Reboot: Mechanic

Vanessa arched an eyebrow at Shi Tian's question, clearly intrigued by his suggestion. "Vent my frustration? You mean like hitting a punching bag or something?"

Shi Tian nodded. "Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it helps to release pent-up emotions physically."

Vanessa considered his proposal for a moment, then sighed and stepped out of her room. "Sure, why not? I could use some stress relief."

Walking out of her room, she glanced at the living room in confusion. 

"Didn't you say about a punching bag? Where is the punching bag then?" She then asked, looking left and right, seemingly searching for the punching bag item. 

Meanwhile, Shi Tian was a bit speechless that she really took his words literally. 

Vanessa's confusion about the missing punching bag left Shi Tian slightly bewildered.

He scratched his head sheepishly before responding, "Ah, right. About that... I may have misspoken. There's no actual punching bag here."

"Huh? Then why did you nod your head?" Dumbfounded, Vanessa looked at him as if he was joking with her. 

"Because it had a figurative meaning, but you took it as the literal meaning." Shi Tian facepalmed and said, realizing that it might have something to do with his personality that made her believe he wasn't the type to joke or say something sarcastically. 

"So you're saying someone deserved to be a punching bag for me to vent?" She asked for confirmation.

Shi Tian nodded his head, relaying the information that Mary had told him about. 

A few minutes later, Vanessa absorbed the information as she flashed a sinister smile. 

"Indeed, that fucking manager pretty much screw us over back then, but he still has the nerve to cause a scene." She cracked her knuckles and sneered coldly. 

It was clear that she was beyond furious that Robert Cook didn't know his place and still wanted to cause a scene. 

"Let's go and beat the shit out of him," Vanessa scoffed coldly, resorting to using vulgarities. She couldn't care less about her appearance or being dignified when someone was literally stepping over her as if she was nothing.

In fact, she didn't even bother to wait for Shi Tian's response as she rushed toward the exit door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Shi Tian had to literally raise his tone slightly to halt her.

Pausing her footsteps, she turned to him, "Obviously to the Horology Restaurant and beat him up. Where else do you think I would be going?" 

Smiling bitterly, Shi Tian had to explain something to her. 

"The Horology Restaurant might have reopened given that the repair was finished thanks to Magus, but that doesn't mean it's safe to go there." He said, informing him that going to the Horology Restaurant now would be foolish. 

"Then what was the point of telling me?"

"I know you're frustrated, but use your brain a little bit. Robert Cook is a manager, but that doesn't mean he lives in the restaurant. He still has to go home once he finishes his work, and Mary has given me the path that Robert Cook always takes. We can just ambush him on the path." Shi Tian sighed softly and clarified everything. 

It was honestly a waste of breath, but he felt the need to let Vanessa know everything from start to finish.

"Tsk, should have told me sooner then. Why are you trying to conceal information?" Vanessa clicked her tongue and crossed her arm. 

Shi Tian raised an eyebrow at Vanessa's response. 

'Conceal information? I didn't intentionally hold anything back. I just didn't think you'd be so ready to charge into a potentially dangerous situation.' He wanted to say these words aloud but decided not to and just accepted the blame.

After all, arguing with a frustrated person would definitely escalate the situation more, and he had no plan of arguing pointlessly as to who was right and who was wrong.

"Anyway, this is Robert Cook's usual path, but today is the day that he would need to personally go to a warehouse to check up on stock. Hence, this is the perfect opportunity to ambush him and teach him a good lesson." Shi Tian projected a map through his Cellos device and explained.

"Not just teach him a good lesson, it's to vent my frustration and anger." Vanessa corrected, her eyes beamed in determination, clearly wanting to thrash Robert Cook thoroughly. 

However, Vanessa paused as she suddenly recalled Theobold had sent soldiers to protect their safety. 

"Wait, Commander Theobold's soldiers should be guarding us downstairs, so wouldn't they arrest us when they realized we are going to thrash Robert Cook?" She asked.

Shi Tian considered Vanessa's question and nodded. "You're right. Theobold's soldiers might intervene if they see us going after Robert Cook."

"Tsk, then there's no point at all."

"I haven't finished my sentence yet, Vanessa." He said with a somewhat exhausted tone.

Meanwhile, Vanessa was on the verge of thrashing Shi Tian as a substitute for Robert Cook.

He was clearly toying with her emotion constantly given that he kept speaking and cutting his sentence halfway through. 

Though that was merely her misconception, and that Shi Tian had no intention of toying with her. 

It was just that Vanessa seemed to have been overly affected by the battle that caused her mind to be clouded. 

"Didn't I just clarify to you about what Robert Cook was doing?" He asked calmly.

Vanessa nodded her head in agreement.

With that nod, Shi Tian smirked coldly and continued his explanation, "Commander Theobold's soldiers would surely stop us if we attempted to thrash Robert Cook, but that was before. The situation now has changed, and

Robert Cook was even pointing the spear at Commander Theobold. Now if you were a soldier of Commander Theobold, would you turn a blind eye if you saw someone thrashing the very person that complained about your commander?" 

"Aha, now I get it. Since Commander Theobold must have given his soldiers information about us, these soldiers would naturally give us some leeway. And we're practically doing them a favor by thrashing Robert Cook on their behalf." Vanessa laughed heartily. 

"Oh, Robert Cook… you fucked up big time!" She added, flashing a sinister smile, almost as if she could already imagine the pitiful fate of Robert Cook.