Windmill Cars and Fake Sophistication

Tom & Jerry.

Its Chinese title was Cat and Mouse.

An enduring, world-famous cartoon in this world.

Because the cat in it was always having such a miserable time, Quinn was a devoted viewer of the show. Bea, on the other hand, disliked it immensely and often clamored about scratching up the faces of the director and writers.

Even though it often made her laugh while she watched it.

So although Kraft had never had the means to watch it before, and later had no real interest in doing so, he had still watched quite a few episodes with the pets and Alice.

He had seen the episode from his dream before too. He even remembered its name—Progress and Mechanization. There was also another one set in the same universe called Controlling a Mouse’s Life.

The dream mainly showed the creation process of that mechanical cat, which had never been shown in the cartoon.

But that thing meant nothing to Kraft. Not only was it completely impractical, it had gone out of control in both episodes. He would have to be out of his mind to make such a ridiculous contraption.

In fact, Kraft had considered long ago whether the worlds in his dreams were real. Too many fantastical worlds that only existed in fantasy fiction had appeared there, so he had specifically sought out books about parallel worlds, planes, and the Three Thousand Worlds. But in the end, he realized that whether those worlds were real or not did not seem to have much to do with him. What mattered was that he could gain plenty of benefits from them, so he stopped dwelling on it.

Still, this time he had suddenly dreamed of a fantasy world he had encountered in reality, and it had shocked him a little…

All right, more than a little. He was extremely shocked.

But after the shock…

It did not seem like such a big deal. He still ate, slept, and played as usual. His life carried on as always, and Tom the cat did not jump out of the television and into reality because of it.

"Big brother, are you all right?"

That morning, Kraft had unusually not rushed off to the laboratory. Instead, he had gone to the living room to watch Tom & Jerry. Unable to suppress her worry, Alice came over and asked softly.

"Huh? I’m fine." Kraft came back to himself, smiled at Alice, and said, "I just wanted to find some inspiration in the cartoon. Breakfast is ready, right?"

"Mm-hmm. We’re having preserved egg and lean pork congee for breakfast today~"

"That’s wonderful!"

After easily fooling Alice, Kraft did not take last night’s dream too seriously and returned to his usual routine.

Except that Alice occasionally still dragged him to the shelter to work as free labor.

That day, Kraft was tinkering in the laboratory as usual when Angela’s alarm suddenly sounded in his ear.

"A specially monitored target, Benjamin Parker, is in critical condition. Location: near the Wegmans supermarket beside Queen’s Boulevard."

"What happened?!"

Kraft, who had been hammering away inside the miniature base, threw down his work and controlled the SCV toward the airfield.

"Prepare a Banshee fighter jet for me!"

At a time like this, he did not care about exposure or anything else. Saving someone came first. At worst, he would run away with Martin afterward.

While preparing the Banshee fighter jet as instructed, Angela suggested, "According to my calculations, you can also arrive in time using the solar skateboard. I have also formulated a preliminary plan that can reduce the risk of exposure to a minimum."

Then Angela quickly explained her plan.

Kraft hesitated. "Are you sure it’ll work?"

"Even if it fails, it will not be beyond remedy. The result would not differ much from using the Banshee."

Angela analyzed the situation calmly.

Kraft thought about it and found that she was right, so he nodded. "We’ll do it your way."

With that, he quickly ran out of the miniature base.

After leaving the base and returning to his normal size, Kraft took the helmet and backpack handed over by a mechanical arm. Then he stepped onto the solar skateboard Angela had prepared, slammed the accelerator to the floor, and sped toward Queen’s Boulevard.

"I hacked all nearby cameras and recording devices and roughly reconstructed what happened…"

While marking out the best route inside Kraft’s helmet, Angela reported on Uncle Ben’s situation.

"Damn you, Peter Parker!"

After hearing Angela’s report, Kraft could not help swearing. If someone cheated you out of your wages, then knock him down and take them back! What kind of bullshit was it to use a robber to get revenge for you?! Trash with powers was still trash!

Although Kraft did not know exactly what had happened to Peter Parker, Peter’s performance in the underground boxing ring made it easy enough to guess that he had encountered some kind of opportunity and had his physical abilities enhanced. No wonder he had been acting so strangely lately.

But that did not stop Kraft from looking down on him. Under normal circumstances, he would have mocked Peter at most, but Uncle Ben had fallen into danger because of Peter’s uselessness. Kraft wanted nothing more than to stuff him into the Shatter the Cauldrons Treadmill and lock him in there for a month.

Kraft’s solar skateboard could keep up with a car, but it did not need to use the motor lanes. Combined with the fact that Angela’s planned route often took unconventional paths, he quickly reached the vicinity of Queen’s Boulevard.

It was also fortunate that he had been working out lately. Otherwise, given his former physical condition, he might not have been able to follow Angela’s route at all.

"Uncle Ben…"

Peter Parker held Uncle Ben, who had collapsed in a pool of blood, and wept uncontrollably. His heart was filled with regret and hatred for himself. Watching Uncle Ben’s breathing grow weaker and weaker, Peter cried out in desperation.

"Uncle Ben! No! No! The ambulance will be here soon! Uncle Ben, hang on a little longer!"

But Uncle Ben did not regain any strength because of Peter’s cries. The hand resting on Peter’s shoulder slowly slipped down.

"No—!!!"

"Get out of the way, you idiot!!!"

Just as Uncle Ben was about to breathe his last, Kraft’s slightly muffled roar sounded in Peter’s ear. At the same time, the Spider-Sense inside him blared a frantic warning.

Before Peter’s mind could react, his body moved on its own. He abruptly ducked low as a skateboard grazed past his hair overhead, then slammed into the wall of the shop across from him.

At the same time, a figure wearing a safety helmet and carrying a sling backpack landed not far from him. After rolling twice, he swiftly got to his feet and rushed toward Peter Parker.

"Move! Uncle Ben can still be saved!"

Kraft tore off his helmet with one hand and grabbed Peter Parker with the other, trying to pull him aside.

But Peter Parker was no longer the same as before. The little bit of muscle Kraft had built through exercise could not shove him around at all. Fortunately, Peter heard Kraft clearly. Clinging to a shred of hope, he hurriedly moved aside and cleared the space.

Kraft yanked the backpack off his back, then pulled out something that looked somewhat like an electric iron and placed it on Uncle Ben’s chest, where he had already stopped breathing.

Goblin Pacemaker XL.

Not only did it have a higher success rate than the regular Goblin Pacemaker, it was also less likely to explode. Moreover, the one in Kraft’s hand had been optimized with technology from other dreams. Its success rate had increased while its chance of exploding had decreased further, and its explosive power had also been greatly reduced.

Kraft pressed the switch, gripped the Goblin Pacemaker XL, and forcefully pressed down and pulled up.

Blue electrical light flashed, and Benjamin Parker’s heart, which had stopped, began beating again.

"Hah—huff—"

After an involuntary deep breath, Uncle Ben suddenly opened his eyes.

Kraft let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it had worked, or he would have needed to use other methods.

The title was the Sichuan dialect version of "Tom & Jerry." I saw it in Daddy’s Kindergarten.

I also recommend that book, by the way. Although it performed far better than this flop of mine…

No mutual promotion involved. This was purely voluntary—I do not even know that author.

Yesterday, I rewatched Black Panther and realized the movie mentioned at the beginning that Wakanda had not accepted aid… I do not know whether I happened to skip that part while skimming the plot before or simply overlooked it, but I never saw it…

This is fucking awkward…

Quite a lot of later plot was affected by Wakanda, and anyone who had read this far had probably already accepted that setting. Most importantly, I was too lazy to revise it, so I’ll just establish that Wakanda accepted the aid in this book’s timeline…

What a pain…