Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1217: Ruined City Exploration

Zhen Liu had honestly expected that it was going to take a long while for he and his companions to be given access to the [City of Mirrors] entry pagoda.

He had heard from the others how the Golden Gorilla Union and the Silver Jungle Dragon Shipping Company had been impeding the progress of other groups and each other through bureaucratic nonsense, establishing a literal ticket queue, for the sake of giving their respective side an edge in claiming the treasures of the [City of Mirrors].

Evidently, their claim in wanting to maintain the security and peace of the area around the wandering ruins was a partial farce.

Surprisingly though, no delays or bureaucratic nonsense had occurred for Zhen Liu and his friends.

Then again, this might’ve been due to the fact that they had become members of an expedition led by Kidanna, the woman who currently owns the Golden Gorilla Union.

Huh... y’all weren’t exaggerating about the main characteristic of this place being focused on mirrors," Zhen Liu commented as he swept his gaze over the wandering ruins before his eyes.

"We told you," Zhen Xing retorted before switching to whispering to Zhen Liu. "This is gonna sound weird, but is this place related to that library of yours? Because there’s this vibe to it that gives me that exact feeling."

"No...I don’t think so...maybe..."

To everyone else, the [City of Mirrors] was simply a strange looking set of ruins that had an excessive amount of mirrors in its architectural design.

In Zhen Liu’s eyes though, he was reminded of an ancient city he had only read about existing back when he was a regular human on a certain blue planet.

A city that had been destroyed, but then built over into something new.

He knew the place as Mexico City, but in the past, it was known as Tenochtitlan.

’A set of ruins known as the [City of Mirrors] vaguely resembles a city from a civilization that had a deity whose name literally translates to Lord Smoking Mirror. This...this feels like the [Vault of Hel] all over again.’

Regardless of his own thoughts and feelings of the place, Zhen Liu wasn’t taking the lead this time around so he couldn’t really voice his concerns or thoughts.

The one in charge at this time was Kidanna.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

"Alright mi amigos, gather around!," Kidanna announced in an aether enhanced voice as she brought their attention to the map she bought from the Azure Gators, once more.

Surrounding her and the map at this time were several of her finest warriors from the Golden Gorilla Union, the Zhen Clan scions and their associated friends and a group of students from Rainbow Phoenix Academy.

From outsiders looking in, it appeared as if these factions had joined hands.

Only they knew that this was more of a social alliance than a political one.

"As fortune would have it, the entryway has deposited us here. At the very edge of this map," Kidanna explained as she physically pointed the location out to her expedition group."Meaning we have two choices on how to approach these possible challenges and treasures."

Using her finger, she drew a circling path from where they were, passed through several locations of note before ending on a fountain that existed in the dead center of the map.

"We can move as one unit and circle around through every single challenge in order to maximize success."

Using her finger again she drew several lines from their start point to all of the other places.

"Or we divide and conquer to maximize efficiency."

After making this statement, Kidanna brought her attention back to the group.

"However this latter option means there’s a possibility of us getting ambushed by... opportunistic individuals and groups."

"You mean the Silver-tongues might try to jump us again?"

"Possibly."

"Of course."

The pros and cons to these two approaches were obvious to all involved, but having it spelled out like this was still beneficial in the sense that it helped people to play out the possible issues that could occur in their heads.

Granted, these pros and cons were based on the idea that the Golden Gorilla Union was just travelling with normal aether warriors.

"Zhen Liu, if I remember correctly, Lythero and Alicia both said that you’re able to control multiple special aether puppets over long distances?"

When Kidanna first learned of this fact, she had heard it from the mouth of her unofficial little sister, Alicia. The young lady was drunk at the time and may have been bragging, so Kidanna had dismissed the thought.

However, while she was spending the night with Lythero, she had (eventually) heard from Lythero’s mouth that part of the reason that they were able to travel through the jungles of the isthmus was due to Zhen Liu’s ability to control multiple puppets.

On a side note, the mention of the word, "puppets", caused Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai to side eye their cousin a bit.

"Normally yes," Zhen Liu admitted while ignoring the fact that Kidanna had said Lythero’s name with a touch more affection than how she said Alicia’s name. "But, due to a recent injury of mine, I can only do two of my special puppets. I can still control multiple versions of my regular ones though."

"Hmm. I think we can still make that work," Kidanna said after a moment of thought. "Wait,regular ones?"

Finding it easier to show rather than tell, Zhen Liu summoned several of his recently made wooden zakos.

"Holy-!"

Needless to say, the Golden Gorilla Union warriors were shocked at the sight.

"One, two, five puppets at once?!"

"Damn. I had trouble controlling just one."

"Is it just me or do they look almost alive..."

"So to briefly sum up some benefits to this," Zhen Liu began to explain. "I can actually feel and kind of communicate through them. Behold."

To demonstrate to everyone what he was able to do, Zhen Liu took out a paper and a piece of charcoal and had one of the zakos write a short message with the aformentioned tools.

"If they were my special puppets, I could verbally communicate with them."

"Why can’t these ones do it?"

Plap.

Once again, instead of explaining anything further, Zhen Liu simply covered his mouth and allowed the zako to attempt to mimic his voice.

What came out was the sound of nails scratching against a chalkboard to the background noise of rutting donkeys. In other words, it wasn’t pleasant.

After this demonstration was over, Zhen Liu took his hand off his mouth and waited as everyone else removed their hands from covering their ears.

"Now if you want real time communication, we’re going to have to rework your plans to be two to three groups running all over the place."

"Writing works," Kidanna capitulated.

"Splendid."

Now with all that out of the way, and Zhen Liu now dealing with a profound sense of deja vu, Kidanna established where each group was going to go, into groups of three to four.

...The Places and Groups...

(Note: The following group names are unofficial.)

Group 1: Golden Gorilla Union as led by Kidanna

Destination: Mirror Beast Nest

Group 2: Rainbow Phoenix Academy - Alice, Alicia, Harriet and Bellona.

Destination: Garden of Reflective Orchids.

Group 3: Zhen Clan - Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai and Zhen Liu

Destination: Gallery of Cloaked Mirrors

Group 4: Dozing Salamander natives - Lythero, Antonio and Olstenna

Destination: Hall of Glass Warriors

...

Once all of these groups were established, they all proceeded to go off into separate directions while accompanied by one of Zhen Liu’s "regular puppets", who were acting as both porter and communication hub.

"Hey...Xiao Liu, are you sure you can handle coordinating all of these zakos?," Zhen Tai asked as soon as everyone else were no longer in earshot. "I thought your ability to connect with them was compromised."

"Only partially," Zhen Liu assured his cousin. "The Kaijin can still communicate and coordinate with me as long as we’re in at least eye sight with each other...by the way, when and why the fuck did the Kaijin reveal themselves to you guys? I wanted to ask last night, but I couldn’t find the time to do so."

"Literally, about a day or two after you disappeared," Zhen Xing answered. "At the behest of your mother, no less."

"Ah."

"Yeah, we were kind of shocked at her being able to use [Chaos] and all that stuff...but this kind of explain why you were able to tank all of my attacks when you first came back from dead," Zhen Xing brought up.

"Did you want a rematch?"

"Oh fuck no," Zhen Xing quickly answered. "I know better than to bark up a tree full of viciously loyal monsters...no offense to the kaijin if they don’t like that label."

[None taken.]

"They say none taken."

"By the way," Zhen Tai interjected. "We got the rundown about the things that could injure the kaijin, and by extension you. I saw a couple of those Buddhist guys enter before us. You think they might be an issue?"

"Probably not."