It was another cold morning. Schiller had just lit the fireplace when the bleary-eyed Billy came downstairs.
"Morning, Professor. Has the milk arrived?"
"Not yet. It's only seven; we'll have to wait a while." Schiller poked at the firewood with the poker. Only after sparks rose from the hearth did he stand up and walk to the other side of the room, plugging in the robot vacuum and letting it clean the house on its own.
During the war, in order to free up as much labor as possible, Brainiac had tried every means of simplifying the processes necessary to sustain human life. One of those measures was the large-scale promotion of household robots.
This was not actually something Brainiac had invented or produced. Victor and the others had already come up with prototypes before he arrived. The assembly line had been set up and had produced a Batch of Goods. Brainiac optimized the production line, and by now, quite a few people in the world's major cities were already using them.
Schiller had been among the first to try one. Since he could not hire a cleaner during the war and had no time to clean himself, he had applied to Brainiac for one. It had actually worked quite well.
This robot vacuum did more than just sweep floors. It was not one of those flat discs that hugged the ground, but a real robot, about half a person's height. It had cleaning brushes underneath and mechanical arms that could extend from above. Under Brainiac's control, it could clean every corner of the house.
The only problem was that it could only be charged, and it made some noise while cleaning. But as long as he turned it on on a weekday morning, the house would be clean by