Chapter 2066: What About You
Those who operate outside the rules, whether by destroying puppets or hiding them, face no punishment. To some extent, they can completely ignore others' retaliation, because in the end, most players will find that some part of their body cannot move during dinner time. Non-ticket players have no such concerns and can act freely.
Moreover, as the number of players decreases, the clearance time can be compressed. Non-ticket players have no concept of clearing the instance; they can only leave when this instance ends.
So if there are still non-ticket players among them, does that mean this person is almost invincible at this stage? After all, they only need to take advantage of dinner time to place a destroyed puppet on the table to kill a player, without even bearing the consequences of punishment. For other players, clearing the instance still comes first, and other grudges or personal venting must take a back seat.
"Destroying puppets right in front of the puppet maker?" Xu Huo laughed as he listened. "If someone's bold enough, they can give it a try."
Everyone thought this made sense, as it did involve risk.
But the risk of hiding puppets was much smaller. Once a puppet disappeared, the corresponding player might not be able to clear the instance. Although this tactic would quickly be exposed as the number of puppets increased, it was still good for stirring up conflict among players and could also reduce numbers.
"In the end, we still have to squeeze together?" The Painting Woman wasn't interested in these discussions. She came up with a new idea. "You guys squeeze together. I'm going back to my own room to sleep."
The others couldn't do anything about her, and of course, they really couldn't all squeeze together, because there were still four players scattered in the rooms. The Glasses Player might be easy to deal with, but the other three probably wouldn't cooperate with them.
"Not only do we have to watch out for our own puppets being hidden," said a slightly older man at this point, "but we also have to be careful of someone replacing real puppets with fake ones."
This served as a warning to everyone. If someone found a fake puppet and ignored the real one, their death would be quite unjust.
The puppets made by the puppet maker had no special markings on them.
So for the rest of the night, the group divided the work and took shifts specifically watching the Sweet Girl and her two companions. Those resting could not leave the guest area without the company of others, or it would be considered a breach of the agreement.
Fortunately, nothing happened that night. But no one expected that the next morning, everyone found all their puppets in the dining room—ten puppets of the same size lined up on the table, and every single one was missing both arms.
"Heh!" Sweet Girl sneered at the sight. "You people are really something."
Her implication was that one of the ten cooperating players had done this.
"Oh my, I didn't go out at all last night," Fluorescent Pink said, covering her mouth with her hand in feigned surprise.
The players then searched the rest of the castle but found no other puppets. When they gathered back in the dining room, they carefully examined the ten puppets.
"Is one of them real?" The Purple-Clad Woman, who had asked about non-ticket players the night before, raised an eyebrow. "Or is none of them real?"
Who could know that?
The players warily took their own puppets.
"Isn't that good?" The Long-Coated Man had regained his previous elegant demeanor, smiling as he said, "With more puppets, no one knows whether the ones that appear are real or fake. Doesn't that lower the chance of someone taking your real puppet?"
"Is it you!" This infuriated the other players present. Since the puppets had no special markings, counterfeiting them wasn't difficult. Everyone had been feeling out the rules for the past two days, and they hadn't even fully grasped them yet. If he suddenly pulled this stunt, who knew whether the puppets that appeared later would be real or fake? What if the real one never got found?
With so many people, they couldn't all stick together. Wouldn't that force players to search the castle over and over? Who had the energy for that?
The Long-Coated Man remained expressionless and simply admitted it. "Since you like picking up other people's puppets, you can pick up more."
This enraged the group, and three people immediately made a move. But before they could get close, the Long-Coated Man froze them mid-step with a single command of "Stillness!"
The others had been prepared for his trait attack and had equipped silencing items before acting. However, the trait still took effect. Although the defense items blocked the Long-Coated Man's counterattack, the few who tried to move still retreated.
"Don't let him provoke you. He's trying to drag everyone down," said the slightly older man. "Right now, he's the only one without a puppet. If he dares not to produce another puppet, he might not even have a chance to clear the instance. We don't need to clash with him head-on. Just keep an eye on him."
They had the numbers and held the advantage.
"Are you sure?" The Long-Coated Man clearly didn't want anyone to have an easy time. He glanced meaningfully at Xu Huo. "A dual Mental and Spatial Super Evolver—wouldn't it be simple for him to place a few puppets without you noticing?"
"Destroying or hiding puppets would naturally be easy too."
The remaining players couldn't help but turn their gazes to Xu Huo. Even Fluorescent Pink and Sweet Girl did the same. The ten puppets just now didn't include theirs, but that didn't mean theirs wouldn't appear later.
"I'm not the only Super Evolver here," Xu Huo said, picking out three players from the crowd, including the Purple-Clad Woman, the older man, and a Jacket-Wearing Man who had barely spoken and had a very weak presence.
"But that doesn't matter," he continued. "The more you muddy the waters, the harder our situation becomes. Adding fake puppets benefits no one."
"We can make a new agreement. No one present is allowed to secretly place fake puppets from now on. Anyone who breaks the agreement will be dealt with."
"What do you all think?"
The others exchanged glances. An agreement was one thing, but keeping an eye on everyone's movements was difficult. Items could be blocked with space devices or similar items, but there was no guarantee against strange traits.
"How about this," Xu Huo said. "From now on, no one is allowed to leave the dining room. We'll supervise each other's every word and action. What do you say?"
Those who hadn't yet obtained their puppets were all afraid that more puppets would appear and become indistinguishable. If one was missing arms and another missing legs, wouldn't dinner time be like being a lamb to the slaughter? Whether the non-ticket players were dead or not was still unknown.
The problem was the other three.
Xu Huo first looked at Fluorescent Pink and Sweet Girl. "Let me remind you, you've already lost your hands and feet. If you break the rules again, next time only your head might be able to move."
Fluorescent Pink, who had been "forced" to break the rules, could only nod. What else could she do?
Sweet Girl just shrugged. "When in Rome." She also agreed.
Then Xu Huo rested his Black Blade diagonally downward, the tip pointing at the ground, and looked directly at the Long-Coated Man. "What about you?"