Matters for discussion

"Master, the arrangements for Red One, Blue Two, and Yellow Three are complete. They have signed the prepared contracts."

Butler reported to Huojin in Huojin's office.

He had just remotely controlled Red One and Blue Two, who were at Belobog Heavy Industries, to make them sign. Yellow Three had been a little better behaved than the other two and signed on his own.

Unless something unexpected happened, they would probably be doing grunt work at Belobog Heavy Industries for a month.

They had skipped far too much work over this business with Nicole, so he wanted to punish them. But because the three were special, independent individuals split off from Heili, that made certain punishments difficult to carry out. He could only do things like confining them.

It was not until the three came to his laboratory that Heili's recent trip to the station gave him the idea of hiring them out without pay.

Hopefully, that mechanic named Grace really was as formidable as expected. As long as she could keep the three under control, he would not mind letting her try reverse-engineering them herself.

After all, the technology in those three was far from simple. If she really managed to get anything out of studying them, she could have it.

Huojin was sitting in his chair, his left elbow on the desk and his cheek propped on his hand. His right hand rested on the desktop, his fingers tapping rhythmically against it.

He ignored Butler, keeping a vacant look on his face. There was no telling what he was thinking.

After a long while, Huojin seemed to finally register what had been said. He shifted position, leaned back in his chair, and asked:

"Have you gotten hold of any interesting biological specimens lately?"

Butler: "My apologies, Master. New Eridu seems to have been relatively peaceful lately."

Huojin did not respond. He was rather troubled at the moment, but this time, Nicole was not the reason. He had hit a bottleneck during his research yesterday.

Since he had focused primarily on machinery and Ether research from early on, the vast majority of the specimens he had sought out before had been materials, causing him to overlook the many biological specimens that had kept emerging back then.

As a result, after restarting his biology project, whose contents had consisted of little more than a title, he had few unusual specimens available to use.

He had studied his existing biological specimens over and over, and by now, he could no longer come up with anything new. With nothing but the same few things to work on, Huojin had no choice but to suspend his biology project for the time being.

He really wanted to get some novel specimens to study now, to make up for his shortcomings in biology, without slowing his progress on making a child in the process.

If the creation he made using his own remaining body as material ended up being utterly unremarkable because of insufficient technology and investment, he would become a joke to himself.

After turning it over in his mind without finding a solution, Huojin could only put the question off until three days later and ask instead:

"Butler, is there anything worth my attention?"

Butler: "Yes, Master. There are indeed three matters currently worth reporting to you."

Huojin: "Does any of it involve my daughter?"

Butler: "No, Master. The young lady has been relatively well behaved lately."

Huojin: "...Go on with your report."

Butler: "Certainly, Master. The first matter concerns the abnormal electricity expenses at Phaethon's home."

Huojin: "...Abnormal in what way?"

Butler: "Since we took over all their electricity bills, I have discovered that the power consumption of Phaethon's HDD system far exceeds our projections.

"In terms of electricity costs, it consumes at least 80,000 Denny a day, at least 2.4 times above our original projected consumption, accounting for 99.5% of the total. As instructed, I have already taken measures to handle the consequences in the long term.

"My deduction is that, because we are covering their electricity bills, their intelligent assistant Fairy has remained in high-frequency operation for extended periods, causing the HDD system's power consumption to surge."

One day matches a month's consumption for one or two buildings? A little excessive, but fine. It's not as though it matches an entire high-rise.

Huojin did not care how much their electricity cost, but he still had a question for Butler:

"They do use a lot of electricity, but something this trivial shouldn't warrant reporting to me, should it?"

Butler: "My apologies, Master. Since you were very satisfied with the outcome of your last visit to Phaethon, I raised the priority of their data. Please forgive me for acting on my own initiative."

Huojin: "Never mind. Leave it that way. Keep an eye on their affairs to some extent, too. They are rather special themselves, after all. Continue."

Butler: "Certainly. The second matter is that analysis of the abnormal signal extracted from Red One, Blue Two, and Yellow Three has been completed. The coordinates of the signal's source have been pinpointed. It originated from Lumina Square.

"The sender is inferred to be a prototype of the 'intelligent heavy construction machinery for Hollow use' developed by Belobog Heavy Industries in its early days. Its signal was transmitted across Hollows. It has been confirmed that Belobog Heavy Industries possesses no such technology.

"I infer that an unknown special factor served as the medium for the signal. From its coordinates, combined with the location of the Vision incident Miss Nicole encountered, I further calculate that this special factor is highly likely to be the target the Order of the Condemned plans to destroy."

After hearing this, Huojin fell silent again for a while.

Last time, when he was at the Dead End Hollow, he had sent Butler to investigate Vision's demolition observation station.

Although the data there had been urgently cleared out before Butler arrived, Butler had still managed to dig some things out of Vision Corporation's database by hacking into it.

Aside from Vision Corporation's other illicit dealings, Butler had discovered something Perlman had left in the construction specifications.

Following the trail, they had already uncovered Bringer, the mole in Public Security, along with various other bits of intelligence.

Public Security would certainly need this to eliminate a hidden threat. Mayflower, certain people in TOPS, and the Defense Force would absolutely be interested as well, but none of that interested Huojin.

He was under no obligation to help Public Security. The various taxes he regularly paid, along with the separate funding he provided to Public Security in his own name, were already more than enough.

Moreover, the money Huojin had paid to equip them with armed helicopters had previously resulted in several air-to-ground missiles being fired at Nicole. (Chapter 1)

Come to think of it, that seemed to have had something to do with Bringer as well. Letting a foul-mouthed reporter beat him to issuing orders-what a derelict, useless piece of work...

Bringer would have to be dealt with separately later, along with those religious charlatans he had thrown in with. As long as they did not affect anything connected to Huojin, he could not be bothered with them.

As for the target they wanted to destroy, that was a little difficult to handle, because quite a few eyes had been turning toward him lately, numerous and varied. The Iron Guards deployed elsewhere inevitably had some impact as well.

Presumably, it was another illegal test subject there. Even if he was short on specimens, there was no need for him, Butler, and the others to go in person. He could simply send a squad of Iron Guards to retrieve it covertly later.

Huojin: "Continue."

Butler: "Certainly. The third matter concerns Miss Trigger's armaments. Master, Miss Trigger has completed her prosthetic adaptation training, but our arsenal contains no weapons or equipment suitable for her.

"Due to the ironclad rules you established for us early on, Miss Trigger's weapons may require your personal handiwork, Master..."