Subduing the Mechanical Vanguard

A mobile phone is truly a marvelous invention.

Through the phone, Jing Yan sent a message to Natasha, who was far away in Boulder Town, and she replied immediately.

Natasha: "Send a photo and let me see?"

Jing Yan was somewhat surprised by this, not expecting that she would already know how to take photos after such a short time of contact.

Belobog does possess photography technology, but that refers to cameras.

It seems that Natasha, as both a doctor and the leader of Underworld Fire, possesses truly impressive learning capabilities.

Jing Yan sent Natasha a photo of the nearby vagrant camp.

After receiving it, she said that if there were any wounded, they could come to Natasha's Clinic.

She then continued: "Jing Yan, why must you go to such a dangerous place? We have limited reach there; what will you do if something goes wrong?"

Jing Yan smiled upon seeing this and sent a message back.

"It's fine, don't worry, (^_^)"

He then received a reply from Natasha with a blessing emoji.

Only then did Jing Yan put the phone back into his pocket.

"Eh, was that a message from Sister Natasha?" March 7th asked from the side.

"That's right," Jing Yan replied.

"It seems she really cares about you, and besides..."

March 7th smiled, her expression somewhat peculiar.

Perhaps it was because, during her previous conversations with some children in the Underworld, she had sensed that Jing Yan, as a doctor at Natasha's Clinic, shared an unusual relationship with Natasha, which was why she was looking at him with such a gaze now.

"What's wrong?" Jing Yan asked.

"Nothing."

"It's quite nice," March 7th said, walking with her hands behind her back. "Having someone care about you makes it feel a bit more like home, doesn't it?"

"When I'm on the train, I always want to find someone to talk to, but Himeko and Uncle Yang are quite busy, and Pom-Pom is busy too. There's Dan Heng, but that guy doesn't like to chat, hmm..."

March 7th said.

Stelle, standing nearby, pointed her index finger at herself, roughly signaling: "What about me?"

However, her gesture seemed to be ignored by March 7th.

At this moment, the reward for Jing Yan's daily check-in had arrived.

The new reward was a deeper understanding of his divine power.

The change it brought was the emergence of an entirely new ability.

"Not bad."

As he walked, Jing Yan closed his eyes to experience the changes in the Eros divine power within him. When he opened his eyes, a faint smile had appeared on his face.

The new power he had obtained could play a significant role in this place.

This ability was [Illusion Domain], which was different from all his previous ones.

Although it was named an illusion, it was a truly existing space.

It was a space created within his own body, though the things inside were illusions conjured by divine power—visible, yet untouchable.

As long as one existed within it, basically everything would be affected.

Furthermore, this ability had an even stronger effect: it could amplify his previous series of abilities, expanding their range of influence tenfold.

In other words, as long as Jing Yan deployed [Illusion Domain], he could use [Verbal Domination] to command and control everyone within a hundred-square-meter radius simultaneously.

Provided the targets lacked the ability to resist.

It could also be used purely to create illusions, preventing people from seeing reality.

This skill could be considered a Tier 2 ability, just like [Verbal Domination], but if used in combination, it could produce a Tier 3 effect.

It was equally viable if used solely to assist other abilities, and it could elevate his previous powers by one level.

Just then, not far ahead, Jing Yan saw a rampaging automaton chasing a vagrant.

Jing Yan immediately rushed forward.

He initiated [Verbal Domination].

"Halt, self-format, reboot!"

Jing Yan commanded.

The automaton in front replied: "Understood, formatting complete, rebooting!"

"Now detecting personnel ahead, beginning danger verification!"

"Question: Which component should the micro-crystal unit be connected to?"

"A, Heat sink base"

"B, operate braking module."

"C, logic reaction hub."

"Let me..."

March 7th, standing to the side, noticed the anomaly with this Automaton Beetle and, finding it somewhat amusing, stepped forward to answer: "I choose A for this question!"

"Congratulations--incorrect answer!"

"You can't even answer such a simple question! Trash! Combat mode initiated!"

March 7th was stunned by these words!

She felt a bit panicked.

However, Jing Yan quickly followed up: "Choose C, logic reaction hub. Also, stop!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the [Verbal Domination] ability was activated. The automaton stopped in its tracks.

"Identification successful, subject is..."

"Supreme Controller!"

The automaton recited, then immediately flashed with a green light, signifying its complete obedience to Jing Yan.

Following that, it trailed behind Jing Yan as he continued forward.

"This..."

The people nearby were left dumbfounded.

"It just listened like that?" March 7th asked.

"Yes."

Jing Yan didn't say much more and kept walking forward.

Ahead, there were multiple automatons.

Although emotion is like a virus to machines—causing them to collectively break free from their original command settings, develop self-awareness, and potentially harm others—it was not so in Jing Yan's eyes.

"[Illusion Domain] expand!"

A bizarre and kaleidoscopic scene spread out from Jing Yan, quickly enveloping the rampaging machines.

Soon, these mechanical oddities all calmed down.

The reason was simple.

Because they had been successfully dominated by Jing Yan.

Simply because they had a probability of developing emotions, and Jing Yan could make that probability a reality.

Afterward, manipulating a rebooted robot was even simpler than manipulating a human.

Before long, a squad of mechanical oddities appeared behind Jing Yan, March 7th, Stelle, and the others.

Sounds of arguing could be heard from the path above.

Jing Yan immediately led them up to the iron bridge, discovering that quite a few people were already standing in front of a gate in the distance.

A little girl with white hair and red eyes stood out prominently before the gate.

"This little girl is so pretty!" March 7th praised.

Jing Yan recognized her identity.

This person was Clara.

She stood barefoot on the snow, wearing a bright red open-front garment, seemingly not cold at all.

"Please, don't disturb Mr. Svarog. He doesn't want to see anyone," Clara said, looking somewhat troubled.

There were three groups of people in front of her.

Among them were some dressed as vagrants and prospectors, others were miners, and there were even members of "Underworld Fire" standing there.

A vagrant chuckled with a "hehe" and suddenly spoke up: "Why does Svarog get to hog the Core Hub? I hear he treasures this Clara quite a bit, so how about..."

The people beside him frowned, not voicing their support.

"Interesting." Seeing this, Jing Yan brought his mechanical oddities, March 7th, and the others over to join them.