Chapter 27: Sequence 137 - The Puppeteer

The scene unfolded with such abruptness.

The two fallen squad members were foaming at the mouth, their eyes rolled back.

Little Rain hurriedly knelt to examine them.

She first checked their breathing.

"They are still breathing. They have just fainted."

Dart knelt down, his face was filled with confusion.

Right then, another team member thudded to the ground.

Then, Glimmer and Slick followed suit, collapsing.

All five exhibited identical symptoms.

Just as Dart was lost in thought, he felt his thoughts begin to slow.

His hands and feet also started to stiffen.

He understood in an instant.

"Sequence 137 - The Puppeteer."

"J01 Asylum."

Dart's eyes reddened. His limbs were already too stiff to move, and he toppled over onto the ground.

Hearing Dart's words, the busy Little Rain suddenly understood.

Her hands kept making repetitive, mechanical motions as she simultaneously distanced herself from the other unconscious squad members.

Elsewhere, Lu Xiao stopped. 

He narrowed his eyes, watching the six people on the ground.

Noticing that Lu Xiao had stopped moving from the corner of her eye, Little Rain urgently shouted.

"Keep moving. Do not stop."

"This is Sequence 137 - The Puppeteer."

"Within its fifty-meter range, if your hands stop moving for even five seconds, you will be assimilated and become a controlled puppet."

But it was already too late.

Lu Xiao felt his hands and feet grow heavy. His thoughts seemed to congeal.

In an instant, his mind went blank.

His soul felt like it had left his body, observing his physical form from a god's-eye view.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

The unconscious squad members began to stand up.

Their eyes were rolled back, their bodies twisting in unnatural poses. 

They looked like marionettes.

Little Rain, still moving her hands constantly, rushed toward Lu Xiao.

Lu Xiao had not yet been fully assimilated by the Puppeteer. If she could force his hands to move, the assimilation could be broken.

In Lu Xiao's vision, the world seemed to be slowing down, the smooth motion now stuttering like a faulty graphics card.

It became a series of frozen frames, a stop-motion animation.

Simultaneously, a slight vibration occurred within the bones of his body.

The alchemical array carved into his bones by Ivan activated.

In that instant, Lu Xiao felt his consciousness snap back into his mind.

His pinky finger twitched slightly.

It was the absolute limit of what he could manage.

But that tiny movement was enough to interrupt the Puppeteer's assimilation.

A stronger force followed, one that seemed to want to manipulate his limbs directly.

Lu Xiao understood. He had bought himself five seconds.

Five seconds was more than enough for him.

Watching Little Rain getting closer in his stuttering vision, Lu Xiao's mouth slowly stretched into a grin.

Thump.

Little Rain crashed into Lu Xiao's chest.

They both fell to the ground together.

Not far from them, seven figures emerged from the darkness.

Each held a gun in one hand, while the other performed a repetitive, cyclic motion.

The hand holding the gun also moved up and down constantly.

The seven men formed a circle. In the center hung a half-meter-long wooden casket.

They had suspended the casket from ropes tied around their waists.

With Little Rain's help, Lu Xiao shook off the remaining effects of the assimilation.

"Miss, who are these people?"

Lu Xiao flexed his arms, turning his head to ask Little Rain.

Little Rain gritted her teeth, her voice cold.

"Sequence 137 - The Puppeteer is contained at Asylum J01."

"Clearly, they are the Warden squad from J01."

Lu Xiao followed up.

"Where is Asylum J01?"

Little Rain answered coldly.

"J01 is in Japan."

"Oh ho! Isn't that convenient?"

The expression on Lu Xiao's face was a spectacle.

It flickered between a smile and utter madness.

"Miss! So I just need to keep my hands moving, right?"

Hearing Lu Xiao's question, Little Rain nodded.

"The trait of Sequence 137 is that everyone within its fifty-meter radius must keep their hands moving at all times."

"Otherwise, they will be assimilated by the Puppeteer."

"If someone is assimilated, then anyone within fifty meters of that assimilated person must also keep their hands moving."

"Theoretically, if there was an assimilated person every forty-nine meters, the Puppeteer could assimilate the entire world."

"However, the assimilation is broken if an assimilated person moves more than fifty meters away from the Puppeteer itself."

As a member of a Warden special forces squad, Little Rain had an expert's understanding of the traits of these anomalous entities.

It was knowledge every special forces member was required to memorize.

Lu Xiao produced a bone spike from somewhere.

The spike was covered in intricate, complex patterns, with a large sapphire set into its base.

Lu Xiao grinned, then violently drove the spike down into his own thigh.

The spike sank entirely into the flesh.

Bathed in blood, the sapphire at its base emitted a violent light.

A white halo then expanded outward from the gem.

Just as Little Rain was stunned by this act of self-mutilation, her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

Simultaneously, the seven special forces soldiers carrying the Puppeteer also collapsed unconscious.

But Dart and the others, already assimilated by the Puppeteer, remained standing.

They slowly raised their guns and began firing wildly in Lu Xiao's direction.

Once again, the manor was engulfed in the sound of gunfire.

Fighting through the dizziness in his head, Lu Xiao scrambled away on his hands and feet.

He held the bone spike in his teeth, his body crawling swiftly across the ground.

He quickly moved past the assimilated Dart and the others, charging straight toward the J01 Warden squad nearby.

Countless bullets landed behind him.

The J01 squad was also getting back to their feet, seven dark muzzles spitting fire toward Lu Xiao.

At the same time, the sound of grenade pins being pulled echoed.

They had been thrown by Dart's assimilated team.

Lu Xiao didn't even glance back. He attacked the J01 squad directly.

Thwack.

Boom.

A grenade exploded behind him.

The bone spike instantly pierced the first soldier's heart.

The bulletproof vest the soldier wore offered no more resistance than a block of tofu against the spike.

But the soldier, with his heart pierced, did not die.

His eyes rolled back, showing the whites of his eyes, drool was leaking from his mouth.

One hand gripped the bone spike embedded in his chest with terrifying strength. The other, holding his gun, fired directly at Lu Xiao.

Lu Xiao tried to pull the spike free, but the soldier's grip was impossibly strong.

For a moment, Lu Xiao couldn't retrieve it.

Simultaneously, the muzzles of every weapon on the field turned toward him.

Including the gun held by Little Rain, who had just gotten back to her feet.

Previous

Next