Chapter 1 Hearing the Report

After listening to his subordinate's report, bald Ivan asked again, "What is the combat effectiveness of those puppet dolls?"

"Not very strong. They all use cold weapons, and firearms can easily smash their bodies..."

Marcus was clearly still shaken. He swallowed and continued, "But there are just too many puppets, and they can't be killed at all! Even if they're blasted down to a single severed arm by a firearm, they'll still chase after you to hack at you. Moreover, there are puppets everywhere in the house. They appear in every corner—in cabinets, doorways, cellars..."

"Can be smashed with firearms? I see..."

Bald Ivan listened carefully to his subordinate's description, and a bit of confidence grew in his heart.

He analyzed, "It seems that the 'Ghost Kind's' ability is to control puppets to kill. It should only be a first-order aberration. Otherwise, if it had second-order strength, it wouldn't be so troublesome to kill you... So, the previous assessment of this cursed space as Grade A was too high. Grade B at most."

"..."

Suren, who was standing to the side, heard the bald man's analysis, and his eyes darted around, but he didn't quite agree with this assessment.

Based on his experience of watching over a thousand horror movies, the "Ghost Kind's" every action gave him the feeling of, "Eh, I'm not going to kill you, I'm just playing around."

Killing was more like a game.

......

Clearly, bald Ivan now only had two choices.

Either leave this strange manor immediately, or continue searching for the "Sir Isaac's Relic."

But no matter which he chose, he would probably have to directly confront the "Ghost Kind" aberration in this house.

If the aberration's only ability was to control puppets, it wouldn't be much of a threat to bald Ivan.

At least, puppets of that level weren't fatal in his eyes.

The best outcome would be to get the treasure and get rid of the aberration.

But if the "Ghost Kind's" abilities weren't limited to that, even if they didn't look for the treasure and just ran away, they would still have to face it.

As the leader of a wasteland hunting group who had been licking blood off his knife for many years, Ivan said almost without hesitation, "Let's go! We'll see what's so strange about this manor!"

And as a "living map," Suren would naturally be taken along. As he said this, the bald man turned his head to look at his subordinate and added, "Marcus, keep an eye on this kid. If he makes any unusual moves, kill him immediately!"

Marcus glanced at Suren beside him and said, "Yes, Captain!"

.......

Suren wasn't surprised that the bald man planned to continue forcing his way through. He would have done the same himself.

But what surprised him was that before leaving, the bald man actually displayed another incredible supernatural ability.

Suren had already thought it was amazing that the bald man had a steam-powered mechanical arm, but then the bald man shouted softly, "Curse Seal Installation - Release!"

He saw him make a few hand seals and then chant a few unintelligible incantations at lightning speed.

It was this strange, shamanistic behavior that triggered a miraculous qualitative change.

As soon as the incantation was finished, the room suddenly burst with golden light.

Looking closely, a glittering six-pointed star magic circle suddenly appeared under the bald strongman's feet. The patterns on the formation were mysterious and complex, as if they contained a magical power that made people vaguely see the depths of the endless void, and a strong sense of mystery swept over them.

"Magic?"

Seeing this scene, Suren blinked, even more surprised.

And the even stranger stuff was yet to come!

After the light of the magic circle faded away, the patterns on the strongman's exposed skin, which Suren had originally thought were painted tattoos, slowly solidified into solid objects.

Upon closer inspection, they had already turned into a layer of glittering metallic scale armor!

After the ritual, the metallic scale armor covered his whole body, and the bald strongman's temperament suddenly changed, turning him into a mighty steel-clad giant.

Marcus, seeing this, seemed to have more confidence and said in a somewhat ingratiating tone, "No matter how many times I've seen it, Captain's alchemical installation, the Adamantine Scale Armor, is still so shocking..."

"Mm."

The bald man nodded, not saying much, and said in a muffled voice, "Follow me!"

With that, he opened the door and walked out without fear.

Suren's interest grew stronger and stronger as he watched the scene before him.

He had watched very carefully. Those metal scales were formed from the solidification of the tattoos on the bald man's body after the magic circle appeared.

Clearly, this was another kind of supernatural power beyond Suren's understanding.

Before he could think too much, the tug on the rope made him stagger forward, almost falling.

The moment the last of his feet crossed the doorway, Suren suddenly thought of something.

He no longer avoided it. Instead, he turned his face and stared directly at the "Nutcracker Doll" in the corner, then flashed it a smile.

The meaning was: I found you.

Since he had found it, he would "trigger" it.

Based on his years of playing horror games, triggering certain specific conditions might trigger some unexpected plot developments, although most of the time this behavior was "courting death," but...

Anyway, the situation couldn't get any worse, could it?

In the blink of an eye, the three of Suren had already walked out the door.

At this moment, no one saw that the "Nutcracker Doll's" jaw actually began to tremble, making a strange "click," "click" sound, as if it were grinning happily...

.......

"Boy, you go first!"

Compared to the bald man's caution and Marcus's tiptoeing, Suren seemed much calmer.

He also knew himself very well. Although his fighting skills and marksmanship were pretty good in his previous life, in this fantasy world where bodies could withstand bullets, he was only at the level of a "trash warrior."

If he wanted to survive, using his brains would definitely be more practical than using his hands.

He was tied with a rope and acted as a shield in the front.

But this was also good, as Suren could carefully observe everything in this corridor.

As he had expected, this was a luxurious manor.

The corridor was brightly lit, but not by electric lights or gas lamps. The glass lampshades contained glowing gems. There were many closed doors on both sides of the corridor. The floor was covered with soft velvet carpets, and there were exquisite oil paintings on the walls at intervals...

But this corridor seemed a little too long.

After walking for a while without seeing the end, Marcus asked in a trembling voice, "Captain, where are we going? We... we seem to be trapped."

Bald Ivan pondered for a moment, seeming to have noticed the abnormality of the mansion, and asked, "Boy, where is the room you mentioned?"

Suren looked around and said directly, "I've never been here either. But, if you want to find the room on the treasure map, you have to find the banquet hall first..."

In fact, he had already noticed that, no matter how big the manor was, this corridor was abnormally long.

Before he could say anything more, he heard a creepy old woman's laughter echoing in his ears, making his whole body crawl with goosebumps: "Heh heh... according to the rules of the game, if you're found, you'll be killed..."

This didn't sound like a voice that a human voice could make. It was so low that it sounded like the whispers of a demon, making people's souls tremble.

As soon as he heard this, Marcus turned pale with fright, as if he had received a great shock, and said anxiously, "It's coming... it's coming!"

Every time he heard this voice, a companion would be killed. At this moment, Marcus was on the verge of collapse, his whole body trembling.

Suren scanned everything in the corridor, quietly leaned against the wall, and became extra careful.

Bald Ivan snorted coldly: "Hmph, acting mysterious!"

Just then, a few figures suddenly "floated" over from the distance.

Looking closely, they were a few strange wooden puppets floating in the air. Their shapes were very simple, like sections of lotus root spliced together. However, each of them was wielding a slender, sharp knife, and their jaws were rapidly snapping together, making a dense "click," "click" sound that made people's scalps tingle.

"These are the killer puppets in the manor that guy was talking about? And they can fly?"

Suren's eyelids twitched as he looked at the puppets pouring in from both sides of the corridor.

Just then, he heard a muffled "bang."

Without looking, just by hearing the blast of air that almost blew people off their feet, he knew that bald Ivan had fired his cannon.

This shot directly hit the puppet pile dozens of meters away, and then with a crash, it blasted the puppets coming head-on into pieces.

But this did not stop the tidal wave of puppets from attacking in the slightest.

Those puppets with broken arms and legs continued to charge, carrying a pile of "parts" with them.

"Hmph!"

Bald Ivan roared, without fear, and charged directly into the puppet pile.

His metal scale armor also played a huge role at this moment. The puppets' knives and swords slashed against it, "clang" sparking a series of sparks, but didn't hurt him at all.

"This bald man is really strong... But those puppets can't be killed at all. If we don't break the situation, we'll be exhausted to death here sooner or later."

Suren's hands were tied, and he didn't have much room to move. Under the attack of this tidal wave of puppets, the chance of survival was extremely low.

But he didn't intend to be captured without a fight.

At this moment, Marcus was so frightened that even the hand holding the gun was already shaking, and he had already dropped the rope that was trapping Suren.

And the vast majority of the puppets were restrained by the bald man. This was an opportunity that could not be missed.

"Now!"

Suren looked at the surrounding environment and, without hesitation, kicked off the ground with one leg and then slammed into the glass window on one side of the corridor.

He had already observed that there was a fog outside the window. Although he didn't know which floor this corridor was on, judging from the structure, it was definitely not a high floor.

The probability of dying from the fall was not high.

But...

This jump caused another problem!

.......

With a "crash," the glass window was easily smashed by Suren, and he flew out, plunging into the dense fog.

He thought he would fall into a garden or something, and he had prepared a buffer posture for the high-altitude fall.

But he didn't expect that when he landed, he stepped on soft carpet again.

Looking at the familiar scene around him, Suren was stunned.

"Damn... I'm back again?"