Calamity Messenger

Chapter 361 - 295: Steam Automaton Combo

When Yan Qing saw the trait [Death and Resurrection] that killed a puppet only to revive it, seemingly with no obvious benefit, he realized there must be a mechanism that triggers ’only upon death.’ Moreover, the faster and more often things die, the greater the advantage; otherwise, it wouldn’t be on par with the other two traits.

After the battle ended, the dead mosquitoes didn’t resurrect, yet two parasites still followed Ye Si, while the puppet Gerry continued to be equipped with "Parasitic Mosquito." This demonstrated that if a puppet dies in battle, it truly dies, leaving the player to either switch to another puppet or fight alone if all puppets are exhausted.

To fully capitalize on the value of this trait, Yan Qing’s next step was to head to the city center, search for a powerful Wraith Puppet, and strengthen it until ascension to see how formidable it could become!

Along the way, passing by dozens of low-level demons, a tall tower suddenly appeared by the roadside. Its top looked abruptly like a clock tower, but upon closer inspection, it was a colorful roulette, resembling a vertical rainbow lollipop from afar.

This was the ’Chaos Roulette Wheel’ Xi Zifeng had once mentioned. Spinning it leads to unpredictable events, but Ye Si was just a secondary account, so even if it were passing sewage, Yan Qing would let him have a taste, let alone a mere roulette?

Climbing up the tall tower, Yan Qing saw a more detailed system description:

"Wheel of Blessing"

"60% for rewards, 30% for punishments, 9% for severe punishment, 1% for a super grand reward"

"Each character can only spin once per day"

Ye Si pressed the slab in the center of the roulette, which suddenly turned into a question mark, and the roulette started spinning with a rumbling sound, flames encircling its edges. When the spinning slowed, Yan Qing could clearly see the list of rewards above:

"Randomly obtain a Third-Turn Puppet"

"Random puppet receives 100 attack points"

"Random puppet’s health drops to 0 in the next battle"

"Discover a Corpse Ghost series puppet..."

Just as Yan Qing thought the pointer would stop at the grandest reward panel "Random puppet attributes doubled," unexpectedly the pointer flicked and landed on a tiny reward panel:

"Teleported to Elder Fu Nan’s Fourth-Turn Puppet Warehouse at the Blood Demon Sect"

In a flash, Ye Si vanished from the tower and appeared in a spacious warehouse, surrounded by dozens of podiums, each with crystal-like cards floating above, enveloped in a glass barrier prohibiting touch, except for the central pedestal before Ye Si, where its card glowed with dark golden light, unobstructed.

Ye Si reached out and took it, discovering it wasn’t a puppet card but a transformation card:

"Silent Growth: Activate this transformation, your puppet slots will expand to a maximum of seven slots; you can choose seven Fourth-Turn Puppet cards from the Fourth-Turn Warehouse, and will remain in the Fourth-Turn Warehouse until the seventh day before being able to leave."

Choice of seven Fourth-Turn Puppet cards!?

And stay in this safe warehouse for so many days?

No, where’s the punishment? The cost? How come it’s all benefits? Can’t Ye Si just eat some crap, or else my conscience won’t settle!

Yan Qing decisively activated this transformation, and Ye Si’s puppet slots instantly expanded to seven, the surrounding podium screens also disappeared. Yan Qing casually glanced at the Fourth-Turn Puppet cards, and suddenly gasped for Shang Xinlei.

"Fourth-Turned Demon: Taotie"

"Attack Power: 2000"

"Health: 2000"

"Trait: Feeding: At the end of each day, demons in the puppet slots will devour a puppet card from your hand, gaining its attribute values."

/

"Fourth-Turned Corpse Demon - General Jiang Chen"

"Attack Power: 1000"

"Health: 1000"

"Trait: Death Speech and Resurrection: Upon General Jiang Chen’s death, summon an Undying Bone and resurrect it once (The resurrected General Jiang Chen can activate Death Speech anew)."

"Third-Turned Corpse Demon - Undying Bone"

"Attack Power: 1000"

"Health: 100"

"Trait: Undying: Each time the Undying Bone dies, its attack power increases by 500 points, effective for all Undying Bones, regardless of location."

"Taotie" is self-explanatory, with its high base attributes and 2000 attack power, capable of almost destroying the Mountain Heart-Protecting Mirror in a single punch, and its potential is extremely terrifying. Every day it can have all demons absorb a puppet card to gain attributes, simply leading to both initial and subsequent strength, allowing the entire lineup to grow stronger steadily every day!

"General Jiang Chen" isn’t bad either, especially in conjunction with the [Death and Resurrection] trait, summoning four Undying Bones in one day. If all the Undying Bones die, that’s a 2000 attack power increase! Then the next day, the newly summoned Undying Bones would start at 3000 attack power!

Theoretically, "General Jiang Chen" is the best choice for the [Death and Resurrection] trait, but circumstances change, and with Ye Si unable to leave the Fourth-Turn Warehouse, no battles can be triggered within these seven days; thus, there’s no way to let Undying Bones die to gain attribute increments.

The puppet most suited to Ye Si now should be one that can automatically grow in attributes even when idle!

Yan Qing searched around and indeed found suitable puppet cards:

"Fourth Turn Mechanism: Steam Master"

"Attack Power: 1500"

"Health: 1000"

"Attribute: Infinite Armament: At the end of each day, Steam Master equips the other mechanisms with 300/300 weapon mechanisms."

/

"Fourth Transformation: Inverted Immortal"

"Attack Power: 500"

"Health: 800"

"Trait: Time Reversal: Experience [End of Day] twice each day."

/

"Fourth Transformation Mechanism: Steam Supreme Ancestor Master"

"Attack Power: 1000"

"Health: 1000"

"Trait: Enlightenment Mechanism: When a Mechanical Puppet is equipped by another mechanism, gain an extra 300/300 attribute increment."

Yan Qing searched all over the warehouse, only finding these three mechanism cards: "Inverted Immortal," "Steam Supreme Ancestor Master," and "Steam Master." Although there weren’t other Fourth-Turn mechanisms, Yan Qing found another transformation card "Accumulating Sand to Tower."

"Accumulating Sand to Tower: Discover a Second-Turn Puppet card of your most common puppet type."

Using four "Accumulating Sand to Tower," Yan Qing obtained four different Second-Turn Mechanical Puppet cards. Though their traits aren’t worth mentioning, they are all mechanical puppets capable of triggering the combo of "Steam Supreme Ancestor Master," "Steam Master," and "Inverted Immortal."

"Steam Master" outfits all mechanisms once, and each outfit earns the "Steam Supreme Ancestor Master’s" bonus. Then, "Inverted Immortal" causes the whole process to happen once more... In other words, each mechanical puppet can gain 1200 attribute increments daily!

Seven days later, all mechanical puppet attributes would be close to ten thousand!

In terms of pure data value, they’re almost comparable to Sixth-Turn Demon Fiends!

Yan Qing’s calculations stirred his blood, even regretting why he didn’t spin this roulette himself – it’s safe and enables growth, allowing for splendid strength upon emergence after seven days, what a pity.

But this is fine; when Yan Qing enters Demon Gathering Land, Ye Si can only remain here to quietly develop. Yan Qing estimates he’s unlikely to match Ye Si’s growth within five days; once Yan Qing returns from Demon Gathering Land, he can continue to enjoy Ye Si’s progress.

Yan Qing put down the console, stretched lazily. Though he could now enter Demon Gathering Land, he still had another vital task to undertake.

That is, absorbing the Celestial Spirits and Earthly Fiends!