The Stupid Goblins Who Only Know Explosions

After eating the snacks Alice had made, Kraft did not rush to build a remote-controlled robot. While that would ensure safety, it would not provide a direct sense of experience. Data alone could not reveal everything, especially since these engineering creations might not obey Earth's laws of physics. So, he wanted to find a solution that offered the best of both worlds.

Like putting himself inside an iron shell?

Kraft thought of exoskeleton armor, but quickly dismissed the idea. An exoskeleton would block his sense of touch, making it little better than a remote-controlled robot.

Wait... touch?

Kraft suddenly thought of Alice's pain system. Although it was merely feedback simulated by a program, it was clearly very real, no different from that of an ordinary person.

Then, as long as he built another robot identical to Alice, replaced its thought core with a manual control device, and projected its tactile feedback onto a computer to convert it into data, it should be enough for Kraft to conduct his tests.

Kraft, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, sprang to his feet and rushed to the workbench.

Unfortunately, engineering's miraculous handcrafting ability could not be used to make other things. Otherwise, Kraft could have saved a fortune. Even so, it still saved him quite a bit of time when making certain components.

To prevent the test robot from being easily blown apart, Kraft spared no expense and used high-quality materials.

A special alloy he had learned about in the dream—Moon God Titanium, the downgraded version.

One of its rare metals did not exist on Earth. According to the dream's records, it was unique to an asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Never mind whether such an asteroid existed in reality, Kraft currently had no means of building a spacecraft. Even if he could build one, he had no detailed star chart.

So in the end, he used metals available on Earth as substitutes. Although this significantly reduced the strength of the Moon God Titanium Alloy, it could still crush other alloys with ease.

Of course, that might not be true if Captain America's shield from the comics was real.

A flash of inspiration struck Kraft, and he ordered Haro beside him, "Search for information on Captain America's shield and make a backup first. I'll look at it after I finish here."

"Received, received." Haro, whom Bear had been rolling around like a toy, stretched out its limbs and ran to its dedicated base. "Work begins, work begins."

"Meow~~~"

Bear, whose game had been interrupted, let out an unhappy cry at Kraft. However, Kraft was busy with his research and did not notice at all.

Bear knew that Kraft was always like this once he entered research mode, so she restrained her instinct to go make trouble for him. But she still needed to vent her frustration somehow, so the little Black Cat turned her attention to the stupid dog running laps with a mechanical squirrel.

Bear lowered her body and silently approached Quinn, who was completely unaware and still frolicking around. Then she suddenly pounced and slapped his nose with a paw.

"RUA!"

By the time Kraft finished his work, he found Quinn wearing a pitiful, teary-eyed dog expression.

"...What happened this time?"

Kraft stretched lazily and looked helplessly at Quinn, who was crouching at his feet and wagging his tail nonstop.

Compared with Bear, who had defied the Bombay cat's setting as one of the three dumbest cat breeds, Quinn's intelligence had not betrayed his rank outside the top seventy-nine. He did more than one or two stupid things on a regular basis, yet after being taught a lesson for them, he often put on an innocent look and came running to Kraft for help.

"Bear bullied me again! Big Brother, you have to stand up for me!"

Quinn loudly accused the little Black Cat of her cruel behavior... Kraft was used to it by now.

He glanced at Bear, who was lying nearby and flicking her tail. She looked utterly calm and confident.

"You provoked her first again, didn't you?"

Kraft tugged Quinn's ear and questioned him.

"I didn't!"

Quinn anxiously spun in circles on the spot, but he had no real evidence.

"I didn't!"

Now that was strange. Kraft scratched his head in confusion. Quinn did not look like he was lying, but Bear looked completely justified...

Had these two little fellows already learned how to act?

"The surveillance footage! Big Brother, you can check the surveillance footage!"

Quinn suddenly remembered how he had secretly caused trouble before, only to be caught by the cameras.

"Hmm?"

Seeing Quinn so certain, had he wrongly accused him?

Kraft glanced at Bear again. Seeing that she still looked utterly composed, he became even more confused.

So he simply had Haro pull up the earlier surveillance footage and project it onto the wall.

"...I have nothing to say."

After watching the footage, Quinn turned to look at Kraft.

Kraft rubbed his nose sheepishly. Quinn had been taking Bear's anger because of him.

He reached out and rubbed Quinn's head, comforting him. "I'll have Alice make you a big bone for dinner."

"That's great, awooo!"

Quinn immediately cheered up and happily wagged his tail.

Then Kraft helplessly looked at Bear, who was grooming herself. "After I finish testing, I'll make you a few toys. Stop tormenting Haro and Quinn."

The mechanical squirrels Kraft made would actively follow people, so Bear had no desire to hunt them. The mechanical squirrels produced by the factory also had limited operating time, which was why Bear used Haro for amusement.

"Got it, meow~"

Bear rolled over and flicked her tail as she answered.

After settling the issue with his two pets, Kraft sat down in front of the computer and began operating the robot he had just made.

Since it was only a test robot, its appearance was extremely crude. It merely had a humanoid shape, with no fingers or toes. Overall, it looked like an oil drum with rods and balls stuck onto it, draped in a layer of artificial skin used for tactile feedback. It had no facial features either, only a camera crudely stuffed into its head.

He controlled the test robot to put on a pair of Gnome Rocket Boots, then had it start running across the open space in the workshop.

Whatever else could be said, the Gnome Rocket Boots were quite useful based on their effect alone.

According to Haro's monitoring, the robot's movement speed increased by 37.6%, much worse than the original version in the dream. Its duration was also only sixteen seconds.

He checked the tactile feedback again. The legs were in good condition, and it seemed they would not cause any discomfort to the body.

Still, it needed to be tested a few more times.

After refilling the Gnome Rocket Boots with gunpowder, Kraft began testing again.

The following period was basically spent testing the performance of these rocket boots. Naturally, Kraft also found time to make the toys he had promised Bear.

After a round of testing, the alloy Kraft selected actually performed slightly better than mithril. It was a material used for alien spacecraft, yet all of its raw materials could be found on Earth. Its original name was a string of characters, so Kraft simply renamed it Mithril Alloy.

Furthermore, throughout the repeated tests of these alloys, although the Gnome Rocket Boots malfunctioned and stopped working at times, they never exploded even once.

Kraft recalled the engineering books from the dream...

So everything written in that book, The Stupid Goblins Who Only Know Explosions, was fucking true...