Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Hello, World! (3)
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While the sneaky visitor was spying on the Eastern Continent.
Seoran was conducting research in accordance with their pact.
It was research on the learning puppet.
The research tome was sealed inside the wooden puppet.
Though it had stopped functioning due to being split in half, the wooden puppet had not yet exhausted its usefulness.
The preface of the research tome contained instructions to use the puppet's remains as teaching materials.
In the dead of night, Seoran retrieved the right and left halves of the wooden puppet, which had been slumbering peacefully in the warehouse.
The remains lay side by side on the operating table.
She began meticulously disassembling and analyzing the wooden puppet according to the procedures outlined in the research tome.
It was a design that naturally drew gasps of admiration.
"Ooh, ooh!"
The intricately tuned internal mechanisms.
Lawforce circuits of breathtaking efficiency.
Logical structures and optimization methods so exquisite they were hard to believe they came from a single person's mind.
It was worlds apart from the starting point of Eastern Continent puppetry.
A realm reached through solitary contemplation.
Truly, a path no one else had trod.
Seoran spent the entire night disassembling the wooden puppet.
The more the assembled parts were broken down into smaller pieces, the more her own puppetry skills advanced without bounds.
Yeop Gwanbo had successfully passed on every achievement of his lifetime to his successor.
Seoran's reverse-engineering skills also improved by leaps and bounds.
She could now disassemble the deformable magic tool and transformation puppet threads—now obsolete—in a mere ten days.
Autumn and winter passed, and spring arrived.
This year, Seoran turned exactly thirty.
Fifteen years had flown by since the day she first discovered Yeop Gwanbo's research tome.
Seoran was now ready.
A new puppet development committee was immediately convened.
In place of Ho Hye-mun, who was busy with the academy's new semester, a third advisor joined.
It was Teacher Geum Yeongyeong, who doubled as a Black Bamboo Sect bamboo shoot and white goose.
Eastern Continent study-abroad puppetry master, Ryu Seoran.
Possessor of inhuman aesthetics, Damcheong.
One who pursued only efficiency, Geum Yeongyeong.
The trio of underperformers gathered around the table.
Their goal was an industrial learning puppet.
More precisely, they wanted to create puppets that could fully replace unskilled human labor.
The self-proclaimed greatest puppetry master of the Western Continent was confident.
Damcheong, claiming some experience herself, asked,
"Learning puppets may be unfamiliar to me, but don't puppets usually scale performance with cost? Even with ample development funds, you won't make many, so isn't this too expensive for mere laborers?"
Seoran replied smoothly,
"You're right. Puppets with learning capabilities are incredibly costly. But not every puppet needs to learn independently. It's not just a cost issue—it's highly inefficient. As long as there's a way to connect them, a single brain is enough."
Damcheong asked in shock,
"What? Puppets connected to each other? Is that even possible!?"
"Of course. Who do you think I am?"
The solution lay in the Mind Transmission Art.
The Mind Transmission Art was a spell for transmitting specific information to others.
Seoran had adapted it to create a spell-based network structure allowing puppets to exchange information.
Namely, the Mindlink Net—a network for puppets only.
Like how a brain sends electrical signals to move an arm.
Like soldiers executing a general's strategy.
Like terminals connected to a computer and network.
Seoran's concept was simple.
Separation of thought and action.
This approach broke through the cost barrier.
Geum Yeongyeong asked,
"You're using premium materials only for the core puppet handling learning and control, and cheap ones for the rest?"
Seoran nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, exactly."
"Then what about the power source? With cheap materials, the lawforce storage is minimal. A Foundation Establishment cultivator can't follow them around recharging all day."
"The power source will be handled by remote lawforce supply spells."
Geum Yeongyeong and Seoran continued their Q&A.
"The core puppet—that's what we're calling it, right?—will supply lawforce to the others?"
"Spot on. The core puppet's official name is the Dharma Brain. It means a brain powered by lawforce."
"Where does the Dharma Brain get its lawforce?"
"I'm planning a self-recharge function."
"Those are usually terribly inefficient. Will it gather enough to supply countless puppets?"
"In general, yes, but if we forgo miniaturization, efficiency isn't an issue. We'll also link it to spirit veins to draw spiritual energy. That'll suffice for lawforce supply."
"What about transmission distance limits and lawforce loss rates?"
"We'll install relays across the mountains. More relays mean lower loss rates, since it'll be short-range hops."
Geum Yeongyeong said admiringly,
"I believe you. You truly are the Western Continent's top puppetry master."
Damcheong cheered Seoran's name from the side.
"Ryu Seoran! Ryu Seoran! Ryu Seoran!"
Development surged ahead.
*****
Time flew by.
Finally, autumn painted the mountains in fiery hues.
Over the past six months, the trio had spared no effort.
Ryu Seoran.
Up at dawn for the steam room.
Breakfast, then greeting Mermaid Church pilgrims.
Lunch, then training toward Origin Energy.
Dinner, then puppet development meeting.
Damcheong.
Up at dawn for the steam room.
Breakfast, then swimming with carp in the pond.
Lunch, then greeting Mermaid Church pilgrims.
Dinner, then puppet development meeting.
Geum Yeongyeong.
Up late for lunch.
Play hard until bored, then half-hearted training.
Dinner, then puppet development meeting.
Bedtime earlier than anyone.
The development meetings proceeded without a hitch.
No issues raised was proof of that.
Such cases are generally called ill omens.
The beasts of ill omen wore satisfied expressions.
They were the hellish legion descended upon the sect.
Seoran, Damcheong, and Geum Yeongyeong spoke in turn.
"It's perfect!"
"Not a single flaw!"
"Let's keep it this way from now on!"
Of course, it didn't stay that way.
To complete the puppets, they had invited external collaborator Yi Agum, who now stood like a runaway train at full throttle blocking them.
"Sister, even you can't think this is okay."
Seoran asked in confusion,
"Agum, what's wrong all of a sudden?"
"What's wrong? You see that and have to ask?"
Yi Agum pointed at the monstrosity birthed by the trio.
A house-sized giant brain and a legion of countless skulls.
The brain was grotesque, and the skulls lacked even heads.
Yi Agum reacted with common sense.
"Why on earth did you make the brain look like a brain?"
Seoran, Damcheong, and Geum Yeongyeong answered in sequence.
"It's called the Dharma Brain. So it looks like a brain."
"Look at the massive size. Doesn't it look powerful?"
"It handles learning and control. It can even produce puppets and relays itself."
Yi Agum also pointed out the skull legion's issues.
"And what are these skulls? Where are their heads?"
The trio kindly explained again.
"They're terminal puppets controlled by the Dharma Brain."
"No heads means no weak points."
"It's for better fuel efficiency and cost reduction. You have no idea how much we optimized."
The puppet design was already complete.
All that remained was to fire the clay into ceramics with a fire-aspect cultivator's blazing breath, birthing the giant brain and skull legion.
That was why they had suddenly called Yi Agum.
Naturally, Yi Agum was vehemently opposed.
"We can't unleash those evil spirits in the Black Bamboo Sect."
Seoran began persuading her little sister.
"Agum, how is this evil spirits? It's not even that original... You liked the Vajra Yaksha we made last time."
Yi Agum revealed the truth she had hidden.
"I didn't say it then, but... honestly, sister's sense of beauty is a bit off. If kids saw the puppets you make, they'd have fits."
Shocked, Seoran stammered,
"M-My puppets are that weird?"
"Yeah."
"W-Why didn't you say so back then?"
Yi Agum sighed as she replied.
"Back then, I thought you just had no talent for sculpting. So I lied to spare your feelings. But after seeing the four puppet sisters you made..."
"What?"
"You have innate sculpting talent. It's just your aesthetic sense that's twisted. So why not make normal puppets instead of these weird ones?"
"But this is my aesthetic. You want me to give it up?"
"Headless skulls are your aesthetic?"
"Can't you feel my sharp critique hurled at the human masses who abandon free will and philosophical thought? The shocking artistry hidden in this skeletal collective?"
Yi Agum replied,
"Nope."
Seoran muttered softly.
"You wouldn't understand art..."
In the end, Yi Agum pulled out her final card.
"Then let's ask people."
Seoran didn't back down.
"Fine."
In the end, a large-scale survey was conducted.
Giant brain and headless skull legion.
Versus...
Cute animal friends straight out of a fable.
The animal friends were Yi Agum's idea.
Simple designs with animal heads on human bodies.
Seoran had whipped them up half-heartedly.
Survey participants excluded secluded Origin Energy cultivators—anyone over ten years old in the sect could join.
Various genders, origins, and ages participated.
The age range spanned roughly five hundred years—truly broad.
Thanks to the Scripture Pavilion's cooperation, results came quickly.
Seoran lost across all genders and ages.
Only one group sided with her.
Teenage boys—only they favored the giant brain and headless skull legion.
Seoran had no choice but to accept the results.
But she grumbled bitterly all the same.
My aesthetic isn't wrong.
If this were the Eastern Continent, it'd be different.
True aesthetics never lose!
And so, the official name of Seoran's newly invented ceramic puppet swarm became 'Animal Farm'.