"He's called Hardy. We were in the same squad in the Puppet Corps."
Sasori spoke succinctly.
Ebizō nodded in acknowledgment.
He did not deny the word "friend," which clearly meant he recognized Hardy as a friend.
It seemed his previous decision had been correct—two geniuses of similar age and interests would naturally find common ground.
"Ah, Hardy, I've seen your information in Jonin Ishido's reports. You're a good kid. In the future, feel free to come here and hang out with Sasori whenever you have time. Now, you two haven't had dinner yet, have you? Let me take you to the best restaurant in the village for a meal."
...
...
Three days after visiting Sasori's home, on the last day of the holiday, Hardy used some of his accumulated military merit to exchange for two ninjutsu training scrolls.
One was a C-rank Wind Release technique, Gale Dance, and the other was a C-rank Lightning Release technique, Lightning Release: Ground Walk.
This had been planned for a while.
What he needed wasn't to master Gale Dance per se, but to borrow some of its principles.
Previously, Hardy had wondered if he could use the principles behind Wind Release: Gale Palm to help his puppet collect and compress air for its pneumatic punch, thereby reducing charge time and increasing power.
As for starting to learn Lightning Release, it was so that in the future he could leverage chakra's ability to manifest electricity, better integrating modern engineering with puppetry.
His former graduation mentor, Jonin Momi, had considered Hardy's ninjutsu talent average compared to true geniuses, and commented that if Hardy didn't choose puppetry and instead followed the standard path, he could become a Special Jonin as an adult, and with some luck, maybe even a Jonin.
Basic C-rank ninjutsu could be mastered by Hardy as long as he put in the time; B-rank and above would be another story.
"It's a pity my chakra nature is only Wind and Lightning. If I had Earth as well, maybe I could try learning the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release in the future. Magnet Release paired with an iron battle suit—that would be a sight to behold."
Still, Hardy felt that his chakra attributes were quite compatible with engineering-based puppetry.
Wind Release could enhance pneumatic devices, and Lightning Release went without saying.
"Besides, the Formentor puppet should be due for another upgrade."
...
...
While Hardy's main body was busy learning new ninjutsu, his avatar in the DC world was also hard at work in the abandoned factory base of the Cobblepot Gang.
As he absorbed more knowledge, Hardy's panel-driven redesigns for Formentor and Black Gold progressed steadily. While his main body focused on ninjutsu, his avatar could proceed directly with fabrication.
The direction for Black Gold's upgrades was different from Formentor's.
"Excellent, dual-layer bulletproof lenses, coated with a transparent photosensitive material in the middle, and wired to the microcontroller's pins—that should display sensor data from all over."
Hardy put away the welding gun, looking with satisfaction at the DLP chip, only the size of two fingernails, fixed in Black Gold's eye socket.
Further down, inside Black Gold, was embedded a microcontroller.
The microcontroller's pins were connected to a communication chip and an analog-to-digital converter. The former could receive sensor signals from other components, while the latter converted those signals into digital form, ultimately transmitting them to the DLP chip.
The DLP chip would then convert the digital signals into images, which, through a micro-projector and lens array, would display the information on the glass in Black Gold's eye region.
It wasn't especially clever or creative—just the integration of some industrial components.
But it was practical, and thanks to this world's advanced industrial capabilities, all the necessary parts could be purchased.
Of course, that required money.
If it were just at the level of an engineering student's graduation project, all the parts might cost less than $200.
But the results would be poor—perhaps even useless.
Hardy couldn't see how a one-meter-range infrared sensor or a five-meter sonar could be of much use in combat.
On the other side of Gotham, the Bat-suit worn by Bruce Wayne used sensors that could scan an entire building. Hardy didn't expect that level, but at least a range of twenty or thirty meters, with some wall-penetrating ability, was necessary.
Unfortunately, high-range sensors were military-grade and not available on the open market. Even if they were, they'd be knock-offs.
And they were all quite bulky—not in line with Hardy's goal of miniaturized integration.
Luckily, he had a good friend: the Penguin.
Not just military-grade—if you paid enough, Penguin could get you real military hardware, even a tank.
"Cutting-edge devices from Star City's Queen Technologies—being able to miniaturize underwater and mid-range thermal sensors down to centimeter scale is impressive. I wonder if my main body could ever replicate these things without a complete industrial system."
Hardy put away the soldering iron, nodding in satisfaction.
Limited by display devices and his own half-baked background—his algorithm skills only as good as what he could copy-paste from the internet—this sensor system would never match Batman's tech for all-around x-ray vision.
But it could at least display, in data form, the direction and distance of detected heat sources and so on.
That was enough for combat.
He took out the welding gun and other tools again to disassemble Black Gold.
He wanted to outfit Black Gold with a complete pneumatic system—not just air pumps in the arms, but elsewhere as well.
The main focus was to add double-acting cylinders and metal linkages at the hip, knee, and ankle joints.
All were small cylinders, meant to use pneumatic drive to enhance Black Gold's movement speed.
But to avoid affecting balance and agility, these cylinders wouldn't be too powerful—just enough to noticeably boost Black Gold's speed.
A Certain Level.
In addition, the pneumatic devices on the arms also need to be improved.
Similar double-acting pneumatic cylinders should be installed on the shoulders and elbows as well.
This would not only enhance the power of the pneumatic fists to some extent, but also increase the punching speed.
Of course, this also raises the requirements for Hardy's puppet manipulation skills. Fortunately, thanks to reading the notebook left behind by Monzaemon recently, Hardy's chakra control has improved significantly.
Even though the chakra quality of the avatar is somewhat inferior to the main body, it's still sufficient for manipulation.
It's just that it would be difficult to control another powerful puppet at the same time.
The clanging of hammering metal and the sizzling of welding echoed throughout the abandoned old factory all afternoon.
It wasn't until late at night that the accountant came running in.
"Boss, Mr. Cobblepot is here!"