I Think That's Pretty Scientific

Chapter 15: 015: You Have No Future

“Is Uncle Martin not coming back again?” Alice set the steaming hot meal on the dining table and asked Kraft, who had just finished a phone call. “Yeah… I guess he thinks you can take good care of me.” Kraft sat down at the table, exasperated, and muttered, “He’s probably been fed up with me being such a burden for a long time now. Who knows, he might even be out having a good time at a nightclub right this very moment!” “Huh? A n-nightclub?” Hearing such a provocative word, Alice’s face quickly flushed red, and her hands began to tremble as she served the food. You’re a robot—what’s there to be shy about! Kraft shot Alice a speechless glance, only to notice the soup bowl teetering precariously in her hand. “The soup’s going to spill!” Reaching out just in time to steady the soup bowl in Alice’s hand, Kraft grimaced as he set it down firmly on the table. “Hot, hot, hot!!!” After setting the bowl down, Kraft yelped and flapped his hands—unlike Alice, he didn’t have a dishcloth to protect him. “You’re a robot—why are you afraid of hot stuff?!” Even though Alice was his own creation, Kraft still couldn’t understand how she worked. “I’m—I’m sorry!” Alice dropped the dishcloth she was holding and rushed to get the first-aid kit. “Sigh…” While applying a cold compress to his hands with the dishcloth Alice had dropped, Kraft sighed helplessly. He was almost used to Alice’s clumsy behavior—though it was a bit of a headache, it really made Kraft feel as if she were his little sister. It was actually quite heartwarming. “Big brother! Here’s the first-aid kit! …Oh no!” Watching Alice take a tumble right out of the blue and land with a “thud” right in front of him—the first-aid kit she was holding spilling all over the floor—Kraft sighed once more. I must have been out of my mind to think that was heartwarming just now. “Waaah…” Alice rubbed her nose and lifted her head, looking at Kraft with teary eyes. “Martin actually thought you’d be able to take care of me…” Sighing for the third time, Kraft yanked Alice to her feet, then helped her gather the scattered contents of the first-aid kit. “Ah-uh…” Feeling in the wrong, Alice let out a whimper and retorted reluctantly. “But without me, there’d be no one to cook for you.” “That’s right, that’s right,” Kraft said with a chuckle, reaching out to ruffle Alice’s hair—only to wince again when his hand brushed against her burn. “Our Alice is the most important person to us.” “Don’t treat me like a kid!” Alice protested, waving her fist in a cute yet fierce gesture. Even though Martin Lee, that irresponsible parent, was never home, Kraft’s life was still full of fun. This made him completely forget Martin’s earlier warning. At first, Kraft had been slightly on guard, checking his surroundings for any strangers, but after more than ten days had passed without a single sign of trouble, he put the whole thing out of his mind. “Bam!” The sudden crash interrupted the “siblings’” roughhousing. Shards of window glass mixed with broken glass scattered across the dining table, turning the untouched meal into a complete mess. Kraft stiffly turned his neck to look at the shattered window in his home. A few rough-looking thugs were climbing in through the window. “Whoa, there’s even a little girl here?” One of them—a guy with a row of lip piercings—scanned the room, then gave Alice a leering grin. “Don’t mess with us!” The burliest of the intruders slapped the guy with the lip piercings on the back of the head and growled under his breath. “Hurry up and finish the boss’s job—we’ll be in trouble once the cops show up!” “What did you guys do to someone else’s dinner, you bastards!” Furious, Kraft turned the dial on his wrist to maximum, then grabbed a medicine bottle nearby and hurled it at the gang of thugs. Hammerhead’s henchmen had just flashed a smirk of contempt when they heard a piercing whistle. The medicine bottle thrown by their target appeared before them in the blink of an eye and slammed into the guy with the lip ring’s nose with tremendous force. Before the man with the lip ring could even let out a scream, he was knocked unconscious by the impact. The tiny medicine bottle, carrying his body, flew out through the gap in the window. “Damn it! The target isn’t an ordinary person!” The burly man in the lead drew a handgun from behind his back, and the other intruders quickly pulled out their own weapons—spring knives, steel pipes, and chains—which were quite fitting for their status as thugs. “If you don’t want to get hurt, you’d better behave… Hmm?” The burly leader raised his pistol at Kraft, just about to deliver a threat, when he saw Kraft holding his left hand out flat, pointing his watch directly at him. Before the burly man had time to wonder what was happening, he felt something pierce his forehead, and then a wave of drowsiness swept over him. “Huh? Uh…” As his eyelids rapidly drooped, the thug lost his grip on the gun, which fell to the ground, and his entire body went limp as if all his strength had been drained. “Alice! Take them out!” Kraft snapped the watch back on and shouted at Alice. “Huh? Alice, who had been completely dazed the whole time, finally snapped out of it at Kraft’s shout and raised both hands, aiming them at the panicking intruders. “Fire… Rocket Fist! Heyya!” With a shriek from Alice, a plume of white smoke shot from her wrists, launching a pair of fists that slammed into the noses of the two thugs—at the same time, revealing the machine gun barrels on her wrists. “Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap—” Thanks to Kraft’s modifications, Alice’s wrist-mounted machine gun no longer fired beans, but rather a series of tranquilizer rounds filled with Dr. Agasa’s special anesthetic. Before long, the thugs, riddled with tranquilizer rounds, were sprawled all over the floor. “Bunch of bastards! They’re completely out of control! Do they really think this is Hell’s Kitchen?!” With his dinner ruined, Kraft kicked the unconscious intruders repeatedly, then pulled his cell phone from his pocket, ready to call the police. “No need to call the police, Master Kraft!” A voice suddenly rang out from outside the window, halting his actions. Kraft looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man of Chinese descent in a black suit who had appeared out of nowhere. Behind him, others dressed identically were dragging the man with the lip ring away. He looks somewhat familiar… Kraft frowned as he sized up the man of Chinese descent who had suddenly appeared. “Hey! Aren’t you the security guard at Martin’s antique shop?” Kraft had met him once before while searching for a suitable crucible to brew a witch’s potion. “You have a good memory, Master Kraft.” The security guard flashed a stiff smile and said, “Just leave the cleanup to us.” As he spoke, he nodded toward the side, and a group of Asian men in black suits filed in one after another, hauling all the intruders out of the room. As they left, they also cleared away the debris inside. “Well, we’ll take our leave for now. Workers will come tomorrow to repair the windows.” The security guard—who hadn’t mentioned his name once—nodded at Kraft, then led the group in black suits away without looking back. Damn it! Martin had set me up! By now, there was nothing Kraft didn’t understand. All that talk about staff shortages was nonsense—Martin just wanted to see what cards Kraft had up his sleeve. Although he was a little annoyed, it wasn’t worth getting angry over. Still, Kraft was curious… What exactly is Martin up to? It doesn’t feel like he’s running a legitimate business. If this were just ordinary business competition, would guns really be necessary? The way that group acted just now didn’t look like corporate thugs—it was more like the style of those gangsters from Hell’s Kitchen. “Big brother?” Alice, having gathered her hands back to her sides, leaned in close to Kraft and gently tapped his sleeve. “Huh?” Kraft, who had been deep in thought, snapped out of it and smiled as he patted Alice on the shoulder. “Good job!” “Hehe~” Praised by Kraft, Alice shyly scratched the back of her head and flashed a goofy smile. The two of them quickly cleaned up the messy dining table and made do with two bowls of instant noodles for dinner. “Let’s go!” Kraft patted his full belly and waved at Alice. “Off to the studio!” Although he’d easily dealt with that group earlier, judging by their behavior, they were clearly more than just “business rivals.” And when Martin decided to get serious, he wouldn’t hold back—who knows if there’d be a second, third, or even fourth attack? So Kraft felt he should be better prepared. And compared to his home, Kraft felt his studio was much safer. “Until this is all settled, we’ll be staying at the studio!” After packing up a bunch of food and daily necessities, Kraft said this to Alice. As for school, Kraft didn’t plan on going for the time being. What if that group of people lost their minds and went to the school to wreak havoc? This was all to protect the innocent—it definitely wasn’t because Kraft wanted to skip school! After moving into the studio, Kraft spent his time either installing defensive measures or sleeping nonstop. Unfortunately, although he dreamed up quite a few amazing gadgets, most of them were useless—either they required mystical powers or special materials. Every now and then, a character similar to da Vinci would pop up to crack jokes, driving Kraft so frustrated he felt like he was going to spit blood. “Kraft! Are you dead yet?!” Just as Kraft was busy crafting self-defense gadgets, Fat Liao suddenly ran over and kicked the studio door open. If Kraft hadn’t already given Liao the Fatso the green light in the surveillance system—automatically disabling the defense system as he approached—he’d already be a dead fatso by now. Seeing that Kraft wasn’t saying a word and was just staring at him with a look of disgust, Liao the Fat Guy instantly got upset. “You bastard! And to think I was so worried about you! What kind of face is that?” Liao the Fat guy lunged forward, grabbed Kraft by the collar, and began shaking him violently. “All right, all right…” Kraft wriggled free from Liao the Fat’s grip, straightened his collar, and said helplessly, “Didn’t I tell you? I’ve got some work to do. Don’t just drop by unless you have a good reason.” “I was just afraid you’d die in the studio and no one would even know!” Liao the Fat guy gave Kraft a light kick in exasperation. Usually, when Kraft holed up in his studio, he’d at least order some takeout or something, but this time there hadn’t been a peep. Liao had even thought something had gone wrong with Kraft’s experiment and that he’d killed himself in the lab. “Don’t worry, David. It’s just that something’s come up with Martin. I was worried it might drag you into it, so that’s why I told you not to come over.” Kraft knew Liao Fat was just looking out for him, so he offered a brief explanation. “Is Uncle Li having trouble with his business?” Since this was something Fat Liao couldn’t help with, he quickly changed the subject. “So how do you usually handle meals? You aren’t just living off instant noodles all the time, are you?” Before Liao the Fat Guy could get a response from Kraft, he saw the door to the inner room of the studio open, and out stepped a cute girl who, from head to toe, perfectly matched his aesthetic standards. “Big brother, dinner’s ready.” “Damn it! When did you get such a cute little sister?!” Liao the Fat Guy grabbed Kraft by the collar again, then quickly let go and gave him a hug instead. “Big Brother-in-Law! Starting today, you’re my very own big brother-in-law!” Kraft sighed. “Just give it up—you two have no future…” Thanks to [Blazing Sun V] for the tip. The story has already made it onto the recommended list today—it’s pretty prominent on the PC version, though I haven’t found where it is on mobile yet… Anyway, everyone, please vote, favorite, and comment! Lately, I’ve been spending so much time writing that I haven’t had much time to spend with Zhongyuan.