At 6:59 p.m., Shang Luo entered the door on time. Three minutes later, Phaethon also came back after a day of work, and brought him dinner by the way. As well as purchased toothpaste, tea bags, instant noodle reserves, and toilet paper.

Dinner chicken thigh burger, roast duck rice, a soup, a glass of Coke, plus two packets of fries.

"This is the change for today's living expenses." She put 61 Wen in front of Shang Luo, which was the rest of the 100 Wen living expenses spent today.

"Huh?" Shang Luo was stunned for a moment, "Today's day's expenses, including procurement and dinner, are you spending so much?" ”

He gave Phaetong a little more money, and his own daily expenses did not exceed 20. After all, he can walk to school, eat in the cafeteria in the morning and evening, and spend some change on the rest. Occasionally, I have to go shopping, and it's only about 100 a week.

After Phaethon moved in, although she was paid a small salary, the standard of living expenses had been pulled to 100 per day - but Phaethon seemed to have a "discount radar", and he could buy discounted goods every time. But this time it was even more outrageous, dinner was brought back, plus three large bags of things, and it only cost less than 40.

He glanced at Phaethon, then looked down at the invoice. It's true, it's really bought.

"But these are almost 30, how did you solve it for ten dollars for dinner?"

"Dinner? It didn't cost anything for dinner. ”

"And what is this?"

"Today is my birthday, this is the staff meal delivered by the Golden Arches, I packed it back."

[Ahh That's right, today is August 12th, her birthday! 】

Seeing Shang Luo hesitate for a moment, Phaethon shook his head: "It's Apollonia who remembered." ”

"Well, she just remembered, too. Sorry, if I knew, it would have been for you. The 16th birthday is very important. ”

"Forget it, I didn't have a birthday since I was very young, and at this time, the company and the bank will remember my birthday"

"Then you won't eat it?"

"Today is Saturday, and Saturday happens to have a staff meal delivered, and I'm full. So I'll bring you another one to eat, well, I'll invite you. Didn't you say that birthdays are blessed? The blessing also shares a little bit with you. ”

"Thanks. Then I'll take it. ”

He took the Coke and took a sip. It seems that he has always been sharing blessings to others, and no one has given him blessings for a long time.

He looked up: "I said. You can take the change, you can use it yourself, and you don't have to pay it back to me. ”

"Really!"

"yes, yes. I believe in you, and I don't think our quality of life will go down even if we don't have change – and I think it will boost your motivation a little bit. After all, I'm still quite busy, and it's not an exaggeration to say that I have a lot of opportunities, and I don't have time to take care of my life. Hiring you to sort out the time for me is a good deal for both of us. ”

"Thank you. But I'm sorry! You trust me so much, I still betrayed you! I'm sorry! ”

"Huh? What's up? ”

"Actually, there's more to it than that."

As she spoke, she brought back a huge oil-paper bag from the door, which was neatly stacked with five or six layers of peach crisps, and weighed ten catties.

"Good fellows! Where did this come from??? ”

"I drew it. After going to the purchase, you can draw a lottery. I'm sorry! I would have liked to eat it myself! But you are so generous, I am so embarrassed. Let's share half of the peach cake with you! ”

Before you know it, there is a lot of stuff piled up on the coffee table. So much so that you can't finish it for a week.

"Anyway, you're really good," he looked at the peach cakes, and then at the other food on the table, "Did you use to do housework at home?" ”

"No, I have an automaton at home, so I don't have to do the housework myself."

"Automata? What is that? ”

"Huh? Don't you have one? I thought you must have something as simple as that. It's a clockwork doll. ”

"Clockwork dolls can do housework?"

"An automaton equipped with the Vulcan Core will do. Don't you have something similar? You have a noble person. ”

"No, no, no, these two are completely different."

"Exactly." "Because the underlying principle is the same, it is to capture the light between heaven and earth, produce artificial souls, and then incarnate them in machines. However, the technical path is different, and the Vulcan core uses lightning to capture, rather than using naturally occurring beans like you do. ”

"Is there any difference between the two in terms of use?"

"Well, the Vulcan core is fixed, fixed from the end of manufacturing. When activated by lightning, the artificial soul generated is bound to the machine itself. If the machine disappears, then the artificial soul will also be shattered. These automata are also hierarchical, the more advanced the automaton is, the more human-like they are, and the lower level automaton can only be bound to a fixed facility and act as a generator. Our domestic automata are quite advanced and can almost completely fulfill the functions of a human being, except for not being able to speak. ”

"So when you saw the Tianyi noble, you weren't so surprised?"

"It was a real surprise before I understood the principle. After understanding, it is much easier to accept. However, our application of automata is also quite limited, and the Muse, which is responsible for reviewing the ethics of technology, has always opposed this kind of behavior, because it is a kind of 'captivity' to use lightning to capture the wandering light at will. Well, so it's only a matter of time before the Colombian side parted ways with us, and they had irreconcilable contradictions with each side of the Senate, the Oracle House, and the Muse. ”

"This"

It's amazing, it's very powerful. Just by listening to it, you know that this is enough technology to change the world, enough to support a world-class power.

"I'll make sure. What is the 'Vulcan core' you just mentioned? ”

"That's the Syracle Academy of Paleo. To put it simply, that thing is a degraded version of the Divine Machine. The production version of the 'Vulcan core' is large and small, and when it is loaded into a machine, it can be considered an 'automaton'. The humanoid automaton can work like a human, but the performance depends on the design of the doll itself. A well-designed puppet can do complex household chores, including sweeping the floor, doing laundry, cooking, and more, with enough joints. Large automata can do heavier work, and what they all have in common is that they don't need energy. ”

"They're perpetual motion machines?"

Phaethon nodded: "Yes, that is the perpetual motion machine, which is the product of the intersection of the human body refining and the path of the Philosopher's Stone. ”

"Then they really don't need to input energy to use it?" Shang Luo asked. After all, that sounds like a lot of weirdness.

"There really is. But that's probably not input energy? Here's the thing: all Vulcan cores, when they are running, cause the temperature of the surroundings to drop. The lower the temperature, the slower the Vulcan core operates. So we usually use a water condensation system to maintain the temperature of the Vulcan core, so that the large automaton can run while spitting out ice cubes. Small automaton do not require water condensation and can be maintained at room temperature.

"So it's impossible to build an infinitely huge automaton, because it would instantly reduce the core temperature to the point where it can't be run. Automata can only operate normally if they are the right size and the right output power – so while it is true that no energy input is required, the job of 'cooling out' is actually quite tricky. Why, why are you looking at me like that? ”

"It turns out that the help hand is far away in the sky, close at hand! Can you get one for me? The person I want to shake, it's up to you. ”

(End of chapter)