Chapter 277
Not long after, the delivery truck brought the doll to the door.
The doll leaned quietly against the box. Suddenly, there was a hissing sound above its head as the tape was cut open with scissors, and a fluorescent light shone into the dark, sealed delivery box.
The world has become brighter.
Looking up, there's the ceiling; looking around, there's the hall.
Although it wasn't as clean as a fully disinfected manufacturing plant, it was relatively tidy, and the flowers on the table were still covered with glistening water droplets...
The light falls into the doll's inorganic glass eyes, like carefully polished obsidian, refracting colorful halos from dark to light.
Suddenly, the world spun around.
The boss grabbed the doll's head and shoved it in front of the phone camera, shouting and spitting as he yelled, "I said it should be good enough, but this is way off!"
"Look at this face, how distorted are its features? And look at these clothes, even a rag looks better than this. Who would want to spend money on this kind of junk? I'd be ashamed to display it out!"
After a series of unreasonable arguments, the merchant finally gave up and waived the final payment.
The shop owner hung up the phone with a smile, then placed the doll at the shop entrance as if all the imperfections from the spraying had disappeared.
"He looks like a sissy, I don't know how he became popular..." the boss muttered disdainfully, kicking the doll. "I've gone to so much trouble, you better actually be able to recruit someone, or I'll tear you apart and burn you for firewood."
The late autumn sky was dark and gloomy. In the distance, an excavator hummed and made an annoying noise. A heavy stone wall collapsed with a crash, raising clouds of dust.
Suddenly a strong wind arose, whipping up sand and gravel, and the shop owner quickly ran inside to take shelter.
The doll stood on the desolate street, a smile on its lips, but as the wind and sand washed over it, its clear glass eyes slowly became covered with a layer of dust.
Two days later, a fan who came to buy merchandise finally got lost and was attracted by the replica doll. He stepped into the owner's shop with some doubt.
The owner cunningly explained that it was a newly opened chain store, and due to time constraints, they had just received the goods and hadn't had time to promote them online yet.
Under his smooth-talking persuasion, several fans thought they had struck gold and were overjoyed, so they bought up most of the merchandise.
Seeing the five-figure sum of money he received, the boss was practically grinning from ear to ear.
That evening, when he took the doll back into the house, he gave it a rare kind look and kept praising it: "My good darling, you are really my money tree!"
The doll smiled silently.
The area around it was undergoing demolition, and the wind was strong at the intersection. It sat outside all day and was covered in dust.
The shop owner seemed to only then notice, and chuckled as he wiped the doll's face: "Your workmanship is too rough, it almost fooled people. Once this street is repaired, I'll renovate it for you."
"No, wait! There's no need to wait. Just put you at the intersection and put up a sign to guide you!"
The boss immediately picked up his phone and asked excitedly, "Hey Lao Wei, do you have any model makers who can meticulously repair dolls?"
More and more fans saw the promotions and started making purchases, and more and more money was flowing into their accounts.
The store seemed to be filled with the sounds of gongs, drums, firecrackers, and cheers, joyfully celebrating success and wealth.
But it came to an abrupt end with a loud "Bang!" as someone slammed their hand on the table.
The boss jumped to his feet, his eyes widening as he listened to the announcement on the other end of the phone: "What did you say? The scenic area expansion project has been halted, and the cultural commercial street isn't going to be built here?! Are you kidding me! They say they're not building it, what am I supposed to do?! Damn it!"
The instant noodles were knocked over, and the scalding soup splashed onto the owner's thigh, making him scream in pain.
Just then, an angry shout came from downstairs: "This is the store that cheated us out of our money!"
The piracy operation was finally exposed.
Also exposed was the owner's unlicensed operation and illegal sales.
Fines, orders to cease operations, and a deluge of online abuse enraged the boss, who, in a moment of madness, posted numerous defamatory comments about the company online.
These rumors were later unearthed, and the already escalating situation suddenly intensified, with fans even holding an offline group meeting at the store to demand an explanation.
In an instant, the area downstairs was packed with angry fans, which startled the owner so much that he hurriedly went downstairs to move tables to block the door, his heart pounding in his throat.
Along with fear, there is also despair and resentment.
His dream of making money was shattered, he lost his compensation money for the demolition, he was living in a dilapidated building, and he became a pariah.
The boss couldn't help but curse, kicking the table and throwing things, trembling with anger.
Suddenly, he stopped moving and noticed the doll that was quietly smiling beside the counter.
...
Theseus's core consciousness radiates outward, truthfully outlining the beginning and end of the story.
Countless images are mixed together, gradually condensing the world into a dimly lit corridor.
The corridor floor was damp, the edges were yellowed, the gaps were full of dust, it was dilapidated and old, and at the end was a rusty door.
If Xie Kaile were here, he would recognize this as the second-floor corridor of the shop, but it has been affected by an unseen force, and what was originally no more than ten meters long has now been stretched to several hundred meters.
Xie Xubai stood at one end of the corridor, with videos playing continuously on both sides.
Outside the store, the fans' protests intensified.
Inside the shop, the desperate owner kicked the doll to the ground, and the vases and cups on the table shattered on the floor.
He gripped the doll by the neck, his eyes bloodshot, and roared ferociously, "Look at the hordes of crazy women you've brought here!"
Since the dolls couldn't speak or move, the boss's brutality became tacit approval.
The boss looked at the doll's face, the smiling face imprinted by the factory, and the more he looked, the more he felt that the real person was mocking him.
He certainly didn't know the person in question; he had only seen photos of them online and when ordering the doll. His defamatory remarks were merely a way to vent his frustrations.
But at this moment, a dark fire was burning fiercely in the boss's chest.
The doll is no longer just a doll; it has become the dazzling star under the spotlight.
The man in question maintained his elegant and composed smile, arrogantly raising his chin and looking down with disdain at the scoundrels who had tried to profit from his fame but had yet to succeed.
The boss got up and went to the kitchen to pick up a cleaver.
"Come out, you unscrupulous merchant! You have the guts to cheat and spread rumors, but not the guts to admit it?"
The boss raised the cleaver and chopped it hard on the doll's head, not noticing that the doll's finger twitched.
"Stop pretending you can't hear me! Give me my money back!"
The cleaver chopped off the doll's nose, split its cheeks, and smashed its eyeballs, sending shards of glass flying.
All the repression and jealousy were released at this moment. The boss laughed heartily, and the doll's fingernails dug into the floor, creaking and spasming.
"You'll be going to jail!"
The shouts of condemnation were loud and intense, but they vanished with a bang as a cleaver chopped through plastic.
A powerful shockwave swept in, and all the images disappeared, leaving only the dimly lit corridor in front of us.
A blinding beam of white light appeared out of nowhere, passing through the broken windowpane and landing on the wall.
Even though there was no one in front of them, the wall reflected the image of the boss slashing at the doll.
It's like a black and white movie without dialogue, with flashing lights, flickering views, and changing scenes.
With a crack, the doll's face was pierced, and cracks appeared in the wall.
With a crack, the doll's chest was pierced open, and cracks spread outwards from the wall.
With a sharp crack, the puppet unexpectedly raised its hand to block the cleaver, and the shopkeeper opened his mouth in disbelief.
With a sharp crack, the shopkeeper retreated in panic, the cleaver trembling as it pointed at the doll. The doll staggered to its feet and casually pulled out a pair of scissors from the pen holder on the counter.
With a snap, the doll's face was completely disfigured, leaving only half a mouth, which stretched into a wide arc.
Gravel fell from the wall in a steady stream, and shards of broken glass dripped down from the doll's dark eye sockets, reflecting a shimmering light.
With a click, the puppet, facing the screen, smiled and raised the scissors.
boom--!
The floor trembled, the lights flickered, and the walls suddenly shattered as if struck by a heavy blow.
The smoke and dust rose and then dissipated, revealing a completely dead corpse lying at Xie Xubai's feet.
The corpse's heart was pierced, its eyes wide with disbelief, retaining the terror it felt in life, seemingly unable to understand why the doll had come back to life even in death.
A strong smell of blood wafted over, and a series of speckled bloodstains appeared on the floor, winding forward.
The blood on the ground was still fresh and had not coagulated.
Xie Xubai followed the trail of blood to the end of the corridor, stood at the door of the room, put his hand on the doorknob, and pushed it forward.
Squeak—
Suddenly, my vision opened up.
Inside was a small storage room, only slightly wider than the corridor. Unopened delivery boxes, packaging boxes, and plastic bags were piled haphazardly on the floor, covered in a thick layer of dust, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling.
The environment was so dirty and messy that it was no different from a garbage dump, but the curtains were open, and sunlight shone into the room through the glass.
Dust particles danced merrily in the air, dispelling the gloom and dampness of the room.
A tattered doll stood by the window, staring straight down.
His right hand, hanging down, gripped the scissors tightly, and blood dripped from the tip of the blade onto the ground, pattering and pattering... forming a small, bright red puddle.
Like an injured person bandaging himself, he also haphazardly stuck blue tape on his body, clumsily repairing the cracks that had been chiseled open.
The second half wasn't posted anymore, perhaps because they realized it was useless.
When Xie Xubai entered, the puppet didn't move, its eyes fixed on him.
Xie Xubai heard a sound outside the window, went over, and looked out following the doll's gaze, only to find himself unexpectedly seen outside.
Below, Xie Xubai, wearing a chestnut wool coat, stood side by side with the young Xie Kaile on the street, while the big white dog Ping An wagged its tail and rubbed happily against his trouser leg.
He chuckled and ruffled Ping An's hair. After two beeps, a black Cayenne pulled up in front of him. The window rolled down, revealing Cen Xiangcai's lazy smile.
Pei Yuheng in the back seat seemed to be looking at some report. When he caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye, the wrinkles between his brows relaxed, and his indifferent expression softened in an instant.
A familiar face passed by, recognized Xie Xubai, greeted them warmly, and asked if they were going out for fun.
Xie Xubai smiled and replied, then got into the car.
The family quickly started chatting. Xie Kaile talked about interesting things at school, Cen Xiangcai proudly showed off his new hairstyle to Xie Xubai, and Pei Yuheng put down his report, took out the snacks he bought for Ping An, and his little tentacle curiously scurried over, picked one up and stuffed it into his mouth.
The streets were bustling with people, bathed in sunshine, a lively and peaceful atmosphere. The Cayenne stepped on the gas and drove away, carrying laughter and joy.
That seemed like an ordinary snapshot of life.
The interplay of light and shadow creates a clear boundary, dividing the upstairs and downstairs areas into two completely different worlds.
The doll turned its head away, and the view outside the window vanished completely, turning into nothingness.
He looked at the blood-stained scissors in his hand and spoke in Theseus's sarcastic voice: "To be honest, this story is so boring it makes you want to yawn, but who told you to force the system to revise the rules?"
Xie Xubai once forced the system to rewrite the game rules, one of which can be roughly summarized as: the dungeon settings cannot deviate from people's common sense, cannot have technology that is ahead of its time, and the power system must be within the scope of cognition.
The system needs to meet certain conditions to include Theseus in the game, so a puppet appears as a projection of Theseus.
It was at this moment that Theseus suddenly realized that all his agonizing experiences were, in essence, so insignificant.
It's just a story about a shop owner who dismantles a doll to vent his anger, only to be killed by the doll in return.
Apart from the shop entrance, the dimly lit and cramped storeroom is where the dolls spend most of their time.
In this tangible world of consciousness, this is the most central area, where all of Theseus's memories are stored.
"But can you find what you're looking for in it?"
Theseus laughed wildly, and with a violent jolt, the floor where the two were standing suddenly stretched and widened, and the walls receded step by step. In the blink of an eye, the entire storeroom became as big as an airport runway!
Xie Xubai immediately unleashed his spiritual power, and the golden light, like a thrown lasso, swiftly grabbed several grocery boxes.
Every piece of junk stored here represents a compressed memory, and the key to the secret lies within it. It will take a lot of time and effort to sift through it.
Theseus, of course, would not give Xie Xubai this chance. Almost the instant the golden light appeared, his black and red spiritual power rose from the ground and collided with it!
The golden light was violently thrown away, and in an instant it split into countless strands, bypassing the black and red spiritual power to grab the fallen grocery box again and invade and interpret it.
In an instant, memories flooded Xie Xubai's mind like a tsunami, with all the people and things jumbled together in a chaotic mess.
Xie Xubai frowned deeply, browsed through this memory, and found that there was no content he wanted. He immediately used the golden light to interpret another general store box.
Theseus charged forward with a sinister grin, faster than expected.
He raised his hands high, and the scissors inflated like balloons, accompanied by a howling wind, and then slashed Xie Xubai across the waist!
Xie Xubai immediately stepped back, forced into a corner by the sharp blade, and squatted down. With a snap, the end of his hair was cut off, and the scattered strands of hair floated down from mid-air.
The two spiritual energies, gold and black and red, clashed incessantly, their speed so fast that they left afterimages and were dazzling to behold. They fought for thousands of meters from the doorway to the window, and then traversed thousands of meters from the ceiling to the floor.
The forces collided, unleashing a powerful aftershock that left cracks everywhere it reached!
Not only were their mental energies clashing, but the two also continued their fight.
This is Theseus's home turf, which will allow him to be faster and more powerful.
Correspondingly, Xie Xubai will also be subject to limitations such as slowing down, carrying heavy loads, and difficulty breathing.
Xie Xubai is at a disadvantage, so avoiding direct conflict is the best strategy.
Theseus thought so, but Xie Xubai did the opposite. After the entanglement, he rushed forward to close the distance, and golden light burst forth from his palm, attacking like a storm.
Theseus's pupils contracted, and he quickly raised his palm, using his mental power to create a barrier.
With a series of cracking sounds, he was pushed back inch by inch by the huge impact, his shoes cracking the floor and leaving long, sharp marks.
Before the attack was even over, his heart was pounding. He looked up and suddenly met a pair of sharp eyes—Xie Xubai had taken the opportunity to rush in front of him!
Bang!
A burst of golden light shone forth, and Theseus was thrown heavily to the ground.
Xie Xubai took two quick breaths on the spot, picked up the trash bag from the ground, and just as he was using his mental power to decipher it, Theseus suddenly stood up.
Xie Xubai's pupils contracted slightly.
Theseus was even more surprised than he was.
The force of that move had forced him to break out in a cold sweat, but to his surprise, he was completely unharmed.
“So…” Theseus stared blankly at Xie Xubai, and murmured, “Are you really not going to be able to hold on any longer?”
Xie Xubai still has the power to kill him, but the other party will not kill him before finding the key, which requires control of his power.
A normal blow would have crippled him, allowing Xie Xubai to leave him aside and focus on deciphering his memories.
But its actual power was far less than expected.
That only represents one point.
Xie Xubai's senses began to blur, and he could no longer control his power precisely.
This discovery is so impactful, it's like seeing a skyscraper that has stood for a century suddenly collapse.
Could it be that interpreting memories has increased the burden on the body?
Theseus couldn't help but wonder how Xie Xubai would react when he realized he was at his limit.
Will this guy, who remains calm even when the sky is falling and the earth is cracking, show even the slightest bit of anxiety or vulnerability?
When he looked up, he saw Xie Xubai casually throw a box of groceries he had just finished reading on the ground, and then dash off to another pile of groceries.
In the few seconds that Theseus was stunned, Xie Xubai had already deciphered no fewer than five memories.
Theseus's expression twisted for a moment, then he covered his head and laughed foolishly, whether mocking his own naiveté or sighing, "You really are—"
"Still so annoying!"
A strong gust of wind swept in, and Xie Xubai dodged to the side. The scissors, like a door, slammed into the floor, grazing his nose, and blood and wood chips flew everywhere.
Theseus grinned and said, "How rude! At least give some response when someone speaks, huh?"
Xie Xubai raised his cold eyes, twisted his body to gather strength, and his long leg drew a perfect arc, kicking Theseus hard in the forehead.
Theseus was sent flying again, and the plastic doll's body cracked open with a loud thud, leaving a large fissure.
Xie Xubai didn't bother to hold back and used a ruthless move, but Theseus not only didn't flinch, but laughed even more maniacally, jumped up, and charged forward again.
This suicidal style of play is absolutely breathtaking!
In just a few brief exchanges, Xie Xubai defended against thousands of attacks. Theseus could fully concentrate on the battle, but he had many other things to consider. In a moment of carelessness, Xie Xubai was struck in the abdomen by the scissors, immediately coughing up a mouthful of blood.
He fell to the ground, seeing stars, beads of cold sweat seeping from his skin, and his fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
Xie Xubai looked like he was in so much pain he could barely stand it and was on the verge of fainting.
But when he loosened his grip on his abdomen, the two metal ornaments fell from his sweaty palm.
He then deciphered two more memories.
The so-called sense of defeat is when your opponent looks like they're about to collapse, and you try your best but still can't defeat them.
Theseus got up from the floor, covered in dust and grime. Having experienced this countless times, he still wanted to curse: "Who is the monster here?"
If he hadn't conducted countless experiments and accumulated a massive amount of memories, he probably would have been stripped naked by Xie Xubai by now.
Just then, Xie Xubai suddenly stopped and rushed towards Theseus!
Theseus was startled and immediately raised his giant scissors, almost blocking his entire body, the tips like spears, pointing directly at Xie Xubai.
At such a short distance, Xie Xubai had to dodge if he didn't want to get hurt!
He didn't dodge.
Seizing the moment before the scissors were fully raised, Xie Xubai resolutely rammed into them, using an unconventional and highly difficult force-dissipating technique to deflect the scissors at the last second.
He wasn't disemboweled, but he was inevitably injured. The tip of the scissors pierced his arm, leaving a cut more than 20 centimeters long, deep enough to expose the bone!
The scissors fell to the ground with a snap, shrinking to the size of their original palm.
Theseus was pinned to the ground by Xie Xubai, who grabbed him by the throat and looked down at the hideous wound.
Blood gushed out, meandering down the skin and soaking the clothes.
Xie Xubai's face looked even paler, his body heaving slightly as he panted, sweat trickling down his thin jawline and hitting the floor.
Theseus reached out and wiped the blood from Xie Xubai's body, chuckling, "Why are you being so aggressive? Haven't I already been yours for a long time?"
If you ignore his trembling voice from excitement, his tone actually carries a sense of heartfelt goodwill.
Xie Xubai glanced around out of the corner of his eye.
He used his fastest speed to decipher nearly a third of the memories within a few hours.
This was so mentally taxing that his vision became blurry, with double images.
Xie Xubai said softly, "You're not in a hurry at all."
There's only one reason they're so confident: the clues to the key aren't in those objects.
Theseus wasn't surprised that he would discover: "Intelligence."
Xie Xubai: "But your world of consciousness has been completely deconstructed, and all your memories are here."
"Have you erased your own memories? No, if you did, the system would definitely detect it."
The key is not only your leverage to threaten me, but also your means of confronting the system. Being able to use it at any time is true confidence.
Xie Xubai's eyes were like those of a hawk: "Where exactly did you put it?"
Theseus looked at him, grinned, tapped his forehead, and said, "To tell you the truth, it's right here."
"If you just cut it open, you can get the key."
Xie Xubai stared directly at him, and an invisible pressure descended, causing Theseus to grunt.
Theseus stared at his tense face and laughed: "Really, why don't you try and see? Or do you want to keep this stalemate going?"
"Think of the 7.7 billion souls lost, think of your relatives and friends who died in battle, the life and death of millions of families are all in your hands."
Xie Xubai's gaze hardened, the oppressive aura intensified, and the oxygen grew increasingly thin. Theseus gasped for breath, his cheeks turning bright red from the effort.
"Are you really going to let so many people lose their lives because of your so-called conscience and justice?"
Xie Xubai remained silent.
Whether it's the white strands growing from the roots of his hair or the persistent dark circles under his eyes, they all silently testify to his exhaustion. This weariness has numbed him to pain and injury.
He persisted for far too long.
Author's Note:
One more chapter
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