I, A Robot

Ever since dreaming of Master Craftsman Owersbach, Kraft had begun delving into Gnome Engineering, as seen in his dreams. Setting aside the parts requiring magical materials for later, even just the introductory Mechanical Squirrel had filled Kraft with joy.

Bolts, copper ingots, malachite.

Under the magic of engineering, these simple materials transformed into a Mechanical Squirrel that could nimbly scurry around following him, requiring no additional energy. This was practically forcing the Law of Conservation of Energy to submit.

However, his dreams had always been unscientific, so such a situation didn't bring Kraft much happiness. The key point was that this Mechanical Squirrel could be replicated!

Although Mechanical Squirrels made by Alice would be governed by the Law of Conservation of Energy again and wouldn't actively follow their owner, it wasn't difficult to add a battery pack or a spring mechanism for power. The little squirrel would still be as agile. If he could also design a voice-activated or light-sensitive system, it wouldn't be difficult to market them as advanced toys.

While they couldn't enhance his combat power, they could increase his income. This would give Kraft more money to research other inventions, as scientific research was quite costly. Having another way to get rich would naturally make Kraft happy. Moreover, there were several other Mechanical Pet designs to come. Once Kraft had mastered the technology, he could even design more models himself.

He wondered if his dreams had evolved, or if his recent luck had truly been good. As he began to study engineering, he had several more dreams about figures related to engineering in that world called Azeroth. Among them, a few weren't Master Craftsmen, but ordinary Apprentice Craftsmen.

But Kraft was even more satisfied with this, as these apprentices guided him through the fundamentals of engineering, significantly speeding up his entire learning process.

Additionally, Kraft had also dreamed of characters following the Goblin Engineering path. Without the biased guidance of the gnomes, Kraft gained a more comprehensive understanding of Goblin Engineering. Apart from their rather backward weapon technology, there were many aspects of Goblin Engineering worth Kraft's study.

Take the Goblin Pacemaker, for example...

Initially, Kraft believed that the help engineering brought him, aside from the advanced items he might or might not be able to create, would likely be the mass production of small mechanical pets to help him raise funds. But soon, he discovered that the truly remarkable aspect of these dreams wasn't the advanced engineering creations, but the miraculous fundamental setting that allowed one to shape copper ingots into bronze pipes with bare hands.

Kraft didn't know the specific principle, but when he saw a gnome apprentice shape copper ingots into bronze pipes with his hands in the dream, he found he could replicate this method in the real world. And it wasn't just bronze pipes; other metals worked too. He could also shape gunpowder from rocks, polish gems into lenses without any tools...

Kraft mastered these unscientific methods after just a few dreams.

"This is still considered science?"

Setting aside the steel pipe he had just shaped with his hands, Kraft looked at his still fair and tender hands, suddenly doubting the definition of science.

"Big Brother is awesome—!!!"

Quinn, who had watched Kraft's operation from the side, shouted until his voice cracked.

"Teach me! Big Brother, teach me!"

The mutt, with a silly grin on his face, crowded in front of Kraft, incessantly bothering him.

"Forget it, your dog paws can't learn it!"

Kraft snapped back to reality and pushed Quinn's silly face away.

Quinn silently lowered his head, looked at his dog paws, then poked his head forward again, his tail wagging furiously.

"Then Big Brother, can you make me human hands!"

"Sure..." Kraft rolled his eyes, then gave Quinn a sinister smile. "But first, I'll have to chop off your dog paws."

"RUA!"

Quinn leaped back violently, tucked his tail, and quickly darted under the table.

"Chopping off paws? I don't want it, I don't want it!"

"Stupid dog..."

Bea, who was napping on top of the computer case for warmth, yawned and cursed contemptuously.

After mastering the core technique of shaping materials with his hands, Kraft's progress in engineering began to accelerate at an incredible pace. Soon, he reached the stage requiring some special materials.

Mithril.

Kraft had seen this name frequently in dreams of other fantasy worlds, and even on Earth, the term existed, unfortunately only in various fantasy works.

Kraft specifically looked up the settings for Mithril on Earth: it had the ductility of bronze, the smoothness of glass, the hardness of iron, yet was as light as a feather, possessed the luster of silver, and never tarnished.

There were also some supplementary settings, such as magical affinity.

In the fantasy worlds Kraft had dreamed of, Mithril's properties were largely similar to these settings. Although Kraft found it a bit strange, he didn't dwell on it.

There were too many strange things in his dreams; if he had to investigate every single one, how would he live his life?

Excluding the magical fantasy settings, Mithril's properties themselves weren't complicated: hardness, lightness, and high ductility. While Earth didn't have such natural mineral deposits, creating similar alloys as substitutes wasn't difficult, let alone in Kraft's dreams where there were alloy recipes with even more unscientific properties.

After repeatedly watching how the craftsmen in his dreams used Mithril, Kraft could confirm that most engineering creations didn't require Mithril's magical affinity, or even if they lacked magical affinity, it only reduced performance and didn't prevent usage.

So, this was manageable. Kraft spent some time creating all the alloys he knew of that approached Mithril's properties. Then, he looked at the engineering blueprints and decided to use the Gnome Rocket Boots for testing, to see which alloy's effect was closest to Azeroth's Mithril.

Conveniently, he still had a few pairs of Power-Enhancing Shoes left from before, but it wasn't enough. Kraft called the shoe store under Martin's name and had them deliver over a dozen more pairs.

The technology from the continent of Azeroth, which could shape equipment using only hammers, wrenches, and hands, without the aid of large machinery, was too overpowered. Kraft finished shaping all the Gnome Rocket Boots in less than two days.

However... the test subjects needed careful consideration...

Kraft fell into thought, looking at the row of rocket boots before him.

This item wasn't only present in Gnome Engineering but also had similar designs in the Goblin branch. Both branches had rare warnings about it.

The gnomes were more subtle, warning that: "The energy system and transmission system are not always operating normally."

The goblins, on the other hand, were very direct: "They may suddenly explode, so please use with caution."

This wasn't a dream anymore; being blown up in a dream only meant waking up. But if he were to be blown up here, Kraft, with his mortal body, might end up spending his future days in a wheelchair. Although there were many prosthetic limb technologies in his dreams...

But who would use a pirated version when they had the original! Even if the pirated version was more powerful than the original, the original was always more satisfying to use!

Even that stupid dog Quinn understood this, so Kraft certainly wouldn't actively seek death.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Kraft called for Alice.

"Huh? Huh?!"

Upon hearing Kraft's cold and ruthless request, Alice burst into tears on the spot.

"No, Brother! I'm scared!"

Alice clung tightly to Kraft's leg, refusing to let go.

"What are you afraid of, you're a robot!"

Kraft kicked his leg, which was being held, but couldn't shake her off. He could only patiently try to reason with Alice.

"If you just turn off your pain system, even if you explode, you won't feel anything. If parts get damaged, I can just replace them with new ones, right?"

"But what if my brain gets blown up?"

Alice still looked teary-eyed.

"The power of these shoes isn't that extreme..." Seeing Alice's pitiful expression, Kraft's heart softened a little. He stroked Alice's head and gently comforted her, "Besides, I can back up your memories to the computer. Even if the chips inside get damaged, your memories can be restored."

"But... but... if I'm restored like that, will I still really be me?"

"..."

Kraft was stunned. Although he occasionally had the illusion that Alice was a normal human and had developed some feelings for her, deep down and rationally, he had never treated her as a living being.

No matter how human-like she acted, in Kraft's perception, it was closer to behavior logic caused by programs rather than genuine self-awareness or a soul.

"If you don't like it, then forget it."

Kraft pursed his lips and helped Alice up from the ground.

"Are you angry, Brother? Actually, actually, I'm just a little scared. I can overcome it."

As Alice spoke, she reached for the rocket boots on the table, only to have Kraft slap her hand away.

"I'm not angry, I just have something I haven't figured out. If it's an experiment, I can just make another remote-controlled robot. It'll just take more time."

Kraft rubbed his stomach, changing the subject.

"I'm a bit hungry. Can you make me some snacks?"

"Leave it to me."

Hearing that she didn't have to participate in the experiment, Alice immediately became happy. She rolled up her sleeves, revealing a bright smile, and then walked towards the kitchen next to the workshop.

"Well done, Kraft."

Bea jumped from a nearby computer case into Kraft's arms and rubbed her head against his chest, praising him.

Quinn tilted its head: ???

Kraft scratched Bea's chin, remaining silent.

He had read many science fiction works related to robots, including novels, TV shows, movies, and games. Discussions about robots had never stopped, and one particular viewpoint was quite popular.

When a robot develops self-awareness, can it be considered a life form?

Kraft used to just find this viewpoint amusing, but now...

"Now I really have an extra sister..."

Kraft scratched his head and sighed helplessly, a faint smile appearing on his face.

Thanks to Yong Shi Ling Hua, Yan Jing Kai Yun, Naming is Harder Than Reaching the Heavens, yahchenz, Mo Sha Kuang, and Book Friend 20200109171140685 (this person tipped 4 times consecutively, and it took me quite a while to confirm it was the same person) and Book Friend 150911191302038 for your tips.

Actually, I didn't want to write such complex content for a comedic character like Alice. It's just that I felt the protagonist needed a process of mental transformation. Otherwise, the emotional foundation between him and Alice would be too weak, especially since she was created solely to test dream content. Kraft's character isn't the type of pervert who would do anything just because someone is pretty, so I set up this small plot.

Also, in WOW, Gnome Rocket Boots don't explode; only the Goblin version does. However, Kraft didn't dream about this, he learned it directly from books, so he's unaware of it.

The setting of hand-crafting metal is mainly to give the protagonist a quick crafting buff. Only the protagonist can personally make these unscientific creations. It's fine in the early stages, but in the later stages, production capacity will become insufficient.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be updating twice a day. Just thinking about it makes me panicked, short of breath, and weak all over...

Maybe I should just forget it...

Although I have over 40 chapters in my drafts, it won't be too much trouble to revise them and adjust them back to 3,000 characters per chapter. ()

Finally, please give me a one-click three-連 (like, comment, share). This lazy little fish needs enough recommendation tickets to evolve into a ruthless code-writing machine... (:зゝ∠)