My Robot Sister

After expertly calling Fatty Liao to ask for leave, Kraft took milk and bread from the refrigerator for breakfast, then hurried to his studio.

Pushing open the studio door, Kraft uncapped the milk and gulped down two mouthfuls, swallowing the bread he'd stuffed into his mouth on the way.

"Phew—nearly choked to death..."

Kraft gently patted his chest with his fist and took two more gulps of milk to calm his nerves.

He tossed the empty milk carton into the trash and began drawing the robot's design blueprints.

Although Kraft could have skipped the blueprints and simply replicated the manufacturing process from his dream memories, doing so wouldn't have helped much in honing his own skills. Since he had enough funds and time, and ample room for trial and error, he naturally chose the method that would better sharpen his abilities.

Kraft didn't intend to alter the initial design blueprints. While some of the designs seemed rather bizarre to him, like the toe USB ports, the head-mounted bread maker, and the oversized wind-up key that the robot couldn't remove itself, he aimed to play it safe during his first attempt at construction and avoid making any changes.

"Hm?"

While drawing the blueprints, Kraft suddenly turned his head and looked behind him with a puzzled expression. He then stopped his work and pulled up the studio's surveillance feed. However, the footage showed no one else in the studio besides himself from beginning to end.

"A hallucination..."

Kraft scratched his head, still glancing warily behind him. While drawing the blueprints, he had a vague feeling of being watched. Kraft's intuition was incredibly sharp; he'd had this peculiar sense since he could remember, and it had saved him multiple times when he was a wanderer. Therefore, he trusted his intuition implicitly.

However, there were occasional instances where his intuition was wrong. Especially when Kraft first discovered how useful his intuition was, he'd become overly anxious at the slightest disturbance, only to realize later it was all in his head. It took Kraft quite some time to adjust. So, after checking the surveillance and finding nothing amiss, he dismissed it.

Resuming his work, Kraft quickly finished the blueprints. He then proactively suppressed the memories related to Dr. Dongyun's robot-making process. This was a maneuver he was very familiar with, and it was related to the nature of his dream memories. All dreams associated with invention and creation, unlike ordinary memories, were like individual files he could access at any time. It was somewhat akin to the so-called Memory Palace, but it only applied to Kraft's dream memories.

After suppressing the relevant memories, Kraft began building the robot according to his own design blueprints.

He stayed in the studio for over a week. Martin Lee had already returned from his business trip, but Kraft was still holed up in his studio.

Dr. Dongyun had finished his robot in less than a day...

Kraft had only suppressed the manufacturing-related memories; he still had impressions of other minor details.

"If only I'd suppressed those too..."

Kraft ran his fingers through his unkempt hair, sighing inwardly.

"Hey! Kraft, did you stay up late again yesterday?"

Martin Lee walked in, holding a bag of steamed buns, and frowned at Kraft's bloodshot eyes.

"No, no."

Kraft frantically waved his hands. His work was nearing completion, and it would be a shame if Martin forced him to stop now.

"I just overused my eyes. If you don't believe me, you can check last night's surveillance. I went to bed before eleven!"

"Is that so? But you promised me you'd be asleep before ten."

Martin said, his face stern, staring at Kraft.

"I just got too engrossed in my work and forgot..."

Kraft leaned closer to Martin, flashing a fawning smile.

"I'll set an alarm for today, and I'll definitely be asleep before ten!"

It'll be finished today anyway, so I'll just get through this for now!

"You said it!"

Martin, unaware of Kraft's little scheme, playfully tapped Kraft's forehead twice with his finger, a smile finally appearing on his face. He then handed over the bag of steamed buns.

"Eat your breakfast."

"Oh! David's steamed buns!"

Just as Kraft reached out to take them, Martin suddenly retracted his hand.

"You haven't washed up yet."

"...Alright..."

Kraft's hands froze mid-air. He then helplessly lowered his arms and shuffled towards the bathroom, looking back over his shoulder.

After finishing the breakfast Martin brought, Kraft stretched his limbs and returned to building the robot. The robot's overall structure was now mostly complete, with only a few details and the final power source connection remaining.

The so-called power source wasn't the massive wind-up key on its back, but a device that converted food into energy. The blueprints placed this device in the robot's abdomen. Simply put, Dr. Dongyun had actually designed a "stomach" for the robot.

Relying on food intake to generate power...

It's so unscientific!

Martin Lee, whose work had become relatively lighter after returning from his business trip, didn't leave immediately. Instead, he watched with great interest as Kraft meticulously assembled the nearly finished robot girl.

The child has grown up...

Looking at the robot girl's cute face, Martin Lee rested his chin on his hand and gave Kraft a meaningful look.

Kraft: ???

"Hey! Martin! Why are you looking at me like that?"

Feeling extremely uncomfortable under his gaze, Kraft couldn't help but protest.

"No, it's nothing..." Martin Lee withdrew his gaze and said to him earnestly, "Although this robot looks very cute, it's not a real human after all."

"Of course I know that! I made it myself!"

Kraft inexplicably rolled his eyes at Martin.

"Oh, okay, maybe I misunderstood..."

Martin smacked his lips. Kraft's reaction made him realize he had probably thought about it the wrong way.

"So cryptic..."

Kraft pursed his lips, not delving into what his adoptive father might have misunderstood. The robot's creation was in its final stages, and he didn't have the headspace to deal with anything else.

After installing the final energy unit into the robot, Kraft closed the hatch on its abdomen, pulled down and smoothed his rolled-up sleeves. Kraft excitedly activated the final switch.

"C-click, click, click..."

As the clockwork mechanism behind her whirred, the robot girl slowly opened her eyes.

"Kraft?"

The robot girl tilted her head and, based on the data in her mind, called out the name of the boy in front of her.

"Hahaha! I succeeded!"

Kraft excitedly hugged Martin beside him and then frantically shook his head up and down.

"That's right! It's me!"

Kraft rushed in front of the robot girl and touched her all over.

"It's actually done, it's incredible!"

"Wait... wait..."

The robot girl shyly covered herself and cried out in a soft voice.

"H-H is bad behavior!"

"H your head!"

Kraft flicked the robot girl on her forehead.

"You're a robot! What's there to H about!"

"Aww!"

The robot girl let out a cute whimper, clutched her forehead, and crouched down, her teary eyes accusingly glaring at Kraft's brutality.

Martin Lee watched his adopted son and the robot he created interact with a blank expression, his mind in utter chaos.

This is a robot?!

The robot Kraft had built far exceeded Martin's expectations. He thought Kraft would at most create a mechanical doll that looked like a person but was essentially a large toy. But seeing the robot girl's rich expressions and the intelligence displayed in her interactions...

If you removed the clockwork on her back, she'd be indistinguishable from a normal human!

After interacting enthusiastically with the robot for a while, Kraft turned to look at Martin Lee, who appeared calm on the surface but was internally a storm.

"Martin, can you help me get some identification for Alice?"

"Alice?"

Martin snapped back to attention and looked at Kraft.

"Yeah, that's the name I gave her."

Kraft pointed to the robot girl he had made and told Martin the well-thought-out setup: "Alice Lee, Chinese name Li Mingnai, your distant niece, my cousin."

There was no need to give Mingnai a Japanese identity; just keeping the name was enough. As for Alice, it was inspired by Alice in Wonderland, having some connection to dreams.

"But she looks older than you."

"It's about seniority, seniority!"

Kraft waved his hand dismissively, annoyed. It was because Mingnai in his dream looked like a high school student, but there was no way he would call her "sister"!

"Alright," Martin smacked his lips. It was all Kraft's creation anyway, so he could call her whatever he wanted. "But..."

Martin pointed to the clockwork on Alice's back.

"With this thing here, won't others also suspect Alice's identity? Can't it be removed?"

"Sure."

Kraft casually pulled the clockwork off Alice's back.

"It's just a decorative item."

"Eh? Eh—!!!"

Alice Lee looked at the clockwork in Kraft's hand with utter shock and posed the soul-question: "Then why did you install it in the first place!"

"Emmmm..."

Kraft pondered for a moment, then responded with Dr. Dongyun's exact words: "Because it's cuter this way?"

As Kraft spoke, he casually reinserted the clockwork.

"Click, click, click..."

The inserted winding key playfully turned a little less than half a circle.

Alice Lee: "That's not cute at all!!!"

Kraft: I suddenly understand why Dr. Dongyun designed the winding key~

Regarding Mingnai's winding key, I'm actually quite conflicted. If I keep it, it's too easy to attract SHIELD. If I don't keep it, I feel like Mingnai loses a lot of her cuteness.

Zhongyuan, that stupid cat, has started fighting with its own hind legs again. It was licking its fur, but then it kicked itself. After a brief struggle, it bit its own bed and kept growling... It probably thinks the bed attacked it