# Chapter 731: The Doll Rebellion
The display cabinets on both floors of the doll clothing store were arranged in a grid of ten vertical by ten horizontal, each cabinet over three meters long with certain intervals between them. This created many small partitions within the limited space, and with the line of sight obstructed, the fallen dolls made the area feel even narrower, making it difficult to determine where that metal spike had come from.
"Smack!" Behind Xu Ruosi, a doll fell from the display cabinet.
As if triggering a chain reaction, the dolls on the display cabinets on both sides began falling one after another, burying their feet in an instant!
Xu Huo took the lead and leaped onto a display cabinet, but the moment he went up, all the dolls on the nearby cabinets turned their heads in unison, their closed mouths gradually opening—even those dolls that weren't originally designed with movable jaws tore open their lower jaws simultaneously!
"Click, click, click!" The sounds rose and fell continuously, gradually turning into harsh noise. Liu Chengyi shouted, "Let's retreat first!"
This was also what the others were thinking. They rushed toward the stairs almost at the same time, but just as they were passing the display cabinets, Xie Ling, who was at the back, was suddenly grabbed by a doll and yanked downward!
She fell completely into the aisle and turned to kick away the hand gripping her, but unexpectedly, the doll possessed tremendous strength, directly snapping her leg bone. Then it raised its other hand and stabbed a meter-long metal spike toward her abdomen!
"Click!" With the sound of a metal buckle snapping into place, a suit of armor automatically formed around Xie Ling's chest and abdomen, blocking the metal spike. She then swung her arm to sever the doll's limb, grabbed the partition of the display cabinet to stand up, and used a grappling hook to quickly pull herself away from the spot.
Unfortunately, before she could reach the nearest display cabinet, the one-armed doll stood up again, instantly erupting with beast-like absolute force and hurling that metal spike!
A cold white light, too fast for the naked eye to track, pierced through Xie Ling's defense item, then passed through her chest and embedded itself into the wall on the second floor!
Xie Ling hit the ground with a thud. That doll, its bloated body wobbling, charged over, new metal spikes forming in its hands and shooting out like crossbow bolts one after another, so fast that afterimages appeared!
Xu Huo jumped onto a nearby display cabinet, deflected the first metal spike, then used kite string to pull Xie Ling up!
"Ding, ding, ding, ding!" Dense metal spikes stabbed into the ground like a hedgehog. The doll that had missed twisted its head to look at Xu Huo.
Liu Chengyi and the others had already scattered. Xu Huo noticed that the surrounding dolls were all moving their eyes to track his movements, so he spun his lighter in his hand, first burning the life-sized doll that could move freely, then detonating the lights on the second floor.
After the lights caught fire, the illumination for that entire floor was extinguished, plunging the vast venue into darkness. Xu Huo moved toward the stairs with Xie Ling, but unexpectedly, as soon as they started moving, metal spikes came flying from behind again!
Blocking and dodging the continuous barrage of metal spikes, Xu Huo scanned the display cabinets and found that some dolls' eyes could emit fluorescence. Though this faint light wasn't enough to clearly see a person's features, it was sufficient to make out a silhouette—and for those dolls, a silhouette was enough!
A half-human-height doll charged at him, swinging a metal spike like a club, continuously slashing at him. Though its strength was somewhat weaker, its speed was extremely fast. Even though Xu Huo used his trait to move quickly between two points, the opponent could catch up quickly. And when he reached the stairway entrance, he discovered that there wasn't just one doll capable of free movement!
"Click, click, click!" The dolls' mouths kept making sounds, their bodies shaking up and down as they climbed the display cabinets and walls, attacking Xu Huo from different directions. Some threw metal spikes, some gouged out their own eyes and tossed them, and some directly leaped out to grab his face!
Using "Compressed Air" to knock these dolls away one by one, Xu Huo stomped on several dolls crawling out from under the display cabinets, then set fire to the ones that could move. He said to Xie Ling, "Look for a doll that represents twins!"
Xie Ling immediately understood. She grabbed a doll from a cabinet, twisted its head backward, and the doll came to life, landing on the ground with its back facing forward as it confronted the approaching dolls.
The dolls in the venue were very sensitive to humans but paid no attention to their own kind. That doll stepped over other dolls, crawled out of the encirclement, and began moving between the display cabinets.
Xu Huo wasn't sure if the clue from the Wax Museum was accurate, because the stories players told were random, but the clues were targeted. Considering the massive number of toy dolls in the doll clothing store, perhaps the pair of dolls appearing on the paper was just a reference, and what the players needed was still within this venue.
Xie Ling's chest wound wasn't fatal, but her foot injury made movement difficult, requiring Xu Huo to assist her. During this time, she kept using items, but items that worked on humans were ineffective against the dolls. The defensive items had limited effectiveness. She had also killed quite a few dolls, but more kept coming out from behind. Moreover, these dolls weren't stupid—they actually understood close and long-range coordination. If not for Xu Huo's defensive items having a wide coverage area, she would have been turned into a pincushion long ago!
"These dolls all use needles—it must be related to the needle mountain therapy!" she said.
The surroundings were already filled with dolls. These things were quite cunning, launching attacks from above and below in turns, and even suddenly stabbing out a metal spike from behind when they approached the display cabinets. The whole scene was like a doll rebellion, these cute-looking toys instantly transforming into mindless killing weapons!
After a few minutes, the doll Xie Ling had sent out returned. She was about to bend down to catch it when that backward-running doll suddenly jumped up and pulled out a metal spike from behind!
"Damn it!" Xie Ling cursed as she narrowly avoided having her throat cut. She swung an electric shock gun, smashing that doll into the display cabinet, then stabbed it viciously!
The doll trembled like a human under the electric shock, but even so, it stubbornly threw the metal spike in its hand.
"My trait failed. This thing gets turned against us quickly once it goes out." Xie Ling turned to Xu Huo.
"How many can you affect at once?" Xu Huo asked.
"Theoretically unlimited, but it has to be done one at a time, and it's only useful for finding things," Xie Ling said quickly.
"That's fine," Xu Huo said, kicking over the cabinet in front of him. While a large number of dolls were pinned to the ground, he jumped to the display cabinet in the corner. "Just buy me some time!"
Xie Ling pressed her back against the wall and did as instructed. Xu Huo signaled her to be careful, then leaped out of the encirclement, taking two wildly swinging dolls with him. Sticky fluid secreted from his protective suit, and as a doll lunged at him, he caught it in mid-air, his hand sticking to it!
(Chapter End)