After I brought the junk home, I placed them all in the garage and went straight to bed after packing away my plasma gun. At this time of the night, I was in no mood to tinker and build stuff. I would rather watch anime.
It was too late to work, after all. On one hand, I might not view building my very own war walker as work, but I really was too tired to do anything else at the moment.
"Ugh…I want some mango juice."
I grabbed a carton from the fridge, poured myself a cup, and then downed it in one go. Washing the cup, I then headed upstairs to indulge in my other hobby and then catch some much needed sleep.
The next morning, I woke up and spoke to my parents through Skype, to assure them that everything was fine. After our conversation, I had a light breakfast – heating up some frozen pasty in the microwave oven – before I finally went to the garage and got to work.
Since it was Sunday, I didn't have much to do. The benefits of being single – nobody to bother me over the weekend. William no longer stayed with me, so I had the whole house to myself. But I chose to spend my time in the garage instead.
Wait, what? This was supposed to be a romance story targeted at female readers because of the CEO in the title? How could I possibly be single? Well…suck it up. Quite frankly, no girl would be interested in me because I was poor, plain and boring. Also, I heard several girls comment that I was too nice and hence not exciting. Too safe a choice, if I remembered correctly. They preferred "bad boys."
No wonder all those abusive CEOs who raped the heroines were so popular. Well, it was none of my business. I had better things to do.
I dismantled the excavator, unscrewing the hydraulics of its huge arm and taking it apart. I intended to implement a lot of modifications to suit my needs. Since I obviously didn't need to drive an excavator around to scoop up cement or soil or whatever, I didn't need the tracks or for the construction vehicle to remain in its current form.
Instead, I needed the hydraulic arm to help me lift up heavy plates of metal and armor, to weld them together.
Taking a deep breath, I began modifying and reconstructing the hydraulics, reassembling them into something that I would see more often in a manufacturing factory. The kind that assembled cars. There were occasions when I needed to weld the metal together with a plasma torch or cut them apart with a laser saw, so I made sure to put on safety gear.
Funnily enough, if anyone was to peer into the garage right now, they would probably be scared off by my current visage. An iron mask covered the front of my face, along with safety goggles that resembled the bulging eyes of an insect.
Honestly, I reminded myself of a Skitarius from the 41st Millennium. Of course, I had no intention of hacking off my legs and replacing them with cybernetic limbs. That was far too gruesome for my taste. And I doubted the girls would like a cyborg boyfriend.
Ah, now I knew what the title of my next bestselling romance novel would be. My Cyborg CEO. How about that?
Humming to myself, my mind occasionally wandering to these random, irrelevant thoughts as I worked distractedly on my project, I weaved wires together and threaded carbon fiber cables to augment the strength. I tested the electronic connections and ran several trials to see if the hydraulic arms moved the way I wanted them to. Using the rest of the excavator as a platform – I had to take apart the entire vehicle and rearrange its constituents – I managed to construct something that resembled a conveyor belt with all the automatic robotic arms.
The whole process took a full day. I ended up skipping lunch because I was so engrossed in my work that I refused to stop despite the protests of my stomach. However, as the skies darkened, I finally couldn't stand my hunger and took a short break. Ordering delivery from the nearest Szechuan restaurant (and making sure to select mild because I couldn't stand spicy food), I continued working until my smartphone buzzed, informing me that my food had been delivered.
Fortunately, I had specified no contact delivery, so the driver didn't have to wait outside for me to show up. He left my food at the door, and I picked it up. The tofu was still warm, so I ate it with rice. No, it wasn't mapo tofu – that was way too oily and spicy for me. Instead, I had ordered stir fried dried tofu with rice.
"Delicious!"
Once I had finished my meal, I returned to work. There was still a lot to do. I had left metallic parts and components scattered all across the floor of my garage. Upon my return to the garage, I felt a sense of reluctance at the sight of the mess.
"Ugh…damn it."
Honestly, I wanted to procrastinate and finish this project another day. I had been working on the damned hydraulics machine for the whole day now and I just wanted to sit in my chair and watch anime while feasting on chips.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of lazing around. Tomorrow, I would have to go back to work. Even though it was still a few hours away from midnight, I was already suffering from Monday blues. As much as I wanted to return to the army base camp and continue working on my Dragon while checking for news regarding the naval side of things (my shield boat), there was a part of me that just wanted to stay at home and laze around.
Then again, my definition of lazing around was to build robots.
"…this counts as a robot, right?"
I studied the row of half-completed hydraulic arms that stood at rest across the wall of my garage. They weren't the kind of robots I had in mind, but technically they were classified as robots. Such robots had been built and were in existence since the middle of the twentieth century. It was difficult to imagine the manufacturing industry operating without them.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I stretched my hands, took a deep breath and willed myself to return to work.
By the time I was finished with everything, it was already past midnight.
"Damn it, time really flies."
I stifled a yawn and glanced reluctantly at my smartphone that I brought into the garage with me so that I wouldn't lose track of time. Well, it was what it was. I closed my eyes briefly and wondered if I should skip watching anime today. But if I didn't watch today's episodes, they would accumulate and I would find it difficult to catch up.
Argh! Whatever. Who needed sleep? Hobbies were more important.
After running one final test, I watched in satisfaction as the hydraulic arms moved up and down in concert to my commands, the claws clacking and picking stuff up, and welding torches igniting to life with a hiss. I nodded, pleased with my work, before I switched everything off and locked up the garage.
Time to watch anime.
*
"That was a bad idea."
By the time I reached home the next day, I was exhausted. Stifling a yawn, I clambered out of my Toyota and stumbled into the hangar section of my garage. I stared at the hydraulic arms, bleary-eyed, wanting to begin my personal project – the Falcon – but feeling too tired to do anything. The urge to crawl into bed and sleep the night off was strong.
"Discipline," I told myself. I couldn't give in to exhaustion. I couldn't surrender to sleep. Hobbies were more important. Hobbies…
Swaying unsteadily on my feet, I approached the hydraulic equipment that I had just constructed the night before. Now that they were completed, I couldn't wait to put them to use. The mechanical arms and claws appeared to beckon me over, silently waiting for me to bring them to life.
"You know what, I'll have dinner and shower first." Suppressing a yawn, I reluctantly tore my gaze away from my handiwork and trudged toward the house.
Fortunately, that turned out to be a good idea. After a shower, I felt more refreshed. I was aware that it was only temporary – the best cure for lack of sleep was to sleep. But drowning myself in water was invigorating. Dinner also helped – the leftovers of the tofu that I had ordered through delivery yesterday. Phew. I ended up cooking my own rice to eat it with the fried, crispy tofu, and I was pleased with the meal.
Nothing like good old Szechuan cuisine.
Feeling more energetic than earlier, I seized the chance to go to the garage. Rubbing my hands in glee, I surveyed my tools and equipment, and then I began to start grabbing all the components and parts I needed to assemble my new war walker.
While I did so, I flipped the switch and smiled to myself as my product came to life.
"Excellent. Everything seems to be working just fine."
The arms were moving mechanically, the claws clacking. Welding torches waited for my signal before they ignited, and gears whirred. With my modifications, the hydraulic arms were a lot thinner and sleeker than the huge claw mounted upon the excavator. I had basically taken it off the construction vehicle and divided it into several arms using its parts.
Kind of like cellular division, except that the new arms weren't identical to their parent. I admired my handiwork once more, and then returned my attention to the components.
No sooner had I began to stat assembling when the door to my garage was blown off and a group of armored soldiers rushed in, opening fire upon my position.