I! Cleaner!

What?

After listening to Leon's thoughts, Feiliya's originally precise and smooth soul suddenly experienced an extremely bizarre disruption, as if a heap of sand were poured into a tightly meshing gear set, almost directly getting stuck.

What does it mean... A cute girl like you, if punched, would certainly cry for a long time? I've been so polite to him, and I look so cute and respectful, why would he want to punch me?

What is his motive for doing such a thing?

What is the purpose behind this statement?

Where is the logic in all this?

What feedback should I provide?

How should a human react?

And at the moment when Princess Feiliya was at a loss for how to react, her expression completely frozen, a deafening rumble seemed to resound like the simultaneous stamping of tens of thousands of horses, twenty-three blocks away in an underground building buried under a lake.

"?!"

"What's going on?"

"Atifei-01 has started computing?"

Noticing the abnormal operation of the number one machine intelligence, seemingly engaged in some very complex calculation, all the humans in the underground building who were initially attending to their respective tasks suddenly became alert, stopping their work and swarming like ants towards the largest control panel in the main hall.

Meanwhile, behind the huge glass façade of the main hall, the gigantic apparatus wrapped in strange gelatinous material and immersed completely in the lake water was operating at an extremely terrifying speed.

In that enormous apparatus, which is on average more than fifteen meters high and occupies an area nearly the size of two football fields, countless hair-thin metal connecting rods were rapidly pushing, like pounding garlic, according to their own sixteen milled grooves, driving the billions of gears at the ends to continuously spin.

Those grain-sized gears would pause, almost imperceptibly to the naked eye, every sixty-fourth of a second, and at the moments these precise gears paused, the sliding grooves tangent to them would briefly open, touching the dot matrix grid responsible for recording data behind, leaving rows of puncture points several times finer than pinpricks...

"What's happening?!"

Seeing the gigantic apparatus which had mobilized almost one-twentieth of its regions, the scholars who hurried over were quick to surround the control panel, launching an indignant denunciation against the fifty-plus operators who looked dumbfounded.

"Stop it quickly! Do you know how much energy is consumed by computing in such a state for even one second?!"

"Who applied for Atifei-01's computing permission? Damn it, the consumption of number wheels and dot matrices is too rapid!"

"Speak up! What are you bastards calculating?!"

"Silence!"

Picking up a fallen chair from beside him, slamming it twice onto the side of the metal instrument panel, drowning out the scholars' denunciations with the loud noise, a middle-aged man with graying temples, whose collar was embroidered with half a mechanical clock, and who appeared of quite high status, angrily spoke:

"Shut up! Listen to me first!"

"No one applied for Atifei's computation today! The calculation currently ongoing was initiated by itself!"

Initiated by Atifei itself?

After hearing the shift manager's explanation, the scholars couldn't help but look at one another, yet they didn't quiet down but instead erupted in a more intense uproar.

"How could that be! With Atifei's computing power, it wouldn't struggle even if recording the scales of every fish in this lake!"

"Yes, the last time it calculated travel data for 1.3 million people, the mobilization extent was only about a third of this!"

"Could it be that 'measurement of world's basic elements' project again?"

"It shouldn't be, wasn't it said that with the current conditions it couldn't fully compute, and it stopped after calculating just over sixty?"

"Everyone shut up!"

Once again hammering the metal instrument panel, suppressing the scholars' clamor, the gray-templed person in charge frowned tightly and spoke:

"This is Atifei's own computation, meaning we can't stop it, hurry back to your own work, don't block the control room! Get out! Scholars below level three, out!"

After cursing a couple of times, chasing away a portion of the scholars, the person in charge returned to the console and began questioning Atifei-01, trying to find out what exactly it was computing.

After a delay of several seconds, the crazily running machinery behind the glass façade finally slowed down slightly, and soon, from the speaking tubes on either side of the instrument panel, came a female voice around thirteen-fourteen years old synthesized from rapid knocking sounds.

"Question, what motivates a psychologically healthy male human to unprovokedly attack a cute young female, and attempt to calculate the precise duration of her crying?"

???

What the hell kind of question is this?

Listening to the lifelike confused tone simulated by Atifei-01, the remaining scholars in front of the console looked at each other in bewilderment.

Unprovokedly attacking a cute young female and then listening to her cry... isn't that beastly behavior? Are you sure this thing is mentally sound?

"I might know the reason..."

Just when the scholars, with an average age of over forty, were collectively stumped by Atifei-01's question, a twenty-something female scholar in the corner of the main hall hesitantly raised her hand.

"I guess this might also be a form of affection… right?"

Under the gaze of numerous bigwigs, the young female scholar with the lowest level scholar badge hanging on her chest shyly said, blushing:

"My sister gave birth to a child last year, and when I saw that child's rosy little face, I couldn't resist the urge to pinch it secretly... I feel it might be for this reason..."

A form of affection?

After hearing the young female scholar's guess, the other scholars in the main hall recalled and immediately revealed an expression of sudden realization.

Indeed, they've perhaps done similar things themselves; upon seeing particularly cute little children, there's indeed always a strange urge to tease or bully them slightly.

Noticing the consensus expressed by the scholars, Atifei finally obtained the answer and ceased its frantic computation, and the gigantic apparatus behind the glass façade also quieted down again.

Subsequently, twenty-three blocks away, Princess Feiliya, who had been standing by the roadside for a while, raised her beautifully crafted little face, wrinkled her nose at Leon, and smiled tentatively with a tinge of shyness.

"Thank you for your affection, but it'd be better if you didn't do this."

"???"

I want to hit you, and you actually thank me? And with such embarrassment?

Watching as Feiliya, after a brief chaos, gradually restored her original precise mechanical feel, losing once again the 'human warmth' in her soul, Leon couldn't help but frown, then confirmed his speculation.

Indeed, the royal family of the Crolock Kingdom has been thoroughly controlled, and that intelligent machine named Atifei-01 might have found a way to harness the abnormal object, exerting influence over the souls of the royal family members.

Thinking of this, Leon couldn't help but glance at Princess Feiliya with pity.

What a good child she is, obedient, cute, and polite, yet she has been controlled by the abnormal object; surely this warrants some assistance. As for how to help...

Recalling the moment of deliberate provocation earlier, the way Feiliya's soul finally lost its precision and began to waver like a normal human's, a flash of realization appeared in Leon's eyes.

She needs stimulation! She needs to be thoroughly stimulated!