Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Three Heads Together (2)
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The bastard child of chain puppetry—puppetry.
A spell that makes inanimate objects move like living creatures.
That's why puppet masters pursue infinite automation.
Even if an automated puppet lacks a soul, that's fine.
Imitation is the mother of creation.
When mimicry reaches its peak, it's no different from the original.
Advanced automation will one day become true autonomy.
Seoran fully agreed with the puppet masters' views.
She just had a slightly different direction in mind.
Seoran declared solemnly.
"Manual control, taken to its extreme, is the same as autonomy."
The two advisors seated in the control room nodded.
Ryu Seoran, Ho Hye-mun, and Damcheong were all at the quarry now.
The same quarry she had once converted into a missile silo to build her bamboo shoot earthshaker missile.
Seoran pointed to the bamboo shoot earthshaker missile towering in the distance and asked a question.
"That's a failed product. Do you know why?"
The first advisor, Damcheong, answered.
"Well, because it didn't get development funding?"
The second advisor, Ho Hye-mun, gave her answer too.
"Because it lacks guidance functions?"
Seoran readily agreed.
"You're all correct. But the biggest reason was my own stubbornness. Stubbornness about automation!"
The audience didn't fully grasp Seoran's words.
So she showed them an example.
The Inaudible Spike Murder Ray Emitter—the photon cannon.
"Behold the photon cannon. It's so small and light. Why do you think that is? Because I let go of my obsession with automation. In reality, every process is handled manually."
The bamboo shoot earthshaker missile was, in its own way, a conglomeration of cutting-edge technology.
From launch to impact, most processes were carried out through meticulously tuned automated procedures.
All you had to do was input the flight path beforehand.
But that automation made it big and heavy.
The sensors, output regulators, particle converters, attitude controls, and more—all added for automation—were like cancerous lumps.
The missile's weight increased, requiring larger propulsion systems, which made it even heavier in turn.
The photon cannon, on the other hand, was different.
Mana charging process: manual.
Target aiming process: manual.
Ray firing process: click.
From charging to firing, every procedure was manual control.
That's why the photon cannon was small and light.
If even half the processes were automated, the photon cannon would become too massive to carry.
What had made the play performed in the auditorium a success, despite the tight preparation time?
Because the production team consisted of just Seoran and Ho Hye-mun.
If they had used dozens of actors instead of cloning spells, they wouldn't have even rehearsed properly and the play would have flopped.
The point was simple.
They needed an extreme diet of components.
That was the only solution.
As she listened to the explanation, Ho Hye-mun realized something.
"Then, could it be..."
Seoran replied calmly.
"Yes. From now on, the bomb bee puppets I make will have no automated mechanisms. No guidance, no output regulation, no attitude control—I'll handle it all myself."
Efficiency gains through automation are the thinking of mortals.
Weak ideas like that won't get you to the Immortal Realm.
With enough raw power, even a hand-cranked generator can outdo a nuclear power plant.
A true superhuman is one who wins an international bicycle race on a tricycle.
Seoran shouted.
"We can do it! Together, we can do it!"
Ho Hye-mun and Damcheong shouted along.
"We can do it!"
Puppet production finally began.
And they immediately hit a snag.
"But how exactly do these bee puppets work?"
To Damcheong's question, Seoran answered.
"They fly to the enemy and trigger a high-pressure mana explosion."
"Then they're obviously one-use, right?"
"Afraid so."
Damcheong voiced his concern.
"Then these bomb bee puppets we've worked so hard on might be classified as disposable magic tools? That wouldn't achieve our original goal of securing development funding..."
Indeed, a sharp observation from someone estimated to be over a thousand years old.
"What do we do then?"
As Seoran panicked, Ho Hye-mun calmed her.
"It's good we realized it now. As long as they're not disposable, it'll be fine. In that case, why not make a few powerful puppets instead of a bunch of weak ones?"
"Few elites—very rational."
Damcheong seemed pleased with the new direction too.
Seoran pondered for a moment.
Should she change the development direction now?
Or stick to her original plan of 'a stylish beehive swung dramatically, unleashing countless bee puppets to reduce the enemy to ashes'?
She finally made her decision.
"As of today, the bomb bee puppet plan is scrapped."
The train derailed the moment it departed.
*****
The puppet's form was decided: human-shaped.
The goal was, for now, a high-speed flying vehicle.
But since it flew with propulsion engines rather than wings, most birds were ruled out.
To meet puppet classification criteria, ship-like structures were impossible too.
In the end, the most straightforward option was human.
Seoran recalled her fierce battle with the Black Scale Reverse Flow Blood Snake from the netherworld.
The monster showdown between the giant using growth spells and the massive serpent yokai.
She molded clay to roughly shape it.
Ho Hye-mun offered her opinion.
"I'd like it a bit bigger and more imposing."
Damcheong made suggestions too.
"We should give up on bombs. How about making it shoot rays instead?"
Seoran tried to flex her imagination.
But to register as a puppet under classification rules, it couldn't stray too far from common notions of a puppet.
The result wasn't entirely satisfactory.
The completed scale model looked like a general.
Thick armor and bulging eyes were its striking features.
The concave palms and soles were propulsion engines.
Seoran kept convincing herself.
I don't have much material to work with.
This is the only thing I can make.
You have to know when to compromise.
This is plenty robotic already.
I'm totally satisfied.
Fooling herself like that, she stood up.
"Alright, let's make it like this. Size-wise, about a two-story building? Any bigger and we'll run out of materials."
As Seoran rubbed her hands, Damcheong asked.
"You're satisfied with this?"
"Of course."
Damcheong exploded in anger at Seoran's nonchalant reply.
"That's a lie!"
Dragon eyes can distinguish truth from falsehood.
Seoran was clearly feeling deep regret.
She was just forcing herself to hold it in.
Damcheong pressed the frozen Seoran.
"Your heart isn't satisfied yet! What are you afraid of? Remember the old you who turned down the chance to become a dragon because you wanted to be a noble being! I saw a dazzling light in you then!"
That cry struck a chord in Seoran's heart.
Was that it?
I still haven't let go enough.
I was still trapped by common sense.
Mendicant transcendence.
Transcendence means supplementation.
Supplementing incompleteness.
To truly become a superhuman, one needs a mindset befitting a superhuman.
To overwhelm a nuclear plant with a hand-cranked generator.
To win a cycling race on a tricycle.
To reach immortality with earthly arts.
You must boldly cast aside common sense.
You must unleash imagination that transcends time and space.
You must shatter the fixed mold with a hammer.
The boy slumbering within asked.
'Are you scared?'
The girl aspiring to transcendence answered.
'No, not at all.'
Roar, my ideal.
*****
As Seoran fell silent for a while, Damcheong grew anxious.
"I'm sorry. I think I went too far."
But Seoran still didn't respond.
Soon, Ho Hye-mun and Damcheong looked worried.
Seoran began to shed tears.
"Seoran..."
At Damcheong's call, Seoran finally opened her eyes.
And spoke calmly.
"I've finally realized it."
The two advisors waited for her next words.
"Common sense is just shackles restraining aesthetics. What I truly couldn't let go of was my past as a mortal. Like a child clinging to a comfort blanket, I was afraid."
The two advisors' faces began to brighten.
Seoran cried out resolutely.
"But now I'm an adult! No—a monk aspiring to hatch from her shell and become a superhuman! From this moment, the weak mortal Ryu Seoran is dead! True artistry comes from valor!"
With that, she kicked away the giant puppet general scale model and bellowed.
"We can do it! For aesthetics!"
Ho Hye-mun and Damcheong immediately echoed her.
"For aesthetics!"
No more mortal behavior.
Like a rhinoceros horn, pursue only artistry.
Aesthetics alone.
Seoran said.
"The goal remains human-shaped puppets. But I won't hesitate like before."
Ho Hye-mun asked.
"What does that mean?"
"First, cut off the legs. Legs are a luxury for a flying vehicle!"
Damcheong was stunned.
"What an incredibly novel idea!"
Ho Hye-mun agreed.
"The pinnacle of aesthetics!"
Seoran had fallen into a half-trance state.
Her already open-minded thinking now had an even larger hole punched through it.
Like her skull had swung wide open when it should be closed.
The creator was out of her mind.
In times like these, the advisors should rein things in.
But Ho Hye-mun and Damcheong weren't exactly sane either.
Ho Hye-mun had been very interested in art as a child.
And like all stimuli, aesthetics have a threshold.
As part of the ruling elite, her aesthetic threshold had naturally soared sky-high.
She was no help in this situation.
Damcheong was just as unqualified as an advisor.
One might expect conservatism from his age, but no.
Damcheong often received bizarre radio waves from the heavens via the deer antlers on his head.
And being a dragon, his worldview fundamentally differed from humans.
Naturally, development went off the rails.
A few days later, Yi Agum visited the quarry.
"Are you all in your right minds?"
And came face-to-face with a three-headed, six-armed, muscle-bound giant demon god that looked like it had crawled up from the underworld.