Self-Destructing Puppet

Watching the youth before him arch his back like a hissing cat, Lude instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

His eyes were vacant, his posture stiff, and his tone abnormal; most crucially, there was a rune resembling an Ankh Cross between his brows. This fellow was either a puppet created by an enemy or a human being controlled as one!

Regardless of which it was, it was definitely dangerous; at the very least, he had to avoid direct contact until he figured out the details.

Thinking this, Lude's gaze swept the area, finally landing on the food cart before him. Automatic puppets fell under the category of alchemy, and such alchemical tools often suffered from rigid target and behavioral logic, which meant the tactics he could employ were quite flexible.

With this in mind, Lude suddenly struck the side of the barrel with the iron ladle in his hand, drawing the attention of everyone in the carriage.

"Today is July 5th, the conductor's birthday!" Lude shouted after a moment's thought, just as the youth began moving toward him at a fast pace. However, Lude remained unhurried: "So, the conductor's intention is to invite everyone in Carriage No. 5 to celebrate together!"

"Simply put, all the food on this cart is free—take what you need!"

Saying this, Lude took a step back, yielding the cart.

In an instant, the starving refugees in the carriage, every last one of them, rushed forward with bloodshot eyes!

The Rhine Kingdom had suffered consecutive years of famine and poor harvests, and with Emperor Kossuth III of the Rhine in critical condition, the various electors had already begun an open arms race. Under such circumstances, a large number of people chose to flee their homes in search of a place to rest their heads.

They had little in the way of assets to begin with, and the hardships of fleeing only added to their plight, so they hadn't eaten meat in a long time.

In a flash, the swarming passengers blocked the center of the carriage completely. The dull-eyed youth realized he and Lude were separated by a wall of people; he tried to leap up and crawl across the luggage rack, but his arms went limp, and he fell to the ground.

Hmm, Lude hunched his shoulders and quietly retreated to the back, pondering that this puppet transformation didn't seem to enhance physical capabilities.

In that case, if it wasn't an alchemical puppet, it was undoubtedly a Secret Art.

As Lude vanished from his field of vision, the youth clearly froze for a moment before beginning to twist his head and scan the area.

He then spotted a tall man among the passengers.

"Target... found." He muttered in a low voice, his body leaping up from the spot like a cat as he charged toward the man.

Lude had already retreated to the edge of the carriage door, hunched over. In his left hand, he clutched a piece of black bread slathered with thick butter and salt, while his right hand gripped a whole sausage wrapped in oil paper, eating heartily with alternating bites.

Just as Lude exited the carriage, the youth finally squeezed through the crowd and threw his arms around the tall man.

Then, to Lude's shock, the rune between the youth's brows emitted a scorching red light. The light spread across the youth's entire body like a fissure, and before the tall man's terrified eyes, the youth's body exploded!

BOOM—!!!

When the billowing smoke and dust dissipated, Lude lowered the hand shielding his face. He gasped at the scene before him: the wooden carriage body had been blasted with a hole over two meters in diameter, half the ceiling had been torn away, and even the metal frame had been bent!

A Secret Art that turns living people into puppets that automatically search for targets and perform suicide attacks—the Mali Art is truly terrifying!

[Death-Defying], a Secret Art belonging to Polina, could turn mortals into puppets that seek out targets with specific traits by inserting wooden figurines into their bodies. Once a target was found, the wooden figurine would forcibly ignite the mortal's soul to detonate their flesh.

If Aleppo's Secret Art could be called a true assassination technique, then Polina's Secret Art was more like a "budget" assassination technique!

Just then, stiff figures began to emerge slowly from the opposite carriage. Leading them was a girl with dark skin, and behind her were nine shadowy figures, each with a rune glowing between their brows!

Lude didn't hesitate to flash backward, using his superior speed to hide himself among the crowd in the carriage behind him.

Lude assessed the situation; the power of this explosion was even greater than the dust explosion he had created earlier. If he were grappled by a single unit and detonated at close range, he would at least suffer internal organ damage, not to mention that there were more than just one puppet.

Lude was not prepared to test the limits of this body, so he had to avoid these puppets.

Thus, after retreating through five carriages and ensuring he was out of the enemy's line of sight, Lude opened a window and flipped out. With a nimble, agile movement, he leaped onto the roof of the carriage, then hunched over and walked quickly in the opposite direction toward the front of the train.

Just then, a violent explosion occurred in the ninth carriage, and blood and flesh erupted from the breach like fireworks.

Lude stuffed the last of the sausage into his mouth and stopped his advance.

The explosion of the ninth carriage had clearly cut off his path forward; he could not expose himself at the breach.

The previous youth's target-seeking logic likely targeted people exceeding a certain height; this meant that when the enemy formulated the target-seeking logic for the puppets, they did so entirely based on the physical data of the Vessel.

This was good news, as it meant the puppets lacked independent judgment and would only act according to established logic.

However, there was one more thing to verify.

Lude drew the revolver he had seized from Aleppo from his waist, his thumb silently pulling back the hammer.

It had been proven that the puppets were converted from humans, would automatically search for targets, and would explode violently upon finding them. So, if the human serving as the carrier for the Secret Art died, could it still function normally, and would it still explode upon contact with a target?

Furthermore, assuming this Secret Art relied on humans to take effect, how did it define [human]?

By now, the second puppet—the dark-skinned girl—had been consumed, and the remaining eight puppets had all arrived in the ninth carriage. After scanning the area with vacant eyes, they prepared to continue moving toward the rear.

The moment their gazes shifted away, a smoke grenade flew in through the hole in the carriage roof.

The smoke grenades specially made by the Obsidian Hall were quite effective; although they were only the thickness of an index finger, they were superior to ordinary smoke grenades. Even on a fast-moving machine like a train, the smoke they released showed no signs of dissipating or fading.

As the smoke filled the entire ninth carriage, Lude leaped in from the roof.

In his left hand, he gripped the Iron Sparrow revolver, and with his right, he drew the Dragon Tooth Sword forged by Professor Beshe from his waist. This blade, whose raw material shared the same origin as the flesh and blood on his body, shimmered with a beautiful silver-green luster, as if cheering for its return to Lude's hand.

Indeed, the main material of this sword was the tooth of a Lion Dragon, and the heart of that very Lion Dragon was currently beating within Lude's chest.

The next instant, a flash of silver streaked by, and a head fell to the ground.