"His own?"
Cheng Shi looked utterly bewildered.
"What do you mean, his own?"
The innkeeper explained with great patience:
"Ados's mentor was Zainjil, the leader of the Creation Alchemy School of the Tower of Reason. This school possessed profound expertise in creation and puppetry, along with a technological lead that left the other schools far behind.
Out of various concerns, the other schools assassinated Zainjil before he could release his latest findings. Thus, deprived of his mentor's protection, Ados became a scholar on the run.
He wandered underground, where he met us and joined us."
"Hiss—"
Why did that sound so familiar?
Big brother, if you end this with 'Would you like to join us?', I'm going straight back to Fang Shiqing's arms in my dreams.
"With our support, he developed the Puppet Self ability, transforming his own gravely wounded body into a flesh-and-blood human puppet!"
"?" Cheng Shi failed to understand. He blinked.
"If he became a puppet himself, then who controls him?"
"No one can control him. The only one who can control him is the self he had before becoming a puppet. He designed a perfect consciousness for himself, one that would support our actions to the greatest extent."
"..."
AI?
Cheng Shi's head buzzed.
Wasn't this basically artificial AI?
Turning himself into an AI?
Why bother?
"What's the point of that?"
"The point? Using his own ruined life to create something, producing a puppet comparable to a perfect life-form—isn't that the meaning of pursuing Truth?"
"..."
You make a pretty good point, but my mom told me not to talk to idiots.
Cheng Shi's urge to complain swelled to its limit, but he still maintained a patient smile on the surface.
How is this pursuing Truth?
This is pursuing stupidity!
"Then what about the one from