Ark Simulator, don't I have no physical form?

After gradually realizing Suri's personality, Maria stopped rushing to work on the armor.

Volume 5, Chapter 248: I Need a Break Too

"Are you making sandwiches?" Suri asked, looking at Maria cutting sausages and preparing bread with some confusion.

"Hmm, sandwiches taste great hot too. Besides, we don't have any more ingredients at home right now, so could you make do with this for now?"

Maria was a little embarrassed. Surely Suri, who could earn 70,000 yuan by making just a couple of phone calls, wouldn't be interested in sandwiches?

Suri roughly understood Maria's thoughts and said in an annoyed tone:

"What are you thinking? Dude, it's not like you haven't suffered before. What's wrong with sandwiches? Sandwiches are delicious too. Of course, it would be great if there were better ones, but it's not unacceptable if there aren't any. Don't overthink it."

"Okay, I understand." Maria couldn't help but smile happily.

"Okay, stop thinking about it. I'll just make one more call today, the last one, and then I'm going to rest."

Although collecting and integrating information was easy for Su Rui, she couldn't stop the urge to be lazy. Sometimes people can be so lazy that they don't even want to eat. Su Rui felt that she had already tried her best.

Maria nodded, then, seeing the screen in her field of vision, realized that Suri had already started dialing, and couldn't help but panic: "Now? I'm still making food~"

"This call won't take long, it'll be quick."

Maria nodded, composed herself, and prepared for the conversation to begin.

The target of this conversation is a mercenary, the kind who works alone in the city.

The call connected quickly, and a mature female voice came from the other end:

"Hello? What's up?" Maria glanced at the other person's information and nodded.

"I'm Ms. Cilantro, a middleman. I have a job for you: steal a box of smuggled goods. The pay is good. How about it? Want to do it?"

"Um, where exactly? What are the goods? And where should they be delivered after we receive them?"

The female mercenary on the other end of the phone was straightforward and didn't ask many questions, only some necessary information.

Maria provided the information based on the data provided by Suri.

Although the Unarmored Alliance secretly controls the city, this organization generally doesn't get involved in minor skirmishes, so there are actually quite a few mercenaries and middlemen involved.

The mercenary's job was to help Maria steal or kill anyone who stood in the way of a gang smuggling in a batch of high-end alloys intended for weapon manufacturing. The quantity was small, enough to fit in a suitcase, but it was enough to prepare armor and weapons for Maria.

As for how to harvest her, the mercenaries will place her in a specific location. With Su Rui's scanning vision, it will be guaranteed that Maria will not be followed or noticed by the mercenaries.

Moreover, mercenaries generally don't do this, because middlemen usually have their own people to do the work, and most middlemen don't collect the goods themselves.

After finishing her conversation, Suri hung up the phone, while Maria asked curiously, "Hiring mercenaries must cost a lot of money, right?"

"It's just that, relatively speaking, most commissions aren't that expensive. For example, this commission isn't actually difficult, so it's worth five thousand."

Maria nodded, and then Suri wrote out the list for Maria:

"This is your bill for today. There are two income items, totaling 70,000. There are three expenses: 3,000 for your new tools, 2,000 for the various parts needed to make the armor, and 5,000 for the materials the mercenaries brought. The total expenses are 10,000."

"Overall, today's net profit is 60,000."

Maria nodded, her tone filled with gratitude and joy: "By the way, how about Suri and I split it equally? You can take 35,000 of it anytime."

"What are you thinking? If I really needed it, I wouldn't be polite to you. These are all yours, and I don't have any physical assets right now, so I don't need this money."

Maria nodded, then glanced at the kitchen utensils in her hands:

"Alright, the sandwiches are ready, and there's also hot milk. How is Suri going to eat?"

"As I said before, I can use your body so I can eat it. Of course, in that case, you won't need to eat, since I'm just using your body and I'm just tasting the flavor."

"I see." Maria nodded, showing no resistance and agreeing to the exchange.

Then, Maria's aura changed, from a vibrant young girl to an aura that made people subconsciously want to be close to her and be gentle.

Maria, who was stuffed into the consciousness space, was stunned for a moment, and then a blush appeared on her cheeks. She didn't expect Suri to be like this.

Suri didn't pay much attention to it, simply tasting the sandwich Maria made, finishing her milk, and then wiping the milk from the corner of her mouth.

"Mmm, it tastes great. Your cooking skills are excellent."

"Really? That would be wonderful if Suri liked it!"

Maria was very happy, and then Suri switched her back. She looked around in confusion before realizing what had just happened.

The girl touched her stomach and murmured softly, "Suddenly my stomach is full, what a novel experience."

"Hmm, now you should get some rest. What do you usually do?"

After eating, Suri relaxed a lot and slowly stayed in Maria's mind, intending to see what Maria would do now.

Maria paused for a moment, then blinked. "Usually, I'll secretly practice some crafts or read some books, but right now my heart is beating so fast, I feel like I can't calm down at all."

"Really? Then you should go and train. Physical fitness is an indispensable part of participating in knightly competitions."

"Oh, right! I also want to go check out Uncle Koval's workshop; it'll be good practice!"

Maria nodded, picked up her toolbox from under the bed, and prepared to leave.

“Just carrying this tool bag around doesn’t count as exercise. You’ll have to keep running laps when you get back.”

Although Maria's tool bag was also heavy, this level of training was nothing compared to what was required to stand out in knightly competitions.

Although there is a certain gap between competitive knights and conquest knights, they are not so easy to deal with.

"By the way, what kind of weapon do you like to use?" After all, knightly competitions are a show to watch, and if Suri makes the armor too over-the-top, it won't be interesting.

Suri plans to create armor of the same specifications as Bozokasti, but it won't be as powerful. At the very least, Suri doesn't intend for Maria to use the missiles and energy cannon systems in the arena.

That would be too unfair, and a one-sided victory with no suspense wouldn't be fun.

Oh, right, since that's the case, the armor's output also needs to be limited, but if Maria is going to lose, just remove it. Also, set up an output adjustment that can be freely adjusted within a certain limit, and there's also an overload mode.

Volume 5, Chapter 249: The Price of Breaking a Promise

"I like using swords, is that okay?" Maria asked, her eyes sparkling with anticipation for Suri's answer.

"Of course, any weapon will do. I can even make you a slipper that deals 8,000 damage, as long as you don't feel embarrassed."

"I would never fight in slippers!"

Suri's words made Maria feel a little ashamed, but while getting the information, Suri also measured the weight and model of Maria's sword that matched the armor and did some calculations.

"Alright, the information gathering is complete. All that's left is to wait for the materials to arrive so I can give you the blueprints to make the product."

Maria nodded. After finishing dinner, Maria, having nothing else to do, turned on the TV and watched programs to pass the time.

During this time, only a small thing happened: Maria's uncle, Manner, came home from get off work. Suri showed Maria the image of Manner opening the door and returning to the Linguang family mansion from the scan field of vision.

"Your uncle came home. Is it alright if he found out you were watching TV?"

"Uncle is coming back?!" Maria's ears perked up immediately. She got up alertly, quickly turned off the TV, and ran upstairs to her room.

"...No need to be so nervous, it's just watching TV."

Su Rui asked with some confusion, "You're already so old, are your family still so strict with you?"

"No, that's not it. I just didn't want my uncle to find out I was slacking off. Even though watching TV isn't a big deal, I was still subconsciously a little nervous."

Maria leaned against her bedroom door, one hand pressing against her soft chest, which was heaving violently from her earlier anxiety, and answered Suri breathlessly.

“You’re not getting enough exercise. You’re already out of breath just from going upstairs. You must feel terrible during the Cavaliers’ games.”

"No, I was just a little nervous just now," Maria retorted somewhat guiltily to Suri, then froze, quickly opened the door and ran downstairs.

"What happened again? Didn't you leave anything downstairs?"

'I should prepare dinner for my uncle!' Maria thought nervously, almost unconsciously, as if she believed that Manner was probably already home.

"Generally speaking, this kind of small oversight is nothing, right? Besides, I see that your uncle often works overtime, so he probably doesn't eat at home often, does he?"

"Hmm! But since Uncle is eating at home, I should make things easier for him. It's too tiring for him to cook after a long day, isn't it?"

Maria was having this conversation with Suri in her mind as she walked down the stairs to the ground floor. Just as she was halfway down to the first floor, she met the eyes of Marna, who was exhausted and had just returned home and was slumped on the sofa to rest.

"Uncle, Uncle, you're back! Have you had dinner yet? I'll make you some."

Maria greeted Marna with a somewhat awkward smile.

Upon hearing Maria's words, Marna's eyes flashed with a hint of relief and relaxation, and he nodded: "I'm counting on you for durability, Maria."

"It's alright, it's alright, I'll make dinner right away. How about sandwiches and milk? Oh, and vegetable soup too." Maria breathed a sigh of relief, quickly went downstairs, and slipped straight into the kitchen.

"No problem, it'll be simple... What were you trying to do when you came down so quickly?"

Marnna asked with some doubt, since Maria was his niece after all, and Marnna was entrusted by his brother to take good care of her, so he naturally had to pay attention to what Maria was doing on a daily basis.

Marna's question clearly stumped Maria. She couldn't very well say that she knew her uncle was coming back because of Suri's reminder, so she wanted to come down and cook something for her uncle who had been busy all day, could she?

Even Maria found it too coincidental to hear such a statement.

So, a slightly flustered Maria instinctively sought help from her trusted Suri: 'Help me, Suri, tell me what to say in this situation!'

"Hmm, there's a TV show that's good for girls right now. Just tell him you're going to watch it. You can sit on the sofa and watch TV for a bit later. The show isn't too long and it's pretty interesting."

As Suri spoke, a television program appeared in Maria's field of vision, a program from the Wine Gazette media.

'Thank you, Suri, you're so reliable!'

Maria nodded, and then answered Marna's question following Suri's prompt:

"It's nothing, Uncle. There's just a TV show airing recently that I wanted to watch, and I didn't expect to run into you here."

"...Hmm, remember not to run so fast at home next time."

Marner nodded, not suspecting much, and simply put down the newspaper to give some instructions to her impetuous niece.

"Okay, I understand!" Maria responded cheerfully to Marne's instructions, feeling a sense of relief.

'Great! Uncle didn't suspect anything!'

“You didn’t do anything wrong, did you?” Suri was a little confused by Maria’s nervousness.

'That's not the same thing, and besides, what if my uncle finds out I'm making money on the phone?'

Maria felt that Suri was being too presumptuous.

"Okay, you were just unconsciously nervous, weren't you? You didn't do anything wrong. Even if you made money, you made it honestly."

'Getting involved with mercenaries, and the tone of our voice when we called them—it's not a good thing, is it?'

Maria maintained her naive understanding and was somewhat worried.

Suri didn't forcefully correct her, but simply reminded her:

"By the way, those two people who run companies have already been there, and the contracts and everything have been negotiated. Just like I said, Mormon succeeded, while Drammer didn't get the contract. They'll probably call you to let you know about it."

'They acted so quickly, is this what businessmen are like?' Considering that only a few hours had passed since she made the call, Maria couldn't help but feel surprised and impressed by the two men, but also a little puzzled:

"Why is that Delamer still calling us? Didn't he go back on his word and try to scam us?"

"Because he realized that we do have methods, and not just business methods. Even if it's not just to grab onto the company's lifeline, he also has to find a way to save his own life, otherwise he's finished."

Suri's smug tone, coupled with her icy words, made Maria instinctively shrink back: "Suri, you don't really want to... give him away..."

Volume 5, Chapter 250: He didn't just know he was wrong; he knew he was going to die.

"Of course I won't do anything to him. Don't worry, after all, I'm still counting on him to pay me the reward for the information after he makes money."

It's clear that Maria isn't really suited for ruthless things; the current knight girl is a bit too immature.

As Su Rui spoke, her tone suddenly changed: "However, because of his breach of trust, that 50,000 is equivalent to compensation he gave us. The new business information will cost 200,000. Once he earns it, we will deduct it from his account without any negotiation. This is what he deserves."

"Okay, I understand." Maria nodded emphatically. She didn't have a good impression of this kind of guy who took the benefits but didn't keep his word.

Soon, Maria placed Marner's dinner in front of him. The office worker, exhausted from a long day, put down his newspaper, wearily rubbed his temples, and then thanked Maria.

"Thank you, Maria. You should get some rest too."

"Okay, I understand. Oh, right, I need to make a few phone calls to my friends. Uncle, you can eat first, I've already eaten."

Maria looked at the incoming call notification that Suri had displayed in her field of vision, smiled and greeted Marna, then walked out of the living room, making a gesture as if she were taking her phone out of her pocket.

Maria's phone conversations, conducted through intermediaries, were all arranged by Suri in a way that could not be eavesdropped on or tracked. The phone call was merely a pretense for Manna.

At that moment, both Dramer and Mormon called Maria. Suri answered Mormon's call first and then hung up on the untrustworthy Dramer: "Let's leave this idiot hanging for a while; it'll be easier to communicate later."