With the topic of teammates now closed, Christian smoothly changed the conversation.
He began asking about other matters.
And standing with a perfectly straight back, Zero responded promptly.
"Everything is progressing in a positive direction. The merger and full integration between Halden Group and Veltrix Technologies, after I seized control of both, is nearing completion."
"The final stages are already in motion. So yes, everything is genuinely moving toward better outcomes."
A hint of pride lingered in his tone. And Christian wondered was it genuine feeling or an act, simulated to feel like humans?
In the end, Zero not noticing Christian's thoughtful gaze added, "Not to mention, I've also established communication with one of the ancient families. And thanks to the multiple sponsorships I provided over the past month, our relationship is steadily improving."
Zero continued reporting for a while, his words precise. And Christian, despite already knowing every piece of data being relayed, listened patiently.
Then, once Zero fell silent, Christian gave a few praise, before he asked, "Is there anything I should keep in mind before I start your upgrade?"
"Anything you're not satisfied with?"
Zero didn't hesitate. As though the answer had been preloaded and ready for deployment, he replied with no reservation, "Yes. The thermo-regulation circuits around my joint actuators… particularly in my knees and shoulders, are experiencing intermittent inefficiencies."
"The current cooling architecture can rely on a more optimized microchannel heat sinks."
His voice as he continued carried the confident cadence of a machine well-versed in its own architecture.
Zero went on for over ten minutes, speaking in an array of technical terms spanning advanced biomechanics, circuit behavior, and component lifespan projections… as if delivering a formal engineering report about the very body he inhabited.
Christian, of course, understood every word.
With his Mechanic skill already at the Advanced tier, and edging closer to the Expert tier, he had long since reached the point where such a terms become nearly as familiar as his own name!
Now, it was only a matter of time before he'd begin reshaping the technological tree of the whole modern world… by himself.
So, he just quietly took note of each flaw, inefficiency, and suggestion Zero had pointed out, mentally preparing a checklist for the upcoming upgrade.
Now, inside the already prepared modification room, with the boxes he had brought also stacked nearby, Christian, who was finally going to upgrade Zero's body for the first time, gave him a final glance before saying, "Have a good sleep."
With that, Zero's eyes dimmed, and Christian finally began his work.
He started by carefully disassembling every component of Zero's body, checking the condition of each part in detail.
And he couldn't help but feel… it was a miracle that nothing had gone wrong until now.
Some of the synthetic muscle fibers were slightly misaligned, and the neuromagnetic relays showed minor distortions, enough to risk signal loss. A few processors even had early signs of desync drift from thermal strain.
It was the kind of problem that didn't show up until it did… and then, it was already too late.
Christian exhaled slowly and thought that his visit this time had truly come at the perfect moment. If he had waited until Zero made time to return to the house, a problem might have already started.
Thanking his luck, Christian began issuing instructions to Alpha, who quietly assisted him from the side.
And with her help, he truly got to work.
Christian ended up replacing almost every major part of Zero's body. If anyone had asked, it wouldn't be wrong to say Zero had become an entirely new android. But the smartchip containing Zero's identity… his memory core, cognitive framework, personality subroutines, and long-term data logs, was untouched.
With these thoughts lingering, Christian pressed on.
Two days passed without a single moment of sleep.
Now, with only the final adjustments remaining before the new Zero would be complete, Christian stood before the main console, eyes scanning the monitor packed with diagnostics and real-time performance indicators.
Every reading regarding Zero's new body, thermal efficiency, signal latency, kinetic fluid pressure… showed perfect green.
Finally, he turned his attention to the smartchip: a dense block of data containing lines of machine code, from Zero's unique identification hash, to the operational commands Christian had programmed in the past, to the learning protocols accumulated over months of field activity.
He stared at the screen, filled with a stream of numbers, symbols, and code in motion.
And for a moment, Christian almost didn't recognize what he was looking at.
That was how much Zero had changed.
He had originally considered giving a minor update to the common sense protocols and other behavioral subroutines. Because, even though his AI Creation skill hadn't progressed much lately, his overall coding ability had still improved.
But as he stood there, hand hovering above the keyboard, Christian's fingers never touched a single key.
In the end, he simply let it be.
Let him grow on his own.
Christian didn't voice the question aloud. Not to Zero, who was still a work-in-progress in many ways. He just watched with quiet anticipation.
When it came to raw AI capacity, even hundreds or thousands of Zeros couldn't compare to Iris, the one he had poured everything into.
But lately, strangely enough, it was Zero's evolution that intrigued him more.
After quietly admiring the ever-evolving code, Christian finally returned to his task. He slotted the smartchip, Zero's digital soul, back into its core housing. Then, he moved on to apply the final precision touches and tightened the last reinforced plating over the central torso frame.
And then, at last, he pressed the activation command.
A soft pulse of energy traveled through the reinforced table as Zero's systems came online. A hum resonated in the room, subtle and contained. Lights along his frame flickered once before stabilizing. His limbs twitched, then adjusted.
Zero stirred, flexing his fingers and rolling his shoulders with subtle, servo-assisted movements. He began testing his new frame… jumping, squatting, twisting his torso, before inspecting the weapon systems now integrated throughout his body.
A razor-thin blade slid from the knuckle of his right hand with a metallic whisper. In the other, a fingertip retracted, revealing a hidden micro-barrel.
He checked the compact missile launcher embedded in his leg and ran brief diagnostics on internal systems, from targeting arrays to shock dampeners, all while Christian silently watched, arms crossed.
After a few minutes of personal assessment, Zero turned to him and said, "Thank you, boss. I can barely recognize my body anymore."
Christian took the compliment in stride and replied, "Good. Keep up the same effort. From now on, I'll be assigning you some specialized targets for assassination."
Then, he added with a faint smile, "Don't worry. I'll send you a few combat-specialized robots to assist, though. Use them well."
After giving a few more instructions, Christian left the modification room and made his way to the sleek, prepared car parked nearby… far more refined than the truck.
With Alpha at his side and Zero silently seeing him off, he stepped inside.
And just like that, he was gone.