Chapter 111 – Yu Sheng’s New Ideas

Chapter 111 – Yu Sheng’s New Ideas

As they crossed through a new door, their surroundings changed in an instant—the pleasant breeze of the temperate valley transformed into the sweltering humidity of a tropical rainforest, accompanied by the cries of unknown animals in the distance and the faint rustling of insects crawling over dead leaves.

Out of caution, Yu Sheng didn’t close the door behind them. After bringing Eileen through the passage, he kept it open so they could return to the valley at any time.

“So now what?” He looked down at the little doll perched on his arm. “Can you still feel the other body? Has the connection been severed?”

“…I’m shocked—it’s still connected!” the little doll said with some amazement. “There was a brief moment of disorientation when we passed through the door, but it wasn’t a disconnection—more like a momentary sensory misalignment. Now everything’s back to normal, and the link between both bodies hasn’t weakened in the slightest.”

She lifted her head and glanced around at their surroundings.

“Hey, Yu Sheng, how far apart do you think my two bodies are right now?”

“I’m afraid ‘distance’ isn’t really the right way to measure it anymore,” Yu Sheng thought carefully for a moment and shook his head slightly. “I don’t even know where this place is. It’s definitely not in the Borderland, and it’s separated from that valley by an entire ‘dimension.’ If this kind of ‘distance’ can’t sever the connection between your two bodies, I’d say there’s no need for further testing.”

“Oh… so should we look around while we’re here?” Eileen looked up at Yu Sheng with curiosity. “We’re already here, after all…”

“It’s not safe,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “Let’s go back.”

“Since when are you this cautious and conservative?”

“I’m carrying your painting frame—that’s your true body. If I die here, that’s one thing, but if something happens to your frame, who knows what the consequences would be.” Yu Sheng gave Eileen a little shake, reminding her that her oil painting was still strapped to his back. “Let’s head back. And tell Hu Li to return to the starting point to regroup.”

“Oh, okay!”

Before long, Yu Sheng, Hu Li, and Eileen were back at the newly leveled clearing deep in the valley.

“We can now summarize a few patterns,” Yu Sheng said, stroking his chin as he watched Eileen circle around practicing walking with both bodies simultaneously. He drew his conclusions from all the testing so far. “First, one doll body must remain with the painting frame—this is what allows Eileen to be active in the real world. Second, the doll body that stays with the frame becomes the ‘primary,’ while any additional bodies become ‘replicas.’ Third, the control range for a ‘replica’ may be infinite, or at least extraordinarily vast—unlike the primary, which must stay near the painting. But in exchange…”

With a thud, Eileen’s secondary body suddenly lost its balance while running around and fell flat on the ground.

Yu Sheng glanced down at the little doll scrambling back to her feet and continued, “In exchange, the ‘replica’s’ performance is noticeably inferior to the primary—in perception, agility, and fine motor control alike. This is presumably the trade-off for the ultra-long control range.”

“I think it’s a pretty good deal, honestly,” Eileen said as she got up. Despite the ungraceful tumble, she seemed to be in high spirits. “I finally have a body that doesn’t need the painting lugged around everywhere—I can go as far as I want! Plus, this way I can watch TV in the living room while gaming in the bedroom…”

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched. “…You have two bodies and that’s what you want to do with them?!”

Then it hit him: “Wait—gaming? What games have you been playing?!”

Eileen immediately shrank back, hesitating for two seconds before cautiously speaking up: “Well, um… your account got unbanned…”

Yu Sheng’s eyebrows shot up. “You are not allowed to use my account anymore! Go register your own—you have an ID card now!”

Eileen hung her head dejectedly. “Oh…”

It was unclear what exactly she had to be dejected about.

But the little doll’s bad moods never lasted more than a few seconds. She quickly cheered up again and steered her other body over to stand in front of Yu Sheng, both dolls looking up at him together. “By the way, I noticed something interesting.”

Yu Sheng looked puzzled. “What?”

“Controlling the second body doesn’t actually require splitting half my attention,” Eileen explained. As she spoke, the expression on the ‘replica’ body’s face visibly stiffened and went blank, as though its soul had suddenly departed. “See? I only need to dedicate a tiny bit of focus to keep it moving.”

The blank-faced doll body began walking around. It was still a bit unsteady, but was unmistakably moving freely on its own.

Eileen looked quite pleased with herself.

Yu Sheng’s expression, however, turned suddenly thoughtful.

“And I’ve found that this body actually has some capacity for autonomous movement,” she continued. “If I just want it to do simple tasks, I don’t need to fully ‘take over’—things like ‘walk to a certain place’ or ‘bring something back,’ it can actually do on its own…”

The thoughtfulness on Yu Sheng’s face instantly turned to shock.

“Wait—are you saying… this shell has its own ability to think?!”

Eileen froze for a moment at that, considered it seriously, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s not really thinking—more like… instinct? Advanced instinct? And it only ‘activates’ when I’ve established a connection with it. I don’t really know how to describe it exactly.”

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow deeply. This was something he hadn’t anticipated at all.

But one thing he could be certain of: when he had first finished ‘crafting’ it, that blank doll shell had possessed zero capacity for movement. Even though it had eventually exhibited characteristics of a living thing—its chest rising and falling with breath—it was still nothing more than a soulless, instinct-less empty husk.

The ‘instincts’ Eileen described had only emerged after she first took over the new body.

So… the key factor was something about Eileen herself?

A look of serious contemplation gradually crept into Yu Sheng’s expression.

The little doll glanced up at him, and her first reaction was for both bodies to instinctively take half a step back. “Hold on—you… you’re not getting another idea, are you?”

“I’m just suddenly a bit curious,” Yu Sheng said, looking at Eileen with an utterly serious expression as she braced herself as if facing a mortal enemy. “Tell me… do you think you could control a third body?”

Eileen froze, then her mouth fell wide open. “…Huh?”

“If all these new shells can develop the kind of ‘instinct’ you described, and controlling them only takes a tiny bit of effort, then maybe two bodies isn’t your limit at all. What if I sculpt a few more dolls—think you could handle it?”

Eileen stood there with her mouth agape, unable to speak for a long time.

Even for the doll miss who was fairly familiar with Yu Sheng’s ‘ideas’ and possessed an exceptional ability to adapt, she was nearly knocked dead on the spot by the doors of this new world being flung open before her.

But once the initial shock passed, she couldn’t help but follow this extraordinary line of thinking further.

Even Hu Li beside them showed a look of curiosity. “I feel like… it’s worth a try?”

Hearing even Hu Li say so, Eileen couldn’t help but sigh. “Yu Sheng’s ‘ideas’ are always like this. At first they sound completely outlandish and utterly unreliable, but they carry this strange ‘allure’—as though his ‘let’s just try it’ mentality of exploration is contagious, spreading along with his ideas. Once you’ve heard one of his wild notions, you can’t help but start thinking about its feasibility, imagining the results, and eventually… going along with him to ‘give it a try.'”

Yu Sheng sounded a bit dissatisfied hearing this. “The way you put it, you make my experimental creativity sound like some kind of dark sorcery.”

Both Eileens bared their teeth at him in unison. “You really don’t think it’s sketchy?”

Yu Sheng cleared his throat twice. “Ahem, ahem—so just tell me, are you in or not?”

“Well… it’s not that I’m against it,” Eileen muttered. “I’m actually kind of curious myself. But this time, when you get to the final step of the test, give me a heads-up first so I can brace myself before taking over a new body. Don’t spring it on me like this morning…”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Yu Sheng agreed readily. “First time’s unfamiliar, second time’s a charm—we’ve got experience now.”

As he spoke, his eyes suddenly shifted again, his gaze landing squarely on the doll miss once more.

This time, Eileen retreated more than just half a step.

“You’ve got another idea! It’s creepy when you do this—just say everything at once!”

“Uh, it’s just a side thought,” Yu Sheng said, a bit embarrassed by her reaction, reaching up to scratch his hair. “I was just thinking—if we’re going to keep making new bodies, maybe we should experiment with new crafting techniques while we’re at it…”

Eileen: “?”

“See, your first body is mainly made of clay and lotus root, right?” Yu Sheng explained his idea with obvious enthusiasm. “And you’ve said yourself that lotus root wasn’t supposed to be a doll-making material. Your second body is clay too, but since I didn’t have your guidance during the process, I suspect the auxiliary materials weren’t exactly up to standard either. So for future bodies, why not test out different materials and processing methods?”

Eileen looked at him suspiciously. “…What?”

“The truth is, I’ve always been bothered by the damage your first body took in combat,” Yu Sheng said after a moment’s thought, his expression completely serious. “Especially both arms snapping off completely, and the state your legs ended up in.”

“I don’t even mind it myself,” Eileen waved dismissively. “But what exactly are you getting at?”

“I’m wondering if, in the absence of higher-grade alchemical materials, there’s some other way to reinforce your body’s structural integrity.”

Eileen looked even more confused. “…Okay, and so?”

“To put it simply—next time, I want to try swapping out your wire skeleton for rebar.”

Eileen: “…What the fuck?!”

(End of Chapter)