind the scrap piles. It was not the best part, the blue mist spread into the air successfully. Painting the atmosphere within its radial coverage of bluish spray.

"Master, the blast radius is 3 meters."

Lance smiled towards the sight, enjoying the specs of blue mist residue subsided towards the ground.

It was a success!

"It is time to mine Salt! Let’s gather the crew!"