Chapter 2687: Jia Yu
The moment Xu Huo landed, he took care of several working combat puppets in the transfer station. He then looked at the kangaroo that had knocked him out, his expression serious: "You are?"
The kangaroo quickly made a swimming gesture, then picked up the damaged doll costume from the ground and tossed it to him, signaling for him to put it on. After that, it walked over to the wall, sat down against it, and pretended to be a puppet in need of repair.
Xu Huo didn't hesitate. He put on the doll costume and hid as well.
The Singer arrived quickly. The sound of her high heels moved unhurriedly from the entrance into the transfer station, passing by the destroyed combat puppets, walking past the repair machines and boxes, and finally stopping beside a pile of broken dolls and puppet people.
"Tap, tap, tap!"
The high heels came to a halt. A tangible pressure swept over every doll and puppet person. After a long moment, the footsteps resumed, gradually fading away.
Neither Xu Huo nor the kangaroo, both mixed in with the pile of dolls, moved. They waited a few more minutes until the nearby triangular blockade barrier disappeared before finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Only after confirming that the Singer was truly gone did Xu Huo remove the doll headpiece and pull the kangaroo out.
"Yan Jiayu?" He reached out to pull off the kangaroo's headpiece, but the other waved a hand. Then the kangaroo suit moved, and accompanied by a faint smell of blood, Yan Jiayu's voice sounded, "It's me."
Xu Huo's heart settled. "You can't take off the doll costume?"
Yan Jiayu shook her head: "After I came in, the instance activated once. Once the instance activates while you're wearing the doll costume, you can never take it off again. Over time, you naturally merge with the item."
"But I discovered that if I keep tearing them off my body before completely merging with the item costume, I can not only delay the fusion time but also gain a certain degree of freedom."
"You've probably noticed too, right? The puppet people in the Clown City can only move according to fixed patterns. Except for some important instance items with higher freedom, the other puppet people and dolls can't even say extra lines."
"How did you find this place?" She paused and asked, "Before being loaded into the instance area, I managed to leave a message for Qi Cong."
"He brought me here," Xu Huo said. "It just so happened that I also came to Zone 039 to do an instance."
Yan Jiayu didn't know where the instance had landed. She quickly shared the information she had gathered during this time.
First, the doll costume could only be used for emergencies and absolutely shouldn't be worn for long periods, because the Box Carrier would activate the instance at irregular intervals. Once the instance started, anyone trapped inside the doll costume would be stuck there forever.
Second, the method of delaying item fusion wasn't suitable for most players. After coming in, Yan Jiayu had also encountered some trapped players. She tried to organize some manpower, but very few could withstand the daily ordeal of tearing themselves until their skin split open—their recovery abilities weren't that strong. In the end, these people either unknowingly became items or died from weakness.
"But I did find a few companions. They're lying low in the Clown City."
Xu Huo frowned. "If you can't get rid of the item costume, how will you get out?"
The fact that she hadn't removed the costume all at once showed how difficult it was.
"I know my own body," Yan Jiayu said. "I've undergone secondary evolution, so my constitution is stronger than an average player's. As long as I escape and prepare the right potions, I should be able to manage."
Hearing her confident tone, Xu Huo felt a bit more at ease and turned the conversation to escaping.
"The Box Carrier probably isn't in the instance right now. I haven't figured out the pattern of the instance area's activation yet, so I plan to try my luck at the castle."
Yan Jiayu tore herself again, then continued: "That's a bit difficult. There's a very powerful mini-boss at the castle. He should be the one the Box Carrier left behind to guard it. I and those friends took turns testing it, and we couldn't even get through the door."
"The only one who successfully got in was Da Mao, but once he went in, he never came out."
Da Mao was her item, a stone lion with thinking ability, similar to the Painting Woman.
"Da Mao is so well-behaved. I wonder if he's getting beaten up inside."
Although it wasn't quite the right time, Xu Huo felt that a stone lion getting beaten wasn't a big deal, as long as it wasn't completely shattered.
"Have you observed the activity patterns of the combat puppets?" he asked again. "After this instance landed in Zone 039, the combat puppets have been abducting players from the districts. Before I ran into Qi Cong, they had already targeted me."
"The combat puppets that frequently operate in the Clown City all look the same... Abducting players—that should be the Box Carrier wanting to make new puppets," Yan Jiayu said. "The puppet people in the Clown City are basically living people who turned into them after putting on doll costumes. They go in as complete humans."
"None of them are important. Losses can be quickly replenished. Many players who came in were also digested by the puppet people when the Box Carrier wasn't around."
"But near the castle, there's a mechanical workshop. That should be where the Box Carrier makes puppets. There are many semi-finished products inside—metal, wood, plastic, humans—all kinds of materials. Those combat puppets disguised as humans use real human skin."
"The players captured from Zone 039 might have already turned into puppet people."
"The puppet people in this instance area can be upgraded."
Yan Jiayu roughly explained the upgrade mode of the puppet people.
Each puppet person had its own activity area. After a new puppet person was born, those in the same area had a chance to enter other areas. This was mostly related to the time they had been puppets and their abilities. The closer to the Box Carrier's castle, the stronger the overall strength of the dolls and puppet people became.
However, based on her observations, upgraded puppet people didn't gain new powers. Although they also became items and appeared to be items with intelligence and thinking ability, they were different from real items and couldn't compare to the mini-bosses that were actual items. To be precise, they were actually another form of puppet.
But the closer to the castle, the larger the puppet people's range of activity, and they were protected by stronger combat puppets, making them less prone to damage—at least they could still survive.
"I don't know if these puppet people will change over time. The Clown City often brings in people in batches. The players selected by the combat puppets probably have other uses."
In fact, from the activity patterns of the puppet people in the Clown City, it could be seen that the Box Carrier probably wanted to create puppets that were truly like humans. The puppet people didn't have much freedom, but they still had their own thoughts and could use some instruments and tools. This was vastly different from ordinary crafted puppets.
"Maybe he wants to make puppets that are exactly like real people," Yan Jiayu added. "Puppets can use instruments but can't use items."
This sounded a bit strange. There might be many ways to control a player, but turning a player into a puppet while maintaining their human state was both contradictory and unrealistic.
"The Box Carrier is a super player. Maybe he can really do it?" Yan Jiayu scratched her kangaroo head.