After pinching and prodding "himself" from head to toe, Ron finally took out a set of clothes and transferred his consciousness into the puppet, controlling it to get dressed.
Once he began operating the puppet's body via mind link, he immediately noticed some key differences that weren't visible from the outside.
First off, although the new-generation puppet looked exactly like him on the outside, the "material" was completely different.
Ron's real body was, of course, made of flesh and blood.
The puppet version, on the other hand, was composed entirely of plant fiber, with no internal organs—no heart, no blood vessels, nothing.
So while Ron himself had a certain "handle" that could be... well, effective in combat—
The puppet's version was purely decorative.
A prop.
No more than a non-functional firearm—no bullets, no bang.
In other words: a "cosmetic-only" weapon.
Aside from that, the puppet was still immune to conventional weapons, requiring at least Legendary-rank attacks to do damage.
But now, unlike the older chibi puppets, this new version could even regenerate if injured—as long as it wasn't destroyed, it would slowly recover over time.
That said, even while controlling the puppet, Ron still couldn't access his full strength—he could only rely on the puppet's physical traits and fight in a stubborn, annoying way.
Its toughness didn't mean it was diamond-hard—it was more like springy marshmallow armor.
So, in battle? It couldn't hurt anyone, nor could anyone hurt it.
A perfect battlefield leech, clinging on and annoying enemies into madness.
Having tested the new puppet's features, Ron nodded in satisfaction.
If the chibi puppets were more like communication devices or surveillance drones, the full-sized puppet was much closer to a stand-in clone.
They shared similarities, but each had its unique strengths.
How best to use them would depend on the situation—he'd need to keep experimenting.
After a bit more thought, Ron shifted his attention to the leaves on the Puppet-Emerald Cypress hybrid tree.
He focused and harvested a large batch of scaled leaves, storing them in his [Inventory].
He didn't try using them immediately.
The system hadn't exactly explained how the leaves were supposed to be used.
Chew them directly? Crush and apply the juice?
Or maybe you had to brew them into tea for the healing effect to work?
If he chomped on them raw and it turned out to be the dumbest way possible, he'd just be embarrassing himself.
He decided to swing by the Chaos City Magic Academy in the afternoon and ask Harper to help analyze them.
With that done, Ron used his remaining 14 square meters of cultivation space in the system store, combining it with the 1 square meter from before to form a total 15-square-meter grow space.
The system store instantly refreshed:
[Store]
[Cultivation Space]: 4,000 Wealth Points per 1 m² (Max: 50 m²)
Ron's eye twitched. That number was painful.
He quickly exchanged for one more Puppet Tree Seed, planted it in the new grow space, and slammed the system panel shut—he didn't want to look at that heartbreakingly high price again.
The original Puppet Tree had already evolved into the hybrid Puppet-Emerald Cypress, meaning it could no longer produce the original chibi puppets.
But both puppet types had their uses, so planting a fresh Puppet Tree was definitely worthwhile.
With that wrapped up, Ron harvested a few of the new puppets, stored them in his inventory, clapped the dust off his hands, and left the Dimensional Plane.
Back in his study, bored, Ron opened the system panel to investigate the newly unlocked skin feature after hitting system level 5.
[Store]
[Random Skin]: Free once per day. Gain a random panel skin. After the free daily pull, each additional draw costs 1 Wealth Point.
[Custom Skin]: Spend 5 Wealth Points to choose an existing system skin or submit a real-world image for full customization.
(Note: More skin types—such as Exclusive, Holiday, and Animated Skins—will be unlocked as the system levels up. Work hard, Host!)
"..."
Ron stared at the skin system, unsure whether to laugh or sigh.
Eh… I'm already here, might as well try the free one.
Click.
[Pink Girly Heart Theme]
"Tch…" Ron dismissed it without a second thought.
He glanced at the cost for additional rolls—1 Wealth Point per pull. Pocket change for him now.
"Let's pull again."
[Red Wedding: Triple Joy Theme]
Pass. Try again.
[Spooky Black-and-White Ghost Face]
Pass. Again.
…
"Are you kidding me?!"
After burning through over 20 Wealth Points, Ron suddenly realized what he was doing and slammed the brakes on his gacha addiction.
"You sneaky system!" he snapped.
"You baited me in with that 1-point low price so you can rake in money little by little, huh? Playing the long game!"
Ron grumbled, but at least he caught himself before he spent even more.
Wasting only 20+ Wealth Points? Could've been worse.
Still, not pulling anything decent left him feeling… unsatisfied.
It had to be rigged.
The system was probably manipulating the drop rate, making sure he never got a good-looking skin, all to tempt him into pulling again and again.
Ugh… Gacha is really addictive…
Especially when each draw barely costs anything.
Ron forced himself to calm down. No more gambling. From now on, he'd just claim the daily free pull. If he got something cool, great. If not, just another collectible.
Plus, there was custom skin creation. For just 5 Wealth Points, he could design exactly what he wanted—way more reliable than random chance.
He paid the 5 Wealth Points.
[System: "Skin library opened. Please select from available designs, or choose a real-world image to use as a panel background."]
"C'mon, it's custom. Why would I use your presets?" Ron rolled his eyes and didn't even open the system's built-in skin list. Instead, he began mentally searching for a good real-world image.
He thought of the illustration booklets he'd gotten from the bookstore and from Kiel—particularly the pretty girls featured in them—and instantly felt a pang of regret.
Damn you, Yuna!
She'd stolen his stash of artbooks in the dead of night and still hadn't given them back.
Ron slumped back in his chair, sighing in frustration.
He scanned his study for inspiration but didn't find anything that really fit his taste.
Until—at the very bottom of his desk drawer—he found a long-forgotten card:
[Goddess of Harvest — Hervesta]
It depicted a gentle, elegant woman with a soft smile—radiating warmth and divine grace.
This was the first character card Ron had drawn back when he started developing Legendary Kill.
Out of fear of blasphemy, he had never used it in the actual game, nor made any other god-themed cards since.
But now, this card felt perfect.
It even saved him the trouble of drawing a new one.
[System: "Please confirm—select this image as your panel skin?"]
Ron confirmed.
In the next moment, the image of the Goddess of Harvest—Hervesta appeared as the new background on Ron's system panel.
Lifelike and radiant, with soft, expressive eyes.