The instant Chen Yan pressed the start button, he seemed to hear the faint crack of his own bones shifting out of place.
The institute's lights were cold and glaring in the dead of night. The words "Skyshaker System Starting" flashed on the screen until his eyes ached.
He instinctively touched the breast pocket of his shirt. Inside was the sweet rice cake he had bought for his daughter that morning, still warm enough to make his heart race.
Outside the window, Rock City still glimmered with scattered lights. The sweet rice cake vendor at the alley entrance had packed up and was wobbling past on his tricycle.
The sound of car engines on the street was shredded into fragments by the wind.
"Engineer Chen, it's time to start." Little Wang's voice came from behind him.
Chen Yan did not turn around. He merely nodded.
The war robot named Skyshaker opened its scarlet electronic eyes for the first time.
He knew that, from this moment onward, the fate of the entire city rested on the steel behemoth that was still venting heat.
For the first few months, life felt soaked in honey.
The Skyshaker Project progressed steadily, and people easily repelled the weekly monster raids.
The day the Skyshaker robot stood up and took three steps for the first time, the entire city crammed into the plaza outside the institute.
Little Wang raised a wrench and shouted himself hoarse. The sweet rice cake vendor stood on tiptoe to peer inside, unaware that powdered sugar was falling all over the ground.
Chen Yan was squeezed so hard by the crowd that he could barely stand. Then someone suddenly shoved a hot sweet rice cake into his hand. It was Old Zhang's widow.
She said, "Brother Chen, once this hunk of iron