Volume 2, Chapter 18 – It’s Not MAMA, It’s Big Sister!

Inside the workshop.

Because the voltage was not particularly stable, the dim yellow light flickered from time to time.

Under Colin’s patient guidance, Aila finally sat down on the stool.

Anran and Colin stood beside her.

Sitting on the stool, Aila kept her big red eyes open, her gaze constantly moving back and forth between Anran and Colin.

“So this is the robot we’ve been working on all this time?” Anran asked again.

Colin nodded. “That’s right. The very same hunk of metal you were talking about.”

“…”

His tone somehow felt a little prickly.

Anran hurriedly changed the subject. “These clothes look really nice. They fit her perfectly.”

“…”

Colin opened his mouth. Incredible, simply incredible.

It had been a long time since he had seen a girl with such an unusual gift for talking.

She had a bit of his old style!

“Aila, don’t move for now. I’m going to download something for you.”

Colin kept soothing Aila the whole time.

A Level 16 robot, if functioning normally, should have no problem punching a middle-aged Mechanic and a young girl Mechanic to death with a single blow.

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“Yiya.”

Even though Aila could not understand what Colin was saying, and Colin could not understand what Aila was saying either, the moment he spoke in a soothing voice, Aila obediently sat still and did not even move her eyes.

That effective?

Anran froze for a moment.

Colin let out a breath of relief and took a USB drive out of his pocket.

“What’s that for?” Anran asked.

“To download a language program for Aila,” Colin said.

“Ah…”

It still felt very strange. For such an advanced robot, he was actually using a USB drive to load programs into her.

But on second thought, a USB drive was exactly the kind of product that matched the technological level of No. 1886. Under normal circumstances, with Colin’s abilities and 1886’s technology level, there was no way he should have been able to create Aila.

So this had to be technology from outside No. 1886. That thick-browed, big-eyed middle-aged man Colin was no ordinary person either.

Anran’s eyes flickered.

Colin stood behind Aila. Aila raised her head, wanting to see what Colin was doing, but Colin gently stroked her smooth silver hair with his hand, and she immediately lowered her head.

Colin let out another breath. He reached out and lifted the hair at the back of Aila’s neck. There, instead of skin, was a patch of cold-toned metal left exposed.

Anran watched from the side as Colin pressed a finger against that cold-toned metal. It opened immediately, revealing a USB port inside.

“…”

Anran covered her face.

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Colin inserted the USB drive and pressed a button next to the port.

Aila fell into a brief daze, looking exactly like someone who had just heard some important news and was in the middle of processing it.

It lasted for about five seconds in total before the USB drive was directly ejected.

With a flick of his hand, Colin caught the USB drive. The metal slot at the back of Aila’s neck closed automatically. When Colin let go, her silver hair fell back down and covered that area.

Colin walked around to stand in front of Aila. His hands rested stiffly at his sides, and he softly called out, “Aila!”

That was a call that had crossed eleven years of time.

He had never before spoken those two syllables in such an expectant tone.

Expectation mixed with unease, and unease mixed with fear.

If…

But the next moment, Aila’s eyes regained their liveliness. Her cherry lips parted slightly, and in a weak, delicate voice she said to Colin, “Da… Daddy?”

“…”

Colin’s pupils suddenly widened. Hearing that call, he was so overwhelmed that he could not speak at all. His hands trembled slightly. A man already in his forties, and yet at that moment his eyes could not help but fill with tears.

Anran looked at Colin in surprise. When she heard Aila call Colin Daddy, she had originally wanted to make a few snarky remarks.

Another NPC with quite the backstory, huh.

That was what Anran thought, but then she could not help mocking herself. If anyone had an over-the-top backstory, hers was probably even worse. It could practically be written into a whole book.

Getting transmigrated and turning into a girl was one thing, but after starting off properly on an invincible-protagonist route, the narrator suddenly jumped out and said it had only been a trailer made to attract players. Who the hell does that to people?

Once I’ve saved up enough money, I’m definitely charging into the stars and making the name Anran sweep across the entirety of Night of the Stars!!!

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Aila, who had only just finished digesting the language program, showed no signs of discomfort. She grasped language itself with ease.

After calling Colin, Aila’s gaze shifted to Anran again.

Her eyes rolled cleverly. She tilted her head by a tiny angle, then opened her mouth and said, “MA, …”

“Stop stop stop!”

The instant the word left Aila’s mouth, Anran shouted at once.

“Mm…” Aila immediately shrank back a little.

Colin turned and glared at Anran. “You scared my daughter!”

“…”

Oh, come on.

Anran glared right back without backing down. You were the one trying to take advantage of me.

That seemed to make Colin realize he was somewhat in the wrong as well.

Staring at Anran, Aila continued, “MA, …”

“Wait!”

Anran interrupted Aila again, though this time her voice was much softer. Why was this loli so stubborn?

“Call me big brother,” Anran said.

“Big brother?” Colin looked at Anran strangely.

“Big sister, big sister. Just call me big sister.”

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Anran broke into a cold sweat.

Aila lowered her head and thought for a moment, as if she had finally understood what Anran meant. In her soft voice, she called out, “Big Sister.”

It still felt a little weird, but Anran accepted that “Big Sister” from Aila anyway. It was still better than being called MAMA.

“How advanced is Aila’s intelligence?”

Anran turned and asked Colin.

“About the same as an ordinary person.”

As expected, it was technology far beyond anything No. 1886 should be capable of.

“All right, let’s call it a day here. Closing time is almost here anyway. Aila has only just awakened, and there are still a lot of common-sense things I need to teach her little by little.”

Colin started ushering her out. What he was actually thinking was that Aila was as pure as a blank sheet of paper right now. She knew nothing, and he still needed to teach her slowly.

If someone as pure as Aila spent too much time with Anran, whose heart was black as ink and who spent every day tricking little girls, who knew what she might end up being taught into.

Was that something Colin could tolerate? Absolutely not. Before Aila had developed judgment of her own, he had no intention of letting Anran have too much contact with her.

Though contact was unavoidable, it would definitely have to happen under his supervision.

“Oh.”

Anran nodded. It really was late. Time for her to head home.

She had not seen through Colin’s intentions at all. What she was still thinking was that she needed to find a chance to study Aila properly.

If she could master the technology used to create Aila, her strength would definitely soar by leaps and bounds.