The Outsider (Outsider #1) ✔️

Chapter 78 : VR Glove Solution

"Ok, the health indicators are back to normal for all 3 of you, now I think you all can go back to bed." Luke said.

"Huh? What do you mean health indicators?" Dusk asked.

"Your body's vital signs. Your heartbeat, blood pressure, sugar levels, hydration levels... They have returned to normal. The effect of the obstacle course and punishment run is over. Rosemary recovered pretty quickly of course. Dusk, you need a lot more endurance training."

Dusk sat up straight. "Wait, how do you know my vital signs? Are you monitoring them?"

"Of course, silly. Do you think the emperor will send you on punishment training without that? Or the Marshall will risk having one of you die on the way? The heads of all his family, near and distant will be chopped off." Luke replied with a laugh. "Now, give the sensor-band back."

Dusk suddenly remembered that the Marshall had given her a sensor band to put on her wrist when they changed to sportwear. She was so used to using them during her Military Training, she didn't bother to think of it. They had not taken it off after coming back to the hotel. It was still sending out monitoring signals after so long?

"What does that band consist of?" Dusk asked as she took it off and handed it to Luke.

"it's a flexible battery built into a version of Soft-Hard Metallic Grid. The battery portion is 70% of the band and the rest are taken by the sensor, receptors and transmitters. Why? Is there a problem?"

Dusk sat up looking at Rosemary and said, "Princess, please buy me that company!"

... ...

In spite of being tired, Dusk had spent 3 hours reviewing lectures she had missed at the University. Catherine watched the lectures with her (not understanding half of it), while Luke seemed to be doing some other work in the study room of the Suite and Rosemary ignored them and went to her own room. Dusk went to bed pretty late.

The next day started badly. The maids came and woke up Dusk and Catherine at 6 in the morning. Catherine was reluctant to get up and almost thrashed the maid, and Dusk had to stop her. They were at the Palace at 7 in the morning and spent over 2 hours in combat training.

At the end of the training, Dusk had most of her body parts in pain, while she roundly cursed Rosemary in her mind. She dared not say any of it aloud for fear of further punishment.

After that, they were forced to change in one of the Palace rooms and have breakfast with the Emperor. Dusk like her breakfast quick and informal, unlike what she had to face that morning. It was a full protocol, pure politeness, but the food was the best she ever had.

From there the two of them went to Futurista LLC's factory and development lab.

"Your biggest problem is that you are continuously powering the MSHG parts of the glove. It is always going to drain your battery. We need to change that. Can we power off the MSHG till we actually need to use it?" Dusk asked.

"But the problem is that fingers move almost all the time. We can only power-off when it's in a tight grip. But even then, people move the fingers, so it needs to be kept soft." one of the technicians said.

The mood in the lab had improved when the two girls walked in. The news of the acquisition had gone around, and the fear of job losses had vanished. The rumours of massive amount of investment had perked the spirits of all the employees.

"Look, we need to redesign this. First, maybe we need to connect sensors to a different power battery from the MSHG. And then we don't need so many receptors and transmitters. Just 2-3 of them will do. That should reduce the power consumption. Sensors also need less power, so that should help too..."