On May 11, Jin set about remodeling the Hurricane.
The key focus was security.
Up until now, Hope had frequently served as its pilot. Hope had also often been left behind to handle the Hurricane's maintenance, servicing, and guard duties, but Jin wanted to make those security functions entirely self-contained.
That way, whenever they stepped away from the Hurricane, they could bring Hope along with them.
"Still, putting it on full autopilot feels a bit off."
Reinhard walked over just then.
"Jin, I hear you're looking to reinforce the Hurricane's security?"
"Yeah, but I'm still weighing my options on which direction to take."
Hearing that, Reinhard asked, "Is it because it's vulnerable while parked?"
"That's about the size of it."
"I see... Come to think of it, you haven't installed an authentication system yet, have you?"
"Yeah, that's true."
"Then shouldn't that be the first step?"
Jin nodded at Reinhard's suggestion.
"That's definitely on the table. But there's another problem."
"Which is?"
"How should I put it... Would it make sense if I said an unmanned Hurricane makes for too big of a target?"
"Ah, I see what you mean..."
With that analogy, Reinhard grasped exactly what was troubling Jin.
To put it in terms of maintaining an automobile, he wanted to ensure it wouldn't get scratched while parked.
"How about enveloping it in a barrier that only you and designated personnel can dispel?"
"Yeah, I like that." Jin agreed with Reinhard's idea. "Also, I figure there'll be times when we'd want it to hover in the air on standby..."
If the altitude could be adjusted freely, neither humans nor wild beasts would be able to mess with it in the first place, Jin reasoned.
"And maybe add a feature where it flies over whenever it's summoned via bracelet."
Reinhard chuckled, amused by the notion.
"I see! Leave it to you, Jin! That's quite an interesting concept."
However, every single one of those needs could be handled simply by having a dedicated pilot golem onboard.
"Then why not set it up like Laojun and Laozi?"
"That's it!"
Jin slapped his knee in delighted realization at Reinhard's advice.
"This time, let's flip it around and make it so Hope can remotely pilot the Hurricane!"
"Oh, now that sounds exciting!"
With that decided, Jin got to work turning the concept into reality.
The first step was remodeling Hope.
"All right, Hope. As discussed, I'm going to modify you so you can remotely operate the Hurricane."
"Understood."
"Stop."
Jin temporarily deactivated Hope, intending to start by tweaking its internal structure.
"I'll swap the entire skeleton for magi-type materials and upgrade the muscle tissue while I'm at it."
He constructed a foamed-structure skeleton out of adamantite, coating the joint sliding surfaces with hyper adamantite.
However, he set the expansion ratio of the skeleton slightly higher to prioritize weight reduction.
For the muscle tissue, he used a composite of shed Ancient Dragon skin and Hourai Island's standard GST.
"Still, to think that aging GST in a free ether box would boost its performance by fifty percent..."
"Kufu, it took me by surprise, too."
It was Saki who had discovered that the properties of materials refined four hundred years ago and preserved in a free ether box had improved so dramatically.
That discovery had been made just two days prior.
"Older shed skins from an Ancient Dragon would probably boast higher performance too, don't you think?"
Saki mentioned that she planned to look into that moving forward.
The shed Ancient Dragon skin they were using today had been harvested recently, so its properties remained standard.
Even so, pairing it with the aged GST allowed them to tune Hope's reaction speed and power to an impeccable level.
He also upgraded the chest shield case and expanded the magi-circuits to six distinct pathways, further bolstering reliability.
"Now then, as for the control core..."
Leaving the primary core as it was, he added four sub-processors to serve as auxiliary units.
This vastly enhanced its parallel processing capabilities.
In short, it would now be able to go about normal activities while simultaneously operating the Hurricane remotely.
Naturally, he also added dedicated channels to transmit data back and forth with the Hurricane.
"Just to be safe, I'll set up three redundant lines."
Reliability always came first.
Reinhard, who had been quietly watching Jin work up to this point, finally spoke up.
"Jin, I have a suggestion."
"What is it?"
"You'll be attaching the exterior plating next, right? How about using a non-metallic material?"
"Like what?"
"The carapace of a Gigant Peeder, for example."
The Gigant Peeder was a colossal subterranean centipede whose bodily fluids formed a digestive acid capable of melting almost anything.
On top of that, its carapace possessed an extraordinary reflectivity, able to deflect roughly ninety percent of laser beams.
"Good point."
Processing it would be trivial for Jin. Being lighter than metal, it was an excellent proposition.
"The dark color is the only drawback..."
Jin remarked that it seemed more suited for the Black Knight.
"True enough. In that case, why not just use it to reinforce key structural points?"
"That works."
They decided to craft the base exterior from 64 light silver, reinforcing the chest armor, gauntlets, and greaves with Gigant Peeder carapace.
As a result, Hope took on a two-tone aesthetic, blending matte silver-white with metallic silver-black.
"All right. Start."
"Yes, Master."
"Good. Run a diagnostic and check for any defects."
Having reactivated Hope, Jin instructed it to perform a self-check.
"No abnormalities detected."
"Great. We're moving on to remodeling the Hurricane next, so lend me a hand."
"Understood."
Jin proceeded with the Hurricane's overhaul.
Having Hope assist not only allowed them to double-check for minor flaws, but also deepened Hope's own operational understanding of the vessel.
The modifications were entering their final stretch.