Chapter 45: Exoskeleton Warriors

Chapter 45: Exoskeleton Warrior

“Left.”

“All right, no problem.”

“Right.”

“Raise hand.”

“Turn.”

“Deploy rack one, entering standby fire status.”

“Excellent, trigger working normally.”

“Rack two.”

“No problem, visual targeting system working normally.”

“Deploy rack three.”

“Excellent, hydraulic system stable.”

“Check light point four.”

In the living room, Lei Jie was directing Chen Jian to conduct the first test on the recently repaired mechanical exoskeleton.

After a few simple maneuvers, everyone present felt an unprecedented delight.

Undoubtedly, the exoskeleton’s functionality far exceeded their expectations.

It not only had simple load‑bearing and assist functions, but even after loading the sole functional PDA, its weapon mounts could interface with Chen Jian’s squad’s “old‑style” smart goggles; via AI recognition plus eye‑tracking, the exoskeleton PDA self‑activated, using the lidar module to compute an aiming path, thereby controlling the weapons on the mounts for over‑shoulder aiming!

This technology isn’t particularly cutting‑edge; even in Chen Jian’s era, or even twenty years earlier, it could be done.

But seeing it on a small mechanical exoskeleton, still compatible with disparate intelligent systems, truly astonished them.

Chen Jian kept calibrating the aiming error on the mounts, and the more he moved, the faster the exoskeleton PDA responded.

Sensors on the torso first detected the core muscle group’s expansion and contraction, then transmitted electrical signals to the corresponding motors at a speed surpassing neural reflexes.

The whole operation was utterly smooth, and with the simple yet effective multi‑joint design, Chen Jian hardly felt the exoskeleton at all.

“.This thing is insane—it’s hardly the same kind of exoskeleton we had back then.”

“The feedback force is huge; I feel my strength has at least doubled.”

“Just that the speed isn’t quite keeping up; agility hasn’t improved much.”

Chen Jian swung his arm while sighing, and Lei Jie shook his head and said:

“Speed and agility are tightly linked to neural reaction speed; as far as I know, no exoskeleton is pushed in that direction.”

“The reason is simple: even if the exoskeleton could be fast, you couldn’t be.”

“Start moving and you might end up with your arms snapped.”

“.Got it.”

Chen Jian nodded, bent over, and lifted the wooden dining table in the living room with just a light effort, hoisting it single‑handed.

Next, he experimentally grabbed a corner of the table, clenched it; the motors whirred, the hydraulic valve compressed, and half a second later the corner snapped with a bang.

“What tremendous torque!”

Chen Jian sucked in a breath of cold air.

“Exactly, this thing’s peak torque can reach 270 Nm, almost equal to the total torque of a four‑wheel electric vehicle.”

“Converted to load capacity, it can let the user move freely while carrying 100 kg.”

“It’s truly strong; the only shame is that the human‑machine interface isn’t polished enough—it only makes you stronger, not higher‑jumping.”

“So it still falls short of the true exoskeletons seen in sci‑fi movies, right?”

Chen Jian asked again.

“Exactly, it’s mainly not a high‑mobility exoskeleton; I feel it’s more like a personal armory‑type exoskeleton.”

“You can tell.”

Chen Jian reached for the gun, tried aiming a few times, and felt no discomfort whatsoever.

It looks like for the upcoming battle I can just suit up in this thing. However, there is still one crucial question.

“How long does the endurance last?”

“In march mode it can last 20 hours; in combat mode, 6 hours.”

“But there’s another option: when not in use, power it down and march in passive self‑support mode, switch to march mode when you engage, and activate combat mode when the fight gets intense.”

“You can try powering it off now; theoretically the load is transferred to the ground through the feet, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Chen Jian immediately powered it off, took a few steps, and found it indeed wasn’t as difficult as he’d imagined.

It felt like the passive‑assist exoskeleton I used to wear, but the design is even better, reducing the perceived load even more.

“Subjectively, wearing the exoskeleton with all that gear feels about the same as carrying a 40 kg pack.”

“That’s pretty good; without the exoskeleton we’d be lugging our own gear, which would also be 40 kg or more.”

“Indeed.”

Lei Jie set down his wrench, gesturing for Chen Jian to take off the exoskeleton.

Then he spoke:

“Unfortunately, only this one can be fully restored; the remaining parts can barely make two more, but they lack PDAs, so they can only serve as assist exoskeletons.”

“With four of us, He Shuo would miss out—he’ll just have to run on his own two legs.”

“Give it to me? I don’t even want it.”

He Shuo rolled his eyes and said:

“This thing isn’t really suited to my battlefield role anyway—feel free to take it.”

“Then I won’t hold back!”

Shen Yue chuckled and then said:

“Not having a PDA is fine; as long as I can mount my gear, that’s enough.”

“Otherwise, just hauling spare ammo would kill me.”

“And I’m not any different?”

Lei Jie pointed to the neatly sorted mortar rounds and said:

“I’ve got two tubes, plus a 201 mortar and five shells, I still need to carry my rifle, can’t ditch the sniper grenade—my load easily tops 60 kg.”

“I think hauling all that isn’t practical; we need to stash the gear we won’t use.”

“Let’s talk about it once we’re inside the city.”

Chen Jian cut Lei Jie off and then said:

“At least for now, hiding it in Han Shui City isn’t safe.”

"Anyway, we're heading into the city to scout; we might as well take it to the outskirts and find a hidden spot to hide, lest the Machine God's followers sniff us out."

"Makes sense."

Lei Jie nodded and immediately asked:

"When do we set out?"

Chen Jian pondered for a moment, stowed the loaded sleeve-arrow single‑soldier missile module on rack one, then replied:

"As soon as possible—there are two exoskeletons left; how long will it take you to fix them?"

"Twelve hours. But I need eight hours of rest; I haven't slept enough these days, and I'm not in good shape."

"Then we'll depart in twenty hours—that's tomorrow at four p.m."

"In that time, I'll go talk to Xu Lie and his crew, gauge their intentions, and pick up any useful intel."

"This time we're not up against some blood‑skull terror demon; it's a level‑three monster, and it's going to be tough to handle."

"If even our current weapons can't pierce its armor..."

Chen Jian glanced at the lead box in the corner, then said:

"I'm afraid we'll have to bring this thing along."

(End of chapter)