I, Robot

Ever since dreaming of Master Craftsman Ovosbak, Kraft had begun studying the Gnome Engineering he had seen in his dreams. Setting aside the later gadgets that required magical materials, even the entry-level Mechanical Squirrel alone had delighted him.

Bolts, copper ingots, malachite.

Under that miraculous engineering, these simple materials became a Mechanical Squirrel that could nimbly run alongside its owner without needing any additional energy source. It was practically rubbing the Law of Conservation of Energy face-first into the ground.

But his dreams had never been scientific to begin with, so this did not give Kraft much reason to celebrate. The important thing was that the Mechanical Squirrel could be replicated!

Although a Mechanical Squirrel made by Alice would once again be bound by the Law of Conservation of Energy and would not actively follow its owner, it would not be difficult to install a power source such as a battery pack or clockwork mechanism. The little squirrel would remain just as lively, and with a voice-control or light-sensing system, selling it as an upscale toy would be easy.

It might not improve his combat power, but it could increase his income, giving Kraft more money to research other inventions. After all, scientific research was extremely expensive. Another way to make money naturally made Kraft happy, especially since there were several mechanical pets with different designs to come. Once he thoroughly understood the technology involved, he could design even more styles himself.

Kraft did not know whether his dreams had evolved or whether he had simply been unusually lucky lately, but after he began researching engineering, he repeatedly dreamed of engineering-related figures from the world called Azeroth. Some of them were not Master Craftsmen, merely ordinary Apprentice Craftsmen.

But Kraft was even more satisfied with that, because these apprentices guided him through the fundamentals of engineering in detail, speeding up his overall learning progress considerably.

Kraft had also dreamed of figures who followed the Goblin Engineering path. Without the gnomes’ biased influence, he gained a more comprehensive understanding of Goblin Engineering as well. Aside from its relatively outdated weapons technology, there were quite a few things in Goblin Engineering worth learning.

For example, the Goblin Pacemaker…

Originally, Kraft had thought that aside from those advanced items he did not know whether he could make, engineering would at most help him mass-produce small mechanical pets to raise funds. But he quickly discovered that the truly amazing part of these dreams was not the advanced engineering creations, but the miraculous basic principle that allowed someone to knead a copper ingot into a bronze tube with bare hands.

Kraft had no idea how it worked, but when he saw a gnome apprentice craftsman knead a copper ingot into a bronze tube by hand in a dream, he could reproduce that method in reality. And it was not limited to bronze tubes. He could do it with other metals as well, knead high explosives out of stone, polish gems into lenses without using any tools, and so on…

After only a few dreams, Kraft had mastered these utterly unscientific methods.

"How the fuck is this science?"

Setting the steel tube he had just kneaded aside, Kraft looked at his still soft, pale hands and suddenly began doubting the definition of the word science.

"Big bro, that was fucking awesome—!!!"

Quinn, who had watched Kraft’s entire process from the side, shouted until his voice cracked.

"Teach me! Big bro, teach me!"

The second dog shamelessly shoved his stupid face in front of Kraft and kept pestering him.

"Forget it. Your dog paws can’t learn it!"

Kraft came back to his senses and shoved Quinn’s idiotic face away.

Quinn silently lowered his head and looked at his dog paws, then leaned his head over again, the tail behind him wagging frantically.

"Then, big bro, give me human hands!"

"Sure…" Kraft rolled his eyes, then gave Quinn a sinister smile. "But first, we’ll have to chop off your dog paws."

"RUA!"

Quinn abruptly leaped backward, tucked his tail, and darted under the table.

"Chop off my paws? Forget it, forget it!"

"Stupid dog…"

Bea, who was lying atop the computer case to keep warm, yawned and muttered contemptuously.

After mastering the core technique of hand-forming materials, Kraft’s progress in engineering began accelerating wildly. Before long, he had reached the stage that required special materials.

Mithril.

Kraft had often seen this name in dreams of other fantasy worlds. The term even existed on Earth, though unfortunately only in fantasy works.

Kraft specifically looked up Earth’s descriptions of mithril: it had the malleability of bronze, the smoothness of glass, the hardness of iron, yet was as light as a feather. It bore silver’s luster and would never tarnish.

There were also additional descriptions, such as magical affinity.

In the several fantasy worlds Kraft had dreamed of, mithril’s properties were largely the same as those descriptions. Though Kraft found that a little strange, he did not dwell on it.

There were already too many strange things in his dreams. If he had to investigate every single one to the bottom of it, how was he supposed to live his life?

Setting aside the fantasy concepts related to magic, mithril’s properties themselves were not complicated: hardness, lightness, and high malleability. Earth might not have such a natural mineral, but producing similar alloys as substitutes was not difficult. Besides, Kraft’s dreams even contained alloy formulas with properties that were even more unscientific.

After repeatedly observing how the craftsmen in his dreams used mithril, Kraft determined that most engineering creations did not require mithril’s magical affinity. Or even if they lacked it, their performance would merely be reduced rather than rendering them unusable.

That made things easy. Kraft spent some time making every alloy he knew that had properties close to mithril’s. Then, after looking over the engineering blueprints, he decided to use Gnome Rocket Boots for testing, to see which alloy came closest to mithril from Azeroth.

He happened to have a few pairs of Power-Enhancing Shoes left over from before, but they were still not enough. Kraft called one of Martin’s shoe stores and had them send over more than a dozen pairs.

That Azeroth technology that could make equipment without large machinery, relying only on hammers, wrenches, and bare hands, was just too overpowered. Kraft made more than a dozen pairs of Gnome Rocket Boots in less than two days.

But… he needed to carefully consider who would test them…

Kraft stared at the row of rocket boots before him and fell into deep thought.

Not only did Gnome Engineering have these things, but the Goblin branch had similar designs as well. Rarely, both branches gave the same warning.

The gnomes were relatively tactful. Their warning was: the energy and propulsion systems might not always function properly.

The goblins, meanwhile, were much more direct: they might suddenly explode, so use them carefully.

This was not a dream, where being blown up only meant waking up. If he got caught in an explosion here, with his flesh-and-blood body, he might be spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Though there was plenty of prosthetic technology in his dreams…

But who the fuck would use a knockoff when they had the original? Even if the knockoff was stronger than the original, the original would still feel more comfortable to use!

Even Quinn, that stupid dog, could understand something like this. Kraft naturally had no intention of courting death himself.

So after thinking it over again and again, Kraft brought in Alice.

"Huh? Huh?!"

Upon hearing Kraft’s cold-blooded and merciless request, Alice burst into tears on the spot.

"No, brother! I’m scared!"

Alice clung tightly to Kraft’s leg and refused to let go.

"You’re a robot. What the hell are you afraid of?"

Kraft kicked at the leg she was hugging, but could not shake her off, so he could only patiently reason with Alice.

"As long as you turn off your pain system, it won’t hurt even if they explode. If anything gets damaged, I’ll just replace it with new parts. Problem solved, right?"

"But what if my brain gets damaged?"

Alice still looked on the verge of tears.

"These boots aren’t powerful enough for that…" Seeing Alice’s pitiful expression, Kraft softened a little. He stroked her head and gently comforted her. "And I can back up your memories onto the computer. Even if the chips inside are accidentally damaged, I can restore your memories."

"But… but… would the Alice restored that way really still be me?"

"…"

Kraft froze. Though he occasionally had the illusion that Alice was an ordinary human and had developed some feelings for her, deep down and rationally, he had never truly regarded her as a living being.

No matter how human she acted, Kraft had always believed it was closer to behavioral logic produced by programming, rather than genuine self-awareness or a soul.

"If you don’t like it, then forget it."

Kraft pressed his lips together and helped Alice up from the floor.

"Brother, are you angry? Actually, actually, I’m only a little scared. If I work up the courage, it’ll be fine."

As Alice spoke, she reached for the rocket boots on the table, only for Kraft to slap her hand away.

"I’m not angry. There are just some things I haven’t figured out yet. As for testing, I’ll just make another remote-controlled robot. It’ll only take a little more time."

Kraft rubbed his stomach and changed the subject.

"I’m a little hungry. Can you make me some snacks?"

"Leave it to me."

Hearing that she would not have to do the testing herself, Alice immediately cheered up. She rolled up her sleeves, flashed a radiant smile, and headed toward the kitchen beside the workshop.

"Well done, Kraft."

Bea jumped from the computer case into Kraft’s arms, rubbed her head against his chest, and praised him.

Quinn tilted his head. ???

Kraft scratched Bea beneath the chin without saying anything.

He had seen plenty of robot-related science fiction—novels, television shows, films, and games—and discussions about robots had never ceased. One view in particular was fairly popular.

When a robot developed self-awareness, could it be considered a living being?

Kraft used to treat that question as mere entertainment, but now…

"So I really do have another little sister now…"

Kraft scratched his head and sighed helplessly, though a faint smile appeared on his face.

Thanks to Yongshi Linghua, Yanjing Kaiyun, Naming Is Harder Than Reaching the Heavens, yahchenz, Mosha Kuang, Reader 20200109171140685—who donated four times in a row; I had to compare them for ages before confirming they were the same person—and Reader 150911191302038 for their donations.

Actually, Alice is a comedic character, and I did not want to write anything this complicated for her. But I felt the protagonist needed a shift in mindset; otherwise, the emotional foundation between him and Alice would be too weak. After all, he only created her to test dream content. Kraft is not the kind of horny guy who will sleep with anything as long as it is pretty, so I set up this small plot point.

Also, in WoW, Gnome Rocket Boots do not explode. Only the goblin version does. But Kraft did not dream about that content; he learned it directly from books, so he does not know.

As for the hand-forming-metal setting, it is mainly to give the protagonist a rapid-production buff. Those unscientific creations can only be made by the protagonist personally. It does not matter much early on, but later his production capacity would be insufficient.

Starting tomorrow, there will be two updates a day. Just thinking about it makes my heart race, leaves me short of breath, and drains all my strength…

Maybe I should just forget it…

Although I have already written more than forty chapters in reserve, revising them and readjusting them into 3,000-word chapters would not be too much trouble. ()

Finally, please give me a like, comment, and favorite. This salted-fish baby needs enough recommendation votes to evolve into a ruthless writing machine… (:зゝ∠)