Kraft Lee, male, approximately fourteen years old.
Seven years ago, he had been kidnapped by the Maggia from somewhere unknown. The Maggia had conducted multiple human experiments on him and a large group of others who had been captured alongside him. After one particular experiment, Kraft began dreaming constantly. Every dream involved unfamiliar people, and even other creatures, making various inventions.
At first, those dreams had not only been fragmented and chaotic, but also endless. As a result, Kraft had spent a long period in a daze. With such an enormous amount of information being poured into his young mind, he had even come down with a high fever.
Then, while he was half-awake and half-asleep, some unknown incident had apparently occurred within the Maggia. The captured people found an opportunity to escape from the Maggia's experimental base. During one of his rare lucid moments, he had tightly clung to someone with the same yellow skin as him, and was luckily brought out with him.
The person he had clung to was now Kraft's adoptive father, Martin Lee.
Perhaps it had been because of the experiments, or perhaps there had simply been too much information crammed into his dreams, but when Kraft finally emerged from his muddled state, his memories from before the Maggia had taken him were gone. He could not even remember his own name, since as an experimental subject in the Maggia, he had only possessed a simple numerical designation.
So Kraft took Martin's surname and named himself Kraft, based on the contents of his dreams. In truth, the first name that had entered his mind was Lovecraft, but for some reason, he always felt there was something wrong with that name. In the end, he dropped the "Love" from the front.
When Martin Lee and Kraft had first escaped the Maggia, neither of them had even possessed identification. Although a fake driver's license could fool most inquiries in America, their Asian identities always drew extra trouble. In the end, they fled to Chinatown in New York and gradually found their footing with the help of other Chinese immigrants.
After they had found their footing, it was as though someone had been helping them behind the scenes. Their lives suddenly improved. Martin Lee had even been personally awarded the Medal of Freedom by the president, giving both him and Kraft legitimate identities.
Even so, Kraft still did not have the slightest favorable impression of white or black people, nor did he particularly care about being an American citizen. His greatest wish was to save enough money to return across the ocean one day.
So when Martin Lee spent a large sum buying the clothing store where he had once worked and converted it into the FEAST homeless shelter, Kraft had gotten into a huge argument with him.
But as Kraft gradually grew older, his extreme personality improved somewhat. Especially after meeting several kind-hearted white and black people, he still found it difficult to feel goodwill toward people of other skin colors, but at least he no longer condemned them all indiscriminately.
As life gradually improved, Kraft began trying to recreate the inventions from his dreams. Although the dreams had initially been fragmented and impossible to make sense of, after Kraft escaped his muddled state, they gradually became more coherent and complete. The only problem was that he had no control over when he dreamed or what he dreamed about.
Moreover, due to his own limited knowledge and technical skills, there were many things he could not understand, let alone blindly copy.
On top of that, Martin kept a tight grip on his allowance. Even if Kraft wanted to try out the inventions from his dreams, he did not have enough money.
Until one day, Kraft dreamed of an old Chinese man dressed in ancient clothing. The man called himself a disciple of the Mohist school. In the dream, the old man made all sorts of strange little gadgets out of wood while teaching a group of children a technique called Mechanism Arts.
After waking up, Kraft took out his pitiful savings, bought a few basic carving tools, picked up some discarded lumber, and tried making the simplest mechanical lock. Then he brought it to school and bet people that they could not solve it, earning his first pot of gold.
Although it was not even enough to cover the cost of his tools, Kraft was still extremely happy.
Later, he specifically looked up records concerning the Mohist school, but there were no relevant books in America. In the end, after wandering around Chinatown and asking an old doctor at a Traditional Chinese Medicine Shop, he finally learned what the Mohist school actually was.
Unfortunately, he only had two dreams about the Mohist school before they changed into dreams that left him completely baffled...
A phoenix folded from paper could actually breathe fire! Were you serious?!
No matter how lacking Kraft's knowledge was, he could still understand that some dreams simply did not take place in his own world... Who was literally shaped like a sheet of paper? And everything in that entire world was made of paper...
This was fucking unscientific, okay?!
Later, Kraft dreamed sporadically of Mohist Mechanism Arts a few more times, but the protagonist was no longer that old man. The worlds might not even have been the same.
Kraft could understand using wood to make a Mechanical Puppet capable of repetitive mechanical movements, but using wood to make a Mechanical Tiger, carving several glowing runes onto it, and having it move freely or even speak—wasn't that a bit too much?
Still, even though he often encountered dreams he could not understand, Kraft earned quite a bit of money through other little gadgets he could replicate. Later, Fatty Liao even came to him seeking cooperation. Kraft handled production while Fatty Liao handled sales.
Fatty Liao truly lived up to his identity as the young master of a Black Shop. Kraft's income immediately increased by quite a bit.
Later, Kraft dreamed of a long-haired man who called himself Shougong Geng. Inspired by him, Kraft began filming the production process for some of his creations and uploading the videos online. He also gave himself the ID "Clever Hands Doctor."
With the help of Fatty Liao, a business genius—according to himself—Kraft's Clever Hands Channel had gained a modest reputation. His products were not only hugely popular in nearby schools, but also received plenty of online orders. Recently, he had even rented a warehouse in Chinatown, planning to convert it into his private workshop. Now he was just waiting for the equipment he had ordered to arrive.
Talking and laughing along the way, the school bus arrived at Vantas Public Middle School, where Kraft attended. Kraft and Fatty Liao got off with their arms around each other's shoulders and headed toward the seventh grade classroom.
Public school classes in America were not particularly demanding, and most teachers here did not force students to study. They cared more about cultivating students' independence. Students' academic performance was something their parents should worry about.
However, in order to better understand the contents of his dreams, Kraft did not need Martin to worry about his studies.
Though much of the knowledge he acquired at school was completely useless in his dreams...
Even if Kraft mastered every bit of knowledge in the Library of Congress, he still could not casually ignite flames to melt metal, then summon Flash from thin air to forge it into a flying sword.
Looks like I'm destined to follow the path of technology in this life...
Kraft did not know why such a thought had appeared in his mind, but he felt that it was truly fitting.
As for inventions involving mysterious methods such as miraculous Immortal Arts or magic, he could only treat them as animated CG for now and enjoy the spectacle. If he wanted to actually make something useful, he still had to rely on dreams related to pure technology.
For example, Professor Agasa, whose real name was literally "Doctor." Whether it was the Anesthetic Watch or the Power-Enhancing Shoes, both were excellent inventions.
Thinking of this, Kraft touched the watch on his wrist. He still could not make the Power-Enhancing Shoes, but the Anesthetic Watch was not difficult to manufacture. Its core technology was actually the fast-acting, harmless anesthetic, but that only required mixing ingredients in specific proportions. The construction itself was not difficult.
The one thing that puzzled Kraft was that many of the people in his dreams related to pure technology were from Japan. Meanwhile, there were not many Americans in the dreams, despite America being at the forefront of technology in reality.
Was the technology of Japan in other worlds really that advanced?
Honestly, Kraft was extremely curious about that.
After dreaming for so many years, Kraft had managed to summarize a few patterns.
Dreams whose protagonists were Chinese generally involved things that could not be imitated without special abilities, such as alchemy and Artifact Forging. Otherwise, they involved forging Divine Weapons that were useless to him. Although those Treasured Swords and Sabers that could slice through hair and cleave iron like mud were indeed badass, in this era, no cold weapon could beat a gun. Besides, the material requirements were so demanding that Kraft simply could not afford to play with them.
Then there were the technological big shots from Japan. Most of them made all kinds of robots, but with Kraft's wallet, he likewise could not afford that kind of heavy industrial manufacturing. He had dreamed of far too few scientists like Professor Agasa, who always invented practical products.
There were also Americans at the forefront of technology in reality, but most of them conducted human experiments and followed biochemical routes. Kraft would absolutely never touch that kind of damned stuff. Not only had he been a victim of human experimentation himself, but merely recalling the overwhelming Zombie Horde from those dreams still left him shaken.
The remaining dreams were relatively chaotic. Races that only existed in fantasy literature, such as elves, dwarves, and goblins, made things that basically all involved magical elements. They were also frustrating things that Kraft could only covet but never learn. There was also alien technology, most of which was completely beyond Kraft's comprehension and often entirely useless. For example, one alien species had their asses on the backs of their heads, and the equipment they made for themselves was simply not suitable for humans.
But thanks to those strange dreams, Kraft was now proficient in many languages. He could even speak a few words of completely useless languages like Elvish and Alien Language. Using them to fool his classmates or pose as a linguist online was quite entertaining.