Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 17 The First Deal

A few days later, Rebecca and Pila once again drove the Goodwood, which had been initially reinforced and tuned by Falco and no longer spewed black smoke, into the abandoned town.

This time, their feelings were completely different from when they were on the run last time. Although they were still nervous, they were also filled with more anticipation and curiosity.

The car was carefully parked outside the garage that had been converted into a workshop. The servo skull was already silently suspended in mid-air, its crimson optical lens locking onto the vehicle, quickly scanning to confirm its identity, then emitting a soft click as a greeting before guiding them inside.

The workshop was more "orderly" than when they left. Various discarded parts and materials were sorted and neatly stacked. Although still rudimentary, it exuded an air of efficient operation. Chen Yu was standing in front of the central workbench, a mechanical tentacle skillfully manipulating a laser welding pen, performing precise welding work on a complex arm armor, sparks flying everywhere.

"Boss! The goods have arrived!" Rebecca jumped out of the car, her voice tinged with barely perceptible excitement. She and Pila dragged a heavy metal box and a bulging fiber bag from the back seat.

Chen Yu stopped what she was doing, and the scarlet lens turned towards them, flashing slightly. "Efficiency is acceptable. Place it on the scanning table."

The two men carried the boxes and bags to a cleared area next to the workbench as instructed. A slender probe immediately emerged from under Chen Yu's sleeve, its sensor emitting a soft blue light as it quickly scanned the delivered supplies.

"Item list confirmed:"

"-One high-energy battery pack, with about 32% charge remaining. The outer casing has dents and slight electrolyte leakage, but the internal structure is basically intact."

"- A total of seventeen pieces of various waste circuit boards and processors, of mixed models, some of which have physical damage and burn marks."

"- Approximately 3.5 kilograms of the unknown alloy fragments are needed for further analysis of their composition."

"-Two cans of low-quality synthetic lubricant."

"-Three data chips, content not read."

"The battery meets the requirements. The rest... are mostly low-grade waste with excessively high impurity content, resulting in a lower-than-expected recycling rate." Chen Yu's voice was calm and even, revealing neither satisfaction nor disappointment. The probe lingered for a moment, especially on those seemingly worthless circuit boards and alloy fragments, and the sensor's glow subtly shifted.

Rebecca scratched her head a little sheepishly: "Uh, time was tight, and good stuff was hard to come by... These are the best we could find from several abandoned repair shops and junkyards. That battery was something Pila almost got from the Vortex Gang!"

Pila nodded quickly, touching her neck with lingering fear.

Chen Yu didn't offer much comment, seemingly more focused on the "waste materials."

He extended another tentacle, carefully picked up a charred circuit board, and examined closely the unique, spirally distributed nanoscale circuitry on it.

“An interesting arrangement… sacrificing some stability for extremely high instantaneous data throughput. Is electronic warfare technology in this world so extreme?” He picked up another dull alloy fragment. “Amorphous metal? Self-healing coating? Although the craftsmanship is crude, the idea…”

He fell into a brief moment of contemplation, as if he saw a unique path for the development of another technology tree in these pieces of trash.

What was useless junk to Rebecca and Pila was a valuable sample for him, the mechanical priest, to understand the underlying logic of local technology.

A moment later, he seemed to remember another part of the deal.

He turned around and took out a long, rectangular metal box from a storage compartment under the workbench. The box was made of rough steel plates riveted together, and it was not aesthetically pleasing at all, but it exuded a sense of solid reliability.

"This is the agreed-upon reward." Chen Yu opened the box.

There was a handgun lying inside, but its design was unlike any of the live ammunition or energy weapons commonly found in Night City.

It is larger and heavier, with lines that possess a rugged aesthetic unique to the Warhammer universe, born for practicality and power.

The dark metal gun body is inlaid with sophisticated heat dissipation fins and energy conduits, and the wide muzzle reveals a complex internal coil structure.

The grip appears to be made of some kind of heat-resistant polymer, fits snugly in the palm, and has a small adjustment knob on the side.

"A portable projectile weapon based on the plasma principle," Chen Yu explained, as if introducing an ordinary tool. "I limited the output power within a safe threshold and rewrote the energy control protocol to ensure stability."

It emits high-temperature plasma clusters, which are effective against unprotected targets and lightly armored vehicles.

Note that continuous firing may cause the gun to overheat; a 1.5-second interval is recommended. He picked up the pistol and handed it to Rebecca, who seemed more interested.

"It's compatible with your common universal energy interfaces, and can be charged using high-energy batteries or by directly connecting to the vehicle's power supply. Give it a try."

Rebecca almost held her breath as she took the heavy weapon.

A cool touch brought a surge of powerful energy. She fiddled with it awkwardly for a moment, then, with Chen Yu's simple guidance, found the safety and sights.

"Wow..." she exclaimed softly, her green prosthetic eye shining with excitement. "This thing... it looks like it could blast those beat-up cars of the Chaotic Blade Society into the sky!"

Pila also came closer, looking on curiously: "Plasma? Really? The ones in the company lab aren't even stable yet..."

“The initial transaction is complete. You can leave now.” Chen Yu gave the order to leave, his attention already back to the “interesting” scrap. A tentacle began to disassemble the charred circuit board.

"Next time, I need more alloy samples, and... the most complete prosthetic components possible, equipped with the new model of neural processor. The reward will increase accordingly."

Rebecca and Pila, clutching the seemingly incredibly powerful plasma pistol they had acquired in exchange for supplies, left the workshop in a daze.

It wasn't until they had driven some distance that the two began to excitedly discuss it.

"Did you see the structure of that gun? It's a design I've never seen before!"

"But he really traded us for this junk? Would Boss Mann believe that?"

"Once the boss sees the power of this thing, he'll have to believe it whether he likes it or not!"

Back in Mann's team's warehouse, when Rebecca proudly placed the riveted metal box containing the plasma pistol on the table, the reaction it elicited far exceeded their expectations.

Dorothy picked up the pistol, weighed it in her hand, and frowned.

Falco immediately pulled out a portable scanner, but the scan results puzzled him even more: "The energy... is very strange... unbelievably stable, but the structural principles cannot be fully explained."

Mann silently picked up his pistol and walked to the makeshift shooting range in the corner of the warehouse—where several pieces of old armor plates hung.

Following the extremely simple instructions Rebecca had given him, he aimed at the target and pulled the trigger.

There was no deafening gunfire, only a deep and powerful hum, as if the air had been instantly ionized.

A scorching white-blue plasma burst shot out and hit the target instantly.

The blinding light flashed and disappeared in an instant, accompanied by a soft "sizzle" sound.

A fist-sized hole was melted through the thick, old armor plate, and the edges showed a twisted shape as if it had been melted and then re-solidified at high temperature. Even the surrounding metal was heated to a bluish hue.

The warehouse fell silent instantly.

Everyone stared in disbelief at the still-smoking hole.

This power, this bizarre attack method, far exceeded their comprehension.

Even military-grade weapons rarely have such a clean, decisive, and destructive effect.

Mann lowered his pistol, the muzzle still emitting wisps of smoke and the smell of ozone from the intense heat.

He stared at the melted hole for a long time, then slowly looked at Rebecca and Pila with an extremely complicated expression.

“He…” Mann’s voice was a little hoarse, “that tech lone wolf… what else did he say?”

(End of this chapter)