And You Still Say You're Not a Pervert!

With the successful experience of finding Mithril Alloy, Kraft repeatedly experimented with metals like thorium and True Silver afterward, finding substitutes for each of them.

Although none surpassed the originals like Mithril Alloy had, it did not affect the use of those items. It was not until magical materials began taking up an increasingly larger proportion that Kraft's progress in engineering finally stalled.

Even so, Kraft was quite satisfied. Engineering was one of the rare complete technological systems he had dreamed of.

Well... it should count as technology, right...?

"By the way, how's the search for Captain America's shield going?"

Having finished his engineering research, Kraft looked through the notes on his computer and asked Haro.

"Deadlocked. Deadlocked."

As it spoke, Haro brought up the relevant information it had gathered online.

Because of America's official propaganda, there was an overwhelming amount of material about Captain America, making it extremely difficult to extract useful information. Of the densely packed files Haro had collected, more than seventy percent had been labeled "questionable."

Kraft spent quite some time organizing the material, but just as Haro had reported, the intelligence-gathering had reached a dead end.

A mysterious force had sealed away all the truly valuable information. If two other mysterious forces had not attacked the first force's database, Haro would not have been able to uncover even this lead.

Of the three forces, Kraft knew the identity of one: Rising Tide, an organization formed by a group of hackers. When Kraft had Haro sweep through the online world, they had once sent Haro an encrypted email.

Its general content was an invitation to join Rising Tide Organization, which Kraft decisively refused.

Aside from recruitment, the email went on at length about the organization's principles—breaking the official information blockade, letting the public know the truth, and so on.

The kind of nonsense that made Kraft want to laugh as soon as he read it.

What does it have to do with me if you Americans are suffering?

Still, thanks to them, Kraft managed to gather a useful piece of information: Captain America's shield had been made by Tony Stark's father, Howard Stark, using a metal called Vibranium.

After assigning Haro the standing task of gathering information on Vibranium, Kraft began preparing to deal with another item on his list.

He was going to give Alice a sturdier body.

When he had made Alice before, Kraft had not been confident of succeeding, so he had only used ordinary alloy. Although she later went through the Maggia attack, he had felt that ordinary alloy was enough.

Besides, Kraft had thought that if Alice were accidentally damaged, he could simply make another one, so naturally he had not replaced her materials with anything better.

Now, his feelings toward Alice had completely changed. Coupled with the existence of Hulk, another unscientific and uncontrollable being, strengthening Alice's body was naturally put on the agenda.

"Brother, were you looking for me?"

Because Kraft had recently been researching engineering-related things, there had naturally been explosions, explosions, and more explosions. Alice and the two pets had therefore moved back home.

Alice had only rushed over from home with Quinn and Bear after receiving Kraft's call today.

"Yeah." Kraft waved Alice over, then pointed at the workbench. "Come lie down here."

"W-What is it?"

Alice looked fearfully at the cold tools on the workbench and asked cautiously.

"You saw that green monster on TV before. If you ran into him, there'd be no question about you getting slapped into a pile of scrap metal."

Kraft pulled Alice onto the workbench.

"Originally, I thought that even if you were damaged, I could revive you anytime with the computer backup. But you mentioned before that you were afraid the revived you wouldn't really be you."

Kraft undid Alice's clothes and skillfully dismantled her body into scattered pieces. Then he suspended her head to one side and continued explaining, "So I thought I'd replace the materials in your body with sturdier alloys. That way, even if you run into some accident, you won't be so easily damaged."

"So that's what it was. You scared me to death... I thought you didn't want me anymore..."

With only her head left hanging in midair, Alice looked at Kraft with teary eyes. Watching herself get dismantled into a pile of parts had nearly scared her unconscious.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Kraft tapped Alice's remaining head. "You're my sister!"

"Hehehe~"

Alice giggled foolishly and tried to raise a hand to scratch the back of her head. Then the arm lying on the workbench punched Kraft right between the legs.

"!!!!!"

Kraft clutched his groin and dropped to his knees, in so much pain that he could not even cry out.

"Ahhhhhhh! Brother, I'm sorry!!!"

Alice flailed around in panic and decisively flung her right foot away, smashing it into Quinn's face.

"RUA!"

"Ahhhhhhh! Sorry, Quinn!"

Alice panicked even more.

"Stop moving, meow!"

It was the little black cat, Bear, who relied on her agility to leap onto Alice's head and slap her on the forehead, finally calming down the silly, adorable robot.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..."

Kraft lay on the floor resting for quite a while before he finally supported himself against the workbench and shakily stood up.

"I'm sorry..."

Alice apologized repeatedly, her voice choked with tears.

"Don't move around again!"

Kraft glared irritably at the idiot, rested a while longer, then resumed replacing Alice's body.

The attack on his groin affected Kraft's work to some extent. It took him much longer than expected to replace Alice's entire body with advanced materials based on Moon God Titanium Alloy.

He even replaced the outermost layer of artificial skin with a tougher material that was resistant to both fire and acid.

After fitting Alice with the artificial skin, Kraft tossed her clothes over, then rubbed his still-aching groin and grimaced. "Hurry up and get dressed, then make me dinner! I'm starving to death!"

Alice sat up naked from the workbench, nodding repeatedly with an apologetic smile.

"Kraft! I'm here!"

At that moment, Fatty Liao rushed in with his beloved handheld camera.

Since tomorrow was the weekend, Kraft and Fatty Liao had arranged for him to stay over tonight and use the weekend to film new material for Clever Hands Channel.

Kraft had originally calculated that he could finish replacing Alice's body before five, then have dinner or something, so they had agreed to meet at seven in the evening.

But who could have expected such an accident?

"Kraft! And you still say you're not a pervert!"

Fatty Liao pointed at Kraft, his chubby hand trembling.

Kraft: "...Fuck!"