You Have No Future

"Isn't Uncle Martin coming back?"

Alice placed the steaming hot dishes on the dining table and asked Kraft, who had just finished a phone call.

"Yeah... he probably thinks you can take care of me."

Kraft sat down at the table grumpily and muttered, "He must have been tired of me being a burden ages ago. He's probably having a blast at a nightclub right now!"

"Huh? A, a nightclub?"

Hearing such a shocking word, Alice's face quickly turned red, and her hands trembled as she carried the dishes.

You're a robot, what's there to be shy about!

Kraft glanced at Alice speechlessly, then saw the wobbly soup bowl in her hand.

"The soup's going to spill!"

He reached out in time to steady the soup bowl in Alice's hand and placed it firmly on the table with a grimace.

"It's hot, hot, hot!!!"

After putting down the soup bowl, Kraft yelped and shook his hands. He didn't have a rag to protect himself like Alice did.

You're a robot, why are you afraid of getting burned!

Even though Kraft had built Alice himself, he still couldn't understand her operational mechanisms.

"I, I'm sorry!"

Alice dropped the rag in her hand and hurried to get the medical kit.

"Sigh..."

Kraft sighed helplessly while applying a cold compress to his hands with the rag Alice had dropped.

He was almost used to Alice's clumsy behavior. Although it was a bit of a headache, it truly gave Kraft a feeling of having a younger sister.

It's actually quite heartwarming.

"Brother! I got the medicine box!... Oops!"

Kraft watched as Alice tripped on flat ground and landed with a "splat" right in front of him, the medicine box she was holding scattering everywhere. Kraft sighed again.

I must have been out of my mind to think it was heartwarming just now.

"Wuwuwu..."

Alice rubbed her nose and looked up at Kraft with teary eyes.

"Martin actually thinks you can take care of me..."

Kraft, sighing for the third time, pulled Alice up and started tidying up the spilled medicine box with her.

"Aww..."

Alice, feeling guilty, let out a mournful cry and retorted reluctantly.

"But if it weren't for me, no one would cook for you."

"That's right, that's right," Kraft said, amused, and reached out to pat Alice's head. Then, he winced again when he touched the burn. "Our Alice is the most important."

"Don't treat me like a child!"

Alice protested fiercely and cutely, waving her fists.

Although Martin Li, the irresponsible parent, was never home, Kraft's life was still full of fun.

This made him completely forget Martin's previous warning.

At first, Kraft had been a little wary of any strangers appearing around him. But after more than ten days passed with no activity, Kraft had put the matter out of his mind.

"Bang!"

A sudden crash interrupted the "siblings'" playful banter. Window shards mixed with broken glass ruined the untouched dinner on the dining table.

Kraft stiffly turned his neck and looked at the damaged window of his house.

A few ruffians were climbing in through it.

"Yo, there's a little lady here?"

One of them, who had a row of lip rings on his lips, looked around the room and then gave Alice a lecherous smile.

"Don't cause trouble!"

The burliest of the intruders slapped the back of the lip-ring guy's head and whispered, "Hurry up and finish the boss's job. It'll be trouble if the police show up!"

"What did you do to our dinner, you bastards!"

Kraft, in a fit of rage, turned the knob on his wrist to the maximum and grabbed a medicine bottle nearby, hurling it at the group of thugs.

Just as Hammerhead's subordinates showed a hint of disdain, they heard a shrill whistling sound. The medicine bottle thrown by the target had already reached them in the blink of an eye, hitting the lip-ring guy squarely on the nose with immense force.

The lip-ring guy, unable to even scream, was knocked unconscious. The small medicine bottle, carrying his body, flew out through the gap in the window again.

"Damn it! The target isn't an ordinary person!"

The burly man leading the group drew a handgun from behind his back, and the other intruders also took out their weapons, like switchblades, steel pipes, and chains, which fit their identities as thugs.

"If you don't want to get hurt, just behave yourself... Huh?"

The burly leader raised his handgun at Kraft, about to deliver some threats, when he saw Kraft holding his left hand flat, aiming his watch at him. Before the man could even question it, he felt something prick his forehead, and an overwhelming wave of drowsiness washed over him.

"Ah? Ugh..."

As his eyelids rapidly drooped, the gun slipped from the leader's grasp and fell to the ground. Then, he collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, his strength completely drained.

"Alice! Finish them off!"

Kraft snapped his watch case shut and shouted at Alice.

"Huh? Huh?"

Alice, who had been bewildered the entire time, finally snapped back to attention at Kraft's reminder. She raised her hands and aimed them at the panicked intruders.

"Rocket Punch! Hiyah!"

With Alice's sharp cry, a puff of white smoke erupted from her wrists, launching her fists forward. As they slammed into the noses of two thugs, they also revealed the Gatling gun barrels on her wrists.

"Da-da-da-da-da-da—"

Modified by Kraft, the Gatling guns on Alice's wrists no longer fired beans, but tranquilizer darts filled with a special anesthetic developed by Professor Agasa.

Soon, the thugs, riddled with tranquilizer darts, lay sprawled on the floor.

"You bastards! This is outrageous! Do you think this is Hell's Kitchen?!"

Kraft, whose dinner had been ruined, kicked the unconscious intruders furiously. Then, he pulled out his phone to call the police.

"No need to call the police, Young Master Kraft!"

A voice from outside the window stopped him. Kraft looked towards the sound and saw a Chinese immigrant in a black suit had appeared out of nowhere. Behind him, people in similar attire were dragging away the man with the lip ring.

He looks a bit familiar...

Kraft frowned as he examined the suddenly appearing Chinese immigrant.

"Hey! Aren't you the security guard from Martin's antique shop?"

Kraft had met him once before when he was looking for a suitable cauldron to make a witch's potion.

"Young Master Kraft has a good memory."

The security guard gave a stiff smile and said to him, "Leave the cleanup to us."

With that, he gestured to the side, and a group of Asians in black suits filed in, carrying out all the intruders from the room. As they left, they also cleaned up the debris inside the house.

"Well then, we'll be taking our leave. Workers will come to repair the window tomorrow."

The security guard, who hadn't revealed his name the entire time, nodded at Kraft and then left with the group of men in black suits without looking back.

Damn it! I've been tricked by Martin!

By now, Kraft understood everything. The talk of insufficient manpower was all nonsense. Martin just wanted to see what trump cards he had.

Although he was a bit annoyed, it wasn't worth getting angry over. Kraft was just a little curious...

What exactly was Martin doing? It didn't seem like he was running a legitimate business.

If this were just ordinary business competition, would there be a need for guns? The way those people acted didn't seem like corporate enforcers; they were more like gangsters from Hell's Kitchen.

"Brother?"

Alice, who had reattached her hands, approached Kraft and cautiously tugged at his sleeve.

"Huh?"

Kraft, lost in thought, snapped back to reality. He smiled and patted Alice's shoulder.

"Good job!"

"Hehe~"

Pleased with Kraft's praise, Alice shyly rubbed the back of her head, a goofy smile on her face.

The two of them tidied up the messy dining table and made two bowls of instant noodles to make up for their ruined dinner.

"Let's go!" Kraft patted his full stomach and waved at Alice. "To the workshop!"

Although they had easily dealt with the intruders, their actions suggested they were more than just "business rivals." And when Martin decided to be ruthless, he wouldn't hold back. Who knew if there would be a second, or even a third or fourth attack? So Kraft felt he needed to make more preparations.

Compared to his residence, Kraft felt his workshop was safer.

"We're staying at the workshop until this is resolved!"

After packing a bunch of food and daily necessities, Kraft told Alice.

As for school, Kraft had no intention of going for the time being. What if those people went crazy and caused trouble at school?

This was all to avoid harming innocent people; it definitely wasn't Kraft trying to play hooky!

After moving into the workshop, Kraft not only installed more defensive measures but also slept constantly. Unfortunately, although he dreamed of many magical items, most of them were unusable, either requiring mystical power or special materials.

Occasionally, characters similar to Da Vinci would appear and act foolishly, making Kraft so frustrated he felt like spitting blood.

"Kraft! Are you dead yet?!"

While Kraft was busy crafting defensive tools for himself, Fatty Liao suddenly ran over and kicked open the workshop door.

If Kraft hadn't already given Fatty Liao's image a green light on the surveillance system and automatically disabled the defenses when he arrived, he would have been a dead fatty by now.

Seeing Kraft remain silent and just stare at him with a disgusted expression, Fatty Liao immediately became unhappy.

"You bastard! I was so worried about you! What's with that look?"

Fatty Liao rushed forward, grabbed Kraft by the collar, and shook him violently.

"Alright, alright..." Kraft broke free from Fatty Liao's grip, straightened his collar, and said helplessly, "Didn't I tell you I had some things to take care of? Don't come over so casually if you don't have to."

"I was afraid you'd die in your workshop and no one would know!"

Fatty Liao kicked Kraft lightly, clearly annoyed. Usually, when Kraft was holed up in his workshop, he'd at least order takeout from their place or something. This time, there was absolutely no activity. He thought Kraft's experiment had gone wrong, and he'd killed himself in the lab.

"Don't worry, David. It's just something on Uncle Martin's end. I was worried it might involve you, that's why I told you not to come over."

Kraft knew Fatty Liao meant well, so he could only offer a brief explanation.

"Is Uncle Li's business in trouble?" Fatty Liao couldn't help with that kind of thing, so he quickly changed the subject. "Then what do you usually eat? Don't tell me you've been eating instant noodles or something?"

Before Fatty Liao could get a response from Kraft, he saw the door to the inner room of the workshop open, and a cute girl who perfectly matched his aesthetic standards walked out.

"Brother, it's time to eat."

"Damn it! When did you get such a cute sister, you punk!"

Fatty Liao grabbed Kraft by the collar again, then quickly let go, and instead gave him a hug.

"Brother-in-law! From today on, you're my real brother-in-law!"

Kraft sighed.

"Give up. You two have no future..."