While all the puppets were blocking the city gate waiting to leave, the two disabled puppets, Cao Qian and Xing Ye, quickly found an empty corner to hide. Jingzi used his two-meter-tall body to block the two small puppets, and his two bronze arms were akimbo. For the first time, he was able to protect Xing Ye, and he felt so awesome.
"What's going on?" Cao Qian looked in the mirror, then leaned closer to Xing Ye and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear. "Who is he? The player I just met, Shun Fate?"
It can be said that Cao Qian, this teammate, is very self-aware. When she saw Jingzi's tall figure, she would never guess that he was a player who defied fate.
"No," Xing Ye also whispered, "My brother in this body seems to be a fool, quite easy to deceive. There's no need to avoid him, ka."
Xing Ye supported his chin and said, "Ka-ba, sorry, I need to change the oil, ka-ba."
"Stupid? Could he be the only puppet that tells the truth that we are looking for?" Cao Qian asked.
"Kaba, do you think our luck will be so good? Kaba." Xing Ye held his chin while looking at Cao Qian's broken and fragile arm. "Can you use your initial skills like this?"
"I've already used it, but my body is too fragile to exert force. I can lift heavy objects, but my arm will be crushed." Cao Qian said depressedly. She looked at Xing Ye's broken arm and asked, "Can you use your initial skills?"
Xing Ye: "Kaba, using a pen with my left hand isn't a problem, but my finger joints are rusty, so I'm really slow. It might take me half an hour to draw a QR code."
Cao Qian's small, red eyes, formed by two match heads, seemed filled with despair. "We've probably already fought three rounds in half an hour, and I've been burned like firewood!"
Xing Ye was silent for a moment, then decided to change the subject: "Let's exchange information."
He told Cao Qian what he had heard and seen that morning.
Cao Qian also said: "Your intelligence is even more backward than mine. I have a mother in this world, she is a tin man."
"Huh? The stickman's mother is a tin man?" Xing Ye felt that this world really could not be inferred by common sense.
"Who knows what that Benedict was thinking," Cao Qian gritted her teeth. "I come from a single-parent family, with my mother raising three children. My eldest brother, like my mother, is a new type of tin man. My second sister is an ordinary wooden puppet, but she's said to be the most beautiful girl in the city, with many suitors. Of course, I can't see what's so beautiful about her, maybe people have different tastes. I'm the third child, a stick figure. I can't lift anything, and my arms and legs are broken all the time. My mother said that all the money she earned from foot massage was used to repair my body. She said I was a money-loser. This morning, she forced me to go out of town to mine ore to support myself."
Xing Ye: "...It seems Benedict really wants to build a paradise, a puppet city filled with beauty and love. Logically, you are the weakest child in the family, and should be the one that your mother and siblings doubly care for and love. However, when he gave the puppets human nature, everything went in the opposite direction. The puppets are full of deception, and family ties have become utilitarian."
Cao Qian: "…"
Well, at least Xing Ye's brain has not rusted due to lack of oil. His reaction speed and analytical ability are still first-class. In this case, he can still infer the story line from the current situation. This is the only good news.
"I think what the system should seal most is not your initial skills, but your brain's thinking ability," said Cao Qian.
Xing Ye was horrified. "Don't say that kind of thing. What if it really finds a way to restrict us? What are we going to do in the next world? Are we going to just lie down and lose?"
Cao Qian knew she had said the wrong thing and stuck out her tongue. Her tongue was like a matchbox.
Xing Ye: "You don't have any friction surfaces on your body, right? You're covered in match heads. A little heat will ignite!"
Cao Qian's body is composed of a main trunk made up of a thick matchstick, and various body parts are made up of small matches. Her head is a big match head with a few hairs on it, which look like hair.
She was wearing a tattered skirt, which was why Xing Ye guessed that she might be a girl when he saw her just now.
Cao Qian's situation was actually better than Xing Ye's. At least she had a family and someone to spend money on her. Although her mother always scolded her, at least someone was taking care of her, and she could get her arm repaired if it broke.
Xing Ye handed his broken arm to the big mirror and supported his chin with his left hand. This not only helped him to hold up his chin which was constantly "clicking" and dropping, but also made him look deep and majestic, although this majesty and depth only existed in his imagination.
"Who repaired your arm?" Xing Ye asked.
"There is only one repair shop in the city, and that's Old Nick's. I heard that Master Benedict gave puppets the ability to repair themselves, and he wanted to keep the Puppet City free of death and illness forever, so he gave half of his name to Old Nick." Cao Qian replied. As she had a family, she could find out more information than Xing Ye.
"Go home and ask your mother for money, and tell her that your arm was broken and needs repairing. After you find out the location of the repair shop, tell us and we will start there," Xing Ye suggested.
Seeing Cao Qian's puzzled look, Xing Ye explained, "The narrator said that Master Benedict put his heart into the body of a puppet. Even if he had to become a puppet, he wanted to make Puppet City the ideal country in his mind.
Although the mission doesn't require us to find Benedict, he must be an important character and we need to talk to him.
Even if Benedict plays no role in the story, you and I still need him to help us find a new body. This won't work. If we keep using these two bodies, I might as well burn you to death and then find another player to kill me and leave this world. We're already in a losing body."
Cao Qian felt Xing Ye's words made sense, but she didn't quite understand his final line of reasoning. "If you kill me, you get 1,000 points. I lose the game, and I lose 2,050 points. If someone else kills you again, your points will be halved as well, but you can still make up for the 500 points you got from me, right?"
Xing Ye's expression remained unchanged as he praised, "Very good, you've been able to see through the traps in my words and no longer mechanically follow other people's orders. You've made progress."
Cao Qian was not angry. In the previous world, Xing Ye said that he might stab her in the end, but in fact, when she was beaten all over by Bai Xu, Xing Ye did not give up on her, but forced Guan Ling to treat her injuries.
"I understand. You're describing the worst-case scenario," Cao Qian said. "In the last world, before the true ending was revealed, you were still confident you could defeat Team Di Kuang, but you lacked enough points to unleash your initial abilities. It just so happens that I killed Teacher Li and earned 1,000 points, so the worst-case scenario is that Di Kuang wants to kill you and me. If faced with that scenario, instead of letting them kill you, why not just go all out? You kill me to earn points, and then use the Pen of Repaint to finish them off."
Xing Ye did think so at the time, but he didn't expect Cao Qian to understand it.
Cao Qian continued, "Besides looking for Master Benedict, you must have other purposes, right?"
"Well, I suspect there are some obedient players in Old Nick's shop."
Cao Qian blinked her matchbox eyelids and waited for Xing Ye to explain.
"There are five players who follow the destiny in this round. Among the puppeteers in the city who are rich, powerful, skilled, and have connections, there may be players who follow the destiny." Xing Ye said.
Looking at herself and Xing Ye's pitiful and tattered appearance, Cao Qian felt that what he said made so much sense.
"Maybe your second sister is a player who follows fate." Xing Ye said, "She is the most popular female puppet in the city. Countless puppets pursue her, and she has a player who is extremely unlucky and defies fate by her side. She fits the characteristics of a player who follows fate very well."
Cao Qian recalled her second sister's appearance and felt that Xing Ye's analysis was very correct.
"Bang!" The bronze mirror man standing in front of them slammed his chest hard.
"What's wrong with him?" Cao Qian asked nervously, thinking someone was coming.
"It's okay, I'm just a little impatient waiting." Xing Ye said.
He knew the mirror too well and completely understood how it felt right now. The most beautiful puppet in the city could only be the bronze mirror man, not the female puppet! The mirror was protesting.
Xing Ye asked, "You haven't revealed your true identity during this period, right?"
Cao Qian: "It should be no problem. Stick figures usually have a low status at home and don't like to talk much. We don't have many expressions. Look at my face, a big red matchstick head with eyes, nose, mouth and ears. My face can't move at all. What expression can I make?"
"Then pay more attention to your second sister," Xing Ye began. "Your mother and brother could also be players, so you need to approach the issue dialectically and not just focus on your second sister. If you must allocate attention, it would be 70% on your second sister, 17% on your mother, and 13% on your brother. A mother struggling to raise three children alone might be defying fate, while the latest model of the Tin Man already has an advantage, so he might be following fate.
Observe the way each person speaks, their evaluation of others, the attitudes of different people towards you, the impressions of them given by other people, the traces of life in the home, the placement of commonly used items and how they are used now, etc.
Living in this world is bound to create connections with people and things. Even twins who grew up together will have slight differences. As long as the body is swapped, no matter how perfectly the mask is, there will be traces.
Of course, when observing others, don't forget to protect yourself. For example, when sleeping, if you have a bed, you should determine your sleeping position by the folds of the sheets and the degree of depression of the mattress. Disguise yourself in every detail, understand?"
Cao Qian: "...I'll try my best."
No wonder Xing Ye was able to quickly identify all the players in the last world, that's how it is!
The course was a bit advanced, and she thought it might take a long time to graduate.
After carefully teaching Cao Qian, the little stick figure went home, covering her arm. Xing Ye looked at her back and said, "I hope she can find some clues."
The big mirror said, "What do you need me to do? I'm in good health. It seems the city gate over there is about to open. How about I go to the mines and dig some minerals to support you? Look at my body. Although I can't bend down, I'm still quite strong. My limbs are a little rusty, but I'm not afraid of fire."
Xing Ye: "We will definitely go to the mine, but not right now. Don't worry for now. Let's observe first. It's great that we can meet Cao Qian in front of the city gate."
Although Jingzi wanted to support him, Xing Ye was really worried about him.
Jingzi always says that he is a high-level player, but he looks silly, and Xing Ye is afraid that he will be bullied when he goes to the mine.
Because there might be players in Cao Qian's home, they need to avoid Cao Qian's family and find a reasonable way to contact Cao Qian.
After recognizing Cao Qian, Xing Ye once again felt how desperate the situation the system had given to the players who defied fate was.
In the previous world, he and Cao Qian were novices with few points, so the system didn't restrict them too much, which gave Xing Ye the opportunity to shine. But in this world, the system suppressed their initial skills and gave them an extremely fragile life.
The match heads on Cao Qian's body are real, and are indeed made of chemicals such as potassium chlorate and manganese dioxide. Her body is also a flammable matchstick. No matter how strong her abilities are, a fire can kill her, and it is quite easy for her opponents to deal with her.
He was even more miserable. Cao Qian at least had family to take care of her, so she hadn't rusted yet. But Xing Ye was obviously a poor and pitiful puppet, penniless, without family, and no money to oil his puppet.
Xing Ye sat on the ground, thinking about what to do.
He told Cao Qian that the murder-suicide was a joke, but he was also preparing for the worst.
But admitting defeat is not Xing Ye's style. How can he give up without trying hard?
According to his understanding of the system, the system will actually give a little help to players who defy fate, such as Claire's identity as the most beautiful girl and the money ability in the previous world, but this kind of help will not be as obvious as that for players who obey fate, and the players who defy fate need to find and discover it themselves.
Seeing Xing Ye thinking, Jingzi sat beside him and supported his chin with his hands to accompany him.
His body is flat, so the movement looks more like the mirror head above him has temples.
Although it's ridiculous, the mirror finally has a body...wait!
Xing Ye looked in the mirror and realized that he had overlooked something.
The mirror is currently defined by the system as a prop, and can only change its body in different types of mirrors. He is not like other people who have a body given by the system. Logically, he can only possess a mirror without a soul.
Xing Ye had previously fallen into a misconception. He had never thought the bronze mirror figure was alive, only mistaking it for an object. But this world was different. Master Benedict had imbued the puppets with life, and every puppet in the Puppet City was alive.
But in his house, among the pile of junk that looked like a warehouse, there was a soulless bronze mirror doll.
If this were analogous to the real world, it would be like a poor person having a corpse in their home. Isn't that shocking? If a normal person were to travel through time and space in this body, they would probably jump in fear.
However, this is Puppet City, and Xing Ye naturally ignored this matter.
Another key point is that Master Benedict's ideal puppet city is one where death is non-existent. The puppets, if properly repaired, can achieve immortality. The Bronze Mirror Man's body is even more sturdy, so why did he die at home?
If death does not exist, it means that the Bronze Mirror Man has never lived. He is an incomplete body and Master Benedict has not yet had time to give him life.
In other words, the Bronze Mirror Man is most likely a puppet made by Master Benedict before his death, or a failed product that he did not want to give life to.
This kind of doll is in the home of a poor man. How could this poor man not have any secrets? Or, the bronze mirror man itself contains some clues.
Sure enough, all the clues are hidden in the details. It just depends on whether the players can break through traditional thinking and discover the problems.
Xing Ye held the mirror with his remaining left hand and said, "Thank you for helping me. Let's go home now!"
Mirror: "Huh? When did I help you?"