Chapter 111: Yu Sheng’s New Idea

Chapter 111: Yu Sheng’s New Idea

As they passed through a new door, the surrounding environment changed instantly. The pleasant valley breeze became the humid, stifling heat of a tropical rainforest, accompanied by distant, unidentified animal calls and the rustling of insects and ants crawling through dead leaves.

Out of caution, Yu Sheng did not close the door. After carrying Irene through the passage, he kept the portal open so he could return to the valley at any time.

“Now what?” he looked down at the little doll on his arm. “Can you still feel the situation of your other body? Has the connection been cut?”

“…What the hell, it’s still connected!” the doll said in surprise. “When we passed through the door just now there was a moment of dizziness, but it wasn’t a disconnection, more like a sensory offset. Now everything’s normal again, and there’s no weakening in the connection between the two bodies at all.”

She looked around.

“Hey, Yu Sheng, how far apart are my two bodies now?”

“It’s probably no longer something that can be measured with ‘distance’,” Yu Sheng thought seriously and shook his head slightly. “I don’t even know where this place is. It’s definitely not within the Boundary Zone, and it’s already separated from that valley by ‘dimensions’. If that kind of separation still can’t cut off the connection between your two bodies, then there’s probably no need for further testing.”

“Oh… so should we look around here?” Irene asked curiously, looking up at him. “Since we’re already here…”

“It’s not safe,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “We’re going back.”

“When did you become so cautious?”

“I’m carrying your painting frame. That’s your main body. If I die here, it doesn’t matter, but if something happens to your frame, we don’t know what the consequences would be.” Yu Sheng shook her slightly as a reminder. “We’re going back. Also tell Hu Li to return to the starting point and regroup.”

“Oh, okay!”

Not long after, Yu Sheng, Hu Li, and Irene returned to the newly built flat ground deep in the valley.

“Now we can basically summarize a few rules,” Yu Sheng said while watching Irene practice controlling both bodies at once, pacing around the area. He stroked his chin and concluded the results so far. “First, at least one doll body must stay with the painting frame for Irene to function in the real world. Second, the body with the frame becomes the ‘main body’, while the other becomes a ‘sub-body’. Third, the sub-body’s control range may be infinite, or at least extremely far, unlike the main body which must stay near the painting. However…”

With a thud, Irene’s sub-body suddenly lost balance while running and fell flat onto the ground.

Yu Sheng glanced at the struggling doll and continued, “However, the sub-body’s performance is clearly weaker than the main body. From perception to motor control and responsiveness, all of it is degraded. That should be the cost of ultra-long-distance control.”

“I think it’s pretty worth it,” Irene said as she got back up. Even after falling, she looked quite happy. “Finally I’ve got a body that doesn’t have to carry the painting around everywhere. I can run wherever I want! I could even watch TV in the living room while gaming in the bedroom…”

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched. “…So that’s what you plan to do with two bodies?!”

Then he reacted immediately. “Wait. Gaming… what games are you playing?!”

Irene immediately shrank her neck, hesitating for two seconds before replying cautiously, “Um, your account got unbanned…”

Yu Sheng’s eyebrows shot up. “No using my account anymore! Make your own! You even have an ID card now!”

Irene lowered her head in disappointment. “Oh…”

No one knew what she was actually disappointed about.

But the doll’s bad mood never lasted long. She quickly brightened up again and walked her other body over to Yu Sheng, both dolls looking up at him together.

“By the way, I found something interesting,” she said.

Yu Sheng looked puzzled. “What?”

“When controlling the second body, you don’t actually need to split half your attention,” Irene said. At the same time, her sub-body’s expression visibly dulled, as if the soul had been drained out of it. “Look, you only need a tiny bit of focus to control it.”

The doll body began walking around in a somewhat unsteady but functional way.

Irene looked pleased with herself.

Yu Sheng’s expression turned thoughtful.

“And I also found this body has a certain degree of autonomous movement ability,” she continued. “If you just want it to do simple tasks, you don’t need to fully ‘take over’. Things like ‘walk to a location’ or ‘bring something back’ can basically be handled by it on its own…”

Yu Sheng’s thoughtful expression instantly turned into shock.

“Wait, you mean… this body has its own thinking ability?!”

Irene also froze. After thinking for a moment, she shook her head. “Not really thinking ability. More like… instincts? Higher-level instincts. And they only activate when I’m connected to it. I can’t really describe it properly.”

Yu Sheng frowned deeply.

This was something he had never anticipated.

But one thing he was certain of: when he first created the blank doll body, it had no ability to move at all. Even when it later showed signs of “life”, even simulated breathing in its chest, it had still been nothing more than an empty shell with no soul and no instinct.

The “instincts” Irene described only appeared after she first took control of the new body.

So… the key is Irene herself?

His expression grew increasingly serious.

The doll looked up and immediately took a half-step back in both bodies at once. “Wait, you… you’re not thinking of something weird again, are you?”

“I’m just curious,” Yu Sheng said very seriously, looking at her like a test subject. “Can you control a third body?”

Irene froze. “……Huh?”

“If these new bodies can develop the kind of ‘instinct’ you described, and controlling them only requires a tiny bit of attention, then maybe two bodies aren’t your limit. If I make a few more dolls, can you still manage them?”

Irene stared at him, mouth open, completely speechless.

Even for someone used to Yu Sheng’s “ideas”, even for a doll with extremely strong adaptability, this was enough to momentarily short-circuit her entire worldview.

But after the initial shock, she found herself thinking along the path anyway.

Even Hu Li, standing nearby, looked intrigued. “Feels… like it might work?”

Irene sighed when she heard that even Hu Li agreed. “Yu Sheng’s ‘ideas’ are like this. At first they sound like completely absurd, unreliable nonsense, but they have this strange kind of attraction. It’s like his ‘try it out’ mindset spreads to others. Once you hear his ideas, you start thinking about whether they could work, what would happen if they did, and eventually… you end up trying them with him.”

Yu Sheng looked slightly dissatisfied. “Why does that sound like I’m some kind of curse?”

Both Irenes bared their teeth at him. “You really don’t think it’s cursed?”

Yu Sheng coughed. “Ahem. So, do we try it or not?”

“Well… it’s not impossible,” Irene muttered. “I’m kind of curious too. But next time, before you do the final testing step, warn me in advance. Let me prepare before taking over a new body, not like this morning…”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Yu Sheng nodded repeatedly. “Experience comes with repetition.”

As he spoke, his gaze shifted again, landing once more on the doll.

Irene immediately took more than half a step back this time.

“You’ve got another idea, don’t you! Just say it all at once, this is scary!”

“Uh, it’s just a side thought,” Yu Sheng scratched his head awkwardly. “If we keep making new bodies, maybe we should also test new crafting methods…”

Irene: “?”

“You see, your first body is mainly clay and lotus root, right?” Yu Sheng explained enthusiastically. “And lotus root normally shouldn’t work as doll material. Your second body is clay too, but without your guidance the auxiliary material ratio probably wasn’t precise. So for future bodies, why not test different materials and processing methods?”

Irene looked suspicious. “…Huh?”

“I’ve always been a bit concerned about your first body getting damaged in combat,” Yu Sheng said seriously after thinking. “Especially the arms breaking so easily, and the legs too.”

“I don’t even care,” Irene waved it off. “But what are you trying to say?”

“Simply put, if we can’t find higher-grade alchemy materials, maybe we can strengthen your body through other methods.”

Irene grew even more confused. “…So?”

“Long story short, next time I want to try replacing your skeleton from iron wire with rebar.”

Irene: “…What the hell?!”