Puppet in the Mirror (10)

"Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" struggled to imitate the expressions and movements Dora had described. In fact, even a dancer might not be able to do these movements, let alone a wooden puppet.

However, "Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" stubbornly adopted this strange expression and posture. It could feel its brain chip heating up. This was equivalent to making the brain chip process many memory-intensive tasks simultaneously, which quickly overloaded it.

"Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" asked, "Is the photo taken? Can I put my hands and feet down?"

Dora: "I will keep filming until you give up and say 'I surrender'."

"Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" fell silent.

After a while, it simply said, "I give up."

A mechanical voice announced: "Congratulations to player Jian Tanxi for completing the mission. Please wait 8 days."

Only then did Dora retract her powers.

"Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" collapsed to the ground. Actually, it didn't want to say "I give up," but it said it involuntarily just now, and it judged that its brain was controlling it.

"Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" was also sent to Zhou Wangliang's room.

Now, only one puppet remains.

However, Dora's ability to control facial expressions can only be used once per game and cannot be used again.

The players were tired, so they decided to rest and talk about it tomorrow.

This time, for safety reasons, all the players squeezed into Professor Pan's room to rest.

The puppet said that there was a hidden door in every room, and a ferocious beast was hiding inside.

Although the puppet only mentioned the tiger behind the wall and the beast on the ceiling, there may be other unknown dangers.

If you live alone, you might accidentally trigger some mechanism and release a wild beast.

Therefore, everyone chose to stick together.

Only two people can sleep in the bed. Jian Tanxi and Qu Chen will sleep in the bed, and the others will sleep on the floor.

When they woke up the next day, everyone felt that their physical strength had decreased even further.

It seems that it's true that your health deteriorates with each extra day you stay in the city.

However, they could not leave early.

Young Xie Wei said, "How can we deal with the last puppet? Let's think of a way while we still have the strength."

Mathematics professor Zhou Wangliang suggested, "Let's take out all our props again and take a look. Maybe we've missed some clues."

This time, even Li Zhe brought out the props.

Everyone looked at the props scattered on the ground, pondering how to use them and seeing if they could help with the mission.

Xie Wei picked up a green bottle and asked, "What's this?"

Zhou Wangliang: "This is my prop, called a sugar-free bottle. Any beverage poured into it will lose its sugar and become a sugar-free drink."

"This prop is so useless; it's more suitable for girls, since they all like to control their sugar intake. It's a pity that the puppet doesn't drink beverages, otherwise it would be nice to use this prop to please it."

Dora picked up a cushion and asked, "What's this cushion for?"

Zhou Wangliang: "This is also one of my props, called a 'comfort pillow,' but I think it's pretty useless. It can make people lose their fighting spirit or goals, and all they want to do is hug the pillow all day long."

Jian Tanxi said, "I think this prop is quite useful. It might be able to subdue the last puppet."

Zhou Wangliang asked, "Why?"

"Violence is hard to subdue, but comfort often undermines one's fighting spirit. The puppets refuse to say 'I give up' because that's how they're programmed. However, if the puppets aren't constantly thinking about their mission, they're more likely to unintentionally say 'I give up.' So, I think this cushion is an essential tool for defeating the last puppet."

First, tie the puppet to the cushion, then have one of us demonstrate our special ability; maybe we'll succeed.

Zhou Wangliang: "That sounds like a good idea."

Everyone decided to give it a try.

So, everyone went to Jian Tanxi's room and subdued the last puppet—"Lucy in the Mirror".

"Lucy in the Mirror" said, "Even if you tear me to pieces, I will never say those three words."

Jian Tanxi said with a smile, "We won't hurt you, but we'll give you something nice."

As they spoke, everyone tied the comfortable cushions to the "Lucy in the Mirror".

The rope is Xie Wei's prop, and only Xie Wei can untie it.

"Lucy in the mirror" struggled for a while, but found that she couldn't break free, so she had no choice but to give up.

She didn't understand why the players were doing this; she had originally thought they would make her go through fire and water or something.

Surprisingly, the pillow was quite comfortable, and she even felt sleepy.

Moreover, she experienced an unprecedented sense of happiness, as if everything else in the world had become unimportant.

At this moment, Li Zhe picked up a pot of withered orchids from the ground. The orchids only had leaves left, and they looked like they had been dead for a long time.

Li Zhe activated his superpower—to make the orchid bloom for five minutes. The orchid came back to life in his hands and even blossomed with tender green flowers.

Seeing this, "Lucy in the mirror" was overjoyed and couldn't help but exclaim, "That's amazing..."

Li Zhe asked, "Are you convinced?"

"Lucy in the Mirror": "I give up..."

Lucy in the mirror suddenly felt that something was wrong, but she didn't realize what it was.

At this moment, a mechanical voice announced: "Congratulations to player Lucy for completing the game. Please wait 7 days."

Lucy jumped up excitedly: "Great! Yay!"

"Lucy in the mirror" then realized something was wrong. This cushion had made her forget her goal, and she had so easily uttered the words "I give up."

In short, it's too late to regret it now.

"Lucy in the Mirror" also went to Zhou Wangliang's room and stayed with the other puppets.

Looking at these puppets, the players felt both happy and worried.

It seems like everyone has cleared the dungeon, but players still have to stay in the dungeon for 7 days.

What will happen in the next few days? Is it just a matter of decreased physical strength?

Xie Wei simply asked the puppets, "What dangers will we encounter in the next few days?"

The puppet said, "Whether you encounter danger or not depends on yourselves."

Jian Tanxi asked, "Are there any places we can't go? Or are there any things we can't touch?"

Puppet: "You can go anywhere, you can touch anywhere, but you'll have to bear the consequences yourself."

Jian Tanxi: "..."

Professor Pan asked, "I remember puppets can't lie... So, besides the ferocious beasts in the secret passages of the rooms, are there any other dangers in this instance?"

Puppet: "Puppets can't lie, but they can choose not to answer questions. We won't answer your question."

Professor Pan: "..."

Li Zhe said, "What's wrong with you all? You're asking questions like this. Even a fool would know the puppets wouldn't answer. They're the bosses of this dungeon; they'd love for us to be unable to leave."

The puppets, however, stared at Li Zhe. One of the puppets said, "You're wrong. The boss of this level is the player themselves."

Li Zhe frowned: "What do you mean?"

Puppet: "You'll understand soon enough."

"Stop playing tricks, I can destroy you all right now!"

"You defeated us, and you can abuse and destroy us at will. Aren't you more like the boss?"

Player: "..."

The players fell silent. Everyone felt that the puppet's words might have a deeper meaning.

However, the deeper meaning behind this cannot be figured out for the time being.

Li Zhe wanted to destroy the puppets, but the other players stopped him.

Xie Wei said, "These puppets won't attack people on their own, so they pose no threat to us."

Li Zhe: "Who knows if they have any tricks up their sleeves? Maybe they'll eat us while we're asleep and take our place."

Puppet: "We won't do that."

Li Zhe: "I don't believe you for a second."

Professor Pan said, "If you're worried that the puppets might harm the players, we can all stay together for the next few days, and a few people can take turns standing guard at night. With our capabilities, we can handle any unexpected events in a timely manner."

Everyone agreed.

After all, these puppets aren't particularly aggressive. Moreover, they look very much like players, so harming them would feel strange, as if you were harming yourself.

So the players continued to stay in Professor Pan's room, with two people standing guard every night.

Several days passed without incident, but everyone's physical strength was gradually waning.

On the eighth day, Li Zhe said, "I feel like even speaking is difficult now... What if we don't wake up on the ninth night?"

Xie Wei said, "Impossible. Although our physical strength is declining every day, judging from the rate of decline, we should be able to hold on for a few more days. We shouldn't be unable to wake up by tomorrow night."

Jian Tanxi said, "Actually, I heard the puppet say before that some of us might not make it to the ninth day. But I don't know why, and the puppet didn't say either."

Li Zhe asked nervously, "Who couldn't make it past the ninth day?"

Jian Tanxi shook her head: "I don't know... I overheard the puppets talking, and that's all they said. They also said that if there aren't enough surviving players, we can't leave. That means we can only leave if everyone survives. If someone dies, then the others can't leave either."

Li Zhe was a little nervous, and kept reassuring himself: "I won't die... Even if I do, the others will die with me..."

Others: "..."

Lucy said, "I'm physically strong, I practice Taekwondo, I can pull through."

Li Zhe: "That's not necessarily true."

Lucy: "How can you be so ungentlemanly? Why haven't you been beaten to death yet?"

Li Zhe was a little angry, but he didn't want to continue arguing, otherwise it would seem like he was arguing with a little girl.

Dora's face turned pale: "I don't want to die... I'm still young, and there are so many things I want to do..."

Xie Wei comforted her, "Don't worry, we won't die. The puppet is probably just exaggerating."

Dora: "But the puppet's words were so certain, like it already knew the outcome..."

Professor Pan said, "Don't scare yourself. I guess it's because the puppets are used to players killing each other in the later stages, so they think that we players will also kill each other, and that someone will definitely die in the later stages. That's why they said before that some people wouldn't make it past the ninth day."

Zhou Wangliang nodded and said, "I think this explanation makes sense. We shouldn't be the first group to enter this instance. There might have been several groups of players wiped out before us, and none of them survived past the ninth day. But we are definitely the exception. Everyone should have faith in themselves and their teammates."

The two professors' words gave the others some confidence, and everyone became optimistic again.

Only one person remained optimistic and kept laughing – that was little Qu Chen.

Dora said, "Actually, autism has its advantages. At least he doesn't know what's going to happen, so he has less to worry about."

Jian Tanxi: "Xiao Chen is a lucky star. I think he will definitely bring us good luck."