16: Purchase a puppet

“I'm like a fish in your lotus pond, just for…”

Just then, the old-fashioned phone in Luo Chen's pocket rang.

“Alright! Get on the Train! Time's up,” Luo Chen shouted, tidying up his things.

“Phew! I'm exhausted,” Luo Wan Ning said, shaking her arms with a pained expression, and walked into the Train carrying a stack of buckets.

Chen Yujun likewise shook her hands, then carried her buckets inside.

Dongfang Yuyao stood rooted to the spot for a moment, unsure where to go. She could only look at Luo Chen's Train door with trepidation.

“Hey little girl, aren't you getting on? Don't you want to merge?” Luo Chen was about to close the Train when he saw someone still standing outside and called out.

“Oh, oh! Alright!” Dongfang Yuyao smiled happily at his words and quickly ran onto Luo Chen's Train.

“Phew! My whole body aches! Luckily, there's a massage chair to use.” Luo Wan Ning bent down, plugged in the massage chair, then lay back comfortably to enjoy the massage service.

“Huh? Why aren't you two coming? Join me! There are still several here! Feel free to use them.”

Luo Wan Ning shifted her body, changed her posture, and casually said, looking at Chen Yujun and her daughter standing in the distance.

“Sister Yujun! You're just too polite. We're a team now, so relax a little.”

Chen Yujun smiled slightly at her words, completely relieved.

Being new, she was afraid of annoying Luo Chen and the other, leading to being kicked out.

At that point, she and her orphaned daughter would either have to fend for themselves or find others to rely on again. Without supplies, she couldn't imagine how the two of them could survive.

She found a massage chair and lay down, enjoying the comfortable massage. At this moment, she truly felt herself integrated into this new family from the bottom of her heart.

She made up her mind that she must stay here... Luo Chen brought Dongfang Yuyao to the cockpit.

Luo Chen sat down in the driver's seat and glanced at the purification water tank's water level gauge.

It was only 5.47 cubic meters, barely more than half. Pumping water like this was too slow; he needed to find a way to get a water pump.

He made up his mind.

But there was no rush for now; he would deal with the current matters first.

“Give me the merging core, please,” Luo Chen said slowly.

Dongfang Yuyao quickly took off her little bear backpack and pulled out two white cores.

Luo Chen took the cores, placed one on the control panel, and the other into the bronze treasure chest beside the seat.

A Train merging core (white) detected. Activate?

Activate!

“Beep! Train Conductor Dongfang Yuyao, number ECB01728, is detected on your Train. Do you wish to merge? After merging, the other party will be added as a Vice Train Captain. Merging length: 4 (+1)/10; Merging Train number 2.”

After clicking merge! Luo Chen set Dongfang Yuyao's Train position to his left, with two white ones sandwiching a yellow one, perfectly symmetrical.

After Dongfang Yuyao entered her biological information.

Luo Chen took her out of the cockpit and waited for the Train to merge.

With a tremor, an extra carriage appeared on the left side of the Train.

Opening the carriage door, Luo Chen walked in.

Dongfang Yuyao saw Luo Chen open the door and was about to stop him, but Luo Chen had already walked in.

She could only follow, her face flushed.

There was almost nothing inside the carriage. Besides a pile of fruit on the floor in front, there was only a damaged white stocking by the other door, and next to it, several fallen yellow drinks.

Dongfang Yuyao noticed Luo Chen's gaze, quickly ran over, picked up the drinks, and hid them behind her back.

Seeing her flushed face, Luo Chen seemed to understand something. He immediately turned and left the carriage, saying, “Remember to dispose of them. There's a toilet in carriage 0-2.”

“Okay... Okay!” Dongfang Yuyao nodded repeatedly.

After Luo Chen came out, he looked at Luo Wan Ning and Chen Yujun, who were getting massages not far away, and asked, “Sister Yujun, can you cook?”

“No!” Chen Yujun was startled by his words and quickly stood up, shaking her head.

Luo Chen recalled that most people used to eat in city cafeterias, and very few cooked for themselves.

He himself had learned to cook because he worked part-time in a cafeteria while studying and was taught by the chefs there.

There was nothing he could do. Luo Chen, tired after half a day, was too lazy to cook, so he arranged for Luo Wan Ning: “Wan Ning, go boil some hot water. We'll eat instant noodles for lunch. Also, tell Sister Yujun where our supplies are stored, so she doesn't have trouble finding them if we need her help later.”

Returning to the cockpit, Luo Chen took out the two cores he had obtained today.

One green and one orange.

“Low-level Flying Motorcycle (Green): Obtain a Train-specific flying motorcycle. 1 hour / 2 train coins.”

Flying motorcycle?

Does that mean it can float in the air?

This is good!

Luo Chen's face lit up with joy. Last time in Qingxiyuan and Yan Zha Desert, the uneven ground made the electric tricycle and trash can unusable, wasting a lot of time.

From the current perspective, the world fragments seem to be continuously expanding. With this, the scope of future exploration can also greatly increase.

And most importantly, it doesn't run on oil, only on coins. This means he doesn't have to worry about the motorcycle's energy problem at all.

The motorcycle can run for an hour for 2 coins, while the rocking car can only rock for three minutes, so it's still very cost-effective.

Luo Chen comforted himself.

The motorcycle allowed for color configuration, and Luo Chen hesitated between white and black for a long time.

Ultimately, Luo Chen still chose yellow, which matched the Train better.

A sleek, brightly colored yellow motorcycle appeared in the carriage.

Overall, it looked very futuristic, its shape resembling a galloping leopard, so Luo Chen directly named it Jaguar.

The flying motorcycle also came with biometric recognition and automatic return functions. After entering his biological information, it meant that only he could unlock and start this motorcycle, and it could automatically return.

“Train Bedroom Core (Orange): Can partition a 4*5m bedroom in a designated location.”

Another bedroom?

Luo Chen placed it next to the previous bedroom.

After finishing, Luo Chen looked up and saw Dongfang Yuyao standing quietly beside him, and casually said, “Hmm? You're here?”

Dongfang Yuyao said somewhat nervously, “Brother Chen, can you buy my sister back now?”

“Tell me, what's her name?” Luo Chen nodded and turned to open the puppet store.

“Dongfang Shishi,” Dongfang Yuyao quickly said.

Luo Chen entered Dongfang Shishi's name, and soon a youthful and pretty girl with fair skin, about sixteen or seventeen years old, appeared on the screen.

“Is it her?” Luo Chen asked, pointing at the avatar on the screen.

He glanced at the price; it was indeed 200 star coins.

“Yes!” Dongfang Yuyao nodded repeatedly, looking at the avatar on the screen. After speaking, she pulled out a bag of coins from her portable bear backpack.

She continued, “Brother Chen, I still have 106 star coins and 8 train coins here, all for you.”

Luo Chen did not refuse, pointing to the control panel next to him: “Put them there!”

After clicking buy, the screen prompted him to insert star coins.

He then bent down and counted out 200 star coins from the bronze treasure chest beside his seat.

This was where he specifically kept valuables, always placed next to the driver's seat for easy access.

After inserting all of them, another message popped up on the screen:

“Purchase successful! Puppet management unlocked. (Puppet management is located in the Train module)”

Opening the Train module, a new sub-category had indeed been added.

“Puppet Management”

Clicking in. Dongfang Shishi's avatar appeared before his eyes.

“Puppet Quantity: 1”

Luo Chen clicked to view the puppet's information, and soon a data panel appeared before him.

“Dongfang Shishi, Gender: Female, Age: 16, Height: 155, Combat Level: Lv1, Thought Memory Retention: [On/Off]”

Thought memory retention?

He hadn't expected to be able to choose whether to retain memories, but he wondered if the puppet would still be obedient if thought memories were retained.

He then looked at Dongfang Yuyao and asked, “Your sister should understand how to assess the situation, right?”

He didn't want to spend money on a puppet that wouldn't listen to him.

However, if thought memory was enabled, the puppet should be smarter.

Compared to a dull robot without thought memories, he still preferred to retain thought memories.

Without needing instructions, the puppet would find things to do on its own.

“Mhm, mhm! She's very smart. She was one of the top few students at our Guo Yu Institute.”

“You're from the Guo Yu Institute too?” Luo Chen asked, surprised.

Sister Yujun also seemed to be from the Guo Yu Institute. He hadn't expected that he hadn't met anyone with parents yet, except for Chen Tianxiang.

This saved a lot of trouble, as there wouldn't be a situation where they would have to search for parents or relatives later.

“Is Brother Chen also from there?” Dongfang Yuyao asked, her face lighting up with joy at his words.

Unlike Luo Chen, who had already left the Guo Yu Institute and started his own life, having experienced the cruel baptism of society, she no longer had that unique sense of home for the Guo Yu Institute.

Having lived in the Guo Yu Institute her whole life, she regarded it as home, and accordingly held a familial view towards other people from the Guo Yu Institute.