Card maker? No, I'm a mechanic!

Soon, they returned to the workshop.

Jiang Zhe locked the door again, took out One-Punch Man and Wind Bullet Cards, and placed them side by side.

He took a deep breath, his eyes as sharp as the carving knife.

"Let's begin the upgrade."

Without the slightest hesitation, he picked up the carving knife and thrust it directly at the Wind Bullet Card.

If other card makers saw this scene, they would definitely faint from heartache.

The loop of the secondary card is finer and denser.

"Is this considered a technological upgrade? The materials for advanced cards are better and the construction is more complex."

He sighed, but his hands did not stop moving.

The carving knife in his hand seemed to come alive, navigating through various complex and winding paths.

"I don't need any output, nor do I need you to actively gather wind."

Jiang Zhe muttered to himself, and with a slight flick of his wrist, the carving knife precisely severed the card's power supply circuit.

"Sizzle..."

The unrestrained energy began to stir.

"I only need your rotating structure!"

Like a highly skilled neurosurgeon, he precisely extracted the corresponding circuit from the card.

Immediately afterwards, his gaze fell on One-Punch Man.

"It's time to show the real technology."

Jiang Zhe took a deep breath, but did not rush to make a move.

Instead, he took out a thin metal wire from a discarded energy conduction tube from a toolbox next to him.

Card players in this world are used to using their mental power to guide the fusion fluid for modification.

But that method was too crude; it simply connected the loops at roughly the same location.

It's neither accurate enough nor stable enough.

"The fireball provides thrust, and the wind-blown projectiles circulate energy..."

Jiang Zhe deftly picked up the structure and, like installing a gear, gently inserted it into the exhaust pipe position of the arm armor.

"Sizzle...!"

The two completely different energies instantly repelled each other, sparks flying everywhere.

Ordinary card makers would give up at this step.

But Jiang Zhe didn't even blink.

He passed the thin metal wire through his hand and then began welding, activating his mental power.

"Spin it around!"

As mental power was continuously controlled and restrained, a miracle occurred.

The red and blue colors, which were originally in conflict, formed a delicate balance at that narrow connecting point.

According to the flow of the loop, the aftershocks of the fireball explosion will be captured by the rotation of the wind projectile and eventually drawn into the vortex.

"It's done."

Jiang Zhe wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the cards in front of him.

This is the card version of the turbo engine.

In this world of cards, he used seemingly impossible means to complete an impossible energy cycle.

"With the battery life extended, the next step is shock absorption."

A proper shock absorption system is the key to enabling him to unleash the true power of One-Punch Man.

Jiang Zhe lowered his gaze and looked at the pile of slimes that were almost overflowing.

"Old Shi, you guys are finally going to rise up." He casually flipped through a few pages.

"The old traditional designs are too simple and crude. They just inject energy directly to stimulate cell division and form a clump of sticky meat paste."

"While it's good enough as a cleaning product or cannon fodder, it's not enough to cushion my shocks."

Jiang Zhe's carving knife made a precise cut, directly severing the splitting loop.

"All we need to do is activate its energy circuits when it is impacted, and guide a chain reaction in its internal structure."

"It forms a high-density substance in a short period of time, thus becoming hard."

This process is simple in some ways, but it is actually quite complicated.

Since slimes are summoned cards, their key loops are naturally different.

Jiang Zhe kept trying different circuit combinations and carefully guided the energy flow through the path he designed.

"Sizzle...snap."

The first slime card failed to be modified, and the loop was instantly burned.

"Structural collapse... Was it overloaded? It seems biology is still very important." He frowned and picked up the second sheet, but he was not discouraged.

After all, the loop of summoned creatures is still too abstract compared to spell cards.

It's practically... like a wet item.

Soon, one slime after another collapsed under his hands.

Jiang Zhe also discovered some key points: the core of slime lies in its liquid-solid conversion mechanism.

He simply needs to find a critical point that allows this transition to be completed instantaneously and a loop that can quickly recover after absorbing the shock.

"Still the feedback issue..." Jiang Zhe muttered to himself.

Then, the loops of several slimes were peeled off and connected to form a miniature network.

"When an impact occurs, the impact force acts as an energy signal, instantly activating the slime through this network."

"It's like dominoes, but much faster."

He took a deep breath and channeled his mental energy into the unfinished card.

"Buzz..."

The network trembled, and a layer of green light began to circulate.

"Thump..."

Jiang Zhe tapped it lightly with a stick; the sound was dull and solid, like rubber.

He struck it again with force, and this time the spot hardened instantly.

When the stick was removed, the area that had been struck quickly regained its softness.

"It's done." A glint of light flashed in Jiang Zhe's eyes.

The subsequent integration process went much more smoothly than he had anticipated.

After all, the loop of a slime itself has a certain degree of extensibility.

However, when he completed the final connection and activated the card...

A series of gear-gear sounds accompanied by a flash of light.

However, the already bulky size of the arm armor had now reached its limit.

There is almost no room left to modify it.

"Phew..." Jiang Zhe breathed a sigh of relief and tried waving his arm.

Although heavy, it seemed to be within his acceptable range.

The double-layered cushioning of slime and clay card made his arm feel as if it had an extra layer of elastic muscle.

"Perfect!" He couldn't help but grin with satisfaction.

It seems he's gotten rid of the "three-second true man" phase.

……

Meanwhile, in the processing station's office, Old Wang was seeing Chen Ming off with a beaming smile.

"Chen, you can go ahead and get busy. I'll treat you to drinks next time."

Old Wang bowed and scraped, and only after Chen Ming's figure completely disappeared did the smile on his face instantly vanish.

Back at his desk, he picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, is this Supervisor Zhang? It's me, Lao Wang, from Processing Station Number Nine!" He lowered his voice, his tone extremely obsequious.

"Yes, yes, it's all thanks to Master Chen's timely handling."

"That's true... but it's still a Tier 2 summon that's revived from a useless card through resonance."

"It would be extremely useful for research at the academy!"

A deep voice came from the other end of the phone, and Old Wang nodded repeatedly.

"So I took it upon myself to expedite the delivery of that troll's corpse to your academy."

He rubbed his hands together with a broad smile, but then changed the subject and revealed his true purpose.

"However, as you know, Manager Zhang, my processing station usually only handles scraps and offcuts; the good stuff is all taken by other processing stations first."

"I wonder if the academy, considering the value of trolls, could perhaps give us a little special consideration?"

"What I mean is, could you send any discarded lab cards or anything like that from the academy to us for processing?"

Upon hearing this, there was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a soft chuckle.

"You're quite good at business," Manager Zhang said with a hint of amusement.

"Sure, since you're so kind, I'll go and help you coordinate it."

"But you'd better take precautions. The academy's discarded cards are not like those junk cards."

"Don't worry, don't worry," Old Wang assured him, patting his chest. "I guarantee it will be foolproof!"

"Not only Chen, but also other staff will be plentiful."

After hanging up the phone, Old Wang's obese body slumped heavily back into his chair.

He lit a cigarette and muttered to himself.