Chapter 2058: Breaking the Rules
The players present were all startled by the sudden killing scene, instinctively turning to look at the Puppet Maker, only to find that the puppet in his hand had also been crushed.
The face hidden in the darkness beneath the cloak turned slightly, as if glancing at everyone around the dining table, but he made no indication of anything. After sitting down, he raised his hand.
The others followed suit and sat down, as if none of them had seen the pile of flesh on the nearby table.
Number 1 and Number 2 began serving the dishes, while Number 3 and Number 4 silently cleared away the corpse by the table. The bright red bloodstains were not completely cleaned up but were left on the tabletop.
The players were unusually silent, even unconsciously slowing their breathing. The middle-aged man had died too suddenly, without any warning at all, and what killed him was not an ordinary prop or instrument, but a power inherent in the Instance—this meant that the players' defensive items might be completely useless. If the castle owner wanted to kill them, they had absolutely no escape!
Many secretly cast their gazes at the High Ponytail woman.
The High Ponytail sat stiffly in her seat, not even daring to look at the Puppet Maker. Her eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead, and under the table, her hand quietly stored her puppet into the Luggage Compartment.
"Ding!" The crisp sound of a wine glass being tapped rang out. The castle owner raised his glass to toast the crowd. The players dared not refuse, but just as they lifted their glasses, the High Ponytail at the far end was suddenly crushed to death, just like the middle-aged man before. And because she had used a prop for defense in advance, before her body was completely destroyed, the nearby players even caught a glimpse of her face deforming under the pressure of the Defense Barrier!
"Smack!"
The High Ponytail died.
Almost all the players at the table froze. In that instant, the threat of death seized their minds. The puppets, the rule-breaking—all of that was secondary. What they feared more was whether the castle owner would indiscriminately kill everyone!
A faint sound of drinking brought everyone's thoughts back to the dining table.
Xu Huo, who had tasted the pre-dinner wine just like at yesterday's dinner, set down his glass, sat back down, spread his napkin, and began to eat.
Then the Long Coat Man, the Sweet Girl, the Fluorescent Pink, and a gaunt old man picked up their utensils.
Although the other players had sat down, they hesitated to start.
The Painting Woman wasn't afraid of accidentally angering the Puppet Maker; instead, she was curiously searching around the High Ponytail's seat. Finding nothing, she said to the person at the head of the table, "Her puppet is missing."
Number 1 spoke on behalf of the Puppet Maker: "A damaged puppet is a waste product."
The implication was that it didn't matter if it couldn't be retrieved.
The Painting Woman's interest in the puppet remained undiminished. After returning to her seat, she said, "I like that puppet. Can you make one of me?"
The other players at the table now truly felt that the Painting Woman was genuinely foolish, not pretending. The three people who had received puppets today were all dead, especially the middle-aged man and the High Ponytail, killed in such an inexplicable and utterly unresistable manner. Was she not afraid? How did someone so reckless become an advanced player?
The Puppet Maker seemed to glance at the Painting Woman, and Number 1 replied, "I'll consider it."
This answer didn't satisfy the Painting Woman. Instead, she said, "If you're going to make one for me, don't leave out any limbs. I don't want a broken one."
Her matter-of-fact attitude made the players sitting beside and across from her want to slap her twice.
Unexpectedly, the Puppet Maker nodded.
The Painting Woman was satisfied. She handed out the headless puppet she had picked up that morning, saying, "Here, take it back."
Number 2 took the puppet.
Just as everyone thought this meal would remain silent until the end, the Sweet Girl on the right suddenly spoke up: "Are we not allowed to leave our rooms at night? The people who went out last night all got damaged puppets. If we can't go out, you should have said so earlier. If you're going to make a puppet of me, I want a complete one too."
The Puppet Maker paused his movements and turned his head toward her.
But the Sweet Girl didn't stop. She continued, "I heard you don't like disobedient people. So what kind of person counts as obedient? Why don't you tell me, and I'll try my best to be a good little obedient one."
Zuo Yu, sitting beside her, didn't dare to breathe loudly and secretly tugged at her sleeve, signaling her to say less.
Although the Puppet Maker was taciturn, he still answered the question. Number 1 faced the Sweet Girl and said in an elusive tone, "You'll naturally know as time goes on."
The Sweet Girl raised an eyebrow but didn't press further.
Then the Long Coat Man spoke up, "Seven days are only enough to make twenty-one puppets. The number of people here clearly exceeds that."
The Puppet Maker only selected the three most satisfactory puppets on Sunday, meaning it would take at least seven days for all players to clear the Instance. Twenty-one puppets in seven days—given the current likelihood that players need to match their own puppets to clear, at least three players would have to wait until the next Sunday, which would take a full fourteen days.
The actual time spent in the Puppet Instance over fourteen days might be shorter than in the players' own zones, but the longer it took, the greater the chance of missing the next Instance. Solving the problem within the first seven days would naturally be best.
The Long Coat Man's words successfully stirred the players' emotions.
The Instance was said to have twenty-four people, but actually twenty-five had entered. No matter which unlucky person had mistakenly entered the Instance, they had solidly taken up a slot. For the Puppet Maker to finish everyone's puppets in seven days, at least four people would need to be eliminated.
Of course, killing other players also carried risks, because even if successful, the killer might be chosen as the next target for puppet-making.
Currently, the rules for killing were unclear, so the best course of action was to stay put.
However, if someone did make a move, it could also verify one thing: whether killing a fellow Instance player would make one a target of the Puppet Maker.
After the meal, everyone returned to their rooms, shutting their doors tightly, apparently with no intention of coming out again.
Xu Huo released his Spiritual Realm and entered the exhibition hall through the Mirror Space. He rechecked the puppets in the cabinet—their number hadn't increased. On the other side, in the painting studio, the black cat hadn't come back to life either. However, he noticed that someone had flipped over a few canvases today, one of which contained a draft of a puppet. He observed that certain parts of the puppet's limbs were repeatedly designed until the final draft, and even the completed drawing showed multiple traces of revision and overlay, suggesting that the puppet's design wasn't achieved in one go.
Those removed parts might not necessarily be targeting the players; it was also possible that the Puppet Maker was repeatedly crafting components. If that were the case, the removed parts wouldn't have specific significance regarding the players breaking the rules. So it wasn't something they had done or said last night that had violated the rules.
But when the players received the puppets, nothing happened. It was only after the Puppet Maker appeared that the High Ponytail and the middle-aged man died. The order of death also didn't follow the order in which the puppets appeared. Therefore, "breaking the rules" occurred during the process of them meeting the Puppet Maker.
Of course, it was also possible that what happened at the dining table was merely "punishment." But that would also mean that the "punishment" required both the castle owner and the punished player to be present, with a "seeing" action in between.
Currently, the conditions under which the Puppet Maker selected his targets were unclear, so Xu Huo couldn't determine whether both "breaking the rules" and "punishment" required "seeing."