A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 52: Chapter 39 Puppet Girl_1

“Who are you?”

Staring at the machine girl in front of him, Duanmu Huai was taken aback, hastily opening his mouth to ask. The machine girl simply waved her hand dismissively.

“Ah, please don’t be alarmed. I may appear as a puppet, but I’m actually a human! My soul was sealed in here by an evil magician. Could you please help me find my original body?”

“………”

What on earth was happening?

Faced with the machine girl’s request, Duanmu Huai was utterly baffled, but he nodded nonetheless.

“No problem.”

Regardless of the circumstances, at least he’d finally encountered someone with whom he could communicate. So, he decided to hear her out.

And so, a strange machine girl joined the ranks of Duanmu Huai and Ogis’ party.

She introduced herself as Mia. Originally, she was human, but an evil magician cast a spell and sealed her soul inside a puppet. This Sky City was the castle of that malicious wizard. He kept her, along with others, as exhibitions here. In fact, the other puppets displayed on the table were also victims of the wizard. However, their souls had fallen into a deep slumber and could not be awakened…

“I, I really appreciate your help, sir… and miss…”

Following behind them, Mia showed a face full of gratitude.

“This body is very rigid, and it’s really not convenient to move. What’s more unsettling is the cute lace trim of my outfit… If I wasn’t stuck in a puppet’s body right now, I would have cried. Now that I’m with the two of you, I feel like I will be able to retrieve my original body!”

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“Um…….”

Upon hearing Mia’s words, Duanmu Huai wore a confused expression on his face. He was feeling that this direction was somewhat strange. Sky City? Evil magician? Puppets? Magic? No… Miss, there’s no magic involved here at all. Since arriving in Sky City, almost everything he’d encountered had been technological.

Even Mia’s body was the same, although it resembled Ogis’s appearance, Duanmu Huai was sure that if he smashed Mia, he would find a dense maze of steel structures and cables within her — completely unlike Ogis’s puppet form.

It would make more sense if she claimed her consciousness had been transferred into a robot body via some contraption!

Or perhaps Mia’s consciousness was derived from an indigenous person? If that was the case, it wouldn’t be odd for her to harbor these thoughts. After all, in the eyes of these primitive people, the transmission of consciousness through technology would seem oddly similar to magic.

No matter, he would know once they get there.

Although Duanmu Huai questioned Mia’s explanation, at least under her guidance, the two had their next target. So, following Mia’s directions, Duanmu Huai and Ogis continued their journey towards the “residence of the evil wizard”.

Naturally, they encountered more foes along the way.

“Roar—————!!!”

With the War Hammer in his hands, Duanmu Huai charged forward, colliding heavily with a burly robot guard. Its appearance closely resembled the previous Magic Steel Lion, yet this time, the features of the robot’s head resembled more of a tiger than a lion.

“Steel Tiger”

“LV30”

Compared to the Magic Steel Lion, the Steel Tiger was of a higher level. However, its attack power wasn’t as formidable. Instead, it had superb defense. For Duanmu Huai alone, dealing with an enemy of this level was rather challenging. However, fortuitously, by summoning puppets and coordinating with Ogis, who was battling beside him, Duanmu Huai managed to take down the Steel Tiger. Seizing the opportunity when the tiger swiped at empty air, Duanmu Huai gave a ferocious roar and smashed his War Hammer directly into the core of the Steel Tiger’s back, knocking it to the ground. He swung his hammer once more, smashing it to bits.

“Huff……”

Only after the last Tiger-like robot collapsed, did Duanmu Huai take a breath. He then summoned a Repair Mechanism Skull to begin repairing his Power Armor. A few encounters with a Steel Tiger had already depleted his Power Armor’s durability down to less than 20%. If there were any more, he feared that his Power Armor might shatter completely.

What frustrated Duanmu Huai even more was the fact that killing monsters in the Fragmented World didn’t yield any experience. Much like the two Fragmented World scenarios he’d encountered before — Ogis’s Dollhouse and the Scholar’s Haunted Mansion — there was no experience gained from killing monsters or completing tasks, only Soul Cards.

The game was set up this way to prevent players from power-leveling. After all, just like the previous Haunted Mansion scenario — as long as the player didn’t complete the task, they could continually try again. Therefore, some players might use this feature to their advantage, treating the Fragmented World tasks as dungeons and repeatedly grinding monster kills for leveling. Thus, the game rules specified that players could not gain experience from killing monsters within a Fragmented World. Furthermore, completing tasks also yielded no experience — just Soul Cards.

However… The boss of this place shouldn’t exceed level 40, right?

Gazing at the wreckage of the Steel Tiger before him, Duanmu Huai furrowed his brows. From the Magic Steel Lion to the Mechanical Soldiers and now to the Steel Tiger. Most of the monsters in this Soul Shard map are between level 20 and 30. If all these robots were created by the “Wizard” that Mia mentioned, then his level could likely be around 40.

Of course, it’s not certain. Just like the Scholar in the Haunted Mansion, his level wasn’t even 10, and in most other technology worlds, the individual strength levels are not usually high. Looking at the monsters Duanmu Huai has encountered in Sky City, they are mostly technological creations. So, it’s also possible that the “Wizard’s” individual level isn’t high.

Naturally, in these kinds of settings, the enemy will often have a powerful robot. But if their original strength is weak, Duanmu Huai could use puppets to assassinate them, bypassing the BOSS battle for victory.

In any case, he hoped the danger wouldn’t be too great.

As he pondered this, Duanmu Huai glanced at Ogis beside him. While Ogis could battle enemies around level 70, he didn’t want to risk her. Duanmu Huai doesn’t have any cards that can rescue from the graveyard in his hand. Puppets can multiply infinitely, ghosts can be transformed through puppets, those were no objects of concern. Even if he lost them, he wouldn’t mind.

But if Ogis entered the graveyard, it would be difficult to retrieve her.

According to the design of Soul Cards, when a servant enters the graveyard, it can only be revived with the use of a card that possesses the ability “Summoning of the Dead.” When a magic card or amulet card is used and enters the graveyard, they must consume experience worth 1000 times the card cost to reset them back to the hand.

At the moment, Duanmu Huai does not have the “Summoning of the Dead” card, so he has to act cautiously.

Duanmu Huai had already made up his mind, if the final BOSS here is really too hard for now, he’ll temporarily abandon the conquest, go somewhere else to enhance his strength, and then come back to deal with it later.

He certainly can’t let Ogis die here.

After once again repelling the attack from the Robot Legion, the group finally arrived at the palace of Sky City. At this moment, Mia suddenly raised her hand, pointing ahead.

“Ah, there he is! The evil magician!”

Upon hearing Mia’s words, Duanmu Huai and Ogis both looked up, following the direction of Mia’s pointing finger and saw a figure in a long robe standing on the balcony of the second floor of the palace, staring at them coldly.

“I never would have imagined, Mia, that you’d found some help,” he said.

“Evil magician, return my body to me!!”

“Ha, foolish girl, your body has become part of my collection. Initially, I was merciful enough to let you live on as a puppet, but it seems like… I might have to teach you a little lesson…!”

“………???”

Listening to the conversation between the magician and Mia, Duanmu Huai slightly furrowed his brow, feeling like something didn’t quite make sense. Supposedly, they had a good understanding of the situation in this soul shard: A wizard… whoever he is, removed the soul of a girl named Mia from her body and inserted it into a robot. Then Mia sought help, hoping for someone to defeat the wizard and return her body.

The entire situation seemed to be like this. However… Duanmu Huai felt something was inconsistent.

Compared to the repentance of the previous Puppeteer Master and the conflicting emotions of the Scholar, Mia’s feelings didn’t seem intense enough to secure an entire Sky City here as a Soul Shard.

Especially considering that the levels and strength of the monsters in this Sky City are quite high… could this be a fragment world created by the soul of Mia, who is sealed within a robot?

Could there be some hidden secret?

As Duanmu Huai was thinking, the man in the hood raised both of his hands.

“Awaken, my guards, annihilate these foolish intruders!”

“Thump… Thump… Thump…!!!”

Following the man’s command, the palace’s front doors started slowly opening. One by one, a series of large robots, almost as large as Duanmu Huai, started marching out. Not only that, above their heads were an odd array of odd mechanical Creatures that looked nothing like humans. They had diamond or round cores, surrounded by a ring of iron, floating in the air like bizarre pieces of art.

Large Mechanical Soldiers, Ancient Creations, Analyzed Creations, Mysterious Creators.

“They’re coming!”

Staring at the legion of iron soldiers, Duanmu Huai was taken aback. He quickly composed himself and activated his Soul Cards. Soon, an army of puppets appeared in front of him, facing the contingent of the steel legion from the other side.

“Attack!!!”

With a roar from the robed man, the battle between steel and puppets began.