Otaku Witch

"Boom…."

Accompanied by a massive mushroom cloud soaring into the sky, the entire chessboard space began to shake, with even the game's physical board, about the size of a table, violently trembling. This made the witches and angels watching the game wince, unable to bear watching any longer.

It could no longer be called a war; it was clearly a massacre.

Even as the Angel Legion fought with all their might, against the overwhelming difference in power, their efforts were in vain. They had exhausted all their means, yet they were still unable to breach the Wall of Sighs. Truly, this Marvelous Architecture lived up to its nickname of Despair's Wall.

And with the Forbidden Curse Cannon of Sky City finishing its warm-up phase, the towering mushroom cloud had already signaled the end of the game.

Although the victory condition of the game should be to completely occupy the opponent's territory or capture the player, there was no more talk of occupation now, as literally half of the angels' map had ceased to exist.

"The power of the Forbidden Curse Cannon seems off."

This was Miss Michael's last thought as the expanding mushroom cloud submerged the Angel Temple.

According to the normal game settings, the Forbidden Curse Cannon on Sky City should only have the power to destroy about one-eighth of the map. However, that last blast had wiped out half of the territory occupied by the angels in one fell swoop. In fact, had it not been for the Wall of Sighs blocking the aftermath of the mushroom cloud, even the witches themselves might have been affected by the blast.

In any case, Miss Seraph didn't come to understand why the power of the cannon was so great until she was automatically kicked out of the game by the chessboard.

Meanwhile, in the witches' temple, Dorothy looked up excitedly at the huge mushroom cloud in the distance and then nodded.

"Hmm, it seems the overload mode I modified on the fly is still quite effective, it's just that this blast consumed a bit too much energy. Luckily, resources are infinite in this game; I wouldn't dare use it like this in reality," thought the homebody witch.

Shortly after, she received a notification of her victory in the game, and that she would soon be leaving the chessboard.

Upon this, Dorothy stepped down from her throne and went to the outer periphery of the temple, unwillingly taking one last glance at the colossal Marvelous Architecture she had just constructed in a few hours.

"I really did create something exhilarating this time."

If one were to build Marvelous Architecture in reality, setting aside the terrifying cost of materials, the mere construction time could drive one to desperation. Even with various magical aids, building marvelous architecture would typically require measuring the construction period in years.

For perspective, consider that a standard witch's villa could take just a few hours from design to construction, including furnishings. From this, one can understand the enormity of the undertaking involved in Marvelous Architecture.

Fortunately, this was all a game, where many processes were simplified, and the tedious, repetitive building steps could be accelerated. Provided you had enough productive force, it was feasible to construct Marvelous Architecture in a few hours.

Of course, even with such special game mechanics, it still wouldn't have been possible to build such a massive Marvelous Architecture in a matter of hours relying solely on her own and the twelve witches under her command, along with the Servant Army's productive force.

It was only possible for Dorothy to achieve this miracle all thanks to the Unique Technique — imparted only by Spider Teacher — 'You're already a Marvel," Learn to build on your own.'

The productive force of witches and the Servant Army alone clearly wouldn't suffice, but what if countless Mechanical Puppets were added to the mix?

"It's wonderful. Although the Marvelous Architecture blueprints here in the game are castrated versions and can't be used in reality, the building experience is indeed genuine. I'll be able to apply this experience in my next project," the Homebody Witch pondered with satisfaction as she looked at the swarms of Puppets, dense as ant colonies toiling endlessly.

About millions of various construction Puppets were working tirelessly.

They could mine and extract resources on their own, build new Puppet production lines, and repair damaged Puppets...

It had effectively become a true Puppet Kingdom; had this been in reality, even if Dorothy, their creator, were to leave now, this Puppet Kingdom would continue to exist indefinitely – they had achieved self-sufficiency.

The only regret was that these Puppets were still Low Level and had not developed intelligence. In reality, Dorothy could have let Zero use her Authority to catalyze them; it was just unfortunate she hadn't brought Familiar Miss, the mechanical familiar, this time. Otherwise, this Mechanical Puppet Kingdom might indeed have become completely autonomous, giving rise to a new race of intelligent machines.

She actually felt quite regretful about Miss Michael's lack of patience, considering she had only completed about half of the more than a hundred Marvelous Architecture varieties in War Chess, with the other half still under construction. Given another two hours, she could have achieved the full Marvelous Architecture feat.

Nevertheless, the Homebody Witch's gains this time around were still substantial. After all, building something exhilarating at once, even if only in a game, was worthwhile. Thanks to her Talent, Diligence Makes Up for Lack of Skill, she had still garnered a wealth of experience in Puppet Architecture from the many problems encountered during the building process; after all, she had now thoroughly mastered everything Spider Teacher had taught her.