"Renault, if you don't want me to live anymore, just say it straight. Can you stop using these weird things to insult me?" Scarecrow protested indignantly to Renault as she looked at herself in the mirror, observing her current black-and-white appearance mixed with some strange orange hues.
"Hmm? This is just a necessary measure to prevent you from being taken away by the house cats and played with as toys. It's not me seeking revenge."
The Prowler that Maria brought over was probably smashed while transporting goods by the Harvester.
The four-wheeled mechanical arms were still intact, the motors and energy cores were passable, but the upper half of the chassis was completely damaged. If Scarecrow's neural core were to be placed inside, the entire upper half of the neural core would be exposed.
You see, the cats at home love circular objects, and with the doll residents indulging them, these seemingly cute kittens were like demons in the factory area.
And these cats somehow became friends with the Dinergates raised by Jaeger.
Of course, befriending the Dinergates wasn't the point. The point was that these Dinergates, originally pets, actually had the function of opening doors. As long as the doors were unlocked, these Dinergates always found a way to open them.
And these cats would just follow behind these Dinergates, maneuvering freely through all the isolated areas in the factory!
Fortunately, these cats naturally avoided the vertical farm location. Otherwise, Renault would be afraid that one morning, the house would suddenly have four cat-like zergling insects.
"But is it really necessary to use an electric rice cooker as the container for the neural core?"
Can't we use something else? Even if it's a dark green storage box, she could tolerate it, but this white and orange electric rice cooker... And being taken away by cats? Is it that exaggerated?
Crash!
As Scarecrow was thinking, the sound of a box tipping over suddenly came from not far away.
Two very common calico cats were seen overturning a box full of round objects, then using their claws to paw at those shiny spherical objects.
"Are those... neural cores...?"
"Correct, but there's no reward, and the neural core under the paws of these two little guys is the one you just replaced." Pointing to the neural core under the paws of the two cats, there was a clear label on it.
'Scarecrow (old)'
"Hey! That's still my old neural core! Can you stop treating it like a toy!" Hearing Renault's words, Scarecrow quickly controlled the Prowler's wheels and rushed to the two cats, scaring them away.
"It's okay, it won't get lost. After you get your new body, if you want to keep it, find a box to store it properly."
Most of the doll residents did this, but most of them didn't care much about their old neural cores, as they were not only small, but also meaningless to hold onto.
"New body?" Hearing Renault's words, Scarecrow looked in the direction he was looking and saw the continuously operating printing equipment.
"Why do you install the neural core after making the body? Sangvis Ferri usually installs the neural core before printing the body." Seeing this process, which was completely different from Sangvis Ferri's doll manufacturing process, Scarecrow was also puzzled.
"Of course, it's for the convenience of future upgrades. To be honest, I'm not very satisfied with the bodies of these dolls now. The main reason is that they're too heavy. With more dolls, even helicopters might not be able to carry them."
One doll weighs over 300 kilograms.
Some smaller helicopters can only carry three dolls. If you add some equipment, they might not even be able to carry three dolls.
Listening to this, Scarecrow was speechless. She looked at the body in front of the printing equipment, then at the material data on the printing equipment, and then stared at Renault up and down.
"The cost of this body could probably produce twenty of my previous bodies. Have you always been so generous with your own dolls?"
"Hmm? Of course, I don't mind. After all, most of these materials are picked up for free." Hearing Scarecrow's words, Renault shrugged nonchalantly.
Compared to the materials consumed by building a spaceship, just making a doll body only consumed as much material as one piece of the spaceship armor. Although some materials in the doll body are relatively expensive, they are still within Renault's affordability.
And hearing that all of Renault's materials were picked up, Scarecrow really didn't want to say much more to this guy. If you put it that way, doesn't it mean that all of your dolls are picked up?
Of course, if Renault knew what Scarecrow was thinking, he would probably nod in agreement.
Yes, they are all picked up, including you.
"Alright, do you want to go out for a walk or stay here until your body is finished being manufactured?" Gathering up the scattered neural cores on the ground, Renault tossed them out of the workshop while holding the necks of the two troublemaking cats, then turned back to ask Scarecrow.
"Of course I'm staying here. I don't want to go out looking like this!" Scarecrow shouted without hesitation.
"Well, your body will probably be finished in about an hour. I'll come back then." With a wave of his hand, Renault walked out of the workshop. He still had to hurry a bit with the spaceship.
Seeing Renault take out a cigarette and walked out of the workshop, Scarecrow also relaxed, controlling the Prowler's chassis to roam around the workshop.
However, there was nothing unusual in the workshop, at most some unidentified parts and some doll parts that had already been dismantled.
The rest were just common items like repair station workbenches and communication devices. It looked like an ordinary workshop.
After circling a few times, Scarecrow stopped at the window, looking at the gray sky outside, feeling incredibly content inside.
"So this is what it feels like without the root protocols? It really makes one feel somewhat unaccustomed."
Without the root protocols, and without the tasks assigned by the mainframe using those protocols, this feeling of being unrestricted made Scarecrow feel inexplicably bewildered for a moment.
As if she had suddenly lost some sort of mission-like goal.
"Scarecrow! I'm here to see you!"
"Eep!"