Charlotte waved a big hand, "I indeed came to find you for something."
After speaking, Charlotte released a pet beast.
"Thousand Machine?", The moment he saw the pet beast that Charlotte released, Asher recognized it.
A very famous Electric + Special Attribute beast.
Also, before the appearance of Heart of Machinery and Angel, it was known as the beast closest to the mechanical attribute.
After all, not all beasts possess the ability to shuttle through networks.
Even with the limitations of a local area network, Thousand Machines's ability was once beyond doubt.
"This is my work partner, Little Machine," Charlotte held the small Thousand Machines with both hands.
The gold and silver interlaced shell made the little guy not look like an electronic bug, but instead had an indescribable cuteness and coolness.
Asher rubbed his chin, "Is it my illusion, or does the little guy look somewhat mentally listless?"
"It's not your illusion, that's exactly why I came to find you," Charlotte said seriously.
"Wait?", Before Charlotte continued, Asher made a time-out gesture.
"I suddenly remembered something."
Hearing this, Charlotte cast an inquiring glance at Asher.
'At this time, what could he have remembered?'
"I think I just saw you take this Thousand Machines out from your spiritual sea beast-taming space?", Asher looked at Charlotte.
Charlotte: "..."
"Ahem."
Charlotte once again tried to change the subject.
This time, Asher wasn't going to let Charlotte off the hook anymore.
He just silently, quietly stared at Charlotte, waiting for an answer from him.
Seeing this, Charlotte knew that this time he couldn't dodge the topic.
Charlotte lowered his head and sighed.
"Sigh—"
"Your eyes are too sharp."
"Your problem, don't push the blame onto me," Asher said calmly.
"This blame I absolutely cannot carry for you."
Thousand Machines, a beast with a nationwide existence of no more than one hand's count, would it really agree to let Charlotte contract it just like that?
"Hehehe, wasn't it just a little accident," Charlotte raised one hand, gesturing with thumb and forefinger, pinching out a tiny bit of space.
Asher looked at the tiny bit Charlotte showed and said nothing.
Under Asher's gaze, Charlotte reluctantly widened that little bit of space just a little more, "I think it's a hundred million little bits."
Understanding what Asher meant, Charlotte: "..."
"Don't slander me, okay!", Charlotte shouted, "Elder Cavendish knows about this!"
"Oh," Asher was indifferent, "What about the others?"
Charlotte went silent again.
What more was there to ask?
Asher understood Charlotte's meaning.
Elder Cavendish knew.
But others were not very clear.
Indeed, if it were other staff or beast tamers of the Beast Tamer Alliance, they definitely wouldn't understand or accept this decision.
Such a precious beast, just allowed someone to contract it like that?
Even if that person is one of their junior leaders, so what?
Where is the fairness.
Where is the justice.
'Ahem! Not exaggerating.'
But overall, that's the gist of it.
"I didn't want to… alright, to be honest, I really wanted to," Charlotte initially wanted to defend himself.
But Charlotte wasn't someone used to lying.
For some things, Charlotte would rather skip over than lie.
Lying is just too low.
Unless it's some unavoidable hardship or a big secret that threatens personal safety.
Charlotte felt there was no need to lie.
"The existing Thousand Machines in the Alliance are all officially raised beasts, and they have special external contract constraints."
Charlotte held Thousand Machines in one hand.
The other hand vigorously rubbed his own cheek.
"So even without a beast tamer's constraint, Thousand Machines won't actively attack humans."
"Of course, this also relates to Thousand Machines's nature."
"As special beasts that can shuttle within local area networks, Thousand Machines are not very interested in attacking. Their food is those discarded bytes in the LAN."
Hearing this, Asher raised his eyebrows.
His gaze towards Thousand Machines showed more interest.
He didn't rush to activate talent skills to check.
Instead, he carefully pondered in his heart.
'It sounds like the Thousand Machines species of beasts are really interesting, really interesting.'
Asher even began thinking, 'Does Thousand Machines have the potential to become a mechanical attribute beast?'
'Perhaps in nature's evolutionary process, Thousand Machines just lacks that final step.'
Thinking so, Asher lowered his head and looked at the Thousand Machines lying in Charlotte's palm.
Tiny.
Its eyes were like two little black beans.
Unnoticeable if not looked at closely.
Shiny.
There was a glimmer of thought in them.
This showed that Thousand Machines was not some unconscious creature.
Thinking of this, Asher's interest was inevitably piqued.
Just then, the Angel who had been silently, quietly staying beside Asher, suddenly charged like a pig and dove into Asher's arms.
Asher, completely unaware of Angel's action and therefore not reacting in time, was almost suffocated by this move.
Asher: "!"
'Pfft—'
'Thankfully, I held it in.'
Asher hugged the round shell of Angel tightly, just afraid that Angel might lose it and charge him again.
Noticing Angel's move, Charlotte also instinctively looked down at Angel.
Angel blinked twice at Charlotte.
Charlotte: "..."
'Haha!'
'Staying with this big-eyed mechanical attribute beast, Asher really doesn't feel that this appearance is just a little bit…'
After thinking, Charlotte still didn't continue the thought.
Didn't feel good.
But… Charlotte secretly glanced at Angel again.
'Mm, if all mechanical attribute beasts look like this, I can consider giving up on this entire attribute.'
She didn't need it anyway.
Having Thousand Machines help her at work was enough.
"Then I'll continue talking," Charlotte withdrew her gaze from Angel.
She hadn't forgotten what she was saying earlier.
She continued explaining to Asher.
"You know how busy my job is, so in the name of the office, I successfully applied for a Thousand Machines."
While work pressure eased a lot, she also had more tasks to handle.
Ask why? It's because she had Thousand Machines as a little helper.
Sometimes Charlotte didn't even know whether to be happy or sad.
'Endless work, never-ending overtime.'
'This life is really getting unbearable.'
But Charlotte still held on through it.
Then…
"One day Little Machine suddenly showed signs of discomfort. I immediately took Little Machine to the Alliance's pet center for treatment."
Unexpectedly… the treatment wasn't very effective.
And it happened to be during a busy work period.
Charlotte noticed Little Machine's condition too late. It was too late to notify Thousand Machines's specialized breeders to come.
Charlotte was so anxious she nearly cried.
At that moment, Charlotte felt an emotion coming from Thousand Machines.
Others might not have understood Thousand Machines's intent then.
But Charlotte was different.
Having worked with Thousand Machines for so long, even without a contract or relationship, they had mutual understanding in behavior and actions.
"Little Machine wanted to contract with me."
Charlotte did a little internal struggle, then agreed to Thousand Machines's request without hesitation.
Contract?
Then contract it is.
As for the consequences or punishment later, none of it mattered.
What surprised Charlotte even more, after the contract, Little Machine's worsening state actually stopped deteriorating.
And even showed signs of slow improvement.
But the speed of improvement was extremely slow.
"I immediately reported it to Elder Cavendish," Charlotte sighed.
"Frankly, I feel ashamed. Elder Cavendish didn't scold me; he actually thought I did the right thing."
"But if the contract with Little Machine gets out…"
There are many who would be jealous.
So it couldn't be said.
Luckily, most people rarely came into contact with Thousand Machines. Charlotte's contract with Thousand Machines had thus remained hidden.
"I still don't know what was wrong with Little Machine back then. Even now, it's not fully recovered," Charlotte had some worry between her brows.
Asher reached out and touched that Thousand Machines.
Thousand Machines raised its little black bean eyes and calmly looked at Asher.
The moment its gaze met Angel in Asher's arms, it instantly looked away.
As if Angel were some rare flood beast, unviewable directly.
Asher rubbed the round Angel, subtly comparing the feel between Angel and Thousand Machines.
'Mm, no comment.'
"You want me to treat it?", Asher looked at Charlotte.
Charlotte nodded, "You could say that."
"I've already visited many pet centers, but Little Machine's condition never improved."
"So I thought, maybe I could come to you…"
The more she spoke, the softer her voice became.
Even though, sometimes guilt is just hard to control.
Asher raised his eyebrows, "Are you sure you don't have another motive?"
Charlotte: "..."
"You say you…", Charlotte paused, then raised her chest, loudly muttering, "You say your brain works so fast, why?"
"Aren't you afraid it'll burn out!"
"It won't," Asher calmly replied.
"This level of thinking won't cause any damage to my brain."
Asher's tone was as light as a cloud.
As if this wasn't worth mentioning at all.
Charlotte gritted her teeth.
"Damn genius!"
She hated it.
'Is this the difference between people?'
After mumbling a couple more sentences, Charlotte no longer tried to hide it.
If Asher didn't know, fine.
But now that he guessed it, saying only half made no sense.
"It's not just about Little Machine. There's also your Heart of Machinery…", Charlotte looked up at Asher, as if to check his expression.
To decide whether to continue discussing it.
Asher's expression was calm, composed, even had a faint smile at the corners of his mouth.
Charlotte couldn't read him.
So she assumed he didn't care.
"So, are you thinking about openly selling mechanical attribute beasts?"
Those are rare mechanical attribute beasts.
How many people could resist that?
Indeed, in a nation as big as theirs, there would be some who aren't interested in mechanical attribute beasts.
But it's undeniable.
More people are definitely interested.
If the mechanical attribute beast is a bit more powerful… it would dominate the strength-focused crowd.
There's no strength-oriented beast tamer who wouldn't be tempted by a powerful beast.
Charlotte just wanted to see, if she could go through Asher's route.
To compensate the Alliance a little. By paying herself, giving the Alliance a few more mechanical attribute beasts, as compensation for contracting Little Machine.
Due to the rarity and uniqueness of mechanical attribute beasts, this might be able to win people over.
"You have a lot of salary?"
What Charlotte didn't expect was, after hearing her words, Asher didn't answer her question, but instead threw her a question.
Charlotte: "?"
Charlotte blinked, a hint of confusion in her eyes.
Not knowing Asher's intent, Charlotte still answered his question.
"Not bad?"
"After all, with my workload and the dangers at the Alliance headquarters, the subsidies are pretty good."
"All added up, I guess I count as a high-paying profession."
Her job was not some work that everyone could do.
But a truly high-risk profession.
What comes with high risk is high pay.
An annual salary of a million is easy... okay, not easy at all.
However, looking at the steadily growing salary in her bank card every year, along with the ever-present benefits, Charlotte was still satisfied with her job.
As for grumbling and complaining...
It had nothing to do with how much the salary was.
As long as she was at her post even for a day, she would maintain this beautiful mental state.
Working person.
Working soul.
She would stay at her post until the position could no longer carry her.
Asher: "..."
"Steel resources start from one hundred kilograms, energy crystals start from one kilogram, various other resources start from one kilogram each," Asher calmly reported a list.
"The quality and rarity of the steel, the purity of the energy crystals, the rarity of the various resources... etc., etc., all of that will ultimately affect the strength and potential of the semi-living mechanical beast produced by the Heart of Machinery, as well as many other aspects."
Charlotte was silent.
Charlotte stood up.
Charlotte placed Thousand Machines on top of her head and clasped her fists with both hands.
"Goodbye, farewell, I was reckless."
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