Chapter 202: Devonshire-Type Armor

Thinking that Stark knew James Rhodes, William kindly mentioned, "Stark, I think you should pay attention to the identity of that gang of thieves. You might discover something."

This comment made Stark realize there was something he didn't know, otherwise, William, who was known for being a miser, wouldn't lose a large sum of money for no reason and now give him a special reminder. Stark's attitude towards William improved a bit, and for the first time, he expressed thanks, saying, "Thank you, I'll investigate."

The two chatted for half an hour. Once William's $720 million had been transferred to his Swiss National Bank account, he stood up to leave. Stark, for the sake of the money, even personally escorted William downstairs.

William then got into a car driven by Happy, who took him back to his mansion in New York's Upper East Side.

That evening, William rode his newly purchased motorcycle to the Old Man's Bar. Upon entering, he found only Barney and his six teammates there. Barney and the others were sitting at the bar, drinking and chatting, while Thor, the owner, was personally serving as the bartender.

Seeing William come in, everyone raised their glasses to toast him. This trip to Las Vegas was one of the easiest tasks they'd had in years, and the pay was substantial.

After having a few drinks with the group, William pulled Barney aside to a seat by the window and asked, "Have you met with the Church?"

"Yes, Boss. Are we really going to Bilena Island? When we met today, Trench immediately refused when he heard the name Bilena Island. From what I know about him, this mission could be very dangerous."

"I know. This mission is because I owe the Church a favor, and the drug trade on Bilena Island involves Albanian Jet Vroby. You know my grudge against Jet Vroby; I've wanted to eliminate him for a long time. So, I have no choice in this mission. Your commission is ten million dollars."

Barney could sense the resolute tone in William's voice. "Alright, I guess I'll go with Christmas to scout the island first. There's someone from the Church there; I'll make contact with them."

Thinking of the contact person, William recalled the South American woman. That girl really didn't know her place. If it weren't for a father who loved her, she probably would have been killed by Monroe long ago.

"No need. I've got a rough idea of the situation on the island, and it's not necessary to risk you and Christmas going there first," William shook his head, refusing Barney's offer. He needed to catch Jet Vroby's subordinate to find out Jet Vroby's whereabouts.

"I've got everything ready. As per your instructions, the materials are all semi-finished products, stored in the warehouse behind the bar," Barney said.

"Let's go. These things are prepared for you. The risk level of this mission is high, so we need to be fully prepared before setting foot on the island."

Barney didn't know what William meant by "prepared," but he had a general idea, especially since he had spent a lot of money secretly buying these items from the black market.

Barney led William to the warehouse behind the bar. The 300-square-meter warehouse was filled with equipment and containers. Barney opened a container and used a forklift to pull out the semi-finished products and materials.

William began calibrating the equipment while following the instruction manual. Seeing that William had never used the equipment before made Barney a bit nervous, fearing that William might be using them as test subjects.

After spending over two hours familiarizing himself with the equipment, William looked at the materials before him. He started assembling the semi-finished products according to the steps in his mind. After working for another hour, he produced a helmet with a distinctly high-tech appearance.

William tossed the helmet to Barney, saying, "Try it on."

Barney, holding the fully enclosed helmet, suddenly felt a calm anticipation as he put it on and heard William's voice in his ear.

"This helmet is made of double-layered nano titanium alloy with a Kevlar layer in between. It weighs only 1.1 kilograms and can withstand close-range shots from an AK. It includes a communication system, a micro ventilation system for cooling, anti-fogging, and air circulation. The four lenses at the front provide a 180-degree view, infrared, night vision, anti-flash, and video connectivity, sharing the view with teammates."

After explaining, William turned his attention away from the enthusiastic Barney and continued assembling the armor and combat suit. The suit's materials were based on bulletproof vest technology he had acquired from Winston.

The combat suit itself could already stop short-range bullets. Additionally, the suit's exterior was covered with a layer of nano titanium alloy plates, including full-coverage boots. William believed that even a close-range shot with a 12-gauge slug wouldn't penetrate it.

Once Barney was fully suited in the armor and helmet, William thought the outfit resembled that of Snake Eyes from the special forces, except for the four lenses on the helmet and the more defined chest armor.

Handing Barney a modified HK416, William felt that Barney looked like a soldier from the future.

Barney moved around, crawling on the ground, and rolling. After finding no hindrance to his movements, he removed his helmet and said, "Movement isn't an issue, but the weight could affect our ammunition carrying capacity."

"Heh, can't be helped. Time is limited, and this is just the Devonshire-Type Armor Mark I. The full set only weighs 12 kilograms, and achieving this level of effectiveness is already quite good. Further improvements will have to wait. My vision is to eventually develop this armor into a close-fitting exoskeleton suit, with special batteries on the back to reduce the wearer's weight by 60%. The suit will have jet propulsion capabilities for jumping tens of meters high, running at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, underwater breathing, and rapid underwater movement. Finally, it will connect to modular automatic aiming weapons. But for now, with this armor, you should be safe from anything but large-caliber machine guns and anti-materiel sniper rifles. And there's this," William said, pulling out a small helicopter drone, "This is called the Black Blade Drone. It's primarily for silent reconnaissance. Even at a distance of ten meters, it can't be heard. It has a range of 12 kilometers and can display video directly on your helmet. The controller can be mounted on the armor's left arm."

William then attached the controller to Barney's left arm and taught him how to operate it. Within a few minutes, Barney was flying the drone around the warehouse. After getting used to it, William had him fly the drone outside to test if it could reach the 12-kilometer range. After half an hour of testing, all data showed that the drone was functioning normally, and Barney brought the Black Blade Drone back to the warehouse.

Seeing William typing rapidly on a computer, Barney, holding the HK416 and wearing the helmet, headed towards the bar.

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