Just as everyone was about to walk towards the door, the alien that issued the mission suddenly appeared.
"Congratulations to everyone for finding the key. Unfortunately, we've run out of time. There are currently 29 survivors. Opening the door to the third level isn't impossible; just have a few of you stay with me."
"Okay, I'll count to three. The person you point to stay, and the person no one points to can move on to the next level."
"Three, two, one!"
"Once you've chosen someone, don't change it. Let me see who the lucky one is."
Of the twenty-nine people, only nine were not identified by anyone.
Yan Shi and Zhuang Zhao, who were in the crowd, were naturally not spared.
"You nine take the keys and open the door. The rest of you, come upstairs with me."
"Don't even think about escaping, you'll die." Just then, someone who was having a moment of despair tried to sneak into the group of nine. Before he could finish speaking, his head was blown off, and the gushing blood splattered all over the people around him.
Unlike turning into a zombie and then being killed, the blood of a living person resonates more with people. The crowd fell silent, like a flock of tamed sheep, orderly following behind the wolf.
"Do you think he'll eat us all up? He probably can't," Yan Shi whispered to Zhuang Zhao.
She was the least afraid of being eaten among them. She couldn't wait to get close to him, put the black hole on his head, and get a beautiful crystal core in return.
"There might be a ritual before we eat. I always felt the rooftop layout was strange. This house should be his territory, so why is there a children's room? Could there be a zombie child? Are we actually food for the zombie child?"
"Wow, you have such a vivid imagination, you could write a novel."
However, there were no zombie children. The aliens led them to the fourth floor and assigned tasks to each of them.
Sew clothes for stuffed animals, wash bed sheets and duvet covers, wipe windows and mop floors...
"The rest of you, come downstairs with me."
So they quickly went down from the fourth floor to the first floor.
"Look what you've done! You were allowed to live, but who told you to kill them? We could have just surrounded them." The alien started complaining as soon as they got to the first floor, and made everyone stand in a row to listen to their lecture. It looked just like a military drill instructor scolding students.
"Look around and pick up all the whole pieces."
"Why did you pick it up?" Yan Shi asked.
"Piece it together and reuse it. Otherwise, do you think you can just replace it with a new batch every time?"
"Can this be reused?"
"Of course, don't talk about such brainless things. I can even make Si Yue obey me."
"Kui Mei, do you want to be burned to ashes?" Si Yue's voice suddenly rang out, probably from a loudspeaker somewhere.
"I didn't say anything," the alien muttered under its breath.
“What he’s talking about sounds a bit like puppetry,” Yan Shi whispered to Zhuang Zhao.
"It might be puppetry." Zhuang Zhao stared at the alien's movements. Although they weren't exactly the same, they were similar in purpose.
"Mastery of puppetry depends on two things: talent and strength. The higher the strength, the more powerful the puppets you can control. The higher the talent, the more you can make up for the gap in strength, and even achieve control of puppets of higher levels."
"Zombies have no independent consciousness. They are essentially similar to puppets, or even simpler."
"Can you do that too?"
"I don't know, I've never tried it. I feel uncomfortable with them and don't want to touch them."
"Yeah, they smell awful, so let's not bother with them."
"I'll go back and look into it. Whether I need it or not is another matter, but it's always better to be the same."
"You two seem to be having a good chat. Spring outing, huh? Get back to work!"
The sudden close-up attack from the alien species almost killed Yan Shi.
"You think a puppeteer would be easy to deal with without puppets?" Yan Shi nudged Zhuang Zhao with his arm, his words carrying a hidden meaning.
Zhuang Zhao blinked at her.
"A puppeteer is easy to deal with without puppets, but what makes a puppeteer so powerful is that he can use puppets anytime, anywhere. He just said that he can control the axe, which means that if he wants, he can make everyone present kill each other or even commit suicide."
"You're making me feel awkward."
"Young man, you know quite a lot. Perhaps I had some connection with you in my past life." The alien looked at him with admiration, and even a hint of pride in seeing a junior.
Yan Shi suddenly remembered that the mutants had no memories of what they were like before they turned into zombies, and suddenly felt a little sorry for them.
"Would you mind if I learned a thing or two from you, senior?"
"If you're given a pole, you'll climb it; that's promising."
"You, come here." The alien casually beckoned someone over.
"To turn a living person into a puppet, you either have to catch them off guard and strike before they become wary of you, like this."
The alien suddenly turned to the man, staring into his eyes, placing its right hand in front of it. Its eyes blinked in rhythm with its fingers. After a dozen seconds, its fingers suddenly stopped, then its thumb and forefinger pressed together, making a pinching and pulling motion. At the same time, it pulled out a strand of the man's hair with its other hand and twisted its fingers into a ball.
"Somersault, backflip, backbend." It was obvious to the naked eye that this person was not very flexible. He barely managed to do a somersault, and he fell flat on his face when he did a backflip. It looked like he had pulled a muscle when he did the backbend, but it didn't stop him from continuing to do the backbend. Then he didn't get up.
Yan Shi felt like his back was about to break.
"If he has become wary, or even doesn't look at you at all, then hit him until he loses consciousness and his attention is not focused. Then pull out a hair from your own head, stuff it in his mouth, and then pull out another hair from his head and twist it together with your own hair."
"Look, a living puppet is all you need. It's much easier to control than an inanimate object. You can just give it a command without lifting a finger."
"If he doesn't need to be on call all the time, he will immediately regain his consciousness as soon as his tangled hair is unfolded, and he will not remember what happened when he was being controlled. However, the success rate is not 100%. Some people are more fragile and cannot recover after one use, and they are basically brain dead."
Zhuang Zhao listened attentively, gesturing with her fingers as she listened. Yan Shi, however, was overcome with a sense of compassion, her mind filled with thoughts of what to do with these two who had been turned into puppets. What were her and Zhuang Zhao's positions?
Those guys probably wanted to chop them both up; compared to the aliens, they definitely wanted to kill them.
"But if the other party is determined, not only will you fail, but you will also suffer a backlash. You may lose your hearing, voice, or even your sight. This is what others have said; I have never had the chance to experience it myself."
"Thank you, senior."
"Want to practice your skills?" the alien invited Zhuang Zhao.
"I'll use them to practice," Zhuang Zhao said, glancing at Yan Shi and pointing to the incomplete zombie remains on the ground.
If Yan Shi were to use humans as practice targets, he would be afraid.
"Okay, give it a try. For these dead things that were once alive, the most important thing is to perceive their existence. Using your hands is worse than your eyes. When you are familiar enough with it, you will naturally be able to manipulate it. And as long as you can put it back together even if you cut it into small pieces, it is easy to get the hang of things with the same structure."
Yan Shi went to a corner to bend over and vomit. The memories of being dominated by the rotting zombies came back, and with the added attack of smell, she finally couldn't take it anymore.
Zhuang Zhao looked at the zombie corpses on the ground, which didn't look very appealing, and wondered if Yan Shi would still let him hold his hand, hug him, or kiss him after he touched them.
It doesn't seem like it will work, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Grandpa Yuan only taught him how to control wooden puppets; if he wanted to become stronger, what Grandpa Yuan taught him was simply not enough.
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