Chapter 22: Jarvis's Proposal

“Master, I have a suggestion...” Jarvis spoke. “Release the exclusivity of the Boxer collaboration—not only cooperate with the military, but also with all other factions to achieve balance. However, the production of every Boxer must be handled by your industrial group.”

“My industrial group?” Jiang Chen was momentarily stunned, but quickly grasped Jarvis's intention.

He would simply produce and sell, leaving the negotiations and competition to the other giants over who buys and how many. By controlling the manufacturing process, Jiang Chen could discreetly install a 'backdoor' in each Boxer sold.

If relations soured with any faction in the future, the control rights for their Boxers could instantly transfer to Jiang Chen.

“In that case, we can’t use the previous large server to host your subroutine. We must develop a computer compact and powerful enough to hide inside the Boxer,” Jiang Chen immediately pinpointed the crucial issue.

“But the Dragon Might IV chip is already the most advanced chip available. Even so, I still need an array of 128 chips to meet my subroutine’s computational requirements. This would make the computer too large to conceal,” Jarvis retorted. “My plan is merely to add a self-destruct module, not to take over operational control.”

“No, I can produce a more advanced, smaller computer,” Jiang Chen declared firmly.

A self-destruct module? The difficulty was indeed lower, but unnecessary.

After all, manufacturing a Boxer was a costly affair—not just financially, but also in terms of scarce materials, with only a limited quota each year, making increased production impossible.

Being able to seize control of other Boxers when necessary was the optimal solution to avoid waste.

It would also maximize the power at Jiang Chen’s disposal.

Of course, achieving this wouldn’t be easy.

Without enough strength, even holding the core technology wouldn’t guarantee keeping the production rights of the Boxer in his own hands.

After all, even production alone involved immense interests.

Based on information Jarvis had gathered from various channels and analyzed against the wealth and resources controlled by powerful humans, retaining the production rights for the Boxer required either vast influence—such as being a senior executive among the Eight Giants or a core member of a powerful family—or having a parliamentary-level powerhouse, that is, a planetary-class expert, as a backer.

Jiang Chen didn’t qualify for the former.

For the latter, he could only hope to break through to planetary-class himself, or possess strength equivalent to it.

“By my estimation, once the system reaches level ten, I should be able to break through to planetary-class. If I’m wrong, I’ll have to redeem a powerful combat specialty to boost my strength…” Jiang Chen opened the system interface, calculating silently, “I’m currently at level seven, so I need three more levels. Based on previous progress, that should take about six months. Hopefully Li Dawei proves reliable and nothing goes wrong in these six months…”

For now, only the military knew about the Boxer's connection to him. Given their previous good cooperation, at least until the Boxer was officially completed, there was no need to worry about problems.

However, the commotion caused by the Boxer hunting monsters in City 003 had been significant—many fighters likely witnessed it, the news couldn’t be contained, and it would attract attention from numerous factions.

Whether those factions could trace it back to him and take action, Jiang Chen could not predict.

But as long as no “Invincible God of War” personally intervened, Jiang Chen wasn’t concerned.

Li Dawei had already promised to send two high-level Gods of War, to join Lu Gang in protecting Jiang Chen’s safety, enough to dispel most overt threats.

More importantly, Jiang Chen had never revealed his true strength to anyone.

With a God of War-level physique and planetary-class spiritual power, even without a true breakthrough to planetary-class, possessing a planetary-class special ability but lacking practical experience would prevent him from fully utilizing his strength.

Ordinary Gods of War would not be his match.

Even if he couldn’t win, escaping wouldn’t be difficult.

Unless an Invincible God of War-level spiritual master or a planetary-class fighter personally made a move.

But for an unfinished Boxer to attract such a powerhouse? The chances were very slim.

If such misfortune did occur, Jiang Chen had a final card: redeeming a powerful combat specialty.

Jiang Chen already possessed planetary-class spiritual power. Though his level hadn’t truly reached planetary-class, combining it with an appropriate combat specialty, he might not crush all enemies, but at least, aside from “Hong” and “Thunder God,” he could ensure his own safety against any human powerhouse on Earth.

As for Hong and Thunder God—

An incomplete Boxer might catch their attention, but it wouldn’t be enough to incite their greed.

As the two strongest humans on Earth, Hong and Thunder God did manage their own factions, but their focus remained on improving their own strength, rather than external objects that offered little benefit. They wouldn’t bother to snatch something from a junior.

Aside from Hong and Thunder God, Jiang Chen was confident he could handle any other human powerhouse currently on Earth.

This was the real reason Jiang Chen dared to expose the existence of the Boxer.

Of course, testing the Boxer's performance, data, and the reliability of the Jarvis subroutine control scheme in actual combat was also a crucial reason.

The sooner these tests were completed, the sooner he could finalize the design and begin planning the production line.

If he waited until the system reached level ten and broke through to planetary-class before doing this, it would waste several more months.

According to the original timeline, within a few years he would encounter the universe.

At this stage, time was precious—any that could be saved should not be wasted.

After a moment of idle thoughts, Jiang Chen activated the “Hyper Focus” specialty, swiftly clearing his mind of random distractions. After issuing a series of network monitoring tasks to Jarvis, he immersed himself in the system library, concentrating fully on absorbing knowledge.

Time passed, and the experience bar representing his upgrade progress gradually advanced, filled up, then reset.

After repeating this three times, at last, the long-awaited notification sounded in Jiang Chen’s ear.