Chapter 42: A Newcomer Appears

Kage issued the order to disperse, and Jimmy initiated a U-turn in his patrol car, preparing to leave the intersection and return to his patrol zone. As he was turning, he noticed someone by the side of the road who looked familiar.

The man was a middle-aged figure, roughly 6 feet 3 inches tall (approximately 190 centimeters), sporting a full beard. He wore a military-green jacket, jeans, and sneakers, with a cylindrical backpack slung over his shoulders. As he walked along the sidewalk, he appeared to have an injury to his right leg, giving him a slight limp.

Jimmy glanced at him, but since the man seemed unremarkable, he drove on. A moment later, it struck him who the man resembled: Thor from the Marvel movies. In the early films, Thor was clean-shaven, but in the later ones, he sported a full, thick beard, not to mention his disheveled long hair and a paunch—an impression that had stuck with Jimmy.

It was another familiar face from his past, though he couldn't quite recall the man’s name. Still, the person he had just seen couldn't possibly be Thor. In the movies, when Thor was banished to Earth, it happened in a desert-like landscape, either in New Mexico or Texas, and Arkansas had no such environment.

The question was, had Thor ever worked with Bruce Willis? Jimmy couldn't recall such a thing. What kind of movie world was this, anyway? Perhaps it wasn't a single film universe, but an amalgamation of many. He just hoped it wouldn't turn out to be one filled with demons and monsters; he certainly wasn't equipped to handle gods or devils.

However, as long as it wasn't Thor, it proved this wasn't the Marvel Universe. If it wasn't Marvel, there shouldn't be a purple titan snapping his fingers, so the situation should be manageable.

Jimmy stopped dwelling on the stranger's identity. He couldn't exactly turn the car around just to check his ID; police officers couldn't stop pedestrians for identification without cause. If he did that, he would be hit with a complaint in a heartbeat, and he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of it.

At least knowing he was in a movie world made things easier. Most film worlds had protagonists and a main plot; as long as he stayed away from the center of that plot, he should theoretically be safe. If he did get dragged into the main story, he would just have to shoot his way through. With his "golden finger"—his enhanced marksmanship—he should be fine as long as he didn't act too recklessly.

Jimmy killed time until his shift ended, returned his patrol gear to the station, and drove home.

Lately, Jimmy had been brainstorming ways to make some extra money. Although the two worlds were different, the civilian technological gap between them at the current time—the year 2000—wasn't significant. If he could come up with some minor inventions, file a few patents, and sell some products, he wouldn't necessarily become filthy rich, but he could at least ensure he lived comfortably.

He had considered many directions, focusing on things he was familiar with from his previous life. For instance, the lack of civilian surveillance systems in this world was something he loathed during his daily patrols. If there were cameras, it would save him more than half the time spent processing cases. Often, he had to deal with suspects dodging questions and visit numerous households to gather information. If surveillance were available, he could simply review the footage or collect it from multiple homes, making it much easier to verify facts or secure evidence.

However, surveillance required infrastructure beyond his individual capacity to build. That was a pass.

The same went for mobile phones. While he knew about the future of smartphones and the technology inside them, the necessary components didn't seem to exist yet, making even assembly impossible.

As for the firefighting and specialized equipment he was most familiar with, that was out of the question. Those required large, professional factories; a small workshop wouldn't cut it, and he wasn't a genius inventor.

As a police officer, the most accessible and feasible target was the police light bar—an inconspicuous item, but one with massive demand.

By the time he had served in his past life, police lights had all been replaced by LED strobe bars. In the United States at this time, however, there were only two types.

The first was the old-fashioned halogen light, which used a curved reflector and a rotating base to create a flashing effect. These were the large, cylindrical bars mounted on the roof, which were bulky, poor at heat dissipation, and not very bright. There were also single-beacon versions mounted in the center of the roof that used the same mechanical rotation.

The second type was the pulse xenon light. It required high voltage, had a short lifespan, and generated a lot of heat. While bright enough, its failure rate was much higher than the traditional halogen lights.

Jimmy’s idea was to jump straight to the next generation: using LED technology to create a sleek light bar. There were no LED light bars on the market yet. While LEDs had their own pros and cons, they could be controlled by microcontrollers for complex designs. A long LED light bar would require no mechanical rotation, and the failure rate would be acceptable.

The only issue was that current LED brightness wasn't quite sufficient, which meant he would need to add reflectors alongside the LED strips to boost output. As for heat, heat sinks and thermal paste should solve the problem.

He had run through this plan in his mind countless times, considering every angle. The only hurdle now was acquiring the materials to build a prototype.

There were many types of police lights: roof bars, strobe lights for front windshields and side mirrors, single-beacon roof lights, intersection warning lights, and specialized colored lights for vehicles like ambulances or municipal maintenance trucks. Once he solved the design for one, he could expand into many varieties. Once the patents were secured, he could simply sit back and collect licensing fees.

Arkansas was a traditional agricultural state with few technology companies. Jimmy consulted with a law firm that worked with the police department and then hired a lawyer to help him incorporate a tech company, which he named Atlas Tech.

In the U.S., police officers were allowed to own their own businesses. This differed from his home country, where civil servants were prohibited from engaging in business. In the U.S., being a police officer was just a job, and there were no strict restrictions on outside work. In fact, many officers had their own ventures, such as running local motels, bars, or grocery stores.

There were certain industries barred to police, such as consulting or therapy services, because those fields might involve sensitive or criminal matters that would conflict with their professional duties. Since Jimmy’s invention was a product, and while it was related to his work, it didn't involve any sensitive or confidential police protocols, so it was perfectly acceptable.