I winced a bit, but it was good that I wasn't the reason he was angry. If he stopped coming to Ambra's house, then I would definitely die in that shithole, or run away to end being in an army funded orphanage. Both were equally worse.
I stayed silent for a bit. As I nodded in appreciation, I looked around Antonio's garage, I could smell ozone in here, "So is this... like where you live, or do you just work here and go back home, far away from this dangerous area?"
Antonio was currently crouching down, inspecting the tire of Brian's car. He replied, "Oh, nah. This is my home and my workshop. I mean, I have to be here when my customers want urgent work done. So it's better to live here and it's not a bad place to live, you know. Not many people come into this neighborhood, so it's as silent as it can be."
'Great. Of all the places he could have found to live, he found this neighborhood.'
"What got you thinking so hard Arwin? And what about you Brian? You just gonna stand there looking around nervously? Make yourself at home kids." He gestured around his garage, with shelfs and tools littered on tables. Tires were placed in one corner and tanks which contained water? I guessed it was to clean the mud off the cars or something else his customers wouldn't want on their vehicle.
A couch was conveniently placed against the wall, directly pointing towards the metal elevator through which we had entered.
I looked around a bit more and then at the closed door where Brian had disappeared. I asked, "Are you sure he is okay in there? Shouldn't you go in and like, console him or something?"
"What do you mean by something?"
"Uh, offer him a drink? So you guys can drown in your sorrows and remember all the good times you all spent together," I suggested.
He barely held back his laughter as he said, "Yeah, if I offer him drinks, he would just quietly sit and brood over himself and definitelynot go do something stupid while drunk."
"Like making the ones responsible pay?"
"Yeah, like maki-" he stopped working on the car and looked at me, "Arwin is it? You are good, you know, trying to get details out of me. Good attempt, kiddo." Now I knew where Brian had learned his vocabulary from.
Patting the car, he walked towards us, which caused kid Brian who was nervously looking around to stand in front of me and shield me from Antonio.
Antonio looked with interest at the sudden burst of courage, but just as he was about to speak. A loud growl came from kid Brian's stomach stopping him in his track. Kid Brian looked nervously at Antonio, unperturbed by his own hunger.
"It appears that I have not been a great host to my young little guests. Let me offer you guys something and take that big boy out of his brooding as well."
He opened the door to see Brian standing directly in front of him.
"Brooding?" Brian asked.
"Oh, if you were listening, you should have joined us, rather than just skulking around in a dark room." he gestured to the dark room Brian had exited from.
"Skulking?" Brian continued with anger, "All of this is just happening too fast. Yesterday he was alive and well, and now? Gone, poof! like a fucking magician's trick. Just FuckingGONE."
Kid Brian flinched, as even I could see dark expression color Antonio's face before disappearing.
Brian breathed out heavily as his shoulders slumped. Antonio's hand rested on his shoulder, gripping it tightly.
"We all feel the same Brian, we do. But doing anything right now and in haste is predictable, that's what they want. Also you bought your Protégé and his friend here." He directed Brian's attention to us, watching the conversation unfold between them.
Brian frowned, as Antonio continued, "Nah, it doesn't matter now. This kid checks out, he is smart, and feels competent. Now about actually being competent? That we need to feel out later. But yeah, he's got a good head on shoulders that's for sure."
Brian nodded as his frown fell apart.
"Ok, now that's done. What do you guys wanna eat? I have got frozen French fries, burger—wait you kids ever had fried chicken? I also have that. Come on, we got many things to talk about," Antonio asked.
I looked at kid Brian. He looked back at me before I finally nodded.
"I uh, we are your guests uncle Antonio. We would eat anything you offer."
"Oh! No, no I am not an uncle like this guy, just call me big brother or brother Ant for short."
I nodded at his weird nickname, but who was I to say. Anyway we went inside the dark room Brian was brooding in, except the lights were turned on and goddamn the place looked straight out of sci-fi nerd's wet dreams. The walls were reinforced with steel plates, boxes filled with spare android parts. There was also a work desk with many monitors, small tools littered on the desk. It also had a kitchen on the right side of the room.
"Con, prepare food for my guests." Antonio ordered.
An Android similar to Axel walked towards us and asked in surprisingly human tone about the food we preferred, I was unable to tell the model of it. As it was heavily modified, especially the illegal ones at that and custom painted. Making it hard to pinpoint the model and its capability.
"Come on kids, don't be shy. Especially you Brian. Not you, big guy."
"Kid, your stomach sounded hungrier than what little you are asking. Both of you are growing kids. And you Arwin are just being polite, so come on. I always have frozen food around, so much in fact that I have to throw them away once a week to clear out for fresh frozen food."
'Fresh frozen food? If by food you meant junk food, then they are not fresh by a long shot.' But even that was something to be thankful for.
Both of us ordered more, even Brian ordered a soft drink with fries.
Con went to kitchen, and the room suddenly fell into darkness, spooking me, only for the projector to turn on and display a screen for different channels. Antonio started a random movie for us.
It was definitely to get us relaxed and get comfortable being here.
***
We ate the food while kid Brian was entranced by the movie. I waited for kid Brian to finish his, as I had given him my portion of food because he would only order as much as I did.
"So, did you modify Con by yourself?" I asked.
"Hm? The robot? Nah, I bought it, although it took weeks and some favors where to buy Con without alerting the authorities."
"Wait, if others can crack it. Why haven't the company done anything? If their android's security can be cracked. Is there an army of rogue androids hiding in underground sewers, waiting for the perfect opportunity?" I asked with interest as for all the things I may have written, I couldn't possibly write every tiny bit of world-building, and also to appear as an innocent yet smart child ever curious about the world.
"Haha, one question at a time kid. Well... I don't know about the others but what I do know is that these people who can do it are either already in the employment for those companies or hiding like rats in the corners of the city, 'cause once the CAT gets a sniff of you, they corner you and hunt you down."
"CAT?" I asked.
"Yeah, CAT or Cybercrime Assessment Taskforce. It is a cybercrime to hack any humanoid robot manufactured by the big three, and before you ask what big Three are. There are only Three companies internationally that are legally authorized to manufacture humanoid robots."
"So-o who are the-these 3 companies?" Kid Brian meekly asked as even he seemed interested. It seemed he had also been listening on the conversation while watching the movie.
"They are RD or Robot Dimension they produce mass produce cheap and domestic robots, Axiom the company which prioritizes on high end premium robots and finally the Milestone company who also focus on mass producing cheap robots."
He continued, "And for you Arwin, the reason why these companies do nothing is simple. They know if any terrorist attack ever happens, then the UAC will crack down, and start uprooting any gangs, criminals and other crime groups they come across. So it has become an unwritten rule to never use an android in any attacks, cause if you do then what will come for you isn't humans or robots, but the 'Awakened Ones'."
"An-and what is th-the awakened-ed ones-"
Even I was impressed by the detail. A story I had written was a simple one. Which made it harder for me to understand, how all of this was possible.
'Did that bastard create this world according to my story like, 'Let there be light' kind of bullshit, or did he drug me and I am in a coma fantasizing about my own story, or maybe my past life was an imaginary lie, something I had fed myself, ever since I was young.'
'Is this world real or not? Or am I insane? I mean, I don't feel like I am insane or have any mental illness. I've felt lucid ever since my birth, and I am pretty sure that is not normal even in a world of magic and advanced technology.'
Recently I had been feeling like my previous life was all some made up fantasy or something, ever since I turned three. My memory of my past-life felt as real as the memories I had been making now, but the memories from my re-birth to when I was three years old felt like lucid dream I had just woken from. There was always this nagging feeling at the back of my head, was this because my infant brain was still developing, so all the memories from my re-birth to three years old were like a drunk dream, or-
"What are you thinking so hard about, kiddo?" I get interrupted by Antonio, as kid Brian had also finished his meal and Brian had fallen asleep on the bed.
It seemed only kid Brian was asking questions while I was daydreaming.
"No... its nothing I was just thinking how to change the voice and language model—wait you know how to hack androids, right?"
He held his hands up, "Hold up kid, why do you think I can hack a robot."
I pointed towards Con standing against the wall, waiting for new orders.
"And why do you think I am the one who hacked Con, I mean I just said I bought him from someone who knows how to do that."
I pointed towards Brian, who was peacefully sleeping, "He said he had a friend who knew how to change the language model and owed him a favor or two. Then he brought me to meet you, so obviously it's you—" I stopped for a moment to think about what I had said in front of kid Brian, I muttered, "Ah shit."
I knew I had fucked up, while kid Brian looked confused. Antonio, on the other hand, was smiling.
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AN: The old ch "10" was posted on 31/12/2025. The old ch 10 had 3900 words, still not the longest ch.