The One Behind It All

No matter how much Fatty Liao threw a tantrum, Kraft refused to agree to his request.

If this had been back when he had first created Alice, Kraft might have agreed out of impatience.

But after spending this time with Alice, he could no longer simply regard her as a robot. There was no way Kraft would agree to Fatty Liao's request.

Still, to placate his friend, Kraft agreed to make him a simplified version of Harold. Aside from the most basic artificial intelligence, he did not intend to add many functions to Fatty Liao's Harold. It would mainly be used to help him cheat at games.

Lured in by the prospect of a gaming Harold, Fatty Liao decisively forgot the greatest wish of his life and began shamelessly flattering Kraft.

He was quite skilled at that line of work.

After seeing Fatty Liao off, Kraft and Alice continued holed up in the workshop. A few hours later, a travel-worn Martin Lee appeared there.

Martin looked at his adopted son with a complicated expression. According to the reports from the men he had arranged earlier, once Kraft had been surrounded by the Black Hand, they had intended to find an opportunity to launch a surprise rescue. However, they had been blocked outside by the suddenly rising walls of bronze and iron. By the time Kraft withdrew them, the attackers were already sprawled all over the ground.

Alice's appearance had already greatly surprised Martin Lee, but after the initial shock, he had not paid it much attention. No matter how human Alice seemed, she did not mean much to him. In his eyes, Kraft's talent should not be wasted on these strange inventions. He should be creating more practical tools like the Arm Strength Enhancement Bracer.

That was why Martin had wanted to send some enemies after Kraft, hoping to shift his focus toward personal weaponry.

The first batch of thugs had only been meant to make Kraft more vigilant. The second batch, the Mafia, had been the "trial" Martin had carefully prepared to teach him a lesson.

He had never expected the carefully selected "test subjects" to be dealt with so effortlessly by Kraft.

This was awkward.

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

The father and son stared at each other for a long while. In the end, the guilty Martin Lee was the first to look away. He cleared his throat and asked curiously.

After receiving the news, Martin Lee had rushed over in a hurry and had not had time to interrogate the Mafiosi.

"Harold, activate combat mode."

Kraft clapped his hands and gave the order.

"Combat mode activated. Combat mode activated."

Harold flapped its wings on the table, and the workshop instantly entered bronze-wall-and-iron-bulwark mode again.

As he watched rows upon rows of machine guns extend from the walls, Martin Lee's mouth kept twitching. He had wanted Kraft to make some self-defense equipment, but this was way too fucking excessive!

"Relax, Martin. These guns use rubber bullets, electric rounds, and tranquilizer darts. Nobody's going to die."

Seeing that Martin did not look too good, Kraft patted his arm reassuringly.

Is that what I'm worried about?!

Martin shot Kraft, who had completely missed the point, a speechless glance. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he explained, "No matter what kind of ammunition you're using, if an official organization like the FBI finds out about weaponry on this scale, you won't be getting off easy."

Kraft curled his lip and retorted, "You went and provoked the gangs of Hell's Kitchen yourself. Why are you afraid of attracting the attention of official organizations?"

Hearing the resentment in Kraft's voice, Martin smiled bitterly and rubbed his head. "Don't you want to go back? If you end up with a criminal record here, going back won't be so easy. So leave the Maggia matter to me."

Kraft pressed his lips together and said firmly, "My wish is for us to go back together! If you can't go back, then neither will I! Don't even think about leaving me behind!"

Touched, Martin Lee hugged Kraft, then said with a smile, "Even so, don't expect me to agree to you going after the Maggia."

"Why?!"

Kraft was utterly unconvinced.

"Because the Maggia isn't that simple." Martin Lee's expression turned grave as he tapped his temple with his index finger. "You may not remember, but I haven't forgotten. The equipment in that Maggia laboratory back then was far more advanced than the stuff in this little workshop of yours, and it was on a much larger scale too. What do you think that means?"

Although Kraft's workshop was only a private operation, with his current funds and technology, its equipment was at least above average, if not cutting-edge. And technological advancement had been changing with each passing day over the past few decades. For an ordinary criminal organization like the Maggia to possess equipment seven years ago that was more advanced than his workshop's, and on such a huge scale, was clearly abnormal.

"There are other people behind them."

Kraft's face darkened as well. Compared to Martin Lee, he had a better understanding of the technical sophistication of the equipment in his workshop.

Even if the Maggia was New York's largest gang, building a large-scale experimental base would not have been easy. Not to mention that several gangs more powerful than the Maggia existed above them. Kraft did not believe that no major corporation or American government organization had gotten involved.

"Have you found out who it is?"

"Too much time has passed, and the Maggia has been obstructing me. I haven't found any leads." Martin Lee shook his head. "So I've begun gradually pulling my people back. Once Hammerhead lets down his guard, I'll investigate in secret again."

"Hammerhead?"

"The head of the Maggia, Joseph Harold. His nickname is Hammerhead."

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

The little green ball stretched out its arms and legs, then hopped over to Martin and Kraft, waving as it asked.

Martin Lee & Kraft Lee: ...

"The little things you make... certainly have personality..."

Martin Lee's mouth twitched as he shot Kraft a sidelong glance.

"Hahaha... right?"

Kraft scratched his head with an awkward dry laugh.

Thanks to Harold's interruption, the father and son could not continue their conversation.

Martin patted Kraft on the shoulder and stood up. "The Maggia matter isn't something that can be resolved overnight, so leave it to me for now. You're still too young. This isn't something you should be carrying yet."

Kraft nodded gloomily. Even though he had complete confidence in the inventions from his dreams, he did not think he could currently stand against American corporations, much less the government.

But one day, I'll be able to create tools that can steamroll everything. And even if I don't confront the Maggia head-on, I can still use the technology from my dreams to investigate them in secret.

With his head lowered, Kraft's eyes darted around mischievously. He was no obedient little boy. What did something Kraft Lee had agreed to have to do with Clever Hands Doctor?

For gathering intelligence, the best option for Kraft was naturally to use his own technology to collect information from the internet.

Not that Alice, a robot whose cuteness outweighed her practicality, counted.

Harold was an auxiliary artificial intelligence. It might have seemed slow-witted when communicating with people, but online, while it could not quite rule the world with one hand, ordinary security systems might as well have been nonexistent to it. Even the New York Police Department's database was open territory for Harold.

If you were wondering how Kraft knew that, it was because he had already sent Harold in for a stroll.

On the very first day after creating Harold, Kraft had tested its capabilities online. Firewalls in public institutions like police departments and banks could not stop its intrusion at all, and they could not even detect it. Even famous agencies like the FBI, CIA, and IRS were no match for Harold, though unlike the other departments, they could detect its intrusion.

Harold could have broken through their defenses by force, but Kraft was not reckless. Once he learned Harold had been detected, he decisively had it abandon the intrusion and easily shake off their pursuit.

There were also several databases with even stronger defenses that Harold had failed to breach. Kraft had nearly had his trail caught by one of them. Fortunately, Harold was reliable enough to ultimately shake off the pursuit. According to Harold's feedback, though, the other side appeared to be an artificial intelligence as well.

And that database capable of tracking them in return was also the only one whose owner Kraft could identify—its location was Tony Stark's estate in New York.

It had to be said that although that playboy was annoying, his technology was genuinely impressive.

After testing Harold's capabilities, Kraft never again had it invade anyone else's network. It was not because he feared being caught by Stark's artificial intelligence, but because all the information he needed was in his dreams. There had been no need to invade other people's databases. During the earlier tests, Kraft had only had Harold crack the firewalls and had not touched any of the data inside.

But things were different now. In order to gather information on the Maggia, Kraft had no choice but to send Harold online for another round.

Of course, Kraft had no plans to touch those dangerous places for the time being. He would start by taking a look around the New York Police Department.

"Intrusion commencing. Intrusion commencing!"

Harold sat in a concave connection slot made especially for it, rapidly browsing the NYPD's internal database. On the computer screen beside it, countless characters raced across the display.

"Keyword: Maggia. Search complete. Search complete."

Very quickly, Harold bundled up all the information related to the Maggia and downloaded it onto Kraft's computer.

"Hammerhead," Joseph Harold...

Gunfight in Hell's Kitchen...

Demon Gang...

Mr. Negative...

Kraft carefully reviewed the files Harold had downloaded. There was nothing related to human experimentation among them, clearly because it had long since been covered up by that unknown force.

But...

Demon Gang? Mr. Negative?

Kraft scratched his head. Could that be Martin?

His naming sense really is terrible...