Chapter 287

Chapter 288: Building a Wonder

Hearing Foxy’s analysis, Little Doll’s face looked like the sky had fallen: “So this amazing body I worked so hard to get is just a timed trial?”

After her energy ran out, she could barely move even a finger.

Irene Unit One, the one with the picture frame on her back, muttered beside Yu Sheng while tipping her chin at the new body lying limp in his arms, then looked, torn, toward Foxy and asked: “Do you have a way to fix this?”

Foxy stepped up to inspect Pro Irene, bending her limbs and trying a few Incantation Gestures with unknown effect, then, after a long while, she nodded and said: “In theory… just wait.”

Irene and Yu Sheng spoke at the same time: “Wait?”

Foxy pointed at the doll’s hand and said: “Let it charge itself. Look, her fingers can already move. Black iron naturally gathers Earth Spirit, and once it’s forged into a complex puppet body, it keeps that trait. If we wait, she should recover bit by bit.”

Irene Unit One blinked hard and asked: “Really? You’re not lying to me?”

Foxy tapped Irene Unit One with her tail and said: “Why would I lie to you?”

Irene sighed and said: “Fine, then we wait…”

The facts proved Foxy right. After a few more minutes, Pro Irene’s body slowly regained the most basic movement. She creaked like an old tin man that had not been oiled in years, but at least she could move her arms and legs and even stand and take two steps.

Getting movement back lifted Little Doll’s mood a little, but not by much. She shuffled stiffly around Yu Sheng and stopped beside her three other bodies with a hollow look, saying: “I feel like I’m hauling a human shaped coffin on my back. This charging is way too slow. If just moving is this hard, when will I ever have enough power to fire the Light Cannon again?”

She looked up at Foxy and asked: “Is there no way to charge faster?”

Foxy thought for a bit and said: “Usually I eat. I eat a lot.”

Irene stared in silence.

Yu Sheng coughed and reminded in a low voice: “She has no digestive system.”

Foxy’s ears twitched as she said: “Even if she did, a normal stomach can’t refine matter.”

Yu Sheng glanced at Irene’s wet eyes and pressed Foxy: “Please think of another way. Anything faster than this would help. She’s about to cry.”

Foxy tried again and said: “Maybe absorb Earth Spirit? I saw short videos about old training that do that.” She shook her head before Irene’s eyes could light up and added: “But I don’t actually know how. Or maybe we could use some other thing to charge her, but I can’t think of how right now. We can’t just grab a power line, right?”

Hearing Foxy mutter, Yu Sheng knew this grade school dropout Nine Tailed Fox was not much help. He sighed, picked Pro Irene up again, and tried to comfort Little Doll: “At least your body can recharge itself. It’s slow, sure, but you have more than one body. If nothing else, treat this one as a hidden trump card. Leave it at home for slow charging. When a fight comes, I’ll open The Door and carry you out to blast away.”

Little Doll lifted her head in his arms and said through clenched teeth: “Yu Sheng… you are really great at comforting people!”

[That does not sound like praise,] Yu Sheng thought.

After a while, Rapunzel and the others, who had been watching the show, finally understood the situation and came over. Some tried to comfort Irene, some asked curious questions about how Little Doll’s bodies kept “multiplying,” some sighed about how colorful life at the Hotel was, and some praised the set of military boxing Irene had done earlier. That last one was the carefree Rapunzel, who got three Irenes climbing on her and headbutting her until she yelped and hopped around.

Yu Sheng looked around and noticed one familiar face was missing, so he asked: “Where’s Little Red Riding Hood? Out on a mission again?”

Snow White, watching the three Irenes and Rapunzel roughhouse, answered offhand: “She’s in class. She’ll be back tonight.”

Yu Sheng said with surprise: “Isn’t it Saturday?”

Snow White replied: “She’s a senior.”

Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead and said: “Right. I forgot.”

Snow White leaned closer and whispered: “Her birthday is next week. Did you know?”

Yu Sheng nodded and said: “I know. She told me long ago.”

Snow White murmured: “Did you pick a gift? I plan to give her a few books.”

Yu Sheng hesitated, thought a while, then said: “I was thinking of giving her some books too.”

Snow White smiled and said: “Good. She likes reading.” Then she walked away.

Yu Sheng watched Irene and Rapunzel playing not far off and fell into thought. Gifts… He realized he had almost no memory of picking gifts for anyone. He also had few memories of celebrating birthdays. His past days were plain like clear water. Before he came to this Borderland, his life was quiet, calm, and still. He kept to himself. Even his “writing” was just for a living. Compared to that, all those flat days together were not as lively as the three days he had spent here, though sometimes the liveliness went too far.

Yu Sheng smiled and shook his head, glanced again at the scuffle, and called out with a helpless wave: “Take the roughhousing somewhere else. Get away from this platform. I’m going to build.”

The moment he said it, Irene and Rapunzel stopped. Several gazes snapped to Yu Sheng.

Rapunzel hurried over and asked: “What are you going to build?”

Yu Sheng spread his hands and said: “A ring wall around this platform and a roof. This is the core of our Hotel base. It can’t stay a bare slab forever. I plan to add several more floors and make it impressive.”

Irene perked up and asked: “How many floors? What for?”

Yu Sheng said honestly: “I haven’t planned everything yet. I’ll build first and refine later. The second floor will need a real alchemy lab. Not a temporary one, but a proper setup with an Alchemy Bench, a prep room, and storage.”

Irene widened her eyes and asked: “To make me new bodies?”

Yu Sheng twitched at the corner of his mouth and said with a mock glare: “Can’t I research anything else?”

Irene shot back: “What else can you do?”

Yu Sheng sighed and said: “Fine. To make you new bodies.”

Irene clapped and said: “Great!”

After a mess of interruptions, Yu Sheng finally got ready to put a roof over the long prepared “hub platform.”

Knowing his building habits all too well, Rapunzel and the others backed off a hundred meters at once. Even Foxy and the Irenes ran back, with the three mobile bodies carrying Pro Irene together.

Yu Sheng looked back at the group already a hundred meters away and muttered: “Is that really necessary?” He let it go, then settled his mind and focused on the work ahead.

He stood on open ground outside the platform. As his thoughts sank, a “blueprint” rose in his mind. First he needed the best spot to “stage” the job. The soil at his feet wriggled, gathered, and hardened, then slowly rose. A gray white square pillar lifted from the ground. Yu Sheng stood on top and rose with it until he overlooked the entire Portal Platform.

Not far away, Irene watched and whispered: “It actually looks pretty legit.”

Foxy nodded hard and said: “I have always said our benefactor could be an Engineering Immortal.”

Yu Sheng heard the whispers from far away. In fact, he could hear everything across the platform and a wide ring of land around it. He heard wind brushing grit, the hush of grass tips pushing up and opening tender leaves, and the faint scrape of rock forming inside the platform and growing upward.

In his “sight,” the land became something living, a thing that could be shaped and could grow fast.

High walls rose from the platform edge with a deep rumble and scrape. Old style stone columns lifted with the wall, circling outside to hold up a cloister around the hub. Inside the wall, more supports grew like a behemoth’s ribs, ready to bear a future dome.

Yu Sheng watched the “bones” and “flesh” sprout and knit. Gray white rock formed the first level of the hub in a rush, then he began the slightly smaller second level.

In his blueprint, the building was a huge pyramid. The tower had seven levels, each smaller than the one below, each different.

The first level was the base for the Portal Platform, used to link the places the Hotel could reach. The universe is vast, so even a giant hall would not be enough. These Doors would link only the most important nodes. This level would be called the Hub Hall.

The second level was for research. At its core was the alchemy lab for making more Irene bodies, surrounded by many empty rooms for later use.

The third level was the main storage. Yu Sheng felt he needed a full warehouse to keep all the odd things he collected and the weapons and tools he liked. No matter how big the basement at Wutong Road 66 was, it could not compare to a wonder inside the Valley. Since this world had countless rare objects, space there would run out sooner or later. The entire third level would be his personal Treasure Pavilion.

Levels four to seven had no fixed use. They were mostly for looks, to complete the pyramid shape.