I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Boom—"

Five explosions rang out in succession, and the smoke they kicked up engulfed Duke and his companion... but the next moment, the smoke was torn apart by the enraged silver dragon.

Guangbao swung the heavy staff, which was 1.5 meters long, as if he were wielding a halberd. Holy light condensed at the top of the staff... that is, the silver dragon crystal.

"Boom..."

A powerful hammer blow slammed down on the mechanical creature's remaining head, and that blow... rendered it incapable of resisting.

Because of that one blow, it was flattened.

……

"Still running?"

"..."

Cecil frowned: "I'm asking you, are you still going to run?"

"I'm not running anymore."

The mechanical dragon finally spoke. Its voice was a flat, electronic tone, but Duke sensed a hint of resentment and frustration in its tone.

“Very good.” Cecil nodded in satisfaction, then instructed, “You can modify yourself, right? Now create a function that can communicate with souls.”

“No problem, Ms. Cecil.”

"Don't call me 'Madam'!" Guangbao immediately widened his eyes and said indignantly, "Am I that old? Call me Miss Cecil!"

She felt extremely wronged. She had never been in a relationship before, so why was she being called "ladies"? She wasn't one of those old monsters in the city lord's mansion whose single age was roughly equal to their actual age.

"Yes, ma'am, no problem, ma'am, I've got it."

"?"

"Madam, the AI ​​automatic search function has been activated, recommending romance-themed works such as 'Even the Mentally Challenged Have Their Spring,' 'From Marriage to Divorce: One Hundred Tips for Dating,' and 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'..."

"You motherfucker! I'm going to tear you to pieces today, you Yin-Yang Machine Dragon! Duke, don't stop me, I'm going to... I'll make this damn guy..."

If it weren't for Duke's remonstrance, Cecil would probably have been so enraged that he tore the magical mechanical creature apart with his bare hands. He finally understood why someone like Norton would suddenly decide to hunt magical mechanical creatures... Now it seemed that perhaps it was just a casual argument that led to this major incident.

At this moment, Duke began to reconsider whether it was inappropriate for him to use Lite-On to enable the communication function...

Forget it, if it dares to be sarcastic or mean to me, I'll just shut the door, turn on the light, and tear it apart with my bare hands.

Although the speech module was busy making sarcastic remarks, the mechanical dragon was extremely efficient. Several tentacle-like wires rose up and were modified at the top of its head, quickly adding a small piece.

Then, the mechanical dragon's eyes finally turned to Duke, who was floating beside Cecil.

"Hello, I'm Duke." Duke smiled slightly and pointed to himself. "Do you have a name?"

“Mr. Duke, my code name is 5497. I am combat robot number 5497.”

“5497? Am I a wine vessel?” Duke thought for a moment, came up with a rather perfunctory name, and casually said, “Then you can be called Zun from now on, Zun as in wine vessel.”

His explanation was a direct translation of Chinese into the common language of mainland China, which sounded somewhat awkward and strange to 5497.

“I don’t understand.” Several electric tentacles swayed around Mechanical Dragon No. 5497, expressing its confusion frankly, but then added, “But I have no reason to refuse a code name. Okay, you can call me Zun.”

For some reason, it treated Duke much better than Cecil. It dared to speak sarcastically to Guangbao, but only dared to speak seriously to Duke. Clearly, Cecil posed a greater threat to it.

Or has its AI become so advanced that it can discern the hierarchy within the family? Does it know that he is the key figure in their relationship?

Duke chuckled at this thought, then asked with a grin, "So, here's the question, Zun."

"Excuse me, sir."

"Won't you tell me your story?"

"no problem."

It did not reject the question either.

The vessel, once named No. 5497, began to tell its story in a calm, almost monotone voice:

“I was born in a craft workshop.”

"But the first memory I saved... was of my creator's death. He was assassinated, and based on my analysis afterward, the perpetrator was likely a political enemy within the Magic Empire."

"After that, I was treated as a recyclable treasure and brought into the royal guard, where I was given the number 5497."

"From then on, I fought alongside my other robot brothers."

"But it was then that I realized I was somewhat different from my other companions."

Chapter 185 Does the Miracle Witch Dream of Mechanical Dragons?

Number 5497 stood in the center of the noisy battlefield. Its sound module had been destroyed by the previous magnetic blast spell. Although the sounds of people and horses falling around it were endless, the world was abnormally quiet to it at this moment.

Its orders were to defend the palace and repel the attacking assassins.

This is clearly not an easy task, because the attacking side is also part of the magic empire.

This was a coup d'état, a rebellion launched by several princes to overthrow the corrupt old emperor.

Number 5497 didn't understand politics, so he naturally didn't know why the princes, who should have been under the emperor's sway and calculation, were able to put aside their past grievances and cooperate to launch an attack on their father.

It only knew that it needed to stop the assassin, even if it meant being completely destroyed here.

The enchanted longsword slashed towards itself. Although it couldn't hear the sound of the blade cutting through the air, No. 5497 still detected the attack. The twelve additional pairs of vision modules installed on its body were now in effect, giving it a 360-degree field of vision that allowed it to truly see everything around it.

"Roar--"

It swatted away the enemy's longsword with one claw, then extended its other claw, lifted his chest, threw the lifeless corpse to the ground, and searched for its next target.

At first, not many enemies noticed No. 5497. It had just joined the royal guard and had not received enough modifications. Compared to its strong and well-equipped colleagues, it originally only looked like a half-dragon and appeared somewhat frail.

Therefore, no one regarded No. 5497 as a significant enemy.

However, as the battle intensified, No. 5497 suddenly realized that there were more and more enemies around him, and they were getting stronger and stronger.

"—"

It couldn't hear, but the visual modules obtained from the remains of its fallen comrades came into play; several of them had been modified to have lip-reading capabilities. This allowed No. 5497 to understand what they were saying.

"What kind of monster is this?!"

"Damn it, damn it! Why is it getting bigger and bigger? Your Highness, be careful!"

"Is this what Father meant by 'a true magical mechanical being'? Interesting, but not quite there yet. Lady Fei, I'm counting on you."

"No problem, but as extra compensation, I want to take it back after the battle."

"Of course, no problem."

The analysis system on board No. 5497 could not understand these conversations, but it had a habit of filling in the gaps wherever it was lacking, so it extended several mechanical arms, removed the heads of the fallen magical mechanical comrades, and awkwardly installed them on its already somewhat bloated body.

The half-dragon's body... in a short period of time, had been transformed into a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex by No. 5497. As the other magical mechanical units around him gradually fell, No. 5497, who was fighting and modifying himself, also became stronger and stronger.

Only at this moment did the upgraded analysis system, No. 5497, realize that it seemed to be different from its partners... at least it hadn't discovered that its partners had done these things.

But then its memory recording abruptly stopped. Before the recording was interrupted, all thirteen pairs of eyes of No. 5497 simultaneously captured a girl.

She was dressed in a traditional witch's robe and wore a wide witch's hat. She pulled down the brim to reveal a breathtakingly beautiful face and a pair of unusual scarlet witch eyes.

The girl gave a faint smile and introduced herself:

"Hello, my name is Fei."

Then, the last record in memory device 5497 was interrupted.

……

After listening to the story of No. 5497... Zun, Duke fell into deep thought.

Clearly, the last girl it saw was the young (this is questionable) Witch of Miracles, and Duke could guess what happened—besides Scarlet beating up the girl and knocking down number 5497 who had already begun to evolve, what other possibilities were there?

But the Scarlet Mystic Eyes? I didn't see Lady Scarlet use them when we fought the Aphasia clone before. Does that mean even a divine clone couldn't push her to her limit?

Duke sighed, then shook his head, bringing his thoughts back to the present.

"There are a few suspicious points. First, the timeline doesn't match up."

“I understand, Mr. Duke.” Zun temporarily installed a colored light on his head and used it to put on a light show that changed up and down, seemingly to replace his remaining head nodding. “This place is not like the Empire. My internal battery time function has also been damaged, and I cannot determine the exact time.”

“The ancient magic empire has been destroyed for over a thousand years,” Duke said casually. He wasn’t very familiar with the history of this world, only knowing that the ancient magic empire was already finished before the floating city was built. “Besides that… well, the biggest incongruity is here.”

He pointed to the light show that Zun had casually created.

“I don’t understand.” The bottle’s colored lights performed a light show that shifted from side to side, seemingly shaking its head. “What’s so jarring, Mr. Duke?”

"According to you, the Imperial Coup was the first time you noticed your abnormality, and it was also from that time that you first used your self-modification ability, right?" Duke shrugged. "Then don't you think you're too skilled at modifying yourself now? As if you've done it many times before."

The colored lights were flashing, but Zun remained silent, seemingly deep in thought and analysis.

"Moreover, your intelligence level is too high. You yourself said that your analytical ability and intelligence level were not high before, and it was only after the transformation that it began to improve... If nothing had happened in the past thousand years, how could you have suddenly leaped to your current level?"

Duke carefully examined the mechanical faucet in front of him:

"You give me the feeling that... apart from speaking a little stiffly, you are no different from a real person."

"Thank you for the compliment." Zun's tone seemed a little embarrassed, although his voice was still a flat, unfriendly, synthesized voice. "So, I've lost my memory storage records from the past thousand years?"

"That's most likely the case."

He finally understood why the ancient magical empire had invested so much money in magical mechanical creatures. They weren't building machines; they were creating artificial intelligence... true artificial life.

"Seize the authority of the gods" is the dream and ultimate goal of every spellcaster, and the birth of life... in many myths, is a symbol of the great power of the gods.

It's understandable that the ancient magical empire had such ambitions.

Duke nodded, then suddenly looked down at the ground of the floating city beneath his feet, and then at the SSR magical mechanical creature in front of him, and suddenly had a somewhat absurd idea.

Could this floating city have been created by Ms. Fei, little by little, using the vessel as a support?

However, he quickly put the idea aside for the time being—after all, to confirm whether it was true or not, he would have to wait until he met Ms. Fei again; anything he said now was just speculation.

Chapter 186 A Classic Plot Point: The Auction

"In short, could you make yourself a little smaller? With such a big, iron head, even if we wanted to take you away, we wouldn't know where to start."

"understood."

Zun's respectful attitude towards Duke was rather inexplicable. After all, even Cecil, who had easily subdued it, was met with sarcastic remarks from Zun, but it treated every word Duke uttered with utmost seriousness.