"This is…"
Looking at the puppet Lynelle had dragged in, Elysia wore a puzzled expression.
"This is the prototype Herrscher of Dominance puppet I mentioned before, the one made by Vill-V."
Lynelle clapped her hands together, though she made no move to remove the white cloth draped over the puppet.
"Oh, right, where's ELF Elysia?"
"I'm right here, cute human~"
With a whoosh, a pink figure suddenly darted out from behind Elysia, coming to a steady stop right in front of Lynelle.
"Wow, so you're the Lynelle that grown-up me mentioned? You really are adorable! Lynelle, Lynelle, I'm ELF Elysia from La-La Land, so nice to meet you!"
"Adorable, huh… you're pretty adorable yourself…" Looking at the fairy before her, Lynelle couldn't help but curiously reach out and touch the little wings on ELF Elysia's back, which looked just like Little Ica's wings.
"But, I am a bit curious… do these actually let you fly?"
"Nope~" ELF Elysia shook her head. "The power of flight comes from fairy magic!"
"As the cutest and most popular fairy in all of La-La Land, it's only natural that I know a little bit of magic, right!"
"Ahem, about that…" Elysia lowered her voice.
"I did a quick check. It seems ELF Elysia has the same combat modules installed as the Flame-Chaser puppets. That means… she's actually combat-capable, and pretty significantly so."
"We haven't run any specific tests, but I'd estimate her combat power is around one percent of my base form?"
"One percent of you, Elysia… that's still terrifying, isn't it?" Lynelle looked thoughtful. "Feels like that puts her combat level around, say, a certain Madam Herta…"
"Anyway, it's probably fine. Honestly, ELF Elysia doesn't really need to fight. As the terminal for all the puppets, I just needed someone as kind, cute, and pure-hearted as you, Elysia, to prevent the puppets themselves from being controlled by the Core… even if that scenario's unlikely, it's better to be safe than sorry."
"Speaking of puppets…" Elysia and ELF Elysia's gazes simultaneously shifted to the white-draped puppet behind Lynelle. "Why did you cover her with a white cloth, Lynelle?"
"Because she's still updating…" Lynelle spread her hands. "The network module package I originally planned to load into her got left at the Salt Lake base."
"So, to get her running, Vill-V collected some of my data on the spot and built a virtual personality system to nest inside her… but since we were short on time, the system might be a bit rough."
"Overall, it shouldn't be a big issue. She'll automatically collect data and update herself over time."
"As for the white cloth, it's probably to prevent extraneous data from interfering… oh, looks like the update's finished!"
Lynelle turned to look at the puppet behind her. Sure enough, the puppet's eyes were faintly glowing, a soft pink light visible even through the white cloth.
"Then… ta-da—Lynelle prototype puppet, Lynelle Model 093, reporting for duty!"
As Lynelle whisked away the white cloth, a petite girl, just barely over a meter forty tall, appeared before Elysia and ELF Elysia.
This adorable girl had soft, peach-like pink hair, just like Lynelle and Elysia, though her figure wasn't as mature as Lynelle's. Instead, she seemed closer in age to Mobius.
"Wow, she looks exactly like me when I was little, right when I first started my journey!" Elysia's eyes practically sparkled.
Already unable to resist cute things, seeing a puppet that perfectly mirrored her own innocent younger self made it absolutely impossible to look away. "But why does she look so much like me?"
"Because the puppet's base body blueprint is you from that time, Elysia."
Lynelle answered matter-of-factly. "Silly Elysia, did you forget that most of the Flame-Chasers have actually seen you as a teenager?"
"When Vill-V came to the Elysian Realm, she naturally discovered that while reviewing her memories. So, she's actually had your physical data from that age all along."
"Ehh—I never expected Vill-V to be so sneaky! Having something like this and never telling me!" Elysia, who had been hugging and 'squishing' the puppet for a while, puffed out her cheeks.
"That's it! At our next tea party, I'm going to play a little prank on her… I'll put extra sugar in her dessert!"
"What a truly 'vicious' revenge… trying to make Big Sis Vill-V gain weight by making her consume more sugar? Elysia, you're so sly…"
As she spoke, Lynelle took the Lynelle puppet from Elysia's arms and injected some Honkai energy into the core inside the puppet.
"Beep—Prototype puppet activated. Initiating self-check… Self-check complete."
"Initiating virtual personality system… System online."
The pink-haired girl looked up, her glowing pink pupils scanning Elysia and Lynelle before she tilted her head in an utterly charming way.
"Hi. Did you… miss me?"
Her voice sounded a bit choppy, as if just starting up, but the stutter smoothed out quickly.
"I am Lynelle Model 093 prototype puppet. My personality data model is based on Lynelle's personality data and the Elysia physical data blueprint. If you need anything at all, please feel free to talk to me, okay?"
As she spoke, 093 formed a heart shape with her hands over her chest.
"No matter when or where, 093 will answer your expectations!"
"Th-this is just too perfect, isn't it?" Elysia covered her mouth in surprise. "If I'd seen someone like this when I was little, I might have wondered if I had a long-lost sister…"
"But, wait… if she's the prototype, why is her number 093?"
"It's a tribute to a classic…" Lynelle muttered under her breath.
"Huh?"
"Ahem, anyway, let's not get hung up on the number. So, what do you two think of this puppet?"
"Like meeting my past self~ It reminds me so much of my own childhood… it's wonderful!"
"If I could command so many adorable humans like this, I'd probably be laughing in my sleep every night… ehehe…"
Clearly, both Elysia and ELF Elysia were more than satisfied with Master Modeler Vill-V's accuracy.
"Great. Then I'll take this puppet out into the real world and start mass production…"
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T/N: 093 references PhiLia093 aka Cyrene
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T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.