A Surprise in the Puppet Show

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

A petite figure leaped out from a slightly ajar window. With a few quick bounds, she landed silently on the rooftop.

She arrived just in time to see the Joker sitting on the edge of the eaves, chewing on something.

Xiaoxiao's mouth couldn't help but twitch.

His style is so similar…

As expected of someone from the same school.

Wu Wang grabbed two dusty-looking round pellets from a small bag and offered them to her.

"Yo, good morning. Care for some chocolate beans?"

Xiaoxiao didn't take them. She just rolled her eyes.

"It's the middle of the night. Where would you even get chocolate beans?"

Wu Wang casually pointed a finger toward a nearby wall.

"What do you mean? The crack of dawn is still the morning. There's a family that raises sheep outside the pear garden. I saw their yard was full of chocolate beans, so I picked some up."

Hearing this, Xiaoxiao's expression shifted. Then, she immediately realized he was teasing her.

Her face darkened.

"Where did you find the time to go out? And what on earth is that?"

The man had just given the Prince a pill, so Xiaoxiao subconsciously thought this might be one of his props as well.

Wu Wang popped another one into his mouth.

"Arsenic Pills."

He spouted the nonsense with such a straight face, with no hint of acting, that Xiaoxiao increasingly felt he wasn't lying.

"Is Yan Shuangying really your teacher?"

"Truer than a pearl, more real than this arsenic."

Wu Wang grinned and stuffed the remaining Arsenic Pills into his pocket.

He wasn't joking.

The bag of pills really was arsenic.

Before leaving his room, Wu Wang had found them while rummaging through Bai Sha's wardrobe. After tasting one, he judged its contents based on his many experiences dying from poison over the years.

The pills were not only mixed with arsenic but also contained a variety of other strange toxins.

On him, the poison would likely take effect within ten seconds. An ordinary person probably wouldn't even last five.

The crucial question was, why did the Chou carry poison on him?

This wasn't something you could whip up on the spot; it must have been prepared in advance.

Had he been planning to murder someone all along?

Wu Wang vaulted off the roof, ready to leave.

"I'm going to check out the puppet show stage next door. Coming?"

Xiaoxiao followed without a word.

Of course, she had to investigate this Opera God's Righteous Garden. In fact, the other players had already left their quarters minutes ago to explore the instance.

She would have joined them, but she'd discovered something strange in her room. Instead, she had stayed behind to operate her Scarecrow prop, sending it to the opera house to find Pending Death and the Troupe Master.

The two of them roamed through the garden like ghosts. The closer they got to the puppet show stage, the more palpable her shock became.

This guy… is he really only level ten?

Even though she was right beside him, his presence was incredibly difficult to detect. Walking without a sound could be explained by props or equipment, but his movement technique couldn't be faked.

She could clearly sense that every step he took was carefully considered. Along their path, nearly every spot she identified as suitable for concealment became his next foothold.

If a night patrol suddenly appeared, they wouldn't notice him at first glance.

It was no exaggeration to say that even a professional assassin might not be able to infiltrate a place with such precise footing. This was a skill most players in the Spirit Calamity Game could never achieve.

It wasn't an external power. It was a purely subconscious, instinctual reaction.

Xiaoxiao couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Are you… a thief or an assassin in real life?"

Wu Wang raised an eyebrow, recalling the dozens of times he had been assassinated.

He answered casually, "An artist. It's just that I have a nemesis who likes to hunt me down in the city at night, so I developed these skills in stealth and trap-making."

His answer started out fine, but the more he spoke, the stranger her expression became.

She couldn't resist retorting, "The nemesis you're talking about isn't called Batman, is he?"

Wu Wang immediately shook his head in denial.

"No, his name is Bruce Wayne."

You bastard! That's still Batman!

This asshole is really addicted to playing the Joker, isn't he?

Xiaoxiao gave up on trying to understand him.

The two soon arrived at the puppet show stage. This was different from an ordinary opera stage. Although it was semi-open-air, it had a curtain at the back to hide the manipulators, as well as "General's Exit" and "Minister's Entrance" side doors for the puppets.

Normally, performers would stand behind the curtain with their control boards, manipulating the marionettes for the show.

The variety of puppets in the Opera God's Righteous Garden was impressive. Besides the usual rod puppets, it had everything from iron-rod puppets and marionettes to glove puppets.

They circled around from backstage, and the first thing they saw were countless marionettes placed all around the area.

In the darkness, the blurred silhouettes of the assorted puppets were deeply unsettling. It felt as if they might turn their heads to stare at any moment.

Wu Wang strode forward.

"Let's go in and see. There might be something inside."

But just as he was about to step inside, Xiaoxiao was struck by a sudden realization. She stared warily at his back as he marched forward.

"Wait a minute. How did you know this was the puppet show stage?"

"I don't remember us passing by here on the way back from the opera house."

"Don't tell me you scouted it out beforehand. There wasn't enough time."

She had been following him with her Scarecrow prop ever since he left the opera house. He'd had no time to scout any other location.

Hearing this, Wu Wang stopped.

He twisted his head a mechanical one hundred and eighty degrees to look at Xiaoxiao, while his body remained facing forward, completely still. The bizarre posture made the expression on his face horrifying.

His jaw moved, his upper and lower teeth colliding like two pieces of a marionette's mechanism. He spat out the words haltingly.

"Carved to a form, a falsehood made to seem true… A single string is pulled, and a spirit comes through…"

"But when the drums and flutes have ceased their play… It's still just the wooden puppet at the end of the day…"

The moment his voice fell, before Xiaoxiao could react, he arched backward in a high-difficulty backbend, planting both his hands and feet on the ground.

Then, he began to crawl frantically into the backstage area. The sight of his four limbs scrabbling in reverse was enough to drive a person mad, as eerie as the movements of The Spider.

Cold sweat beaded on Xiaoxiao's brow. Her breathing grew ragged.

She frantically tried to recall what had just happened.

"‘Let's go out and talk'… the rooftop… the Arsenic Pills… the assassin-like journey…"

These scenes flickered through her mind like a projector. She was certain all of it had happened. She had indeed chatted with Pending Death just like that on their way to the puppet show stage.

And then, it seemed the two of them had already entered the backstage area…

Vaguely, she remembered that during their exploration, two marionettes had appeared out of thin air on the stage. Their clothes and appearance were strikingly similar to their own. Even Pending Death's clown attire was replicated in a perfectly scaled-down version.

She had been drawn in by these two marionettes.

When she looked over, they began to move on their own, starting a puppet show.

Pending Death had shouted at her side, trying to stop her from looking.

And then… and then…

Xiaoxiao couldn't help but raise a hand to rub her aching temple. She couldn't remember what happened after her gaze fell upon that puppet show.

The instant her finger touched her skin, an icy chill shot from her fingertips, flooding her heart.

She subconsciously brought her hand in front of her face, wanting to see why it felt so cold.

But the moment she saw it, Xiaoxiao was horrified.

It was an arm with a rich, woody texture, its joints seamlessly connected.

A lifelike, exquisitely crafted marionette arm…