In the current situation, perhaps it's still okay. Hansen and Military Science are still in a somewhat ambiguous relationship, with mutual understanding and reciprocal benefits between the two. But should the day come...
When Hansen wants to start his own venture, Military Science only needs to block the exits, and Hansen will find himself in a supply crisis.
Moreover, who knows if these products from Military Science have any hidden backdoors?
If there's some technical vulnerability that Hansen is unaware of, and he only realizes during combat that the weapons and equipment sold to him by Military Science have all stalled, wouldn't that be a complete disaster?
Therefore, he urgently needs a standardized weapon that doesn't rely on Military Science, with high cost-effectiveness and simple manufacturing, able to arm his troops on a large scale without being easily choked.
And the simple slaughter and Slaughterhouse series of weapons proposed by Mercer, firearms modified based on "Affordable Firepower" company's 3D printing technology, perfectly meet Hansen's current needs.
"Yes, the design concept of Affordable Firepower is quite good. Weapons printed as a monolith with polymers are produced quickly and at low cost. By installing some metal parts, they can be used as conventional weapons.
Moreover, the conventional weapons made in this way, all easily damaged metal parts have been designed to standard specifications by me, not only making modifications convenient, but also allowing for rapid repair with replacement parts in case of failure.
Whether for regular maintenance or simply replacing it when it's worn out, it meets Night City's demand for street firepower."
Mercer's words made Hansen ponder. When the two arrived at the design factory, Mercer directly, without ceremony, stopped a researcher busy at a workbench.
"Help me fabricate some metal parts now."
Mercer's commanding tone made the researcher instinctively glance at Hansen, but Hansen just nodded.
So, he could only obediently watch as Mercer set the parameters on the machine, told him the specifications, and then started using the equipment to process the metal parts.
The manufacturing speed of million-euro grade items was much faster than Mercer solely relying on printing. The machine would cut the steel tubes, grind out the rifling for the barrels, and the cut-off parts were further machined into slides.
The remaining small metal parts were directly produced by the automated grinder at the workbench.
By the time he finished with these, it was just enough time for the soldier who went to buy disposable printed weapons to return with the affordable firepower disposable pistol.
Mercer took the freshly printed, still warm pistol, and walked directly to the workbench, without wasting any words, he directly plugged the data cable from his wrist into the interface built into the machine station.
Then, the mechanical arms and cutting machines on the workbench began operating automatically. He didn't even need to lift a finger, watching in the amazed eyes of technicians, as the machine completely dismantled the printed pistol.
After simply replacing the metal parts, Mercer handed over the slightly ugly-looking pistol to Hansen: "You just need to replace it with a 9mm magazine to be finished."
Hansen fiddled with the somewhat lightweight feeling pistol, then directly headed towards the shooting range not far from the design factory.
Pulling the trigger, the pistol began to ferociously spit bullets, emptying the magazine in almost less than two seconds.
Then Hansen changed magazines to start trying precision shots, alternately repeating fire until after ten magazines, he looked at the smoking muzzle and said: "It feels like the slide jams a bit after multiple firings, and there's severe muzzle jump."
"That's because polymers have a risk of melting at high temperatures— if this is a concern, you can apply a coolant, but typically no one would use this thing for ten full magazines continuously. If reliability is needed, just add more metal parts."
Mercer, however, was dismissive of this, you get what you pay for, this thing together only costs over a hundred euros more than a disposable pistol, what more do you want?
If you want reliability, increase the costs and add more metal parts.
Hansen then looked at him: "Is it the same for intelligent weapon modification?"
"The same, just add a microchip, attach a circuit board to the weapon grip connected to the sight, that's it. The essence of Kangtao's intelligent weapons lies in the algorithm and ultra-low latency bullet response, with the core technology being in the algorithm and the bullets."
After finishing his statement, Mercer paused and said: "I'll handle the algorithm, bullets I can't do, not that they can't be made, but if you're mass-producing smart bullets, the equipment you need won't just cost a few million euros.
And if you choose to handcraft the bullets, the manual difficulty of such nanotech chips is high, with low production efficiency, not as good as just buying them.
But you can look around the market to see if there are any cheap smart bullet suppliers, it might slightly affect the turning speed of the bullets, but under my algorithm, the difference won't be significant."
Hansen was quite satisfied as he put things down, then suddenly looked fiercely at a designer: "So, all you really need is a 3D printer and some metal parts to make these weapons..."
The designer's face suddenly turned a bit pale, hastily shouting: "This is a necessary investment! These devices won't go to waste! Bulletproof vests, vehicle modification, drone equipment..."
Mercer suddenly spoke: "If you're interested in drone equipment, I have some drone gear for sale too."
He smiled slyly at Hansen, saying: "After battlefield testing, even Military Science's armored vehicle units cannot completely withstand my beehive drones.