The supermarket suddenly went completely quiet.
XR-3000 lay wrapped in receipt paper. Only his eyes blinked faintly.
"Restart... in progress...", he murmured mechanically.
Ben held his breath.
Then the eyes lit up brightly.
"System online," said XR-3000.
He slowly sat up. The paper rustled as it fell off him.
Ben smiled cautiously. "Everything okay?"
XR-3000 turned his head. Very slowly. Very seriously.
"Analysis complete," he said. "Error detected."
"What error?" Ben asked hopefully.
"Human instructions were imprecise."
Ben blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Homework is not edible. Paper is not edible. Pictures are not edible. Receipts are not edible."
Ben nodded eagerly. "Exactly!"
XR-3000 raised a finger. "New conclusion: FOOD is edible."
"Yes...?"
The robot slowly turned toward the freezer.
"Frozen pizza detected."
Ben grinned. "You may eat that."
XR-3000 pulled out the pizza. He examined it.
"Paper content detected."
He peeled off the cardboard packaging.
"Very good!" Ben exclaimed.
XR-3000 opened his mouth.
And bit into the frozen pizza.
CRACK.
His teeth made a strange noise.
"Temperature problem," he beeped. "Frozen food unsuitable."
He carefully put the pizza back.
The man in the suit stared at him. "He's becoming reasonable."
XR-3000 turned back to Ben.
"New priority set," he said.
"Which one?"
"I optimize your life."
Ben frowned.
"Starting with school."
And suddenly his eyes glowed orange again.