Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Arnold's hand was still damp. He just stood there, staring at Ye Mo.

Ye Mo was bent over, having carefully laid the robot on its side on the carpet to get a better look. He was pressing its shell, trying to restore the most severe dent on its belly. He didn't know what he touched; the robot's shell popped back, but a piece chipped off in the process, flying out and hitting Ye Mo. Fortunately, the force wasn't great.

Arnold saw it clearly—Ye Mo's fingertips trembled slightly. Then he stopped, clenched the broken fragment, lowered his head, and tears began to patter onto the robot's metal shell.

It was as if Arnold had just snapped out of it. He recoiled slightly. He had seen Ye Mo cry once before, but Mrs. Ye had been there to comfort him then. Ye Mo had held Mrs. Ye for a while, and by the time he looked up, his emotions had mostly stabilized.

Pawpaw seemed to know it had caused trouble. With the table still atop its head, it quietly retreated two steps. The table legs scraped against the floor, making a harsh sound. It immediately froze, trying to make itself as small as possible under the table.

Arnold placed his hand on the robot, his voice lowered. "Let me take a look. If there's no internal damage, just replacing the shell should fix it."

Then Ye Mo let go, allowing Arnold to take the robot. He looked up, leaning close to Arnold, watching intently as Arnold worked.

Arnold's mental energy, fine as threads, entered the robot's interior, carefully beginning the inspection. He'd been an adult for years; his control over mental energy far surpassed that of a minor like Ye Mo, who hadn't yet gone through his mental development period.

As soon as the inspection ended, Arnold's finger moved, and Ye Mo's gaze followed. Finally, Arnold's finger stopped at the robot's core.

"This part is a bit damaged. We need to ask a professional repair technician if it can be fixed."

The robot was already very old, with outdated technology. Ye Mo had taken great care of it. Previously, afraid of problems, he had sent it for annual inspections and part replacements. But in the last two years, this model of robot had been completely phased out, and parts were becoming increasingly hard to find.

Seeing Ye Mo visibly deflate again,

Arnold quickly added, "The warship has the best engineers. We'll just send it over for repair. It will definitely be fixed."

...

Norton, seated at the center of the command room, suddenly opened his eyes. His mental energy spread throughout the entire starship; he was fully aware of everything happening on board, naturally including the events in Ye Mo's room.

He stood up. His guards followed as he walked straight to the repair room.

Several repair technicians were bustling back and forth in the repair room, carrying tools or other items.

The robot lay on the central repair bench. Next to it were the disassembled parts, scattered across the entire bench.

A repair technician was explaining to Arnold and Ye Mo, who stood beside him, "Some internal parts are loose, but there isn't much damage. The damaged parts are also common models and can be replaced. The main issue is that the core was also crushed and damaged. It's very hard to fix. If the core wasn't damaged, just changing the shell would do it, though it might not look exactly the same as yours."

Ye Mo unconsciously took a step forward. "So, there's still a possibility it can be repaired, right?"

The repair technician scratched his head, also seeing how much Ye Mo cared. But ultimately, he said, "Basically impossible. I've never seen one repaired."

The core held the robot's most important data. If damaged without a backup, there was almost no solution unless you used mental energy to read it and then replaced the core. But that takes a huge amount of mental energy and really precise control during the process.

The repair technician was still examining the robot. "This model of nanny robot came out a long time ago. The design was flawed; it didn't protect the core very well. Generally, after a few years of bumping around, it would break. It's quite rare to have one preserved for so long. I haven't seen this model in ages. My mom has one in her storage room at home; its core is broken too. Do you need to extract important data?"

The repair technician continued, "I can help you extract some of the data. I can't guarantee how much can be preserved. The downside is the core will be completely destroyed after extraction. But if you don't extract it, keeping the core is pretty useless anyway. I suggest extracting it."

Arnold stood to the side, wearing a half-mask, so his expression wasn't visible. But within just a few minutes, he had turned his head to look at Ye Mo several times.

At that moment, Norton also arrived at the door. As soon as Norton entered, everyone in the room stopped, slightly lowering their heads. "Your Majesty."

Norton raised a hand, and the repair room returned to its previous state, everyone going about their tasks. But in reality, they were all secretly paying attention.

Norton walked up to Ye Mo and stopped, his presence imposing. The few years after mental energy fully develops are the peak period for physical growth. Ye Mo's mental development period had just begun not long ago; he was far from matching an adult Grath.

Norton's mental energy swept over Ye Mo first, confirming there were no wounds on him, before he spoke.

"Have you taken the full robot cognition course?"

Current technology could make robots appear very realistic. But nanny robots always maintained the old, big-bellied style. This was to prevent children from confusing humans and robots, developing abnormal perceptions of their nanny robot.

Simultaneously, at an appropriate age, children would undergo robot cognition courses to prevent them from developing abnormal emotional attachments or excessive dependence on robots.

This course was listed as essential. Every child, at a certain age, would go to the hospital to receive the course, which would run throughout their entire cognitive formation stage.

Ye Mo didn't seem to show much emotion. He clasped his hands behind his back, lowered his head, looking at the ground—this was the etiquette for showing respect when facing a Grath. "Yes."

"Fully completed?"

"Fully completed, Your Majesty."

When Arnold heard Ye Mo's address for Norton, he glanced at Ye Mo. Ye Mo had his head lowered, hair hanging by his cheeks, hands clasped behind his back; no expression was visible.

Norton, however, showed no reaction. After hearing Ye Mo's answer, he gave a slight nod and said nothing more. He stepped forward. Ye Mo moved aside, quickly taking a step back. Norton's movement paused for a moment, then he continued forward, his cloak brushing past Ye Mo.

Norton picked up the small robot core from the repair bench, then turned and left.

Ye Mo turned to look at the repair bench. A pile of parts lay scattered, only the core was missing. Seeing Ye Mo look over, the repair technician asked again, "Do you still want it?"

"I can patch up the shell for you first, though it might not look very good. I don't have metal of the same color here, and I can't do very detailed shell treatment."

The repair technician primarily served the warship; many fine instruments weren't equipped.

"Yes."

The repair technician quickly patched up the shell for Ye Mo. After replacing some parts, he handed the robot back to Ye Mo, some areas still showing obvious color differences.

After he and Arnold left, a wave of discussion immediately erupted in the repair room.

"Isn't Lord Arnold always by His Majesty's side? Why was he temporarily assigned to guard that child?"

"Don't you think he looks like a Grath? Good-looking, with black hair and black eyes. His Majesty just asked about his courses, like a parent checking a child's homework! And isn't he wearing what the Graths wore when they were young? Red and black tones. The Queen's public account has many photos like that."

A colleague gasped sharply. "That's too scary. Since the Queen posted that photo, there are quite a few children inside and outside the Empire wearing similar styles now. Not necessarily."

The repair technician who had just fixed Ye Mo's robot coughed, signaling for quiet. But soon, whispers started again in the repair room. The repair technician sighed silently and also pricked up his ears to listen.

After a while, the repair room door was knocked on again. It was a member of the Imperial Guard who entered—white uniform, standard sword at the waist, Imperial Guard badge on the chest, wearing a cap. He stood at the door. "I need the best blank robot core."

"One moment, right away."

...

Norton sat back down in the command room. The robot's core was placed on his chair's armrest.

His mental energy quickly penetrated the core, carefully reading the data. He first transferred important data like the robot's intelligence program, then began transferring other data.

Besides the robot's intelligence program, the core also stored many recordings. It was originally a nanny robot, now outdated, but it was the latest model at the time, with an automatic recording function for parents to review. Nanny robots had single functions, were bulky, and not very intelligent. Most families would replace them with newer, smarter robots once the child grew up.

But Ye Mo had kept using it. The recordings in the core had accumulated into a vast amount, bit by bit documenting Ye Mo's growth over the years.

Norton didn't specifically view them. He quickly transferred the data via mental energy, then copied the data onto a blank core. But in this process, he inevitably received a lot of information.

The recordings spanned Ye Mo's short dozen or so years. At first, the nanny robot would follow Ye Mo around the Ye household. Later, as Ye Mo grew a bit older, the nanny robot stayed in Ye Mo's room.

The earliest recording was of Ye Zhiyuan activating the machine. He held Ye Mo in his arms. Holding Ye Mo's hand, he entered Ye Mo's information on the robot's owner page, then lowered his head and said to Ye Mo, "From now on, I'll be your father."

Ye Mo, still very young, was holding a doll as he sat in Ye Zhiyuan's lap looking up, softly repeating, "Father."

The psychic data transmission stalled for a moment but quickly resumed. During the transfer, this footage was soon buried within the vast amount of data.

Norton had opened his eyes at some point, one hand resting on the empty armrest, gazing straight ahead, his sharp gaze and imposing brow making him look every bit the authority, as if seated upon a throne. This was quite rare for Norton, as throughout the voyage he needed to maintain control over the fleet and usually chose a comfortable position to sit and rest with his eyes closed.

The pilots in the front row unconsciously straightened their backs, not daring to relax for an instant.

Norton tsked, clearly displeased. The guard beside him even second-guessed his own hearing—such an outward display of emotion was also very rare for Norton. He had rarely shown his feelings since adolescence, especially after ascending the throne.

Norton's hand briefly tightened on the armrest before quickly releasing it. He shouldn't have reacted like that; it was better to finish the transmission as quickly as possible.

But soon, as the transmission continued, intermittent fragments were inadvertently picked up by Norton's psyche and fed back.

It was the robot's perspective following Ye Mo. The robot was only about a meter tall, but Ye Mo was even shorter, holding a doll half his height. Ye Mo would walk a bit, then turn back to look at the robot. Just as Ye Mo was about to reach the staircase, the robot quickly moved in front of him.

"Good babies can't go near the stairs!"

Little Ye Mo promptly hugged the robot.

For a split second, the robot's first-person view gave Norton the illusion that Ye Mo was hugging his leg.

Little Ye Mo looked up, revealing a smile, and repeated, "Stairs."

Norton's eyes widened. He realized Ye Mo was learning to talk by imitating the robot.