"So, can you tell me now why you insisted on defective Armed Puppets?"
"Ahem, that's because... turn off the recording," Chen Luo said halfway through, turning to Vill-V.
"Oh."
"Turn off the other one too."
"Oh."
"...Do I have to take your hat off for you?"
"Tch." Vill-V curled her lips, took off her hat, then pressed a button on the back of it.
"..." Einstein watched expressionlessly.
Well, perhaps she had misunderstood. Chen Luo and Vill-V might not have joined forces to trick her. When those two got ruthless, they even tricked their own side.
"The reason I chose defective Armed Puppets is that since they became defective for one reason or another, the underlying commands given to them must not have been preserved intact. That leaves room to work with."
"The truly complete Armed Puppets made by you would definitely have all sorts of commands entered into them, and their ownership would still belong to you. But there would be no such concern with puppets restored from defective units, because after I repaired them, their highest authority holder would become me."
"Fixing the defective products among the Armed Puppets you made and turning them into mine—how is that not a kind of NTR?" Chen Luo said as he sank deeper into the sofa.
"...I regret this. Can I back out?" Einstein turned to look at the suited man beside her.
"I'm afraid not, uh, Doctor Einstein, could you reconsider? Once this transaction is completed, the research funding your institute can obtain will naturally increase substantially." The suited man kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with a tissue.
If only Chen Luo had given even a slightly more serious reason, things would not have become this unserious.
"Besides... complete Armed Puppets would naturally be incorporated into a