Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 662 - 661: Problems Facing the Puppet Army
Inside the Teleportation Hub Pyramid, the "alchemy laboratory" used for mass production of puppets was bustling with activity.
A large number of damaged puppets, withdrawn from Deep Rock Fortress, were lined up in the hub pyramid waiting for repairs. Hundreds of alchemy platforms in the hall were occupied, each with an Erin staring up with dead fish eyes. Among them were "seriously injured" ones missing arms or legs, while many others yet to queue were quietly gathered in a corner of the laboratory.
Many intact mass-produced puppets were busily working around those alchemy platforms, skillfully attaching "spare limbs" made of clay onto the damaged puppets. When the bodies were repaired, the puppets would immediately join in to help repair other companions, rotating in shifts like this.
A subtle scent of blood permeated the air as a "Diffusion Device" was installed in the corner of the hall. The thin red mist emanating from the device split into hundreds of strands, surrounding the alchemy platforms. With this technology from the Demon Suppression Tower's Skating Trio, the amount of blood needed for repairing and manufacturing mass-produced puppets was further reduced, and production efficiency was more than doubled.
Thus, the originally cumbersome "alchemy ceremony" was now integrated into an impressively efficient assembly line—yet the efficiency of this line was still far from ideal. Theoretically, as long as raw materials were sufficient, the efficiency of "puppets producing puppets" could be infinitely enhanced. Currently, what limits the expansion of the Erin army is the size of this "alchemy laboratory." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
Yu Sheng never anticipated that the place he built with a "bigger is better" mindset would become inadequate so quickly.
"I have to admit, this efficiency is really high," remarked Yu Sheng leisurely as he walked amidst the rows of alchemy platforms, looking at those mass-produced puppets with dead fish eyes, "If Erin really got going, she could probably fill this entire valley in no time."
He initially wanted to liken the puppet army's expansion speed to cockroaches, but the words got stuck in his throat—after all, the place was filled with mass-produced Erins with tiny little hearts, and he feared they might bite if provoked.
Luna quietly followed behind Yu Sheng. As they passed one of the alchemy platforms, she slightly paused, her gaze landing on it.
A half-body mass-produced puppet lay quietly on the platform, its scarlet eyes appeared somewhat dull. This unlucky fellow had half its body blown apart by the soldiers under Old Qiao's command with a heavy particle rifle during the previous battle but managed to teleport back to the hub hall just in time, looking pitiful.
As if the main consciousness sensed the gaze upon it, the half-bodied puppet suddenly twitched, its dull eyes turning towards Luna, emitting a somewhat sluggish voice: "What- are you- looking at? Never seen- a half-body before?"
"Half-body, is that the meaning?" Luna said slowly, also reaching out to poke the half-body puppet's belly, "Thirty-three, centimeters…"
"C type, C type buckle! You- bastard-" Erin immediately cursed, but because the body was so damaged, not even the cursing came out fluently, so she urgently called another intact puppet over to curse on her behalf, "I @#@￥ your! You #￥% of %￥! And why are you mimicking me!"
Luna, however, wasn't angry: "I'm not, mimicking, I always, stutter."
Yu Sheng couldn't bear watching from the side, feeling that the scene of a malfunctioning robot bullying a half-body puppet was too bizarre, so he hurried over to smooth things over, then turned with a slightly puzzled expression to the Erin lying on the platform: "Really… is it necessary to repair this half body?"
"Life needs to be economical," an intact puppet nearby rolled its eyes, "There's still half left; can't just throw it away…"
Just when Yu Sheng was about to ask something else, he heard the sound of footsteps from behind. Turning around, he saw a lower half of an Erin staggering like a headless fly running towards them (literally headless, with nothing above the belly). The half-body puppet jumped twice but couldn't reach the platform. Then, two nearby intact puppets came over, grabbed its legs, and tossed it up onto the alchemy platform.
Soon after, several intact puppets followed up onto the platform, skillfully assembling the two halves of the puppet body together, applying clay to the gap at the waist. The faint threads of bloody mist in the air gathered around, and within a few breaths, the two halves were seamlessly repaired, even the clothes on the puppet body were mended.
Newly repaired mass-produced Erin sat up from the platform, hands on hips, looking at Yu Sheng: "See, it's repaired now! At least the materials weren't wasted…"
Even Yu Sheng was shocked: "…This really works!?"
"The Alice Puppet, quite amazing, right?" Erin joyfully hopped down from the platform, making room for others, and boasted with her head held high, "Let me tell you, that's not all; before you arrived, my record was cobbling one together out of parts from seven bodies…"
Yu Sheng: "…Remarkable assembly job!"
As they spoke, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of another damaged mass-produced Erin being tossed onto the platform by a companion. Then a bunch of puppets gathered from all directions, some holding arms, some carrying legs, and others with clay and wire, climbing onto the platform to start assembling the injured companion...
After a while, a fully repaired Erin crawled down from the platform and strolled off to help elsewhere.
Yu Sheng's gaze moved past the neatly arranged platforms towards the corner of the hall.
A large number of damaged puppets were still lining up obediently, waiting for repairs. Many of them were severely damaged (given their small size of 66.6 cm, a random shot could leave them in pieces), to the extent that some couldn't even stand, so quite a few puppets were simply heaped together — nonetheless, these heaped-up broken puppets weren't idle. They kept moving around, sometimes even rummaging through the "junk pile" to find still-functioning limbs to compare against themselves, seemingly pre-matching possible replacement parts.
In the vast hall, the soft clicking sounds of puppet limbs being assembled and the footsteps of puppets coming and going blended together — when no one was talking, these were the only sounds.
To put it this way, if this scene were outside and someone saw it, there would be enough people calling the police to line up from Wutong Road to downtown and back for two more laps. Even in a game, this would at least be the second-to-last level's boss fight, where you could die ten times if you didn't have a guide.
"...This scene is somewhat bizarre, let me tell you," Yu Sheng's mouth twitched as he looked down at the small puppet at his feet, "Can't you fix this issue with the artistic style?"
"You still care about the art style?" The small puppet was instantly shocked, "You didn't worry about that while you were growing wild in Deep Rock Fortress!"
Yu Sheng: "How can that be the same— there are a bunch of kids in this valley. What if one of them, out of curiosity, comes over here and gets scared by you?"
"Well, I don't think you need to worry. What they've seen is generally weirder than this," Erin waved her hand nonchalantly. "Instead of worrying about this, I think you should be concerned about two other things — first, the space in this 'alchemy laboratory' is clearly already inadequate. We just went out for one battle, and it wasn't even a full deployment, and we already have to queue to heal the wounded. How are we going to manage when we actually invade the Hidden Monastery's headquarters?"
"That's true. I've already been considering finding another place in the valley to serve specifically as your 'puppet production base'," Yu Sheng stroked his chin. "I think the clearing by the edge of the Black Forest is pretty good. Isn't it that recently the valley has more and more puppets, and the hub pyramid and town area are almost saturated? I plan to build a 'puppet town' by the edge of the Black Forest, and then put the new production facility right next to puppet town. That way, it also resolves the transportation problem."
Erin's eyes immediately lit up: "Wow, Yu Sheng, your conscience has finally been found! You're finally going to build a house for my puppet army, right? I've been nagging you for so long. So many of the mass-produced puppets can only squeeze together in stacks in the warehouse during standby, or go crash at Fairy Tale Town. I'm the second in command here, and I don't even have my own base at headquarters..."
The small puppet couldn't stop babbling as soon as it opened its mouth, and the sound of its prattling made Yu Sheng's head feel like it was swelling. He hurriedly waved his hand vigorously: "Stop, stop, stop, no more harping. Haven't I not found the time? Besides, you didn't have that many numbers before… Anyway, let's not talk about that now, didn't you just say there were two things? What's the other one?"
"Oh, the other thing is that the reserve blood you left in the laboratory isn't much," Erin stroked her chin, her little face quite serious. "In fact, it should have already run out. The only reason we still have it is because the diffusion device those three evil cultivators made had an unexpected effect, greatly increasing blood utilization. But even with that, the remaining blood is only enough to refill the diffusion device two more rounds, and it'll probably be gone after repairing the damaged bodies here."
Yu Sheng's face twitched involuntarily, his tone strange: "Already used up? I left so much last time..."
Erin placed her hands on her hips: "How do you think I amassed a force of six regiments!"
Yu Sheng: "...That was all my hard work!"
Erin: "Yes, yes indeed..."
Looking at this silly little thing, Yu Sheng sighed, clicking his tongue: "Well, earlier I was thinking the only limit to the puppet army was the production facilities' scale, but now a new bottleneck has appeared. Facility size is easy to deal with, but the 'raw materials' on me are hard to manage."
Erin drew out her tone, speaking in an annoying voice: "Hard to manage, eh—"
So the two of them began to worry together.
