"Alright, maybe it's a good thing I didn't give this to Gwen."
Recalling the "Friendly Reminder" at the end of the item description, Luca decisively tucked it away for safekeeping.
In reality, quite a bit of time had passed since the destruction of New York.
Lately, aside from ordering the base to manufacture a brand-new "Yuri MCV" and designing weapons tailored for dimensional warfare, Luca had also been busy collecting all sorts of random junk, hoping to find new synthesizable items.
Well, strictly speaking, he had never really stopped doing that.
Collecting random items, periodically screening them, and occasionally going shopping—this was basically Luca's daily routine.
Even though his current R&D capabilities probably surpassed the vast majority of the "original creators" of these items, and even if he ignored the "conceptual powers" attached to them, who could refuse the joy of getting something for nothing or the thrill of opening a blind box?
However, most of the items he harvested were indeed useless to him.
Aside from a few that might have some research value, and some that were seemingly magical but illogical enough that they couldn't be studied or used, most ended up tossed in the warehouse, barely qualifying as reserve "keys" to unlock other dream worlds.
For example...
The [Flesh-Regenerating Serum] created by Mayuri Kurotsuchi from the Bleach world. With Yuri's cloning technology and the upgraded Extremis Virus already in hand, simple flesh repair or even limb regeneration wasn't difficult for Luca.
Moreover, since the serum was made of "spirit particles" (Reishi), it was debatable whether it even counted as a chemical agent. Even Sherry had no clue how to research it.
Or the [Lancelot] knightmare frame from the Code Geass world. Although this small mecha (only 4.5 meters tall) had impressive agility, output, and weapon power...
It relied heavily on a special resource unique to the Code Geass world called "Sakuradite."
This dependency was even worse than the Gundam 00 series' reliance on GN Drives.
Meaning, if Luca couldn't artificially replicate Sakuradite through technology, this mech would turn into scrap metal after a single battle.
Add to that the fact that the early-version Lancelot couldn't fly, and its bizarre design of cramming a large cockpit into a small frame (resulting in an exposed cockpit block), meant that the cost-effectiveness of studying its tech was low.
At best, he'd pick it apart for some technical reserves.
Similar items included the [Goblin Rocket Boots], [Batman's Grapnel Gun], and so on...
In short, items that truly made Luca's eyes light up were becoming rarer.
Because of this, without new tech to distract him, Luca could focus more intently on researching his existing tech tree.
"Haro, let's continue...? Haro?"
After ending the call, Luca intended to get Haro back to work. But turning around, he found the orange Haro—whom he had casually shoved aside earlier—puffing itself up on the floor, motionless, clearly ignoring him.
"Quit playing around, come give me a hand..."
"Grrr~"
Before Luca could finish, the little thing rolled over to the charging station in the corner of the lab and entered "Online Mode."
It seemed the orange Haro considered the collective AI formed by all connected Haros as a separate "person."
Right now, it clearly didn't want to talk to Luca, so it simply contributed its computing power and went into sleep mode.
"Fine. Hakimi, then. Send over two units of Vibranium and inject the Gen-2 Blacklight Virus. Let's test how Blacklight enhancement affects morphological changes..."
"No, scrap the Fire Demon soul. Didn't Vision send back two Lightning Demon corpses yesterday? Use one of those as the core for Form Seven..."
Commands were issued one after another as Luca's hands flew across the holographic interface in front of him.
Before him stood a cylindrical cultivation tank, taller than a person.
Inside, a black briefcase—somewhat resembling the "Imitation Quinques" he had casually made before—was slowly taking shape under the meticulous work of several mechanical arms.
...
One week later.
"Uh... this... this isn't right, is it?"
"It was supposed to be Pandora... but this..."
Looking at the black case in front of him, which was significantly larger than planned, Luca scratched his head helplessly.
The weapon before him, tentatively named "Pandora," was the main focus of his research over the past few days.
Yes, it was based on Dante's weapon, "Pandora," from the Devil May Cry world.
As a powerful demonic weapon rumored to have 666 forms, Luca had spent a lot of time studying it back in the Devil May Cry dream world.
However, without the creator's guidance, he could only reverse-engineer it from the finished product. Plus, many of the materials involved didn't have suitable substitutes in the Marvel Universe.
So, after returning from Devil May Cry, aside from using similar tech to build some heavily degraded "Knockoff Quinques," he hadn't wasted much energy on it.
After all, he didn't have many "demon materials," which were the primary component for this research.
But after the Battle of New York, research materials were practically unlimited.
Combined with the upcoming dimensional war—where energy weapons were wasteful and projectile weapons were hard to recover—Luca wanted to create a suitable new weapon for his forces.
Of course, a "hand-crafted" high-end item like Pandora wouldn't be standard issue for grunt units.
Brutes and intelligent robots didn't really need weapons like this anyway.
But the demons of Hell varied wildly in power levels.
Creating a few "Experimental Models" for his high-end combatants, and then simplifying the process to make some "Mass Production Models" for the Clone Special Forces, seemed necessary.
Luca even envisioned adjusting the Yuri Barracks' cloning lines to create specialized "Hell Troopers" using recycled demon materials from the battlefield.
But Luca never expected that...
After spending so much effort on "Pandora 1.0," the finished product would...
"Why is it... glowing?"