Ch46 – Are the puppet strings formless?

Sponsored Content

The quick succession of system prompts one after another stunned everyone.

[Ah, the hunger setting has been turned on.
My god, this instance is already in famine mode, it’ll drive them to their graves.] 

[Upper limit of 60, instant death when it falls to zero… this punishment mode is too terrible.]

[And it’s death, not elimination.
For better or for worse, failing an instance leads to elimination, and when you’re eliminated at least you still have a fighting chance in the punishment instance.
Dying straight-out is really kind of harsh.]

 

 

[Seriously though, I can’t even tell how they failed their main tasks.
I’m completely gobsmacked.]

[Gobsmacked +10086.
And how can it be that both camps failed their main tasks at the same time? I really don’t get it.] 

As the plot introduction ended, the expressions on the trainees’ faces also gradually turned grave.

 

Failing the main task would result in an elimination punishment.

According to the system’s benevolent way of putting it, trainees would be sent into a solo punishment instance after elimination.
If they were able to clear the instance, then they could return to the competition stage of the Thriller Trainee.

Unfortunately, none of the eliminated F-rank trainees from the previous one-man show formatted instance had successfully made it through; all of them had lost their lives in the punishment instance.

 

But at least the punishment instance offered a lifeline.
If they were directly ruled dead, these salted fish wouldn’t even have a chance to reverse their fortunes.

Everyone knew what this implied.

A tiny number appeared at the corner of every trainee’s vision, denoting the hunger value.

The instance had only just restarted, and the demented system had already given them a perilous hunger value: 19. 

Now, everyone could distinctly feel the hunger burning in the pits of their stomachs, as if their stomachs were clenching in unbearable agony.

Aside from that, there were some who noticed something amiss.

They didn’t see Yi Ruisi in the square.

After the restart, no matter where the trainee was, as long as they were still breathing, they would be transferred over. 

The fact that he hadn’t come was indicative that, under circumstances unbeknownst to them, he had died without a trace.
When put together with Anthony’s earlier statement that he was tailing the Magician, everyone momentarily showed a multitude of expressions, but there was no lack of distrust and scrutiny.

Once again, everything followed the same progression as before.

From the village square of Tongbai village near the entrance of the village, Wang Shou swaggered over, leading a few dozen villagers carrying hoes and sickles behind him.
He spoke conceitedly, asking them to give benefits.

Sponsored Content

The previous time, the trainees took advantage of the fact that they didn’t need to eat to casually exchange the dry rations in their backpacks for a place to rest their feet. 

This time, their food was their life.
There wasn’t a single person foolish enough to hand it over.
Tacitly, they all chose to stay silent.

“Not handing over the benefits?”

 

As expected, Wang Shou’s eyes viciously swept across the bulging backpacks of these self-professed famine refugees, and his expression turned dark instantly.

“How can you think of entering our village without paying?” 

He sneered and waved his hand.
“Drive all of them out.”

Were they really going to let themselves be driven out?

Everyone nervously looked at each other as they eyed the villagers who were about to drive them out with the hoes they carried in their hands.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection.
If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

After the previous round, they already knew that this backpack contained nothing but dry and tasteless food. 

Ktfs mbeivc’a tjcv bnfg atf obbv, yea atfgf kjr cbatlcu firf atfs mbeiv ulnf.
Ktflg tjcvr kfgf alfv; obg j ktlif, atfs rabbv ja j ibrr jr ab ktja ab vb.

C nfafgjc delfais qgbqbrfv, “Qts vbc’a kf qgfafcv ab ifjnf atf nliijuf olgra jcv rcfjx yjmx lc ja cluta?”

“That wouldn’t do.
Our main task is to protect the villagers.
If we leave the village and sneak back in, not only will it be challenging to gain the villager’s trust, it might also affect subsequent tasks.”

Lin Guoxing’s brows furrowed.
“Is there any other alternative? Does anyone have anything of value on hand in this instance?” 

[What valuable items? Everyone is a poor wrench now, too tragic.]

[Hang on.
I suddenly remembered something.]

Once he said this, everyone remembered too.

In the previous round, the Magician had pulled out an antiquated silver coin as if performing a conjuring trick, successfully bribing a villager. 

Although it was now in a famine age, money had not lost its effectiveness.
No one knew exactly where the Magician had conjured this coin from, but when coupled with Yi Ruisi’s death, the suspicion in the hearts of the veterans only grew.

In a twinkling, all gazes swept towards the white-haired young man standing to one side.

Zong Jiu glanced at Lin Guoxing coldly.

The next second, his slender, nephrite-fair fingers formed a loose grip in the air. 

And when he next opened his hand, a silver coin was lying quietly in his palm, glowing with an ice-cold lustre.

No one could clearly discern his movements.

Sponsored Content

 

After seeing the money, greed immediately appeared in Wang Shou’s eyes.

The human traffickers had only given Wang Shou six yuan for selling off his daughter.
Now, it was nothing more than offering lodging that he could easily settle, yet it could get him a whole yuan; who wouldn’t be moved? 

The white-haired young man carelessly tossed the coin in the air.
“This is the only money I have left on me.
Let me consider it.”

As he spoke, he furtively studied Wang Shou’s expression.

Sure enough, when Zong Jiu disclosed that he was reluctant to give the money to him, the pupils of the other visibly darkened for a split second, as pitch-black as the corpse that Zong Jiu had encountered in the passageway.

He knew it.
This verified one of Zong Jiu’s earlier suspicions. 

It was highly probable that their approach in the first round was wrong from the very beginning.

Zong Jiu narrowed his eyes.

He flung the silver coin over.
“I only care about these dozen or so brothers who are following me.
I don’t care about the rest.”

Having received the money, Wang Shou naturally acquiesced to his request, following his words. 

The men in the other group were upset.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What do you mean what do I mean? I only have one yuan with me, of course I’ll choose to help my own first.
Do you really expect me to be responsible for you lot when your suspicion of me is written all over your faces?”

Zong Jiu waved a hand, and the newcomers who were standing behind him took a step forward, drawing a clear divide between them and the other group of veterans. 

“If you suspect me of being a mole, then it’s well within your right for five of you to come together and identify me.
Now that the instance has restarted, all of our evaluations would surely drop a rank.
If you get it wrong, it’s likely that the rating of everyone present will take another hit.
The feeling of getting rid of competition without having to expend a single troop feels great, don’t you think?”

“At a time like this when the slightest inattention could lead to a group wipeout, why don’t you hurry up and think about the secret behind this instance instead of dwelling on these?”

A poker card appeared in the hand of the white-haired young man.
He shrugged.
“So do your best, guys.”

With that, he brought the rest of his group and walked into the village without a single look back. 

Wang Shou, “Lao Qiang, take them to the empty house at the rear of the village.”

Lao Qiang?

 

Thinking of the first corpse that hung from the old locust tree, the newcomers shivered.
Those who were standing closer to Lao Qiang almost leapt away like they were stepping on fire.

Many of them secretly surveyed Lao Qiang, who was listening to Wang Shou’s orders. 

Sponsored Content

He was average-built for a man in this age, wearing a loose, unlined garment that revealed an upper body so emaciated that the bones of the rib cage protruded against his skin.

Most importantly, when daylight shone down from the fringes of the sky, they could see a blurry shadow on the ground.

So why was it that in an hour, not only was he dead, but also hanging from the old locust tree?

All of them followed behind Lao Qiang, uncomprehending. 

Zong Jiu deliberately fell behind the group.

He soundlessly moved closer to Zhuge An.

The dark-haired man lazily lifted his gaze.

In this instance, Zhuge An was a man of his word, doing exactly what he said he would.
Apart from calling to their attention an inconsistency before they cycled back to the start, he said very little else in front of the others. 

Zong Jiu said in a low voice, “Lower your head a little, don’t move too much.”

The other looked at him like he was looking at a fool.

Zong Jiu, “Hurry up, I’ve something about the Devil that I urgently need to verify.”

Anything that involved the Devil was an important matter.
After a brief hesitation, Zhuge An chose to relent and do as instructed. 

Then, he watched as the white-haired young man raised a hand, carefully running it through the air above his head.

The result was within his expectations.
There was nothing there.

Zhuge An, “?”

Now, all the more, he looked at Zong Jiu like he was looking at a fool. 

Unfortunately, Zong Jiu didn’t notice.
Of course, even if he did, he wouldn’t have cared.

After doing all of this and contemplating it for a moment, Zong Jiu then spoke.
“Are the Devil’s puppet strings formless?”

 

“There are no seams in his ability.
As long as the conditions for control are met, the strings will traverse straight through a spatial dimension.”

Zhuge An gave him a sidelong glance.
“If it could be detected with just the hand, could he still be No.
1?” 

Zong Jiu, “…”

But he really did touch it!

In front of the wooden door, what his palms contacted was most certainly not an illusion.

Because in the fleeting moment that his hand swept across, Zong Jiu didn’t only feel one string, but many.
If it was just one, it could perhaps be that he had brushed a strand of hair or that it was an illusion.
However, contacting multiple strings was an entirely different story.
Moreover, his hands had been enhanced to the peak.
Whether it was in explosive strength or tactile sensation, it was all top-tier.
It was impossible that he had encountered a lapse in judgement. 

Sponsored Content

At that time, when Zong Jiu’s hand cut flat above Anthony’s and Lin Guoxing’s heads, what he felt was—

Anthony was not too bad, but Lin Guoxing was riddled with so many strings that it was as if he had turned into a human sieve.

It was for this reason that after the restart, Zong Jiu had kept a close eye on these two.

Anthony himself already found the sight of Zong Jiu displeasing.
He had also previously developed a grudge from the incident at Las Vegas, so there wasn’t a large discrepancy in his tone and expression.
On the contrary, Lin Guoxing… 

Others’ impression of this A-ranker was entirely that of an honest, sincere, and good-natured veteran.
There was no one in this instance who was especially close to him.
Also considering that he was in the other group, the only impression that he had was that Lin Guoxing’s words had calmed the situation when the Famine Mountain Village instance first opened.

If Zong Jiu hadn’t felt the strings by chance, he wouldn’t have paid particular attention to this A-rank trainee without much presence.
After all, in a horror instance, everyone was tightly wound.
He had better things to do than to play a childish game of guess who with the Devil.

But once the seeds of doubt were planted, he found that the other was full of holes.

Especially the wise words he spoke that sowed discord.
That style bore a striking resemblance to the way Sheng Yu feigned casualness as he clung onto him, but in fact added fuel to the flames, stirring up trouble by antagonising others. 

Seeing that Zong Jiu was still silent, Zhuge An slowly spoke.
“The first four of the five puppet strings can control the person’s actions, but their consciousness still exists.
The further into this control, the more stringent the conditions that have to be met are.
Only after all five strings are embedded will the soul be wholly devoured, turning into a genuine puppet under the Devil’s control.
During this period, if the person in question clearly recognises that they are being controlled through various means, the puppet strings will disconnect.”

This was information that Zhuge An had held back from telling him before.

Zong Jiu listened, but ultimately decided to consume two precious card draws to verify his suspicions.

He tucked his hands into his pockets but was in actuality silently shuffling the cards in his system backpack. 

In any case, he and the Devil had a score to settle.

If his conjecture was accurate, then Zong Jiu could save himself from having to draw a card, going straight to using his hands to feel for it instead.

 

Is Lin Guoxing the Devil’s puppet?
Result: The Devil, upright.

Is Anthony the Devil’s puppet?
Result: The Devil, reversed. 

The meaning of the Devil card was brimming with desire and temptation.
No.
1 didn’t bode anything good, nor was the card a good card.

Linking it to the strings that he had felt earlier, it could be deduced from this that the upright orientation may represent complete control by the Devil, whereas the reversed orientation may represent that there was still room to salvage it, that he wasn’t yet completely controlled by the Devil.

It dawned on Zong Jiu.

Oh my, good lord.
The Tarot Deck actually had such a rigorous function! 

At the same time, he had another flash of inspiration.

If he could touch No.
1’s puppet strings, then could he also… yank them out?