“Lose weight? Just come work with me at the factory for a few days, and you’ll naturally lose weight.” Henry Grant’s father, James Grant, upon hearing that his chubby son was finally determined to slim down, didn’t even wait for Henry Grant to steer the conversation toward the factory before immediately making the suggestion.

“It’s good to get some exercise.” His mother, Grace Bennett, who worked at the same place as James Grant—though in the medical office as a factory doctor—quickly chimed in. While she couldn’t claim to treat any major illnesses, she was very skilled in basic medical care and immediately agreed.

James Grant was a fitter, and when Henry Grant was young, he had learned the basics of fitting from his father. In fact, during his school’s metalworking internship, Henry Grant had even earned an “excellent” grade because of it.

Actually, the factory where James Grant worked wasn’t doing well; it was already in a semi-shutdown state. James Grant would let Henry Grant use some scrap materials to practice and lose weight by working, and no one would care.

Grabbing the largest file, Henry Grant went at the metal block on the caliper with all his might, filing away furiously. Who knows how many times he filed, when suddenly a message popped up in his mind.

“Would you like to record the machining result?”

The sudden prompt startled Henry Grant. What did that mean?

Machining result—could it be the result of his recent filing? With no response, Henry Grant thought it over and chose to record it.

“Please select file model and hardness.”

Following the prompt, Henry Grant answered these questions in his mind.

“Please select workpiece hardness.”

Another question followed. Since the part was scrap, there was a record. Henry Grant asked James Grant and quickly got the hardness value.

“Please measure the machining result.”

This prompt probably meant to record how much material was filed off just now, right? He hadn’t measured it earlier, but that was fine—he could measure now, and record the next time as well.

He canceled this record, measured the current thickness of the workpiece with a vernier caliper, picked up the file, filed again, and immediately measured. This time, he got a detailed value.

“Machining result successfully recorded!”

Seeing this successful record message, Henry Grant had a guess in his mind and immediately commanded mentally: “Replicate the previous machining result.”

Henry Grant guessed right. As soon as he gave the command, his hands naturally repeated the same machining posture, with the same force and angle, filing just as before.

While performing the action, Henry Grant was keenly aware that he wasn’t moving his arms himself; it was the nanobots autonomously stimulating his arm muscles with bioelectricity.

After one stroke, Henry Grant immediately measured with the vernier caliper. Sure enough, the result was exactly the same as before.

Jackpot! With such a good thing, Henry Grant immediately got excited and started experimenting wildly, using different forces and angles to machine. Each time, he had the control system record the machining result, then replicate it. Afterward, he switched to workpieces of different hardness and continued the process.

The vernier caliper’s precision was only 0.1 millimeters, which was no longer enough for Henry Grant’s recording needs. After a few hundred records, Henry Grant switched to a micrometer, accurate to 10 microns, or one-hundredth of a millimeter, and went on another recording spree. Finally, he switched to a dial indicator, accurate to one micron, or one-thousandth of a millimeter.

During this, James Grant came over once, saw his son sweating profusely while working with the file, and nodded in satisfaction. He didn’t care what his son was doing, as long as he was sweating.

“Dad, what’s the highest machining precision you can achieve by hand?” Henry Grant took the water James Grant handed him and asked.

“If I have enough time, I can finely polish it to 0.5 si!” James Grant answered proudly. “You think my level-five fitter title is fake?”

One si is one-hundredth of a millimeter; 0.5 si is 5 microns. This level of machining precision can already rival some high-precision CNC machines.

“Amazing!” Henry Grant gave James Grant a thumbs up in flattery, but secretly laughed to himself: “Should I tell you that I can now easily achieve 5-micron precision with a file?”

Five microns was already Henry Grant’s limit, probably because there weren’t enough nanobots. But this was already more than enough for Henry Grant; in half a day, he’d reached the level that took James Grant decades to achieve—what more could he want?

Of course, this precision could only be achieved with the finest file. As for other skills like drilling, sawing, grinding, and planing, he was still far from reaching this level.

But isn’t the saying that a fitter can conquer the world with just a file? He’d master the file first, then gradually perfect the other skills. In this regard, Henry Grant wasn’t in any rush.

After experimenting over a thousand times, when Henry Grant measured again with the dial indicator, another prompt suddenly appeared in his mind.

“Would you like to activate the binocular 3D measurement mechanism?”

Chapter 0003: Humanoid CNC (Part 1)

“Binocular 3D measurement mechanism?” Henry Grant was confused. What was that? But clearly, there was no explanation.

Thinking of the benefits he’d gained before, Henry Grant hesitated for just a second before immediately agreeing.

“……” Nothing happened. Henry Grant was left even more puzzled. What exactly was this binocular 3D measurement mechanism?