Master of Science and Technology - Chapter 48

Translator: Darling | Editor: Darling

As soon as he walked into the area, Ye Zan received a message from the missing drone, but immediately lost connection with the fifteen drones outside.

Ye Zan had predicted that something like this would happen and was not startled. He immediately reached out to the drone and received the observations it had gathered about the area.

Seeing the area’s new map, Ye Zan noticed a problem. This was not the depicted scenery seen outside the area’s borders. That was to say that the same area had pictures taken of it that showed different landscapes. The picture taken from the outside showed nothing more than an ordinary mountain and forest. However, the picture taken from within the area showed an ancient, broken-down wall.

And Ye Zan could only see a mist-covered forest. But once he turned on the observation device on his mask, he could see the same landscape shown by the drone. There was no mist-laden forest here.

In actuality, the so-called hallucination or Bewitchment Charm was nothing more than using tricks of the light to misdirect a person’s eyes. In the technological world, there are also tricks that used light to manipulate what the person saw. If a person didn’t rely solely on what they saw by their human eyes to deduce what was before them, then they wouldn’t be tricked.

Of course, the Bewitchment Charms of this world could only trick the senses of the eyes; they were really not super developed hallucination techniques. At least, the Bewitchment Charm before them was nothing special. The original owner of this Realm had probably just used this trick to keep the creatures out. 

From where Ye Zan was standing, he could just see a piece of worn-down architecture; it looked to be some sort of palace. But, from the view above, he could see that there was a problem. The structure’s parts didn’t seem to adhere to logic.

All structures, whether palaces or cities, whether technological or not, had a single law: to be easy and accessible. 

But this structure seemed to have no purpose. Its parts were extremely unorganized, giving off the impression that it was just there to create a mirage.

“This layout, it looks almost like…” Ye Zan looked at the bird’s view map and felt a sense of familiarity. Were these not the training grounds used in the military? Only, they were set to a larger scale and made to be more noticeably camouflaged. But that was because it was noticeably trying to appear more like a training ground.

At this time, the drone sent another alert. The map in front of Ye Zan had drawn another moving red dot. Ye Zan didn’t need to zoom in to know what it was, because the creature had already charged in front of him. The creature looked like a human, with no neck, and a heavy physique. However, it had grown four limbs on its back. It was wearing no clothes, and Ye Zan could see patterns on its skin. They looked like those found on wood.

Ye Zan had read a lot after arriving in this world. He couldn’t say that he was an expert on everything here but could count as knowledgeable. He recognized the creature before him.

This was a Mechanical Puppet; a technologically-afflicted creature of this world. This Puppet had animal-human like features, made of mostly gold, wood, or monster bone. They were set with a magical beast’s inner core or spiritual rock, usually refined through a secret technique.

In ordinary circumstances, these Mechanical Puppets needed to be directed by a human. Humans created these puppets so they could have complete control over them. They worried that the puppets would acquire consciousness and revolt against their masters. This was similar to the worries people in the technological world had over AI and smart technologies. 

However, Ye Zan did not believe that the Mechanical Puppets before him were being controlled. The people that could enter this Realm were only of the Refining State in cultivation. Furthermore, there was not a sect among the Five Sects that knew the techniques of puppet-making, not to mention controlling puppets. It was unknown if they even knew of such a place existing in this Realm.

Additionally, there were over a hundred red dots on the map. Controlling this number of Mechanical Puppets was not a feat an ordinary cultivator could achieve. If this Realm’s original owner were still here, maybe he could. But if he were still here, would he allow the people of the Five Sects to so frequently barge into his own home?

Seeing these Mechanical Puppets, and thinking of the appearance of this area, Ye Zan had a deduction. This was probably a training field. At the same time, it probably operated as a research ground. The original owner had probably been researching for a way to allow these puppets to have their own intelligence.

However, regardless of the reason, Ye Zan was very interested in these Mechanical Puppets. These puppets were very similar to the robots of the technological world. Not even mentioning if the two could improve on each other in technique if Ye Zan could just gain control of one of these puppets, he could have a blocking card when next asked about his technologies.

At this time, the six-limbed puppet had already appeared before Ye Zan. Ye Zan didn’t call his spiders forth, but moved forward himself; striking a punch on the puppet’s chest. Ye Zan’s armor was designed for scouting, but this punch was definitely not soft. Added with the calculations from the assistance disk, the Mechanical Puppet had no way of dodging. With a “Ping” and a boom, the Mechanical Puppets flew like a baseball from Ye Zan’s fist.

But, immediately, three other Mechanical Puppets had come forth from Ye Zan’s sides. Of these three puppets, one was in the shape of a tiger, another was a python, and the last was an ape. Ye Zan did a back kick and took out the tiger. Continuing, he swiped towards the ape and threw it against the python.

Although it had been just a short exchange, Ye Zan still got a pretty good understanding of the skill of the puppets. The following puppets were all made of wood; their intelligence still nothing special.

Frankly, the tiger puppet behaved like a tiger, the python puppet a python, These Mechanical Puppets had perhaps one advantage: they did not feel pain. But to say any other specialties? Well, there really were none.

“Shooo!”

A missile flew out of the launcher within Ye Zan’s armor, moving towards the charging six-limbed puppets. With an ear-shattering blast, a cloud of sparks flew out and blew the Mechanical Puppets into pieces.

“It looks like their defensive abilities are mediocre. After all, they are made of wood.” Looking at the flying debris, Ye Zan shook his head. He was displeased with the defenses of the puppets. Real Mechanical Puppets would have many more requirements in the materials used, with charms for defense placed on them as well. But the puppets before him could only count as practicing toys used for research. 

Having garnered enough information about the puppets in the short exchange they had, Ye Zan did not waste any more time. He ordered the spiders out, letting them deal with the endless flow of puppets.

Ye Zan could see from the map that the other side of the area had more interesting structures, and looked to be incomplete from their outward appearance. Maybe there would be a surprise waiting for him there. Bringing his spiders with him, Ye Zan walked towards the direction of the area, the incoming puppets being no match for his mechanical spiders.