60~Substitute Doll
“So that’s Tillysha’s divine son? Tch, he looks like he’s about to keel over and probably didn’t get enough sleep.” Aileen sneered upon seeing Dillin’s appearance. “Makes sense, given her conditions, she couldn’t find a better divine son. The best she can do is make do with a blind one.”
As for Aileen’s teammates, they actually didn’t agree with her words. Without mentioning other things, the divine sons in Aileen’s team looked at Dillin with a few flashes of envy in their eyes.
But these thoughts could definitely not be voiced.
Not just him, but many divine sons present cast various gazes at this seemingly ordinary black-haired youth, mostly out of jealousy, with just a bit of admiration.
“Is that guy a blind divine son?”
“There must be no mistake, it’s definitely a blind divine son.” Aileen was extremely sure of this. These all came from the information given by Fland, absolutely reliable.
The divine son is the brain and eyes of a team. If the divine son cannot perform his duties, the team is no different from being blind.
“Alright, be quiet!” The gray-robed mentor’s sudden shout suppressed all the murmurings on the spot.
“Talk about these trifles when you enter the Secret Realm or after you return victorious. The time has come; the Crown Cup for new students officially begins. Now, all teams will be given identity tags. Those who keep yakking will lose their qualification to compete.”
“Make sure to take good care of your tokens, otherwise the Academy won’t be able to record your performance, and we might not even be able to guarantee your safety!”
With that, the students’ restlessness was finally calmed, shifting their focus from Tillysha to the upcoming competition.
Before the Crown Cup began, the mentor had the students gather by their teams, lined up neatly. The divine son would step forward to collect the team’s identity tags.
Seeing the mentors coming their way, Tillysha flicked her hair off of her chest and subtly signaled to the ‘Dillin’ behind her.
The latter stepped forth, placing himself in front of Tillysha.
“Dillin, and Tillysha.” To prevent any backroom dealings, the identity tags were handed out randomly in sequence. After confirmation, the mentor presented the tag to Dillin, who simply accepted it.
However, upon meeting the mentor’s gaze, the mentor felt something odd about this divine son. He seemed completely lost in thought, accepting the tag in complete silence, his eyes glazed over like they were focused on nothing at all.
“You’re about to enter the Secret Realm, lad, snap out of it.” The mentor, slightly dissatisfied, gave Dillin a pat on the shoulder.
“…” Still, Dillin didn’t respond.
“Sorry, esteemed mentor, I believe my divine lord means he understands.” Tillysha quickly stepped up, slightly bowing to take the identity tag.
“My sincerest apologies, Lord divine slept late last night making preparations for the event and may not have realized what you were saying. We hope you can overlook his lapse.” Tillysha’s tone was polished with the utmost respect. Her voice alone was so melodious that it felt like a refreshing breeze.
“Ah, I see.” To avoid any awkwardness, the mentor averted his gaze, giving a slight nod before wishing them luck for the competition and hastily moving away.
The delicate fingers of Tillysha’s hand played with the identity tag in hand, appearing calm but inwardly brimming with nervousness.
Thankfully, they had gotten away with it.
Tillysha glanced at the ‘Dillin’ by her side, who just stared at the tag in his hand, silent and still, his eyes unmoving. If it weren’t for the breathing, he might as well be a living corpse.
On the scene, with so many present and the majority being freshmen, it should go unnoticed that this ‘Dillin’ was an imposter.
That’s right, this Dillin was not the real deal. If he were genuine, there’d be two Dillins in the world.
Unperceived by all, Tillysha had been issuing commands to ‘Dillin,’ first initiating follow mode, then switching to manual controls, directing it forward.
Yesterday, after Tillysha completed her transformation into a divine maiden, she encountered a problem that had to be addressed.
It was that both Dillin and Tillysha couldn’t possibly appear at the same time.
Now, that was troublesome since the Crown Cup required all members of each team to be present before beginning, no exceptions.
However, Tillysha did not lose her cool upon realizing her predicament.
She recalled a solution that might work—she opened the treasure trove’s fragment exchange page and found the cheapest trade-in item there.
That’s right, a month ago when she first opened the page, it was this very item that had caught her eye: the low-grade Substitute Doll.
The Substitute Doll’s function was to replicate the appearance of a person and give the doll basic movement capabilities.
The catch was that the user had to know the person very well; only then could the Substitute Doll construct their image based on the user’s imagination.
Then, through spiritual control and suggestion, the user can issue commands to the Substitute Doll.
Still, it was a low-grade Substitute Doll. When set to automatic mode, it could only mimic simple daily actions. Any decent divine son would spot something was awry, and the doll could only replicate non-divine authority-holding commoners.
This limitation was perfect for Dillin, thus Tillysha controlled the doll to replicate Dillin’s appearance and enable follow mode.
But even after solving the issue of Dillin and Tillysha not being able to coexist, another question remained: What happens if Dillin is eliminated and transported out of the Secret Realm? Would the doll Dillin be exposed while Tillysha was absent?
This was something Tillysha had foreseen and investigated beforehand. When a student got eliminated, they’d be teleported to a private room within the academy, typically staying out of sight.
Before the competition, Tillysha had prepared everything, thought through all the possibilities.
Even if doll Dillin were eliminated, as long as she won, the whole team would follow her victory. In a sense, it’s like riding someone’s coattails to success.
But most importantly, when doll Dillin was eliminated, it would have absolutely no impact on the team’s combat capability.
In other teams, divine analysis and divine authority each perform their respective roles. Hers, however, combined divine analysis and divine authority into one—she was both the divine maiden and the divine son. Doll Dillin in the mix would only slow her down.
Hardly anyone would notice.
Tillysha quickly scanned her surroundings with her eyes, then retracted her gaze.
By the time she finished her musings, the mentors had already finished handing out all the identification tags.
Tillysha glanced at her identity tag—her team was number 30.
Upon activation of the Secret Realm, with strange energy ripples and spatial distortions, the numbers on the identity tags glowed brilliantly.
All students, as if by an unspoken signal, looked up. Above their heads, a number had appeared.
Realizing the phase of revealing participant identities had arrived, everyone was staring at each other’s heads, trying to remember as many numbers as possible of other teams.
Tillysha felt a few gazes land on her before she looked back. Apart from a few unfamiliar teams, Aileen stared at the number above her head with a derisive laugh.
