Chapter 178 - Hurricane Lynn

Miss Calculated slowly inhales, holds, then exhales a deep breath before speaking once more.

“I… Yes, thank you. You’re right. Today’s just been, well, rather overwhelming. It has been borderline surreal, and I’m half expecting some sort of reversal to happen at any moment.” After Miss Calculated makes this guilty admission, both Mark and Mikah chuckle.

Mikah has a distant look for a few seconds, then chuckles with a smile.

“I was only around for, what, roughly half of it all? If even? Even still, that was enough to see how crazy of a day it’s been. Really, it sure feels like there’s a whirlwind of chaos around the Lynn family, hmm?” As soon as Mikah finishes humming out his question, Jonathan snorts out a bit of barely repressed laughter, and Willy makes a quiet little ‘arf’ and rolls over, still half asleep.

The others present are far less reserved with their snickering.

Finally managing to relax a bit, Miss Calculated adjusts her glasses and takes on a serious expression, fully entering work mode.

“It certainly seems like it. Anyway, I assume you already have sewing machines that you use for non-enhanced clothing that is made in-house. Would I be able to take a look at one of them? It would be best to design the new one similar to what everyone is already familiar with using, if possible. Better yet, if I could also speak with any of the people that work with them? Knowing what they do and do not like about the equipment, and any features they wish were present, would help greatly in regards to the overall design.” Once Miss Calculated finishes speaking, Mark answers without hesitation.

“Of course, of course. We’ll pass a request along for the tailors and designers to think it over, maybe write it all down for some sort of report? It would take way too much time to speak with every one of them, one on one. We actually have quite a few non-powered employees in the workshop, it may be fewer bots than you think, and I assume you’d like as much input as possible, anyway. I’m sure Mikah can take care of putting it all together, no problem.” When Mark casually dumps the task on Mikah, poor Mikah winces, though only he and Miss Calculated are aware of it.

Miss Calculated takes a moment to consider it, thinking with pursed lips. Upon drawing her conclusion, she glances at Mikah before responding.

“Well, yes, that would be helpful. Ah, but it will be more accurate if we give them some time to think it all over to better formulate their answers. So, perhaps, give them all until the end of the day tomorrow to sort it all out? I’ll need to take time to work on the needle itself, anyway, so there’s no rush. And, if it won’t work, there isn’t much need for the overall design, is there?” When Miss Calculated buys Mikah some time on the sudden assignment, he smiles and winks at her.

Given the way Mark is sprawled out, he has no clue that that little exchange just occurred. He waves a hand around in some form of acceptance of her suggested timetable, making an agreeable hum.

Mikah smooths out his expression, then looks thoughtful for a few moments before speaking up.

“Sounds good. Oh, speaking of the needle, you said it will use vitzlite, right? So, sure, nanogel isn’t cheap, but at least it’s still cheaper than vitzlite. While you could probably spend a bunch of time theorizing what should be better, I’d say that to speed things up we can just cut straight to testing it out. We can just run side-by-side tests of identical machines, one protecting the needle and the other without, so we can see what difference, if any, it makes. It would have to go through that nanogel VERY quickly to be a net loss, as long as it notably extends the needle’s viable lifespan. But, of course, we’d need to actually see them in action to say for sure.” While Mikah is saying this, Mark grumbles a bit, already considering just how expensive it’s all probably going to be.

One of the elevators has chimed out its arrival. Shortly after, Miss Calculated reaches into one of her pockets, pulling out a pen-sized metal tube that is capped on both ends.

“Ah, yes, but it won’t be quite as bad as you’re fearing. I’ve actually been able to find a few applications for low-grade vitzlite, which is normally considered not worth the effort of processing.” While saying this, Miss Calculated has pulled off the solid black cap on one end of the device. The opposite end has a clear cap instead, showing a small precision blade inside. The removal of the solid cap reveals a similarly shaped and sized knife, but it’s made out of a bright yellow crystal streaked with hints of neon green, unlike its stainless steel counterpart.

Mikah is looking at it curiously, and Mark has made a relieved sigh, already thankful in advance for the large sum of theoretical money that was just saved.

Jonathan shifts his positioning on the crowded armchair a bit, ensuring he has a clear line of sight of the latest Viblade. His attention is still overtly focused on his game, and he doesn’t turn his head at all to look, so there is no outward proof that it was the reason he moved.

He has to overcompensate his positioning a bit, though. Otherwise, if anyone notices his curiosity, it will seem like his attention is directed at a certain pair of something far more embarrassing to be caught looking at.

He can only hope that Miss Chievous doesn’t decide to lean forward, as well.

The recently arrived elevator has finished opening by now, and a service bot has come out with a small cardboard box containing a bunch of erratically shaped and sized scraps of cloth. Miss Calculated glances in its direction, and an eager smile takes over her face. While she can’t see the contents of the box yet at this angle, it’s a fairly easy guess as to what is within.

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Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 17.35

Lucas's fame level: 6.0* (The Brotherhood of the Silver Spoon’s website has gone live!)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.25* (Being high-profile with the website has made many people decide that it’s unlikely for him to be so brazenly attention-seeking as a hero in this day and age. Of course, there are a few that see it as the publicity stunt it is; therefore feeling unswayed, or even further convinced of his hero status.)

Jonathan total kills: 7

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 6.05

Jonathan's fame level: 4.0* (The Brotherhood of the Silver Spoon’s website has gone live!)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (Being high-profile with the website… yada-yada same as Lucas.)

Willy's fame level: 4.5* (The famous meme dog’s portion of the new image gallery has led to a new wave of memes, and now more people involved know who he is, rather than just a niche portion that saw the original streams.)

Mr. Quacks’s fame level: 5.0* (The world has been taken by storm. The massive Mr. Quacks gallery has spawned even more memes than Willy now has in his honor.)

Supervillain social circle size: 15

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Little character theater:

Jonathan, successfully earning 99,999,999 points in yet another game: Hehe, nice. ...Which one next?

Willy is busy utilizing the cushy napping nest to the best of his abilities: Zzz...

Lucas is back by the changing rooms, looking down at the work clothes he’s wearing. Someone, ahem, not naming names, told him that he’d be rejoining the scene before this chapter was over. Oops. Anyway: ‘Well paint me yellow and call Mark ‘Gru’, ha!’

427, momentarily confused before replicating a sigh: [...You really are amused by the strangest things. Your homeworld must have been quite… odd.]

Author, anxiously glancing around periodically, and totally coincidentally standing off to the side, out of the line of sight of the hallway leading to the changing area: Haha, what do you mean I look nervous? Everything’s fine! ...Lucas isn’t back yet, right?

Mr.. Quacks, running quality testing on the enhanced fabrics in the box of scraps, turning the whole cardboard box into a nest: Quack.