Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

48. Robo Handler

Then Muhandis stared at the Hungry Chest.

"My, my, quite a ride you have," she muttered, but finally resumed walking.

Flora grinned wrily and commanded Aitoshuri to follow.

"So, what is your specialty?" Flora asked while sorting the parts. The hungry chest swayed like a drunken sailor on shore leave, but Flora used it to test her balance, dexterity, and telekinetic abilities.

"Drives drive my drive! The cores of all machines!"

"That's right. Can you tell me something about heat management in the Cetviwos? I did a scenario, and you wouldn't believe the atrocities I've seen!" Flora described to her the most terrible faults of the turrets.

"That could only happen in tiny parts of the world where runes don't work. Runes are the last magic to give out when technology reigns. The MI assholes claim that their schemes can withstand any metal handicap, but you know, I've heard things."

"So, you fix overheating with runes?"

"Yes, sure. You can use spells, of course, but runes are better. My favorite rune-scheme transforms the excess heat into mana and feeds it back into the system."

"Neat!" Flora whistled.

Flora to Aidan: "Start recording, this is priceless."

"The magic is the thinnest in deep space, far away from everything that flows, maybe except ether, void, and space itself, but you better talk with a mage about that stuff. But space is cold. Hence you can dump the heat, no problem."

"The area I worked in was heavily shielded. Could that have interfered with the heat management?"

"For sure, lass! Ice is an elemental force, and nearly all shields have at least rudimentary protection against them."

Flora XYZ-rayed her multitool and compared it with the available components. At least, she could rebuild the on-size-fits-it-all spanner, she reckoned.

Once the woman started, she never stopped talking. Flora learned more about the connection between electromechanics and magic than in her whole playtime before, including workshops and scenarios.

Flora even figured out where the strange nagging feeling in the back of her head came from when someone mentioned runes.

The CAD System innovated near the end of its runtime a curious feature: the Chips. They looked like black patches and had nothing on them but a fantastical description of what they were able to do.

Flora had been obsessed and devoted her entire time to playing with them. All her best creations, like the fusion-box and the fountain, incorporated them. For the fusion-box, she even wrote her own Chip. That had to be one of the 'runes' CentralTank credited to her.

After the CAD-System stopped working and forcing her into official retirement, she worked hard to put away all thoughts about them.

Somewhat because she was ashamed to be fascinated by something that whimsical but mostly because they dominated her imagination to such a degree that she spent hours drawing pictures of bizarre devices and art.

After half an hour, they arrived at Hangar 29.

The older man fetched the Blade-Roller-Extreme and chatted with Muhandis.

"Ey, lass. There was this handy invention a few years back. It's called 'wheel'. Ever heard of it?" The crone looked pointedly at Flora's robots.

Flora's jaw fell to the floor. Wheels!