Chapter 322: Invincibility Time, Warrior's Destination

Morning light slanted through the gaps in the blackout curtains, spilling into the room.

Ding Xiao tidied up the disassembled nutrient solution packaging, and as he walked back to the game pod, his gaze unconsciously fell on the photograph on the wall.

In the first photo, he still wore a touch of youthful smile on his face, holding the championship trophy of "Star Fall Battlefield" in one hand, with ten thousand guild members clad in armor, swarming like a steel torrent behind him.

They raised their weapons high in the virtual battlefield, their cheers seeming to pierce through the photograph.

In the corner of the photo, the gilded game ID "Break Ten Thousand Armies" remained clear, as if branded onto the glory of the past.

The second photo was a group shot from the era of "Eternal Realm".

This too was a game within the Human Race.

He stood on the command platform, with ten thousand soldiers arranged in neat formations behind him, war flags fluttering, and iron armor like a forest.

By then, he had shed his childishness, gaining a few degrees of steadiness between his brows, yet the fire of desire for victory still burned in his eyes.

The third photo, however, contained only a handful of people.

It was the final battle of "Blood Color"; only seven core members remained by his side, with ruins shrouded in smoke and gunpowder as the backdrop.

In the photo, he still stood with his spine straight, but the smile at the corner of his mouth had faded significantly.

This was an incredibly difficult battle; clashing with the top commanders of the Human Race had nearly wiped out the legion he led, yet in the end, they still secured victory.

The fourth, fifth, sixth... every photo was a story of past glory.

He gazed quietly at these photos; each time his focus settled, the corresponding memories would surge to his heart.

Those years of campaigning across all directions circled in his memory like faded old movies.

The days of building the war guild were glory, but also a burden.

Every command was like walking on a tightrope; a single slip meant total defeat.

He clearly remembered a tactical meeting where members quarreled and then fell apart, and even more clearly remembered the backs of former comrades-in-arms turning away when interests were placed before them.

This stage, though exhausting, was also very fulfilling.

Those were his most spirited days; few opponents existed within the Human Race, and wherever the war flags pointed, there were songs of victory.

His tactical notebook was filled with records of victories.

Only after crossing the racial barriers and stepping onto the stage of world-class games did he realize the vastness of the galaxy.

This was also the stage where he changed the most.

Commanders of various races were like brilliant stars; every race had its own specialized tactics in war games.

The tactics of the Upper Realm beings were as elusive as flowing fireflies; the Blood Rage Charge of the Great Barbarian Tribe carried a momentum that swept away withered wood; the protracted warfare of the Wood Spirit Tribe was despairing... but the most unforgettable was that fellow from the Eclipse Tribe, who could always find the most tricky entry point in the battle plans he formulated.

Under the moonlight of the Emerald Canyon in the Land of Sin, he first witnessed what command as art looked like.

A three-hour game of strategy made him understand that his so-called proud command ability was merely the view of a frog in a well.

In every subsequent clash with him, he improved, yet every ending was defeat.

And after the Monster World went online, that opponent chose to quit and leave.

He still remembered their last conversation, where the other party stated that they had already abandoned the Land of Sin and would strive in the Monster World in the future.

Lying in the chat box was the last private message:

If fate allows in the future, let us meet again in the Monster World; perhaps then we will not be opponents, but comrades-in-arms.

The other party's abandonment made Ding Xiao feel very uncomfortable, yet it also gave him a new goal.

He always remembered a sentence the other party had once said:

"The strength of command ability does not lie in how many people you can mobilize, but in how many people you can truly make an extension of your will."

This sentence made Ding Xiao feel deeply moved.

Upon careful thought, he suddenly realized that in fact, he still had many moments of powerlessness when commanding large-scale wars.

And these detailed problems were all caused by personal energy being unable to cover the entire field.

So after obtaining the qualification for "Monster World", he chose another path, no longer pursuing scale, but pursuing the extreme.

A refined guild team, a group of like-minded companions, gradually pursuing peak adventures.

Perhaps the guild will expand its scale in the future.

But before doing so, there is a prerequisite: he must be able to fully master a war band of that scale, and then grow together with the guild.

Every expansion is a breakthrough of the current limit.

In fact, since entering "Monster World", his command ability has undergone an unimaginable transformation.

The accelerated thinking brought by Brain Overclocking, the battlefield omniscience granted by the Eagle-Head Demon, the precise positioning of the marked Painful Painful Minghun, the weakness analysis of the Spirit Eye trait... these abilities stacked together gave him a command perspective that was truly like using his own arm.

He could even observe the breathing rhythm of every member in detail during combat.

Just as that fellow said before quitting: the Monster World is the future.

Having experienced the content of the Monster World, he deeply understood this sentence.

Previous games, compared to the Monster World, were not even on the same dimension.

Besides the innovation in the player ability system, the strength of external opponents in the Monster World also surpassed any previous game.

Especially the Earth-Will Bully.

Reviewing the battles led by the God King with the United War Band, and stepping into the command perspective, he could empathize with the helplessness and despair in the God King's heart.

This newbie village boss grew too fast.

Since the server opened, players have eliminated many races, and the scope of exploration has gradually expanded.

Only the Earth-Will Bully remains evergreen, always the strongest boss in the players' eyes; even the Mist-Fog Tribe, which recently appeared in the Cang Star Sea and possesses multiple Ban Shen Jing experts, is not as terrifying as the Earth-Will Bully in the players' eyes.

The future of the Mist-Fog Tribe is clearly visible; they will inevitably be taken down by the player faction.

But the Earth-Will Bully, players cannot see an upper limit.

And the Earth-Will Bully is not the limit; there is also an existence in the player faction that he must look up to: Visitor Number One.

The command ability of the Earth-Will Bully was already outrageous; Visitor Number One was even more so.

The ability to precisely control every player's actions amid the chaotic torrent of battle is nothing short of a miracle.

But Ding Xiao was not discouraged.

In the eyes of command-type players, the game features a Painful Painful Minghun called "Brain Overclock," an absolute T0-tier soul.

As the Brain Overclock Painful Painful Minghun improves, the enhancement to logical thinking can reach the level of Player #1.

If level 100 isn't enough, go to level 200; if 200 isn't enough, go to level 300—perhaps one day in the future, he could even surpass Player #1.

He was full of anticipation for his future.

He believed that himself, having chosen to restart from a small elite squad, would one day return to the pinnacle of command, leading the player race alongside former rivals to the summit of the Monster World.

His gaze swept across the wall's many honor photos; Ding Xiao's eyes hardened, and he stepped toward the game pod.

The only thing limiting his growth was lifespan.

As a veteran player, he knew well how vast the Monster World's lore truly was.

Though he seemed young, even a hundred years of life would be insufficient to measure the Monster World's expanse.

The game pod lid slowly descended.

"Hey, if only this game let you recharge lifespan."

……

After logging in, Ding Xiao began laying out his next challenge.

The chairman of the Drunken Feast Guild had replied, helping him recruit eighty elite players to assist.

Among them were members of the Veteran Squad and several top tank players from the Divine Hall Guild.

The strength of these eighty players far surpassed that of the members of his own Starwatchers Guild.

After pulling all participating members into the battle group, Ding Xiao began deploying a new combat strategy.

In the previous round against Doll #2, the core reasons for failure were two.

The first was that Doll #2's attack rhythm grew increasingly chaotic as its body sustained damage, causing minor errors in subsequent command timing.

This issue could be improved by learning from the last round: instead of predicting, he would now issue commands based on observations of energy flow within Doll #2 through the Spirit Eye—slower, but far more accurate.

The second reason was insufficient output intensity.

To force Doll #2 into a specific output pattern, players had to be sacrificed periodically, sent to designated zones to endure Doll #2's berserk assaults.

This created optimal windows for output.

But as the number of sacrificed players increased, late-stage attrition became severe, and output gradually fell behind.

Output kept dwindling.

Yet Doll #2's attacks grew ever more berserk.

Thus, it was a time-limited kill boss—output efficiency was critical, and it had to be slain within the allotted time.

With eighty players joining this time, output would clearly surge dramatically.

Divine Hall Guild's tank players, Veteran Squad's output efficiency.

Ding Xiao elaborated his ideas in the battle group channel and released a new grid layout.

This time, he divided the 500 grids into 630, making movement in the next challenge far more precise.

The only thing worrying him was coordination.

His own guild members had coordinated seamlessly for over a year.

But the tank players from the Divine Hall Guild and the Veteran Squad members were cooperating with him for the first time.

There were potential issues in their understanding of his commands and their movement habits.

All of this had to be refined through actual combat.

Ding Xiao's idea was to first lead a 600-player group through several high-difficulty dungeons before challenging Doll #2.

Both the Veteran Squad and the Divine Hall Guild's tank players expressed no objections to his idea.

Three days later.

After dungeon challenges confirmed that the Veteran Squad and Divine Hall Guild's tank players could rapidly understand his commands, Ding Xiao set out again for the Azure Star Seas.

That afternoon, the battle against Doll #2 resumed.

With experience from the last challenge, Ding Xiao's command grew more polished.

But as time passed, the number of sacrificed players increased, and output once again faltered.

Before Doll #2 could be paralyzed, the group's attacks could no longer outpace its ability to replenish energy from its extraction nodes.

At this stage, only one option remained: activate the battle formation for a final berserk output surge.

The result ended in failure once more.

An hour later, Ding Xiao appeared on the Rainbow Mist Coast.

But he did not rush to gather his battle group; instead, he repeatedly watched the recording of this round.

This failure gave Ding Xiao a new idea for changing tactics.

Sacrifice points were unavoidable, but too many sacrifices would cripple output efficiency.

This problem seemed to have only one solution.

That was to increase the number of participants—more players meant more "sacrificial offerings."

But the method of increasing numbers, he had already realized before initiating the challenge, was unfeasible.

Adding more players within the limited space would make early-stage movement and evasion too rigid.

Combined with the Life Link protection mechanism, Doll #2's Silver Thread Dance attack could wipe out all entering players in a single round.

Ding Xiao activated Brain Overclock mode, continuously scanning his memory for a solution.

He also browsed forum posts, seeking inspiration.

Half an hour later, Ding Xiao found the answer.

Pet!

He didn't know how the doll No. 2's life monitoring mechanism worked.

But pets, like players, are living beings.

Could pets be used to trigger the fatal strike instead of players, thereby creating output space for the team?

With this idea, Ding Xiao decided to enter practical testing the next day.

With 592 members in the entire squad, 592 growth-type pets could be sacrificed, indirectly improving output efficiency.

The next day, afternoon.

Ding Xiao led the squad into battle again.

This round of challenge proved his hypothesis.

Using pets as sacrificial pawns was entirely feasible.

It eliminated the need to sacrifice players, completely solving the problem of continuous casualties undermining output while creating an output environment.

But a new problem quickly emerged.

When the 489th pet was sacrificed, Doll No. 2's body was severely damaged and entered a special state, triggering a full-range beam bombardment within the spatial scenario.

This strike was unavoidable; once it appeared, it meant total annihilation.

A full-power attack from a Level 179 monster was simply beyond the squad's capacity to resist.

Doll No. 2's phase-based performance made Ding Xiao think of boss mechanics in early games, where bosses underwent phase strengthening.

Compared to other lifeforms in the Monster World, Doll No. 2 felt profoundly out of place.

Other lifeforms in the Monster World grew weaker the more they were fought; there was no concept of becoming stronger when low on health.

Yet Doll No. 2 exhibited different behaviors at each stage as its health bar declined.

Or rather, Doll No. 2 could have unleashed full-range bombardment from the start, but its combat power was gradually unlocked as its health decreased.

The full-range bombardment ability left Ding Xiao with no way to counter it.

All other problems could be avoided through skill and strategy.

Only the full-range bombardment was irrational; unless the Painful Painful Minghun repository contained an invincibility skill that could grant players immunity to all damage—even a brief one—it was impossible to evade this terrifying output burst.

Even the Soul-Sealing trait could not interrupt this beam bombardment.

At this moment, Ding Xiao was utterly helpless.

The full-range beam bombardment could not be resolved through efficient coordinated combat by squad members.

Just as Ding Xiao was preparing to give up and order the veteran squad and Divine Hall Guild's tank players to retreat, a comment popped up in his livestream.

This comment made Ding Xiao freeze.

Because the sender of this comment was the legendary figure in forum players' eyes: Tourist No. 1.

Tourist No. 1: I watched your previous livestream recordings. Your tactics are solid. What are your plans for the next challenge?

Facing Tourist No. 1's question, Ding Xiao replied decisively:

"The full-range bombardment of Doll No. 2 is completely unbeatable. I'm thinking of giving up."

The next second, Tourist No. 1 sent a comment: This ability has a clear counter—why give up? First, tell me your detailed battle layout for the next round.

Hearing this, Ding Xiao immediately began describing his originally planned combat strategy.

Yet during this process, Ding Xiao—who could calmly adjust tactics before thousands of troops—spoke with a nervous, immature tension, like a elementary school student presenting homework.

The reason was that Tourist No. 1's repeated miracles had deeply impressed him.

He regarded Tourist No. 1 as his idol.

Now that his idol was offering guidance, Ding Xiao felt inexplicably tense.

His behavior at this moment even felt alien to himself.

"I plan to use 100 Blood Soul Chains combined with Petrification to forcibly interrupt Doll No. 2's early large-scale output…"

Here, Ding Xiao paused and glanced at the comment section.

"Continue." Tourist No. 1's comment floated by, followed by the system's built-in smiley face.

Ding Xiao took a deep breath and continued explaining his tactical deployment.

When the battle simulation reached the beam explosion phase, Ding Xiao sighed:

"At the point of full-range beam bombardment, I found no countermeasure—even the Soul-Sealing trait couldn't interrupt it. The energy intensity is too high; the archer squad's Soul-Sealing trait can only briefly delay the beam explosion's release."

The next second, Tourist No. 1 sent a comment: I'll give you two solutions to this problem. The choice is yours.

"Alright." Ding Xiao nodded decisively.

As Tourist No. 1 spoke, light gradually sparked in Ding Xiao's eyes.

"Feasible. Your solutions are absolutely viable."

"Try them. I'll observe your next command in full."

"Thank you."

This time, Tourist No. 1 gave no further reply.

Under Tourist No. 1's guidance, Ding Xiao immediately revised his prepared battle plan.

The next day.

The challenge resumed.

Through sacrificing pets, Ding Xiao's squad quickly advanced to the stage just before the beam explosion.

At this stage, Doll No. 2 was no longer its original form.

Its ceramic-like body was covered in fine, spiderweb-like cracks; its left arm had broken off at the elbow, barely held together by several silvery-white threads.

Multiple areas of its body were charred with blackened holes, revealing the internal spirit-pattern structures.

A large gap had formed at the chest, where it had been targeted by concentrated fire, revealing a pulsing crystal core like a heart—but its eyes, carved from sapphires, remained cold and piercing.

But Doll Number Two's combat power remained terrifying; any mistake could lead to total annihilation.

At this moment, Ding Xiao stared unblinkingly at Doll Number Two using the Spirit Eye trait, waiting for the appearance of the beam explosion.

Doll Number Two was now severely damaged and ready to activate the full-screen beam bombardment mode at any moment.

Three minutes later, Ding Xiao noticed that the energy flow speed within Doll Number Two's body suddenly accelerated.

Realizing the full-screen bombardment mode was about to activate, he decisively roared in the raid chat channel:

"Archers cast Flowing Shadow Clones; everyone else, according to the pre-formed groups, cast Covenant Space!"

Upon the order, all archers simultaneously cast the Scattering trait and the Flowing Shadow Clone trait, splitting into multiple clones.

The other players in the raid turned decisively and cast Covenant Space on the clones created by the archers.

The next second, all players instantly vanished from their spots.

They all entered the temporarily created Covenant Space scene.

Boom!

Terrifying beam bombardment descended immediately, turning the semi-independent space into a glowing cocoon.

Doll Number Two's broken body burst like a supernova; countless blue beams shot out from every crack, covering the entire semi-independent space with this strike.

But this strike caused no damage to the players.

At this moment, Ding Xiao, inside the Covenant Space, was drinking potions to replenish his status.

This was the brilliant plan given by Visitor Number One.

It perfectly avoided Doll Number Two's most terrifying round of damage output.

In fact, before this battle began, Visitor Number One had given him two plans.

The first plan was simple: purchase a Positioning Teleport Scroll from the Enlightenment Shangcheng to sustain the battle.

Form three raids, take turns attacking; when one raid is wiped out, the next raid teleports in to take over, leaving Doll Number Two no time to self-repair.

The downside was that the price of Enlightenment Information Orbs had recently skyrocketed; the exchange price for a Positioning Teleport Scroll was nearly 3500 Shou Shou Jili per scroll, and with each raid group consisting of 600 people, the teleportation cost would be 2.1 million Shou Shou Jili.

This mode could kill Doll Number Two through attrition, but the consumption was too great; his financial resources simply could not support it.

Without seeing a health bar, it might take tens of millions to have any possibility of victory.

The second plan was the strategy he was using now.

The Covenant Space trait in the Painful Painful Minghun library could drag a target into a temporarily opened independent scene for a duel until one side died and exited.

This Painful Painful Minghun seemed to be an offensive one, yet it could also be used to evade damage.

Have the archers, who have the Scattering trait embedded, also embed a Flowing Shadow Clone; meanwhile, he uses the Spirit Eye trait to observe the timing node when Doll Number Two activates the beam explosion.

As soon as the beam explosion is sensed to be about to activate, have the archers use the Scattering trait to release multiple clones.

All other players cast Covenant Space, forcibly dragging the clones into the Covenant Space, thereby perfectly avoiding this round of bombardment.

The clones do not attack proactively; they have ample time to recover their status within the Covenant Space, or even use buff items.

This scene instantly stunned the onlooking players in the livestream room.

The Star Gazer Guild founded by Ding Xiao was already quite popular and was regarded by dungeon-focused players as one of the strongest dungeon raids.

Therefore, a large number of dungeon-focused players were always in the livestream room learning techniques.

Ding Xiao challenging Doll Number Two had already generated heat on the forum.

However, forum players generally believed that the Star Gazer Guild led by Ding Xiao would find it difficult to succeed.

But with the joining of powerful players like the Veteran Raid, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope again.

But this hope was shattered again after Doll Number Two released the beam explosion; this round of full-screen damage was simply impossible to evade.

The only feasible method was the space-breaking technique proposed by forum players: turn small-scale raid battles into an infinite sustain battle in the outside world.

Seeing the Star Gazer Guild launch another challenge, many players thought it was merely futile.

Yet they did not expect that, finally, through the Covenant Space tactic, they achieved an evasion approximating "invincibility time."

The heat in the livestream room instantly exploded.

The bullet comments flew across the screen instantly:

"Indeed, the development of Painful Painful Minghun is endless. Everyone said Covenant Space was just a T3-level Painful Painful Minghun; what about now? Those who cast low votes, come out and speak!"

"Hahaha, they can even brew a cup of tea inside the independent space, finish it, and then come out to continue pushing the boss."

"Too flashy. Coming out at full status to continue fighting, the low-health Doll Number Two is about to be pushed down."

"Already starting to look forward to containing new Territory Rules; hope this rule is powerful enough."

Communicating through the raid chat channel, Ding Xiao asked about the status recovery of all players.

After confirming that all players in his raid had recovered their status, Ding Xiao ordered all players to bring their clones to low health.

Shortly after, receiving replies from all players, he took a deep breath:

"In a moment, I will count down three seconds, then we enter together. Supports cast Life Link first; damage dealers advance directly to deploy the Blood Wall."

"3... 2... 1, enter!"

Following Ding Xiao's order, players in different temporary spaces acted simultaneously.

The next second, all 600 players returned to the field.

The Life Link ties quickly connected all raid members; damage dealers rapidly pressed forward, releasing Blood Shields to generate a defensive wall.

At this moment, Doll Number Two had stopped its offensive, but upon detecting life fluctuations again, it reactivated, waving its hand to unleash silver-white threads sweeping the entire field.

The battle entered a stalemate once more.

With the experience from previous challenges, Ding Xiao appeared calm and composed, coolly commanding everyone's positioning.

"Team Three, shift left two grids to block its silver thread reset attack; Team Two, prepare Blood Soul Chains to pull it away."

"Archers, activate Extreme Speed; aim at the cracks I have marked."

"Wang Yu, throw out your Chubby Peach, send it to be sacrificed…."

Since they couldn't see Puppet Two's health bar, they couldn't judge how much strength it still had.

After resuming the battle, Ding Xiao appeared extremely cautious, not daring to adopt an aggressive "charge-and-deal-damage" mode.

Continuing the attrition strategy, prioritizing damage avoidance.

Thirty minutes later, Puppet Two's skill seemed to finish cooling down, and the second round of beam bombardment descended.

Anticipating it in advance, Ding Xiao once again entered the Covenant Space with his raid members to evade, and after recovering to full condition launched the second round of counterattack.

After three such back-and-forth counterattacks, Puppet Two's body was already battered and broken.

Finally, Puppet Two knelt to the ground, and the crystal core revealed in the crack on its chest let out a "crack" sound and shattered apart.

But Puppet Two still propped up its body with its remaining left arm, trying to stand.

Like a stubborn dancer, insisting on completing the final curtain call.

The players held nothing back, and after a round of focused fire the battle was ended.

And Puppet Two's body collapsed slowly like a sandcastle.

All kinds of fragments turned into specks of light before hitting the ground, and the silvery-white threads, like a burned-out fuse, crumbled section by section into flying ash.

Just then, a sizzling sound rang out, and countless fragmented images poured from Puppet Two's pupils.

In the images, an alien girl of humanoid form was cheering at a mirror; at the mirror's edge one could see Puppet Two, only half a meter tall.

The fragmented images flickered rapidly.

Every single image was related to this alien girl.

The players could even see, through the broken images, this alien girl's rapid growth.

In the fragmented images, when the now-grown alien girl appeared for the last time, she smiled and patted Puppet Two on the head, seemed to say something, then turned and left.

With that, the images stored by Puppet Two came to an end.

Along with the shattering of the images, a tunnel appeared beneath Puppet Two.

Ding Xiao led the raid members inside, where they saw a floating spatial node crystal, as well as piles of derived energy crystals.

They could also see large amounts of cleared and piled remains of alien intruders.

The players in the livestream chat were all cheering for this victory.

They all found it unbelievable — the seemingly invincible Puppet Two had actually been taken down by the Stargazer Guild.

When the full-channel announcement sounded, a blue territory brand appeared on the "Rule God Pillar" of Imperial Tomb Village.

……

Just as all the players were cheering over this.

The lore-investigator players, who were very interested in the game's background, had already set to work.

An investigation post was rapidly climbing in popularity on the forum:

【I finally understand why Puppet Two's combat logic is so clumsy, completely not matching the intelligence a level-179 hunting monster should have. Anyone who wants to know the related background story, come in.】

Poster: The Most Beautiful Food.

Content:

These past few days I've been following the Stargazer Guild's challenge attempts.

There's been one question nagging me the whole time.

Why is Puppet Two's intelligence so low, to the point it even has a predictable attack cycle?

This clearly doesn't match Monster World's setting.

Even the combat-type mechanical lifeforms that appeared when Di Ku Shi Jie first opened are smarter than Puppet Two, and don't have a set attack cycle.

When the battle ended just now and I saw the fragmented image playback, I curiously asked the Guide what exactly these images were.

The Guide's answer uncovered a long-buried past.

Puppet Two was originally just a very ordinary companion and housekeeping robot.

The earliest image stored in its memory chip was of a father giving it to a girl as a gift, and the girl naming it "Little Porcelain."

This was also the girl's second doll.

After growing up, the girl became the warden of a resource storage node — the semi-independent space the Stargazer Guild had entered.

The girl brought "Little Porcelain," who had grown up with her, to the spatial node as well.

But the situation in Monster World, brothers, you all know — extinction can happen in an instant.

Facing the descending force of that time in the Azure Star Sea Domain, the "Prisoner Race," the girl's Abyss Crystal Race chose to fight with their backs to the wall.

The girl also received the order to go to the battlefield — this was the entire clan's last all-or-nothing throw.

Every ounce of strength would be a chip toward victory.

In Puppet Two's memory, in the last image of the girl, what she actually said while patting Little Porcelain's head was: Little Porcelain, watch the house well, okay?

With that, the girl never returned.

Through parsing the node information, we all already know the Abyss Crystal Race was utterly crushed in this battle and exited the stage of history.

But in the semi-independent space, that doll which once only knew how to clean with silver threads was still carrying out its master's last order before leaving.

But it wasn't a combat-type creation; no combat logic sequence had been implanted in it.

What it chose was to rewrite its cleaning program into thread-control combat, combined with pruning techniques from horticulture, to craft silver-thread cutting weapons — even nailing itself into the passage leading to the energy node, sustaining its operation by devouring spatial energy.

Just as the Snow Ridge Great Wastes evolved with the help of the Snow Puffballs at the Sky-Origin Peak node.

Puppet Two grew rapidly by passively devouring node energy.

But Puppet Two's core code never changed.

With no combat module, it imitated the moves from the cartoons it had watched with the girl.

With no tactical logic, it treated every intruder as "trash" that needed to be cleaned up.

The most tragic part is that until death it remembered the promise to "guard the home," so it only ever moved within that fixed zone, even though doing so made it a living target.

Behind that foolishness lies Puppet Number Two's absolute loyalty to its master.

When the Stargazer Guild team focused fire in the final round and shattered its energy crystal, the broken memory playback was perhaps its farewell to its master across time and space.

Inside were the smiling face of a little girl, warm bedtime stories… and finally that promise: "Guard the home well."

Every year (three years by our reckoning), Puppet Number Two stood in the empty node base, baked a small cake for its master, and waited for the master to come back and celebrate with her.

Before its death, one of the images it released contained a piece of information (video screenshot. jpg).

The text roughly meant: Little Porcelain guarded the home well today too.

Puppet Number Two, the housekeeping robot born of love and companionship, ultimately fell in the stance of a warrior.

No medal of honor, no eulogy — only the wreckage of countless enemies below the corridor, and an unwavering, unto-death devotion to guarding.

Though born a puppet, fate gave it a warrior's funeral.

8,300 characters delivered~ There's still one more chapter after this~

(End of chapter)