The driving forces behind the war were even greedier than Leo had anticipated. Their methods were actually more insidious than Hydra's.
Hydra, as a fanatical organization, lacked the nuanced control and understanding of commerce, focusing more on covert political influence and generating fear.
Now, however, someone was simultaneously targeting other sectors in the civilian business world.
From the macro data collected so far, Leo estimated this would severely squeeze the capacity of the civilian sector, pushing companies already struggling in the financial crisis to the brink of bankruptcy.
Once these companies collapse, their market share will be up for grabs. It's entirely possible that a certain company, backed by substantial funds from military conglomerates, will swoop in to claim it. This could very well be just the tip of the iceberg.
As far as Leo knew, Hydra preferred direct control through terror, without caring about the post-war world, as long as it remained under their reign of fear.
Thus, there was a strong possibility that a new powerful player was at play.
This new player was highly fond of economic monopolies, making them a perfect, albeit temporary, match with Hydra.
But regardless of the circumstances, since the choice was to solve the problem openly, Leo had to confront this challenge head-on.
Having financial power indeed allowed one to act with impunity. A large factory was gone just like that, in a highly aggressive manner.
This meant Leo had to reconsider the supply chain and produce the chips himself.
"'Made in the USA' manufacturing reflow plan—this is one of the President's slogans, but all the redirected capacity has gone into the military-industrial sector."
At Hammond Labs, Leo tapped on the whiteboard. "Currently, the general direction is still economic revitalization. We can apply for related funding and subsidies.
We also have allies and methods to apply. Our goal is to use policy support to boost the pharmaceutical industry.
Of course, now there's an additional issue—we need to build a chip production chain ourselves."
Dr. Toomes, still in a wheelchair after recovering from injuries, raised his hand upon hearing this:
"I... I'm quite familiar with this. I know some people. If you're willing to give them the same treatment, I can persuade them."
Without his Vulture persona, Dr. Toomes was, in fact, a world-renowned engineer.
Leo nodded gladly. "Whatever they want, they can have. This isn't the time to save money."
"They won't need much convincing if you can give me a more detailed explanation of the chip and its intended purpose."
"That's part of today's agenda."
Leo displayed a chip design on the big screen—yes, it was a sex doll chip.
This venture yielded 78 doll chips, all high-end products.
What is high-end?
Through the programmed input, the doll chip can simultaneously control all the doll's motor and sensory nerves, turning it into a lifeless puppet, embodying the personality and actions of the customer's dream.
This showcases the chip's efficiency in brain-machine interfacing, providing the team with substantial inspiration for their final production goals.
Leo put the structure of the sex doll chip on the whiteboard. "This is my concept for a central control chip to collect information from cybernetic limbs. It should be highly adaptable for the related tasks."
Dr. Otto, sitting next to Toomes, appeared puzzled and raised his hand:
"This... doesn't resemble any chip architecture we know.
Did you come up with this yourself? How are you certain it's suitable?"
"Simple." Leo started playing a simulation model. "Here's the simulation diagram. Look at these potential levels..."
Amid the puzzled looks from Otto and Toomes, Leo began explaining the operational state of the doll chip.
Truth be told, this wasn't Leo's area of expertise. He mainly pointed at the chip, describing its actual use cases.
Then the two experts in the field began exclaiming in awe, marveling at the ingenuity, and voluntarily helped Leo flesh out the "design philosophy."
"...So this entire section will connect with the neural potential pickup electrodes."
Dr. Otto exclaimed, "I get it! Neural network architecture!"
"...Then here, during operation, the data stream will pass through all layers, exhibiting these characteristics, and..."
Dr. Toomes exclaimed, "Three-dimensional integrated circuits!"
In the midst of these exclamations, Connor revealed a sense of accomplishment until Leo started explaining the strange structures at the chip's end.
"...Finally, here, we'll need a type of bio-semiconductor. We already have the method to prepare this material.
The current and voltage parameters for the bio-semiconductor should be like this, allowing it to identify corresponding biochemical substances..."
Connors furrowed his brows, finally exclaiming, "Bio-integrated circuits!"
His sudden outburst left the substitute tech talents, Skye and Peter, visibly startled.
Skye pointed at the three experts, now entranced and mumbling to themselves, and then looked at Leo. "Boss, did you drug them?"
"It's fine. Now, let's talk about the server room issue. How many machines got fried last week?"
At this, Skye pulled a face as if she'd seen a ghost. "Boss, come clean—what exactly were you doing with those machines?"
"Just running some AI processes. No big deal."
"No big deal?!" Skye pointed to herself, her expression exaggerated. "I live right next to the server room! Do you know what it's like to suddenly wake up to black smoke next door? Luckily, Christopher is my neighbor now! Otherwise, how could a delicate girl like me handle it?"
"Alright, alright, we're moving the setup soon. By the way, what do you think of that guy?"
"He's pretty normal," Skye thought for a moment. "Likes reading history books, clueless about tech, but he's enthusiastic. When the first smoke incident happened, he even carried out a burning server case.
Good thing he remembered my advice not to use water to put out the fire. Oh, and he mentioned he wants to go home."
Leo rubbed his chin. "That's good. I'll talk to him later. The new server room will be at the FEAST homeless shelter. You'll be staying there from now on."
"You're kicking me out? Into a homeless shelter?" Skye suddenly feigned pity. "Boss, I work so hard…"
"Enough of that. Once you're there, you'll see. Martin's planning to renovate the area, and our security company is right next door. Your office will be there."
"Oh, so there's a new office building—can I still come back here for meals? The food here is great."
"Sure," Leo didn't object. "Just keep up the good work with the information company. Any difficulties?"
"Yes," Skye nodded. "Too many trolls stirring things up online."
"How's that a problem?"
"Of course, it's a problem. While engaging them online, I got curious about who they are in real life, so I did some 'house visits'—physically."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"Then I started to understand some of their perspectives—not agreeing, just understanding."
Skye paused and turned her laptop toward Leo, showing him something.
"But these, these are complete digital ghosts. The addresses don't match up—and they're not just any digital ghosts.
If I hadn't investigated in person, I wouldn't have known they weren't real people."
Skye had traced IP addresses, leading to many unoccupied homes and places unlikely to have residents.
Even seemingly abandoned houses were posting online content through certain IPs.
The content was highly provocative and diverse, tailored to bombard target groups with information based on their tendencies.
It resembled the data manipulation techniques Leo had previously mentioned.
Leo stroked his chin. Though advanced in this world, these techniques were familiar to him.
Advanced network technology had made political agitation more efficient. At this point, only Bloom Corporation could counteract such technology.
"We can develop our own AI to tackle this issue. I'll explain how later."
"Got it."
Leo then turned to Peter. "How's the sentence reduction coming along?"
"It's been cut down a lot. Only six months left. Matt, the lawyer, said good behavior might eliminate the need for actual jail time."
"Not bad. I've got some medical supply designs for you to look over and finalize the production plan."
Leo handed over designs for items like pneumatic injectors—relatively simple tasks for Peter.
Peter nodded.
Lastly, Hammond, the manager, looked at Leo expectantly, awaiting his next assignment.
Leo thought for a moment and said, "You don't have much extra to do. Like I mentioned, get as many subsidies as possible. Watch out for contract terms—don't get cheated."
"Me? Cheated? I'm the one who cheats them!"
"No need for that."
After wrapping up, Martin burst into the conference room, interrupting the meeting.
"The Governor of California is here. The surgery needs to happen immediately."
Leo refocused on the team, feeling a twinge of emotion.
Professor Connors, Dr. Otto, Dr. Toomes, Peter, Skye, Hammond, Martin...
This room housed people who could've been villains or heroes, even potential SHIELD agents, and regular folks. Stripped of their titles, they now stood to prevent impending fanaticism.
Unlike the perpetual wartime state of a cyberpunk world, Leo aimed to prevent escalation here.
Looking at them, Leo slowly said, "Arranging an accident for dissenters is the most direct approach.
If we were powerless, it might be useful—but we have means. Technology is our weapon, one to suppress our adversaries' ambitions.
This surgery to save a like-minded politician is also our chance to showcase our technology. Brilliant technology will give us the opportunity to spread our ideals.
Starting from here, we will convey a message to the world: We can achieve peace without war and help those who yearn for it.
The way out is not to create a bigger crisis elsewhere.
Prepare for surgery."