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Still oblivious to the fact that Qiaoqiao and I were back, Bitong stared at the missing right leg before asking, “The ingredients required for it are different than the arm’s?”

“Yes. The source Primal beast is different for each part of the exosuit, resulting in each part requiring its own ingredients as well.” Lixiang answered calmly. “They were trying to replicate the various attributes of the Primal beasts used during the design phase. Unfortunately, that failed. For the time being, the leg requires some adjustments… but for a single exosuit to be so complicated seems quite extreme. Perhaps it was the terrorist group who made that decision, not the researchers…”

“Hmm… wouldn’t using so many different source beasts cause rejection amongst the various parts?” Bitong asked.

“That’s precisely why those three mortals weren’t able to fabricate an arm and a leg for this exosuit, even up till the time of their death.” Then in an unprecedentedly serious tone, she said, “I think it’s impressive that this exosuit hasn’t collapsed yet… this thing… isn’t made for a person to be used. Even after it’s complete, it would require your mortal prowess of remote control to pilot it. Amongst us, perhaps only that expressionless woman can ride this machine well.”

Expressionless… I guess that’s Floater…”

“Don’t tell me this machine is alive?” Having just listened to their entire exchange, I couldn’t help but interrupt. “No matter how I look at it, an exosuit steeping in a petri dish of fluids doesn’t seem very mechanical. Once it’s finished, how are we even going to control it? Would it have some weird emotions system?”

“Its brain already has a control chip implanted. All I have to do is replicate the controls for that in another chip.” Lixiang confidently replied. “As for emotions… Your Highness’s concern is unnecessary. Thanks to that incident, there’s no way a machine would be allowed to have emotions…”

“Oh. That’s true. Having emotions in a machine is taboo.” Thanks to a certain mechanical emperor in the past, humanity as a whole had stopped all research into androids.

Strictly speaking, the robots during the time of the Mechanical Emperor were more akin to an entirely new race. A highly genocidal race that wanted nothing more than to wipe out humans.

Had it not been for Youqin Zun creating the first generation of exosuits, humanity would have most likely been consigned to the history books of the machines. One that recorded the demise of an insignificant organic race…

“Either way, we only have to wait.” Lixiang stepped out of the lab and into the factory before continuing, “This one will create three more exosuits. This factory happens to have the parts required. Alone, this one might need half a day to do so.”

“Lixiang, you actually know how to assemble an exosuit?!” The fact that she could -allegedly- piece together a working exosuit was astonishing. An exosuit wasn’t just any old machine a normal person could come into contact with. It was a weapon, after all…

I guess it can’t be any clearer at this point… Lixiang is not just some ordinary girl with middle schooler delusions…

“When this one’s current incarnation was five years old, this one was already starting to learn how to maintain magical armors. But in the mortal realm, magical armors are known as exosuits.” Lixiang explained proudly. “Having gone through multiple reincarnations, there is nothing this one does not know.”

“Really?” Seeing the girl so confident, even Qiaoqiao was starting to believe her story. “Sister Lixiang was actually so amazing?!”

“Of course.” Lixiang threw her head back, revelling in Qiaoqiao’s worshipful eyes.

Little did she know, Qiaoqiao’s lips were curled into a mischievous smile. “Then does sister Lixiang know the number for the winning lottery?”

“Of course!” Lixiang immediately answered without thinking. “There’s nothing this one doesn’t know!”

“But sister Lixiang hasn’t won the lottery before, not even once.”

“…” Lixiang froze up. “That’s because this one doesn’t want to.”

“You’re lying. Qiaoqiao has even seen sister Lixiang getting angry when her lottery ticket didn’t win. Sister Lixiang even bought a hundred tickets and not a single one has won.” Qiaoqiao winked cheekily before feigning a sigh. “Has sister Lixiang forgotten already? Qiaoqiao still remembers it like it was yesterday.”

“… Has the mortal heard of the fabled eyes that can kill a person?” As she said that, Lixiang’s eyes seemed to almost glow.

“… Qiaoqiao… Qiaoqiao was wrong…” Scared by the older girl’s pointed glare, she quickly ducked behind me. “Qiaoqiao is sorry, don’t hurt Qiaoqiao…”

“Lixiang, don’t you have some exosuits to assemble? How about you start on that, I’ll help deal with Qiaoqiao.”

With regards to Qiaoqiao’s plight, all I could say was, you get what you asked for…

Even if Lixiang was still a little miffed about Qiaoqiao constantly throwing her under the bus, she respected my opinion. Seeing that I was set on helping Qiaoqiao, she stopped pressuring the girl, instead turning around to start work on the automated assembly process.

“In light of His Highness’s request, this one will forgive the mortal’s insolence for now, but pray that there won’t be another… or else.”

“I’ll help as well.” Bitong walked up to Lixiang ostentatiously in a bid to divert her attention. “Even if I don’t know how to assemble the parts, I can still use my AI to handle the controls. Hacking these machines shouldn’t be hard, and working together would improve the overall efficiency.”

“All right.” Lixiang nodded simply. “Then the mortal girl should first start by linking up the systems. Once that’s done, this one will give the instructions.”

“Got it.”

Honestly, the sight of them working together was just weird…

With nothing else to do, I turned towards Floater who was watching silently from the sidelines. “Floater, you know the rules of Poker?”

“I do.”

“Up for a game? There’s nothing to do anyway.”

“Is it safe?”

“It’s fine. I can stick some talismans around the area. Ghosts should be the only enemies we need to contend with here; a bunch of Inferno Talismans can take care of those.”

“…”

“Let’s gooo!”

With a little encouragement from me, Qiaoqiao started bugging the soldier as well.

“Fine.”

Just like that, the three of us mechanically clueless normals pulled up a chair and began playing Poker. Naturally, this was just to lighten up the mood between Qiaoqiao and Floater, not at all because I wanted to play!

Surprisingly enough, Floater not only agreed to play, she seemed pretty good at it as well…

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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