"The abandoned scrap processing plant…this should be the place, right?"
Under the guidance of the local dragon Krista, even a scrap processing plant hidden in such a remote location could be accurately reached while riding a D-Wheel.
After arriving, as expected, the stale scent of decay rushed straight at them.
According to Vice Principal Orcus, this scrap processing plant had also been scrapped for nearly ten years. No wonder the walls were covered in moss, and the mechanical metal gate was mottled with rust.
Ren questioned, "The academy's back mountain that Boss Viel mentioned… is it really here?"
Looking around at nothing but piles of scrap metal, it was truly hard to imagine what Viel-a master magitech artisan-would be doing here after her workshop had exploded.
Miles stepped forward to lead the way. "As for the academy's back mountain, there aren't any other extra clues."
Not only was it related to his own body, Miles was also extremely interested in the rumors Vice Principal Orcus had mentioned about the Meklord Emperor.
Whether it was strong or not was one thing, but a gigantic combined robot still hit the card gamer XP system squarely.
"Anyway, let's go in and look for Viel first."
The scrap processing plant's rusted mechanical iron gate was already in a state of having been forcibly pried open.
Moreover, compared to the surrounding aged traces, the pried-open crack was especially fresh, clearly something that had happened recently. It was hard not to suspect Viel.
Stepping into the factory, a sharp and heavy smell of rust surged into their noses. And it was said that because the smell of rust was somewhat similar to the smell of blood, it could make people unconsciously tense up.
"Viel!"
They tried calling out to the bratty loli inside the factory, but received no response.
From the outside, you really couldn't tell that a scrap processing plant would have such an unexpectedly complex internal structure.
Connected from the main entrance hall into the interior of the factory, the crisscrossing maze of mechanical iron doors made it impossible to judge where Viel currently was.
With such a massive scrap processing plant, trying to search it by brute force would be no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Wait, it sounds like there's noise inside?"
Krista's pale ears twitched slightly. A dragon's keen hearing allowed her to detect the disturbance earlier than the others.
"It sounds like someone's inside… dueling!"
"Dueling in a factory that's been abandoned for so many years? Let's go take a look!"
"This way!"
Following the trail of sound, Miles and Ren charged together with Krista through the innermost door.
After consecutively passing through several forcibly broken mechanical iron doors, the group finally saw a familiar figure.
Just as Krista had guessed, a duel was in progress.
However, by the time they arrived, what they saw happened to be the final scene.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
[Luca, LP: 2500 → 0]
Good heavens…Luca lost again.
Sent flying by a single finishing direct attack, Luca's petite body crashed straight into the arms of Miles, who was controlling Aisha's body.
"Thank you." Having been caught, Luca still remembered to offer a polite word of thanks.
Miles said helplessly, "I'm telling you, can you show a little more backbone and win just once?"
"Ah, they ran away!" Krista cried out in alarm.
Before anyone could get a clear look at who had defeated Luca in the duel, the opponent had already turned and fled.
From the silhouette, it seemed to be a white-haired boy with a shota-like build.
"Luca, who were you just fighting?" Krista asked.
Remaining silent in Miles's arms for a long time, it was hard to tell whether Luca was thinking or whether her current vocabulary simply wasn't enough to explain.
After holding it in for quite a while, Luca finally squeezed out a name.
"Miles."
"Huh? Me?"
An answer that left everyone completely baffled.
Standing back up, Luca patted the dust she'd picked up from being beaten onto her black-and-white over-the-knee socks.
"Follow me."
And so everyone followed Luca's steps, passing through several more battered doors within the scrap factory.
"Ah, that's—Boss Viel!" Ren exclaimed from a distance.
On the factory floor, a large iron cauldron had been set up, and the burning flames beneath it seemed to be cooking something strange.
And seated beside the cauldron was none other than the owner of the Witch Workshop, the bratty loli Viel.
If one looked closely, it wasn't hard to notice that Viel's right arm was wrapped in bandages.
"Boss Viel, are you injured?" Krista asked.
From this, it was clear that the mysterious viscous liquid bubbling with purplish-red bubbles inside the cauldron was likely the medicinal salve Viel was using on her wounds.
Seeing Luca return safely, and with Miles and the others in tow, it was easy to tell that loli Viel secretly let out a sigh of relief.
"I really didn't expect that in just one day, you'd manage to find your way here."
"What exactly is going on here, Viel?"
There were simply too many questions Miles wanted to ask.
The Witch Workshop had inexplicably shut down and become ruins. Viel had deliberately hidden herself in a scrap processing plant abandoned for many years. Luca had been defeated by someone inside the plant. And Luca had referred to the person who defeated her as "Miles."
After Miles poured out all his questions in one go, the smile on Viel's face gradually turned awkward, and her gaze subconsciously shifted away in guilt.
"Hehe, I kind of messed up, didn't I? ( ?·?<>"
"Don't try to play cute and get away with it! Explain yourself properly!"
"Yes, yes, yes." Viel sighed. "Let me start with the conclusion. The person you just saw defeat Luca in that duel—if you insist on calling him you, Miles, that's not wrong either."
"What do you mean 'not wrong either'?! That's just wrong!"
Miles grabbed the Millennium Puzzle at his chest and shoved it right up to Viel's face.
"I am me. How could there possibly be two of me?!"
"Calm down, calm down." Viel pushed the Millennium Puzzle away from in front of her. "Let me put it more accurately. That one should be your experimental subject."
"Experimental subject?"
Hearing this brand-new term, the three of them stared at one another, utterly confused.
"After I found out that you'd scraped together the two million, Miles, in order to be able to complete the body transmutation more perfectly and accurately when the time came, I tried making an experimental subject two days ago. You could also call it a prototype—a trial version of you."
"Wait, Boss Viel, how did you know I'd gathered the two million?"
The fact that he'd gotten the money from the Seth family was supposed to be confidential. A firm believer in keeping wealth out of sight, Miles never talked about it casually and hadn't even contacted Viel in advance.
"Ahem, my intelligence network is pretty impressive too, you know."
On Viel's side, the info that Miles had earned enough money came from an Alester-senpai who preferred to remain unnamed.
It had also been Alester who'd told the Seth siblings back then that Miles was in urgent need of money during this period, which was why there had been that perfectly timed mission reward of two million gold coins.
"An intelligence network, huh. Fine, let's set aside how you knew I had the money. But what is this prototype nonsense you pulled?!"
Miles could be one hundred percent certain that this bratty loli Viel had never seen his true appearance. All of their exchanges of information had been carried out using other bodies as intermediaries.
"Even if it's a prototype, that's still my body. You'd at least need template data as a reference to make it, right? If you just made it up out of thin air, would that still be me?"
Viel argued her case. "It definitely doesn't count as making it up out of thin air. On this point alone, you can't doubt my professional skills!"
"Then where did you get the reference from?"
"You probably wouldn't understand, Miles, but actually, I've already collected quite a lot of data about you."
"Data about me?"
"Data collected through specially modified D-Wheels. Your speaking style during Turbo Duels, your card-playing habits, including some small gestures, minor habits, and your psychological patterns of thought—all of that's been collected and summarized. After conducting a comprehensive personality analysis, you can derive the preliminary data needed to create an experimental subject."
Although the bratty loli Viel explained it in a very proper, professional-sounding manner, Miles finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
"You bastard, this is… stealing user privacy! This is blatant criminal behavior!"
He'd already thought it was crossing the line when she'd previously installed tracking and communication systems into his D-Wheel without permission, supposedly to prevent him from running off with unpaid debts.
Anyhow, he hadn't expected this bratty loli to be able to sink even lower.
She'd gone as far as directly collecting duel data through the D-Wheel and using it to crudely fabricate a prototype version of his body.
Aisha: "So that little shota who ran off just now really was Mr. Miles. slurp~"
Miss Aisha, the sound of you sucking in your drool is way too loud.
Miles shot back, "I absolutely refuse to acknowledge that a body fabricated purely through duel data analysis could be me. And the age is wrong too!"
Another point was that, while Miles himself didn't particularly care about appearances, that shota prototype body was far too far off from his actual age.
Viel explained, "Well, it's an experimental subject, after all. Making it slightly younger is more material-efficient."
Krista pressed on, "Then was the Witch Workshop reduced to ruins because of the prototype Miles?"
"Hey, hey, hey, you're just accepting that thing being a prototype me like that?!" Miles still tried to struggle and argue back.
"Mm. The moment the transmutation was completed, the experimental subject went berserk and summoned a monster we'd never seen before, leveling the Witch Workshop into ruins."
"Prototype Miles is dangerous!" Ren exclaimed.
"Ren, even you're agreeing with this now?"
"What happened after that?" Krista continued asking. "Boss Viel, why did you end up coming to the abandoned factory here, on what used to be the academy's back mountain?"
"To be precise, we followed the berserk experimental subject here. And Experimental Subject Miles was probably drawn in by the power hidden within this abandoned workshop."
Viel recalled the single line Experimental Subject Miles had left behind as he stood beside the burning flames after casually destroying the Witch Workshop.
"I'm going to take all the powerful cards in this world and become the strongest Duel King in this world!"
Viel analyzed, "It seems that because only your dueling personality data was input into the experimental subject, it ended up becoming overly obsessive."
"It does sound pretty obsessive," Ren and Krista narrowed their eyes in troubled thought, "but it really does sound like something Miles would say."
"So that's what kind of person I am in your eyes?"
...
If you want to support, please consider Patreon, and read advanced chapters! Your support keeps this series going! [Patreon.com/RedZTL]