Chapter 62: Face Sculpting and Biological Augmentation

Chapter 62: Face Sculpting and Biological Augmentation

"Good morning, Lord Dandell!"

On her way to the Magic Forest, Eileen unexpectedly ran into the God of Magic, Dean Dandell of Felix.

In the past, she would have immediately stepped aside and bowed to let him pass. But now, she could greet him confidently—after all, she was Ajef's disciple, and that gave her the right.

"Oh, Eileen! Good morning!" Dandell smiled warmly.

Just as Eileen assumed this was a chance encounter and they would soon part ways, Dandell unexpectedly stopped and kindly asked if the Magic Forest was facing any difficulties—did they need resources? And so on.

Caught off guard by his sudden concern, Eileen hesitated. She had intended to decline outright, but after a moment’s thought, she mentioned some resources needed for recent magic experiments.

"No problem, I’ll have them sent over immediately! You really should have told me sooner. If I hadn’t run into you, I wouldn’t have known! Don’t be so distant with me."

"It wasn’t anything urgent, so I didn’t mention it," Eileen quickly explained.

"The Magic Forest is vital to the Empire’s food supply and the cultivation of Wood Spirit Magic plants. All resources must be provided at the highest standard—there’s no such thing as 'not urgent,'" Dandell said sternly, his expression serious.

"Yes! I’ll remember that, Lord Dandell."

"Alright, go ahead with your work. I won’t keep you."

"Yes!"

Eileen bowed slightly as she watched Dandell leave.

Only after a long pause did it occur to her—had Ajef done something earth-shattering again? Otherwise, why would Dandel suddenly be so generous?

The last time she had been treated so warmly was right after Ajef’s battle outside Willis City!

Hmm… she’d have to find a chance to ask around.

With that thought in mind, Eileen had just stepped through the gates of the Magic Forest when she was startled by a sudden chorus of cheers and screams from the main hall.

"Wow, Dorothea, the puppet you sculpted is so beautiful!"

Of course, it was about Conquest of Subdomains again?!

Eileen’s face darkened.

Just thinking about Conquest of Subdomains made her furious.

It was a feature recently updated on the internet, and the moment it launched, it took the Empire by storm.

She still remembered the scene when she arrived at the Magic Forest the next day—almost everyone was gathered together, passionately discussing the game.

Even the usually arrogant magic apprentices, who normally ignored ordinary assistants, were chatting with them that day—some even slinging arms over shoulders!

When she later asked, she learned that Pus, whom she had personally recruited, had used traps to kill several beastmen in a row, earning enough merit points to exchange for a stronger elemental puppet.

With such an impressive feat, how could the magic apprentices not be amazed?

Some even swallowed their pride and begged to be carried!

Rumor had it that members of the Magic Forest had already formed private teams to hunt beastmen together.

Logically, she should be happy that the magic apprentices and ordinary assistants were suddenly getting along so well.

So why was she so annoyed instead?

It turned out that many members were secretly chatting about the game during their magic experiments.

Some even sneaked in to log in, just to check if their earth puppets were well-hidden—had the beastmen discovered them yet?

This scene infuriated Eileen, who for the first time showed her stern side, sharply reprimanding them and finally putting a stop to this unproductive trend.

To be honest, Eileen couldn’t quite understand why Conquest of Subdomains had become so wildly popular.

She acknowledged that the shared system allowed some achievements from the dimensional world to carry over into reality.

But after all, they lived on the Azarea Continent, in the Keville Empire—was it really good to be so obsessed with another subdomain?

Perhaps it was just the novelty of the new feature.

Eileen could only explain it that way.

She remembered when the Forum first appeared—many classmates stayed up all night arguing over trivial matters, even to the point of flipping tables and smashing things.

There were even rumors of real-life fights being arranged.

Now, attitudes toward the Forum had mellowed, and it was rare to see anyone staying up all night scrolling through it.

---

"Pus, your puppet is so ugly! Why did you cover it in spikes?"

"Wow, Kunna, how did you do that? It’s so beautiful!"

"Quick, look! A big shot on the Forum shared a transformation effect—it’s absolutely amazing!"

Inside the grand hall of the Magic Forest, a group of research assistants were shouting and exclaiming.

At this moment, it wasn’t just them—countless players across the Keville Empire were staying up all night experimenting, even debating excitedly.

The reason?

In the early hours of the morning, Conquest of Subdomains had updated with a new feature: transformation.

It unlocked permissions for modifying non-core magic runes, allowing players to adjust their puppets' physical traits by consuming mana.

Instantly, the player base erupted in excitement!

Female players, in particular, were overjoyed.

After all, when Conquest of Subdomains first launched, countless female players had complained about how ugly, dull, and blocky the earth puppets were.

Now, with the transformation feature, many female players went wild with face sculpting.

All kinds of peerless beauties and devilish figures emerged.

Male players, on the other hand, tended to anthropomorphize their puppets to better execute combat techniques and wield weapons.

But slowly, things took a bizarre turn.

Some players shaped their puppets into spheres, ramming into beastmen recklessly—then melting into the ground the moment their cores were about to be hit.

Others molded their puppets into beastmen, dressed them in beastmen clothing, and boldly sneaked up behind real beastmen to stab them in the back.

Then there were the eccentric players, introducing all sorts of beast and insect forms onto the scene.

If you could imagine it, they could make it.

Admittedly, some transformations were purely for show—more gimmick than practicality.

But others allowed low-tier earth puppets to unleash astonishing destructive power!

For a time, the entire Conquest of Subdomains became a catwalk show, with everyone flaunting their creativity and dominating the Forum.

What no one knew was that this feature update was thanks to a suggestion from Luo Xiya, the butler of the internet's Divine Palace—and even then, this was only part of her proposal.

Luo Xiya’s exact words had been:

"Master, would it be possible to unlock permissions for modifying the core magic runes of earth puppets? I once tried altering their appearance and adding runes, but the contract restrictions made it impossible. I believe that if you opened up these permissions, it would unleash the potential of many mage players."

It was this statement that sent a shiver down Yu Sheng'an's spine.

Wasn't this just "face sculpting" and "biological augmentation"?

The idea of "face sculpting" had briefly crossed Yu Sheng'an's mind when he created Conquest of Subdomains. However, due to fixed thinking, he never considered extending it to full-body customization. At the time, he was solely focused on building the framework for the Fourth Calamity, so he didn’t dwell on it further.

As for "biological augmentation," wasn’t adding magic runes just one of its variations?

Previously, his idea for player upgrades was to kill monsters, accumulate merit points, and exchange them for weapons or higher-tier elemental puppets. He had even considered using flesh and blood magic to clone a batch of flesh and blood clones specifically for top-tier players to redeem.

But he had forgotten—he could also take the biological augmentation route!

Humans were flesh and blood, making them difficult to modify and upgrade. But elemental puppets were a different story!

Players could use magic to inscribe magic runes, adding new abilities and upgrading each other’s puppets. Alternatively, they could redeem fixed official templates.

For example:

Modifying a single arm to internally install an air cannon, Wind Impact, heat ray, and so on.

Players could easily modify just one arm—not only would it be low-cost, but it would also provide a significant boost in combat power. And if it got destroyed, they wouldn’t feel too bad about it.

In a way, Luo Xiya’s words had awakened Yu Sheng'an’s subconscious memories of Blue Star culture.

However, between these two features, the former was easier to implement—just unlocking partial magic rune modification permissions would suffice. The latter, however, involved fundamental changes to the puppets themselves. Since Yu Sheng'an wasn’t well-versed in advanced magic, he could only fumble blindly for now.

Just as he was pondering how to convince the slightly irritated Aphnora to experiment with his biological augmentation ideas, Dandell suddenly sent him a message.