As soon as the girl spoke, the room erupted in chaos.
"What did she say? She wants to kill us all?"
"This woman is crazy! She’s definitely insane!"
"There are more of us than her, don’t be afraid."
"Maybe death is a release..."
Xu Xiaoyou's gaze swept rapidly through the crowd, observing the expressions on their faces. She quickly raised her gun and aimed it at the middle-aged woman in front of her. Before the woman could react, a blossom of blood erupted!
"Ah!"
Seeing the girl actually fire, screams echoed throughout the room. People scattered in panic, and the scene became incredibly chaotic.
The middle-aged woman’s eyes bulged as blood pooled from the hole in her head. Her final expression was frozen in a look of shock, as if she hadn't expected the girl to shoot her so decisively. Her bloated body collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud.
Xu Xiaoyou stepped forward quickly and fired several more shots. Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, the woman’s bloated body shriveled rapidly. Her skin sagged like a piece of wrinkled fabric, and blood continued to flow from her facial orifices, accompanied by rising wisps of black gas.
She had turned into a puppet!
"The puppet master isn't among these people. Let's go."
Xu Xiaoyou put away her gun, ignored the astonished looks of the crowd, and pushed open the door to the room, heading deeper into another secret passage.
Tang Xin didn't fully understand what had happened, but her gaze quickly hardened as she followed the girl out the door.
Lin Sheng kept his aura suppressed and glanced at the terrified refugees in the room. He let out a cold snort, picked up his blade, and followed the girl out as well.
After a brief silence, someone in the room spoke with a trembling voice, "That crazy woman is gone..."
"What should we do?"
Qin Yong looked toward the direction where the girl had gone with a complex expression, then glanced at his Second Aunt, who had turned into a lifeless puppet.
He stepped forward and said, "If there was a puppet in this room already, our location is likely exposed."
"If you don't want to die, we have to leave here quickly."
"Qin Yong!" At that moment, another middle-aged woman in the crowd spoke up. "Look at what kind of people you brought back! She killed your Second Aunt! She’s a murderer!"
Qin Yong pressed his temples, suppressing his frustration as he said, "That wasn't Second Aunt. You saw it too; she had already turned into a monster long ago. They helped us resolve a hidden danger."
"She's a murderer!" "She just said she wanted to kill us all!"
Just then, Qin Yong noticed a movement in the distance. His hearing was very keen, far sharper than that of an ordinary person.
This was his innate talent.
Rustle, rustle.
At the sound, Qin Yong's pupils shrank. He slowly looked upward. Many monsters were approaching their location.
"If we don't leave now, it'll be too late!" he shouted back at the crowd.
Many refugees stood up quickly at his words, gathering their belongings. They packed their bundles and survival supplies and moved behind the young man. At this moment, he was everyone's pillar of support.
"If you want to go, then go! It’s full of monsters out there; this is the only safe place!"
Qin Yong didn't bother to argue with the stubborn woman anymore. He had seen her true colors clearly; even if he took her along, she would only be a burden to everyone.
Only upon becoming a leader did he realize how heavy the responsibility on his shoulders truly was.
For the sake of the seeds of civilization, he was willing to carry the firewood, lead by example, and shoulder more danger—even if it only made the tiny flame on this snowy plain burn just a little brighter.
But he would never allow his sense of responsibility to overflow to the point where the flame everyone protected together was extinguished because of a few individuals.
He led the group of youths and the refugees willing to follow him out of the room, leaving her alone to fend for herself.
Seeing the people leave, the woman looked around smugly. "If they want to leave, let them. Once the danger passes, everything in the village will be mine. Then I'll head to another settlement."
Just as her words fell, a heavy pounding sound erupted at the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She watched in horror as the door was dented inward by dozens of centimeters until it was violently smashed open. A mass of puppets with entwined limbs swarmed in from outside.
Only then did she finally think of running. But as she turned around, the woman who had collapsed on the floor earlier—the puppet—appeared behind her. Its mangled face hung like tattered rags, and its empty eye sockets stared straight at her.
"Ah!"
The silence over the mountain forest was broken by the cry of a startled bird.
A flock of vultures, seemingly attracted by the scent of blood on the group, circled above them for a long time without leaving.
They returned to the station on the mountain and finally reunited with Chen San.
His expression was somewhat grave as he stood by the alloy door. The communication curtain in front of him was connected to the station's signal, and he appeared to be communicating with someone.
"Almost the entire settlement has turned into puppets. Li Yin, A-Qing, and the others are all dead."
When he noticed the group approaching, Chen San looked up and nodded slightly to acknowledge them. When he realized someone was missing, his brow furrowed.
"Where is Lin Xing?"
Seeing their somber expressions and how poorly they looked, he guessed what had happened. He sighed softly and didn't ask further.
"We meet again, Miss Xu," the young man in the communication curtain said with a chuckle. "I can see the operation didn't go very smoothly."
"Did you find the puppet master?"
Xu Xiaoyou remained silent. She had previously judged that the puppet master was hiding among the survivors in the basement using a disguise, and her earlier words had been a test.
When encountering a sudden event, a person's immediate micro-expressions would not lie. She had observed everyone's expressions at the time and saw nothing but terror—except for that middle-aged woman, whose face showed the relief of a successful scheme. That was why she had shot her so decisively.
But that woman was also just a puppet. The true puppet master was not among that group of people.
Who could it be? Had she missed some piece of information?
Xu Xiaoyou's mind raced, recalling everything from before to ensure she hadn't overlooked any key details.
She and Tang Xin had searched almost the entire settlement. If he wasn't in that basement, where else could the puppet master be hiding?
At that moment, Jian Liu spoke. "Puppet master Yorick is a very troublesome fellow. He’s cunning, treacherous, and naturally suspicious, with extremely strong anti-reconnaissance capabilities."
"If you get into a direct confrontation with him, watch out for his mimicry puppet mother. His own mental power isn't enough to support controlling so many puppets simultaneously."
"He controls hundreds of puppets through the puppet mother. To be precise, he uses the puppet mother to control a dozen or so puppet nails, and then those puppet nails control the remaining puppets."
"If a conflict occurs, prioritize taking out the puppet mother. That can directly paralyze his puppet network."
Hearing about the puppet mother, Chen San’s face darkened. He involuntarily recalled the woman in the stilt house, vividly remembering her splitting open to become a monster nearly five meters tall. If he hadn't reacted quickly enough, he likely would have been impaled by her long, spider-like limbs.
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