Once the light solidified, it flowed over the skin like liquid mercury.
Lucas felt a faint chill spread across his body.
Activating his nano-level vision, he immediately noticed that what looked like flowing silver light was actually composed of countless entities even smaller than nanomachines.
Each of them resembled an insect.
And every single one possessed clear mechanical characteristics.
However, these mechanical beetles were fundamentally different from anything humans would normally classify as machinery.
To be precise, they were a perfect fusion of biology and mechanics.
This level of technology instantly captured Lucas's interest.
The Blue Beetle armor finished covering his entire body in less than ten seconds.
From the outside, Lucas was now completely encased in a dark blue biological exoskeleton.
The upper torso was dominated by a sleek blue chest plate, while on his back sat a circular engine continuously emitting streams of blue particle energy.
Before transmigrating, Lucas had coincidentally seen the trailer for the Blue Beetle movie.
Judging by what he was seeing now, this was clearly the film-universe version of the armor.
According to the trailer, the armor could withstand the extreme heat generated when entering Earth's atmosphere from outer space—temperatures reaching several thousand degrees Celsius.
The device on its back could generate high-level cosmic energy, easily slicing through steel and other metals.
But what truly caught Lucas's attention was something else entirely—
The armor's ability to materialize weapons based directly on the user's imagination.
As for the enhancement of the user's physical attributes, that meant very little to him.
Even the speed the Blue Beetle displayed in the movie was laughable by Lucas's standards—he could catch it effortlessly.
The Scarab itself possessed the ability to read its host's brainwaves.
Which was exactly why it was currently trembling in fear.
"Come," Lucas said calmly.
"Let me test your abilities."
With a single thought, the spider-like energy generator behind his right arm flared with brilliant blue particles.
The particles rapidly assembled, shaping themselves into the form Lucas envisioned.
In seconds, a 1.6-meter-long blade appeared—its edge vibrating at an extremely high frequency.
A vibrating particle blade.
"Not bad," Lucas nodded.
"Now tell me—can you manifest the energy weapons I imagine as well?"
[As long as it does not exceed the technological limits of my creators, I can manufacture it.]
"Good. At least that means you can generate many weapons on demand."
Lucas continued, "You should also have your own weapon database, correct?"
[Yes. Displaying now.]
A holographic interface appeared before Lucas's eyes, showing rows of miniature energy weapons, each accompanied by detailed descriptions of their functions and effects.
Lucas nodded slightly, then said,
"Now, I want you to form a weapon I imagine—at maximum speed."
What followed was a series of tests.
Lucas experimented with various weapon forms and quickly identified a major flaw.
If the weapon was a simple melee weapon—even with some advanced tech—it could be formed in about two seconds at best.
But for more complex energy weapons, the formation time increased dramatically.
Even the fastest weapon stored in the Scarab's own database required around four seconds to fully materialize.
As for highly advanced, intricate equipment, the delay was even longer.
For basic energy usage, Lucas found it far more efficient to rely on his own ki—it was stronger and vastly faster.
He shook his head.
"Your weapon fabrication speed is too slow," Lucas said bluntly.
"In ordinary combat, you might still be usable. But against high-level opponents, you would only hinder my performance."
This was simply the truth.
The Scarab's biological armor was impressive, but at mid-to-late stages of power escalation, it simply couldn't keep up.
Inside, the Scarab was screaming:
'Yes! I'm useless! Please let me go already!'
But it didn't dare voice a single thought—terrified that Lucas might decide it had no value and destroy it on the spot.
Unaware of the Scarab's internal panic, Lucas continued calmly:
"Still, while you're not very useful to me, you might be suitable for someone else in the future."
"And before that, I can let Phastos study you. Who knows what kind of technology he might extract?"
Those words pushed the Scarab into despair.
It wasn't that it didn't want to resist—against any other being, it would have already lashed out violently.
But Lucas was different.
Even if the Scarab escaped control and bonded with another host, it would still stand absolutely no chance against this terrifying existence.
Lucas then dismissed the armor, causing the Scarab to detach.
He immediately placed a call.
"Ellis."
Once the line connected, Lucas said,
"The incident has been resolved. There shouldn't be any further issues on your end."
Ellis sighed heavily on the other side.
"Los Angeles has been completely destroyed by this super earthquake."
"Even though the tremors have stopped, the terrain of Los Angeles and several nearby cities has suffered catastrophic damage."
"Rebuilding in the short term is impossible. I expect impeachment documents will soon be piling up on my desk."
Lucas glanced at the Scarab in his hand. His eyes shifted slightly before he said:
"Ellis—what if I told you I can solve that problem?"
"…What?"
Ellis sounded confused.
"Sorry, Lucas, I didn't catch that. Could you repeat it?"
"I said I can rebuild Los Angeles in a very short time," Lucas repeated calmly.
"That's impossible," Ellis replied instinctively.
"Geologists have told me that restoring the terrain alone would take at least two years, not to mention sealing those massive fault fractures."
"And this is the reconstruction of a megacity—larger than Gotham."
"Gotham has been rebuilding for nearly half a year already, and it hasn't even reached thirty percent completion."
Lucas chuckled lightly.
"Ellis, when have I ever joked with you?"
There was a long silence on the other end.
Finally, Ellis spoke again.
"Then… what price do I have to pay?"
Ellis was no fool.
If Lucas was willing to help on this scale, he would certainly have his own conditions.
Politics had taught him a simple rule:
there is no such thing as a free gift.
"It's simple," Lucas said.
"The reconstruction must be handled entirely by my company."
"No other companies. No interference from your government."
Ellis hesitated.
"We can prevent other companies from participating, but government supervision is unavoidable."
"Federal or state officials must be present—if nothing else, it has to look proper."
..
🔥 Can't wait for the next chapter? Read ahead! 🔥
If you're loving the story, you can unlock 90+ ADVANCE CHAPTERS right now for just $4/month on my Patreon! Not only do you get a massive backlog to binge-read, but you also directly support my daily translation work. ❤️
👇 Grab your early access here:
🔗 [patreon.com/user?u=79514336]
(Or simply search for Translator-Sama on Patreon!)