Four Split Personalities

"Hey! You..."

Ji Xiaoge frowned slightly, but in the end, she didn’t run up to stop Motan. Instead, she quietly took out Catherine’s Valkyrie from her bag, filled it with rice, and half-kneeled on the ground to steadily aim at the Combat Puppet.

One step, two steps...

Motan stared intently at the puppet, struggling to move his feet. His heart grew colder with each step because the closer he got to it, the greater the oppressive feeling he experienced. He had every reason to believe that if they hadn’t just passed what could be a test of courage, the mere presence of this thing would have drained his Physical Strength Value completely on this path.

Twenty-five meters...twenty meters...fifteen meters...

Motan cautiously moved within the exceptionally spacious stone chamber, his forehead and palms covered with sweat, yet the combat puppet in front of him, increasingly terrifying in his eyes, remained motionless.

[Could it be broken?]

The phenomenon of wishful thinking is also something that the current persona of Motan has, but he just doesn’t rely on it.

Thirteen meters...twelve meters...eleven meters...

"Ah!!"

Suddenly, Ji Xiaoge let out a shriek from afar, shouting: "Be careful! It’s not..."

Thump—

A huge dark red blade lightly rested on Motan’s left shoulder. The Combat Puppet that had just seemed to be in standby mode, unexpectedly crossed the entire ten-meter distance in one second to appear behind Motan; and it completely moved out of their line of sight before revealing its form just as its grotesquely shaped weapon touched Motan’s neck.

"Damn it..."

Ji Xiaoge finished her earlier sentence in a trance, her body stiff, but wisely chose not to fire her weapon because it seemed that the Combat Puppet did not intend to behead Motan—in fact, if it truly had the intention to kill, Motan’s head would have fallen faster than Ji Xiaoge’s reaction.

"Don’t panic! I think I guessed right! It doesn’t intend to kill me!"

Motan also screamed immediately after, then stiffly stepped back, allowing the huge blade to move away from his neck.

The Combat Puppet didn’t react, but its pair of blue luminous eyes were intently fixed on Motan.

Motan took another step back...two steps...three steps...then suddenly paused, and his whole body quickly dashed towards the stone door to the left front—

[Charge]!

Bang!!!

Before Ji Xiaoge could clearly see what was happening, it seemed like a blur before her eyes, and by the time she could focus, Motan had smashed down from mid-air and rolled all the way to her feet due to inertia.

Meanwhile, the Combat Puppet had somehow returned to its previous position, its sword tip lowered, motionless.

"How are you feeling now? Are you alright?"

Ji Xiaoge quickly tossed away Catherine’s Valkyrie and frantically helped Motan up.

"In an instant, three punches and one kick cost me forty percent of my Health Points, and I feel pretty bad, but not to the point of any serious issue."

Motan chugged a Healing Potion, cradling his sore chest as he spoke with lingering fear: "Clearly, it indeed does not wish to kill the testee—at least... well, as long as it can prevent someone from reaching that stone door, it will hold back."

Ji Xiaoge nodded: "Do you think we have a chance of getting past it?"

Motan leaned against the wall and caught his breath, then grimly shook his head: "No chance...the gap is too big."

"Hmm, then you rest for a bit. I’ll go and check."

Despite hearing Motan’s conclusion, Ji Xiaoge was not very discouraged. She patted him on the shoulder and suddenly took flight, heading straight towards the Combat Puppet that had just given Motan a thorough beating.

"What are you doing!"

Motan was shocked and immediately shouted, "Get back here, you can’t beat it!"

"Is that so necessary for you to say?"

Ji Xiaoge responded without turning her head, followed by a swift aerial halt, stabilizing ten meters away from the combat puppet. She stood right at the edge of the distance where Motan previously approached without triggering an attack, and chuckled, "I just want to have a good look at this thing."

Motan was puzzled and hurriedly asked, "Look at what?"

"Don’t interrupt; I haven’t figured it out yet."

Ji Xiaoge waved her small hand, floated aimlessly in mid-air for a while, and finally landed back on the ground, staring intently at the combat puppet in front of her with deep focus.

Motan obediently refrained from interrupting again and, after catching his breath, quickly moved beside Ji Xiaoge, wielding his sword cautiously by her side.

He knew this girl would not engage in pointless acts at such a critical moment. Combining this with Ji Xiaoge’s previous comments about the puppet looking familiar, he had some guesses. However, what concerned him more was the majestic aura of the puppet, which suffocated him just by getting close, yet seemed to have no effect on Ji Xiaoge.

[Could it be some kind of immunity effect?]

While vigilantly protecting Ji Xiaoge, Motan began to ponder.

However, this time he was overthinking it. Ji Xiaoge was unaffected by the puppet merely because her absolute strength was too weak.

It’s the same principle that applies when common street merchants can’t sense the formidable presence of famed martial artists or nefarious demon lords just passing by eating kebabs.

A calf does not fear a tiger simply because it doesn’t comprehend the danger.

Although Ji Xiaoge was not a calf, her strength level was not just below that of ’Mor,’ but even lesser than ’Hei Fan,’ who, being a priest, hardly ever performed any healing.

Because of this, she could calmly observe this familiar-looking device before her.

As time flowed and years flashed by... After five minutes.

"Ah! Exactly! I know what this is now!!"

Ji Xiaoge suddenly exclaimed, startling the tense Motan.

"What is it?"

After jumping, Motan immediately asked, "Have you really seen this thing before?"

Ji Xiaoge grinned and made a playful scissor gesture, "Not exactly seen, but I saw its blueprint when I was organizing things for the teacher. I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, and since the Dragon King seemed to have outfitted it in full gear, I didn’t recognize it at first."

"Oh?"

Seeing her confidence, Motan’s expression brightened, "So you’ve already thought of a way?"

"Maybe, I’m not very sure."

Ji Xiaoge shrugged, then spoke seriously, "This thing is not just any combat puppet; it should be officially named ’First Generation Rune Body V9.78,’ a creation of Master Lu Wei."

"First Generation Rune Body... Master Lu Wei’s work!?"

Motan was startled again; he was all too familiar with the term Rune Body. His own body in Cordova strictly speaking was a Rune Body, and his consciousness, as a gamer, was also part of the Rune Body, like a detachable plug-in. It’s worth mentioning that the bodies of those gnoll-like creatures made from left-over material by Lu Wei were also considered Rune Bodies, whether they had add-ons or not.

"Yes, the First Generation Rune Body, and what’s more, it’s undergone nine major upgrades and optimizations to its final version."

Ji Xiaoge nodded vigorously, seriously explaining, "The combat power is very strong, has an excellent energy supply system, coupled with a free element absorption matrix and three sets of rune converters, and its endurance is also substantial. It also has fifteen casting modules installed; even without any auxiliary plugins, its factory strength can reach the epic level. It’s both a caster and a melee fighter at the epic level; truly a masterpiece from the teacher’s peak years. As for the latest model of Cordova, compared to this original model, apart from the shared energy storage system, everything else..."

"Everything else is like what..."

"Is far inferior."

"..."

Chapter 589: The End