"Alarm, intruder! Alarm, intruder!"
Just as Jaxil was theorizing with Zod, his protective robot suddenly issued an alarm. The goblin hurriedly turned around to see a human child of about six or seven years old curiously playing with one of his bodyguards, asking the uncle next to him, "Uncle John, why can this iron toy walk and talk?"
"Ah, you little rascal, let go of my robot!" Jaxil hurriedly controlled his robot to prevent it from attacking randomly—luckily, he had set the protective robot to passive mode when he arrived, so it wouldn't initiate a counterattack unless it received a substantial attack. Otherwise, if this human brat were injured by the robot, who knows what kind of trouble it would cause.
"Timmy, that's a mechanical creature, a toy made by goblins," Uncle John replied.
Jaxil immediately felt severely provoked. He jumped up and retorted loudly, "That's not a toy! That's Jaxil's great invention! A protective robot! It doesn't need to be paid wages, it doesn't need to eat food, it doesn't need to rest and sleep, and it won't betray its master. It's much more reliable than human bodyguards!"
Zod gestured with his sword and then mocked, "Come on, it can't even block one of my sword strikes! Wasting so much steel, it's better to forge a few weapons!"
Jaxil immediately responded angrily, "What do you know! This is science! Do you even know what science is? Forget it, how could someone like you with a brain full of muscles understand the greatness of this invention! Hmph, get out of the way, barbarian!"
...
When Heimerdinger sent someone to notify Aiden that he had developed a prototype, Aiden couldn't believe that there would be results so quickly. He hurried to Heimerdinger's Hextech Research Institute.
"So fast?" Aiden was a little incredulous.
Heimerdinger felt that his most authoritative field was being underestimated, and he immediately retorted, "I admit that your Earthlings' technology is very advanced, but our Valoran's magic technology also has its unique features. Have you seen Ezreal's 'Pulsefire' mech? That's our Hextech invention. The other 'Battlecast' series, 'Iron Legion' series, blast-proof series, Full Metal series, and Astronaut series are all our products!"
"Uh, pretty impressive." Hearing him say this, Aiden Wei felt that he had indeed underestimated Valoran's technological strength. At least the things mounted on Ezreal's Pulsefire look pretty cool, and Earth technology might not necessarily be able to completely replicate them. He turned the topic to the purpose of his visit, pointing to Heimerdinger's invention and asking, "Can I try it out?"
"Try it out with confidence, see if you're satisfied!" The Great Inventor proudly pointed to something on the lab table that was about the size of an iPad.
Aiden picked it up and examined it: it was two centimeters thick, and the outer shell didn't look too novel. The upper half of the front was polished crystal, and Aiden guessed that this might be the screen? The lower half was composed of some special glowing buttons, consisting of numbers and letters.
"How do I use this?"
Heimerdinger explained, "This is a magic-guided communicator that I created based on the relatively primitive wired telephone principle you described. The part that replaces the base station is a type of Valoran resonance crystal that I modified. It can transmit and convert some unique fluctuations, the principle is similar to the electromagnetic waves you described. If you want to contact someone who also has this terminal communicator, then first you need to know their terminal number and location. When dialing, first enter the corresponding resonance crystal tower number, and then let the resonance crystal tower operator transfer you to the terminal holder you need to find."
The Great Inventor pointed to the iPad—uh, officially named "Magic-Guided Communicator"—seeing that Aiden still looked like he understood but didn't quite understand, and said, "For example, if I want to find Garen of Demacia now. Then first I should dial the Demacia Resonance Crystal Tower's code D010, then the staff in the crystal tower will connect it and ask you for the specific number you want to transfer to. After reporting the number, if this number is within the coverage area of the Demacia Crystal Tower, then you can start talking after the transfer!"
"Oh—I understand now!" Aiden thought, isn't this just like making a phone call in the Republic of China? Call the telephone bureau: connect me to so-and-so, and then the telephone bureau transfers it and you can talk.
"What is the coverage area of a resonance crystal tower?" he asked.
"Currently, the one I'm experimenting with covers a radius of one kilometer."
—Sounds acceptable.
"What about the cost?"
"About five hundred gold coins? I'm not too sure about this." The Great Inventor scratched his head.
Aiden's heart sank: five hundred gold coins is not a small amount. It's enough for an ordinary family of four to spend forty years. He had previously inventoried Valoran's inventory, and there were only over 30 million gold coins in total—this is still the accumulated wealth of various city-states, including the national treasury, and is not Aiden's personal property.
He asked, "Then how much would it cost to cover 1 million square kilometers?"
Heimerdinger reported a desperate number: "159 million gold coins."
"It seems we still need to continue to improve the technology!" Aiden squatted down and patted Heimerdinger's small shoulder, "I have high hopes for you!"
"Alright, it seems I have to continue to improve its performance." Heimerdinger shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we need to find a better resonance crystal."
Aiden felt that the cost of this magic communicator should be reduced by at least half, and the performance should be increased by four or five times before it would be worthwhile to build it on a large scale. As it is now, it's simply not cost-effective.
"Right," he suddenly remembered, "Isn't the Gem Knight Taric particularly knowledgeable about the power of gems? I think you should ask him to help you test it out."
Heimerdinger slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "That's right, that's right, how could I have forgotten him! Quickly, go and find him! Go, go!"
So Aiden was impolitely pushed out of the laboratory—but he was still quite happy. If the Gem Knight could really help, that would be even better.
On the way back, a sharp and exaggerated voice rang in Aiden's ears: "Oh! My dearest lord, I've finally found you!"
He turned his head and saw a goblin trotting up with short legs, followed by several robot bodyguards—wasn't this the image of that ambitious goblin who was selling robots when he came here?
"Jaxil? You came to Durnholde to find me?" Aiden remembered that he had told this goblin that he was looking forward to the performance of his improved robot. He didn't expect this goblin to actually come. And it seemed that his robot had indeed been improved to some extent. At least it didn't stall when running.
"Oh my god, you still remember my name, I'm so touched!" Jaxil's exaggerated expression, coupled with his body movements, seemed very funny and comical.
Aiden smiled and said, "So you're here to sell your improved robots?"
Jaxil's eyes lit up, that was a desire for gold coins: "If you think there's a need, then of course—but that's not my main purpose. I'm here this time to promote a revolutionary product to you—ta-da!" He took a box from a robot, carefully opened it, and presented it to Aiden: "That's it! My latest invention!"
Aiden took a look, and there was a strange-looking thing lying in the box. One end was a handle that could be gripped, like an electric iron, and the other end connected to the wire was installed in a box. He didn't know what it was.
"What is this?"
"This is Jaxil's Goblin Defibrillator!" Jaxil replied proudly, "It can rescue some people with weak vital signs. Such as drowning victims, heart disease, suffocation, etc., almost any symptom of sudden cardiac arrest can be used on it!"
"Oh, a defibrillator!" Aiden immediately remembered. In the game of World of Warcraft, there was indeed such a thing. It could revive dead people, uh, with a certain probability of failure. But obviously, there can't be such a heaven-defying thing in the real world, so its function is similar to a heart defibrillator on Earth.
Jaxil saw that his invention had aroused the interest of this lord. Sure enough, he had not misjudged the person. This dearest Aiden was a person who was willing to believe in science and respected science. This was really rare! So he began to enthusiastically promote his product.
When he was halfway through his explanation, Aiden reached out and interrupted him: "Alright, Jaxil. You don't need to continue explaining."
Jaxil looked at him hopefully. The goblin felt that he was about to conclude the biggest deal of his life. He could finally take a big step towards buying Hillsbrad—
"I am indeed interested in your invention. This goblin defibrillator is a very good invention." Aiden first affirmed the goblin's invention. After all, this is a medical device, and it is indeed very useful. Azeroth has all kinds of healing spells: Holy Light, natural magic, true energy, and divine magic all have their own wonderful uses.
But spells are not omnipotent. It can heal pain and treat some simple diseases, but for most congenital diseases and some difficult and complicated diseases, spells are still powerless. If someone has heart disease, the Holy Light is basically helpless. Spells cannot cure pneumonia infections, nor can they eliminate appendicitis. For these, traditional pharmacy and surgery are still needed.
"—However, the principle of the defibrillator is not complicated. The Science Research Institute under my command can easily manufacture similar or even better substitutes. Or rather, things with the same purpose already exist."
Jaxil widened his eyes and shouted, "That's impossible! I was the first to invent it!"
Aiden smiled and said, "Perhaps in Azeroth. But Valoran has a crazy scientist who has transformed himself into a cyborg—many of his basics have been replaced by machines. Do you think he wouldn't be able to research a heart defibrillator? Even another scientist working under me has performed surgery on his own brain."
Jaxil blinked, was stunned for a while, and suddenly his eyes filled with tears, and he screamed sharply: "Ah—no, this is my hard work—I want to apply for patent protection—woo woo woo—you are infringing!" He wiped his eyes and stared at Aiden pitifully: "My dearest lord, even if you don't buy my goblin defibrillator, at least you should pay me a part of the patent fee, right?"
Jaxil begged with tearful eyes: "Will you?"