"These drones are low-cost, although they have short endurance, they can be deployed at medium to close range and are already ready for mass production."
Hansen gave the designer a meaningful look, then turned his head to Mercer, his attitude clearly much improved.
He invited Mercer back to the sofa outside the factory, without any nonsense, he said directly: "State your terms."
"There are two options. First, you take my design drawings and pay me a design fee. Every time you produce a gun, I get a fixed amount of money."
Mercer looked at Hansen's impassive face, unable to discern what he was thinking, so he continued: "The second option is to let us produce. The wholesale price of the Simple Slaughter series is 400 Euros per piece.
The Intelligent series Slaughterhouse, pistol model, is 600 Euros, and the submachine gun is 900 Euros."
Hansen curled his lips: "If I choose the first option, aren't you worried you won't get paid?"
"Then I think the Netherworld Dog will lose my friendship." Mercer smiled, confident and composed, "My greatest asset is not these design drawings, but here."
He tapped his head: "These minor firearms, drones, what do they count for? If we cooperate, with battle robots like the Bulldog model, we could even handcraft from scratch and make even better things.
You went through the Unification War, no one should know better than you that the future battlefield belongs to robots.
Besides, I'm still a brilliant hacker... crossing me will only bring you harm, but if we cooperate, the level of the Netherworld Dog can be elevated."
Hansen stared at Mercer intently, after a moment, he closed his eyes and thought for a while, finally, he made a decision.
"I choose neither." Hansen's words made V instinctively alert to the surroundings.
But then, Hansen smiled: "Starting today, you're the Director of Weapon Design here. All the profits from the weaponry produced here, I'll give you a thirty-percent share."
Mercer, however, calmly said: "What if the weaponry is for internal use by Netherworld Dog?"
"I will give you a one-time licensing fee." Hansen reached here, warning: "You should know that the things you've designed at present actually don't have much technical content. Strictly speaking, replicating them is not difficult for us."
Mercer also acknowledged this point, which is why he was willing to directly display the weapon blueprints—the core of the Simple Slaughter and Slaughterhouse series is actually just a weapons design idea.
To put it bluntly, Hansen's researchers just didn't think outside the box, failing to consider modifications centered on disposable weapons and were instead trying to independently develop a stable, reliable, and cheap weapon.
After all, everyone generally thinks these 3D printed things are 'toys', simply adding metal parts to make such disposable weapons into standard weapons? It sounds unreliable.
This is also why Hansen was eyeing those researchers—this equipment's cost adds up only to small tens of thousands of Euros, but which machines in his research workshop don't start at tens of thousands of Euros?
Mercer hadn't initially anticipated Hansen would directly offer an olive branch, but after a moment of careful consideration, he found no reason to refuse.
On the contrary, if he agreed to Hansen's invitation, wouldn't that mean he wouldn't have to spend his own money on weaponry research in the future?
His own money could be entirely used in areas he's interested in, pursuing other fields he's passionate about.
Moreover, Mercer also knew that if he didn't agree to Hansen's request today, there might be more trouble ahead.
Pretending to comply and mutually using each other for a period, Mercer could accept that.
"I can agree to be your part-time director here, but I also have some demands."
Upon Mercer speaking, Hansen's expression instantly took on a more affable look: "Go ahead."
"First, I can't come over every day, most of the time I will work remotely."
For Mercer's first demand, Hansen agreed without hesitation: "No problem."
"Second, I'm only part-time, I have my own team to take care of and no time to constantly bustle around for the Netherworld Dog, so don't expect me to be at your beck and call, when assigning tasks, it'd be best not to give me anything urgent, but if there is something urgent, then there needs to be extra pay."
After Mercer finished, Hansen began bargaining: "But you must ensure that my thirty-percent profit share is worth it."
In simple terms, Hansen's meaning was, if one day Mercer loses value and can't develop new things, the thirty-percent profit share is off the table.
Mercer only faintly smiled at this, not minding, simply saying: "Value is a subjective notion. I can only assure that in weaponry design, what I can't do, others probably can't either."
"...What about the third demand?" Hansen maintained a certain skepticism towards this, he had to see for himself whether Mercer truly had such abilities in weapons design and development.
"Third, I also have some things I want to research out of interest, you need to provide funding and purchasing channels for me, as for the research outcomes, I can share them appropriately, this part of the money can be understood as the salary you are paying me."
Following Mercer's words, Hansen looked somewhat dissatisfied. In his view, giving a thirty-percent profit share already showed high sincerity.