Reboot: Mechanic

Mary ignored the cautiousness that Vanessa had invoked as she took a snippet of the paused video.

Pasting the image into the software, Mary started to type some code, with the first phrase converting the image to grayscale.

By turning the image into grayscale, Mary essentially erased all traces of the other colors that would have hindered her findings. At the same time, she wrote a code that manually does a histogram on the grayscale image.

The histogram was a graph that showed the frequency of numerical data using rectangles. The height of a rectangle (the vertical axis) represented the distribution frequency of a variable (the amount, or how often that variable appeared).

The goal of doing a histogram was to illustrate the major features of the distribution of the data in a convenient form.

While Mary was focused on digital image processing, Vanessa's solemn expressions were gradually broken down when she saw all that technical stuff.

"Ugh, kill me now," Vanessa shook her head, unwilling to look at all that complicated stuff.

"You can work on digital image processing. I won't bother you any longer." She then said, swiftly leaving her area and walking toward Shi Tian.

Rather than killing her eyes with the graphing of histograms and other complicated code, she would rather look at Shi Tian doing some physical things.

At the very least, she could see Shi Tian building each part meticulously before assembling them together.

However, she didn't realize that she wasn't that welcome.

"Could you move aside a bit and not block the light?" Shi Tian asked when Vanessa was standing precisely at a spot that blocked off the light that allowed him to see the miniature parts.

Vanessa clicked her tongue when Shi Tian was indirectly calling her a nuisance to his work and telling her to get out of the way.

Pouting slightly, Vanessa decided to grab a chair to sit and purposely block off the light from Shi Tian.

Shi Tian was speechless at how petty Vanessa could get.

"Vanessa, I'm trying to work on a serious business here. So can we not act willfully here?" Shi Tian asked softly, almost as if he was conversing with a little kid.

Although Vanessa stayed silent, she still subsequently moved her chair and let the light shine on the equipment at the desk.

At the same time, she glanced at Shi Tian and asked somewhat depressingly, "Am I that annoying to you? Why are you always treating me so coldly?"

She had flexed a bit against Olivia Harrett to help pacify the tense atmosphere, so she thought he would have complimented her a little bit.

But who would have thought Shi Tian to not even praise her a little bit?

It wasn't easy to scare off Olivia Harrett, because she could tell not a single person in that scene was capable of scaring her off. Only she was able to, and without her intervention, who knows if his plan would be foiled in place.

After all, if Theobold was subsequently sent away by Olivia Harrett, then whatever Shi Tian had established with Phoebe would become null.

Putting his soldering iron down for a moment, Shi Tian turned to Vanessa.

With a deep breath, he explained, "That's just who I am, Vanessa. I'm not a friendly person, and I don't wish to get too close to someone."

"But you are close with Mary."

"That's because Mary and I have some sort of a negotiation deal. She and Optic Mech will provide me resources whereas I will become a decoy for them once the New Region opens up. In other words, we're in a transaction relationship, and not a friendly relationship."

"Then why don't you ask to cooperate with me?" Vanessa tilted her head slightly and asked.

And she continued, "What Optic Mech can provide you, I'm sure with my resources, it'll be better than them. And don't give me some bullshit excuse like honoring a promise. You are a shameless person, so there's no way you would honor your word."

Shi Tian wanted to laugh at how correct Vanessa was in deducing his characteristics. Indeed, he was not an honorable person, and if necessary, he wouldn't mind reneging his promise in an instant.

Alas, as tempting as Vanessa's offer sounded, Shi Tian still shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, Vanessa." He kindly refused her. He believed Vanessa enough to know that she shouldn't be scheming against him in a harmful way, but that could not be said for the others within Chronosworth City.

Previously, he had eavesdropped on her conversation and realized the undercurrent in Chronosworth City should be more deadly and complicated than Gearits City.

And why is that?

Gearits City's power structure was split into five or six pieces, but Chronosworth City's power structure was dominated by a singular family.

With Vanessa being so willful, and in high risk unless she could retain full control of her city, then Shi Tian feared that his life would be more dangerous if he agreed to her deal.

As the saying goes, an enemy will target you simply because you are close to their actual target, and Shi Tian does not wish to involve himself in a more complicated mess. Not to mention, he wasn't even sure if Vanessa's decision alone mattered much in the overall picture.

'Optic Mech is the safer choice, and I have already planned everything, so changing the place and pace at this time would mean death.' Shi Tian thought to himself, returning to his crafting and ignoring Vanessa's bitter expression.

As Shi Tian continued crafting, he could feel a heavy and gloomy atmosphere weighing on his back. Vanessa might have remained silent, but he could sense her emotion and it was giving him quite the discomfort.

He wanted to tell her to move away but was afraid she might cause another scene or drama.

"Nathan, I've found the identity."

Luckily, Shi Tian was rescued when Mary shouted that she had finished her modification.

'Thank you, Mary~' Shi Tian was grateful to her silently.