This Isn’t Scientific!

After that unpleasant dance, Kraft’s life finally got back on track. However, because Tony Stark had caused him a string of trouble with just a casual remark, Kraft had already labeled him a "troublemaker." If possible, Kraft no longer wanted anything more to do with him.

Sales of the "Skillful Brand" mechanical locks gradually stabilized after the initial craze died down. Although Tony Stark claimed the locks were more interesting than Rubik’s Cubes, they were still far less widely appealing. Still, the money they had made during this period was enough for Kraft to start trying more complicated inventions.

"…Failed again…"

Looking at the pile of scrap metal before him, Kraft dejectedly put down his tools.

Although he now had sufficient funds, his own knowledge and experience had not kept up. Even when he followed the steps from his dreams exactly, he still made mistakes during stages that required delicate precision.

Even when luck occasionally allowed him to successfully make one or two items, the success rate remained low when he tried to make them a second time.

"Was I really too impatient?"

Kraft sat cross-legged on the floor and began reflecting on the reasons behind his recent failures.

Once he had money, he had gotten carried away and asked Martin to help him set up another private workshop, buying a whole pile of manufacturing tools. But in truth, he was completely unfamiliar with those machines, so making mistakes while operating them was only natural.

"Bit off more than I could chew…"

Kraft could not help thinking of that saying. Once he figured it out, he temporarily set aside those overly complicated inventions and decided to try recreating inventions from his dreams that he could barely understand. Then, step by step, he would gradually improve his skills.

Having found the right approach, Kraft’s success rate finally rose. The progress he gained was also far greater than when he had merely copied things before. This made him even more immersed in his laboratory, where he spent most of his free time.

When Kraft got home, he casually tossed his schoolbag onto the sofa. Just as he was about to head for his little workshop, Martin Lee suddenly rushed out from the inner room.

"Don’t rush off. I need to talk to you."

"You’re actually home?!"

Martin Lee was an extremely busy man. He usually left early and came home late, and often did not return until after Kraft had gone to bed. Kraft had once felt sorry that Martin worked so hard to make money, but after accidentally discovering his nightclub VIP card one day, Kraft had started urging him to find himself a companion.

Of course, Martin Lee had a reason for coming home early.

"I have something to deal with these next few days and need to go out of town. I probably won’t be back for around ten days. I’ve spoken to Uncle Liao, so you can just go eat at his place."

"Okay, got it."

Kraft waved a hand. Martin went on long trips from time to time, and Kraft was already used to it. His friendship with Fatty Liao had also grown stronger through all those meals he had mooched off him.

"There’s one more thing. Aunt May’s birthday is in three days. She wants to invite you to her house for her birthday party."

Naturally, Kraft would not refuse Aunt May’s invitation. But with only three days, it was probably too late to make her a gift, and frankly, the strange inventions from his dreams were not suitable presents for Aunt May anyway.

Fortunately, Kraft was well-off now, so buying a decent gift would not be difficult.

After finishing his instructions, Martin Lee hurried out. Kraft also gave up on continuing his research in the private workshop and instead headed for Fatty Liao’s home.

He planned to give Aunt May a set of kitchenware. Fatty Liao’s family ran a restaurant, so asking him for advice could not go wrong.

After dragging Fatty Liao to a store and picking out a complete set of kitchenware, then packing it in a gift box, the two returned to Fu Man Lou for an authentic Chinese meal. They then stayed at Fatty Liao’s home and played video games for a while. It was not until the sky had completely darkened that Kraft slowly wandered home carrying Aunt May’s gift.

After washing up briefly, Kraft returned to his room and fell straight asleep.

Then, for the first time in a long while, he dreamed of Professor Agasa.

Kraft’s dreams seemed to evolve. At first, they had been fragmented and incomplete. Later, they gradually became whole. At first, he would wake up groggy and unable to remember their contents; then he could remember the entire dream. And now, he could remain conscious in his dreams and freely inspect and use the items that appeared in them.

However, Kraft’s range of movement was limited. He could not get too far away from the dream’s protagonist. Moreover, the items he took from the dreams did not affect their use by the people in them. It was more like a projection had been copied into his hands.

Kraft had long since become intimately familiar with Professor Agasa’s laboratory. Whether it was the various inventions piled off to one side, the stack of scientific magazines and reference materials on the bookshelf, or the small number of detective novels, he had looked through them all during the gaps when Professor Agasa was resting.

So this time, he did not run around everywhere. Instead, he obediently stood beside Professor Agasa and watched what he was tinkering with.

"This is… a recorder?"

Once Kraft saw the object in Professor Agasa’s hands clearly, he was completely relieved. Professor Agasa’s inventions were much more practical than Shou Gong Geng’s, but they also exploded quite often. Although Kraft would not be hurt by an explosion, those sudden blasts were not exactly kind to his poor heart.

Professor Agasa dismantled the recorder’s main components, installed them inside a new and smaller casing, then stuffed it into a… bow tie?

Kraft watched as the plump doctor added an external speaker, controls, and other components to the bow tie in his hands, scratching his head furiously.

"What is Professor Agasa trying to make? Don’t tell me he’s making another detective gadget for that brat called Shinichi?"

Although he had never met the child named Shinichi, Professor Agasa had spoken to him several times while making things, so Kraft roughly knew that such a kid existed. The Anesthetic Watch, Power-Enhancing Shoes, Tracking Glasses, Detective Badge, and other items had all been invented by Professor Agasa for him.

It had to be said that Professor Agasa truly spoiled that brat called Shinichi.

After finishing the bow tie that was probably meant for recording, Professor Agasa switched on the old computer beside him and began typing code.

"Hm? It needs code too? So this thing isn’t just a recording device?"

At first, Kraft had thought Professor Agasa was making something like a voice recorder. But on second thought, that made sense. If it were merely a device for secretly recording audio, then an ordinary recorder would have been enough.

Leaning close to the screen, Kraft examined the strings of code Professor Agasa was typing. He was fairly skilled in programming, so understanding it was not difficult.

Kraft’s programming skills had become particularly outstanding thanks to Fatty Liao, a hopelessly bad teammate who was somehow addicted to gaming. After being dragged down to the brink of death by him during a video game session, Kraft had angrily written a cheating program for Fatty Liao. From then on, whenever Fatty Liao encountered a game he could not beat, he came running to Kraft for help. And his requests only became more ridiculous: cheats that could be adjusted freely because being too powerful ruined the gaming experience, idiot-proof hacks, mods that could easily change a character’s appearance because the characters in some game were too ugly, and so on…

Since Fatty Liao was a friend who had been mooching meals at his house for years, Kraft basically fulfilled all the noob’s requests. That was how his programming skills had been honed.

"Audio input… track analysis… audio adjustment…"

Kraft roughly understood what the program did. Simply put, it was a program that recorded and imitated voices. But…

"What’s the point?"

Kraft continued scratching his head furiously. Professor Agasa’s code was not particularly complicated. The most important audio-track analysis section was not much different from software that compared voices to identify their owners. At best, a voice imitated this way could probably achieve thirty or forty percent similarity.

But then Kraft thought about it again. This was probably just a toy for that kid called Shinichi. Thirty or forty percent resemblance was enough. It was just somewhat underwhelming compared with the previous inventions.

Another useless invention. It could probably only serve as video material.

Kraft thought in disappointment.

Professor Agasa’s inventions were often underwhelming. Thinking carefully, the detective-game props he made for children were actually the most practical. But now, at last, there was a detective gadget that did not seem useful at all…

Just as Kraft was thinking that, Professor Agasa had already installed the completed program into the Bowtie Voice Changer. Then he opened a video on the computer and extracted a recording from it for testing.

"Cough, cough. Hello, my name is Professor Agasa."

Professor Agasa held the bow tie to his mouth and spoke.

Kraft: ?????

What had just happened?

Kraft vigorously dug at his ears and stared at the bow tie in Professor Agasa’s hand in disbelief.

The voice that had just come from the bow tie was not merely thirty or forty percent similar, as Kraft had expected. It was! Exactly! The! Same!

No way!

Kraft’s worldview took a hit.

Unlike inventions beyond the scope of his knowledge, Kraft could understand every single step involved in making this Bowtie Voice Changer. It was precisely because he understood it that he found it unbelievable.

Using Professor Agasa’s method, this voice changer absolutely could not have produced such an effect!

This wasn’t scientific!

Kraft suddenly shot upright in bed. The item had been completed, so the dream naturally ended. Yet even after waking up, Kraft still felt as though he were inside the dream, his face full of confusion.

No, I have to try this myself!

He threw off the covers, quickly changed clothes, and ran toward his private workshop.

Looks like… I successfully signed a contract?

I signed another contract to sell myself…

Keep it up, worker!

A while ago, I bought Zhongyuan a toy. You know, one of those round toys shaped like a multi-tiered cake, with a little ball on the outer track of each layer for the cat to paw at. I have no idea what it’s called.

At first, Zhongyuan played with it normally by batting the balls around. But recently, it liked to stick its head under the disc and charge around with the entire "multi-tiered cake" balanced on top, stopping only after flipping the toy over.

I had originally put the toy in Zhongyuan’s cage because I was afraid it would get bored. But now it kept ramming its water and cat food everywhere with the thing, so I took it out again…