Defend Namsan Park

Chapter 103 Grass Green and Excrement Yellow

When Bai Shu and Zhang Zhong rushed over, Wang Xiangbing had already regained consciousness and was resting against the work platform. Li Wenxuan and the medical staff were standing around him, holding tweezers with alcohol swabs on them, the swabs stained with oil and blood. Old Wang was in excruciating pain, hissing and gasping, his cries rising and falling: "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!"

"I recommend getting a brain MRI," the doctor said. "Although it doesn't look like anything serious, further examination is still necessary."

“Where would I find the time to do an MRI?” Wang Xiangbing waved his hand. “Can’t you see how busy the workshop is? Can it manage without me? Help me bandage this up, I have a bunch of projects waiting to be inspected tonight.”

Li Wenxuan grabbed Wang Xiangbing, who was about to get up, and gestured to Bai Shu and Zhang Zhong: "Shu, you and Zhang Zhong go with the doctor to take him to the hospital. He needs to stay in bed for three days and is not allowed to get out of bed."

What do you mean by this?

“Literal meaning.” Li Wenxuan pressed his finger against Wang Xiangbing’s forehead. “You! Stay in the hospital obediently. I’ll take care of things in the workshop. Health is the foundation of everything. If something happens to you, the backbone of the operations office will collapse.”

The crowd put Wang Xiangbing on a stretcher and carried him away.

Li Wenxuan straightened his red safety helmet and pressed the walkie-talkie: "Attention everyone! Continue the test!"

Frankly speaking, Wang Xiangbing both trusted and distrusted Li Wenxuan. He trusted him because Li Wenxuan was his old friend of many years, with whom he had shared life-or-death experiences. He distrusted him because Li Wenxuan had always been unhappy with the "Chaofeng" toy, and Wang suspected that if he wasn't around, his old friend would try to take it apart.

Therefore, as Wang Xiangbing was carried out on a stretcher, he struggled to extend two fingers, his eyes flickering like lamp wicks in the wind, staring intently at the red safety helmet on the work platform. His throat bobbed twice, as if he wanted to say something. Bai Shu, who was standing nearby, bent down and whispered in his ear, "Wang Jiansheng, I know what you mean. You're worried about that Xuanzi, afraid he'll dismantle your heavy machinery. Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on things."

After hearing these words, Wang Xiangbing lay down peacefully.

Li Wenxuan temporarily took over the position of number one in the workshop. He called Shang Lu over to work overtime, and the latter came running over eagerly. He immediately took a liking to the cool exoskeleton.

"Wow, wow, wow—this is the complete Chaofeng control system?" Shang Lu clapped his hands in delight, his eyes shining. "Who did the overall design? The aesthetics are top-notch."

The overall design was drawn by Wang Xiangbing himself. He firmly believes that no one in the entire workshop has a better aesthetic sense than him in this field, because he is a long-time tokusatsu fan and has dreamed of becoming a Kamen Rider and Armor Hero since he was a child. He has been secretly drawing these sketches under his desk since he was in middle school, for more than ten years.

"I'll try?"

Shang Lu happily put on the inner shell of the exoskeleton, and Li Wenxuan helped him install the complex metal components one by one. His posture was quite like a general going into battle in armor.

As expected, no man could resist this thing, except for Li Wenxuan.

“Uncle just tested this system and accidentally bumped his head. He’s been taken to the hospital.” Li Wenxuan said, tightening the straps on Shang Lu’s limbs. “But don’t worry, the doctor has seen him and he’s fine. He just needs to rest for a while. In the meantime, we’ll trouble the director to help out as a tester.”

Fully prepared, Shang Lu patted his chest, looking around for a mirror, but there wasn't one. He tried taking a few steps and asked the same question as Wang Xiangbing:
"The finished product can't be this weight, can it?"

"The final version will be 70% lighter than what you're wearing now. I know you probably feel like you're wearing medieval plate armor right now. We used cast iron and stainless steel for the prototype to make it easier to process, but the final version will use aluminum alloy and composite materials. Director, now try moving your limbs and fingers around." Li Wenxuan stood two meters away, leaning against the railing, hands on his hips, watching the giant iron man in front of him slowly begin to do calisthenics.

Shang Lu stretched out his fingers, wrists, elbows, neck, shoulders, and waist in turn. He could feel thin steel cables moving across his body. It was a purely mechanical operating system. Shang Lu thought to himself that this thing was really good; the hard work of the team behind him was worth all the begging he had done outside every day. Next, Li Wenxuan led Shang Lu into the cockpit of the "Chaofeng." As the latter looked around, he asked, "How well is the seal here?"

“We designed it according to NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) protection standards.” Li Wenxuan climbed ahead. “Although we haven’t done a complete airtightness test yet, we have done positive and negative pressure tests on some compartments. We are looking for a large pool of water big enough to hold the head of the Chaofeng to do an underwater test, but as you know, conditions are limited, so we can only do our best.”

How effective is the radiation protection?

“We use lead plates, which is very traditional but very effective,” Li Wenxuan replied. “We refer to the GB18871-2002 standard. There’s a guy in the workshop who used to work at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, so he’s very familiar with this system.”

Shang Lu tapped the metal interior of the cockpit with his knuckles. It was still painted green, the grass-green epoxy paint smooth to the touch, with a thin, barely perceptible layer of moisture condensing on it. The workers in Workshop 112 continued the tradition of painting everything green, a tradition prevalent in traditional Chinese industries. It was ugly, but at least it was rust-proof and waterproof. Shang Lu thought to himself that during the great evacuation, these people hadn't taken anything else with them, but they certainly hadn't forgotten about green paint.

The only drawback is that its old partner—the yellowish-brown paint—wasn't applied. There was only a patch of grassy green, but a large area of ​​yellowish-brown was missing. How could one not feel that they were also a pair of ill-fated lovers in the apocalypse?

Shang Lu took his position at the commander's post. Li Wenxuan helped him secure and lock the transmission cables one by one. Shang Lu noticed that the giant machine "Chaofeng's" simulation control system was essentially an inverted puppet system. The working logic of a puppet is that the player uses their fingers to manipulate the ropes, thereby moving the small puppets suspended on the ropes. "Chaofeng," however, does the opposite—the small puppets inside its body pull the cables to control the movements of the external giant. Shang Lu looked up and deliberately took a few more glances at the complex transmission mechanism above his head. It was robust and precise. This was possibly the most complex purely mechanical control system in the human world. It was powered by four 4000KW high-power boilers. The commander's fist strength in the cockpit was only 1kg, but when it was transmitted layer by layer to the end of the system and the surface of "Chaofeng," it had been amplified to more than 10 tons.

Learning from Wang Xiangbing's experience, Li Wenxuan lengthened the working stroke of the control system and lowered the power output amplification factor this time to avoid knocking out the pokeweed again. The amplification factor was adjusted using a manual valve that could be turned 100,000 times.

One can imagine Li Wenxuan squatting there, "huffing and puffing," turning the valve ten thousand times.

"Currently, Chaofeng's upper body is fully articulated, but his lower body is not."

"What's still missing?" Shang Lu asked.

"The assembly is mostly complete, except for some joint parts. The rough machining was done a while ago, and now we'll send them to the outsourcing unit for further finishing," Li Wenxuan replied. "We've already sent letters to factories 312 and 313. Our workshop has always had a good relationship with these two companies, and the parts we send there have the highest priority."

“The legs of a humanoid robot are a troublesome thing.” Shang Lu said, while raising his arms. “This is what I did for my master’s thesis. Under the simplest ideal conditions, we can regard a bipedal walking machine as an inverted pendulum. In order to realize the alternating reciprocating motion of this inverted pendulum, a large number of sensors are needed to monitor its momentum and inertia in real time. How can a purely mechanical control system achieve this?”

The workers in the workshop watched from afar as the giant machine suspended high above slowly raised its arms. By this time, the work platform had been completely cleared. As a punk-style giant machine built using ancient methods, "Chaofeng" was even more lethal to its own people than ordinary giant machines. The four 4000KW boilers inside it were like four steam locomotives, with high-temperature steam and fuel flowing through the pipes. It was scorching, powerful, and extremely unstable, occasionally stalling, shuddering, and spewing out parts. No wonder the operations office needed to design a thick and sturdy cockpit, completely encasing it in alloy armor plates. The armor was almost meaningless to the angels; the protection was for the giant machine "Chaofeng" itself. In case "Chaofeng" overheated and exploded, at least the pilot inside wouldn't be turned into a pot of braised pork ribs.

"Chaofeng" first struck a pose like a giant cross, then raised his hands together like Superman, testing his shoulder joints. Workers could infer the driver's movements from the giant machine's actions, as the two always moved in unison. Everyone in the workshop watched with great interest as Shanglu performed his hand gesture dance. Sometimes he would raise his hands high above his head, swaying like seaweed in the wind; sometimes he would swing his upper arm violently like throwing a javelin, throwing his forearm; sometimes he would use the classic Tai Chi move "Wild Horse Parts Its Mane"; and sometimes he would bring his palms together and push them forward to release the Kamehameha. His movements were quite rhythmic, and one could imagine that music was playing and people were dancing in the cockpit at that moment.

Finally, the giant machine "Chaofeng" stretched out its right hand affectionately to the front, as if to hold back its departing lover, and raised its middle finger.

The audience burst into thunderous applause.

After the test was completed, Shang Lu, a well-known figure with connections, the chief engineer, and the director of the operation and control office, gave high praise to the work of the operation and control office and workshop 112. After climbing out of the cockpit of the giant machine on all fours, he said: This thing is fucking a gym.

Li Wenxuan retrieved his stored phone from the locker next to him, opened it, and frowned: nine missed calls.

What could be so serious that you're making so many calls? Did my uncle pass away on the way to the hospital?
He called back, and the voice on the other end sounded hurried and tense. One sentence made Li Wenxuan's face change drastically. He thought to himself that it would have been better if his uncle had died on the way to the hospital.