Chapter 1446: Fairy Tale Products and the Game World
With his previous experience in the castle, Xu Huo once again sent the vertical pupil in first to understand the situation inside the room.
In the room, besides the resident of Gem City who had secretly spied on him in the street and the elderly homeowner, there were also two unkempt men hiding in the basement, wolfing down the food the man had brought.
"Eat slowly." The old lady brought water and handed a cup to the food-delivering man. "Wan En, thank you for bringing things over."
The man named Wan En shook his head. "It's not convenient for you to buy too much food. These days have been hard on Ai Li and Ai Shan."
Ai Li and Ai Shan were the two who came out of the basement. Their names were similar, but one had red hair and the other brown hair, and their appearances were quite different.
After quickly finishing the food in his hands, Ai Li gulped down two mouthfuls of water to catch his breath before asking, "What's the situation now? Are they still not allowing anyone out of the city gate?"
Wan En nodded. "I'm afraid you'll have to hide here for a while longer. And recently, more outsiders have come to the city. Those outsiders are very strange—they all seem incredibly powerful..."
Ai Li and Ai Shan's faces changed at the same time. The former quickly asked, "Do they look like puppets?"
"Not exactly, but they're very similar to the kind of puppets you described. They can disappear in one place and reappear far away, and some can even fly." Wan En's negative answer did not relax their expressions. Ai Shan even showed a terrified look. "It must be that person Father mentioned who looks like a puppet. That person is also like a magician—he can appear anywhere and kill people at will. Even the King can't do anything about him..."
"It's not that the King can't do anything about him—the King is in league with him!" Ai Li clenched his fists, hatred in his eyes. "Father saw with his own eyes the servants in the castle taking out many puppets. Every so often, many people in the city go missing. It must be that puppet man doing it on the King's orders. Maybe those missing people have already been turned into puppets!"
"Ai Li," Wan En signaled him to calm down. "It's impossible for people to turn into puppets."
"It is possible!" Ai Li retorted while pulling out a thumb-sized black stone and placing it on the table. "You've been searching these days too. Have you seen anyone with this kind of black gem? I saw it with my own eyes when I sneaked into the castle. After the Queen's maid pried out the black gem from the chest of a living puppet, the puppet immediately stopped moving!"
"Father must have been turned into a puppet by them too. I just haven't figured out where they hide the puppets before I alerted the guards."
Ai Li grabbed his hair in pain. "If I had been a little faster, maybe I could have found Father..."
"Don't blame yourself too much," Ai Shan advised, both sorrowful and clear-headed. "Even if you found Father turned into a puppet, you might not be able to bring him out. If the King is really involved in all this, he will never let us leave the city."
"Uncle Wan En, do you still not believe any of this?" Ai Li looked up at the man across from him. "I'm not the only one who saw the puppet man!"
Wan En looked at him with difficulty. "By the time I heard about this, the uncles and elders living near you had all gone missing one after another after visiting the castle. Not long after, their families also disappeared. Everything I know comes from what you've told me."
"But recently, many outsiders have come. I've seen something like your pipe on some of them."
Hearing this, Ai Li quickly pulled out a metal pipe tucked behind his waist. "This metal is very special. Gem City has never had anything like it."
"It is indeed very special," Wan En said with a complicated expression. "I saw someone use the same kind of metal to split three houses in half."
He was referring to the player chase on the first night.
"Then that proves it!" Ai Li became excited. "Father said that puppet man brought many strange things like this to the King. The King must have turned Father and the others into puppets to get this powerful metal!"
As if he had found solid evidence, he stood up and paced back and forth, then said, "We have to tell everyone about this, or else everyone might be turned into puppets!"
"Calm down first. How many people would believe us if we just said this?" Wan En pulled him back. "Think it over carefully. First, we need to ensure your safety."
The few of them sat down again and began discussing how to spread the news. Before, there was no way, but now that so many strange outsiders had appeared in the city, someone would surely start thinking.
After listening to their conversation, Xu Huo also pieced together the cause and effect of the craftsmen's disappearance.
The general process was that Ai Li's father and other craftsmen, after entering the castle to work, accidentally stumbled upon the King trading with a person who looked exactly like a puppet. They then died or disappeared. The bargaining chips were various kinds of items—the pipe Ai Li had stolen was one such item—while what the King gave in return were puppets suspected to be transformed from Gem City residents.
Living people turning into puppets, and then using those puppets to exchange for tools—for the residents of Gem City, this was beyond their understanding. At the same time, it had prompted a certain degree of awakening. At least Ai Li and the others were no longer as ignorant as the other residents; they had learned to doubt and resist.
However, from Xu Huo's perspective, this matter was easier to understand.
First, regarding the puppets in the Queen's workshop, it was clear that the Queen had made them. All the people of Gem City might have evolved from those puppet items under specific instance environment conditions, so there was no such thing as "people turning into puppets."
Therefore, the craftsmen who stumbled upon the transaction were most likely killed and then either remade or discarded.
Second, in essence, this was a trade of items for items. The King used the puppet items made by the Queen to exchange for items used by ordinary players from the puppet man.
The identity of the puppet man was not the main issue for now. What was strange was the King's exchange of items. The King and Queen almost never left the castle. They themselves did not use items, as if they didn't even know what items were. The "Codex Pen" had been stuffed in a corner, and the King didn't hesitate at all when Xu Huo asked for it. Why would he exchange for so many items?
To purchase puppet raw materials?
From the materials stored in the castle, the core material the Queen used to make puppet items—the black gem—was likely mass-produced. That meant they weren't short of this stone... unless they were making higher-level puppets.
"Interesting."
For a moment, multiple possibilities flashed through Xu Huo's mind, but they all ultimately landed on the puppet man.
This instance hadn't been open for long, and the gem theft had already happened a month ago. This meant that for a long time before that, the King and Queen had been trading with the puppet man. Regardless of whether this instance world existed in an illusory fairy tale world or in reality, one thing was certain: at least one of the King and Queen had been in long-term contact with the game world.
(Chapter End)