Chapter 2063: Exceeding the Goal
At this point, knowing how to survive dinner, the players left the restaurant and returned to their respective rooms. However, compared to the earlier panic and uncertainty, they were now much more composed.
"You were the one who told her that her legs couldn't move, weren't you?" the sweet girl said, falling back a step to speak to Xu Huo. "Why not just kill her outright? If you don't, your puppet might end up in her hands."
"She's only succeeded in the first step," Xu Huo said. "There's still no clue on how to clear the instance; everything remains unknown. Perhaps killing a player carries no corresponding penalty, but destroying a puppet might be a different matter."
"Aside from Zuo Yu's, all the puppets that have appeared so far are incomplete. Whether it's because the rules were broken or simply because the Puppet Maker took a disliking to them, the missing parts vary in number."
"From the puppet structure diagram in the studio, it's clear that puppets are divided into six parts. Destroying a puppet might not result in instant death, but who knows if the corresponding puppet of the destroyer will suffer more damage? A missing hand or foot can still be managed, but what about missing both hands or the entire body?"
This was not only a warning for the other players but also for the sweet girl, who had already destroyed one puppet. Under unclear circumstances, ensuring the integrity of one's own puppet was the wisest course of action.
However, the sweet girl didn't seem to care much. Instead, she said, "Actually, there's a simpler speculation: the Puppet Maker might not care that much about the players' puppets. Otherwise, the puppets wouldn't be scattered so casually around the castle. Maybe he's just waiting for all the players to die, then he'll make new puppets in our likeness and put them in the display cabinet."
"That's a possibility," Xu Huo said. "But instance holders must also follow instance rules. An instance that is completely impossible to clear shouldn't exist, nor would it have any meaning to clear."
Seeing that she couldn't convince him, the sweet girl shrugged and returned to her room.
The Painting Woman followed Xu Huo to his room, closed the door, and immediately asked, "Should we kill Pink Hair? She seems to really dislike you."
"No need," Xu Huo said, pouring himself a glass of water and sitting down. "Here, all players are competitors. Eliminating her alone won't make my puppet safe. Besides, destroying a puppet carries risks. Anyone rational wouldn't take that gamble."
Furthermore, Fluorescent Pink was the first to survive dinner, and her puppet had been retrieved. Whether it would become a "satisfactory puppet" remained to be seen.
At the same time, Fluorescent Pink herself had become an unstable factor. Whether her death or transformation would affect the puppet's repair was hard to say, but since all the puppets in the display cabinet were intact, at the very least, her puppet would need to be complete for her to talk about clearing the instance.
"What if someone else damages your puppet?" the Painting Woman asked worriedly. "Would you die?"
Xu Huo didn't answer that question. Instead, he extended his spiritual realm to check the exhibition room again, confirming that no new puppets had appeared before refocusing on the room.
The puppets of the players who hadn't died yet hadn't appeared. Excluding the puppets of High Ponytail and Zuo Yu, the puppets of the Middle-aged Man, Scar Forehead, and Fluorescent Pink had all been retrieved. Although the Puppet Maker had previously stated through No. 1 that incomplete puppets were scrap, that was based on the assumption that the corresponding player was already dead. Fluorescent Pink was still alive.
But whether the Puppet Maker would repair the puppets was another matter.
First, regarding the puppets in the exhibition room, everyone assumed that the corresponding players were dead. Although there was no direct evidence, the fact that searching for related information under the dimension yielded almost no results suggested a high probability of death. This meant that the retrieved puppets might be repaired later.
Second, regarding the timing of repairs: if incomplete puppets could still be repaired, given the Puppet Maker's workload of three puppets per day, the repairs might not happen simultaneously. Therefore, incomplete puppets would likely not be included in the evaluation on the seventh day.
If everyone's puppets were incomplete, it might not matter, but Zuo Yu's puppet was complete. Assuming that a "satisfactory puppet" required completeness, it was possible that only three puppets would be complete within seven days, meaning the "satisfactory puppets" were selected from the start.
This wasn't good news. Under this tendency, players like the sweet girl and Fluorescent Pink would never obtain their complete puppets within the first seven days. Since this instance had no time limit, the rules would likely change only when all players were dead or the instance was cleared. Thus, starting from the second seven-day period, incomplete puppets would be repaired. During the first seven days, players who couldn't obtain complete puppets would do their utmost to cause trouble.
However, if Xu Huo's speculation was correct, damaging a puppet should be linked to the degree of incompleteness of one's own puppet. Otherwise, the instance would be a meaningless repetition.
Regardless, reducing the number of players was beneficial to everyone. Moreover, with Fluorescent Pink's success and the Long Coat Man's example, the others had gained some reassurance.
The skill levels of advanced players varied greatly. To ensure success, some of the remaining players chose to form alliances, minimizing their opponents as much as possible without damaging the room's furnishings. As a result, by the next morning, the number of players had dropped to fifteen.
On the first day, No. 25, the Middle-aged Man, and High Ponytail died. On the second day, Scar Forehead, Zuo Yu, and one person killed by the Long Coat Man died. Six people had died in two days. However, since five people had already taken up puppet slots, three more needed to be eliminated to ensure that each remaining player's puppet would appear within seven days.
Well, they had exceeded the goal.
To everyone's surprise, the first puppet to appear on the third day was complete. It belonged to a bespectacled player. The puppet was picked up by No. 2, the servant, in the hallway. As it was being taken to the dining room, it happened to encounter the bespectacled player, who received it directly.
"It can be like this?" Fluorescent Pink said, slightly envious as she watched the other player store the puppet in their luggage compartment.
Since the castle owner needed to witness the "rule violation" and "punishment" for them to take effect, hiding the puppet before that time shouldn't be a major issue.
"What I don't understand is, the castle owner knows when we damage the puppets in the rooms, so why are they fine with others breaking or hiding puppets?" Fluorescent Pink added.
"Not necessarily fine," the Long Coat Man said slowly while eating his breakfast. "All puppets will be retrieved eventually. Completeness doesn't mean satisfaction."
Hearing this, the bespectacled player's expression changed, but in the end, he didn't take the puppet out. After all, compared to being killed on the spot, delaying the instance clearance time was a much less severe consequence. (Chapter End)