Chapter 289 - 288: Explosion

In a separate, unfinished villa in the backyard, Yvonne Lowell was carefully observing the smart robots before her.

’Tsk, I have to admit, The Lowell Group really spares no expense on R&D. They even used Kevlar for the outer shell of a smart butler robot.’

This material was heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant, typically used in aerospace engineering, shipbuilding, and bulletproof vests.

’The main thing was, it was ridiculously expensive. Using it on a robot was definitely overkill.’

Yvonne Lowell bent her knuckles and rapped on its head. Then, she pushed it flat onto the floor and plopped down beside it.

She then used a tool to pry open its skull and inspect the internal structure.

Apparently unsatisfied with what she found, Yvonne’s hands began to fly back and forth between the robot and her toolbox.

In no time, the once-humanoid robot was dismantled into a pile of parts, scattered across the floor.

Yvonne Lowell used a pair of tweezers to pluck a main control chip from the robot’s chest cavity, murmuring,

"Hiding this deep? Could it be you?"

Yvonne took an adapter and began to read the code on the chip.

She went over it several times but couldn’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary.

Unconvinced, Yvonne checked it one more time, meticulously.

Finally, her eyes locked onto a single line of data, and a suspicion began to form in her mind.

She extracted that single line of code and loaded it onto a new chip she had brought with her.

She then placed the adapter, with the chip still attached, in the farthest corner of the room before retreating outside the door.

After a quick glance confirmed there were no servants around, she gave a light wave of her right hand and hit the Enter key on her laptop.

In her head, she began to count: ’1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...’

"BANG!"

As she counted the sixth second, the chip in the corner suddenly exploded.

The adapter was blasted into the air before falling back to the floor and bursting into flames.

A fiery light flickered in Yvonne’s eyes. It was hard to tell if it was the reflection of the fire or the rage burning within her.

The corners of her mouth curled into a bloodthirsty smile, her expression turning savage.

"So, it really is you. But why six seconds? Is it because of the six scars I gave you?"

Only after putting out the fire in the corner did she unhurriedly pull out her phone to make a call.

"Caleb, get to the backyard."

...

Charles Lowell and Caleb Lowell rushed over to find Yvonne Lowell leaning calmly against the doorframe.

A look inside revealed parts scattered across the floor, smoke still lingering in the air, and a very conspicuous burn mark in the corner.

"What happened here? Was there a fire? Are you hurt?"

Charles Lowell’s brow was tightly furrowed as he scrutinized Yvonne.

"I’m fine. The chip just exploded. Someone planted a manually-triggered self-destruct code inside."

Yvonne gave him a calm smile, but her eyes were like ice.

"What?! It exploded?! How come we didn’t hear a thing!"

The Lowell men could no longer maintain their composure. They grabbed Yvonne’s arms and spun her a full 1080 degrees.

"I’m not trying to be difficult, but if you two keep spinning me, I’m going to pass out from dizziness long before an explosion could get me."

Yvonne wrenched her arms free from their grasp, exasperated.

"Dizzy? I—I’ll call the doctor. I’ll have him give you a full examination. Don’t be scared, your big brother’s here." Caleb pulled out his phone, ready to make the call.

Yvonne couldn’t stop her lips from twitching. She pressed his hand down.

"I’m really fine. I ran this experiment on purpose. Besides, I was outside the door when it blew up. I’m not hurt at all."

The words were barely out of her mouth when she got a sharp rap on the back of her head.

"Hiss!" Yvonne whipped her head around, glaring accusingly at Charles Lowell.

"Patriarch Lowell, are you trying to murder your own daughter?!"

"Hmph. I see you haven’t been spanked enough! You knew it was dangerous, and you did it anyway! Are you trying to scare me to death so your brother can take over early? Or are you looking to trade me in for a new dad?!"

Charles Lowell didn’t back down, meeting her glare with his own.

Yvonne pouted and muttered under her breath, ’Either would be fine. I know plenty of eligible bachelors from powerful families and royalty, and at least they and my brother wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me.’

’And where was Leogryph? Why wasn’t it here to draw some of this fire for her?’

Leogryph, currently eating meat [Bloody Maw Edition]: ROAR! Love Grandma! The meat Grandma gives is so yummy~

"Hm? What was that you were muttering about?" Charles Lowell asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Yvonne took a deep breath and plastered on a sweet smile. "I was just saying that I have come to a profound realization of my error. So, can we please get down to business, Patriarch Lowell?"

Caleb turned his head away and coughed lightly, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing.

"Alright, spill it. What did you find out from this little stunt of yours?"

Charles Lowell crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, mimicking her earlier posture.

He looked as if he was ready to give her a few more raps on the head if the results weren’t to his satisfaction.

’She’s really asking for it,’ he thought. ’All day long, it’s one dangerous thing after another. If she’s not blowing things up, she’s playing with guns. Can’t she give me a moment’s peace?!’

Yvonne sighed to herself. ’I knew I should have just done this back at Tidalview.’

Still, she dutifully held up her laptop and pointed to the code on the screen as she explained.

"This is a line of code I extracted from the robot’s chip. It’s the culprit behind the explosion."

"But the company’s chips were sent to the GF agency for inspection. There was no problem, and they use our chips over there as well."

Caleb looked at the gibberish on the screen, confused.

"You’re right. The chips sent for testing are clean. I even checked the chips from past products at the company, and they’re all fine. This was added recently, and it was done so covertly that it’s almost impossible to detect."

Yvonne’s fingers tapped a few keys. The original code on the screen shifted and transformed until a few letters and symbols were extracted, forming a new line of code.

"This," she said, "is the real self-destruct code."

"But you said it needs to be manually triggered? Does that mean he can control each robot in this batch individually?" Charles Lowell asked.

"Correct. As long as a robot is on, he can blow up whichever one he wants, whenever he wants. As for the blast—at close range, it’s lethal."

A cold sneer touched Caleb’s lips. "What a brilliant scheme. The target audience for these butler robots is primarily families with children or elderly members. All those lives... Does he think he’s some kind of Judge of the Underworld?!"

"He’s no Judge of the Underworld," Yvonne said softly. "He’s a hound from Hell. And it’s because of me that he wants to drag the entire Lowell Family down to Hell with him."

’And the Sutton Family, the Grant Family, Jacobs Corp, Pluto... everyone connected to me.’

’What he wants most is to see me suffering again, to see me in such agony I wish I were dead. And he wants to be the source of that pain, just like before.’