Puppets

"Things are really getting chaotic!"

"Exactly. The town's getting more and more disorderly. Those outsiders are truly rampant. Someone even blasted a Bright Lamp apart last night."

"Yeah, the Security Brigade searched through the whole night."

"Did they find who did it?"

"No, but you could figure it out with your eyes closed. It was definitely those outsiders—a bunch of horse-riding scum who've sullied the virtues of knighthood."

"What kind of knights are they? They're just a bunch of mercenaries."

Early that morning, Duke went out to buy breakfast and overheard people discussing how the Bright Lamp had been blown apart the night before. The Security Brigade had actually searched through the whole night.

Duke had gone to bed early and hadn't heard anything.

Even if the Security Brigade had searched his place, he wouldn't have been afraid. The Sand Eagle, the weapon used in the attack, was an arcane item. If he wanted to hide it, no one would ever find it.

Perhaps an unfathomably powerful Arcane Mage could peer into the deepest shadows and follow the Arcane Trajectory to find Duke.

But the Black Snake Family had no powerful Arcane Mages. It had only one High Priest, a 2nd Ring Arcane Mage, but in the field of Spiritual Arcana, the 2nd Ring could still only be considered the threshold of entry.

"So, I wasn't the one who blasted apart the Bright Lamp. It was those foreign mercenaries." Duke ate his meat buns, feeling relaxed.

He passed through the alley and headed toward the construction site on Third Vertical Street.

The entire construction site was enclosed tightly by corrugated metal fencing.

Looking through the gaps in the fencing, one could see countless strange machines, large and small, working busily inside.

There were even huge machines that looked like giant robots. The drivers wore giant-robot shells and could effortlessly lift boulders weighing more than ten tons.

The foundations were compacted with boulders, then steel bars and cement were poured into the gaps. Streets built this way could even support an airship landing safely.

Of course.

The reason for such solid foundations wasn't to park airships, but to guard against possible invasions from underground.

After all, spirit beasts weren't limited to birds flying in the sky, beasts walking on land, and fish swimming in the water. There were also plenty of spirit beasts that burrowed through the earth. These subterranean spirit beasts rarely invaded human dwellings, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. If one really did invade, there would certainly be a huge number of casualties.

Suddenly.

One of the humanoid giant robots abruptly froze. Then its mechanical body began to sway unsteadily before it toppled headfirst to the ground.

"Giant Puppet No. 3 has malfunctioned! Giant Puppet No. 3 has malfunctioned! Puppet mechanics, enter immediately for repairs!" the supervisor outside shouted through a megaphone.

A team of puppet mechanics immediately rushed toward the fallen Giant Puppet No. 3.

At that moment, the driver crawled out of the Giant Puppet's cockpit. His head seemed to have been split open, and a great deal of blood was flowing down: "Damn it, this is the third time! Hurry and contact the boss. Get him to replace the puppet core in No. 3. This thing's going to kill me sooner or later!"

"Do you know how expensive a puppet core is? If the boss were willing to replace it, he might as well just buy another puppet." One of the puppet mechanics teased him.

Outside the corrugated metal fence.

Duke looked at the Giant Puppet the group was frantically repairing, his eyes filled with envy.

Like spirit cards, puppets were extraordinary products of the field of Spiritual Arcana. The Tower of Erudition had popularized all kinds of puppets among the common people.

Spirit cards used spell models to form card cores, granting them all sorts of incredible powers.

Puppets, on the other hand, used spell models to form puppet cores, then relied on Spirit Gold frames for movement, producing the effects of large-scale construction machinery.

Of course, the puppets at the construction site were all ordinary civilian models. Arcane Mages could also create arcane puppets capable of flying through the heavens, burrowing through the earth, churning rivers and seas—in short, anything was possible.

"If only I had a Giant Puppet. This thing's even more impressive than a bionic exoskeleton." Duke sighed.

Unfortunately, he couldn't afford one for the time being. Even the smallest model of Giant Puppet cost at least several dozen gold dragons.

"That Spider Puppet isn't bad either."

He looked toward a spider-shaped puppet in the distance. It moved nimbly, could climb up and down, and could even enter the water and burrow underground. Its main selling point was versatility.

If he had a Spider Puppet, it could handle most of the odd jobs on the farm.

"Forget it."

"I can't afford one anyway."

Duke withdrew his gaze and left the construction site on Third Vertical Street.

On his way back, he encountered more than one group of mercenaries. These mercenaries traveled through the streets in groups, carrying the corpses of spirit beasts and other such prey on their shoulders.

They reeked of blood, causing pedestrians to scatter in all directions.

Duke didn't want to provoke them either. He silently stepped aside to let them pass first, then turned into another alley. There wasn't an alley anywhere in the entirety of Snakehead Town that he didn't know like the back of his hand.

He had only crossed two streets.

Then he saw someone climbing over the wall and leaving the alley, a bundle strapped to their back. They vanished around the corner in just a few quick movements.

"A thief... The town's security is getting worse and worse." Duke shook his head. Recently, the Security Brigade of Snakehead Town had intensified its patrols, but the results weren't very good.

Snakehead Town was called a town, but in reality it had a population of more than a hundred thousand—equivalent to a small county seat.

Now that the Pioneer Order had been issued, everyone who wanted to get rich or loaf around had flooded in. The Security Brigade simply didn't have enough manpower.

"This Emerald Sea Valley Pioneer War was initiated by Chen Jiao City. I wonder which Arcane Mage will ultimately be granted the territory."

Two or three decades ago, the 3rd Ring Arcane Mage Mubia had launched the Black Snake Lair Pioneer War in his old age and was granted the title of Black Snake Baron. His family's fief was Snakehead Town.

The Black Snake Baron Mubia had long since passed away, but the Black Snake Family had already sunk roots into Snakehead Town.

Although no 3rd Ring Arcane Mage had appeared since, the family had still flourished by relying on Snakehead Town, and its descendants had multiplied vigorously.

Basically, every Pioneer War—especially a small-scale Pioneer War—was launched by an Arcane Mage who wanted to establish a family. This was also what drove the Seven Towers Federation to keep expanding into the primeval forest: the forest held inexhaustible resources waiting to be seized.

Not long after Duke returned home, he heard someone knocking on the door.

When he opened it, he found Sally standing outside.

"Sister Sally?"

"Boss."

"Just call me Duke. I'm not your boss anymore."

Duke invited Sally inside and asked why she had come. Sally hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "It's Levin."

"What happened to Levin?"

"He was fired. Luonka doesn't like him and thinks he's clumsy."

"Who's Luwanda?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Luwanda is Boss Lucius's nephew. Boss Lucius doesn't personally manage Little Sam's Card Shop. He handed it over to his nephew instead." Sally shook her head. "Levin's unemployed now. He plans to apply to a spirit-mining company and go down into the mines, but that's too dangerous... So..."

Sally continued, "Duke, didn't you buy a farm? I thought you might need to hire people, so I came to ask. Would you be willing to take Levin?"

"Levin wants to come to the farm?"

"Yes. He talks about you every day. You treated Levin very well when he was at the shop, and he's kept that in his heart."

Levin was clumsy, but he worked hard without complaint. Duke liked the big man very much, and he had considered taking him away before.

Now that Levin had been fired, Duke naturally wouldn't refuse: "Where is Levin now? Sister Sally, have him come find me."

"Okay. Levin's temporarily staying at Sister Abby's house. I'll go find him right away... We can't let him go down into the mines. Sister Abby said that if Levin goes into the mines, we'll never see him again in a few months."