This Works Too?

After the giant mecha was destroyed, the other machines also stopped moving one after another. At that moment, Okegis and Mia entered the castle as well. Then they arrived at the hall—there, in the center of the hall, stood a crystal coffin, with a girl lying inside it.

"Ah, that's my body. Thank you, both of you."

Mia clasped her hands happily and gazed at Duanmu Huai and Okegis.

"If it weren't for your help, I never could have defeated the wizard, much less returned to my own body!"

"Hmm... so that's your body? How are you planning to get back?"

Duanmu Huai asked while warily watching his surroundings, while Mia smiled faintly.

"Please wait a moment."

After saying this, Mia stood in front of the crystal coffin and closed her eyes. At the same time, Duanmu Huai tightened his grip on the warhammer once more, signaling Okegis to stay alert.

It was no wonder Duanmu Huai was so vigilant. This Soul Shard World was simply too strange.

In simple terms, the contents of this Fragment World itself were quite straightforward. An Evil Wizard had transferred Mia's soul into a puppet, so she asked others to help her defeat the wizard and reclaim her body.

But the problem was... was this really enough to support an entire Soul Shard World?

Compared to the Puppet Master and the scholar, Mia's "resentment" seemed far too childish.

More importantly, Duanmu Huai hadn't found anything related to magic throughout the entire battle. So was Mia lying? Or did she simply not understand the difference between consciousness transfer and soul sealing? Or was there some other hidden truth?

Although the final battle had been somewhat difficult, the entire process was far too simple compared to the previous ones, wasn't it?

Could there be a second phase?

"Crack—"

Just as Duanmu Huai warily stared ahead, the crystal coffin in front of Mia slowly opened. The Sleeping Maiden inside opened her eyes and gradually rose to her feet. She looked almost exactly like Mia, without the slightest difference. The Mia before them looked toward Duanmu Huai and Okegis and raised both hands. Then...

"Ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum!"

Accompanied by cheerful music, flower petals suddenly drifted down from above. At the same time, Mia's voice rang out once more.

"Congratulations! You are the first team of players to successfully clear the White City dungeon!"

"...Huh?"

Duanmu Huai froze when he heard this.

"What did you say?"

"Congratulations on successfully defeating the Evil Wizard and clearing the Sky City dungeon."

Mia walked over with a grin and looked at the two of them.

"Sky City was developed by the Multi-Dimensional Company. It is the newest high-difficulty experiential amusement project. So far, 32,216,735 players have attempted the challenge, but all of them ended in failure. You are the first team of players to clear it successfully. Congratulations!"

"Uh..."

Faced with Mia's cheerful smile, Duanmu Huai was stunned. Even Okegis blinked in surprise.

"So... this is a game?"

"Yes. Sky City focuses on combat intensity, hoping to let players experience the joy of fierce battles..."

Joy, my ass! Level 30 monsters, and you use them as game NPCs? Is there something wrong with the brains of this civilization? Or rather, how insanely powerful must this civilization be to use level 30 robots as NPCs?

Looking at Mia, Duanmu Huai nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. Monsters with an average level of twenty or thirty, paired with a level 40 elite boss—that was practically the same standard as the Evil God Believers' main camp. And they used this as an amusement project? Come to think of it, not one person among tens of millions had cleared it?

"Yes, because this game has strict requirements regarding strength levels and the number of players..."

That explained it.

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes. His earlier doubts had been completely resolved. Clearly, what had caused this dungeon to form wasn't Mia's backstory—that was merely the main quest script. It was the resentment of the players who had failed to clear Sky City... From this, it was clear how much that Sky City quest had traumatized the players of that civilization back then...

That was also why Mia's quest had felt so uneventful and unremarkable. It was just like an FPS game: as long as you knew where to go and who to kill, the rest didn't matter. You just shot your way through.

"...Doesn't this game kill people?"

"Of course. Since the game was launched, a total of 15,234,122 players have unfortunately died because they failed to clear it..."

"All right, I get it."

Duanmu Huai silently cut off Mia's report. This civilization was bizarre enough. It could create a game world that killed people and still not care about the deaths... He wondered what kind of civilization could be so powerful.

"Then... what reward can I get?"

Duanmu Huai glanced around. Although this Fragment World hadn't been very difficult, he had still expended quite a lot, especially since he had used both the Death Shortcut and Puppet Surgery cards. His current accumulated experience wasn't enough to reset them from the graveyard back into his hand. For now, he only hoped the reward would be generous enough to at least make up for his losses...

"Of course."

Mia smiled and nodded at Duanmu Huai's question, then held out both hands.

"As the victor, you will receive the entirety of Sky City as your reward!"

"...Holy shit!?"

This was a massive windfall!!!

Duanmu Huai was stunned by what he heard. At the same time, the system displayed a quest completion notification.

Quest "Sky City" completed

Quest evaluation: Not bad

Surprised? Shocked?

Obtained Soul Card ×8

Ancient Amplifier (Silver)

Cost: 1

At the start of each turn, randomly add two cards from among (Analyzing Creation), (Ancient Creation), (Mysterious Creation), and (Splendid Creation) to your hand

Sky City Fusion

Ancient Automaton (Bronze)

Cost: 1

At the start of each turn, randomly add two cards from among (Mysterious Creation), (Splendid Creation), and (Profound Creation) to your hand

Sky City Fusion

Puppet Angel Mia (Bronze)

Cost: 2

Attack: 2

Defense: 2

When another follower of yours evolves, add a (Puppet) to your hand

Blast Enhancement 7: Gain +3/+3 and add two (Puppets) to your hand

Mobile Motorcycle (Bronze)

Cost: 2

During your turn, when a follower enters play, give it +2/+0 and Rush

Sky City (Gold)

Give all followers on the battlefield +1/+1 and (Storm)

Each day, produce (Magic Iron Mad Lion), (Steel Tiger), (Prototype Mechanical Soldier), (Mechanical Soldier), and (Large Mechanical Soldier) and add them to your hand

Mobile Armor (Legendary)

Cost: 4

Attack: 3

Defense: 4

Instant Summon: If ten or more of your Creation cards have been destroyed during this battle, automatically summon this card to the battlefield

Paradigm Shift (Bronze)

Cost: 7

Summon one of (Guardian Creation), (Sharp Creation), and (Swift Assault Creation) into play. (Reduce the cost by 1 whenever a Creation is destroyed)

Might of the Relic (Legendary)

Cost: 8

Attack: 6

Defense: 6

Deal damage to all enemy followers equal to the number of Creation cards of yours destroyed during this battle

Sky City must be in play

Among these cards, the best was naturally Might of the Relic. Its area-wide damage made it practically a divine weapon for chaotic legion battles. In other words, Duanmu Huai only needed to send Creations out to die during the early stages, build up the count, and then summon this card to wipe out everything on the map with a single blast.

However, judging from the current situation, Might of the Relic should be Sky City's automatic attack system, so Sky City had to be in play before it could be used.

As for Sky City, it was also quite an excellent product. What Duanmu Huai lacked most right now were cards with low to mid-tier attack power. After all, both Puppets and Wraiths had only 1 attack and 1 defense, which was far too low. They could handle enemies around level 10, but anything stronger became difficult. This time, Duanmu Huai had even needed to use a human-wave tactic with his Puppets because he had too few low- and mid-tier cards with such weak attack power, leaving him no choice but to make up for it with numbers.

But things were better now. Among the cards produced by Sky City, the Magic Iron Mad Lion and Prototype Mechanical Soldier both had 2 attack and 2 defense, while the Large Mechanical Soldier had 3 attack and 3 defense, making up for at least part of the problem. Moreover, compared to Wraiths, these Mechanical Soldiers looked much more normal when brought outside. At least he wouldn't have to worry about being mistaken for a Necromancer.

As for the (Creations) cards, they were the things that had floated around above the Large Mechanical Soldiers during Duanmu Huai's previous battle. Their structures were more or less the same: a geometric core surrounded by a frame, after which they flew through the sky firing lasers—BIU BIU BIU. Quite a few of these Creations had formidable attack power. For example, Ancient Creation had 3/1 attack and defense, Splendid Creation had 4/5, Guardian Creation had 4/6, and Profound Creation had 5/5.

Although they couldn't compare with Okegis, the attack power of these Creation cards was already enough to make up for most of the gap!

However, Duanmu Huai's favorite was still the Mobile Motorcycle card—it was a spell card that could be summoned at will. More importantly... it was a vehicle!

Although it consumed psionic power to summon, that was already more than enough for Duanmu Huai!

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai couldn't help shedding tears of joy.

He could finally say goodbye to the days of relying on his own two legs!