Chapter Seven: Multi-Control Automaton Systems

Once Huang Hong’s "Storm Pear Blossom Needles" dealt its massive burst of damage, he lunged forward, soaring toward another incoming wave of Evil Church cultists. His spear spun and danced in his hands, casting a sky full of spear shadows that rained down upon the monsters.

With a wide, sweeping strike, the air was filled with lethal trajectories, sending the cultists reeling or knocking them to the ground. Capitalizing on this momentum, Huang Hong unleashed an even fiercer assault, driving his spear forward in a direct, decisive thrust.

A dazzling storm of spear light erupted, shimmering with a blinding, frigid brilliance that instantly dispatched the next wave of cultists. Though his technique remained consistent with his previous style, this time, his charged attacks possessed a newfound intensity. Watching from the rear, Ye Yu could clearly see that Huang Hong was steadily improving.

At that moment, visible currents of air began to churn around Huang Hong, swirling until the distorted flow took on the faint, imposing shape of a giant dragon.

"Dragon Spear Marrow!"

With a thunderous roar, the air-formed dragon surged toward another group of cultists. Facing these mobs single-handedly provided Huang Hong with an undeniable boost, and the damage output of this strike was staggering—surpassing all his previous efforts and instantly obliterating the entire group of monsters.

"He’s actually quite interesting. This spear-wielding player's custom talent tree can boost his own damage; as long as he’s facing enemies alone, all his attributes are amplified. That’s a very practical skill design," Cup of Wine Traps the Hero remarked. Huang Hong merely frowned, casting a sidelong glance at him, clearly uninterested in engaging, and turned his focus to the next group of cultists.

Ye Yu noticed that every time a cultist fell, a wisp of red mist drifted toward the front of the area. "Why does this feel like a trap? It gives me a very uneasy feeling," Ye Yu mused to himself.

On the other side, Huang Hong had exhausted his stamina, and negative status effects began to take hold. Luo Wei stepped in to take his place. Because he controlled puppets, his technique had become increasingly refined. His approach remained much the same, but he applied a strength-enhancing buff that turned his Copper Puppet a deep, vibrant crimson. Suddenly, four extra arms sprouted from the puppet’s back; the resulting six-armed flurry of blows dealt damage beyond imagination.

"Does Luo Wei’s puppet buff increase crit rate and critical damage?" Huang Hong was the first to speak upon seeing the high damage numbers. He had previously considered his own damage to be elite, even by the standards of high-level PVP, yet this was on another level.

Suddenly, two crimson circles emerged from the ground, from which two more puppets materialized. They were identical to the Copper Puppet, shifting from spectral forms into solid entities clad in crimson armor. The three puppets formed a fan-shaped formation, led by the Copper Puppet.

"Brother Wei, you’ve been holding out on us. I didn't expect you to have started using three puppets already," Ye Yu said with a wry smile, clearly surprised by the extent of Luo Wei's capabilities.

"Heh, choosing the multi-puppet route at level 40, and he’s clearly quite proficient at it. He must have been training in private for a long time. Managing multiple puppets is the true test of a Puppeteer’s skill. In *God’s Ruin*, a top-tier Puppeteer can be invincible in PVP from the start of the match, controlling up to four Gold Puppets with terrifying precision," Cup of Wine Traps the Hero commented.

Ye Yu rolled his eyes and replied, "The levels of these monsters have increased, so we might as well use this chance to practice our real-world combat skills." Although they had all improved their strength with Old Hu’s help in the previous dungeon, they hadn't had a chance to put it to the test, and the monsters in the wild fields were too weak to withstand their current output.

But here in the Mount Tai Forbidden Zone, these cultists served as perfect training dummies. The high damage numbers allowed them to gauge their true potential. Ye Yu observed Luo Wei’s progression as a Puppeteer and began to speculate on the path of his custom talent tree, sensing that Luo Wei had yet to reveal his full strength.

As a Puppeteer, Luo Wei was on the right track, though the multi-puppet path required immense operational skill. He was a hybrid of ranged and melee; in later stages, the puppets could even be dismantled and equipped onto the player's own body to engage in direct close-quarters combat.

The drawback of the Puppeteer class was that in the late game, puppets possessed a degree of AI, which could lead to them accidentally attacking each other.

However, a strange scene unfolded: the two crimson-armored puppets also sprouted four arms each. The three puppets leapt into the air, merging into three streaks of intense flame that crashed into the distant cultists. They flattened the group and shattered the formation on the ground, triggering a brief berserk state in the remaining enemies.

The enraged cultists launched a violent counter-attack. One cultist in the front, brandishing a sword glowing with scarlet light, charged straight at Luo Wei. Luo Wei immediately recalled his Copper Puppet to his side, swinging its massive fists in a sweeping arc.

Boom—