Free America

For the next week, Kraft did not set foot in the laboratory. His dream, perhaps on skill cooldown or perhaps wanting him to rest as well, went silent after cramming all the engineering knowledge into his head.

The week passed quickly, and before he knew it, the weekend had arrived.

"Brother! Hurry up!"

Alice had finished getting ready early and anxiously urged Kraft on from beside the dining table as he dawdled over breakfast.

"What’s the rush? Isn’t there still plenty of time?"

After stuffing the last Chiaotzu into his mouth, Kraft began tidying the tableware at an unhurried pace.

"I looked it up online. There are lots of fun activities before the music festival starts! Some people online even said those are the real heart of the festival!"

Desperate with impatience, Alice swiftly cleared the table, then lifted her foot and shoved Kraft’s thigh with the sole of it.

"Brother, go change already! Leave this to me!"

"Alright, alright…"

Kraft was not particularly interested in music itself. He simply found that cheering loudly and venting with a crowd was a good way to relieve stress. Whenever he went, he usually just joined in for a few cheers before leaving, so he knew next to nothing about the specific schedule of music festivals. Fatty Liao, on the other hand, quite liked arriving early.

After changing clothes in his room, Kraft thought for a moment, then slung on a backpack and put several "self-defense tools" inside. After all, a green monster like Hulk had already appeared. Who knew whether a red or yellow one might pop up someday? Better safe than sorry.

By then, Alice had finished cleaning up and started urging him again. "Brother! Hurry up!"

"I’m coming!"

Kraft walked downstairs with his backpack on, pulling out his phone to contact Fatty Liao.

"David, we’re heading out. Where are you now?"

"Huh? Why are you coming so early this time?"

Fatty Liao, who knew Kraft’s habits well, was already on his way to the music festival. He had not waited for Kraft because he knew Kraft would not arrive this early.

"Because Alice is really interested in the music festival…"

Kraft’s tone was full of helplessness.

Fatty Liao was even more annoyed. "Damn it! I actually overlooked little sister Alice’s existence!"

Well, ever since getting a little more familiar with Alice last weekend, that shameless fatty had started calling her his little sister too.

"I’m already on the way," Fatty Liao replied in the same helpless tone. "Just head over there. We’ll meet at the entrance when you get there."

"OK."

Kraft checked the weather, then dug two solar skateboards out of his prop box.

The venue was not far anyway, so they might as well ride there. As long as they kept their speed under control and did not go overboard, it would be fine.

The mass-produced solar skateboards had long since been sold through Kraft’s Dream Toy Company. They had been quite popular for a while, and various derivative products had been developed from them, such as solar self-balancing scooters and solar wheelchairs.

However, these automatic skateboards were not favored by professional skateboarders. Quite a few people even resisted them, so Kraft’s main customers were instead those who did not really know how to skateboard.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with Kraft. He was not some skateboard kid, and he had already made his money.

"Let’s go."

He handed one of the skateboards to Alice, but she looked a little lost. "I-I don’t know how to skateboard…"

"You don’t need to know how to ride this thing…" Kraft rolled his eyes. "With the balance system inside your body, controlling this skateboard won’t be a problem."

Though he had no idea why someone with a balance system could still trip on flat ground…

Kraft silently added that last line in his heart.

"Oh…"

Alice took the skateboard blankly, then cautiously stepped onto it…

"Ahahaha… Brother! This skateboard is so fun!"

Standing on the skateboard, Alice spread her arms to feel the fierce wind rushing at her and shouted excitedly at Kraft.

"Yeah, yeah… Could you not be so embarrassing? This is our own product, you know. Don’t act like some country bumpkin who’s never seen the world!"

Kraft covered his forehead, utterly exhausted.

The two sped all the way there on their skateboards and soon reached the entrance of the music festival venue. Along the way, Kraft saw plenty of people weaving through the streets on solar skateboards or similar products.

To be honest, he felt a little proud.

"Kraft! Over here!"

Fatty Liao, who had arrived ahead of them, spotted the two and ran over with a loud greeting.

"Damn it! If I’d known, I would’ve ridden a skateboard here with you!"

Kraft had naturally prepared one of the useful solar skateboards for his friend Fatty Liao as well. But given his build, Fatty Liao rarely skateboarded, so it was hard for him to think of using one for transportation. He had only used the skateboard Kraft gave him once when he went home that day, and it had been gathering dust at home ever since.

"Let’s go. I want to see what activities they have before the music festival starts too."

Tucking the skateboard under his arm, Kraft took the tickets from Fatty Liao and headed into the venue.

The pre-festival activities were indeed lively: acrobatic performances, game competitions, model runway shows, and more.

Kraft finally understood why Fatty Liao liked arriving so early.

Thinking that, Kraft turned his head.

Sure enough, Fatty Liao had already taken out his beloved handheld camera and started filming.

The preliminary activities lasted nearly two hours. The memory card in Fatty Liao’s camera was nearly full, and if Kraft had not modified the camera and added solar-powered endurance, its battery would have run dry long ago.

"What a harvest."

Fatty Liao licked his lips, which had begun to crack and peel, and put away the camera. He had not taken a single sip of water while filming, and his state was no different from Kraft’s whenever he shut himself in the laboratory.

Kraft shot him a look of both contempt and admiration, then handed over the bottle of mineral water in his hand.

As the opening activities ended, a group of vendors appeared from who knew where and began bustling about, selling all kinds of food and drinks.

After gouging the audience thoroughly while helping them replenish their nutrition and hydration, the music festival finally officially began.

The opening act was a rock song. Kraft did not recognize a single member of the band onstage, all dressed up like demons and monsters, but judging by the audience’s reaction, they were probably fairly famous. In any case, Kraft was just there for the atmosphere, so he howled along with everyone else for the entire song.

It was exhilarating.

He shouted along to several more songs until he felt completely exhausted, only then stopping his meaningless wailing.

Normally, Kraft would leave at this point. But seeing Alice still enthusiastically cheering for the singers onstage, he did not want to spoil her fun. He simply stayed where he was and listened quietly, occasionally pulling snacks from his bag and stuffing them into his mouth.

And once he stayed, he stayed until nightfall. As the sky darkened and colorful lights lit up all around them, the atmosphere did not fade because of everyone’s exhaustion. Instead, it grew even more heated.

"My previous tickets really were a waste…"

Looking at the scene, which was even livelier than it had been during the day, Kraft smacked his lips and muttered to himself.

The passionate atmosphere continued to rise. Aside from Alice getting so excited at one point that she flung off her own arm and scared a nearby young woman half to death, nothing else went wrong. Kraft managed to brush it off by saying, "It’s a very expensive high-end prosthetic."

As it neared ten o’clock and both Kraft and Alice began yawning, the three of them finally prepared to leave.

However, at that moment, a burst of rapid gunfire came from a distant building.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat…"

Thanks to Night Missing You, Funny Idiot, Naming Is Harder Than Reaching the Sky, and Lonely Nether Sorrow 1 for the tips.

I got a message from my editor today. The results from the featured recommendation were pretty good, so the next recommendation is guaranteed! Thank you all for your tremendous support!

Keep voting, and I’ll keep working hard on writing! My stockpile has already reached Chapter 50! As long as I can resist opening Steam, there definitely won’t be any problems with updates!()