Chapter 62: Replication
Edited by: Arthur300000, Deathbricks, Bunny and ArchmageNaoki
I walked out from the restroom after changing my clothes. Luckily my jacket is easy to clean. All I had to do was just wipe it with a napkin and it was looking brand new again. This way I don't have to use the scary butt plug for my disguise...
The next area is the main part of the factory. According to the guidebook it's an eight-kilometer-long walkway through several production areas. There are many groups of students passing by ranging from kindergarten to university. I don't see that silly boy’s group though. Maybe he went back home? I hope so.
Most of the older students are more serious in watching the production process. Some of them were even taking notes. As for the younger children they seem to be enjoying the time with their friends.
"Papa just bought that yesterday!" A little girl pointed at an automated vacuum cleaner in production and bragged to her friend.
At first the production lines down were row after row of heavy machinery. There were so many of them that I couldn't see the end of it on either side. There are several people wearing safety helmets walking around those machines, but they aren’t involved in the actual production. Some of them are doing maintenance while others are just walking around discussing something. I don't know what most of the machines are doing though. Some production lines are short, some of them are long. The longest production line seems to belong to either computational orbs or microwave ovens.
The latter part of the production however is more like a laboratory-workshop-hybrid. Well, there is a guy that looks like a mad scientist hammering iron. "The military grade and custom-made device production area." The sign read.
"Ah, a young one trying to learn the production process by herself. What a rare sight." An old woman in an automated wheelchair came toward me while I was focused on the work process of the handcrafted device section. I'm not good at handling elders so I look left and right for a way to escape.
"Arara, no need to be alarmed child. If you have any questions, you can ask this old lady." She beamed at me. Is she a tour guide? Well, since she offered, I guess I’ll just ask.
"Uhm, where can I buy a module like that one?" I pointed at the part that a worker was inserting into a cool looking warhammer. From what I gathered, it's the heart of the device, and it made the ordinary weapon turn into a magic device.
"Ara, you could buy that at the spare part shop. The factory outlets out there also have one. Also, you would need-" The conversation began with a productive explanation like this. She also listed all the equipment I needed and where to find it, as time went on I somehow ended up sitting on her lap as I listened to her stories.
Of course, I had removed my heavy jacket. Otherwise, her legs would be crushed under its weight. The fact that I have no tail was also exposed but she didn’t seem to mind. Well, I can't actually reject her when she asks: "Can I hold you a bit before I die?", right?
"Do you have a man you like yet?" She suddenly asked.
"No." I shook my head vigorously. Man? Definitely not. I like girl.
"You should find one. You might think there is a lot of time, but for one's life to be fulfilled you need to pump out at least a dozen kids. If I had cute child like you my life would have been better." I'm uncomfortable with how she said: "pump out", so I hugged Skynet tightly. What would happen if I grow old like her? Would I regret not having any kids? But to get pregnant… No, if push come to shove, I will just adopt a girl.
"Having children is a blessing for women like us, young one." She said while patting my head. "Men don't have the same capabilities as us, so they do all sorts of nonsensical things like waging war or having bar fights instead." Still, I feel having a family is too early for me. I will reconsider it after a few years-, no, let's put it many years later… or forever.
"You will regret it when it's too late. I worked all my life, and ended up became old and lonely." She added, like she was reading my mind. The scariest thing is the one in my lap was in agreement with her.
[I wish my mistress would reproduce soon. That way I would have a lot of backup mistresses.] ... I will throw you away if you do something funny, alright?
.
.
.
"Thank you for listening to this old lady’s rambling. I haven’t felt this happy for quite a long time." She let me go and smiled at me in earnest. "When you are leaving, just tell the front counter that Betty has a gift for you." She added as she hugged me again and sniffed my head, her nose tickling my cat ears and causing it to flutter. Finally she let me go. I stepped back and waved at her and she waved back at me, her facial expression and posture serene and at peace. I turned back and ran to the next section while putting my jacket back on.
The last area is for vehicle production and repair service. I spend some time watching beast people adding parts and welding something to the half-constructed airship. The smaller vehicles like cars or motorcycle production is automated by robots though. Sadly there was no attack helicopter or tank here.
"Oh, isn't that Marcus? MARCUS! MARCUS!" I yelled at him and waved vigorously. I knew from my brother that crafting group was assigned here to do internship while combat group was doing their work, but from the size of the facility I never thought that I would meet him this soon. Although the guy just stupidly looked back at me and his face is like 'who is that crazy girl?'...
"It's me! It's me!" I held the railing and yelled.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Oi! Marcus, go quiet your girlfriend down. She's troubling other customers." A Lionkin supervisor yelled at Marcus. I was going to protest but-
"Eh? Kuro?" Marcus first recognized me when he was very close. His reaction is like a nearsighted person who lost his glasses. It looks funny, but after I nodded he grabbed one of my cat ears and pulled. "Wow, these feel so real." He said.
"Stop it." I slapped his hand away. My ears are moving back into an aggressive stance. "Sorry, sorry." He said.
"Uh, well, no problem. Actually, I want to buy your power armor." I told him frankly.
"Hmm, because you got that unique monster core, right?" He took a guess and hit it on the nail.
"Will it work?" I asked. Marcus thought for a while then nodded.
"I have to talk with my team first." He said and walked back to his boss and asked for time off.
"Alright, just be quick with your girlfriend." His boss replied then Marcus ran to the back.
"I'm not his girlfriend though." I said, but no one seems to be listening...
A moment later he came back with his entire team and invited me to the small room beside the workshop. It seems to be a customer reception area. There are several facilities in this room, free snacks and soft drinks bar, coffee machine, a computer station, and free wireless internet sign. Oh, they even have a massage chair and fitness equipment here.
"So, did you decide to sell it to me?" I asked as we made ourselves comfortable. I occupied the massage chair and dragged it to the table. It's a different model from what I have, so I want to try it. For some reason I felt everyone steal a glance at my ass as I removed my jacket. Did they want to check whether I have a tail or not? ... Perverts.
"Uhm, to be honest, I don't want to sell it." Peter said. "But, I can't exactly deny my benefactor, right?" He scratched his head.
"Benefactor?" What did I do for him? Is that because of the toy robot I bought for him from Arasen? I turned my chair on. Wow, this is intense. The kneading part is more forceful than the one I have. But I like the vibrating part of mine more. Hmm, this is hard to decide.
"You saved our lives. I clearly saw it on the airship. Most people were too scared to notice. But at that time I saw you battling the Lightning fury and helped us escape." The quiet guy in his team said.
"T-Thanks." I felt a bit embarrassed when he put it that way. All I did was spin uncontrollably and bump my head against the skyship a few times. The one who really did the fighting with that monster was Skynet. And let's ignore the fact that I don't remember this guy’s name. It would be rude to ask now. Look at me having social skill of a normal person!
Rebecca, the only girl in Marcus' team smiled and placed a plate of cookies and biscuits from the snack counter in front of me. "At that time you looked really cool." She added. Oh, they even have gingerbread man cookies. I secretly store a few of them away while I try to bargain for the power armor.
In the end, I bought it for 30,000 credits. According to Skynet this barely covered its raw materials cost... I'm happy and worried about their future at the same time. These guys are really bad at negotiating.
And because they already knew that I killed that unique monster they also offered to install its core for me at the cost of letting each of them have a turn piloting the finished product for a short while.
"Uhm, do you have any add-ons, like a jet-pack or a machine gun?" I asked for cool options.
"Those can be ordered online." Peter showed me a catalog filled with all kinds of robotic parts. Under everyone's encouragement I put a jetpack and a missile launcher which came with 20 missiles into my digital cart.
The check out windows shows me that the total cost of these two items is 16,000 credits which made me pause a bit before I proceed. However, as I click submit the system warned me that I don't have a military device license to purchase them and the order has been void... What a killjoy.
I found that I could put the student grade filter on the list. However, the search result is very disappointing. There are no cool parts. Who in their right mind would equip their robot with a dagger? Let's use the sledgehammers that I got from the bandits as its weapons. They’re free, and their specification looks a lot better.
Since they are working here I also asked them to fix the shuttle that I got from the bandits and the broken trucks of my platoon. Even though I'm not the one who broke those trucks it's technically my fault and having them be held responsible for the damage seems cruel. We moved to the garage part for this.
"Just deliver those trucks to Rina at this address." I gave the details after I showed them the two trucks and the shuttle. They observed the wreckage carefully. They said the trucks are easy to repair because the damage is only on their chassis. In the end, after they discussed with the Lionkin boss it was decided that the trucks repair cost would be 2,600 gems in total. Compared to what I got from those bandits, I’ve still made a lot of profit.
The shuttle on the other hand was very expensive to fix. Even after Marcus helped me with his staff discount it still cost me 94,870 gems. It's expensive but I wanted to have my own flying car.
"The engine is busted, all the drive cores need to be replaced, and most of the other parts are worn out from a lack of maintenance." Is what Marcus told me when I complained about the cost of fixing the shuttle. His boss also nodded in agreement. Who would have thought that five panties worth of bullets would cause this much damage.
I took the quote from them to the cashier and handed it with two diamonds worth a bit over 60,000 gems each. It took her less time than I thought to give me its change though. She put several kinds of gems on the tray and pushed it back to me with the work order.
It took me three minutes to count this fistful of sparkling jewelry properly. And with Skynet’s help it seemed I got 22,760 gems back.
"Alright, I will deliver the shuttle and the power armor to your house when we go back." Marcus said as they already began to work on my shuttle. I watch them doing it for a while and moved on after I warned them about the nosy kids around my house. I can't have those kids rampaging around the neighborhood in my power armor, right?
The end of the museum walkway turned out to be the entrance hall. It seems I unknowingly walked in a circle. Ms. Birdwing and Mr. Golden Retriever are still there. I stopped at Ms. Birdwings counter.
"Uhm, an old woman in there said that she left a gift for me here." I told Ms. Birdwing. "Her name is Betty." I added as she looked at me sharply.
"Alright, please wait a moment." She turned back to open the cupboard. Because of her sudden turn around a feather from her wings fell in front of me. It looked really nice, so I sneakily stored it away and tried to be inconspicuous.
"Here you are, miss." She politely handed a stylish box to me. There is also a card on it.
Dear young one,
Thank you for listening to this old lady's rambling. I wish your personal life is as successful as your adventuring life.
Love,
Ms. Betty Bubba
3rd Generation owner of Bubba industry
She called me young one, but from her statement "I wish your personal life is as successful as your adventuring life." I felt that she already knew who I was... I wonder how she knew though. Anyways, Let's see what's inside the box.
I find an empty chair and curiously opened the present... The thing inside is a pair of panties with a cat tail attached to it. Wow, I won’t have to use the butt plug after all. Thank you, Ms. Bubba.