The preliminary preparations for creating the puppet town were quite tedious and complicated, at least that's what Klein thought.
In the vast ancient palace, Klein sat in the high-backed chair belonging to "The Fool," using a fountain pen and ordinary paper to write names, ages, and destinies for each puppet, while "spirit worms" crawled out of his body and reassembled into one clone after another.
Some of these Kleins sat on the floor, others occupied the twenty-one chairs besides "The Fool," and some manifested beds and lay down on them...
Then they summoned different books from the pile and began reading attentively.
These books included but were not limited to: "How to Brew Wine," "Train Dispatching," "Complete Guide to Dessert Making," "Self-Cultivation of a Clergyman," "Manual for Repairing Gas Wall Lamps, Gas Meters, and Various Household Machinery," "Dici Cuisine," "Port Management Practice," "Basics of Law," "Ladies' Aesthetics" magazine...
These were the professional knowledge that different puppets needed to master. Only then could they play their roles well, making them realistic enough in all aspects so that even in deep conversation and interaction with outsiders, no problems would be exposed.
If it were just a matter of memorizing this knowledge, it would be no problem for Klein, but he had to truly master it and be able to apply it, and moreover, he could not confuse the roles and allow a burly, low-income switchman to suddenly blurt out about the moisturizing effects of some skincare product or the flaws of a certain silk.
If such a situation occurred in a novel, play, or opera, it might create a peculiar charm, but in reality, it would be clearly distorted and not conducive to the ritual's progress.
To avoid such problems, Klein had to work hard in the early stages, striving to make every character in the puppet town realistic, well-rounded, and appropriate.
Fortunately, there were not too many people in a town who needed to deeply master corresponding professional knowledge. Most residents were semi-literate or even completely illiterate, living on experience and muddling through. For these characters, Klein needed to learn much less, like workers who had gone through simple training or no training and went straight to the assembly line.
After an unknown amount of time, Klein's main body put down the pen, rubbed his temples, and let out a long sigh of relief.
He had finally finished compiling the data for nearly five thousand residents of the puppet town, and the corresponding knowledge reserve was almost complete.
"It's like directing a huge movie, and the screenwriter is me, the lighting guy is me, the prop master is me, the makeup artist is me, and all the actors are also me... If I continue this ritual, I'm really on the verge of losing control, and I might split my personality and fall into the abyss of madness... Luckily I have a competent psychologist..."
"Hmm, I need to note a problem in the operation of the puppet town: although I personally am a polite and cultured gentleman, most of the residents in a town are lower class, and their speech and behavior will tend to be coarse... I cannot act condescendingly and fail to break through the psychological barrier..." Klein silently sighed, letting the surrounding clones dissolve into "spirit worms," which crawled back into his body.
Of course, that was not all: one "Klein" remained in the previous state, ready to take a shift at the "Source Castle."
The next second, Klein's main body returned to reality, took "
Then he "teleported" to an island located in the Stormy Sea but clearly off the safe shipping lanes.
This was the "stage" he had chosen beforehand.
—This place was perpetually isolated by storms, with no traces of human activity, only vast forests and animals dependent on them.
Klein looked around, chose an open area, pressed his right hand to his left chest, and prayed devoutly: "I wish for a city suitable for five thousand people to live here."
As soon as he spoke, Klein raised his right hand and snapped his fingers with a crisp sound.
Suddenly, the open area became perfectly level, and the surrounding forests "retreated" a lot, providing a great deal of wood, stone, and earth.
Almost simultaneously, buildings rose up. They were a mix of stone and wood, no more than four stories tall, in a style resembling the Dici Bay of the
In the blink of an eye, residential houses, a library, a police station, a telegraph office, a city council, a small hospital, a fruit factory, a waterworks, a gas company, a steam train station, parallel tracks, and plantations outside the city all took shape, and the streets were paved with cement or stone bricks.
Finally, next to the central square of the town, a spire church rose from the ground, towering proudly.
This was a church belonging to the "Goddess of the Night," because it fit the city's background setting.
"I wish this island has a deep-water port," Klein didn't stop and made his second wish.
Snap! He snapped his fingers again, fulfilling his wish.
About three kilometers from the town, a small-scale port quickly formed, with two docks, five warehouses, a hotel by the port, a simple restaurant, a police substation, a bar, a lighthouse, a naval barracks at the port...
"I wish the port and the town have convenient transportation," Klein made his third wish.