I Think That's Pretty Scientific

Chapter 16: 016: On My Turf, You’ve Got to Do What I Say~

“Give it up—you guys have no future…” Kraft’s words struck Liao the Fat like a bolt from the blue, reverberating in his ears. “Why?!” Liao the Fat Guy was so worked up that spit flew everywhere as he pointed at Kraft’s nose and jumped up and down. “Are you saying that you, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, actually have ulterior motives toward your own sister?!” “What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!” Kraft pushed Liao the Fat’s big head away with a grim expression, just as he was about to explain, when a group of people armed with weapons burst in. “Damn it! Fatso, you really picked the worst possible time to show up!” Using Fat Liao’s body as cover, Kraft quickly activated the switches on his wrist guards, then yanked him behind him. “You unlucky bastard—you walk in and run right into trouble!” “No, no, no—we actually followed this kid in on purpose.” The leader, with his hair slicked back in a pompadour, explained slowly and deliberately, looking as if he had the situation completely under control. These intruders seemed much more sophisticated. Not only were they free of the clutter typical of small-time thugs, but they were also dressed in matching uniforms—all in black suits, clearly the result of watching too many Godfather movies. “So… were those stray dogs and homeless people from a while back your doing?” Shortly after they’d moved into the studio, a stray dog had once barged in and been electrocuted by Kraft’s preliminary defense system. After that, a few more had appeared sporadically, and eventually a homeless man showed up as well. After being knocked out by the studio’s defense system, they were all tossed back onto the street by Alice. He hadn’t paid it much mind at the time, but now that he thought about it, the fact that there hadn’t been any attackers for so long was clearly unusual—it turned out they’d been conducting preliminary tests. Kraft curled the corners of his mouth. These smart guys were much harder to deal with than that bunch of small-time thugs before… Fortunately, I’m on my home turf now. “No wonder Stark took a shine to this young genius,” the man with the slicked-back hair said, clapping his hands lightly. “After all, everyone sent before him failed. It’s always better to be careful.” “Um… Kraft, am I causing you trouble?” Liao the Fat spoke timidly. “Mm,” Kraft gave a soft hum in response, then reassured him, “But it’s no big deal.” “Oh? Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?” The man with the slicked-back hair curled the corners of his mouth, thinking Kraft was just bluffing. “Could it be that so-called ‘kung fu’? But we’re not unarmed football players, you know.” The guy with the slicked-back hair flashed the Beretta M92F in his hand, subtly hinting that he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with Kraft. The group of men in black suits behind him also looked relaxed. And rightly so—with over a dozen armed adults, dealing with three unarmed kids would be a piece of cake, wouldn’t it? “Big brother, what should we do?” Alice scurried over to Kraft’s side and asked in a whisper. Even though Kraft had equipped her with plenty of new gear, she still looked on the verge of tears. So the personality adjustments I made for you earlier were completely useless, then? Kraft looked at Alice, who resembled a startled hamster, with a face full of exasperation. “Don’t worry! I’ll protect you!” Liao the Fat, blinded by lust, ignored the ring of gun-wielding thugs surrounding them and patted his chest as he tried to charm Alice. Alice looked flustered as she glanced from Kraft to Liao the Fat, then gave him a polite yet awkward smile. “Alice, Harlow, get ready for battle!” Kraft dragged Liao the Fat Man back behind Alice and shouted loudly. “The battle begins! A green spherical ornament on Kraft’s desk suddenly unfurled a pair of circular wings and emitted a mechanical, synthesized voice. As Haro’s voice echoed, steel walls rose up all around the studio, trapping everyone inside. Then several openings appeared at the top of the walls, and more than ten machine guns extended from them, all aimed squarely at the group led by the man with the slicked-back hair. “D-Defense mode!” Alice, standing in front of Kraft and Fat Liao, also let out a sharp cry. Her back suddenly opened, and several steel plates and bulletproof glass rapidly assembled into a massive blast shield in front of her, protecting all three of them. After removing that useless wind-up mechanism from Alice, the device on her back used to wind it naturally became obsolete. Kraft dismantled it, freeing up quite a bit of space. It just so happened that he’d learned a lot of rapid-assembly techniques from a bearded man named Rory Swan in a dream, so he put them to use on Alice. In fact, most of the rising steel walls and machine guns were also based on Swan’s technology, though Kraft had handed control over to Harlow, the artificial intelligence. “This… this, this, this…” The situation had changed so quickly that Fat Liao was so stunned he couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. “I told you guys you had no future…” Kraft shrugged at him and said helplessly. “Is this really the time to be talking about that?!” Having regained his ability to speak, Liao the Fat Guy was so agitated that he grabbed Kraft’s shoulders and began shaking him vigorously. “You bastard—you’ve actually mastered such terrifying black technology without saying a word!” Although seeing Fat Liao’s astonished expression gave Kraft a great sense of accomplishment, now was not the time to gloat. He pried Fat Liao’s hands off his shoulders and looked at the man with the slicked-back hair, who was now covered in cold sweat. “So now you know what I’m capable of?” “Heh heh heh… I think there might be a slight misunderstanding between us.” The man with the slicked-back hair quickly holstered his Beretta, pulled out a white handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat beading on his forehead, then roared at his henchmen behind him in Italian: “What the hell are you doing?! Put your weapons away this instant!” “So it’s the Italian Mafia… No wonder they’re acting just like the Corleone family…” Kraft curled his lip. It was a shame they’d shown their true colors the moment they were at a disadvantage—as expected, one couldn’t expect much from this bunch of gangsters. “I’m truly sorry to have disturbed you, but we’re just doing our job. If we’d known Mr. Kraft was this powerful, we never would have gotten involved in this mess.” After wiping the sweat from his brow, the man with the slicked-back hair regained a bit of his former composure. However, given the circumstances, he sincerely and wholeheartedly adopted a submissive stance. “So, who’s really out to get Martin? Why are they targeting him like this?” Kraft asked curiously. Since Martin wouldn’t tell him, he wasn’t going to pry, but that didn’t stop him from finding out from others. “We usually just do the job for the money; we don’t really pay attention to our clients’ affairs…” The man with the slicked-back hair spread his hands in resignation, but he quickly added, “However, I know the person who made the handoff with us—he’s ‘Black Wolf,’ a key operative in the Magia Gang. I’ve heard the Magia Gang’s business has been under heavy attack lately. Maybe it has something to do with your father?” “The Magia Gang?” Kraft paused for a moment, then broke into a bright smile. “Now I know what’s going on. Thanks for clearing that up.” After nodding his thanks to the man with the slicked-back hair, Kraft clapped his hands and gave an order to the little green ball on the table. “Hello, switch to tranquilizer rounds.” “Get the tranquilizer rounds ready! Haro flapped its wings, emitting a series of electronic beeps, while the machine guns on the wall responded in unison with the sound of magazines being changed. The man with the slicked-back hair finally let out a sigh of relief. He straightened his collar and gave Kraft a wry smile. “The Gambino family will remember your friendship.” Then, along with the henchmen behind him, he drifted off to sleep. “Battle over! At Haro’s electronic command, the machine guns on the walls retracted one after another, and the steel walls sank back into the ground. “Big brother, these gangsters are so scary~~~” Alice retracted her blast shield and cried out to Kraft with tears in her eyes. “Weren’t they taken out in an instant?” Kraft rolled his eyes and gave Alice a gentle tap. “But they’re still so scary…” Alice replied, pouting in a pout of grievance, which made Kraft completely give up on the idea of using her as a combat unit. “Boom!” The studio door swung open again, and the same security guard from before charged in, once more accompanied by a group of men in black suits. “Here they go again!” Fat Liao jumped back in fright at first, but quickly regained his composure and patted Kraft on the shoulder. “Hurry up, Kraft! Take care of them!” With that, he deliberately ducked behind Alice. “Didn’t you say you were going to protect Alice?” Kraft shot him a disdainful glance, then explained, “Don’t worry, these are our own people.” The head of security nodded at Kraft, waved to his men, and a group of men in black suits quickly lifted up another group of men in black suits, then left silently without a word. “Wait! Tell Martin for me to come back when he has time.” Kraft called out to the unnamed security guard. Martin had actually gone behind his back to seek revenge with Magia—he couldn’t pretend to be unaware of this anymore. “Kraft! I can’t believe you managed to create something this amazing!” Once the men in black suits had all left, Fat Liao returned to his usual lively self. He picked up the little green ball from the table, turning it over and over in his hands, and kept exclaiming in admiration. “Thanks for the compliment, thanks for the compliment.” Harlow flapped his wings happily and said to Fat Liao. “Hmph… What’s so great about this…” Kraft muttered under his breath. His standards were far higher than Liao Fat’s; Haro, that intelligent robot, was just a trinket. The massive humanoid mechs in his dreams—now that was true romance for a man… Too bad he couldn’t build one right now. “Oh! It can actually move around on its own!” Fat Liao let out another gasp as he watched Haro—now with arms and legs—scampering back and forth across the table. Kraft, his face a mask of exasperation, gave him a light tap on the back of the head. “Are you stupid? I’ve already built a life-sized humanoid robot like Alice—what’s a little thing like Haro compared to that?” “Oh, right! So Alice is actually a robot… I’ve just been dumped again…” After moping for barely two seconds, Liao the Fat suddenly bounded over to Kraft and wrapped his arms tightly around his shoulders. “Kraft! We’re good friends, right?” “Yeah… I guess…” Kraft replied with a hint of hesitation, mainly because Liao the Fat’s gaze was downright creepy. “Please, you absolutely have to make me a cute girl robot too!” Liao Fat’s eyes sparkled with a bright green glow. “Having a robot maid is my biggest wish in life!” “Get lost!”