Puppet in the Mirror (11)
On the morning of the ninth day.
A mechanical voice announced: "All puppets activate their special abilities—Mirror Reflection."
The players were quite surprised to hear this sound.
Dora: "What's going on? The puppets have activated their powers? Does that mean they're going to attack us?"
Xie Wei asked, "What does 'mirror reflection' mean? Will they use mirrors as weapons to attack us?"
Professor Pan: "I don't know, let's see what they do first. Let's prepare accordingly."
Zhou Wangliang: "Instead of waiting here, we should go to the corridor first, so that they won't catch us like turtles in a jar."
Xie Wei: "That makes sense. Let's all bring out our best equipment and not get separated. There's strength in numbers."
Although everyone was a little scared, staying inside the house would make them easy targets, and only by going out could they survive.
So, one by one, the players went out.
The corridor was empty, with the players' reflections in the mirrors on both sides.
The puppets didn't come out, and the corridor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Jian Tanxi said, "Everyone be careful, the puppets can come out of the mirror, and maybe they are hiding in the mirror right now."
So everyone stood back to back, each looking at the mirrors on either side.
However, after a long while, no puppet came out of the mirror.
Qu Chen couldn't stand still, so he ran to the doors of the other people's rooms and opened them all.
When he opened Zhou Wangliang's door, everyone found that all the puppets were inside and had not come out.
The eight puppets watched the eight players silently, seemingly unwilling to come out or launch an attack.
Xie Wei mustered his courage and asked, "What are your plans to do against us?"
One of the puppets said, "We told you, the boss of this level is yourselves."
Suddenly, Qu Chen was dragged along by an invisible force. Qu Chen tried to break free, but it seemed as if an invisible hand was pulling him around. His steps couldn't keep up with the speed of the drag, and his body was forced to be at a 45-degree angle to the ground.
Qu Chen was a little scared and started to cry.
The others rushed to help him, but they couldn't fight against that invisible hand; no one could save Qu Chen.
Fortunately, Qu Chen stopped a few minutes later and fell to the ground.
Jian Tanxi helped him up and checked if he was injured. She found that he only had a small tear on the heel of his shoe and was not injured.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt something was off.
Suddenly, Jian Tanxi was pulled up by an invisible force and slammed against the wall.
Jian Tanxi was hit so hard that she saw stars and felt a sharp pain in her back.
Before she could react, she was slammed against the wall twice more before falling to the ground.
Dora and Lucy quickly helped her up. Dora asked, "What happened? Was it the puppets' doing?"
The puppets in the room said, "We didn't do anything. You've seen it yourself. We've been in this room the whole time and haven't come out."
Dora: "That must be related to your superpowers! Tell me honestly, what does that superpower 'mirror reflection' mean?"
The puppet said in a serious tone, "It means mirror reflection."
Dora: "..."
Just as Lucy was about to interrogate the puppet, she suddenly screamed, as if she had been struck by an invisible hand.
She quickly looked around alertly, but saw nothing.
Then, that invisible force struck Lucy several more times. The direction of the blows was unpredictable, so Lucy didn't know which way to dodge.
She could only keep moving around, but she was still hit every now and then. Sometimes she was hit on the head, sometimes on the body, and sometimes on the face.
At the same time, Dora suddenly fell to the ground.
She stood up, which was very strange, because she hadn't seen anyone push or trip her.
Li Zhe asked somewhat fearfully, "What happened to you... what was that thing that attacked you? Was it some kind of invisible beast?"
Before he could finish speaking, Li Zhe suddenly let out a scream.
Three fingers on his left hand mysteriously disappeared!
Li Zhe was writhing on the ground in pain, his hands covered in blood.
Zhou Wangliang took out some medicinal powder and sprinkled it on his hand, which made him feel a little better, but it still hurt a lot.
Li Zhe said tremblingly, "Please put my finger back quickly... Help... Professor Pan, aren't you a biology student? Please put my finger back..."
Professor Pan said helplessly, "I study biology, but I'm not a doctor. Besides, there's no medical equipment here..."
Jian Tanxi was about to use her healing ability on Li Zhe when Li Zhe's body suddenly burst into flames, startling the others who quickly retreated.
Li Zhe wanted to scream, but suddenly a piece of cloth appeared in his mouth. The cloth gagged him, and he couldn't even scream; his expression was one of extreme pain.
Zhou Wangliang watched anxiously from the side. He had no idea what he was going to encounter.
Suddenly, a basin of water appeared in front of him.
Then, an invisible force pressed his head into the basin of water.
He tried desperately to lift his head, and the other players rushed to help, but no one could resist that invisible force.
Xie Wei, while desperately pulling Zhou Wangliang along, said, "This is really weird, this dungeon is really strange..."
Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain and cried out.
Jian Tanxi looked at Xie Wei and saw that he suddenly had two wounds on his hands, as if he had been bitten by a snake.
Fortunately, the wound doesn't appear to be poisonous.
Xie Wei clutched his wound and said, "Where did this snake come from... Ouch..."
He had two more wounds on his body, which also looked like snake bites.
However, Jian Tanxi and the others did not see a snake.
Professor Pan was very anxious as he looked at his teammates who were still suffering, but he couldn't help them at all.
At this moment, Jian Tanxi asked, "Professor Pan, you were not hurt at all?"
Professor Pan said, "No... I also find it strange. Perhaps that invisible force intends to torment others first, and then come to torment me."
Jian Tanxi suddenly realized something and felt a chill run down her spine: "No, you won't be hurt, because you're the only one who hasn't hurt the puppet..."
Professor Pan: "What do you mean?"
"I understand what 'mirror reflection' means now. The puppets will return any damage they take to the player to the player exactly as it was, just like a mirror reflection. And this is controlled by an invisible force, without the puppets having to do anything themselves."
On the first day, Qu Chen dragged his little wooden puppet around, so he was the first to be punished. He was dragged around for a few minutes.
When I was communicating with the puppet, I picked up Qu Chen's puppet and slammed it against the wall three times. So just now, I was also lifted up and slammed against the wall three times by an invisible force...
The harm we are suffering now stems from what we did to the puppets. Professor Pan's drowning may be because he drowned the puppets before.
Everyone else suddenly realized.
Lucy said, "I used to play with puppets, no wonder."
Dora said, "I didn't do anything to hurt the puppet, except tripped it. So just now, I suddenly tripped too... Luckily, I wasn't too cruel to the puppet at first, otherwise I'd be the one suffering now..."
Professor Pan: "I used my superpowers to get through the game from the start, it didn't take much effort, and I didn't torment the puppets at all, so I'm fine..."
The basin of water in front of Zhou Wangliang had disappeared; he had fainted, but thankfully he was not dead.
Professor Pan pressed on his body to help him vomit the water, and he woke up.
Although Xie Wei was bitten by a snake, it wasn't fatal, and the pain wasn't severe. He had previously transformed his hands into snakes and bit the puppets several times; now he was paying the price.
Everyone looked at Li Zhe, who was rolling around on the ground, with concern.
Judging from Li Zhe's current miserable state, he must have tortured the puppet in many ways before.
Li Zhe is now engulfed in flames; no one can get close to him.
Lucy could conjure ice with her hands, and she threw a few ice cubes at Li Zhe, trying to help put out the fire. But all the ice cubes bounced off.
It seems that this punishment model is not affected by any external forces.
Everyone could only watch helplessly as Li Zhe was burned to death.
After a while, the fire on Li Zhe's body went out. He was charred black.
Dora: "I have a resurrection pill, give him one."
Jian Tanxi said, "Wait, you forgot, he also once cracked open a puppet's skull and removed the brain chip inside. His punishment isn't over yet."
"Ah...but the person is dead, will the punishment continue?"
I think so.
As soon as he finished speaking, a piece of Li Zhe's skull was suddenly removed. Then, his brain was also removed and thrown on the ground.
Seeing this disgusting scene suddenly made everyone want to vomit.
But now we must find a way to save Li Zhe.
Xie Wei said, "With Li Zhe in this state, the Resurrection Pill probably won't work anymore, right?"
Jian Tanxi said, "I have a health pill that might be able to save him. Quickly put his brain back in and then put his skull back in. I'll give him the health pill."
What is a health pill?
"It's a reward I got from participating in a dungeon before, and it's more powerful than the Resurrection Pill."
"But you can't just put the brain back in and expect it to work..."
"It's alright, Health Pills can solve all these problems."
So, everyone hurriedly put Li Zhe's brain back and put the skull back together.
Jian Tanxi fed Li Zhe a health pill. Li Zhe was already dead and couldn't swallow, so Lucy found a twig and used it to push the pill down his throat.
After a while, Li Zhe woke up, but he was very weak. He learned from the other players why he had been tortured.
He said to Jian Tanxi, "Jian Tanxi, don't you have healing abilities? Heal me."
Jian Tanxi said, "You're fine now, there's no need to waste a healing ability. Just rest for a few days after leaving the instance."
"My finger... my finger still hasn't grown back, can you help me heal it..."
"Healing abilities can't make people grow fingers, and neither can the health pills you just took."
"Am I destined to live this incomplete life forever?"
"There's nothing we can do about it. Who told you to cut off the puppet's finger?"
Li Zhe suddenly erupted in rage: "How was I supposed to know this would happen? If that damned puppet had told me earlier, I wouldn't have done any of this!"
"Li Zhe in the mirror" said coldly, "I warned you not to hurt me, or you would definitely regret it. But you didn't listen."
"You're speaking so cryptically, who can understand you! You're just a bunch of robbers! Bandits!"
"We are just puppets, we never attack people on our own initiative. I've said it before, you are the bosses of this level, and your fate is up to you."
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