"And he even righteously said something like, the Heart of Machinery should belong to everyone... speaking as if Professor Asher was some kind of unreasonable person."
Everyone nodded repeatedly.
This trending topic was too ridiculous.
They rolled up their sleeves, ready to join the battle army.
At this moment, they noticed a strange force suddenly rising in the comment section.
Everyone: "?"
'Wow!'
'That speed!'
'Big gossip!'
———
Late at night.
"Madam, all the statements we made online have been suppressed," In the brightly lit villa, someone rushed in hurriedly, pushing open the door, looking anxious, and shouted at the villa's owner.
The villa's owner.
A woman who looked to be in her thirties, wearing a lace strap nightgown, with long wavy hair, mature and charming, upon hearing the words, she turned to look at the subordinate who rushed in.
The moment their eyes met, the subordinate immediately broke into cold sweat and lowered his head.
The woman in front of him was very beautiful.
Mature.
Sexy.
But the subordinate who knew this woman well knew she was a man-eating spider, a black widow.
Just as he was randomly thinking, out of the corner of his eye, he saw seven or eight legs crawling past him.
Those were the legs of a long-jointed creature.
No need to guess the species.
Spider.
With blue-black patterns and a huge body, it was clear this was a venomous, extraordinary spider creature.
"Hmm?"
"All suppressed?"
"Check, who had the power to intervene?"
The woman calmly reached out and stroked the giant spider that had crawled beside her. With her other hand, she lightly tapped on the tabletop.
"Uh...", Sweat poured from the subordinate's forehead.
"Didn't... didn't find out...", As he spoke, his voice grew smaller and smaller.
Finally, under the woman's gaze, his legs went weak, and he directly knelt on the ground.
"Hmph," The woman snorted lightly and turned to leave with her spider pet without even sparing him a second glance.
"Since the news was suppressed, then stop for now."
"Seems like the background behind that little guy is much stronger than I imagined," With that, the woman waved her hand and left.
———
On the other side.
[Inside Asher's Research Institute]
He had sent all the staff to stay at a hotel, but he himself stayed inside the institute.
"You guys... sigh, forget it," Asher looked at Little Raven and the others, originally intending to say something.
But looking at their big eyes and pitiful expressions, Asher ended up saying nothing at all. To be fair, this incident did have some of his responsibility.
"I'll try my best not to let something like this happen again next time," Asher gently petted each one, Little Raven, the Cat-Worm, the Little White Snake, and the Little Jellyfish.
Little Raven: (*￣︶￣)
Cat-Worm: ヽ(°▽,°)
The Little White Snake's body twisted into a wavy shape.
The Little Jellyfish's jellyfish cap didn't show any expression, but seeing its eight waving long tentacles, Asher knew it was also in a good mood.
Next, Asher waved to Angel.
"This is Angel, from now on everyone will be companions," Asher formally introduced Angel to the other pets at home.
Since they were going to be under the same roof, and in the same spiritual sea for a long time, a formal meeting was necessary.
Little Jellyfish: ?
Little Jellyfish waved its tentacles, curiously circling around Angel.
Angel didn't move a bit.
It looked just like a metallic orb in standby mode.
Cat-Worm: "Meow! Meow!"
'Newcomer, call me boss!'
Little Raven: (￢_￢)
Little Raven gave Cat-Worm a look.
No need for Angel to personally battle Cat-Worm, Cat-Worm immediately wilted.
Cat-Worm pitifully snuggled up next to Little Raven, with big messy and pitiful eyes looking at her.
Cat-Worm: 'Wuwuwu!'
'Big Sis sorry.'
'At least give me some face in front of the little bros!'
'What about the promised loyalty!'
Little Raven: 'Hehe!'
Asher nodded seeing the harmonious interaction among the pet beasts.
Very good. He didn't have to worry about them fighting each other to the death.
With that thought, Asher stood up and conveniently watered the little sapling next to him.
The sapling, World Tree Lily, shook its fresh green leaves twice, looking energetic.
It even brushed Asher's hand with its leaves.
A strong sense of concern transmitted through the touch into Asher's mind.
"I'm fine, no need to worry," Asher smiled and said.
The atmosphere was very good.
Just then, Angel, which had been in standby without any movement, suddenly flickered.
The silver-white seamless metallic body blinked twice.
Red light and blue light alternated.
Cat-Worm, being the closest to Angel, was startled.
"MEOW!"
It jumped backward several steps in a row.
After realizing there was no danger, It finally stopped.
Seeing everyone's eyes on it, Cat-Worm: "..."
Cat-Worm looked left and right.
The two now thicker and plumper dragon horns on its head twisted along too. Just to avoid making eye contact with its little buddies… ah no, little bros.
Cat-Worm: 'Dammit!'
'This dragon's face is lost!'
The more it thought about it, the angrier Cat-Worm became.
Its already chubby body almost puffed into a meatball.
"What's wrong?", Asher walked over to Angel.
Passing by Cat-Worm, he bent down and picked up the meatball.
Not mentally prepared, Asher actually failed to lift the meatball up.
Asher remained expressionless.
Asher said nothing.
He knew. If he dared say Cat-Worm was too fat or something now…
'Ahem!'
It exploding on the spot wasn't entirely impossible.
After mentally preparing himself, this time without accident, Asher successfully lifted Cat-Worm.
While gently patting Cat-Worm's back to calm it down, he cast a questioning glance toward Angel.
Still the same, Asher had a sense of Angel's reliability.
Even though after getting its own body Angel had become more lively. But unless it was something very important, Angel wouldn't be so jumpy… right?
Thinking about it, Asher suddenly felt a little uncertain.
The previous Angel definitely wouldn't do this kind of thing.
But now's Angel, that's hard to say.
"Mister, someone has been spreading statements online that are unfavorable to you."
"Shall we initiate a counterattack?"
Asher was stunned hearing this.
Next to him, Little Raven, Cat-Worm, Little White Snake, and Little Jellyfish all had big question marks pop up over their heads.
They all simultaneously looked toward Angel.
Asher: "?"
Asher lowered his head and looked at his pet beasts.
"What's wrong with you all?"
He asked sincerely.
The next second, he saw Cat-Worm open its mouth wide, shaking its head and calling out loudly.
"Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!"
The sounds came rapidly one after another.
Asher, understanding what Cat-Worm was saying: "…"
A giant sweat drop.
'What do you mean by "why can this guy talk, it's unfair!"'
Whether Angel could talk or not, could an ordinary human like him decide that? Obviously not.
"Angel's body structure is special, probably has a built-in speaker and sound system," Asher, helpless, could only try his best to explain.
A mechanical attribute beast and a flesh-and-blood body, how could they be the same? There would obviously be differences.
Cat-Worm still looked a bit grumpy, but reluctantly accepted Asher's explanation.
Little Raven was even quicker to calm down.
When Asher looked over, it pretended like nothing happened and lowered its head, grooming the feathers on its wings one by one.
Asher was silent.
'Sigh!'
'Best not to say anything.'
'This is just the adjustment period.'
'Just get used to it!'
Asher silently chanted in his heart and finally managed to calm himself down.
Then, Asher lowered his head and looked at his phone again.
'Unfavorable statements about me?'
'Related to what?'
'At this uncertain timing, isn't something off?'
Thinking so, Asher opened his phone.
On the trending list, Asher easily found the topic Angel mentioned related to him.
Skimming through at ten lines per glance, nothing important.
Exaggerated language hyping up the significance of the Heart of Machinery.
Then it shifted to Asher, using various leading terms to make people suspect Asher.
Claiming he wanted to embezzle the Heart of Machinery, using public resources for private benefit.
Asher: "?"
'Isn't something off?'
He felt the wording was strange.
But that wasn't the main point.
"Hmm…", Asher stroked his chin, feeling no anger at all.
What he felt more was curiosity and confusion.
"Regarding the Heart of Machinery, shouldn't the Beast Tamer Alliance of Oakridge City have suppressed that information?", Asher spoke with confidence.
That President Hestner, although clearly someone who feared trouble and liked convenience, precisely because of that, he would still fulfill his responsibilities as much as possible.
Otherwise, he'd just be creating more work for himself.
And in NY City, not many people knew about it, and those who did found out relatively late.
Looking at the post times of those statements…
'Hmm?'
'On my way back?'
Asher nodded: "That's something."
'Which means, the leak definitely came from Oakridge City.'
"But the way they described the Heart of Machinery's abilities…"
Asher looked again at the account that posted the lead article.
The more he read, the more he felt, there's something here.
'Why do I say that?'
The abilities and functions of the Heart of Machinery, until now, even in Oakridge and NY City, only a few insiders had heard about them from Asher.
Aside from Asher, no one had actually seen the Heart of Machinery in action.
Much less described its effects.
But Asher saw that in this article, it mentioned. As long as one could continuously provide steel, ore, and other resources, in theory, the Heart of Machinery could, within a year, create a massive semi-intelligent mechanical army loyal to Asher.
Asher: "?"
Kinda ridiculous, but Asher was also a little tempted.
"What do I do, I suddenly kind of regret it a little," Asher looked at Angel, blinked, and muttered softly.
'A mechanical army or something…'
'Just imagining it is so cool!'
When others hadn't even seen mechanical attribute beasts, Asher would wave his hand—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Mechanical army approaches…
"Mister, steel," In response to Asher's daydreaming, Angel didn't pop the bubble directly, but very tactfully.
Probably very tactfully reminded Asher—
Check your wallet?
Check your resources?
Still, but, rule-of-law society.
Power lies with the state. That idea is great, just not suitable for the current society.
If this were a chaotic world, Angel says, no need for conspiracy theories online, it would've already proposed a domination route for Asher.
Asher: "…"
"Then I really should thank you, huh?", Asher looked at Angel speechlessly.
Want Angel to learn something good, but thinking carefully about the purpose and origin of Angel's creation…
'Forget it.'
'Best not to say anything.'
This kind of thinking pattern, for Angel, it's nothing. Completely normal.
"You know what I find interesting?", Asher decided to skip over this dangerous topic.
He deliberately changed the subject.
And asked Angel a question.
Angel's round body wobbled twice.
The mechanical eyeball in the center blinked slowly.
Asher even heard a ka-cha ka-cha sound.
Seeing this, Asher curled his lips into a smile.
He had gotten used to Angel's realistic, sanity-draining flesh eyeball.
Suddenly seeing a mechanical one, he was a little unaccustomed.
Angel wobbled again: "I do not understand what Mister means."
"Of course, it's that he could have exaggerated more," Asher pointed to the line he had emphasized earlier.
That is, the part about building a mechanical army in one year.
Absurd.
Yet still faintly reasonable.
Especially for Asher, who knew the Heart of Machinery's abilities—just a simple calculation. If he had enough steel and other special materials, Asher might actually be able to pull it off.
In a year.
No sooner.
So how did that person get the timing so close?
"The person behind this statement definitely knows something about the Heart of Machinery,".Saying this, Asher nodded firmly.
Angel: ?
Seems understandable.
Also kind of complicated.
Angel giving up on thinking… was impossible.
"Angel understands what Mister means."
"The Heart of Machinery has not been officially recorded in history or written texts. There are three maps related to the Heart of Machinery, and each one's teleportation destination is the same."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.
https://discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y