Chapter 297: Frozen

Lady Vivian?

Who is that?

Yun Mu turned her head to look, and saw a young girl with orange-red cat ears on her head, black patterns on the cat ears, and a slender cat tail swaying behind her.

And standing beside the girl was a man whose entire body was pitch black, almost completely modified into machinery, with even his head replaced by a revolver?

Without a doubt, the Lady Vivian mentioned by the Gray Fox Tax Collector was definitely not that gun-headed man, so Yun Mu focused her attention on the cat-eared young girl.

"Hmm?"

Vivian's gaze lingered for a moment on the cat ears atop Yun Mu's head, then looked behind her.

Not seeing the tail she had expected, she was slightly stunned.

"Domain Walker?" The other party raised an eyebrow.

"What the heck?" Hearing her words, Yun Mu was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted and nodded: "That's right, I am a Transcendental who has mastered the Cat Domain."

"Hmph, not bad~" The young girl cast an appreciative look at Yun Mu, and the cat tail behind her swayed involuntarily.

After finishing her sentence, she looked at the Gray Fox Tax Collector with an indifferent expression: "I will take over these guests, you go back to your business."

"Yes, Lady Vivian!" The Gray Fox Tax Collector bowed very respectfully to the young girl, then fled the scene with quick steps.

It was simply too terrifying; if he stayed here any longer, he was truly afraid he would suffocate due to the atmosphere at the scene.

Of course, this was just an exaggeration.

"The bothersome guy has left, so then—" Seeing the Gray Fox Tax Collector leave, Vivian looked at Yun Mu and the other person with her hands on her hips.

Because they were only going off the ship to handle port entry procedures, Yun Mu had not brought many crew members.

Beside her, there was only Brenna.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Vivian, um... I suppose I am the daughter of the owner of this pier."

"I am very happy to meet you, and also the Princess from the Kingdom." As she spoke, she extended her left hand toward Yun Mu.

"Not at all..." Yun Mu shook hands with her politely: "I am the captain of the Xiangyang, that sailing ship docked at the port, Yun Mu. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vivian." As soon as she finished speaking, she stepped aside to make way for Brenna.

"Hello, Miss Vivian, I am the Third Princess of the Frost Kingdom—Brena Saierliya. It is a pleasure to meet you." Brenna stepped forward and shook hands with the other party.

"Talitaluosi." Just at this moment, the gun-headed man who had been silent until now suddenly spoke.

No, to be precise, he did not make the action of speaking at all; it was just that a cold, mechanical voice emanated from his head.

"Hey, can you not speak so suddenly? It's very scary!" Vivian raised her leg with some dissatisfaction and kicked Talitaluosi's lower leg.

The latter remained Immovable.

"It is my freedom to decide when I want to speak, Ms. Vivian." Talitaluosi replied with the same cold, mechanical voice.

"This person is..."

Yun Mu looked at Vivian with some confusion. Previously, she had thought this tall, imposing guy, whose whole body was mechanical and whose head had been modified into a gun, was Vivian's bodyguard.

However, listening to the conversation between the two, it seemed it was not the relationship she had imagined?

"Him?..."

Hearing Yun Mu's words, Vivian turned her head to look at Talitaluosi.

"We should be considered partners, I suppose." She said.

"Partners?" Brenna couldn't help but take a few extra looks at Talitaluosi. Based on her understanding of the Federation, people who would perform Mechanical Modification on their bodies did not actually have very high status.

Because truly wealthy Beastkin would not choose to replace body parts, but rather gain power far exceeding Mechanical Modification by implanting Magic Runes into their bodies.

However, some more convenient modifications could still be done, such as control Chips implanted in the brain that could project images onto the retina, in addition to remote communication capabilities... Honestly, if it weren't for not understanding the principles of Magic Energy and the impact this stuff had on Transcendental,

Brenna would actually quite like to popularize it... But come to think of it, it was strange. Relying on the Federation's Magic Technology, not to mention crushing the surrounding countries, at least taking a bite of meat shouldn't have been a problem.

But for some reason, so many years had passed, yet the Federation had absolutely no thoughts or ambitions to expand. Could it be that those money-grubbing Federal Councilors were actually peace-loving merchant friends? How could that be?

As long as they could obtain sufficient benefits, Brenna believed those Federal Councilors would absolutely do anything.

The reason there had been no movement was likely not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't... This might be related to the Elf bordering the Federation. As early as the ancient era, the Elves who mastered magic had always been the top race on the continent.

However, because of the great distance, the Frost Kingdom did not know much about the Elf.

Who knew what kind of prosperous scene it would be on that land inhabited by those long-eared ones who controlled magic?

"Yun Mu... I know you." Talitaluosi suddenly spoke at this moment.

Before everyone could react, he continued: "Airui Laya once mentioned your name to me."

Airui Laya?

Yun Mu was slightly stunned, then suddenly reacted.

She widened her eyes subconsciously: "Airui Laya? That follower of the God of Pleasure and Chaos, the Faceless Fool Airui Laya?"

"It is her..." After a pause, Talitaluosi continued: "In fact, my partnership with Ms. Vivian is related to that Faceless Fool."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on!" Vivian only just reacted now. She looked at Yun Mu and Talitaluosi in disbelief: "What is going on? You know each other?"

"That Faceless Fool—Airui Laya..."

"This Ms. Yun has met her, and as far as I know, she should have obtained the Mask of Pleasure." Talitaluosi interrupted Vivian's words.

"The Mask of Pleasure... doesn't that mean?" Vivian looked at Yun Mu in disbelief: "Is this young lady a follower candidate already reserved by Pleasure?"

"..." Talitaluosi was silent and did not reply.

"Wait a minute, what is this situation!?" Brenna looked at the few of them, completely confused.

Although she was present when they encountered the Faceless Fool, didn't the other party just give the two of them a pair of ordinary masks at the time? She had carefully studied them afterward, and indeed hadn't found anything special.

How did it become that Miss Yun was a follower favored by that God of Pleasure?

Yun Mu was no better off than her at this moment. She just wanted to know what the identity of this gun-headed man was, to be able to know that Legendary-level powerhouse, the follower of the God of Pleasure and Chaos—the Faceless Fool Airui Laya.

Seeming to see through her thoughts, Talitaluosi took the lead in explaining: "I am not a believer of Pleasure, I just happened to be looked at by Him once."

"Because of this reason, I have a slight acquaintance with that Faceless Fool."

After a pause, he added: "And the reason I was favored by Pleasure is just that He quite likes the look of my head."

Talitaluosi said, tapping the gun barrel on his head lightly with his finger.

"Perhaps it's because you can still maintain your sanity even with a body modification rate exceeding 90%?" Vivian, standing beside him, waved her hand and said: "Replacing almost the entire body with machinery without going insane—if this weren't reality, I simply wouldn't believe my eyes."

"Going insane?" Yun Mu heard this and felt a bit curious: "Cyberpsychosis?"

Before transmigrating, according to the game Cyberpunk 2077 and the definition in the Trauma Team medical records, cyberpsychosis is a collective term for all anxiety-related mental and personality disorders triggered by hardware implanted in the body and various behavioral modules including Software.

Simply put, it is a mental illness caused by the body being replaced with machinery.

Think about it carefully: if you could not perceive your arm but could still control it, what a bizarre feeling that would be. In the worldview of Cyberpunk, Mechanical Modification goes far beyond that; acts like stuffing firearms and weapons into the body are countless.

The human body is a very precise machine; modifying it at will is actually very dangerous.

"Cyberpsychosis?" Vivian muttered the term, and after a moment, she grinned: "Right, exactly, cyberpsychosis. This word is really f— cough, I meant to say, really good."

Yun Mu was not quite sure what the words she wanted to express would be translated into by the effect of the title 【Civilization Spreader】 after being spoken.

However, looking at Vivian's expression, the result of the translation was probably quite good.

"Actually, I might have already gone insane," Talitaluosi interjected at this moment. He seemed to speak quite impulsively, not caring at all where others were in the conversation.

As he spoke, he stroked the gun barrel extending from his head.

"How many years ago was that?"

"I had my arms torn off by someone and was thrown into a large open-air landfill. It was filled with mechanical wreckage everywhere, along with corpses like me that no one cared about. I was probably the one with the highest degree of modification there. Even though I was forgotten by the world and abandoned by the city, I did not die."

"At the time, perhaps it was the fire of Revenge that ignited me. I found a welding machine that could still operate, hacked into its system, and then welded the only revolver onto my head."

"I blew away my former boss with one shot. At the time, I used my head to press against his, and I was thinking that it was perhaps the only moment in my life I could stand at the same height as a big shot."

Physically at the same height, right? Yun Mu thought to herself, but Talitaluosi's words had not yet ended:

"That was when I met the Faceless Fool. She said the God of Pleasure and Chaos appreciated me, especially the blood-stained gun barrel on top of my head."

"So after being saved by the Faceless Fool, I kept this gun barrel and modified it into this appearance—"

He tapped the gun barrel on his head again with his finger.

"You know, the Federation is a land without gods. People here don't believe in gods, and neither do I."

"It's just that the Faceless Fool told me that this country is too boring now, and asked if I wanted to make it a bit more interesting."

"When I heard her say she wanted to turn this country upside down, that feeling was like some kind of guidance from Fate, making me unable to help but agree. Can you understand that feeling?"

"I think, by and large, I was born to do this."

"Uh, I, I can tell," Vivian's mouth twitched slightly.

This guy, why didn't I notice he was so talkative before!

I thought he was a silent type; I didn't expect that he wouldn't say a word on normal days, but once he started, he'd go on for such a long string.

Who cares about your background, you loser! But I was only here to receive the princess of the Frost Kingdom, so I just came along to host; I didn't expect such an unexpected surprise.

"Let me reintroduce myself. I am the daughter of the Federation's Ninth Councilor—Kuoluomajisi, Vivian. It's a pleasure to meet you both."

"And this is Talitaluosi, um, currently my partner." She placed a slight emphasis on the word 'currently'.

That makes sense. Just now, this guy said he wanted to turn the Federation upside down. As a Councilor's daughter, Vivian is clearly on the side of the Federation. Working with this person right now probably stems from some unavoidable reason... Yun Mu analyzed silently in her heart.

Perhaps because the amount of information absorbed just now was too large, at this moment, after learning Vivian's true identity, she felt no major emotional fluctuations in her heart.

And on this point, Brenna was surprisingly in sync with her.

"Ahem."

Yun Mu coughed lightly, signaling Brenna not to forget the main business.

They didn't come to the Federation to get involved in the messy affairs between these councilors. For Elena, they needed to learn and borrow some knowledge regarding Human Body Modification.

In this regard, the Federation clearly had developed very well. Not to mention the workers with traces of Mechanical Modification seen everywhere at the port, just look at this Talitaluosi in front of them.

Almost every visible part of him had been modified into machinery; the Federation's Magic Technology really should not be underestimated.

"Cough." Without needing Yun Mu's reminder, Brenna certainly hadn't forgotten the main business. She said: "Sorry, Miss Vivian, we do not wish to get involved in the private affairs of the Federation."

"Even bringing up the matter of that God of Pleasure and Chaos won't work," Brenna said while thinking about her wording: "After all, even if Miss Yun is truly a follower of that God of Pleasure and Chaos, there is no need for Miss Yun to participate in events related to pleasure before the deity personally issues instructions."

"Don't refuse so quickly—no, wait, I haven't even said I was going to invite you yet!" Vivian first subconsciously wanted to negotiate, then suddenly realized.

"Hmph, isn't your intention already quite obvious?" Brenna crossed her arms over her chest and said speechlessly.

"Uh, although that is true, the two of you can listen to me slowly." Vivian was indeed a Councilor's daughter; the smile on her face at this moment was just like those merchants in Yun Mu's memory.

"I'll take you two to handle the port entry procedures first, and as for the ship's docking fees, there's no need to pay."

(End of chapter)