Volume 3: Artifacts Chapter 23 Puppet Show
The third carriage was a cemetery, with a decayed and dilapidated iron fence surrounding a graveyard. In the dim light, the words on the tombstones were vague. At the other end of the cemetery was a dilapidated church, and the door of the church was the connecting door to the carriages.
A flock of black crows flew out from the church's bell tower, and the sound of shabby bells rang out.
The black crows flew off into the darkness, cawing.
The cemetery seemed to be disturbed, the ground rose rapidly, and then coffins broke out of the ground one by one, and the bells in the church tower became more urgent.
With a continuous creaking sound, the lid of the coffin opened, revealing the mummy wrapped in a shroud. The mummies walked out of the coffin with their arms stretched out and their feet stiff, screaming, and black corpse gas seeped out from under the shroud.
The sandpaper that came in first waved his hand, and several screwdrivers flew out of the tool bag and shot at the nearby mummy. The screwdrivers were very powerful and easily pierced through the mummy's body, leaving round holes on it.
However, this attack could only make the mummy pause for a moment, and then continue to move forward step by step.
The flying screwdriver made a circle, pierced through several mummies, and then returned to the sandpaper.
"Governor, are these monsters unkillable?"
Luke held the steel wing with brilliant feathers that had turned into a long sword and danced a sword flower. A layer of holy flame attached to the blade.
"These are monsters created by the energy of the abyss. They can be easily purified by using magic and combat skills of divine attributes, and they can also be killed by destroying the core at the heart. However, since they are created by illusion, they are endless as long as the secret technique is used.
Only by finding the Abyss Mage hiding here can we crack the secret technique."
After hearing what Luke said, Sandpaper threw all the screwdrivers around him and aimed at the mummy's heart. As Luke said, after the heart was pierced, the mummy immediately fell straight down, and then turned into ashes and merged into the ground.
At the same time, several coffins in the cemetery shook a few times, and intact mummies walked out of them.
Sandpaper asked, "Didn't you say that once the train starts moving, the Abyss Mage will have to face us directly? Why do we still need to look for them?"
Luke swung his sword without any fancy sword skills. The holy flame swept across, and the mummy's entire body would burn as soon as it got a little spark.
"This is already a direct confrontation with us. If the Abyss Mage is outside the carriage, the secret arts in each carriage will be connected in series, and the power will increase exponentially." Luke set a few more mummies on fire, and then said to Sandpaper: "The Abyss Mage is hiding in one of the coffins. I will leave him to you and Red Falcon to deal with. I will go directly to the next carriage, and the next one is the front of the train.
We can’t waste time.”
Sandpaper replied: "Leave this to me, let Red Falcon rush over with you, and hurry up to rescue Boiling."
The sandpaper hair was flying, and the screwdriver turned into a stream of light and quickly shuttled among the mummies. The mummies fell down layer by layer like blooming flowers.
Anxious to rescue the boiling Red Falcon, she followed Sandpaper's instructions. She rushed forward with a rapier in her hand. The sword flashed like lightning, and with every flash, a mummy was stabbed in the heart and fell down.
Sandpaper and Red Falcon were killed quickly, and the coffins refreshed mummies quickly, and the mummies walked out one after another.
Luke did not insist that Red Falcon stay. He swung out his sword, and holy flames flew out from the sword, turning into a crescent-shaped slash that swept towards the mummy blocking the road ahead. The road leading to the dilapidated church was cleared, and while the mummy did not block the road again, Luke rushed over quickly with Red Falcon.
Rushing and killing at the same time, Luke rushed to the door and opened it, and the Red Falcon flashed and went into the light curtain.
Luke looked back at Sandpaper, and saw that the space between him and her was filled with mummies. He chopped down a few mummies that were approaching, and then turned around and went into the light curtain.
dark!
Darkness without a ray of light.
Even though the holy flames were burning on the steel wings of the Brilliant Feathers, they still could not illuminate the nearby area. The red kestrel had disappeared. A flash of electricity danced in Luke's left eye, and there was an image in his vision, but there was no color in the image, only black and white.
The carriage has not changed its appearance. This is the rest area for the crew. There is unfinished coffee on the table and scattered papers on the floor. It can be seen how hurried the crew was when they received the notice to go to carriage No. 9.
The black and white tones made Luke feel like he was watching a silent movie from an old time.
The undead in the heart-eating pollen.
Man-eating vines in the bloody jungle.
Mummies in Deathstroke Cemetery.
Three carriages, three different mystical arts, the other carriages should be arranged in the same way. This time it was a temporary assassination, the Abyss Temple actually prepared so many mystical arts, they really wanted to put me and Agatha to death!
As for the current condition of this carriage.
It is the secret technique unique to the third apostle Belga: a puppet show in black and white tones.
This carriage is the audience stand, and the front of the train has been transformed into a puppet show stage by secret magic.
Are you late?
It’s not too late!
The curtain has not been lifted and the puppet show has not begun.
Luke folded his steel wings with brilliant feathers and walked forward, sitting down behind a table.
The black curtain covering the entire carriage dissipated, and the seats were instantly filled with spectators. However, the spectators were all puppets, their faces painted with bright white paint, their facial features lifeless and full of deep horror.
"Sir, which play would you like to watch?"
A puppet waiter walked to Luke's side with a tray. There were several wooden pieces on the tray with the play titles written on them.
Luke casually looked through the wood chips.
"The Chamber of Cobb's Toast", "The Scream", "Rabbit's Foot", "Eyes at the Bottom of the River"...
You can't tell much from the name of the play, but these are murder cases that happened hundreds of years ago and have never been solved.
The third apostle, Belga, is a deep suspense and mystery enthusiast. His hobby is to assist the Sheriff's Department in solving cases as a private detective. The more difficult the case is to solve, the more interested he is.
After transforming into an Apostle of the Abyss, Belga created a secret technique that allows him to kill characters based on his own preferences.
The black and white puppet show is a secret technique that even the players have not discovered the loopholes. Once the puppet show begins, the players can only follow the plot and choose one of the many options on the stage according to the clues to promote the plot.
If the player fails to find the murderer in time, he will die once he encounters the murderer. However, since even Belga does not know who the murderer is, there is no correct answer to these puppet shows. Unless the player is strong enough to break through the secret technique with force, he can just wait for resurrection.
The Red Falcon disappeared because she ran around after coming in and was captured by the secret technique and taken backstage to prepare for the performance on stage.
Luke sat in the audience and played the role of an audience member watching the puppet show.
Now the door to the locomotive is closed, and the puppet show stage has not appeared, which means the puppet show has not started yet. But as long as Luke selects the play, the puppet show will start immediately. Luke, who is not caught on the stage, still has a chance to escape the secret technique, but Boiling and Red Falcon will definitely die.
There are real audiences in the stands of puppet shows, so puppet shows cannot be performed randomly.
Luke threw the wood chips on the tray. "Is there any theater group that neglects the audience like this? This kind of play is very long, shouldn't the audience be served a cup of tea first?"
The puppet waiter was stunned for a moment, then apologized: "I'm sorry, sir! I'll pour you some tea right away."
The puppet waiter turned around and brought the tea set, pouring a cup of hot tea for Luke. Although everything was in black and white, you could still see the smoke rising from the tea.
"Sir, which play would you like to watch?"
Luke drank his tea and said, "The Untold Story of Young Men and Women in the Flower Fields"
The puppet waiter was stunned again, and said, "I'm sorry, sir! You can only choose the plays we have."
"Oh, we can only choose the plays you have?" Luke flipped through the wood chips again: "Is there any play with a simpler scene, preferably just a room and a bed, with a less complicated plot. Not too many characters, just two people will do.
Any recommendations? "
The puppet waiter was almost driven offline by Luke's request. He replied, "I'm sorry, sir! We don't have any plays that meet your requirements in our repertoire. Please choose a play and we will perform it for you right away."
Luke suddenly realized and said, "Just pick one play?"
"Yes, sir!"
"I don't know anything about these plays." Luke said with a smile: "Tell me the general content of these plays and I'll listen to which one is interesting."
…
The method that players have come up with to deal with the black and white puppet show is to occupy the audience seats and prevent the puppet show from starting. Maintaining the secret technique consumes energy continuously. As long as it takes too long, the third apostle will not be able to withstand it and jump out.
And delaying time also requires strategy. You can't make unreasonable demands, you can't avoid dialogue... You have to keep rubbing against the edge, walking on the edge of the rules of the secret technique, and just don't go any further.
As long as he can get as close as possible to the triggering conditions of the secret technique, Belga, as the creator of the secret technique, cannot change the rules of the secret technique.
All he can do is wait or not.
Luke found a bug in the startup of the secret technique and used the rich experience of the veteran players. As long as Belga didn't jump out, he would definitely be exhausted.
Of course...it would be bad if we finally caught Belga and he ran away.
I wonder how long it will take Sandpaper to deal with the Abyss Mage next door.
The puppet waiter gave a brief summary of the plot of each play as Luke requested.
"Sir, which play would you like to watch?"
Luke said, "I want to watch them all! But I'm not satisfied with your plot arrangement. Can your troupe adapt these plays, combine and reorganize the plots, push forward multiple cases together, have more deaths, and make it bloodier to maximize the suspense. Oh, right! It can't all be about solving the case. Can you add some love and comedy elements?"
"Ah? Romance and comedy elements!"
"Yes, there is no drama without love. Add more kissing scenes and sex scenes, and it will definitely be interesting. Find two clowns to perform funny plays on the side, and the comedy effect will come out."
The puppet waiter shook his head, obviously confused by Luke.
"Sir, our play has already been rehearsed and cannot be changed at the last minute. Which play would you like to see?"
"I've already rehearsed it...Okay, I won't rewrite it this time, but I have some requirements for the actors. I'm a gender equality advocate, and I want the actors to be half male and half female. Is this not too much?"
…
Luke used the dialogue guide on his phone to torture the puppet waiter and the third apostle Belga who was hiding behind the scenes. He never expected that this secret technique that he had spent a hundred years writing and rehearsing carefully would have such a big omission.
But since the creation of this secret technique, even the first apostle Victor did not dare to try to enter it. Who is this person? How could he be able to block the secret technique and not activate it the first time he saw it!
Belga couldn't help but think of the dead apostles.
Their secrets were easily cracked by the elf Qingkong, and then they died. Could it be that Qingkong told this person how to crack the black and white puppet show? How did Qingkong know? How did she know the way to crack it?
traitor!
There is a traitor inside the Abyss Temple!
Who of the two of them is the traitor, and how would the traitor know the method to crack the secret technique?
Even I don’t know!
Belga, who was hiding, became more and more panicked, but he had already integrated himself into the secret technique. Unless he took the initiative to release the secret technique, he could do nothing.
Belga looked at Luke in the audience from behind the scenes through a barrier. He didn't know that this person was the meteorite, nor did he know that this person was Luke who had been to the Holy Mountain. The fear of the elf clear sky made him suffer from great psychological pressure, and he had an intuition warning himself.
Run away! Run away! If you are too late, you will die!
But if he doesn't kill Agatha and Meteor, and fails to complete the Duke of Celtic's mission, and flees back to the Holy Mountain in such a miserable state, will he still be tolerated by the Temple of the Abyss?
Four Abyss Apostles died, the first Apostle Victor left, and the Abyss Temple is no longer the Abyss Temple of the Apostles.
Belga maintained his secret preparation and had a fierce ideological struggle in his heart.
He was wasting every second of his time.
Suddenly, the door connecting the carriages at the other end of the auditorium opened, and a girl with a pink ponytail flew in.
Sandpaper rushed into the carriage and stopped immediately when she saw everything in front of her turned black and white. Her eyes quickly scanned the carriage and then saw Luke sitting there drinking tea.
A puppet stood beside Luke, swaying unnaturally.
"Governor, what's going on ?" Sandpaper didn't see Hong Kuang and asked anxiously, "Did Hong Kuang enter the front cab first?"
Without turning around, Luke said to the puppet waiter, "Please wait a moment. I have a small request that I hope your troupe can satisfy. My friend is here, maybe she can give me some advice."
The puppet waiter said, "Please make a decision as soon as possible."
"I'll make a decision right away." Luke turned and looked at Sandpaper, who had no injuries on his body. "Good job! Can you contact Red Falcon?"
Sandpaper closed his eyes and tried his best to enhance his perception: "I can sense Hong Kushen. She is in a bad condition. It seems that she is controlled by some kind of restriction and cannot move. The same is true for Boiling.
How do we save them both? "
"Right away, right away!" Luke first calmed the impatient puppet waiter. The secret technique had reached the critical point of activation. Luke hurriedly said to Sandpaper: "Let Red Falcon recite the secret phrase 'Please give me a song'"
