You Have No Future

"Is Uncle Martin not coming back again?"

Alice set the steaming dishes on the dining table and asked Kraft, who had just finished a phone call.

"Yeah… Maybe he thinks you can take good care of me."

Kraft sat down at the table irritably and muttered, "He must’ve gotten sick of having a burden like me around long ago. For all we know, he’s living it up at some nightclub right now!"

"Huh? A-a nightclub?"

At the mention of such a stimulating word, Alice’s face immediately turned bright red, and even the hand holding the dish began to tremble.

You’re a robot. What are you so embarrassed about?

Kraft shot Alice a speechless glance, then noticed the soup bowl in her hands wobbling precariously.

"The soup’s going to spill!"

Kraft quickly reached out to steady the bowl in Alice’s hands, gritting his teeth as he carefully set it down on the table.

"Hot, hot, hot!!!"

After setting down the soup bowl, Kraft howled and shook his hands wildly. Unlike Alice, he had not used a rag as insulation.

You’re a robot. Why are you afraid of heat?!

Even though Alice had been made by him, Kraft still could not understand how she worked.

"I-I’m sorry!"

Alice threw down the rag and hurried off to fetch the first-aid kit.

"Sigh…"

As he used the rag Alice had dropped to cool his hands, Kraft sighed helplessly.

He was almost used to Alice being so careless. It was a little headache-inducing, but it really did make Kraft feel like he had a younger sister.

It was actually kind of heartwarming.

"Brother! The first-aid kit is here!… Ouch!"

Kraft watched helplessly as Alice tripped over nothing and went splat right in front of him. The first-aid kit she had been carrying spilled all over the floor, and Kraft sighed again.

I must have been out of my mind to think that was heartwarming.

"Waaah…"

Alice rubbed her nose, lifted her head, and looked at Kraft with teary eyes.

"Martin actually thought you could take care of me…"

For the third time, Kraft sighed, hauled Alice to her feet, and helped her gather the scattered medical supplies.

"Ahh…"

Feeling guilty, Alice let out a mournful whimper before protesting unwillingly.

"But without me, no one would cook for you."

"That’s right, that’s right." Kraft chuckled and reached out to pat Alice on the head. Then he touched his burn and immediately grimaced again. "Our Alice is the most important."

"Don’t treat me like a child!"

Alice protested, waving her fists in an adorably fierce manner.

Although Martin Lee, that irresponsible guardian, was never home, Kraft’s life was still full of fun.

It made him completely forget Martin’s earlier warning.

At first, Kraft had kept a wary eye out for strangers lurking around him. But more than ten days passed without the slightest incident, and he eventually put the matter out of his mind.

Bang!

The sudden crash interrupted the "siblings"’ playfight. Shards of window glass scattered across the dining table, ruining the untouched meal.

Kraft stiffly turned his neck and looked toward the broken window of his home.

Several thuggish-looking punks were climbing in through it.

"Well, well, there’s even a little girl here?"

One of them, a man with a row of lip rings, looked around the room before turning to Alice with a lecherous grin.

"Don’t cause trouble!"

The burliest of the intruders slapped the lip-ringed man on the back of the head and rebuked him in a low voice.

"Finish the boss’s job quickly. It’ll be troublesome if the cops show up!"

"What the hell did you do to someone else’s dinner?!"

Furious, Kraft turned the dial on his wrist to maximum, grabbed a medicine bottle from nearby, and hurled it at the punks.

Hammerhead’s men had only just begun to sneer when they heard a shrill whistle. The medicine bottle thrown by their target reached them in the blink of an eye and slammed into the lip-ringed man’s nose with tremendous force.

The lip-ringed man did not even have time to scream before he was knocked unconscious. The tiny medicine bottle sent his body flying back out through the hole in the window.

"Damn it! The target isn’t an ordinary person!"

The burly leader drew a pistol from behind his back. The other intruders also pulled out weapons—switchblades, steel pipes, chains, and the like. It suited their identities as street punks perfectly.

"If you don’t want to get hurt, then behave yourselves… Hm?"

The burly leader raised his pistol at Kraft and was about to spit out a few threats when he saw Kraft holding his left hand flat, with his watch aimed directly at him. Before he could wonder what was going on, something pricked his forehead, and a crushing wave of drowsiness swept over him.

"Huh? Ugh…"

As his eyelids rapidly drooped, the leader could no longer hold onto his gun. It fell to the floor, and his whole body crumpled down as though all his strength had been drained away.

"Alice! Take them out!"

Kraft snapped his watch shut and shouted at Alice.

"Huh? Huh?"

Alice, who had been completely dumbfounded from beginning to end, finally came back to her senses at Kraft’s reminder and raised both hands at the panicked intruders.

"R-Rocket Fist! Hya!"

With Alice’s cute shout, white smoke burst from her wrists, launching both fists forward. As they smashed into two punks’ noses, the concealed gun barrels in her wrists were exposed.

Ratatatatata—

Thanks to Kraft’s modifications, Alice’s wrist-mounted guns no longer fired beans. They fired tranquilizer darts loaded with Professor Agasa’s specially made anesthetic.

Before long, the punks lay sprawled across the floor, covered in tranquilizer darts.

"You bastards! You’ve got some nerve! Do you think this is Hell’s Kitchen?!"

With dinner ruined, Kraft viciously kicked the drugged intruders a few times before pulling out his phone to call the police.

"There’s no need to call the police, Young Master Kraft!"

A voice suddenly came from outside the window, stopping him. Kraft looked toward it and saw a Chinese man in a black suit who had appeared there at some point. Behind him, several people dressed identically were dragging away the lip-ringed man.

He looks kind of familiar…

Kraft frowned as he examined the Chinese man who had suddenly appeared.

"Eh! Aren’t you the security guard at Martin’s antique shop?"

Kraft had met him once while looking for a suitable cauldron to make witch potions.

"You have a good memory, Young Master Kraft."

The security guard gave a stiff smile before telling him, "Leave the cleanup to us."

As he spoke, he tilted his head to one side. A group of Asians in black suits filed into the room, carried out all the intruders, and even cleaned up the broken glass on their way out.

"Then we’ll be taking our leave. Workers will come tomorrow to repair the window."

The security guard, who had never mentioned his name, nodded to Kraft before leaving with the black-suited group without looking back.

Damn it! Martin set me up!

By now, Kraft understood everything. The excuse about being short-handed was complete bullshit. Martin had simply wanted to see what cards Kraft had up his sleeve.

It annoyed him a little, but not enough to make him angry. He was just curious…

What exactly was Martin doing? It did not seem like he was running any respectable business.

If it were only ordinary business competition, was there any need for guns? The way those people had operated did not resemble corporate muscle at all. It was more like the gangs in Hell’s Kitchen.

"Brother?"

After retrieving and reattaching her hands, Alice stepped up to Kraft and cautiously touched his sleeve.

"Hm?"

Kraft snapped out of his thoughts and smiled as he patted Alice on the shoulder.

"You did well!"

"Hehe~"

Praised by Kraft, Alice shyly scratched the back of her head and gave him a silly grin.

The two of them briefly cleaned up the wrecked dining table, then made two bowls of instant noodles to get dinner over with.

"Let’s go!" Kraft patted his full stomach and waved at Alice. "We’re going to the workshop!"

Although they had dealt with those people easily enough, their behavior showed that they were more than mere "business rivals." And when Martin decided to be ruthless, he would not go easy on Kraft. Who knew whether there would be a second attack, or even a third or fourth? Kraft felt that he should make more preparations.

Compared to his home, Kraft thought his workshop was much safer.

"Until this is settled, we’re living in the workshop!"

After packing a pile of food and daily necessities, Kraft told Alice exactly that.

As for school, Kraft did not plan to attend for the time being either. What if those lunatics went to the school and caused trouble?

This was all to avoid dragging innocent people into it. It was absolutely not because Kraft wanted to skip school!

After moving into the workshop, Kraft spent his time either adding defenses to it or sleeping constantly. Unfortunately, although he dreamed of quite a few wondrous gadgets, most of them were useless. They either required mysterious powers or special materials.

Every now and then, some character similar to Da Vinci would pop up in his dreams to make a joke, leaving Kraft so frustrated he wanted to cough up blood.

"Kraft! Are you dead or not?!"

Just as Kraft was busy making self-defense tools, Fatty Liao suddenly came over and kicked open the workshop door.

If Kraft had not already granted Fatty Liao’s image clearance in the surveillance system and automatically disabled the defenses when he approached, he would have been a dead fatty by now.

When he saw that Kraft did not say anything and merely looked at him with disgust, Fatty Liao immediately got upset.

"You bastard! I was so worried about you! What kind of expression is that?"

Fatty Liao rushed forward, grabbed Kraft by the collar, and shook him hard.

"Alright, alright…" Kraft broke free from Fatty Liao’s grip, straightened his collar, and said helplessly, "Didn’t I tell you? I’ve got something to deal with. Don’t come over so casually if there’s nothing important."

"I was afraid you’d die in your workshop without anyone knowing!"

Fatty Liao gave Kraft a light, irritated kick. Usually, when Kraft holed up in the workshop, he would at least order takeout to his house. This time, however, there had been no sign of him at all. Fatty Liao had thought something went wrong with Kraft’s experiments and that he had gotten himself killed in the lab.

"Don’t worry, David. It’s just that something happened on Martin’s side. I was worried you’d get dragged into it, so I told you not to come over."

Kraft knew Fatty Liao meant well, so he could only give a simple explanation.

"Something went wrong with Uncle Lee’s business?" Fatty Liao could not help with that, so he quickly changed the subject. "Then what have you been eating? Don’t tell me you’ve just been living on instant noodles or something?"

Before Fatty Liao could get an answer from Kraft, the inner door of the workshop opened. A cute girl who matched his tastes from head to toe walked out.

"Brother, dinner’s ready."

"Damn it! When did you get such an adorable little sister?!"

Fatty Liao grabbed Kraft by the collar again, then quickly let go and hugged him instead.

"Brother-in-law! From today onward, you’re my real brother-in-law!"

Kraft sighed.

"Give it up. You two have no future…"

Thanks to Blazing Sun V for the tip.

The story has started getting recommended today. It’s pretty noticeable on the PC version, but I couldn’t find where it was on mobile…

Anyway, please vote, bookmark, and comment! I’ve had less time to spend with Zhongyuan lately because I’ve been writing.