In the end, Shark Chili ended up spending the night in Zhang Da Ye's room.
At first, Zhang Da Ye was curious how uncomfortable it might be to sleep while dragging around that long shark tail. But Shark Chili turned out to be far more flexible than expected—he could bend his tail off to the side like a braid, so it didn't get in the way of lying down.
The next morning, Zhang Da Ye strapped on his regular training weights, then shouldered Tom's specialized ones, ready to head out for morning exercise and to look for a carpenter.
Shark Chili immediately spoke up, "How could you go training without me?!"
So today's run looked a little strange. Everyone else was jogging normally, but Shark Chili was more like… power walking.
Without knee joints, his two legs could only take short, choppy steps forward. But even so, his speed was no joke—he kept up with Zhang Da Ye effortlessly, hardly needing to exert himself.
And then, Shark Chili got beaten up.
"Run, Da Ye!"
"Damn fish-man, don't you dare hurt Da Ye!"
"This is a human island, get out of here!"
A bunch of well-meaning neighbors and passersby saw them running together and thought Shark Chili was a fish-man chasing Zhang Da Ye. Some threw trash at him, others grabbed mops and chairs and swung them at him.
"Ow!" Shark Chili yelped as something hit him, completely clueless as to why.
"It's a misunderstanding!" Zhang Da Ye, Artoria, and Rui Meng Meng quickly surrounded Shark Chili, blocking people from attacking him further.
"He's a robot, not a fish-man!"
Zhang Da Ye felt half helpless, half amused. On one hand, these people really were trying to protect him; on the other hand, their racial prejudice ran deep.
"A robot?" The crowd hesitated. Now that they looked closer, he really did seem like a hunk of metal.
"Thanks for your concern, but this is our tavern's new robot—Shark Chili," Zhang Da Ye explained.
"That's right, I'm a robot." Shark Chili still didn't get what was going on, but went along with it, knocking on his chest to make a hollow metallic clang.
Apparently, B-series robots had rules against harming ordinary people. Even the Cockroach Gang, when they were down on the streets and starving, thought about finding work instead of using their transformation abilities to rob anyone. And since Shark Chili had mellowed a lot recently, he didn't get angry or retaliate even after being attacked.
"So he really is a robot? Well then, why buy a robot like that?"
"He wasn't bought… never mind. Don't you think Shark Chili looks cool?" Zhang Da Ye didn't bother over-explaining. They'd understand with time.
"Now that you mention it, he is pretty handsome." The moment they realized he wasn't a fish-man, everyone's attitude flipped. Now they were curious about what functions he had, if he could transform, things like that.
Zhang Da Ye humored them a bit, told them to drop by the tavern later, then led his group away.
"Why did they react like that? What are fish-men?" Shark Chili asked while jogging alongside Zhang Da Ye, wanting to avoid more confusion.
"You've heard of racial discrimination, right?" Zhang Da Ye replied.
Shark Chili managed a nod—surprisingly nimble for someone without a neck.
So Zhang explained the situation of the fish-men and the island they were on. "Sorry. I didn't think it through this morning, bringing you out like this. You ended up getting wronged because of it."
"It's fine, just a misunderstanding." Shark Chili shrugged it off. "But I didn't expect there to be such amazing races here."
"There's more. Besides fish-men, there are giants, dwarves, and others. The tavern's got books on the basics of this world—you should check them out later," Zhang said.
"No problem. I learn quickly. And if there's too much material, I can always activate my sleep-learning mode," Shark Chili boasted.
"What's sleep-learning?" Rui Meng Meng asked. "Like studying while asleep?"
"More or less. For me, it means entering a sleep state while data gets uploaded. Once the upload's complete, I instantly know the information."
"That's so convenient! I'm jealous." Rui Meng Meng had always struggled in school, so she really admired that ability.
"It is convenient, but I don't use it casually—it has risks," Shark Chili explained. "For example, my buddy Ball Dragon once had his sleep-learning interrupted. It left him face-blind—he literally couldn't recognize women's faces. Caused him no end of trouble."
His partner was an incredibly beautiful policewoman, Miki Nakano. But because of his face-blindness, he kept mistaking other women for her. Truly the definition of "not knowing your wife is beautiful."
After leaving the crowd behind, they headed straight for the coast to avoid more problems, jogging along the shoreline until they reached Goodman's shipyard.
"Morning, Uncle. This is our tavern's new robot, Shark Chili," Zhang said, getting the introduction out of the way early.
"Eh? Morning… wait, did you say robot?" Goodman slid his axe back into his belt, caught off guard.
"Hello, I'm Shark Chili." The robot thumped his chest with a metallic bang.
"A robot? Really?!" The noise drew in a bunch of shipwrights, including Goodman's son, Bayer. They surrounded Shark Chili with sparkling eyes.
Before Zhang could explain, Shark Chili was already chatting and joking with them like old friends, blending right in.
Zhang couldn't help but sigh. As expected of someone who'd once been an executive—he was a natural-born extrovert.
After the excitement died down, Goodman finally asked, "So, kid, what brings you here today?"
"I came to hire some carpenters to renovate the house." Zhang laid out his request and asked Goodman to recommend a few people. "Didn't you say even your shipwrights can build houses?"
Goodman waved his hand. "Why bother others? I'll do it myself!"
"Won't that interfere with your work?" Zhang asked.
"Super Transformation Mode!" Shark Chili's voice rang out from the crowd.
Followed by gasps of awe: "So cool!" "Amazing!" "Incredible!"
Goodman pointed toward the crowd. "Do you see anyone here actually working right now?"
Even as he said it, his own eyes kept sneaking glances at Shark Chili. A robot! A transforming robot! If it could shoot lasers, it'd be perfect.
Clearly, in a shipyard full of craftsmen, a robot was bound to be even more popular. Some of them were probably already wondering if they could build one themselves.
Zhang considered it and realized things weren't really that busy after all. "Then I'll trouble you, Uncle."
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