After Geng Qinghe and Liao Tong carefully inquired about the situation of the few houses outside, and then came back to find someone to find the living room, they saw Lin You and Jian Mingjia sitting on the sofa, one was in a daze thinking about something, and the other flipped through magazine.
Geng Qinghe is fine, but Liao Tong is inevitably a little unbalanced.
Although he had to take care of the girl, he couldn't fish for it. He took two steps forward and spoke uprightly.
"You—I'll go!" He said two words before he saw the thing hanging outside the window, and was startled with fright, "What are you doing?!"
"ah?"
Lin You was a little dazed by his yelling, she turned her head and looked over before remembering, "Oh, I hung up, I almost forgot."
Liao Tong: "..."
His hands were still shaking as he pointed at the half-hanging puppet in horror.
— How can you forget this? !
The puppet named Billy whom he had watched being stuffed into the cabinet with his own eyes was wet all over at this moment, and the trousers were still dripping.
The wooden stick stuck above the balcony passed through one sleeve of it, and went straight to the other side, hanging it horizontally there. But there is no support on the neck, let it hang its head down, let alone saw it in the middle of the night, it would be frightening to death just by looking at it in broad daylight.
Liao Tong couldn't even figure out what the two of them were trying to do.
"This," Geng Qinghe also looked confused, "this is..."
Seeing his gaze cast over, Jian Mingjia, who was still immersed in the magazine, immediately waved her hand.
"Don't ask me," she tried to keep a straight face from laughing, "I have a stomachache."
- laugh.
"Okay, okay, let me summarize."
Lin You felt that she was really considerate.
"Not long after you left, I searched the kitchen with her, and it came out from behind for some reason." She said, "It stared at us for a long time and suddenly opened its mouth. I don't think it can be provoked or To scare people, I grabbed two peppers from the refrigerator—”
Geng Qinghe: "... What did you grab two?"
"chili."
As if she couldn't see the shock on the faces of the two people at all, Lin You said flatly: "Then it was so hot, it went directly to the sink and turned the faucet to the maximum, and it got wet all over. After it didn't move, I Just hang it out and let it dry.”
The tone was as casual as if she was hanging a T-shirt instead of a spooky haunted puppet.
Liao Tong: "..."
His view of the game is about to shatter.
What kind of magical operation is this? ! And it actually works? !
Liao Tong imagined himself in the situation for a while, but he couldn't help feeling his scalp go numb just thinking of turning around and facing a puppet that suddenly appeared in front of him. He looked at Lin You—the girl he felt very sympathetic about being unfortunately chosen by Mary Shaw at first—and he could not help but look a little more delicately.
Subtlety and a little awe.
"I want to know now," he said with difficulty, "do puppets eat? They don't have tongues, do they?"
"The Puppet doesn't have it himself, but Mary Shaw does."
Jian Mingjia, who couldn't hold back her gloat when thinking of that scene, finally stopped laughing, and said seriously, "Do you remember that nursery rhyme, 'She'll tear your mouth open and tear your tongue out'—Mary Shaw put the tongues of those victims in his own mouth and was able to imitate their voices."
"When she was attached to the puppet, the puppet had a tongue." Jian Mingjia spread her hands, "I guess she couldn't bear it after drinking a full stomach of cold water, and she just left Billy as the carrier, but she doesn't know if it will be spicy or not after she goes back. .”
"..."
Liao Tong now feels that this world is a bit unreal, and he wants to be quiet.
Geng Qinghe, who was standing aside, thought for a while, then silently reached out and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. Everyone has experienced this stage, and he still somewhat understands this feeling.
Passers-by teammates fell into a sluggish state of panic, and Lin You was used to doing things in his own way, so he didn't pay much attention to them. She took the folder on the desk that she found in the car.
Before the two of them returned to the house, she and Jian Mingjia seized the time to search the upper and lower floors, but unfortunately, they didn't find any evidence. The only thing that can barely reach the top of the clue is an old business card with the edge curled up.
And this business card—Lin You had seen the same one in the folder, the only difference was that one was new and the other was old.
A law firm was registered on the business card, and the original owner was obviously a lawyer.
Her name is Kathy.
"There's something wrong with this Casey." Lin You said.
Jian Mingjia: "Huh?"
"She has been to this town and left her business card. She probably made the will. She should be the one who notified me of this," Lin You said, "I thought my relative passed away for a while , but now there are traces of someone living here a few days ago, how does she know that he is dead?"
Jian Mingjia understands.
"Is she related to Mary Shaw?"
"It's possible," Lin You shrugged, "Anyway, my character set will change from 'relative who came to inherit the inheritance' to 'unlucky relative who was tricked into inheriting the inheritance'."
"Anyway, apart from that, we don't have much to gain here."
She turned to Geng Qinghe, "Did you find anything?"
Geng Qinghe: "Uh—"
"We walked for less than half a block," he said frankly, "knocked from door to door, and there was not even a single person left."
"And wait till the end..."
Geng Qinghe was a little hesitant, "I saw a lake, and there seemed to be a puppet theater in the middle of the lake. It's just that the bridge is broken, and we have to row a small boat next to it. We thought about discussing it with you and then came back."
Lin You and Jian Mingjia looked at each other.
"Puppet theater..." she repeated meaningfully.
Nine times out of ten, it was where Mary Shaw performed.
"Isn't it most efficient to go there directly?" Jian Mingjia took the lead, "I have no objection."
Geng Qinghe: "...me, me too."
"Then I didn't—" Liao Tong subconsciously followed the crowd when he was on the verge, and he suddenly realized, "Wait, isn't it possible to bump into that Mary Xiao when I find the door?"
"Well, that's what I said."
Lin You nodded.
"It's probably her lair there." She said, "But now it's clear that there are no clues in this house, and it's impossible for us to search one by one. Of course, the fastest way is to directly enter the theater."
While discussing like this, Lin You saw Billy hanging on the balcony raising his head little by little behind the three of them, his eyes rolling around.
She gave a friendly smile.
Thinking of the sourness brought by those two fresh peppers for a moment, Billy suddenly lowered his head again.
"Remember anyway."
Everyone was puzzled by her smile, only to see Lin You zip the zipper around her mouth, "Don't scream in everything."
"Don't think I can't see it," Jian Mingjia whispered next to her when she walked out the door, "You want to get Mary Xiao's card."
"Hey, don't you see it through?" Lin You said with a smile.
She was still thinking about the puppet in the store at first, but she changed her mind instantly after seeing Billy. Anyway, every puppet is the carrier of Mary Xiao, so why not go directly to deal with the BOSS
This is also a B-grade book, if it is not complete, it will be another SR.
She said solemnly: "I can't wait to meet Mary Shaw herself."
Jian Mingjia: "..."
To be reasonable, she felt that the other party probably regretted deceiving such a talent.
Geng Qinghe and Liao Tong walked there before, so the four of them naturally drove faster together. The car stopped by the side of the road, and with the sound of opening the doors one after another, Lin You also got down and stood aside, looking not far away.
As Geng Qinghe said, from here you can vaguely see the signboard of the building on the island in the middle of the lake with words such as "Puppet" and "Theater". The scale of the theater is not small. Even if it is now dilapidated and the demolished building materials are piled up all over the floor, you can still see the traces of its former glory and excitement.
The iron bridge a few meters away was supposed to lead directly to the island, but unfortunately it was seriously damaged, and the middle section sank into the water. No matter how you looked at it, it was impossible to pass over the bridge.
Their only option was to stay on the wooden boat on the shore.
The boat is not big, so it will be a bit crowded if everyone wants to sit down. Lin You was the last one to board the boat, and she wobbled when she stepped on it. Even she felt unsafe.
Fortunately, the weight-bearing capacity of the small wooden boat was still sufficient. Liao Tong raised the wooden oar to the lake shore, and they drifted towards the center of the lake dangling.
The farther away from the shore, the heavier the fog on the water. No one spoke, only the sound of the oars slapping the water echoed in my ears.
Geng Qinghe was the first one to hold the oar and paddle while brainstorming.
"I'm so panicked."
He said with a bitter face: "You said that if there is a hand on the side of the boat while paddling—"
Jian Mingjia: "..."
Jian Mingjia: "Shut up!!"
"Come on, there's nothing to be afraid of." Liao Tong said so, and the speed of rowing in his hand was obviously accelerated a lot.
"What are the paddles in your hands for?" Lin You was the one who didn't panic at all. She leaned her arms on the side of the boat and said coolly, "If something hits it, hit it directly."
... is a ruthless person! !
Probably because he had witnessed her feat of drying puppets, Liao Tong always felt that the words from the other party were particularly convincing.
She is obviously a young girl, he thought to himself, why does he somehow feel a sense of awe...
Fortunately, Geng Qinghe was not a crow's mouth, and they rowed all the way to the island smoothly. When getting off the boat, Jian Mingjia clearly heard Fa Xiao's almost inaudible sigh.
- Dare you really feel sorry? !
Lin You was a little frustrated. SR cards are rare, but R cards are not bad—one more card is one card. Only children make choices, and adults need all of them!
But her attention was soon shifted to other places. The puppet theater where Mary Xiao used to perform was demolished in half, but that was only inside, and the gate was still locked.
"How do you get in now," Lin You asked, "Bump the door? Flip through the window? See if there is another entrance?"
Liao Tong coughed.
"Let me do it."
"That's what I do professionally," he said.
Jian Mingjia said "Huh", and Liao Tong simply explained a few more sentences as if to defend himself.
"Maybe it's because I picked the lock and stole a key during the newcomer test," he said. "It's judged as a thief—in fact, I was interested in researching it when I was young, and I'm going to take the public exam soon."
"Understood." Jian Ming smiled.
Liao Tong stood in front of the gate of the theater, but couldn't see what he was doing. Within five seconds, there was only a crisp sound, and the heavy lock hanging on the door fell into his hands.
"Okay," he breathed a sigh of relief, "it's open."
The ticket office is located outside the gate, and there are rows of seats as soon as you enter the gate. No one has cleaned the place for many years, and there are layers of spider webs in the corners and even on the cushions. Lin You saw a spider hanging upside down from one of the sheets.
She took a step sideways.
Liao Tong picked up an emergency light from the side, tried it and found that it was still working.
As soon as the lights came on, the shadows of hundreds of soft chairs became black and dense, and the stage was empty again. The huge theater was so silent that it made one's skin crawl.
The four of them silently walked through a dozen or so rows of seats. Liao Tong even swung the emergency light to that side, but there was nothing wrong with the light.
Geng Qinghe walked last, his vision was limited, and he accidentally tripped himself.
"Damn it!" He slammed his head on the armrest, covered his forehead in pain, and was about to prop himself up on the cushion when his hand stuck in the gap suddenly groped for something, "Hey? What is this? A toothbrush?"
"How is anyone else bringing this to the theater..."
He turned the thing in his hand with a little light in front of him, and saw a line of words engraved on it.
"English? 'The best toothbrush in the world'... is this kind of advertising slogan popular now?" Geng Qinghe muttered, "'Toothbrush' is actually misspelled."
Lin You, who was a few steps ahead of him, turned around when he heard the sound.
"You mean a toothbrush?"
"Ah, yes," he said blankly, "What's the matter, Sister You?"
"You can." Lin You took the toothbrush from him and joked, "You're lucky."
Geng Qinghe: "???"
Seeing the two of them standing still, the other two also stopped in confusion.
Lin You recalled the system prompt she heard when she first queued for cooperation mode—"Items other than special props cannot be taken out of the dungeon", which means that special props can be taken away by players or even used in another dungeon.
But in the past few days of the public beta, there are very few people who have obtained such props. She had read some rumors in some posts, and it was said that it was useless to find it, it had to be recognized.
"Ever heard of the SCP Foundation?" she asked.
"… What Foundation?"
"SCP," Lin You repeated, "a series of works that are commissioned by the governments of various countries to control organizations that contain supernatural phenomena or individuals."
"This is one of the items, designated SCP-063."
As soon as she finished speaking, a layer of light seemed to pass through the toothbrush suddenly.
A transparent window pops up right in front of your eyes.
Geng Qinghe was dumbfounded.
[Name: SCP-063 "The Best Toothbrush in the World"]
[Description: A light blue toothbrush. Although it has been proved by experiments that it is only made of ordinary plastic, it has the ability to pass through any dead or inorganic matter without any effort, and the object that touches the bristles will completely disappear without leaving any trace.]
[Available times: 3]
Lin Youxin said that this painting style is much more serious than her illustration book.
"This means..." Geng Qinghe stared at the little "3", "It will be automatically retracted after three uses?"
"should."
She stuffed the toothbrush into his hand, turned around and followed the two people in front, "Otherwise it would be too much to reuse it."
"Hey, sister pomelo."
Geng Qinghe quickly called her to stop: "Sister You don't want it?"
"What should I do with it?" Lin You gave him a strange look, "You can keep what you find."
"But you recognized it..." Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to take it out, but seeing that she really didn't intend to take it, Geng Qinghe had no choice but to stuff it into his backpack, "Well, if you want to use it, just tell me."
"What a coincidence."
Liao Tong watched from the sidelines how this was a crooked attack. At this moment, he couldn't help but enviously said: "I also want to pick up a special item."
But thinking about it seriously, if he picked it up, he might not be able to recognize it, so he had to give up resentfully.
Passing through the first row of seats, they looked separately and found a side door.
Pushing the door open and stepping into the backstage of the theater, the decaying smell that has accumulated over the years came to the nostrils almost instantly, mixed with a faint stench, which made people feel physically uncomfortable.
Jian Mingjia pinched her nose and stopped by the table.
"Yuyou," she said, "come and see this."
...
Lin You walked over and saw a book of bound drawings spread out on the table.
Various puppet parts were drawn on the drawings, and she turned a few pages back until she finally saw a line of annotations.
— "Be a perfect puppet".
She remembered that Mary Xiao kidnapped the little boy at the beginning, just to use him to make a perfect puppet, but unfortunately the result was far from what she expected. In the movie, Mary Shaw succeeds posthumously, and uses her perfect puppet to fool the main character to the last moment.
I don't know how to set up here, and whether she has completed her final work.
She closed Mary Xiao's drawing book, and turned her head to see Liao Tong looking at a huge curtain.
He noticed a rope hanging on the side, and he was tangled for a long time. Seeing that no one objected, he grabbed the rope and pulled it down.
With a sound of "swipe pull", the curtain fell in response.
The moment he saw the scene behind the curtain clearly, Liao Tong's scalp almost exploded.
"Grass," he murmured.
The glass cabinets are from floor to ceiling, and all old-fashioned puppets are densely displayed inside. Cheeks are raised, lips are bright red, and round plastic eyes are colorful.
The puppets are in different positions, but all look in the same direction in unison.
In other words, even through a huge curtain just now—
They've been watching them too.
Bathed in the sight of hundreds of puppets, Liao Tong felt numbness on the back of his neck.
What's more, their loose wooden jaws are also drooping downwards, and their appearance is half a smile.
Like a twisted piece of wood turning rigidly, accompanied by a light "click, click", the puppet at the top left slowly turned its head to the left. It rolled its eyes, let out a sharp "squeak", and leaned towards the same direction with a strange smile.
The puppet next to it did the same, followed by a second, a third—
"Are you playing dominoes?" Lin You asked abruptly.
Liao Tong: "..."
He clearly saw the next puppet froze.
The atmosphere of horror was completely disturbed by her words, but in the next second, whether it was because of the memory of the past, the puppet suddenly let out a scream of anger.
Its facial features began to twist, pulled into the face of a woman attached to it.
—Mary Shaw.
Oh bad.
Lin You quickly surveyed her side, and it was very good, no one had a weapon.
"Why are you standing there," she greeted, "Slip!"
The glass behind him shattered on the ground one by one, and he didn't care how many puppets were chasing after him at the moment. Lin You slammed open the door that she just closed with her shoulder, and when she saw many puppets pouring out of the corridor, she couldn't help but cursed secretly.
Not just puppets.
Some of them may have been residents of the small town, and now the rotten, dry and wrinkled corpses made into "puppets" can no longer look like they were before birth.
Jian Mingjia tightly covered her mouth, while Geng Qinghe gritted his teeth and looked away.
This situation is... not bad.
Lin You thought.
If she really didn't have any support, she wouldn't dare to break into Mary Shaw's puppet theater like this.
She flipped her palms, and a black shadow rose from behind.
"What is this again?!" Liao Tong broke down, his world view was really shattered into scum this time - the kind that won't even be powdered when the wind blows.
He silently looked at the "what" in his mouth, and he couldn't even utter a word after reading it.
"Help me destroy those puppets," Lin You said quickly, "Destroy as many as you can."
The guy she summoned didn't move, the suit he was wearing was still neat, the original tie was washed and tied around his neck. That blank face looked at Lin You without any emotion, staring at her.
… That's not accurate either, because he has no eyes.
Lin You: "..."
"Please?" she tentatively asked.
She seemed to hear a certain SR humming lukewarmly.
The slender ghost only slammed back hard with its tentacles, breaking all the puppets in a row to the ground. The woman's shrill screams rang out, but immediately after, the next group of puppets rushed forward.
"He can only hold us back for a minute!" Lin You turned the corner and hurriedly told her while running, "This road doesn't lead to the gate just now, but there should be a safe exit nearby—"
After running a long distance from the fork in the road just now, Lin You finally took the time to turn around.
She stared at the three of them for a moment.
"Where's Liao Tong?"
Liao Tong wasn't scared away by the slender ghost.
He could tell the good from the bad, it was obviously something made by his teammates, no matter what he would do, he would keep all his doubts in his stomach.
But he didn't look up, and ran forward all the way with his head sullen, and when he reached the fork, he subconsciously turned in the opposite direction. But the puppet possessed by Mary Xiao was still screaming behind, so that no one could hear anyone's footsteps.
When he finally realized something was wrong and raised his head, he realized that he was separated.
From the corner of his eye, he saw groups of puppets still chasing after him, so Liao Tong pushed the nearest door in a panic.
—really pushed him away.
After falling headlong into the door, Liao Tong turned around and leaned his back against the door, panting heavily.
When I raised my head again, my whole body became cold for the most part.
Someone was here before him.
The back of the woman standing by the window with her back to him was straight, and there was nothing unusual at first glance. However, he was clear in his heart, and it was strange that there were normal people in this theater.
"Want to know how to get out of here?" he heard the guy ask.
Of course I want to.
Liao Tong didn't dare to speak out.
"Come here," she said, "Come here and I'll tell you."
Liao Tong felt that he was a fool in the past, so he desperately turned the doorknob. But the door that was easily pushed open before now seemed like someone outside was holding on to the handle to prevent him from opening. He understood his situation.
He looked up in despair.
The woman in front of the window turned around at this moment. Her face was thin and wrinkled with scars, her eyeballs were blackened, and her jaw was moving like a puppet.
The face was familiar, he had seen it when the puppet transformed.
It was Mary Shaw herself.
She faced Liao Tong, opened her mouth with her tongue removed—
"Wow ah ah!"
A familiar shout sounded, and Geng Qinghe suddenly stopped the steps he was about to rush to find someone.
All three of them knew it was too late.
—He couldn't hold back the screaming, and he must have been cold by now.
"We have to run away by ourselves," Lin You made a decisive decision, "Can we light this theater with a torch?"
Geng Qinghe always felt that this development was a bit familiar - if it happened again this time, they might not be the arsonists of three copies in a row.
It really carried out her phrase "if the fire is not enough, add more gasoline".
"It's useless!"
This time, it was rejected by Jian Mingjia.
"Did you forget that there are more in town? And there must be more than the two we've seen!"
This is true.
The immediate priority is to escape, and the away game is so narrow that it is definitely not an advantage.
They went round and round all the way, and the emergency exit was close at hand. But the puppets that were missed from the slender ghost tentacles also chased after them, and if Lin You felt right, most of them were aimed at her.
——She pulled more than half of the hatred by herself!
That's right, Lin You can still distinguish her thoughts, if someone puts chili peppers in her mouth, she will hold a grudge.
However, there were quite a few puppets. She had just escaped the attack of one, and the next second, another pounced on her and hugged her calf.
This strength is not small, and a few thumps brought her to the ground. Lin You didn't care about the shards of glass that got knocked on her arm, she just pushed against the puppet's head and tried to push it away.
"Sister You," she heard Geng Qinghe shout, "Catch it!"
Lin You grabbed the thing thrown to her ear, and the next second, the puppet possessed by Mary Xiao saw her smile abruptly.
The brush handle pierced through the chest, and when the entire toothbrush went through the puppet, it seemed to be swallowed by something and disappeared without a trace.
This time I didn't even have time to scream.
—SCP-063 is really useful.
The thought only swirled in Lin You's mind for two seconds. She jumped up from the ground, kicked another puppet away, and rushed out of the theater with Jian Mingjia who was trying to open the exit door.
As soon as they went out, they saw the dismantled sundries piled up next to them, and dragged a few of them to block the door.
Most of the puppets inside were destroyed, and the rest only had the strength to knock them apart, so the three of them relaxed.
"Come here," Jian Mingjia slumped on the ground, beckoning to Lin You, "bandage your arm for you."
Only then did Lin You realize that the cut was still dripping blood, and even her stamina had dropped a bit.
She walked over and sat down, "What I said before has come true."
"It's okay to put FLAG on yourself."
Jian Mingjia said coolly, she dragged out the first-aid kit that came with her profession, "But my level can only eliminate your bleeding state now, it can't restore your physical strength, so put on a bandage and pretend to be fine."
She moved swiftly and solved this little problem in twos and twos.
"Now… "
Seeing them finish, Geng Qinghe hesitated and asked, "Where are you going?"
He was used to asking for Lin You's opinion, but Lin You didn't think about it.
In the plot she knew, Mary Xiao entrusted others to make her own body into a puppet after her death. The townspeople buried her with her puppets in order to keep her quiet.
This proved to have no effect, and the puppets soon disappeared, appearing everywhere to murder the townspeople, so rest in peace was out of the question.
Only tough
"I have no idea." Lin You raised her voice, "Does that person standing over there have any ideas?"
... What the hell? !
Geng Qinghe and Jian Mingjia were unknowingly immersed in the rejoicing of their lives after the catastrophe, only then did they realize that there was another one standing under the shade of a tree not far away.
The person in the shadow slowly came out, without corrupt skin, without a forced puppet chin, it was a very normal-looking beauty with outstanding looks.
Her shoulder-length blond hair hung loosely on her sides, and she looked at the three of them leisurely.
"I thought of an excuse of 'I'll help you with the formalities, and I'll come over here to see what's going on when I see your car parked here', but it seems that I don't need it anymore."
"It's useless."
Lin You nodded in agreement, "After all, I have already guessed your identity."
"Casey"—no, Mary Xiao who was possessed by "Casey" had a mocking smile in her eyes.
She realized that Casey was related to Mary Xiao early in the morning, and when she saw the blueprint of the perfect puppet, she became more certain of her guess.
Mary Shaw in this copy also completed her perfect puppet decades after her death, and named it "Kathy". After she wiped out all the people in the town for some reason, she used the perfect puppets to trick their descendants and relatives into killing them.
"But I still don't quite understand," Lin You said, "Why did you kill the whole town?"
"Because they deserve it."
At this time, it was not the voice of "Kathy" that came out of the other party's mouth, but Mary Xiao's hoarse voice.
"Since they want my theaters gone, I'm going to make them disappear."
Lin You glanced at the piles of construction waste and understood.
It may be that some people do not believe in the evil of the nursery rhyme, or it may be that the residents of the small town who have always been afraid of Mary Shaw finally cannot bear the disappearances or murders from time to time. In short, they stand up and want to completely demolish this ominous theater .
It's a pity that when the demolition was not halfway through, Mary Xiao sternly attacked.
"It's not just them."
Mary Shaw hissed and laughed, "And their descendants, and their relatives, I will make them, you all disappear."
So you tricked her into here too
"But I didn't disappear." Lin You pretended to be distressed.
It's really a headache that the killing conditions can't be met all the time.
Mary Shaw: "……………"
This person was stuffing peppers and destroying her puppet. The old enmity of her parents and the new one made her look at Lin You a little redder.
"Let's do this." The latter suggested in a friendly manner without realizing it, "Let's make a bet, within 24 hours, as long as you make me scream out of fear, even if you make a sound, I will take the initiative to meet the conditions and let you deal with it." .”
"Of course, in turn, if I win—"
"It doesn't matter."
Mary Xiao sneered.
Anyway, she will win.