The air suddenly thickened, as if even the invisible dust held its breath. Facing the myriad of broken caras and biocentric eyes, Yvette’s expression remained emotionless, cold as an intricately carved, hollow doll.
She thought, it seed that only Ice Rain, the chanical girl, was a bit naive; the other chanical puppets had quickly noticed her humanity, which was the proper developnt of events.
Yet she didn’t mind. At her current strength, obliterating a small village comprised of old, frail robots was a trivial matter. If conflict ensued, it was the other side that should be afraid.
However, the very next second—
“Too… too alike!”
“Oh, gods of machinery, this is too beautiful! This lady looks exactly like a human!”
“How did she manage it? Just look at her natural elegance; I suspect I’ll never be able to achieve that!”
“Could this be the legendary ‘Unity of Machine and Human’? Is she about to beco human?”
“She must be a ssenger of the divine!”
Gasps of awe erupted from all directions. The puppets, pieced together from discarded scraps, began flickering their eye lights frantically, displaying excitent.
Yvette blinked, wondering if this script was slightly off.
Her tranquil gaze shifted to Ice Rain, only to see the girl puffing out her soft, synthetic silicone face and sourly pouting, “I think I’m also pretty similar…”
“Ladies, I am the ‘Elder,’ the executor of the Black Tide branch in Agash. May I ask for your nas?” The old chanical puppet, speaking through a worn-out gaphone, approached Yvette, straining to bow as best as its damaged fra would allow, projecting an impressive courtesy.
“Hello, I am Ice Rain, a traveler from the Kingdom of the Sky!” Ice Rain greeted respectfully.
“I am Yvette Loxivia, from a remote island, also a traveler.” Yvette gave a slight nod.
“Even your na has an ancient ring to it!” The sa chanical puppets, who had remained silent during Ice Rain’s introduction, burst into excited chatter again upon hearing Yvette’s na.
Yvette found this increasingly peculiar. It seed the chanical puppets in this village greatly admired humans, even taking pride in mimicking them… was this a local characteristic? After all, Ice Rain had also previously expressed admiration for her na. Did this imply that all chanical puppets in this world shared the sa sentint?
What could be the reason for this?
A spontaneous human veneration?
Or perhaps it was tied to the mysterious “chanical God”?
While considering this, the Elder—who had eagerly claid the title of executive officer and seed akin to the village chief—enthusiastically invited them, “As esteed guests passing through our village, let’s not linger outdoors. Co to our reception room for so tea, shall we?”
Tea… Looking at the Elder’s rust-riddled body and the antique gaphone it used to speak, Yvette said, “That’s fine by .”
She was curious to see what “drinking tea” ant for these puppets, many of whom lacked “oral cavities.”
With the Elder leading the way, Yvette and Ice Rain followed through a sea of amazed and envious gazes, entering deeper into the chanical puppet town.
Similar to the abandoned towns she had seen on Ish Island in the past, although the buildings in this puppet town were dilapidated, they had rged with the local flora over the years, emitting a newfound verdant vitality.
Moreover, it seed that these puppets had so awareness of cleanliness; while the small path was cracked, the weeds didn’t grow wildly and appeared to have been trimd. The dense tree canopies tangled overhead, with sunlight breaking through like lted gold flakes, casting scattered shimring spots on the ground.
With winding pathways, it almost resembled a hidden utopia… As Yvette walked, observing her surroundings, she spotted a small patch of greenery ahead. At its end stood a structure built from discarded shipping containers, resembling a rusty pyramid with four or five layers.
“Oh! Is this your ho?” Ice Rain asked, curiously looking around.
“Yes, we built it ourselves,” the Elder replied with pride.
“I thought you would live directly in human ruins,” Ice Rain remarked.
“Originally, we did. Back then, we thought as long as we resided inside human-built structures, we would be closer to humanity,” the Elder mused. “After several decades of cultivation, one day I suddenly realized… Do you know what I discovered?”
“What?” Ice Rain responded, playing along.
“I found that the reason humanity is humanity is primarily due to their self-sufficiency, allowing them to build such a splendid pre-apocalyptic civilization from nothing. Our laziness would only drive us further away from humanity. Thus, we abandoned our original dwellings and started building our own houses. This is our achievent: we call it the ‘Container Apartnt.’ Isn’t it beautiful?”
Listening to the Elder’s speech, Yvette appraised the makeshift container pyramid and saw nothing particularly beautiful about it.
Ice Rain was, however, visibly shocked, her bioluminescent pupils widening, her Mind Core spinning rapidly as she fell into a mont of profound contemplation.
Please don’t malfunction… Yvette perceived the humming within Ice Rain’s head as her core worked at full capacity and couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.
…
The reception room of the puppet town was located on the first floor of the container apartnt. As they entered, Yvette noticed several small chanical puppets leaping and playing on the upper floors of the apartnt, the sounds of their footsteps and roller-skating creating quite a racket.
Inside the sowhat cramped room, Yvette saw a wooden table and so cabinets. Due to the limited space for two people, the Elder had entered through the opposite entrance and rummaged through a shelf, producing a bag of what appeared to be dark brown tea leaves.
“What? How did you get this tea?” Yvette asked, surprised. Though it was clear that the tea had likely lost its ability to brew, it seed too recent to be supplies from centuries ago—like it had only recently beco damp and moldy.
“A few years ago, when I was traveling, it was sold to by a kingdom that grows tea,” the Elder replied, smiling. “They went to great lengths to create tea gardens to draw closer to our creators, and I found their efforts to be quite admirable. Although it was a bit expensive, I traded many human artifacts I found in the ruins for two bags of tea but have been reluctant to drink it.”
“Creators?” Yvette asked cautiously, “Are humans the creators? What does the chanical God represent to you?”
“The gods gave us souls, while humans provided us with bodies. Thus, humans are our creators, and the great chanical God is the deity we worship,” the Elder explained, sowhat confused. “Is that a conflict? Do you have doubts regarding this, esteed guest?”
“I’ve overstepped. My previous location was quite remote and didn’t even have a sanctuary,” Yvette admitted.
“Ah, kind lady, you speak like an illiterate,” Ice Rain interjected. “You should ask your questions first; otherwise, I’ll feel embarrassed to say you and I are together.”
When exactly did we beco ‘together’?
Yvette shot her a glance but didn’t deny it, instead silently watching as the Elder continued to prepare the tea. For more chapters visit N0v3l.Fiɾe
Grabbing a rough tal cup, he placed the moldy tea leaves and sowhat unclean water inside, and there the tea was effectively brewed.
As the cup was pushed in front of her, Yvette didn’t touch it but instead glanced sideways at Ice Rain.
As a comparatively new chanical puppet, Ice Rain seed capable of drinking, promptly downing the brew made from the moldy tea leaves in one go.
I can’t keep that tentacle… Yvette thought, now looking back at the Elder.
Unlike Ice Rain, the Elder only had caras for its head, the rest of its body was nothing but hollow tal plates, with the speaker mounted on its shoulder.
Under Yvette’s scrutiny, the Elder raised its cup with a seriousness befitting a tea master, and with both hands, he tilted his head to where nothing was present atop, pouring the tea vigorously—then predictably, it all spilled down onto its chest.
Yet the Elder appeared unaffected, placing the cup down, and, in a voice filled with reminiscence, said, “Ah, it’s been so long! This tea is still so sweet and delicious, truly deserving its place as one of the most beloved drinks of human civilization.”
What did you possibly drink? Saying it’s sweet and delicious like this—does your conscience not hurt?
Yvette thought, if she were a psychiatrist, she could diagnose the Elder with cybernetic ntal illness right then and there; this was utterly absurd.
However, given their earnest efforts, Yvette sighed and picked up her cup. Pretending to drink, she subtly extended a small white tentacle from her fingertip at the mont of sipping, consuming the vast majority of the peculiar liquid.
This tentacle is definitely not usable, she reasoned.
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