The male supporting character was actually myself.

Just as Jiang Chen picked up the quill pen to write, she felt a warm current envelop her body.

"Shopkeeper, my power won't last long. Please tell me how I can help you?" The puppet maid indeed possessed mysterious powers, managing to keep him in a semi-transparent state in the room for the time being.

"The new shop owner is not to be trusted!" Time was of the essence, so Jiang Chen quickened his pace and said, "He will be attracted to your beauty and ability and will want to keep you completely by his side, so he will try every means to get your body!"

You can't help me. I've been forcibly removed from my position as shopkeeper by a more powerful law, and I'll disappear soon.

Remember, don't believe his sweet talk, and don't give yourself to him. You can find a better place than to be tied to a jerk who only wants to get his hands on pretty girls and be with him through thick and thin...

The puppet maid was originally a puppet created by a puppeteer that failed but gained sentience. She was left incomplete and abandoned in the ruins.

The original shop owner took pity on it and took it in, and tried his best to find new parts to replace it. He even used a lot of points to exchange for a mysterious mechanical soul in order to prevent its intelligence from disappearing.

After a hundred-year journey to find the parts, they were finally assembled in his hands to become the perfect, mysterious, and powerful puppet maid she is today. To her, the original shop owner was not only a lifesaver but also a mentor and friend. She once took the initiative to appear and lock the mechanical loyalty, but the original owner treated her like a daughter and sternly refused.

Although he only occupied the original owner's body for three minutes, Jiang Chen still hoped to use the last bit of energy to stop Mu Jiuxiu from succeeding.

First, tell her the truth and then have the little white cat cover the halo. The wary puppet maid shouldn't be easily affected by the reduced intelligence. Next, when the amulet's energy disappears, I'll have to try out the treasures I've stored in my space that I might be able to use.

If even the soul artifact is useless, and all I can do is follow Mu Jiuxiu and watch him cause trouble, then I'll just keep reporting to the main system!

Jiang Chen refused to believe in fate and immediately created a story about the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meeting on the Magpie Bridge. As a modern young man, he acted as the protagonist, disregarding all morality and shame, peeping at people taking a bath, stealing their clothes, threatening and forcing them to have sex, and fathering a son and a daughter. He was a bastard who didn't work hard and just waited for rich and beautiful women to come and help him. Didn't the main system care?

Even if it's disguised as a mythological story, it can't hide its sordid core.

Would an honest, kind, and simple young man really go and peep at a girl while she's bathing and then steal her clothes to blackmail her? That's an insult to honest people! Honest people wouldn't take advantage of someone in distress; they'd rather have nothing themselves than use despicable means to abduct a beautiful woman and live a miserable life!

"An even more powerful law?" The puppet maid's face showed anxiety. "What can we do? The shopkeeper possesses so many magical treasures, is there any one that can help?"

Jiang Chen shook his head helplessly.

The original owner had never experienced anything like this, let alone being restricted by the main system's laws.

He was already thankful that the amulet was even useful; he didn't have the protagonist's halo and didn't expect the shop to have anything that could withstand the main system's rules.

"Then we can only find help through the causal chain! The shopkeeper has helped so many people, including some powerful immortals, who might be able to help us. We can't just sit here and wait to die, let's try our best!" The puppet maid reached out and took the head off with a "pop" and held it in her hands, muttering incantations with her cherry lips.

The next second, Jiang Chen found that countless lines of various colors and thicknesses were floating and stretching into the void on his semi-transparent body.

The second chapter sounds familiar.

"Shopkeeper, pick the thickest and biggest black one, and pull hard!" The puppet maid, quick-witted and agile, pointed to the most obvious causal thread and shouted, "Whether he can help or not depends on him!"

Jiang Chen was a little confused.

The original owner knew that the puppet maid had developed the ability to see cause and effect after stabilizing her intelligence with her mechanical soul, but she really didn't know that there was such a method.

What lies behind the largest and thickest black causal line?

Is this the original owner's or mine?

And... is it even possible to use causal lines like that? Just pull them by hand?

But there was no time to think. The moment he heard the warning, he grabbed the black line and yanked it!

very heavy!

You can vaguely sense that this line is connected to something big.

Jiang Chen frowned slightly. Given the overall Western fantasy setting, was he going to drag out some kind of wriggling god like Cthulhu?

As the black causal thread was pulled, a lazy voice came from within the black mist, "Who is it, disturbing my sleep again..."

Perhaps annoyed at being woken from its slumber, the black mist churned like a boiling pot, and then a figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

A tall, thin, fair-skinned, handsome man with long, black hair reaching his waist, wearing a white robe and barefoot, whose gender was indistinguishable, stretched and yawned. He looked down at the causal threads being pulled and frowned slightly. Then, his figure appeared next to Jiang Chen, staring at the semi-transparent figure with a blank look in his dark eyes.

Sensing the terrifying pressure from the other party, the puppet maid trembled slightly but still tried her best to maintain the state of the causal connection.

"Who are you?" Jiang Chen felt the face looked familiar and was certain that the helper had been found through his connections. However, he was a little embarrassed because he couldn't remember who this big shot was at all.

The other party didn't seem to care, and their tone remained lazy, "Hmm, I don't have a name. The last title I had was given to me by you. If you'd like, you can call me 'Lord of the Abyss'."

He paused for a moment and added, "It sounds quite powerful and the positioning is very accurate, so I'm quite satisfied."

Jiang Chen:o((⊙﹏⊙))o

I remember now, it seems like... it was when I used a Holy Light nuclear bomb to hit someone's territory and woke them up?

"What's wrong with you? Did you go too far and mess things up?" The Lord of the Abyss was completely unpretentious. He wasn't grumpy even though he was woken up. Instead, he curiously circled around, examining a small stone in his hand and shaking his head. "The laws of space are trying to push you out. It's a bit tricky."

The puppet maid, holding the head in both hands, spoke in a clear, melodious, slightly trembling voice, "Lord of the Abyss, please help the shopkeeper! He has done so many good deeds and helped so many people, he can't just be killed like this without any explanation!"

“Tearing space to forcibly keep you here is not my forte, and besides, this is not my abyss…” The Abyss Lord, who was very good-natured, thought seriously for a moment and nodded, “What your little doll said is not wrong. He has indeed helped many people and saved countless lives. Give it a try, it doesn’t cost any money anyway.”

Jiang Chen: ? ? ?

Why does this sound so familiar?

"Thank you so much for your generous help, senior!" he said hurriedly, and showed him the amulet whose energy was almost dissipating. "I'm using it to keep going for now, but the energy is almost gone."

"Then I'll stabilize your soul first, so that it won't be pushed out and then truly impossible to pull it back." The Lord of the Abyss, as expected of a god, gently pushed and channeled gentle energy into his body, and Jiang Chen's feeling of lightness instantly disappeared.

In the room on the second floor, a soul on the verge of disappearing, a puppet maid, and a summoned deity attempt to break the power of the laws set by the main system.

The only human in the entire shop is currently running up and down.

Mu Jiuxiu was stunned by the unexpected windfall. After reading the tasks in the attic, he hurriedly ran downstairs to lock the shop door to prevent thieves with ill intentions from stealing the precious treasures. Then he was attracted by the dazzling array of treasures, touching this and looking at that, unable to put them down.

He felt that everything was magical but also fit the beginning of the story. After all, if something as outrageous as time travel had come true, what was there to be unable to accept when a shop was delivered to his door as a cheat code?

"Strange, what is the maid doing upstairs?" After looking around at all sorts of rare treasures in the shop, Mu Jiuxiu looked up at the second floor and went up the stairs.

The shop I inherited as the owner was divided into three floors.

The first floor is a mysterious shop where transactions are based on chance;

The second floor is the living space, including the original owner's luxury suite, as well as a living room, two guest rooms, a kitchen, and a storage room;

The third floor is an attic that only the shop owner can access, and it is the core of the entire shop's operation.

The handover of information regarding the shop did not include the puppet maid.

In other words, she must have been hired or traded by the previous owner in some way, and is not under the jurisdiction of the new owner.

But those were real puppet maids!

She's beautiful, has a great figure, never ages, and has an excellent temperament. Mu Jiuxiu doesn't want to lose such a wonderful and loyal helper and maid, so he needs to hurry up and appease her.

However, judging from the shop's situation, he doesn't seem to be under much pressure to retain the puppet maid.

After all, she is not a real human, yet she has the appearance and emotions of a human. Where can she find a more suitable place to stay after leaving the magical shop?

Mu Jiuxiu felt that as long as the compensation was properly discussed, she would be willing to stay and work there.

It might be as magical as getting the shop owner's cheat code. After meeting, the protagonist's special charm can be used to develop the puppet maid into an intimate partner. Managing the shop as the boss's wife would even mean not having to pay her salary. Aren't the puppet maids in the story all set up as the protagonist's all-around bed warmer and babysitter?

But there's something even more important right now—he's starving to death!

The original owner was worried that if he died quietly and smelled bad, no one would care. So he deliberately went out on the street to drink alcohol, which made him smell of alcohol and covered in sticky, grime, and feel extremely uncomfortable.

Mu Jiuxiu needed to hurry up and eat something, take a good shower, and tidy himself up. Even if he didn't have to be as noble and extravagant as the original owner, he should at least have the demeanor of a master.

He ran up to the second floor in one breath and knocked on the guest room where the puppet maid lived, saying in a low voice as he went: "Dear lady, the previous owner just finished the handover with me. My name is Mu Jiuxiu and I am the current owner. If it is convenient, would you please come to the reception room later to talk?"

The puppet maid was startled, almost jumping up from the head she was holding in her hands. Her facial features were so lifelike that she quickly said perfunctorily, "I'm sorry, new shop owner, I'm currently taking care of my joints. I'll come and bother you again after I've finished installing it in a moment."

"No rush, no rush, I'm going to take a shower and change my clothes first." Mu Jiuxiu couldn't help but grin when he heard the sweet voice. As expected of a puppet, does joint maintenance require disassembling it into eight pieces?

The thought of the beautiful puppet maid scattered all over the floor, her arms and legs each busy with their own tasks, gave him the creeps.

He first rummaged through the kitchen, grabbed two pieces of roasted meat, put them in a bread roll, and stuffed them into his hungry mouth. Mu Jiuxiu then pushed open the door and entered the luxurious suite reserved for the shop owner.

After the handover of ownership was completed, the entire shop was renovated to basic models, and all traces left by the previous owner were gone.

In the future, any additional luxury decorations will have to be obtained using points.

Mu Jiuxiu took out the clothes that the shop had tailored for him from the wardrobe, went into the bathroom, took a good bath, cleaned himself up, and tidied himself up. He didn't want to lose to the previous shop owner in terms of demeanor when he met the puppet maid later.

"That's good." The Lord of the Abyss tried to help for a while, then patted his shoulder, his tone much more relaxed. "I guarantee you won't be ostracized, but you'll have to stay in this semi-invisible state. Fortunately, the maid can see you, and you can enter the mirror world in the attic and appear with a new identity. Anyway, it's just a small mirror world, so it won't be watched so closely by the laws of heaven."

Feeling no longer restricted or confined, Jiang Chen thanked them again.

The Lord of the Abyss yawned and waved to them, "You guys go ahead with your work, I'm going back to sleep."

The causal threads and the summoned deity disappeared. The puppet maid snapped her head back on with a "pop," clutched her heart, and looked at him softly, asking, "What should we do now? Can we take back the position of shop owner?"

Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head, "Even if I could get it back, I wouldn't be able to come back to life. Thank you, Yi Mei. Actually, I'm not the previous shop owner you know. I just..."

He didn't know how to tell the other person about time travel, so he carefully considered his words and tentatively asked, "You must have heard stories about reincarnation, right?"

"Ah, so that's really how it is." A look of sadness appeared on the face of the puppet maid named Imi. "I can sense that you are different from before. I thought it was just my imagination, but in fact, when you handed over the position of shopkeeper, you had already taken over the role of shopkeeper, right?"

She resembled a human so much that she even had perfectly soft skin, but the puppet was not human. When she was sad, her eyes would only fill with a mist but no tears would fall.

Ime's voice trembled slightly, "Perhaps this is God's mercy, not wanting the shop owner to hand over the shop he cherishes as his life to unreliable people, so He has asked you to complete the handover process in his place."

She lowered her head and gently grasped Jiang Chen's translucent hands, whispering, "Thank you for enduring such a sorrowful process and sacrificing your soul, trapped in this state of being neither real nor illusory. This sacrifice alone is admirable. What can I do for you?"

"Don't let Mu Jiuxiu succeed!" Having said that, Jiang Chen didn't want to waste any more time and instructed, "The previous shop owner had high hopes for you. He wanted you to have a better future instead of having your fate tied to a certain man."

Yimei, I will follow Mu Jiuxiu to the Mirror World to examine his character once again.

If he's competent as a shop owner, you can consider keeping him to help run the shop; if his character is poor, I will do everything I can to prevent him from earning points and staying here!

"That would be very dangerous!" Ime, clearly aware of many of the shop's core operational secrets, said urgently, "Although I've never heard of any mirror world, you must know that the shop owner holds an absolute advantage. Just now, that deity explored the attic; it's a small world entirely created by the current shop owner. If you rashly enter and are discovered..."

Worried about its host, the fluffy little creature bounced in to check on the situation and overheard the conversation, meowing, "You underestimate my host. He doesn't need to do any missions, so it's no wonder he's completely under his thumb. You should be worried about yourself getting ruined by Mu Jiuxiu."

It jumped onto its host's shoulder, licked his face, and whispered a reminder: "That kid is almost ready. His protagonist aura is shining brightly. He looks like he's about to conquer the puppet lady with a mighty display."

"We need to unite against this enemy now, don't waste precious time arguing," Jiang Chen lowered his voice. "You need to calm Mu Jiuxiu down first..."

After a moment of whispering, the little white cat proudly perched on Yimei's head, acting as a cat-shaped halo blocker. Then, the puppet maid, who had prepared herself mentally, straightened her gorgeous dress, opened the door, and walked into the living room. She gave a graceful bow to Mu Jiuxiu, who had just finished tidying up and was sitting on the sofa waiting.

"Hello, Shopkeeper Mu. I am the treasure trading administrator hired by the previous shopkeeper. My name is Yimei."

Mu Jiuxiu: (°ο°)

The puppet lady is so beautiful!

The maid outfit is gorgeous!

This is not a legend or a fictional story, but a real, living puppet maid!

However, the name was quite ordinary; he had assumed that puppet maids would be named Alice or Lolita, or something similar.