Book 3, Chapter 87: Puppet

Chen Chuan drove back along the main road. Soon, he reached the lively city area. The cars and all sorts of colorful advertisements began increasing in number around him. At that moment, Chen Chuan noticed something different.

His senses had become sharper, as if he was able to accurately tell which path each car was taking and which way the unrelated passersby were taking.

When he focused on a certain point, he could even extract the conversation of two passersby from among the cacophony of noise. He could even smell the anti-mutation medicine they took.

As Chen Chuan drove down the road, the sensations gradually faded away, but when he focused on a certain point, he could detect all sorts of details.

This is...

It clearly meant that he had gotten a step closer to the Third Limit.

A martial artist’s mutated tissue didn’t just show up out of the blue. Instead, it grew over a long period of time through the subtle influence of the martial artist’s environment.

Third Limit martial artists’ brains went through a mutation. This only happened when their mutated tissue reached a certain degree of strength. It was a natural transition.

After coming to Central City, Chen Chuan had invested a lot of resources into himself while training tirelessly, so it was about time for him to get closer to that level.

He probably wouldn’t need much longer to have a real breakthrough.

Once he was back in his room, he put the Frost King Saber on its stand, went to take a shower, and took a look at the corner of the room.

The incubator from the Secret Python Cult was set there with a temperature-controlled light. Despite him being absent for a few days, nothing seemed to have changed inside it.

Chen Chuan went to the table, took out Green Satchel Pharmacy’s pill box, picked one of the green pills, and ate it.

Since he wasn’t sure what would happen while he was inside the metamorphosed snake and couldn’t tell whether the green pill would clash with the medicine and nutrients in the snake, he hadn’t taken any before going to Split Waves Valley.

Even though it had been more than four days since he last took a pill, this minor break wouldn’t cause any problems. After all, it was normal for the average drug tester to take one every ten days. The Green Satchel Pharmacy had only set the requirement to finish all the pills within three months.

While this break was quite long compared to Chen Chuan’s usual ones, that made things better, because it still wasn’t as long as those of the other drug testers. It kept him unique to Green Satchel Pharmacy, but not by too much.

After taking the medicine, Chen Chuan went to his training room for his daily training, which he had skipped for a few days. When he was done, he recorded how his body reacted to the medicine’s effects and sent the report to Green Satchel Pharmacy before going to bed.

The drain on his stamina over the past few days wasn’t actually a big problem. The thing that made him tired was the mental drain.

In order to have all his mutated tissue grow, he couldn’t passively resist the pressure. He had to make use of all parts of his body to fight back. Now that it was over, he could finally relax.

Chen Chuan rested until late at night. When he opened his eyes again, he felt fully invigorated, and his dark eyes were full of life.

He swiftly got dressed before leaving with the Frost King Saber and driving to Deep End District.

Zhao Qian’s private mansion was at the edge of Deep End District, not far from Majestic Light District. While on the way, Chen Chuan contacted Lu Fang to learn where he was so that they could meet up.

Lu Fang hadn’t gone back over the past few days while keeping an eye out from outside the residential area. After they met up, he updated Chen Chuan on the situation.

“I’ve been watching them for a few days. The lights are turned on after 6 p.m. every day, then turned off at 10 p.m. on the dot. Whoever is inside has never left. It’s 11 p.m., so the people inside should be resting. We can go in and figure out what’s going on.”

Chen Chuan contacted Wu Bei. “Did you figure out anything else about the mansion?”

“Not for the time being. Whoever is inside has either hidden everything or has been deleting it on purpose,” Wu Bei replied.

“Got it. Can you block the domain alarm inside?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Sure thing. One moment... and it’s done. You can go in now,” Wu Bei said. In less than a second, he had hacked the biofield signal so that they wouldn’t trigger a reaction on any domain frequency after they went inside.

“We need someone to stay outside. Let me go in and take a look first,” Lu Fang said.

“Be careful,” Chen Chuan cautioned him.

“Will do,” Lu Fang promised before taking out a baton and going in. He did not run into anything out of the ordinary. When he arrived in front of the entrance, he reached out, injected yielding force into the door, and shattered it. A faint sound came from within.

No ordinary person could even hear it, but Chen Chuan felt as if the sound was right beside his ear. Since his attention was trained on Lu Fang, his senses were providing clear feedback to him.

Once Lu Fang was inside, Chen Chuan heard nothing for a time, then came the sounds of fighting.

But Chen Chuan didn’t go in. Based on the sounds, the opponent was a Second Limit martial artist, just like Lu Fang, but his rhythm and movements couldn’t compare. The person seemed to be using a long-bladed weapon.

While Lu Fang only had a baton, he was still able to overpower his opponent. His attacks were steady and firm. His strategy was to make sure that he didn’t lose while waiting for his opponent to let down his guard or become frustrated. Then, he would counterattack.

From the sounds of the nonstop fighting and exchange of blows, Chen Chuan could get a general gist of the opponent’s height and weight. He could even accurately deduce their breathing rhythm.

Just then, he noticed a faint noise from his Realm Pass.

“Someone is attacking your Realm Pass. There should be a resonator in the mansion. I’ve already blocked the domain interference for you two,” Wu Bei stated.

“Okay,” Chen Chuan grunted. Aside from attacking Realm Passes, resonators could also intercept implants, but Lu Fang didn’t have any, so the type of interference the resonator could perform was limited.

After another ten seconds or so, Lu Fang found an opening and launched an attack.

Chen Chuan could tell that he struck his opponent’s torso, then rammed his fist against his opponent’s temple and knocked him unconscious. He moved swiftly and even avoided any vital areas.

The sounds of fighting came to an end. Then, Chen Chuan heard snatches of a conversation. After a while, the lights turned on, and Lu Fang called him through his Realm Pass. “It’s okay now.”

Chen Chuan went over and entered the mansion. Inside, he saw a masked man lying unconscious on the floor. Beside him was a foreign saber.

Before Lu Fang stood a petite girl of around fourteen years old. She had a beautiful face and was the one who had appeared in the footage.

It seemed like the person they had been tracking down was indeed in this mansion. That saved them a lot of effort. Still, they needed to confirm whether she was Shen Zheng’s sister.

“She said that she’s Zhao Qian’s servant. When I told her that Zhao Qian is dead, she didn’t believe me,” Lu Fang whispered.

Chen Chuan observed the girl through his Realm Pass, and it immediately showed him a wall of text about implants but provided him no name for the girl.

He had been able to scan her so easily not just because he was using the Realm Pass the Resolution Department gave him, but also because the girl wasn’t a Central City citizen.

He tapped his Realm Pass and said, “I’ll send you proof that Zhao Qian is dead.”

The girl cast him a glance before connecting with him. Then, he sent her confirmation from the Resolution Department that Zhao Qian was dead and even the photo of his head.

After staying silent for a while, the girl looked up and said, “I suppose you’re my new masters.”

Lu Fang was taken aback for a moment before he sighed. “No one is your master, not Zhao Qian, and not anyone else. You’re the master of your own life.”

Confusion flickered for a moment in the girl’s eyes.

Lu Fang felt a quiet ache in his heart and asked gently, “What’s your name?”

“Thirteen.”

“Not your codename. Your original name,” Lu Fang prodded.

“This is my name,” Thirteen insisted.

“Has this always been your name? What was your name before this?” Lu Fang asked.

“I don’t remember anymore. Mr. Zhao gave me my name.”

At this point, Lu Fang already had a gist of what had happened. He sucked in a breath and asked, “Then... what’s your earliest memory?”

“Mr. Zhao bringing me here three years ago,” Thirteen answered with certainty.

Chen Chuan said nothing. There was no stir in Thirteen’s emotions when she spoke, so she had to be telling the truth. Just then, Wu Bei’s voice entered their ears. “I think I know what’s going on with her...”

“What’s wrong?” Lu Fang asked.

“She... might be a puppet,” Wu Bei said hesitantly.

“A puppet?” Lu Fang was shocked. The word made him think of plenty of bad things.

“Puppets are humans turned into slaves after being hypnotized and modified by implants. It’s done in order to satisfy the customers’ kinks and needs. There are companies who specialize in providing such services. My family... had one.”

It was clear from his tone that he hated these things.

He then sent Chen Chuan and Lu Fang more information about puppets.

Paperdoll was the domestic company who had the most business in this industry. Meanwhile, the company with the best tech in this area on the global stage was Proto-Being. These companies had human-breeding facilities, and the mid- and high-range puppets were all trained and brainwashed from a young age.

Aside from the big companies, some small workshops also dabbled in this business, but they were really crude. They bought implants, then deleted all the memories of people with no citizen status or dead criminals before turning them into puppets.

When Chen Chuan saw the name of Proto-Being, he paid extra attention to it. After giving it some thought, he asked, “Is there any way for us to get proof that she’s a human turned into a puppet?”

“A company-modified puppet will have the company’s logo on them, but a workshop-modified puppet won’t. Still, I see traces of her face being refined and reshaped. While her implants aren’t expensive, they’re not cheap goods either. Considering the level of skill involved, I’m pretty sure a company modified her.”