Chapter 2680: Screaming Puppet
Xu Huo carefully searched every part of the combat puppet, but aside from a few basic instruments it wore and the device in the puppet's heart, he found no other special spatial instruments.
Of course, he didn't expect every combat puppet to be able to freely enter and exit this space, and the materials used for this puppet were clearly inferior to those of the puppets hunting players outside.
After dismantling the puppet with a few slashes, he walked over to the wall covered in puppet costumes and asked, "Do you know how to get out?"
Most of the puppet costumes hanging on the wall had quieted down, and even the few that had been struggling suddenly fell silent at his words, hanging limp like true empty puppets.
Twitching the corner of his mouth, Xu Huo walked out of this transfer station.
The Painting Woman had already dismantled another puppet. Compared to him, her methods were much more brutal—that puppet had been crumpled into a ball, its instruments torn off, and she was crouching on the ground studying them.
There were also working puppet people near the transfer station, but they tacitly pretended not to see the Painting Woman's actions, continuing with whatever they were doing.
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and grabbed one, but before he could ask anything, the puppet person let out an alarm and clutched its head, screaming on the spot: "Robbery! Someone's robbing!"
Only then did the surrounding puppet people start dropping their goods and gathering over. At the same time, two combat puppets arrived. Their attire was different from the puppets in Zone 039, probably a type meant to maintain order, running over while blowing whistles.
Xu Huo and the Painting Woman both leaped into the air, each intercepting a combat puppet. Like the two puppets working in the transfer station, the metal materials they used were also very ordinary.
After taking down these two puppets, several more puppets gradually arrived from the surroundings, but none were the ones they had encountered outside earlier. So Xu Huo immediately moved positions, shaking off the pursuit of these puppets.
In the distance, balloons painted with sunflowers floated up in a scattered manner. Once they reached a certain height, they hovered over the city, drifting in different directions with the city's gentle breeze.
Standing on a city building, Xu Huo looked in the direction the Eternal Tower Kingdom people had left. Aside from the commotion when they first separated, those people had now gone silent.
Earlier, those people had tried to destroy the street, which had attracted the real combat puppets. But "killing" the ordinary puppet people in the city only attracted more order-maintaining puppets. This should be the rule of Clown City—only when a player's destructive power reached a certain level would combat puppets be dispatched to deal with them.
After a moment's thought, he took out an energy bomb and threw it at a nearby dessert tower. After the explosion, the dessert tower wasn't destroyed, but the puppet people playing nearby were all sent flying, at least half of them blown to pieces, hanging everywhere.
Sure enough, within three seconds, new combat puppets appeared. Using spatial teleportation instruments, they instantly closed in—one wielding a blade, the other a whip, attacking Xu Huo from both long and short range.
The clash of blades produced a crisp sound. The combat puppet's metal blade snapped in two, and the black blade slid through, slicing off the close-combat puppet's head. He then kicked its head backward to block the incoming metal whip!
As the metal head was deformed by the whip strike, Xu Huo circled behind the whip-wielding puppet, slashing off both its arms with two consecutive cuts. His materialized object turned into a hand, stabbed into its back, pulled the heart device out of its body, and disconnected one of the connecting wires.
He didn't intend to completely disable this combat puppet. Removing the connecting wire was also a test to see if it could limit the puppet's movements. But the next second, the puppet exploded on the spot, not only sending fragments flying everywhere but also splattering toxic liquid all around.
The defense barrier blocked most of the splatter, but the cloth wrapped around Xu Huo was still contaminated. The flying materialized object quickly cut off the contaminated parts. However, at that moment, the other decapitated puppet also self-destructed while entangled with the Painting Woman.
Debris flew everywhere, and they gained nothing.
"Uh... uh..." A puppet person who had been blown into a nearby shop made a sound. It lay at the doorway, its half-severed arm pressed against the ground, but its fingers slowly curled, leaving one index finger pointing at a certain spot on the street.
Xu Huo followed its gaze. It was a shop selling fake ice cream. Inside, besides the owner, there were several puppet people cowering with their heads down.
Instead of leaving in a hurry, he jumped down from the rooftop and walked straight into the shop. After scanning the few people there, he pulled out the owner, who was hiding under the counter.
Compared to the other puppet people with fear in their eyes, the owner seemed very wooden. Although the paint on its face somewhat obscured its expressions and emotions, a closer look revealed a clear difference between it and the other puppet people.
"Shhh!" The blade formed by the materialized object pierced through the owner's body and then tore to one side. But unlike the previous puppet people, it didn't completely lose its mobility. Instead, it suddenly erupted with tremendous strength, broke free, and fled outside, shouting as it ran: "Murder! Murder!"
These words acted like a switch, making the puppet people who had been reacting normally in the situation turn abnormal. The puppet people hiding in the shops and street corners suddenly all stood up and frantically lunged at Xu Huo and the Painting Woman. Unlike their previous half-rational, half-crazed state, these puppet people grabbed every sharp object they could find, seemingly determined to kill them at all costs!
The front and back of the street were blocked by stacked human walls, and the rooftops on both sides were also covered with people. Whenever Xu Huo or the Painting Woman tried to jump higher, puppet people would leap down to block them.
The puppet people on the street didn't stop either. Unable to get close, they threw their weapons. When the weapons were deflected by the instrument barrier, they repeatedly pressed forward using a human wave tactic. Their attacks weren't blind—many puppet people held props and instruments. Though of varying levels and some already damaged, they could still serve as sharp tools...
So when the instrument barrier expanded, one could see these puppet people clinging to it, frantically scraping and scratching at it with their tools.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Some puppet people found prop swords and repeatedly hacked at it.
Xu Huo frowned, swept away all the surrounding puppet people, then found the puppet owner still screaming at the street corner and split it in half from head to toe.
The annoying screams finally stopped. The puppet people, who had been frenzied just a second ago, now halted again. They dropped their weapons and instantly switched back to happy mode—joyful music, cheerful laughter returned to the street.
As for the puppet person that had been lying at the doorway, it was torn into several pieces by other puppet people and dragged away.
"Was he tipping us off or trying to get us killed?" the Painting Woman asked.
Another chapter will come later.