"Sizzle—sizzle—"
A subtle yet extremely grating scraping sound rang out in the quiet night.
Glass dust fell in a flurry. Mingzhao's movements were without the slightest hesitation or pause; the hardness and shape of the glass had already been modeled and analyzed in his mind.
Half an hour later, two convex lens lenses, each about 5 centimeters in diameter, with rounded edges hand-polished and uneven thickness but still usable, appeared in her hands.
She carefully wiped the lens with a rag and looked at it in the moonlight.
The light penetrated the lens and focused on the ground, creating a small, imperfect plate of light.
It's barely enough!
Mingzhao returned to the pile of materials. She had been working on it for several days, finally managing to extract the usable parts from the lumps of scrap metal.
She began assembling the core.
A small DC motor serves as the power source, and its output shaft is connected to a somewhat rudimentary but precisely balanced double-bladed propeller that she meticulously crafted using scrap iron sheets and thin springs.
Several discarded batteries were simply salvaged using salt washing. They were then carefully connected in parallel to provide longer-lasting power for the drone.
Although the total amount of electricity in these areas is still pitifully small.
For the most crucial element—the eye—she used a broken tin can she found as the camera body, carefully fixing two handmade lenses to the front of the can, using the can's curvature to create a rudimentary lens similar to pinhole imaging.
Then, using a thin copper wire, the back end of the lens was connected to an extremely tiny photosensitive element salvaged from a discarded electronic watch. This was one of the most valuable parts Mingzhao had found.
Finally, Mingzhao used a thinner copper wire to connect the signal output terminal of the photosensitive element to another coil that had been salvaged from an old radio and used as a makeshift signal transmitter.
The drone's overall design is quite ugly and crude. It's pieced together from various scrap metal pieces, resembling a metal beetle that has just crawled out of a junkyard.
However, in Mingzhao's eyes, this was a prototype that inherited primary power, optical imaging, and wireless transmission functions.
"Code name: Night Owl 0.1, I guess."
Born in the darkness, but emmm, it still needs a lot of improvement. We'll wait until Mingzhao finds newer materials before making any changes; for now, let's test the features of Night Owl 0.1.
She took out her treasured grid sketchbook, turned to the latest page, which was covered with densely drawn structural diagrams of the drone, circuit connection diagrams, and corresponding energy calculation formulas.
She picked up a pencil and drew a symbol next to the "Power and Range" section.
Battery power is currently the biggest weakness.
It's also possible that Mingzhao hasn't yet accessed materials with stronger power. This world—no, this country—is unexpectedly impoverished in terms of materials. It has even fewer than the Alliance's junk planets.
Mingzhao took a deep breath and activated Night Owl 0.1.
The motor emitted a buzzing sound much louder than the flapping of a mosquito's wings, and the propeller began to spin, creating a slight airflow that ruffled some of Mingzhao's hair on both sides.
The Night Owl 0.1 wobbled as it lifted off the ground, hovering at a height of half a meter, its fuselage shaking violently as if it were drunk.
The rudimentary camera was pointed at the window of the main room. Mingzhao immediately picked up the metal box that served as a signal receiver, which was also pieced together from broken parts and connected to several antennas, and brought it close to his eyes.
Amidst a piercing electrical noise, extremely blurry and constantly distorted light and shadow appeared.
You can vaguely make out that it looks like a lamp.
Although the imaging results were appalling, the light signal was indeed captured.
Mingzhao's eyes also showed a hint of excitement; the first step had been successful!
She tried to control the direction.
Ming Zhao's fingers moved on the homemade remote control stick, made of springs and copper plates. Her heart leaped into her throat, and her breathing slowed considerably.
However, the power was far too weak!
A gust of night wind blew by, and Owl 0.1 was like a fallen leaf, struggling in the wind for a while before suddenly tilting, its propeller losing balance, and plunging headfirst into the mud.
The motor made two more reluctant "woo-woo-woo..." sounds, and then stopped completely.
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