Nicholas and Edward spun around, spotting Merlin standing at the door, suitcase in hand.
Catching their gaze, Merlin gestured towards the door. "The door was open on my way here. Sorry to intrude."
Upon seeing Merlin, the pair realized, in a surge of panic, that they had inadvertently left the door open, potentially overlooking danger. Edward, remembering the person before him was a repairman, was about to speak when he heard Merlin continue.
"This is a mech's self-diagnostic program, a routine check after repairs. This mech must have been set by a previous repairman to run a timed self-diagnostic. The program automatically activates using the mech's internal power; cutting the power won't help."
Merlin moved a few steps closer, yet maintained a distance, without delving deeper into the repair shop. "Normally, self-diagnostic programs run without issues. However, if there's an error and you forcefully pause it without addressing the root cause, it could corrupt the mech's programming."
Nicholas, tense, asked, "What then?"
Merlin simply responded, "The loss of internal data." He added, "Without backups or saved settings by your repairman, the consequences could be severe."
Nicholas clenched his teeth. "That jerk probably didn't save the data."
The K&D mechs had been under the care of a rule-breaking team medic, only recently handed over to Pearl for supervision.
Merlin added, "This isn't something the machine can fix on its own; a repairman is needed. It's best resolved soon, as running the self-diagnostic continuously, even without issues, could lead to problems."
Nicholas's face grew tense upon hearing this. "What kind of problems?"
"Data corruption, or at worst, system paralysis."
Nicholas, bewildered, asked, "Is there a difference?"
Damaged if paused, paralyzed if not!
Merlin noticed their puzzled expressions and hesitated before speaking. "Is there another repairman on site?"
Without any repairman, K&D was already running on a skeleton crew. The off-season had seen people taking vacations or resigning, with others trickling out over time.
It was a hard pill to swallow, but now, aside from their AI repair bots, K&D had no other repairman.
Merlin, observing the error notifications on the virtual display and noting the duo's dismay, surveyed the room. The repair area, fraught with tension due to the malfunctioning mech, also contained other parts in various states of disassembly. Near the programming station to the left was a disassembled mech. Merlin, aware of the rumors about K&D's mech data leaks with the seller still unidentified, could sense the desolation.
The base felt deserted, devoid of life save for the robots.
"Our boss isn't around, and we have no repairman on site," Nicholas admitted, hesitant to touch any buttons on the programming station. "You're a repairman, is there anything you can do here?"
After a moment of thought, Merlin pushed his suitcase aside and vaulted over the railing from the higher platform directly into the cluttered repair room.
"Hey, wait," Edward tried to interject.
Before Nicholas could speak, he heard from below, "Mind if I borrow a mechanical cutter?"
"What do you need the cutter for?" Nicholas, poised to follow, hesitated. "Dude, don't mess things up, okay?"
"Cool it, the guy's certified," Edward reassured, holding him back and shouting to Merlin, "Bro, can you fix it?"
"I can stop the alarm," Merlin called back up to Nicholas, "Don't worry, I won't dismantle your 'baby'."
Edward watched as Merlin picked up a sizable tool from the ground, then hopped onto the mech's knee and carefully made his way up its outstretched arm to the cockpit. Nicholas went over to open the cockpit door for him, and Merlin, without hesitation, slipped inside with the cutter.
Nicholas muttered, "He's got a cutter now."
Edward grew anxious. "He's got a certificate at least."
Nicholas, even more worried, countered, "But does a newbie's certificate enough? If he slips, my baby's gonna be missing parts!"
Just as Edward was about to offer some comforting words, he remembered Merlin's mechanical prosthetic limb and suddenly found himself at a loss for words. He whispered, "We didn't give him the mech's key codes, so he can't touch the core data... Should be fine, right?"
Nicholas, not bothered by these considerations, was about to jump down to intervene when something on the programming station caught his eye.
The virtual screen, which had been flashing error messages, suddenly stopped. The topmost error message blinked once and then disappeared.
The error vanished...?
Nicholas immediately turned his attention to Merlin, just in time to see him emerging from the cockpit and then climbing onto the mech's right arm.
Edward, watching Merlin, blinked in surprise. "He seems genuinely competent."
The mech had suffered significant damage the previous season, particularly its right arm, which bore the brunt of a critical fracture. Since Merlin's arrival, they hadn't divulged any specifics about the mech's condition nor its repair history.
The dimly lit room made it difficult to discern the exterior details of the mech, but Merlin had headed straight for the damaged area right after exiting the cockpit, his purpose clear.
It appeared that Merlin truly knew how to repair it, and he seemed quite skilled at it.
Merlin sat at the junction where the right arm meets the torso, securing himself with his feet, not needing any additional tools, moving effortlessly... He glanced at his feet briefly before shifting his focus back to the nearly reattached right arm, where repair marks were clearly visible.
If the mech's self-diagnostic program had been set, it would indeed activate at a time point after repairs.
It was obvious that the person who set the self-diagnostic program was not the same one who repaired the mech. The right arm was only halfway fixed, and if Pearl had been handling the repairs, she wouldn't have made such a mistake.
Activating self-diagnostic on a half-repaired mech and not expecting alarms would be odd.
Merlin closely inspected the junction of the right arm, glanced at the tools on the ground, and then jumped off the mech.
Nicholas, leaving Edward by the programming station, approached Merlin, who was searching through a parts table nearby.
"Can this be fixed?" Nicholas asked.
Merlin glanced at him, picked up a tool from the table, and while walking back said, "It can be fixed."
Nicholas, still uncertain, wanted to ask more, but Merlin had already climbed back onto the mech, returning to the right arm.
Soon, Merlin's voice came from above.
Nicholas looked up to see Merlin seated atop the mech, looking down at him. Merlin asked, "Is the pilot of this mech left-handed?"
Nicholas, taken aback, responded, "Yes."
Merlin's gaze lingered on the fracture of the right arm. "Alright, I've got it."