Free America

For the next week, Kraft did not set foot in the laboratory. His dreams, perhaps because the skill was on cooldown or perhaps because they wanted him to rest, fell silent after cramming all that engineering knowledge into his head.

The week passed quickly, and before he knew it, the weekend had arrived.

"Brother! Hurry up!"

Alice had gotten ready early and urgently urged Kraft, who was still dawdling over breakfast at the dining table.

"What's the rush? There's still plenty of time."

After stuffing the last dumpling into his mouth, Kraft began leisurely clearing his dishes.

"I looked it up online. Before the music festival starts, there are lots of fun activities! Some people online even said those are the real main event of the festival!"

Beside herself with impatience, Alice swiftly cleared the table, then lifted her foot and shoved at Kraft's thigh with the sole of it.

"Brother, go change already! Leave this to me!"

"Okay, okay, okay..."

In truth, Kraft was not especially interested in music itself. He simply liked the chance to cheer loudly with a crowd and blow off steam. It was a good way to relieve stress. Whenever he went, he usually just joined in the cheering for a bit before leaving, so he knew very little about the actual schedule of a music festival. Fatty Liao, on the other hand, liked arriving early.

After returning to his room and changing, Kraft thought for a moment, then slung a backpack over his shoulders and put a few "defensive tools" inside. A green monster like Hulk had already appeared, so who knew whether a red or yellow one might suddenly pop up someday? Better safe than sorry.

By then, Alice had finished tidying up and began urging him again. "Brother! Hurry up!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Kraft walked downstairs with his backpack on, pulling out his phone to contact Fatty Liao.

"David, we're heading out. Where are you now?"

"What? Why are you coming so early this time?"

Fatty Liao, who knew Kraft's habits, was currently on his way to the music festival. He had known Kraft would not go so early, so he had not waited for him.

"Because Alice is really interested in the music festival..."

Kraft's voice was full of helplessness.

Fatty Liao sounded even more annoyed. "Damn it! I actually overlooked little sister Alice!"

Ever since he had gotten a little more familiar with Alice last weekend, that shameless fatty had started calling her his little sister too.

"I'm already on the way," Fatty Liao replied in the same helpless tone. "You two head over directly. We'll meet at the entrance."

"Okay."

Kraft checked the weather, then dug two solar skateboards out of his prop box.

The venue was not far away anyway, so they might as well skateboard there. As long as they kept their speed under control and did not go overboard, it would be fine.

The mass-produced solar skateboards had long since been sold through Kraft's Dream Toy Company. They had become quite popular for a while, and a variety of derivative products had been developed based on them, such as solar-powered self-balancing scooters and solar-powered wheelchairs.

However, these automatic skateboards had not won over professional skateboarders. Quite a few people even opposed them, so Kraft's customer base consisted mostly of people who did not really know how to skateboard.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with Kraft. He was not some skateboarding kid, and he had already made his money.

"Let's go."

He handed one of the skateboards to Alice, but she looked at a loss. "I-I don't know how to skateboard..."

"You don't need to know how to ride one of these..." Kraft rolled his eyes. "With the balancing system inside your body, controlling this skateboard won't be a problem."

Though I have no idea why someone with a balancing system can still trip on flat ground...

Kraft silently added in his heart.

"Oh..."

Alice took the skateboard blankly, then carefully stepped onto it...

"Ahahaha... Brother! This skateboard is so fun!"

Standing on the skateboard with her arms spread wide to feel the fierce wind rushing at her, Alice shouted excitedly at Kraft.

"Yeah, yeah... Could you not be so embarrassing? This is our own product, you know. Don't act like some country bumpkin who's never seen the world!"

Kraft covered his forehead, feeling exhausted.

The two sped along on their skateboards and soon arrived at the entrance to the music festival venue. Along the way, Kraft saw quite a few people weaving through the streets on solar skateboards or similar products.

To be honest, Kraft felt a little proud.

"Kraft! Over here!"

Fatty Liao, who had arrived before them, spotted the pair and ran over while calling out loudly.

"Damn it! If I'd known, I would've ridden over here with you guys!"

Naturally, Kraft had prepared one of these wonderful solar skateboards for his good friend Fatty Liao as well. But given his build, Fatty Liao rarely skateboarded, so it was hard for him to think of using one for transportation. He had only used the one Kraft gave him once on the day he brought it home, and after that, it had sat around gathering dust.

"Let's go. I want to see what activities they have before the music festival starts too."

Tucking his skateboard under his arm, Kraft took the tickets from Fatty Liao and headed into the venue.

The pre-festival activities were truly lively: acrobatic performances, game competitions, fashion shows, and more.

Kraft finally understood why Fatty Liao liked arriving so early.

Thinking that, Kraft turned his head.

Sure enough, Fatty Liao had already pulled out his beloved handheld camera and started filming.

The preliminary activities lasted nearly two hours. The memory card in Fatty Liao's camera was almost full, and if Kraft had not modified it and added solar-powered battery life, it would have run out of power long ago.

"What a harvest."

Fatty Liao licked his dry, peeling lips and put away the camera. For the sake of filming, he had not taken a single sip of water. He looked no different from Kraft when he buried himself in the laboratory.

Kraft shot him a look of both contempt and admiration, then handed him the bottle of mineral water in his hand.

As the opening activities ended, a group of vendors seemed to appear from nowhere and began bustling about, selling all kinds of food and drinks.

After fleecing the audience and conveniently helping them replenish their energy and water, the music festival finally officially began.

The opening act was a rock song. Kraft did not recognize a single member of the band onstage, all dressed like monsters and demons, but judging by the crowd's reaction, they were probably fairly famous. In any case, Kraft was just there for the atmosphere, so he howled along with everyone else for the entire song.

It was exhilarating.

He shouted along to several more songs until he felt completely drained, only then stopping his meaningless caterwauling.

Normally, Kraft would have left by then. But seeing Alice still enthusiastically cheering for the singers onstage, he did not want to spoil her fun. He simply stayed where he was, quietly listening to the music and occasionally pulling snacks from his bag to stuff into his mouth.

Then he stayed until nightfall. As the sky darkened and colorful lights came on all around them, the atmosphere did not weaken despite everyone's exhaustion. Instead, it grew even hotter.

"My previous tickets really were a waste..."

Looking at the even livelier scene than during the day, Kraft smacked his lips and muttered to himself.

The heated atmosphere remained high. Other than Alice getting too excited at one point and flinging off her arm, scaring the girl beside her half to death, nothing else went wrong. Kraft fobbed the girl off by saying, "This is a very expensive high-end prosthetic limb."

As it neared ten o'clock and both Kraft and Alice began yawning, the three of them finally prepared to leave.

However, just then, a burst of rapid gunfire came from a distant building.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat..."