Chapter 2690: The Only Chance
"What kind of hatred would make a Super Player kill someone and then seal the corpse outside the gate to look at every day?" Zhu Bu's sworn sister, Hongxi, said. "I think these people have some special meaning to the Box Carrier, which is why he keeps them sealed for so long."
The others were silent, as they didn't know the truth, but the Box Carrier didn't seem like such a sentimental person.
"Forget about that," Zhu Bu asked Xu Huo, "When will your friends arrive?"
"They're already here." Xu Huo looked into the distance. Three minutes ago, three puppets had been wandering nearby—a crocodile, a peacock, and a round, bird-like puppet.
"I'm here!" Yan Jiayu's kangaroo hopped over from afar. Hearing the familiar voice, Qi Cong immediately became so excited he was moved to tears. He rushed forward with open arms, "Little Fishy, I've missed you so much..."
What answered him was a merciless kick from the kangaroo.
Xu Huo watched the person hopping up to him and couldn't help but ask, "Does staying inside for a long time change your behavior patterns?"
Yan Jiayu laughed. "The puppet suit is big and inconvenient to wear. Isn't it just a habit from hopping around?"
"Let me introduce you to my friends."
"Crocodile, Peacock, Chirp-Chirp Bird."
Dai He and the others were speechless. What kind of introduction was that?
But before they could say anything, the round Chirp-Chirp Bird spoke up, "Didn't I tell you not to call me that?"
"Slip of the tongue, sorry." Yan Jiayu reintroduced her, "Her puppet is a souvenir from an A-level wormhole point, and its name is Chirp-Chirp Bird. But she doesn't like me calling her that. You can just call her Bird."
"Chirp-Chirp Bird" tilted her body slightly but ultimately said nothing.
There was no need to reveal their true identities; it was mainly for convenience in addressing each other. After a brief introduction, they followed Yan Jiayu around the puppet wall for about twenty minutes before stopping.
Crocodile and the others skillfully took out cleaning tools and pretended to clean. Yan Jiayu told Xu Huo and the others, "Space Teleportation Items can't be used inside the puppet wall. We have to climb over from here."
She looked at Xu Huo. "You could try, but it would make too much noise and easily attract the attention of the living props in the castle. Climbing over the wall is safer. Look, this is the path I chose."
"But you have to be careful when climbing. There's a skeleton monster that moves around under the puppet wall. You absolutely must not be discovered by it. If you show your head, you'll be killed instantly. Five companions have already died here."
"So you don't know what the situation inside the castle is like either?" Zhu Bu asked. "Is the skeleton monster the mini-boss of the castle?"
"The skeleton monster is the skeleton monster." Yan Jiayu said strangely, "This is the Box Carrier's castle, after all. How could there be only one living prop?"
"The puppet wall is very far from the castle. How did you manage to investigate the internal situation?" Dai He asked. "Do you have another channel?"
Yan Jiayu shook her kangaroo paw and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her belly—a goods delivery receipt.
"I snatched it from a combat puppet."
Xu Huo glanced at it. "The signatures are slightly different. Do the living props in the castle take turns on duty?"
Yan Jiayu nodded. "That should be the case. We just don't know if only the signing living prop is active in the castle each day, or if they are responsible for different areas."
So the skeleton monster under the puppet wall was just an entry-level monster. The truly powerful mini-bosses were still inside the castle, and Yan Jiayu and her group had tried many times without even getting past the puppet wall.
"Have you figured out the skeleton monster's attack method?" Xu Huo asked. They had sacrificed several people, so they couldn't have gained nothing.
"It uses a kind of ice needle." Yan Jiayu said, "When it attacks, the temperature around it drops rapidly, and ice needles grow from its bones. The ice needles are also poisonous. Although that poison is useless against people who have already become props, you still need to be careful."
"An A-level Defense Device should be able to block it." Xu Huo took back the several devices he had lent to Qi Cong and handed them to Yan Jiayu. "But considering the unknown number of living props inside the castle, forcing our way in will greatly increase the difficulty..."
He looked up at the top of the puppet wall. "Can things like balloons or flying birds pass over the puppet wall?"
"Flying birds can, but balloons can't." Yan Jiayu said, "All props in the Circus City have their own activity areas, and balloons are no exception. Once they float into the puppet wall, they'll be shot down."
Sneaking through from the air was impossible.
"It looks like we'll have to have some people act as a diversion." Dai He said, "Since we can get on the wall, using the puppet people in the city as bait should be feasible."
"May I ask, are you an A-level player?" Chirp-Chirp Bird said sarcastically, "Do you know what level of players the puppet people near the castle originally were?"
Without any items, they might not even be a match for them in terms of skill. Moreover, once they made a move, they would violate the activity patterns of the puppet people in the Circus City and would immediately become the target of a siege. Whether to follow the rules of the Circus City or to protect themselves, the nearby puppet people would not let them escape easily, let alone climb the puppet wall.
"Why don't a few of you climb the wall to draw their fire," Crocodile spoke up at this moment, "while the rest of us try to approach the castle."
To be fair, both being bait and entering the castle carried high risks. As bait, there might still be a chance to escape, but once inside the puppet wall, getting out would be difficult. However, this was their only chance, because the entrance to and exit from the Circus City was likely inside the castle. This was the Box Carrier's castle; there would absolutely not be a second chance!
"I'll go up the wall." The Painting Woman extended her communicator.
Without any tool assistance, only the Painting Woman entering the castle was the safest option. Xu Huo rejected her proposal and said to Yan Jiayu, "Within a two-thousand-meter range, I can move people. Want to try?"
"Let's try then." Yan Jiayu didn't hesitate at all and pulled in Chirp-Chirp Bird. "She's a Spatial Evolver. She can teleport herself short distances, and she can also take one person."
"I'll go." Dai He looked at the silent others and stepped forward, then said to Xu Huo, "If I can't get out, please find a way to inform the Grand Archon about the Super Instance."
"I promise you." Xu Huo nodded.
The four of them would act as bait. With the range expanded, no matter how fast the skeleton monster was, it couldn't be everywhere at once. However, they had to consider the possibility of new living props being attracted to the base of the puppet wall, so they couldn't spread out too much.
Similarly, the others responsible for the surprise attack on the castle couldn't be too scattered. After some planning, they set up six marker points.
From left to right, they were: Yan Jiayu and Chirp-Chirp Bird, Crocodile and Peacock, Xu Huo and Dai He, Zhu Bu and Qi Cong, Hongxi and Siqi, and the Painting Woman.
Xu Huo's group and Yan Jiayu's group had to bear the responsibility of being bait, so the two members of their groups were separated by more than a kilometer, while the other four groups would act simultaneously.