The Puppet in the Mirror (4)

The room of mathematics professor Zhou Wangliang.

Zhou Wangliang demonstrated several difficult math problems to the puppet, and the puppet said, "Professor Zhou, you are amazing."

Zhou Wangliang said, "Can't you just say 'I give up'?"

Puppet: "What I just said had about the same effect."

Zhou Wangliang then took out a set square and said, "I can round the tip of the set square."

As he spoke, he activated his supernatural ability and touched the three sharp corners of the triangle. Sure enough, the three sharp corners became rounded, even more naturally than if they had been machined.

The puppet said, "Pretty impressive."

Zhou Wangliang: "Are you convinced?"

Puppet: "Yes."

Zhou Wangliang: "..."

Zhou Wangliang tried some other methods, but he still couldn't get the puppet to say "I give up".

The room of young Xie Wei.

Xie Wei circled the puppet, saying as he did so, "You're my dad, okay?"

Puppet: "I'm not your father."

"Then you're my grandfather! Please, just tell me!"

"I won't say."

"I'll buy you a sports car!"

"unnecessary."

"I'll give you a villa!"

"Puppets don't need to live in villas."

Only the best and most outstanding puppets will say the words "I am convinced".

"Such clumsy rhetoric won't work on me."

Xie Wei: "..."

After a while, Xie Wei said again, "I'll take you to play on the yacht!"

Puppet: "Thank you, but I don't want to play."

"Then what do you want? Just tell me..."

"I don't want anything."

"Brother Puppet, you guys have KPIs too, right? If I don't pass the level, you'll lose face in front of the other puppets..."

The puppet remained expressionless: "No."

"What good will it do you if I fail to clear the level and die here?"

"There's no benefit to it."

"That's right! Why would you do something so self-destructive? If you help me clear the game, I'll owe you a favor, and when you come to Earth for tourism in the future, I can repay you, right..."

"I can't get out of this instance, I don't need to travel, and I don't need you to owe me a favor."

Why are you so stubborn?

"Because I am a puppet."

"..."

After a while, Xie Wei said, "I'll show you something fun."

As he spoke, Xie Wei's hands suddenly turned into two snakes.

He brandished two snakes, threatening the puppet, but the puppet remained unmoved.

He tried to get the two snakes to bite the puppet, but the puppet just dodged. Xie Wei continued to attack, and sometimes the puppet couldn't dodge and was bitten, but it didn't react much.

Xie Wei had no choice but to change his hands back to normal.

...

Professor Pan's room.

Jian Tanxi led Qu Chen in and said to Professor Pan, "Professor Pan, have you passed the test? I tried many methods, but none of them worked."

Professor Pan said, "I cleared the game, but I did it by using my special ability to change the puppet's mind. This ability can only be used once a month, so I can't help you with that."

"What should we do then? Should we really torture the puppet? But that won't work, the puppet isn't afraid of pain."

"Don't worry, there are still ten days. How about this, we go knock on other players' doors, gather them together, and see if anyone has any good ideas."

"Um."

Ten minutes later, all the players gathered in Professor Pan's room. All the puppets were placed in Jian Tanxi's room.

The players need to discuss a strategy, and they don't want the puppets to hear them, so they made this arrangement.

After discussing it, everyone discovered that apart from Professor Pan, no one else had cleared the game. Some people were relatively calm, but some players were on the verge of a breakdown.

Photographer Dora said, "These puppets are deliberately working against us. They know what we want to hear, but they just won't say it. Even when they do manage to say something, it's always a few words too many or too few."

Li Zhe said, "I have an idea. Since the puppets are not afraid of pain, what they fear most is the destruction of their brain chips, which is the source of their intelligence. If we threaten them and say that we will destroy their brain chips, they should give in."

Taekwondo instructor Lucy said, "It's no use. I've said that before. My puppet doesn't matter."

Li Zhe frowned: "Who taught you how to punctuate?"

Lucy: "I'm a foreigner, and I can speak Chinese. That's amazing. Don't curse me."

Li Zhe: "..."

Li Zhe said, "Perhaps your puppet is just unafraid, or it's bluffing. Now that all the puppets are gathered together, I'm going to try this method."

Young Xie Wei said, "I think that's a bit cruel."

Li Zhe: "What's so cruel about it? They're just puppets."

Li Zhe entered Jian Tanxi's room (where all the puppets were), then took out a spray bottle from his pocket and sprayed it on all the puppets.

The puppets were instantly immobilized.

Then, Li Zhe walked up to his puppet and said, "Your bodies can be rebuilt, but if your brain chips are destroyed, it's as if you're dead, right? If I destroy your brain chips, aren't you afraid?"

"Li Zhe in the mirror" said, "It's alright."

"Jian Tanxi in the Mirror" also said: "Whether one is dead or alive is not important."

Li Zhe snorted: "Do you think I'll believe you just like that?"

As he spoke, he pulled his puppet over, cut open a piece of the puppet's head with a dagger, and took out the chip from inside.

After the chip was removed, the puppet closed its eyes and remained motionless, just like an ordinary doll.

Then, in front of the other puppets, Li Zhe took out a lighter and pretended to burn the chip.

He said to the other puppets, "Watch closely, this chip will be completely destroyed once it's burned. If you don't say 'I surrender,' the same thing will happen to you."

At this point, another puppet, "Lucy in the Mirror," said, "You won't really burn it, because if you destroy the puppets, you'll never be able to complete the mission. You're just threatening us now."

Li Zhe was taken aback by the puppet's intelligence.

He put the chip back into his puppet's head and glued the cut-off parts back together.

His puppet opened its eyes again and "came back to life".

"Li Zhe in the Mirror" said, "I know you won't really break my chip."

Li Zhe said, "You all think I wouldn't dare to do this, right? Professor Pan's puppet has already said 'I surrender,' and burning the puppet's chip won't affect the final result. I'll burn it right now and show you."

Professor Pan stopped him, saying, "Li Zhe, there's no point in you doing this. Even if you dare to destroy my puppet, you still won't dare to destroy the other puppets, and the other puppets know that perfectly well."

Li Zhe: "..."

Li Zhe was furious and slammed his hand against the wall. He felt a sharp pain and quickly pulled his hand back, muttering, "Ouch..."

Qu Chen saw this and found it amusing, so he ran up to Li Zhe and imitated his speech, saying, "It hurts..."

Qu Chen couldn't pronounce "good," he could only pronounce "pain."

Qu Chen laughed for a moment, then ran to a puppet "Zhou Wangliang in the Mirror" and said, "It hurts..."

Suddenly, the puppet felt pain all over his body. He said in bewilderment, "Strange, I'm a puppet, I shouldn't feel pain..."

Jian Tanxi suddenly understood what had happened. She said to "Zhou Wangliang in the mirror," "You have been affected by Qu Chen's spell. His words will always come true, so even though you are a puppet, you still feel pain. This pain will continue. If you are willing to say 'I give up,' we will let Qu Chen lift the spell."

The puppet hesitated for a moment, then remained silent. They were programmed to never say "I give up" unless absolutely necessary. Even if they were to say it, they would certainly add or remove a few words.

However, this pain permeated the entire body; it was neither unbearable nor a minor ache that could be ignored, but rather a moderate level of pain.

Such pain is bearable, but it greatly depletes energy and concentration, like an elephant in the room that cannot be ignored.

This was the first time this puppet had experienced pain, and judging from its expression, it seemed it wouldn't last much longer.

Jian Tanxi felt that Qu Chen's spell must have a time limit and couldn't be effective indefinitely. However, she had just told the puppet that the pain would continue until Qu Chen lifted the spell.

Jian Tanxi prayed silently, hoping that the puppet would soon give up and say "I give up," so that it wouldn't automatically stop hurting once the effect wore off.

At this moment, Li Zhe said, "I'm in pain too... Why doesn't this kid discriminate when using his powers? He even used them on me..."

Jian Tanxi said, "He didn't do it on purpose. He was just imitating you unintentionally. When he speaks and what he says are uncontrollable."

Li Zhe: "Then hurry up and make him remove the spell on me! It hurts so much... It didn't hurt this much when I was smashing the wall myself, but after he yelled, my whole body started hurting..."

Jian Tanxi said, "Okay, but all the players should go to another room first and leave the puppets here."

Li Zhe: "Why go to another room? Couldn't you just have the kid tell me 'It doesn't hurt'?"

Jian Tanxi: "Of course not. What if the puppet suddenly stands in front of Qu Chen when he speaks? That would mean the puppet has been released."

Li Zhe: "Okay."

So everyone left the room and returned to Professor Pan's room.

Jian Tanxi was the last to leave. She said to "Zhou Wangliang in the mirror," "If you're in so much pain that you can't stand it anymore and want to say 'I give up,' then come knock on Professor Pan's door. We welcome you anytime."

Then, Jian Tanxi closed the door.

After everyone arrived at Professor Pan's room, Li Zhe quickly said, "Quickly, have Qu Chen relieve my pain!"

Jian Tanxi said, "Okay, but we need to teach Qu Chen to say 'no' first."

Li Zhe exclaimed in surprise, "What?"

Jian Tanxi looked at him somewhat apologetically: "I'm sorry, Qu Chen can't say 'no,' so he can't tell you 'it doesn't hurt.' But if you teach him now, there's a chance he can learn it. Even if he can't learn it right away, his spell magic should have a time limit; it can't be effective forever. You can wait until the time limit expires."

Li Zhe was furious: "What are you talking about? Why didn't you say something so important sooner? If I had known this kid was this troublesome, I should have killed him from the start!"