As evening fell, Gray brought his fortress to a repair station.
With a loud bang, the small fortress came to a stop in the small square of the repair station.
Gray opened the door and came out, only to find a little old man with a look of astonishment on his face.
The hunchbacked old man, whose eye had been replaced with a brass prosthetic, stared intently at Gray and the fortress behind him, and said with some surprise:
"This thing can actually run?"
Gray's expression was rather unpleasant:
"Don't call her 'that thing,' the Antasia is..."
The old man burst out laughing:
"I know, it's your 'master's wife'."
Gray's composure crumbled instantly, his expression turning into a wry smile:
"Don't mock my master, he's been dead for five years..."
"Yes."
The old man replied in a second:
"The widow is still alive and well..."
Gray took a deep breath, put on a stern face, and said:
If you keep saying that, I'm going to get it fixed at someone else's house.
"Ouch, ouch."
The old man quickly grabbed Gray's sleeve:
"Even your master doesn't mind me calling you that, and you're acting all high and mighty... You've taken off the crossbow this time, right? I don't want to replace this with a prosthetic eye too."
Gray nodded:
"All defense systems have been deactivated, and all locks have been opened. Let's get to work."
"Alright, then let me see what problem your master's wife has gotten into this time."
Gray didn't reply, found a chair, sat down, and began to supervise the old man's repairs.
The old man twisted the prosthetic eye, which required manual focusing, a few times with his left hand, while his versatile robotic arm searched the shelf on the right and finally found a barbed harpoon about his height and inserted it into the mounting slot.
He hunched over as he approached the power core of the small fortress and reached out to open the heavy trapdoor.
A strong smell of blood suddenly wafted out, choking the old man and causing him to cough.
Amidst a chaotic roar, he aimed at a spot and slammed his left hand down on a mechanism on his right arm. The harpoon with barbs flew out with a "whoosh," followed by a dull thud of flesh being pierced and bones Shattered.
The old man used his waist and abdomen to pull out a bloody, mangled mess from the power core.
It was a humanoid creature, its eyes completely filled with grayish-white light, showing no trace of reason. The barbed harpoon had pierced the monster's skull, and drops of viscous blood were dripping from it.
Despite having its head pierced through from above, the humanoid monster was not quite dead. Its mouth, filled with sharp teeth, was still hissing something, and its hands were unconsciously scratching at the air in front of it.
It had clearly detected the presence of a living person and began attempting to attack the nearest repairman, but due to the harpoon's unique structure, its attack had no effect.
The monster's body surface had more than a dozen deep wounds that exposed bone. The edges of those wounds were very rough, not caused by any sharp weapon, but rather looked like bites and tears.
The old man pointed to the wounds and smiled at Gray was overseeing the work not far away:
"Look how close it was! If it had been just one more day, the 'self-devouring' would have fully erupted, and then your master's wife would have had to shut down."
"Get your job done, you old man."
Gray fiddled with several broken and malfunctioning mechanical parts on his body, making an impatient sound.
The old man knew his tasteless joke was no longer funny, so he clicked his tongue and muttered under his breath:
"I know, I know, I won't joke about it... Also, you'd better not try to fix yourself, or I'll have to ask her to carry you away."
"... Never mind."
With Gray's firm refusal, the old man used himself as bait to lure the monster into stepping into a shredder.
The constantly rotating and squeezing double roller structure, like the gaping maw of a mechanical behemoth, mercilessly Shattered everything that is thrown in.
In the time it takes to breathe, the monster's body below the knees had completely disappeared, only managing to let out a half-scream stuck in its throat before it was completely swallowed up.
Time passed slowly, and the old man patiently repeated the process until he pierced the skull of the last monster and threw it into the shredder.
By this time it was completely dark. The old man peered through the trapdoor for a long time, confirming that there were no monsters left in the engine room.
Gray, who was not far away, also stood up at this moment and said in a detached tone:
"Same as before, it will be fixed within three days. I'm leaving now."
Hearing that the customer was leaving, the old man quickly pulled half of his body out of the engine compartment and looked at Gray:
"Kid, I know you're worried I'll get bitten by a monster. Don't worry, your uncle isn't that old."
You're overthinking it.
"Yeah, right, I was overthinking it. Go fix yourself, blood stuck in the axle is no good."
"I know."
"By the way, do you want the new powertrain components brand new or used?"
"Brand new."
"Oh, looks like you've struck a big deal. Aren't you going to tell your martial uncle about it?"
"Next time."
After leaving the fortress's repair station, Gray made his way through a maze of turns to a two-story building. A sign at the entrance indicated that it was a repair shop.
That is, the place where the Graycast Corridor maintenance "people" work, and also Gray's home.
He rudely pushed open the door and entered, only to see a young woman at the repair shop's front desk assembling a set of precision machinery.
Hearing footsteps approaching, she looked up from among a pile of parts, glanced at the person, and casually greeted them:
"Long time no see, Gray, you're still alive!"
"Long time no see, Nora. It's heartbreaking that your cold husband didn't turn into a warm pension, isn't it?"
No one spoke again. Gray snorted and sat down in the single chair in the repair shop.
This type of armchair, with its soft surface and spring-loaded interior, is evolving into a sofa from another world.
"Tell me, what broke this time?"
The young woman put a dust cover on the intricate machine that was not yet assembled, and looked at her husband who had "sunk" into the recliner.
Gray remained silent, unbuttoning his coat with one hand to reveal his cyborg body.
Nora's pupils dilated in shock at just one glance, and she covered her mouth, her hands smeared with engine oil, to stifle a scream.
She forced herself to calm her terror and went to Gray's side, staring intently at his body stained with blood and fragments of his heart:
"You should know that although I say this every time, I don't actually want you to die."
Gray's lips, partially hidden by stubble, curled up slightly.
"Yes, I know."
"So..."
The young woman met Gray's gaze, her tone becoming very serious:
"Can you explain why you only have half a heart left?"