"Don't lower your head! Don't move! Couldn't you just be dormant like her? Why do you have to watch it yourself? Stop shaking! This thing can move!"
Renault's forehead veins bulged as he shouted in annoyance, watching the tremors caused by UMP45's downward gaze.
UMP45, this girl, refused to follow UMP9's example of quickly entering standby mode and insisted on letting Renault operate on her while she was awake.
Now, whether she turned her head or lowered it, it could trigger trembling in the two biomimetic materials on her chest, much to Renault's annoyance as he was trying to shape them.
"Can't you just use the printing equipment directly?"
"Can't you just keep quiet for a moment? Using the printing equipment would require replacing all of your biomimetic skin. Are you willing to pay for that from your salary?"
Yes, Renault was just reluctant to waste those materials, that's why he insisted on doing it himself, definitely not for any strange reasons!
"Hmph! Hey... Elf, could you help move that mirror over here?"
UMP45, who had already noticed Elf running over with an imprint weapon box, spoke directly.
She had intended to turn her head, but Renault immediately grabbed her forehead and held her in place.
Elf nodded and brought over the full-length mirror placed near the repair pods, carefully adjusting the angle so that UMP45 could see Renault's actions with just a glance.
It was fine not to look, but when she did, she was startled.
Renault's hands were just like the mechanical arms in the printing equipment, moving each biomimetic nerve into place and adding biomimetic materials layer by layer with the tools in his hand...
She had initially thought it was just a simple procedure, just needing to insert the materials and then wait...
But she didn't expect the use of these biomimetic materials to be completely different from the dummy mode. Renault was literally a doll printer!?
It took Renault a full five minutes to finish, leaving HK416 and Elf dumbfounded on the side, completely unaware of how complex the human-like biomaterials were.
Of course, it looked complex just to watch. If it were done by a machine, it wouldn't seem as exaggerated as Renault doing it himself. After all, they had gotten used to it, so it wouldn't seem unreasonable for a machine to do such things.
"Alright, lie still and don't move. Wait here for ten minutes until the materials completely solidify, then you can go to the repair pod to repair the surface skin."
The machines used thermal shaping, but Renault couldn't directly apply heat with tools now, as it would damage UMP45's biomimetic skin, making repair even more troublesome.
UMP9 lying beside her was treated the same way by Renault, but he didn't rush to wake her up. If UMP45 was still so restless, who knew what silly things UMP9 might do if she woke up.
"Commander, these are the portable ammunition from this batch of materials, and there's also a whole box of portable manufacturing devices. I'll leave them here for now."
M1 Garand saw Renault put down his tools and pointed to the ammunition box at her feet.
"Oh, just leave them here."
He wanted to ask M1 Garand if anyone else needed these, but obviously, everyone else in the house already had one, leaving only UMP45 and her companions without these items.
Their previous equipment didn't include this stuff, after all. Since there were only two of them, logistics weren't much of a problem, so they didn't need such expensive toys.
"What's going on with you two? Where's the problem?"
Seeing M1 Garand leave, Renault turned to HK416 and asked.
But seeing the two of them holding imprinted weapon boxes, he probably understood what they wanted.
"Do you want to install a fire control core? And imprint weapon?"
This batch of equipment indeed included a device for imprinting on dolls, but Renault saw it as completely unnecessary.
The things that device could do could be accomplished with his homemade neural transfer device, just by transferring the data from the fire control core to the doll's neural cloud.
The rest could be left for the doll to adapt to.
"Well, I want this new imprint weapon." HK416 nodded and opened her box.
Inside was a brand-new HK416, along with a grenade launcher and a series of accessories.
"I... I want one too!"
Hearing HK416's words, Elf seemed to want to assert her presence, speaking loudly, but her eyes still held some worry. After speaking, she carefully observed Renault's expression.
She had wanted to open the weapon box in her hand as well, but the lock on HK416's box had been opened by Renault before, so it could be easily opened.
However, the lock on Elf's box, cough, was intact, and without applying some force, she couldn't open it.
"Sure, no problem. But, 416, let me be clear upfront: don't rely too much on imprinted weapons. Otherwise, when you get new weapons in the future, you might not be able to handle them."
He would definitely modify the weapons in the hands of his dolls in the future. Relying too much on the weapon's imprinting system would make it awkward to handle different weapons later.
Uh... Hearing Renault's words, HK416's firm resolve was shaken, hesitating as she looked at the imprinted weapon in the box.
"If I don't have an imprinted weapon, what exactly am I in the future?"
The difference between tactical and civilian dolls was just the addition of a fire control core and the imprinted weapon bound to the doll, right? If she didn't have an imprinted weapon, could she still be considered a tactical doll?
"What are you? What does it matter? Does not having chopsticks mean you're not a person who can eat?"
Giving her a disdainful look, always asking him these philosophical questions, why not consult a philosopher about this? Why ask a rough person like him?
"Commander, um, could you help me open this?"
Seeing HK416 fall into a daze due to Renault's completely out-of-sync words, Elf held up her box to Renault.
"Sure, I'll open it."
Renault said, taking steel pliers from his toolbox, directly snapping the lock, opening the box, and taking out the weapon inside.
After inspecting it, he handed it to Elf, letting her familiarize herself with the weapon.
With its composite material shell and the scope on top of the barrel, it looked like a big guy at first glance, resembling some kind of futuristic weapon.
Unfortunately, this weapon was over seventy years old. He couldn't understand why IOP liked to use these decades-old obsolete products as templates for imprinted weapons?
Wasn't there any new products these days? And G11, the issue of caseless rifle ammunition was another headache.
How many different types of ammunition did they have for the dolls at home again?
Want to read advanced chapters? go to my patréon for Chapters 200-800.
patréon.com/PorterOfSomething