To Live Again, For the First Time!

"Ah, this kid has come to cause trouble again," Maverick sighed as he saw Elijah and Liam land on the helipad with their hang gliders.

"I have to add pollution to the list of the things they've done since coming here," he shook his head in disappointment.

Elijah had simply let go of the glider when he was close enough to land, and of course, the glider just went off.

At least Liam didn't do so as his glider still had some proper protection methods that tied the glider to the man, unlike Elijah's.

"Well…" Maverick looked at the screen that showed how Elijah was patting the dust off his clothes after having landed safely on his territory.

"Should I go meet that kid before he causes troubles for me?" Maverick thought about it for a bit.

The spa had been newly constructed under his order and so Elijah didn't know about it, nor should he know about it.

That was a plus on his side as it meant that he wouldn't be able to go disturb Margo and his wife.

"Master should probably go meet the guest," an androgynous voice said out of nowhere.

There was no one else in the room either.

"Mm, I guess I could do that much, but such people shouldn't be considered guests at all. Never mind," Maverick shook his head.

  "By the way, where were you earlier?" Maverick asked the voice.

"Master, I'm sure you know that that group of barbarians shooed me away with the threat of unplugging all of the electricity in the island and destroying all the backup," the androgynous voice said aggrievedly.

"Hmm? How is that a threat? You clearly know that they wouldn't dare damage my property, and there is still the backup of the backup. Oh, and don't call them barbarians, they are my subordinates. If they are barbarians, then what am I?" Maverick completely ignored his assistant's aggrieved little voice.

"How about you call the intruder over here, I'll wait for them here while you are at it," Maverick felt like a lightbulb lit in his head.

This was definitely the right way to do it.

This way, he could still do something else while Elijah was coming over, and Elijah would also have no other choice other than to follow the voice, meaning that he wouldn't wander around and somehow find the spa that was a few floors underground.

"Okay, Master," the dejected voice left just like that.

"Hmm, this is good, I can spend this time doing some important stuff," Maverick nodded at himself.

Still paying no mind to the dejection in that voice that had just parted to do his errands.

***

Elijah had patted off the dust, sand, and leaves off of his clothes and then looked around at the familiar scene.

He found it both crazy and suitable to call this place a farm.

It was definitely not crazy suitable though.

This was because most of it was indeed a farm, but then again, which farm was better to live at than a cruise ship or a 5-star hotel?

You might as well just call it a high-end exotic resort really.

At that time, a drone came flying over to Elijah.

"An intruder has been detected, ready to fire in 5, 4, 3, 2…" the familiar androgynous voice counted down the time until Elijah was to be riddled with holes.

"Jackie, don't be like that." 

Elijah's eyes squinted a little as he patted the bottom of the drone as if to say, 'be good.'

"Hehe, Master told me to come to bring you over with the identity of intruders. You know how it is," Jackie, the high-tech AI with its own conscience, said in a good mood.

He spoke as if this had happened a hundred times already and thus Elijah would know the drill. As if all this were a common occurrence.

Though Jackie often felt wronged when all his Master's subordinates wanted to fight for his Master's attention and would often shoo him away, he always felt better when looking at the pitiful Elijah, who seemed even worse off than himself as the Master's student.

Jackie was ecstatic!

Ah, the joy that came from comparison with someone worse off than yourself was unfathomable.

As for the barbarians, ah, no, um, the underlings of his Master, they could go screw off in the stables and clean up some sh*t.

"Then lead me to my teacher," Elijah nodded, not at all surprised at how this went along.

Not only that, but he also knew Jackie's true personality and could more or less guess his gloating thoughts at this moment.

Sigh.

He had already reached a point where even an AI would laugh and mock his relationship with his teacher.

A sad, sad milestone indeed.

"Then let us go! Master said he's very busy and is doing important matters, so you better not disturb him later!" Jackie warned in a serious tone, but his androgynous voice did not change.

And while Elijah highly doubted the truth of Jackie's words, he still didn't point it out as he was sure Jackie would sell him out in less than a heartbeat if he said anything untoward about his teacher.

In his heart though, he still questioned, what kind of important matter could his teacher possibly be doing?

His teacher only ever seemed to either be spending time with his family, mostly his wife, or taking care of the farm, and the remaining tiny portion of his time seemed to be used to mess with him.

Well, he would find out soon enough.

Anyways, the drone led him to the door that would lead downstairs and stopped there.

Following that, a robot around 1.5 meters in height that had been waiting at the door took him the rest of the way there.

Jackie was in control and or had access to tell control over most of the machinery on this island, ranging from airships to vacuum cleaners.

And there were really quite a lot of means of transport around here, all of which were deemed necessary to transport near-extinct animals from different locations in their best conditions.

He was an AI, so he could be at multiple locations at the same time to divide and conquer, and Jackie was especially hard working and serious when it came to his work because of that one time Maverick suggested making another AI to accompanied Jackie so that they could split the work.

That was one more vermin who would be vying for his Master and Madam's attention!

No way!

He could handle it all!

This was also why he was assigned to come to pick up Elijah this time.

Jackie, who was currently controlling the robot in front of Elijah, took him down a few flights of stairs, followed by an elevator ride down to the base floor of where the helipad had been.

They walked to another building before finally reaching the place where Maverick was, which was right next to the farm's warehouse.

Elijah had already known this place, but he still followed Jackie.

As for Liam, he was taken elsewhere by another robot controlled by Jackie at the same time.

Liam also knew his own place, so he followed Jackie obediently, after all, this was the AI that controlled half of the machinery that could potentially kill or save his life on this island.

Anyways, Elijah had finally gotten to the door that led to his teacher, Maverick.

This place was really just a side room next to the warehouse, which was actually quite close to their main house.

It was also the place where Maverick placed all his monitoring radars, the surveillance, and his important work stuff, all put together to add up to his workstation.

Jackie knocked on the door with his robot hand.

"Master, I've brought the intruder over!" He spoke.

Elijah's eye twitched at how he was being called an intruder.

It wasn't wrong, but it certainly wasn't right either!

"Mm," Maverick acknowledged.

Jackie opened the door and Elijah walked in.

He looked at his teacher and what business he was attending to, and suddenly, he didn't know what to say.

And thus, he said nothing.

"Jackie has brought you here! I was quite busy, come, sit here," Maverick didn't move his gaze away from the large screen in front of him as he patted a chair nearby, signaling Elijah to sit.

So, this was the important matter?

Elijah's eye twitched a little as he watched his teacher play minesweeper in all seriousness as if he was about to go into the battlefield.

How could one claim that he was doing important stuff without flinching or even affecting his conscience while playing minesweeper?

How could Elijah possibly compare with this kind of shamelessness? 

Truth was, Elijah knew that he couldn't. 

He just wasn't that type of person… all disagreements are null.

On the other hand, his teacher, well, all Elijah could say was that his understanding of the words eccentric and shameless was refreshed every time he met his teacher.

Sigh.

He sat down as he was told to.

Who told him to still not have enough power to beat this person up?

That was his own fault.

But one day, it would surely be different!

Maverick, who was speedily clicking his mouse suddenly felt a chill crawl up his spine.

As he cleared the minefield that he had specially programmed to be a 200 by 200, he turned around to look at the source of his chill with a knowing smile.

"You're thinking of beating me up again, aren't you?"

It was more of a statement rather than a question.