First Mate Bazel and Second Mate Rupert had never imagined, even in their wildest dreams, that aside from Captain Gal and themselves, there would be no one else aboard the ship they were to serve on!
Or rather, no other living people!
Watching the Beyonder Marionettes skillfully prepare for departure, the two of them even felt somewhat superfluous.
Odys introduced them, "Recruiting ordinary sailors is too much trouble, so I thought of using Beyonder Marionettes as crew members.
"This has many advantages. First, they can work continuously for long periods without needing shifts or watch rotations.
"And whether we encounter battle or discover treasure in the future, there'll be no need to split the spoils with them."
Only then did Rupert snap back to his senses. "Captain, who made these Beyonder Marionettes for you?"
He had seen some simple mechanical puppets before. The Sequence 8 potion of the Monster Pathway was called Robot, granting terrifying computational ability and control over one's own body.
Some members of the Life School had used their powerful computational ability to design exquisite mechanical puppets, but those could only perform simple, repetitive tasks.
For example, picking up a pen to draw a predesigned picture, or writing a few words.
When to put down the pen, when to lift it, when to draw a curve, and when to draw a straight line were all predetermined mechanisms, not creations born of the mechanical puppets themselves.
The only purpose of those puppets was performing in circuses.
Yet the puppets aboard this ship were different. They could perform complicated tasks, such as tying cables, fastening sails, and making tea for Odys and the others.
Although their movements looked somewhat stiff and mechanical, these were already remarkably impressive Beyonder Marionettes. Rupert seriously suspected that they had been custom-made by some