The Man Behind the Scenes

Even with Fatty Liao throwing a tantrum and rolling on the ground, Kraft didn't agree to his request.

If it were back when Alice was first made, Kraft might have just given in out of impatience.

However, after spending some time with Alice, he could no longer simply view her as a robot. Therefore, Kraft had no intention of agreeing to Fatty Liao's request.

Still, to appease his good friend, Kraft did agree to make him a simplified version of Haro. Aside from the most basic artificial intelligence, Kraft didn't plan on adding too many features to Fatty Liao's Haro; it would mainly be used to help him cheat at games.

Lured by the promise of a gaming Haro, Fatty Liao promptly forgot his life's greatest wish and began fawning over Kraft with a sycophantic grin.

He was quite skilled at this.

After seeing Fatty Liao out, Kraft and Alice continued to stay holed up in the workshop. Then, just a few hours later, a travel-worn Martin Lee appeared.

Martin looked at his adopted son with a complex expression. According to the news from the men he'd stationed, when Kraft was surrounded by the Black Hand, they had planned to find an opportunity to launch a surprise rescue. However, they were blocked by a sudden rise of iron walls and were unable to intervene. By the time Kraft retracted the iron walls, the attackers were already lying on the ground.

Alice's appearance had already surprised Martin Lee greatly, but after his initial shock, he didn't dwell on it too much. No matter how human-like Alice seemed, it didn't mean much to him. In his eyes, Kraft's talent shouldn't be entirely spent on these strange inventions; he should be creating more "practical" items like the arm-strength enhancing bracers.

This was why Martin wanted to let some enemies attack Kraft, to divert his attention to personal weaponry.

The first group of thugs was only meant to raise Kraft's awareness. The second group, the mafia, was the "trial" Martin had prepared for Kraft to teach him a lesson.

He hadn't expected his carefully selected "test subjects" to be so easily dealt with by Kraft.

This was quite an awkward situation.

"Can you tell me how you dealt with those Italians?"

After the father and son stared at each other for a long time, it was the guilty Martin Lee who broke eye contact first. He cleared his throat and asked curiously.

Martin Lee had rushed over as soon as he received the news and hadn't had time to interrogate the mafia members.

"Haro, activate combat mode."

Kraft clapped his hands and commanded.

"Combat mode activated, combat mode activated."

The Haro on the table flapped its wings, and the workshop instantly entered Iron Wall mode again.

Looking at the rows of machine guns extending from the walls, Martin Lee's mouth twitched uncontrollably. While he wanted Kraft to make some self-defense equipment for him, this was just too damn exaggerated!

"Don't worry, Martin, these guns use rubber bullets, stun darts, and tranquilizer darts. No one will get killed."

Seeing Martin's uneasy expression, Kraft patted his arm to comfort him.

Is that what I'm worried about?!

Giving Kraft a somewhat speechless glance for missing the point, Martin pinched the bridge of his nose and explained, "No matter what kind of bullets you're using, if an official organization like the FBI finds out about such large-scale armament, you won't get away with it."

Kraft pouted and retorted, "You're the one provoking the Hell's Kitchen gangs, and you're afraid of being targeted by official organizations?"

Hearing Kraft's resentful words, Martin smiled wryly and rubbed his head. "Isn't your wish to go back? If you get a criminal record here, it won't be so easy to return. So, leave the Magia Gang matter to me."

Kraft pursed his lips and said decisively, "My wish is for us to go back together! If you can't go back, then I won't go either! Don't you dare think about leaving me behind!"

Moved, Martin Lee hugged Kraft and then said with a smile, "Even so, don't think I'll agree to you going after the Magia Gang."

"Why?!"

Kraft was a thousand percent unconvinced.

"Because the Magia Gang isn't that simple." Martin Lee's expression was grave, and he tapped his temple with his index finger. "You might not remember, but I haven't forgotten. The equipment in the Magia Gang's laboratory back then was much more advanced than your little workshop, and on a much larger scale. What do you think that signifies?"

Although Kraft's workshop was just a private operation, with his current funds and technology, the equipment inside was at least above average, if not the absolute cutting edge. Moreover, technology had been advancing at an astonishing rate over the past few decades. For an ordinary criminal organization like the Magia Gang to be using equipment seven years ago that was more advanced than his current workshop, and on such a massive scale, was clearly abnormal.

"They have someone behind them."

Kraft's expression also turned grim. Compared to Martin Lee, he understood the technological sophistication of the equipment in his workshop better.

Even if the Magia Gang was the biggest gang in New York, it wouldn't be easy to possess such a large-scale testing base. Furthermore, with several more powerful gangs above the Magia Gang, Kraft didn't believe there wasn't some involvement from major corporations or official US organizations.

"Did you find out who it is?"

"It's been too long, and with the Magia Gang obstructing me, I couldn't find any clues," Martin Lee shook his head and replied, "So I've started to slowly pull back my people. Once Hammerhead lets his guard down, I'll investigate secretly."

"Hammerhead?"

"The boss of the Magia Gang, Joseph Haro, his nickname is Hammerhead."

"Are you calling me? Are you calling me?"

The little green sphere extended its limbs and hopped in front of Martin and Kraft, waving its hands and asking.

Martin Lee & Kraft Lee: ...

"These little guys you made... they all have quite a personality..."

Martin Lee's mouth twitched, and he shot Kraft a sideways glance.

"Hahaha... Right?"

Kraft chuckled dryly and scratched his head, looking very awkward.

Because of Haro's interruption, the father and son's conversation couldn't continue.

Martin patted Kraft's shoulder and stood up. "The matter of the Magia Gang isn't something that can be resolved quickly, so please leave it to me for now. You're still young; it's not time for you to bear this burden."

Kraft nodded dejectedly. Even though he had full confidence in the inventions from his dreams, he didn't believe he could currently go up against American corporations or even the government.

But sooner or later, I'll be able to create tools that can flatten anything. And even if I don't confront the Magia Gang head-on, I can still use the technology from my dreams to investigate them in secret.

Kraft, with his head lowered, slyly rolled his eyes. He wasn't some obedient good boy. What Kraft Lee promised had nothing to do with Doctor Ingenious.

To gather information, the optimal solution for Kraft was naturally to use his own technology to collect data from the network.

As for Alice, a robot whose cuteness outweighed her practicality, there was no need to even mention her.

Haro, as an auxiliary AI, might seem slow-witted when interacting with people, but on the network, if not all-powerful, at least ordinary security defenses were as good as nothing to it. Even the New York Police Department's databases were places Haro could freely enter and exit.

If you ask how Kraft knew this, it's because he had already sent Haro to take a look around.

On the very first day Haro was created, Kraft tested its capabilities on the network. Firewalls in public institutions like police stations and banks were simply no match for Haro's intrusion; they couldn't even detect it. Even more well-known agencies like the FBI, CIA, and IRS were no match for Haro, though compared to other departments, they could at least detect Haro's intrusion.

While Haro could have brute-forced their defenses, Kraft wasn't that reckless. Upon realizing Haro had been detected, he immediately ordered it to abandon the intrusion and easily escaped pursuit.

In addition to these, there were a few databases with stronger defensive capabilities that Haro failed to breach. Kraft was even almost caught by one of them, but thankfully, Haro's abilities were reliable enough to successfully escape pursuit. However, based on Haro's feedback, the other party also seemed to be an artificial intelligence.

The database capable of counter-tracking was also the only one Kraft could definitively identify as belonging to its owner – the location traced back to Tony Stark's estate in New York.

He had to admit, that playboy, though annoying, possessed truly formidable technology.

After testing Haro's capabilities, Kraft never again had it intrude into anyone else's network. It wasn't out of fear of being caught by Stark's AI, but because the data he needed was in his dreams, making it unnecessary to infiltrate other databases. During the previous tests, Kraft had only had Haro crack firewalls; he hadn't touched any of the data within.

But now, things were different. To gather information on the Magia Gang, Kraft had to let Haro venture onto the network once more.

Of course, Kraft didn't plan to touch those dangerous places for now; he'd start by browsing the New York Police Department's databases.

"Intrusion commencing, intrusion commencing!"

Haro, nestled in its dedicated concave link slot, rapidly browsed the New York Police Department's internal database. On the computer screen beside it, countless characters flew by at breakneck speed.

"Keyword: Magia Gang. Search complete, search complete."

Soon, the data related to the Magia Gang was packaged by Haro and downloaded to Kraft's computer.

"Hammerhead" Joseph Haro...

Hell's Kitchen skirmish...

Demon Gang...

Mr. Negative...

Kraft carefully reviewed the data Haro had downloaded. It contained no information about human experimentation, clearly indicating that it had already been covered up by that unknown faction.

However...

Demon Gang? Mr. Negative?

Kraft scratched his head. Could this be Martin?

His naming ability really was quite poor