Chương 250: Simple Maintenance

Gilepre breathed in and out before opening the instruction manual. The steps to take were actually quite simple. Blaunellie was currently inactive and already hooked up to the M. C, or Maintenance Computer. He would just need to perform a few manipulations to activate her, and from then, if things worked as intended, he would just need to… Discuss with her. These automatons were far more advanced than anything Gilepre was aware existed in the real world.

Performing maintenance on them was as easy as just telling them to do certain things, and check on the M. C if there were any issues in how they worked. Of course, being locked inside a room with a robot-clown that had been trying to murder him for all of the past shifts wasn't enough in this land of nightmares. The M. C, which he needed to be paying close attention to, was situated in a way that would force him to turn his back to Blaunellie constantly. The agent cleared his throat.

He had learned how to navigate computers thanks to his time in the security office, so he quickly found his way around, and after giving himself a few moments to prepare, he activated the bard. Blaunellie's eyes focused, and for a few moments, it was obvious that she was a robot as she booted up, but once that was done, her eyes shifted into something much more human-like. Gilepre still wasn't getting used to this.

It was very odd, he was very much afraid of those artificial beings, but at the same time, they were extremely well-designed, not just from the point of view of mechanistry, but also from a basic looks standpoint. They looked friendly and approachable. The smiles they wore weren't off-putting in the least. He could definitely see how such a place could be very popular and attract the awe of children.

If they hadn't been trying to paint the walls with his blood, he definitely wouldn't have suspected that they were capable of such grim work.

"Hello there" Gilepre had never heard the bard speak before, only the cheerleader. She sounded more mature than her yellow friend, but there was definitely a hint of mischievousness to her tone–It certainly was impressive that he could detect so much from just two words, but not on his part. The agent had been trained to notice such things. What was impressive was that an automaton could have such a distinct tone and personality that could shine through so clearly…

"Hello, Blaunellie. A private birthday party is coming up, and you're the birthday boy's favourite clown gal! So, we need to make sure you work perfectly, alright?" Keeping his cool no matter the situation was an important skill to have in his line of work. As long as he didn't allow himself to be thrown off his game, he should be capable of putting on the employee act without showing any signs that might encourage the robot to crush his skull. Blaunellie puffed up her chest and smiled smugly.

"Ahah, I am indeed the favourite of many of our little visitors! What do we need to test?" As he thought, the bard was a bit prideful, but in an endearing manner. On stage with Purpurnita and Gelbimi, it was a running gag that she was very proud of being the 'cool one' of the band. Typically, any time she puffed up her chest like this and made such a remark, she would follow by trying to make an unfunny joke. Only to be followed by Purpurnita making an actually funny joke.

Gilepre wasn't one to watch many shows or enjoy shows at all, but he assumed that this was to show that the bard wasn't great in all aspects, and was a way to demonstrate to children not to be too full of themselves and confidently delve into domains they knew nothing about. Making jokes and entertaining by simply speaking was Purpurnita's turf… Since clowns were all meant to be friends, he supposed that it was also to teach children that they could count on their friends to cover their weak spots.

It was a nice message. It was just a shame that the message about being good people did not seem to extend to not breaking every bone in his body when given the chance for the clown gals…

"First, we will simply need to check your motor performance""Alrighty~" Blaunellie began making motions with her limbs and walking around. This was intended to check if there were any problems with her steel joints or the like. Everything was perfectly smooth and scarily quiet. Since Gilepre needed to act like he was a regular employee, and was thus not afraid of her in the least, as a regular employee should actually feel safer when in the presence of one of these robots.

The clown gals knew how to recognise all employees and would help or defend them without hesitation. As such, Gilepre paid close attention to the monitor of the M. C, acting as though he was only doing his job, and wasn't worried about anyone else happening. He rubbed his chin as the sound of motions stopped.

"There is no problem whatsoever with your motor capabilities. Let's go onto the next-" The agent turned around to see that Blaunellie had gotten right in his face. In fact, the moment he turned around, her extended finger bopped his nose. He didn't make a sound. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Mmh… Here I thought I would give a little fright. You have quite the nerves. Did you use to work a dangerous job before coming to Glow's Wonderland?" Gilepre cursed in his mind. He should have pretended to get spooked. She was onto him… He needed to rectify things somehow. With one hand, he slowly pushed the bard's hand away from his face and formed a wry smile on his face.

"Who could get scared of a face as pretty as yours?" The smug smile returned.

"Indeed! You are absolutely right, I'll make a face next time, otherwise my dashing beauty will thwart my attempts at inciting feelings of spook!" Thankfully, the blue clown gal wasn't too difficult to deal with in this regard. Compliments were enough to pacify her, at least for a little while…

"As I was saying, let's test if your M. I still properly remembers how to play the piano, let's try to play the songs the birthday boy said he liked the most, alright?" This backroom was specifically filled with a whole bunch of instruments of all kinds, specifically to test if Blaunellie's advanced musical capabilities still functioned as intended. She took place at the nearby piano, and began playing a tune Gilepre did not recognise–He had actually only heard music a small handful of times in his entire life.

He wasn't equipped to know what the clown was playing, but thankfully, the M. C was here to make his job easier. It was picking up on what song Blaunellie was trying to play, and could check if her motions on the piano were correct or not. Everything seemed fine so far, and with the piano playing, Gilepre could be certain that she wasn't going to be sneaking up on him again.

"Alright, looks like everything is fine with this one… Let's check the next one" The following song was far more complex, but she played it without any issues, just like the first. Gilepre was starting to think that things were going to be smooth for this particular shift, and that the challenge had only been about keeping his wits and acting natural, which he was certain would be challenging for many, but his training had come in handy for this one.

Unfortunately, he must have thought too loudly as a curveball was thrown his way. In the third song, Blaunellie ran into an issue when she tried to use a key that had gone unused until now on the piano. She wasn't pressing on it without force, which gave the song an altered melody. Soon enough, the problem got worse. Her right index finger wasn't moving like it should be, preventing her from playing the piano like normal. Of course, with her advanced M.

I, she could correct the issue by pressing the keys in a different manner, or by simply using another finger instead of the malfunctioning index, but at Glown's Wonderland, all problems, no matter how minor, needed to be solved.

"Uh oh. I ran into a bit of trouble""Hold on, let me check what's going on…" Gilepre maintained his calm nonetheless, and running tests with the M. C, he quickly found out what the issue was. It wasn't a problem with her steel frame itself or her motor coordination. It was a much simpler, albeit annoying problem than these… He didn't know what it was made of exactly, but the clown gals achieved such a lifelike look in great part thanks to the false skin they wore. That skin-like matter was referred to as F.

S, or Flex Suit. When reading up on the automatons, all Gilepre had heard about this was that it was greatly inspired by a similar item, but which had been made with enchantment and runes instead of the secret recipe used for these non-magical ones. The item that had inspired them wasn't elaborated upon, only that it was what had allowed for the creation of the character of Glown, the one giving this place its name, despite not appearing at all amongst the cast.

In any case, the issue was that a bit of this fake skin had got caught in an articulation, preventing the right index finger from moving as it is supposed to be capable of. Gilepre didn't find anything concerning such issues in the maintenance booklet, so he instead looked for something inside the M. C. He quickly found a notice regarding such issues. It was a note from the owner of Glown's Wonderland that new versions of the F. S would be coming soon to prevent the issue of it getting caught in joints.

Apparently, as time passes, the false skin loses a bit of elasticity and can be deformed as the automaton moves, leading it to potentially get stuck in a joint. The problem seemed to be quite rare, but it seemed like even something so uncommon was a priority to solve for the owner. The explanation about how to fix the issue was rather simplistic, at least for Gilepre, as his clearance of the M. C was apparently too low to perform the full change of an F. S.

He could only remove the piece stuck in the joint and call it a day. That was fine by him.

"Mmh… Another employee will be in charge of the full repairs. For now, I'll just need you to give me your hand, please""Oh, is it really wise to ask an automaton's hand in marriage?"

"I'm afraid I don't have any ring to slide on your finger" Bizarrely, the instructions were to grab a special blade, slice the false skin near the problematic area, and from there get it unstuck from the joint. Gilepre separated the skin covering the index finger, revealing the shell mounted on top of the skeletal steel.

It took a bit of effort, but the trapped material eventually came off, and the next thing he needed to do was to put what he had removed back in its place and apply a special cream on the sliced area. He watched as the false skin healed before him. The agent was starting to wonder what this stuff was made of. However, Gilepre didn't want to start pondering here. He should end this shift as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Blaunellie didn't do anything else.

He merely told her to go back to the stage for now, and that was the end of it. The door to the room unlocked. The automaton left, and it was now time for him to walk to the exit. He pretended to be organising the tools he had used, letting the bard go away from the area, just in case. Only then did he step out.

"... Why is this place so ominous and dark?" Gilepre felt like this shift wasn't quite over yet.