Chapter 597 Outsiders
"…What's going on? Wasn't Lucy's dream to stop the march? Why is she starting a march now?"
While Li Qi was still thinking, Charlie's confused voice came.
Li Qi didn't look at him, but still stared at Lucy who was dismantling various parts in front of him and preparing to take them away.
Then he explained to Charlie: "Maybe from the beginning, Lucy's dream was 'fake'."
"Fake?"
Charlie was even more confused.
Li Qi took a deep look at Lucy who was busy in front of him. He had no intention of communicating with Lucy anymore. He turned to Charlie and said, "Let's leave here first. I will explain to you later."
“…”
Charlie didn't know what had happened, but since Li Qi had already said so, Charlie didn't ask any further.
While Lucy was busy, the two of them left the room quietly.
During this period, Li Qi did not disturb Lucy. Since Lucy's mind had changed, if they continued to stay here, there was no guarantee that Lucy would pull them into the parade.
Although Li Qi is stronger than Lucy, if Lucy really dares to forcibly "invite" the two, Li Qi can also directly attack Lucy and break her into parts.
But after all, they were acquainted with each other. Li Qi felt that there was no need to be so drastic. It would be fine if he could just leave quietly without causing any conflict.
After leaving the company building, Li Qi did not look for the parading puppets that were scattered due to the impact of consciousness.
He led Charlie between the tall buildings and headed towards the blocked eastern wall. During this time, he explained to Charlie:
"The puppets here are different from us, including Lucy. They are actually acting according to a set program."
"Procedure? You mean the parade?"
Charlie asked in confusion.
Li Qi replied: "That's just part of the program... Charlie, you have lived alone for so long, you should understand the meaning of 'story'."
"Is it a storybook compiled by humans? I have read some, but unfortunately most of the stories are incomplete because the books that serve as the carriers of the stories are too damaged..."
Charlie spoke with a hint of regret at the end.
Li Qi nodded and said, "As long as you can understand what a 'story' is, simply put, the situation between Lucy and the parade is equivalent to a 'story' that has been written long ago."
"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand this sentence."
"…That is to say, this city, all the puppets here, and Lucy are just characters in the 'story'. Everything they do is in the service of the 'story'. When the 'story' is over, they will start all over again, just like turning the finished storybook back to the first page."
Reacher tried his best to explain in words Charlie could understand.
Charlie didn't know if he understood or not, so he stopped asking and tilted his head to think.
Li Qi also took this opportunity to sort out his guesses.
Using stories as metaphors makes it easier for Charlie to understand.
In fact, everything that Li Qi has been experiencing so far, just as he half-jokingly joked to himself before, is an unformed... or missing certain links' side quest'.
If Li Qi is compared to the player, and Lucy and other puppets are compared to NPCs, then the complete plot process is that the player enters the city where the side quest is located, encounters puppets who only know how to parade, and then a misunderstanding occurs, causing the puppets to attack. At the critical moment, the important NPC Lucy appears, rescues the player and explains the situation of the city.
The player will then follow Lucy, an important NPC in the side quest, to find a way to liberate the city, and after a series of adventures, successfully solve the problems that plague the city.
The side quest is completed, the player moves on, and all is well.
However, because it is a side quest, and a repeatable side quest, when the player leaves, the city will return to its starting point.
The marches will still go on, and Lucy will still work to liberate the marches.
This cycle will never end.
But perhaps because I haven't been to this city for a long time, the behaviors of the parade puppets and Lucy have been simplified a lot.
Or maybe it was because Li Qi came at the wrong time, just when Lucy was about to complete the critical stage of the side quest alone. In short, it took Li Qi and Charlie less than a day to witness the "end" and "beginning" of this city.
And if Li Qi wasn't here, any puppet who came here and experienced all this with Lucy might end up becoming a member of the parade.
It is even possible that among this huge group of puppets, there are many puppets who have experienced all this with Lucy and were finally integrated into the group as "passers-by". Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the number of puppets in the parade is so large.
"I... sort of understand. So, Lucy is just like the other dolls I've met. She doesn't have a dream of her own, right?"
Charlie finally figured everything out. He asked Li Qi with regret in his tone that was hard to conceal.
When Charlie heard Lucy talk about her dream before, he thought that Lucy was the same as him and Li Qi, a puppet with self-awareness and her own personal pursuits.
As a result, after listening to what Li Qi said, Charlie finally understood that what Lucy thought was a "dream" was actually part of a program that had been set long ago.
After all, she was just an ordinary doll, unable to break away from the inherent programming of a doll.
"That's about it." Li Qi, who had walked a long way and was almost at the city's blockaded border, looked back at the city behind him with flickering eyes.
In fact, he still had some guesses that he hadn't told Charlie.
Lucy and the parade team repeated the "side quest" over and over again, proving that someone had engraved such a "quest process" into their operating procedures in an unreasonable way.
Li Qi thought that the only people who could do this were humans, or puppets like Li Qi who had human consciousness.
Li Qi couldn't think of any other possibilities.
And that's where the problem lies.
Lucy knew about the puppet riots. In her 'memory', the puppet riots were something that had already happened.
As for humans, they completely disappeared after the puppet riot, as if they had completely vanished from this world.
So since humans no longer exist, who would have given Lucy and the others this program, similar to a side quest in a game?
Li Qi was slightly curious about this, but he quickly suppressed his curiosity and continued on his journey with Charlie.
After all, these things have nothing to do with Li Qi.
Whether someone set up the operating program for Lucy and other dolls, or whether Lucy and other dolls "evolved" similar programs on their own, it has nothing to do with Li Qi's current "main mission".
Li Qi wanted to find clues about Hu Buer, but what happened to Lucy and the others seemed to have nothing to do with Hu Buer.
No... we can't just make a simple judgment like that...
Li Qi's steps suddenly stopped.
He placed his hands on the thick wall that blocked the city, breaking it down in an attempt to create a path, while looking back at the city.
Li Qi originally didn't intend to care about what happened in this city, but after thinking of Hu Buer, and remembering that everything in this city might just be a "side quest", Li Qi thought of what the mysterious strong man said to him at the end.
——I wish you a happy game.
Game... side quests... recurring cities...
As if a ray of light passed through his mind, an idea suddenly flashed through Li Qi's mind, and he suddenly said to Charlie: "Go find a place outside to wait for me, I suddenly have something I want to do."
"Want to go back and help Lucy?"
Charlie didn't know why this suddenly occurred to him.
Li Qi shook his head: "No, I just want to confirm some things."
And Lucy is actually not worthy of being helped because she is not like Charlie. She is just a simple puppet without self-awareness or soul.
Although his consciousness power is very strong, after being amplified by the consciousness power amplifier, his consciousness power can be comparable to that of an ordinary third-level consciousness power practitioner.
But that's all.
A puppet without self-awareness and soul is just a movable prop. As long as Li Qi wants, he can make countless Lucys.
Charlie seemed a little disappointed after hearing what Li Qi said.
But he said nothing in the end. He went out through the gap in the wall that Li Qi opened with the decomposition technique, and prepared to wait for Li Qi to come back outside.
Watching Charlie leave, Li Qi used alchemy to seal the gap again, then turned around and walked back.
When Lucy activated the consciousness amplifier earlier, Li Qi felt that part of her consciousness seemed to be flowing downwards.
It's just that at that time, Li Qi's attention was mainly attracted by the huge total amount of consciousness, so he didn't pay too much attention to it.
Now that she thought about it, it was very strange that all of Lucy's consciousness was used to free the parade puppets, but only a part of them fell under the puppet company's building.
So if nothing unexpected happens, the secret of this city should be hidden under that building.
Li Qi plans to go and take a look, maybe he will make some unexpected discoveries.
Li Qi was moving forward alone, so he was naturally moving very fast. After a few minutes, Li Qi was standing on the top of the puppet company building again.
Lucy is still here, working tirelessly to dismantle all the parts and transfer them to her 'safe house'.
Li Qi looked at her from above for a while, then looked away and stopped looking at her.
He jumped down from the top of the building, quickly reached the first floor through the gap between the buildings, and then walked deeper underground.
There were many collapsed buildings underground in the Doll Building, and the roads in many places were so blocked that it was impossible to pass through.
But Li Qi had no intention of using conventional methods to enter the underground of the building. He simply used brute force to break in, using alchemy to create a tool for drilling into the ground. He then transformed himself into a pangolin and went all the way down to the basement deep in the building.
He drilled through the ground like this until he reached the very bottom of the building. When there was no more space to go down, Li Qi stopped and turned the drilling tool he had made into an arm guard to protect himself from the gun.
After protecting himself, Li Qi looked up and took in the spacious space hidden deep underground in the Puppet Company.
The first feeling that this space gave Li Qi was just one word: chaos.
It was as messy as the garbage dump where Charlie lived before.
The wreckage of dolls was everywhere, the smell of motor oil was everywhere, various coils of unknown function were entangled with each other, and the top beams used to support the room were broken, as if they would fall down at any time.
And in the very center of this doll garbage dump, there sat a doll that looked very clean and almost indistinguishable from a human.
She had a similar appearance to Lucy, but had normal human skin. She sat on an ordinary wooden chair with her hands folded on both sides. There were long pipes connecting her back and head.
If it weren't for the tubes connected to her body, no one would think she was a doll at first glance.
The consciousness that Li Qi had felt escaped earlier was received by the puppet in front of him through the channel connected to her.
It was she who was absorbing Lucy's consciousness.
"etc……"
Looking at the doll sitting in front of him, which looked almost identical to Lucy, Li Qi suddenly thought of something and turned to look at the pile of doll garbage next to him.
He walked to the garbage heap and casually turned over the remains of a relatively intact doll. When he noticed her appearance, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Li Qi flipped over the remains of the doll, and she looked the same as Lucy.
So if this is not an isolated case, then all the puppet remains here are probably Lucy! Someone is mass-producing 'Lucy'? Why Lucy?
Li Qi was just thinking this when he suddenly heard some slight noises.
The noise brought Li Qi back to his senses instantly, and he looked up at the puppet in the middle of the room.
The noise I just heard was made by the sitting puppet.
Staring at the doll sitting on the wooden chair, Li Qi saw her fingers tremble slightly.
Next came the arms, then the upper body, and finally the head.
In less than half a minute, Lucy in front of Li Qi completed the process of waking up and opened her eyes.
Blue eyes that were almost the same as Lucy's met Reacher's.
The moment their eyes met, Li Qi saw surprise, joy and greed in Lucy's eyes.
When he saw the "greed" in the eyes of the puppet in front of him, Li Qi immediately realized that the puppet in front of him... was probably not a puppet!
"Perfect... What a perfect body..."
'Lucy' made a clear and pleasant sound, but the greed in the sound ruined the overall beauty.
It sounds disgusting.
Feeling the hostility from 'Lucy' in front of him, Li Qi prepared himself vigilantly and set up several defenses at the level of his consciousness in an instant.
After doing all this, he asked the puppet in front of him:
"Your Excellency is...?"
But before he could finish his words, 'Lucy' in front of him became impatient.
A sinister smile appeared on her face, and her consciousness was exerted to the extreme in an instant. The surrounding scene changed as her consciousness was stimulated. At the same time, a sinister laugh that was completely inconsistent with her image came out of her mouth: "Hehehe, stop talking nonsense! Give me your body obediently!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a powerful force of consciousness surged in him, and under the influence of the force of consciousness, the surrounding scene was also shrouded in a eerie ghostly aura.
In just a blink of an eye, the puppet cemetery that looked quite steampunk turned into an endless hell filled with gloomy and ghostly aura.
Feeling the power around him that was completely different from that in this world, Li Qi also guessed the other party's approximate identity.
The 'Lucy' in front of him probably didn't belong to this world, just like him.
She is also an outsider! (End of this chapter)
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