Dimensional Hotel
Chapter 323: New Member

Chapter 323: Chapter 323: New Member

In the living room at No. 66 Wutong Road, the Artificial Saintess sat somewhat awkwardly on the sofa opposite Yu Sheng.

The main reason for her unease was her height, which reached 3 Erin’s; sitting on the sofa made her look like she was squatting there...

"I told you, being too tall isn’t good," Erin muttered beside Yu Sheng as if brainwashing herself, "See how uncomfortable she is sitting there."

Yu Sheng glanced sideways at the short one, feeling a bit embarrassed to mock her watching her little legs dangle from the sofa, unable to even reach the cushion.

Meanwhile, the communication with the "Artificial Saintess" was still difficult.

The good news was that after a period of communication, her response speed seemed to have improved, and the sudden "freezing" during chats had reduced considerably. She seemed to be quickly adapting to her "resurrection" state. The bad news was — her language function had apparently serious issues.

Yes, the language function; the Artificial Saintess could actually talk. According to Yu Sheng’s observation, she had a vocalization module, but this module might be severely damaged, or it could be a lingering effect of her mind’s trauma — during conversations, she would occasionally make some sounds, but they were vague and short, making it hard to understand.

However, for Yu Sheng, being able to communicate with her was already quite good.

"Do you remember your own matters?" he cautiously asked, "I mean, the things from when you were ’human.’"

The Artificial Saintess nodded slowly, simultaneously emitting several short but meaningless syllables.

"And you remember the things that happened to you afterwards, right?" Yu Sheng asked again.

He once again received a slow and affirmative response.

Erin jumped from the sofa onto the coffee table, sitting cross-legged before the Artificial Saintess: "Hey, Type-C clasp, what do you want to do next?"

The Artificial Saintess froze for a moment; this was a question that could not simply be answered with a nod or shake of the head, so she struggled to think and then gestured — after quite a while, finally some brief, vague noises came from her shell.

"Ah, can’t hear clearly," Erin scratched her hair, "I forgot you can’t talk... should I try asking differently?"

But this time, the Artificial Saintess, who had been responding gently, suddenly waved her hand strongly and continued to try making several short syllables, still too vague to understand.

Erin was dazed for a while before she couldn’t help but speak: "Hey, don’t force it, if you really can’t say..."

Her words were interrupted as Yu Sheng gently patted her shoulder.

"You want to speak for yourself, right," Yu Sheng casually scooped Erin back and looked seriously at the Iron Puppet opposite, "Don’t rush, speak slowly, your pronunciation is clearer than before."

The Artificial Saintess nodded slowly. After a while, she tried making several syllables, and then after a while, she tried again.

Yu Sheng and the others barely understood — or rather, inferred what she was trying to say.

"Want to go home," that steel body emitted a sound like rusted gears grinding, nearly noise-like, and then she gestured again, seeming to feel her statement wasn’t clear enough, and repeated, "Go home."

"...Okay, go home," Yu Sheng nodded gently after a few seconds of silence upon hearing the response, "I will find a way to locate your homeland."

The Artificial Saintess nodded but seemed not finished. She struggled several more times, and after emitting many meaningless noises, finally some clear syllables emerged from her: "Save them, save..."

Then again, more noise.

Seeing her struggle, Erin quickly jumped back onto the coffee table: "Okay, I get it, just help save your folks from that cult, right? Uh, honestly, it seems like a huge undertaking."

The petite puppet turned halfway, glancing hesitantly at Yu Sheng.

"Didn’t you promise her before?" she hesitantly said, "But, honestly speaking, the three of us assaulting a planet might be quite strenuous—we’d probably encounter disasters over and over and over..."

The little puppet’s words were already quite subtle; Yu Sheng even felt she shortened a few thousand "disasters," but despite that, there sat a fearless Lord eager for anything—Hu Li swayed her tail and came over: "No worries, I can lead the charge!"

Erin stared wide-eyed: "Lead the charge my foot! Just with your pile of Fox Radish Missiles you amassed? You think pulling out your tail endlessly is enough to conquer a planet?!"

"No problem, I can rally people," Yu Sheng waved, "Boundary Land will intervene—the cult built their tower right under the Council’s nose, surely they’d want to make a move? Besides, it’s too early to discuss this, we haven’t even found the coordinates yet."

He then turned his attention back to the Artificial Saintess, "Don’t worry, we will help you."

The Artificial Saintess nodded slowly again, and after considerable effort, another word emerged from a bunch of noise—

"Revenge."

Silence fell over the room until several seconds later, Yu Sheng, with an extremely solemn expression, spoke to the Iron Puppet opposite him: "Alright, revenge."

"All right, that’s three things then," Erin stood up and clapped her hands, "Go home, save the villagers, seek revenge, pretty easy to understand goals, anything else?"

The Artificial Saintess shook her head.

"But let’s be clear, these are goals that can’t be completed quickly," Erin continued, "You don’t have anywhere to go for now, so you can stay in our organization and work – Yu Sheng, that’s what you meant, right?"

The little puppet suddenly seemed to remember her role as second-in-command halfway through speaking, quickly turned back to confirm.

Yu Sheng didn’t seem to mind much, just nodded with a smile and said to the Artificial Saintess, "If you’re willing, you can join the ’travel agency’. We do lack manpower, but it’s not mandatory; you can also stay here without joining, there’s plenty of space. What’s your preference?"

This time, the response was quicker than ever.

She nodded earnestly, since she found it difficult to speak in complete sentences, she simply uttered, "Okay."

"Then, welcome to join us," Yu Sheng laughed, extending his hand to her, "From today, you’re our fourth member."

The Artificial Saintess hesitated, then mimicked Yu Sheng’s gesture, extending her hand. Flesh met metal palm, exchanging warmth.

"Great," Erin was suddenly delighted, as if she completely forgot about the previous grievances with "C-type buckle," she cheerfully ran over to Hu Li and touched his tail, "Fox, fox, you’re a senior now! Now the travel agency has four leaders..."

"Weren’t you said you were going to fight ’C-type buckle’?" Yu Sheng teased her seeing the situation, "Why aren’t you holding any grudge now?"

"Ah, right," Erin didn’t realize until reminded, froze like a lotus root on the coffee table, then started to sort out the process conflict in her brain, but after a long time couldn’t figure it out, simply stared at Yu Sheng, "It’s not the right atmosphere! When the atmosphere is right, you’ll see us fight... Don’t laugh!"

Saying this, she turned around and ran to the Artificial Saintess, proudly, "Listen, you’re a puppet now, and I am too, but you’re C-type buckle, still a junior, so in the puppet action squad, I’m the captain, you’re the deputy, and the deputy must listen to the captain! Understand?"

The Artificial Saintess just tilted her head, seemingly feeling that the noisy little one in front of her was speaking nonsense, simply ignored her.

"Hey, Yu Sheng, look at her attitude!" Erin was immediately dissatisfied, turning to complain, "I generously accepted her as a C-type buckle, and she’s ignoring people..."

"All right, all right, just two puppets with one captain and one deputy, if you’re not embarrassed, I am," Yu Sheng helplessly picked up the little puppet, "Besides, don’t keep calling her C-type buckle, she should have a name..."

Saying this, he suddenly stopped, curiously looking at the iron puppet opposite, "By the way, what’s your name?"

Then the Artificial Saintess crashed – no movement for a while.

After a long moment, she suddenly moved, emitting a string of indistinguishable noise from within.

Erin spread her hands: "It’s over, the biggest communication challenge has appeared!"

Hu Li quickly darted to grab pen and paper, placed them on the coffee table, and pushed them in front of the Artificial Saintess, "Write it down, do you know how to write?"

Erin paused at this sight, "Ah, right, we can do that too, how come I didn’t think of it earlier..."

She hadn’t finished her sentence before swallowing the rest.

Because she saw the iron puppet opposite pick up the pen and write a string of unrecognizable symbols on the paper.

The Artificial Saintess looked up, somewhat anxious, at Yu Sheng, apparently realizing that no one recognized her writing.

This was the text taught by the "cultivators" in the church back in her homeland.

After a brief moment of awkward silence, she raised her hand again, pointed at herself, and attempted to voice the name she had long before the single, cold title of "Saintess", back when she was human.

What was it that Mom and Dad used to call her?

"Lu￥#@%..."

She tried again and the sound finally became clearer—

"Lu-na..."

"Your name is Luna?" Yu Sheng looked at her, confirming.

"Mm." The Artificial Saintess nodded slowly, emitting a short syllable.

"Okay, Luna," Yu Sheng smiled warmly, "Nice to meet you, Luna."