On the other side, Xiao Ai saw Ace and floated towards him. Seeing the floating bun, Ace looked a bit confused.
"Ehh~~~ Doggy hasn't seen Xiao Ai for a couple days and forgot Xiao Ai already?! Muuu, Xiao Ai doesn't like doggy anymore." Pouted Xiao Ai.
Hearing this familiar childish voice, Ace screamed in realization, "Xiao Ai!"
Acting shocked, Xiao Ai rolled her bun body pretending to tumble backwards. "So loud," she grumbled.
"How did you transform? I was worried about you when you disappeared. Where did you go? Are you okay? Spin around so I can see how you look." Ace fretted like a worried mother hen.
"Xiao Ai went to help Mama! Xiao Ai is OP!," she responded as she spun in a quick circle.
Ace went to Xiao Ai, and poked and prodded with curiosity just like Aida had. It seems this was just a typical reaction from a worried engineer. As he checked her body, he also responded, "Xiao Ai is OP and cute at the same time! Xiao Ai deserves a reward."
With that, Ace went back to the backpack he dropped earlier and pulled out a couple devices.
Showing the device to Xiao Ai, he explained, "I retrofitted a bunch of headphones, laptops and watches to create a wireless charge that is tuned to the electrical system in the building. As you know, all electronics are run within a specific frequency, so my thought was to create a device that modulates the device at the right harmonic frequency. It uses the standard electromagnetic induction, except I modified it to be an adaptive induction, so it can receive power from all power sources."
"Eh~ Doggy is Smart Doggy!"
Aida listened as Ace explained the device to Xiao Ai and was thoroughly impressed by Ace's ingenuity. It wasn't easy to build such a device within the current time and resource constraints. If only the apocalypse didn't happen, Ace would likely have become a millionaire in no time just with this technology. 'What a shame...' thought Aida, 'Oh well! The world's loss is my gain.'
While the concept of wireless charging has been around since the late 19th century, there has not been much headway in the development of the technology. Some researchers have only recently succeeded in wireless charging through glass, but the technology is limited to a very specific range and has no interoperability (meaning it can only work with the designated device) [1].
On the side, Light also began to look at Ace in admiration. Being a businessman, he immediately recognized the value of a product like the one Ace was now sharing. It could provide millions, if not billions of market share over the shortest duration. If he had a technology like this when he was fighting against his family, perhaps they would have directly attempted to murder him for the intellectual property rights instead of going after his father. Thinking along these lines, he sighed and began to sink back into darkness.
Right after this moment, Aida flicked Light on the forehead, saying, "Don't think about nonsensical crap. There are no what ifs in life."
Turning to Ace, she complimented his work, "Great job rigging this together. What made you think of doing this?"
Ace opened his mouth to respond, but abruptly stopped while giving a pointed look at Light and Yukio who was still clinging onto Light.
Aida looked over and waved her hand, "They're alright. Proceed."
Ace had a bitter look on his face as an emotion foreign to him welled up. He pushed down the feeling and began explaining, "Before Xiao Ai disappeared, she left explicit instructions that she must continue to be plugged to the fall. Although she disappeared, I saw you were still connected to the electrical outlet, so figured you also needed the power source. We have been in this locker room for two days because you were in a critical situation, I couldn't go out to scout or learn more news about what was going on outside. After your fever came down, I wasn't assured with leaving you alone and unconscious within a room for fear someone would enter. Therefore, I determined the best course of action was to design this wireless charger so I could bring you along with me to find out what was happening outside."
"Good job," Aida nodded her head in appreciation. It was indeed worthwhile keeping him alive and bringing him along. His execution and choice of action during this time was very appropriate.
Sensing the approval, Ace turned happy again like a dog with a bone.
It was time for an experiment. Aida turned to the mountain of snacks and grabbed a sandwich. Taking a bite, she could feel herself getting re-energized as the food was rapidly digested and the food was turned into sugars.
Next, she took the watch version of Ace's wireless prototypes. She wasn't quite sure whether she could absorb current and voltage now that her body's constitution had changed, but she figured it would be worth a try. Since she was unconscious during the time she was actually plugged into the wall, she had no idea how the power was absorbed by her body. Hesitating for a second, she grabbed the watch and put it on her wrist.
Right after it was securely fastened onto her wrist, she could feel the power slowly enter her body through her right arm and then permeating through her entire body. Knowing she could be safely charged this way, she helped Xiao Ai pick out a pair of mini wireless earbuds that she forced into Xiao AI's plushy material. Xiao Ai didn't have actual ears, she Aida just estimated where the location of ears would make sense.
"Wah~ this is a nice feeling~" exclaimed Xiao Ai with satisfaction.
Aida was happy with this development, but she wasn't done with her experiments just yet.
She took the other charges and placed them all onto her body. She could feel the influx of energy increase, but it still hadn't reached her limit for intake. She wanted to grasp exactly how much power she could absorb before getting injured.
She then took off all the gadgets and walked to the electrical outlet after grabbing a metal fork from the pile. This time, she would go big and plug herself directly into the wall with no voltage or current regulator. Ace watched with wide eyes but did nothing to stop her.
[1] Wireless charging technology at present primarily uses electromagnetic induction. It requires both the item and the charger to have inductive coils that operate at a resonant frequency to generate a magnetic field that can be used to pass current over the air. While there are technologies being developed for longer distance, targeted charging, they consume far too much energy to be used in a consumer setting.