Myriad Realms Gatekeeper

Let time rewind a little.
Star Moon City
Earth Surface City.
On a certain street.
In a very ordinary shop.
An unbelievable thing happened in a completely unremarkable way.
“Mr. Kade, could you please settle the bill?”
“Okay, let me see.”
A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling, rummaging through the shopping basket for a while.
“WeChat number 9557 processor, second-hand;
Five alloy bolts;
Brainwave sensor, ah, this is an obsolete item, sometimes it causes seizures, so I’ll give it to you cheap;
And a — duck? Alive? Ah, are you sure you want this duck?”
During the questioning, the old man behind the counter poked his head out and glanced at the duck.
Duck.
Where did the duck come from?
The calm voice of the girl sounded:
“I heard ducks are good food — in the Ancient Era people ate such creatures, so I wanted to buy one to try.”
“Mr. Kade, please calculate the bill.”
The old man immediately dismissed his doubts.
No matter whose twisted humor used genetic engineering to create a duck.
No matter who left it here.
In any case—
“Hmm… originally you needed to pay three alloy chips, but this duck—well, I’ll give the duck to you cheaper as well; you only need to pay four chips.”
The old man said.
“Deal,” the girl said.
As soon as the words fell.
A small line appeared above the duck’s head:
“Sold the duck!”
Of course.
This line disappeared as soon as it appeared.
To the store owner and the girl, they hadn’t noticed this extremely important matter at all.
Instead, the duck itself raised its head with interest, looking at the lines appearing in the void:
“Holy Entry.”
“Description: God has covered your tracks, guiding you here to see what divine mischief is.
— The actions of the Lord carry profound meanings.”
The girl took her things, holding the duck, and walked out of the store.
She slipped into a small alley, turning left and right, until no one could be seen anymore.
Thud thud thud.
The girl knocked on the wall.
A secret compartment opened.
The girl descended the stairs into a basement.
“You’re back?”
A man entirely covered in metal, except for his flesh and blood head, said.
“Dad, look, what is this!”
The girl excitedly lifted the duck to show the man.
“Goose? No, maybe it’s a duck?”
“Right, I bought it from Kade, cost a chip.”
“Too expensive, these things went extinct long ago, who would waste time genetically engineering such a thing? It has no purpose—”
“It’s a waste, doesn’t meet your basic survival principles!”
After saying this, the man panted heavily.
The girl softly said:
“Dad, I remembered your dying wish was to stop eating nutritional liquid.”
“I’ll find an ancient recipe to prepare an ancient meal with the duck, how about it?”
The man stared at the duck, his expression becoming complicated.
“A living creature… look, it’s making eye contact with me…”
He continued in a soft voice:
“I can hardly believe it.”
“I now feel that eating that nasty nutritional liquid is normal, I can’t eat something with a mind.”
The girl dejectedly said, “I spent a chip, and now you’re changing your mind?”
“…Bring the duck over here for me to see,” the man said.
The duck was brought in front of the man.
The man stared at the duck.
The duck widened its eyes but stared at the girl, appearing a bit terrified.
— Because the girl unscrewed the metal cover on her chest, revealing an interface inside, and picked up something from the table that looked like a power bank, plugging it into the interface.
A gentle voice sounded:
“Beep beep beep!”
“Charging your prosthetic body.”
Charging!
Damn, totally mistaken.
Shouldn’t have opened any Holy Restaurant.
These guys rely on charging, or on nutritional liquid!
— Humans no longer eat!
No wonder when the Holy Restaurant opened, the pedestrians on the street had strange and curious looks.
But no one came in to dine.
Dining has become an Ancient Era ritual!
“Tomorrow the mysterious monsters will besiege the city, Dad, if it doesn’t work, run away.”
The girl lay on the sofa, speaking nonchalantly.
“Hmph, I’ve been a sentry all my life, dying on the job is normal.” The man calmly said.
“I heard some people escaped to the Wild and lived a long time.” The girl probed.
“Don’t listen to those rumors; no one could escape the Outer God’s hunt, they all died.”
“That’s not true, I heard—”
“Enough!”
The man’s voice suddenly elevated, but when the girl fell into a long silence, he sighed and said in a low voice:
“This metal body of mine is at its limit, dying on the battlefield is fine, at least you can receive compensation.”
The girl remained silent, for a while, wiping her eyes with her hand.
But in the next moment.
“Quack!”
The duck quacked loudly, startling both father and daughter.
Immediately after.
The man emitted bursts of mechanical friction sounds all over.
The girl, unable to care about her emotions anymore, leaped from the sofa in a panic and said:
“Dad—”
She looked at her father and suddenly froze.
The old and worn steel body of her father had completely transformed.
Every part.
Every metal surface.
All shone brilliantly as if new.
The girl rushed forward a few steps, pressing her hand on her father’s body, commanding:
“Check the parameters, report the performance!”
Beep beep beep—
Flashing curves and skyrocketing attribute values emerged in her eyes.