The Master of the Strange Realm

As for the stage in front of him, it was of course covered with a blood-red curtain. The two curtains met in the middle, but there was a gap. A yellow light that was not dazzling but looked warm was projected from the gap. This light just naturally extended to the edge of the stage, so it could not illuminate Jenkins.

Jenkins and his backpack were located in the middle of the third row. Except that the rear boundary could not be seen and the height was a bit exaggerated, the size of this theater was not much different from that of a theater built by humans.

"Is this a show? Or do I want to participate in it? Or is it just a simple escape from here within the time limit?"

Thinking of this, he wanted to stand up and see what was behind the blood-red curtain. But just as he made a gesture to stand up, he was pressed back to his seat by an unreasonable force.

Should be such a strong force, it is enough to completely destroy the chair under his buttocks, but the chair did not even make a sound of wood splitting.

"Guest, please do not try to get up."

The voice came from the left side of Jenkins, very close, right next to him. At some point, a child appeared on the seat that was originally empty...

"No, it's not a child, it's a puppet. No, it's not a puppet, it's a metal puppet."

On the seat next to Jenkins on the left, there was a brass-colored metal puppet with extremely fine workmanship. It looked about the same size as a seven or eight-year-old child, wearing a ridiculous yellow plaid shirt, but because it was short-sleeved, the metal structure inside the arms and head could still be seen. Obviously, the person who designed this metal puppet thought of designing clothes, but didn't think of covering it with a layer of skin, so Jenkins could see its delicate structure.

The metal puppet sat there with its legs apart, holding a stack of cards in its hand. Because it was blocked by the palm, it was impossible to tell what it was. Because there was no skin, the face was more terrifying than that of an ordinary puppet. The eyes were two white candles inserted into the eye sockets, and the candle heads just protruded slightly from the eye sockets. Now the candle wicks were burning.

But the flame was very small, almost only one bright spot, and the color of the flame was pure red.

"You didn't appear on my right side because my backpack and two cocoons were piled on the seat on the right side. So I'm curious, if I also occupy the seat on my left, where will you appear?"

Jenkins asked bluntly.

"Appear in front of you, or behind you. If those positions are also occupied by you in advance, then I will try to appear in the seat closest to you in a straight line."

The metal puppet uses the standard 18th century common language, which sounds like a human voice, but...

"It sounds like the speaking style of a circus puppeteer who speaks with ventriloquism."

Chapter 2122 Chapter 2091 Puppet Show

"Is this metal puppet controlled?"

Jenkins thought to himself, then blinked, but did not see any wires connecting the metal puppet.

"So, what if I use my luggage to occupy all the seats here before you show up?"

Jenkins asked another question, trying to make things difficult for the other party, but he didn't expect the metal puppet to tremble and laugh, and the red light in its eyes was flashing:

"Then appear in the aisle between the chairs. You don't think I can only appear sitting, do you?"

Jenkins had nothing to say. He hummed to end this already awkward topic and quickly brought the topic back on track:

"Why can't I stand up?"

"Because the puppet show is about to start, guests, according to the rules of the theater, please don't move at will. This theater welcomes guests who abide by the rules, but also doesn't mind punishing bad guests who don't abide by the rules."

"So, can I know all the rules here?"

"Of course, the rules are very simple-"

With a clatter, the curtain on the stage was automatically pulled open, and the sudden light from behind made Jenkins close his eyes subconsciously.

But he still saw that behind the stage behind the curtain, a huge oil painting separated the front and back of the stage and set the background for the stage. The background on the painting was rows of theater seats.

A metal chair fell from the top of the stage with a "bang", and it was in the same direction as the long row of seats in the painting, heading towards Jenkins. Then, there was another loud "bang", and a male puppet with a hat and formal clothes, the same size as a normal human, also fell from the top of the stage and sat on the chair, posing a well-behaved gesture of holding his knees with both hands.

There were dozens of white silk threads on the joints and body of the puppet connected to the top, but Jenkins could not see where the silk threads were connected. As the silk thread trembled, music like gongs and wood sawing came from behind the oil painting background, accompanied by a strange song sung by a boy whose voice had not changed:

"There are many rules in the small theater, let's count them together. Don't make noise during the performance, otherwise you will be disturbed by evil spirits."

The shaking of the silk thread controlled the puppet to stand up, the wooden mouth opened and closed, the right hand was raised, and the fist was hit forward, which was a gesture of cursing and protesting.

There was another bang, and a black evil spirit puppet also fell from the sky, but it looked a little cute. The evil spirit puppet held a sickle and cut off the head of the audience puppet after approaching the seat.

The evil spirit puppet was retracted into the sky by the string, and the audience puppet fell to the ground with a crash, the head rolled around, and even the broken neck was spurting out bloody liquid like a fountain.

"Don't panic when you encounter danger, you have to understand the performance effect."

The bleeding body was manipulated by the silk thread to sit back on the chair, and the head was reattached to the neck. The restored puppet stretched its head to look at the bottom of the stage, that is, at Jenkins, which made Jenkins' scalp numb, but he also understood that the other party was performing and watching the performance.

With two bangs, two flying knives flew out from the darkness behind Jenkins, flew directly onto the stage and stabbed the chest of the puppet. Blood spurted out of the chest immediately, and the body fell to the ground.

"Is this warning me that there will be danger from the stage during the performance?"

He thought to himself and heard the third rule:

"Watch the performance wholeheartedly, and leave the seat will be in trouble."

Like the previous sentences, there is no rhyme at all, and even the use of vocabulary is not accurate. But it was because of this that it was more like a puppet show, and it made Jenkins feel even more creepy.

The puppet with blood spurting out of his chest was controlled by the silk thread again and sat back on the seat. After a few seconds, he stood up and started walking. Then, as if an invisible eraser was rubbing on the stage, the puppet's head disappeared first, then the body, and then the feet. At the same time, the oil painting background at the same height as the puppet also turned white, as if it had also been erased.

This time the puppet did not appear on the stage again. On the contrary, applause rang out from all sides of Jenkins, and the two curtains of the stage slowly closed again.

There was no one around, but the applause seemed to be full. The curtain was pulled tight, indicating that someone must be pulling the two blood-red cloths, but no one could be seen either. Even though he had been mentally prepared for the strange phenomena that might occur in the strange world, Jenkins still shook in his seat a little uncomfortably. He attributed this to his instinctive resistance to the performance form of puppetry.

The curtain was finally restored to a gap, and the applause gradually died down:

"Guest, do you understand the rules here?"

The metal puppet on Jenkins' left opened and closed its mouth, but it made more than one sound.

"Understood, no loud noises allowed, be careful of the dangers from the stage, and no leaving without permission... Then how do I leave here? Oh, please don't perform anymore."

Seeing that the metal puppet wanted to call for the curtain to open again, Jenkins immediately said:

"I'm looking forward to the next official performance, so please tell me directly how I can leave."

The metal puppet laughed again, and then motioned Jenkins to look at the "card" in its hand:

"I have a stack of tickets for the show here, you can choose three to watch. After watching, you can leave naturally."

Jenkins He raised his eyebrows:

"Why do you like the number three so much?"

"Guest, what did you say?"

"No, I didn't say anything. Then please let me choose."

He stretched out his hand, but the metal puppet not only did not put the stack of tickets in his hand, but shook his head and said:

"Do you want to get the tickets without spending money?"

Jenkins thought the danger would come from the performance itself, but he didn't expect that the first step of getting the tickets would be like this:

"Then what do I need to buy the tickets?"

He was not stupid enough to grab the tickets, even if the metal puppet did not look strong, Jenkins would not do it.

"Do I need a soul?"

"What do I need a soul for? Do you think I'm one of those demons with low taste?"

The metal puppet laughed and held out the stack of tickets to Jenkins:

"Don't worry, since you can appear here, you are qualified to watch the show. I can pay for the ticket price, you just need to prove that your taste is enough to watch the show."

"How do I need to prove it?"

"Have you written a story?"

"Of course."

"Tell me one."

Jenkins looked at the metal puppet suspiciously:

"What is your relationship with A-01-1-0034 [Mr. Prankster's Fake Shop]?"

Section 2123 Chapter 2092 "Magic Girl"

In the fake shop that I encountered before, there was also a puppet who exchanged stories for goods.

"Mr. Prankster? Oh, old friend, but that guy is really annoying sometimes. I have nothing to do with the fake shop, and the puppets used here are definitely first-class stuff."

Seeing that this sentence was true, Jenkins didn't think much about it. Because he didn't know whether the other party wanted a story that had never appeared in this world, he did not choose from the "Stories of Strangers", but told the story of the man who watched chess.

The metal puppet was very satisfied with this story, at least Jenkins thought so. After he finished telling it, the puppet asked him:

"If you leave here and find that a thousand years have passed in the real world, what will you do?"

"Don't observe anything to prevent history from being fixed because of my observation. Then use the ritual to call the time paradoxer, and then trade with the master of time to let Him send me back a thousand years ago."

Jenkins answered without thinking.

"Have you really thought about this question?"

"Of course, after all, this world is so magical...Okay, can I come and vote? I don't have much time."

"Of course, I can only give you some of the votes, but for the sake of this good story, you can choose whatever you want."

It handed all the votes to Jenkins and commented:

"That's a really good story."

This metal puppet is different from the previous metal human-faced snake and metal skeleton. This does not refer to their shape, but their attitude towards Jenkins.

The metalization of the three shows that they have been infected by the power of the differential machine, so they should have great malice towards Jenkins. The first two fully demonstrated this point. The metal human-faced snake was willing to sacrifice itself to awaken the sleeping earth fire worm, and the metal skeleton violated the basic rules of the host of the strange world and took the initiative to attack him without Jenkins violating the rules.

The metal puppet in front of him did not seem to have that kind of malice towards Jenkins. This is not Jenkins's random guess. As a god and a high-level gifter, he is very sensitive to malice. He does not have to wait until others take action against him to know others' attitude towards him.

Although the puppet in front of him also had bad intentions, this bad intention was limited, just like the things in the strange world he had experienced before. Even after he finished telling the story of the Broken Man, the malice was reduced a lot.

This made him doubt that this strange world was not infected by the power of the differential machine at all. When the differential machine was tampering with these nine strange worlds, it was definitely not a real beast of disaster, so it could not completely transform the strange world, and the degree of infection for different strange worlds should also be different.

And the third strange world at present is probably the one where the power of the differential machine is rarely manifested.

Thinking of this, he did not look down at the slippery bills made of unknown materials, but asked the metal puppet:

"Speaking of which, am I the only audience here?"

It means to ask if there are other outsiders, that is, the power of the beast of disaster.

"Of course there is only you. We are committed to serving only one guest at a time. Please do not doubt our attitude."

"I am not doubting...Are you sure that except for me, all others here are creatures that have long existed in the theater?"

"I don't know how you define creatures, but I can guarantee that except for you and the garbage you brought..."

It should refer to Jenkins' backpack and two metal cocoons.

"All the entities and non-entities here have long existed here."

These words are also true, which makes Jenkins wonder if the difference machine has not even placed the beast of disaster in this strange place. This is not impossible. After all, no one said that every floor has the power of the beast of disaster.

And if his guess is correct, then it is even better. If there is no third floor, maybe there is no fourth, fifth, or sixth floor. This is probably the best news so far.

At the urging of the metal puppet, Jenkins finally began to lower his head to choose the tickets. The size of these tickets is not much different from the size of the tickets of ordinary opera houses and concert halls that Jenkins has seen, but they are definitely not paper. He also maliciously guessed whether it was human skin, but it didn't feel like leather.

The back of the ticket was black, with three silver ancient runes that Jenkins could not identify. The front was in the common language, used to introduce the performance represented by each ticket.

"The Doll Under the Bed", "The Wine and Meat of the Banquet", "The Fly Catcher", "The Girl of the Black Forest", "The Music of Flesh and Blood", "The Celestial Bells"......"

He whispered the names of the puppet shows marked on the ticket, feeling that each one looked dangerous, so it was best not to choose any of them.

Of course, he could not choose three at random, because each ticket was printed with "Performance Time", that is, the number of performances.

There were 13 tickets for the first performance, and he had to choose one out of thirteen. There were 8 tickets for the second performance, and he had to choose one out of eight. The third performance had the most tickets, with 29 tickets.

"Can I choose the first show first and then choose other shows during the performance?"

He looked up and asked, and the metal puppet answered:

"Of course, but you'd better respect the actors who perform for you and don't be too distracted during the performance."

Jenkins nodded. The tickets in his hand were no different except for the text. He could only choose the one that looked the safest based on the descriptions. After hesitating for a while, he took out a ticket and handed it to the puppet:

"Then please arrange this play for the first show."

The puppet took Jenkins' choice, and after seeing the ticket clearly, the red light in its eye sockets suddenly lit up:

"Perfect choice."

It praised, and the ticket showed "Magic Girl".

Without wasting any more time, the metal puppet folded the ticket selected by Jenkins and put it away, and then the curtain was opened again.