Chapter 188: Kidnapping Again

Chapter 188: Kidnapping Again

Due to the Witch’s Power, Zheng Yichen did not have the formidable strength like Deya. Even with the help of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, he could only exchange a couple of moves with her—not actually defeat her. So, he waited and watched for a very long time, only quietly approaching to observe after confirming she was truly gone.

The people in the town seemed completely normal. From the outside, there was nothing unusual at all. Every household was eating and drinking as usual. But the earlier fluctuation was real. Would she do something useless for no reason?

Zheng Yichen pulled out his Magical Grimoire and searched inside. He found a beginner-level magic related to detecting souls. He drew the Magic Rune Array, and a faint ripple spread out, reaching the town… There were no souls present!

Looking with his eyes, it was a normal town. Using Detection Magic to observe, what he “saw” was like an empty, dead town!

“Darn! How can they live without souls?” Zheng Yichen was baffled. As a Transmigrator originally from Earth in the 21st century, he used to be half-convinced and half-doubtful about the concept of souls. However, after directly facing his own soul in the Dreamscape and seeing a soul with his own eyes, he became a firm believer.

Although the existence of souls was confirmed, Zheng Yichen still had some doubts. For example, with souls existing, are memories stored in the brain or in the soul? Thinking about it carefully, it was another headache-inducing question. Zheng Yichen worried about it for a while, but later he decided… forget it!

If he couldn’t figure it out, so be it. Following the Otherworld’s belief, the soul was supreme! As for the brain, Zheng Yichen came up with a hypothetical analysis: the soul was like software, and the brain was like hardware. Software paired with hardware… got it! If the hardware had problems, it could affect the software. If the software had issues, it could affect the data stored in the hardware. That’s why both physical and soul injuries could cause memory loss.

He would just force an explanation like that for now.

So, how were these townsfolk moving around with only hardware and no software driving them? Some mysterious Eastern power? No, no. Why did these people seem familiar? Thinking of some mysterious creatures from Earth, tsk, weren’t they just Jiangshi… In their lore, they supposedly had no souls. Once destroyed, they would completely vanish. But also, because they lacked souls, they were said to be outside the Three Realms and Six Paths, not entering reincarnation… If there was nothing after death, how could there be reincarnation?

But these people had no souls, yet their bodies still showed enough physiological reactions. Logically, this situation was too abnormal. After pondering for a long time, Zheng Yichen curled his lip. Was he really about to play the part of an Evil Dragon?

He rubbed his fingers together, took out some ordinary materials from his pocket, and quickly processed them. Zheng Yichen was very familiar with the shaping process. In less than three minutes, the skeleton of an Alchemical Puppet was fully formed. This thing had no Mana Source. It was powered by a clump of Mana Zheng Yichen directly inserted into the Drive Core. As for an Intelligence Core? With his own Projection present, he didn’t need that. This thing’s combat ability was also very low.

Fortunately, it was made of pure iron. In a fight, it could still overpower several dozen ordinary people. A few Professionals with a bit of strength could probably dismantle it. After all… ordinary people fought with wooden sticks or pitchforks, while Professionals used things like swords and greatswords with higher destructive power. Zheng Yichen couldn’t imbue it with very strong fortification Magic either, otherwise it would corrode and become scrap from the Mana before it even started moving. Under these conditions, of course Professionals could dismantle it efficiently.

Anyway, Zheng Yichen didn’t intend to use it against Professionals. It was just for dealing with ordinary people. Blending into this town that looked normal but, excluding the soul factor, was practically no different from a dead town, Zheng Yichen controlled this Alchemical Puppet to search around. That’s right. Encountering such a bizarre situation naturally stirred Zheng Yichen’s strong research curiosity. Not capturing… oh no, not helping one townsman would make him feel even more guilty!

Walking on the street, Zheng Yichen rubbed the metal chin hidden under the cloak of his Alchemical Avatar, constantly looking around for a suitable target to help. A burly man? Forget it. With such a large build, knocking him out would be hard, and carrying him away would be difficult. A vegetable-selling aunt? No way… he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

A charming young wife? Hmm, she looked good, but he’d probably get beaten by Loris afterward. Also, adults had mature thoughts; taking one away would be troublesome. Although these people lacked souls, they could be considered half-dead, yet all their reactions were like living people. So, it was better to find someone with few attachments and who was easy to handle. Muttering to himself, Zheng Yichen walked around the entire town and soon found a perfect target.

“Hmm… you it is!” Looking at a dirty little girl squatting in an inconspicuous corner of the street, Zheng Yichen glanced left and right. Confirming no one nearby was paying attention, without hesitation, he suddenly lunged. Amidst the dirty little girl’s confusion and surprise, he grabbed her by the collar, threw her over his shoulder, turned, and ran!

Right after he did this, several big men rushed out from a dark alley nearby. Seeing the Alchemical Avatar running off with someone over its shoulder, they roared, “Stop!! Catch him!!!”

The earth-shaking roars naturally attracted a lot of attention. But for the people in the town, they were used to this sort of thing and were even happy to see these guys fail. After all… they had been running cons very smoothly here, with clean methods each time, specifically tricking outsiders, especially some new Adventurers with a strong sense of justice but clearly just starting out.

With collusion from above and inside knowledge below, those who got tricked could only accept their loss. This time, they encountered someone who didn’t follow the usual script—someone who just grabbed the person and ran, causing the ambushers to suffer a big loss. What was more frustrating was they found they actually couldn’t catch up with that cloak-wearing guy who was running incredibly fast!

“Three gold coins reward for anyone who can stop him!”

Some Mercenaries walking on the street immediately became restless. Zheng Yichen sneered at this. Was that all they had? Weaklings!? He controlled the Alchemical Avatar to wave its hand, scattering a large handful of silver coins. The shiny silver coins flew everywhere, instantly grabbing massive attention.

Compared to the reward you only got after achieving the goal, money you could pick up just by bending over was much more attractive! So, amidst the chaos behind, and with the Alchemical Avatar being in a perpetual motion state as long as it had Mana driving it, he quickly dashed out of the town. Zheng Yichen, who had been waiting, wasted no time grabbing this Alchemical Avatar. At the same moment, he activated the Propulsion Devices hanging on his body, casually cast a Protection Magic on the little girl with dirty clothes, and swiftly disappeared from the town’s vicinity…

The process was smooth and seamless. Zheng Yichen even felt he had a Talent for professional kidnapping.