Players, Please Board the Train

The display cabinets on both floors of the Doll Clothing Store were arranged in ten rows by ten columns, each cabinet over three meters long with some spacing between them. This created many small partitions within the limited space, and with the obstructed line of sight, the fallen dolls made the area feel even narrower. It was difficult to tell where that metal spike had come from.

”Smack!” Behind Xu Ruosi, a doll fell from the display cabinet.

As if triggering a chain reaction, the dolls on the cabinets on both sides began dropping one after another. In an instant, they buried their feet!

Xu Huo took the lead and leaped onto a display cabinet. However, the moment he landed, all the dolls on the nearby cabinets turned their heads in unison, their closed mouths slowly opening—some dolls that weren’t even designed with movable jaws tore their own chins apart!

”Crack, crack, crack!” The sounds rose and fell, gradually turning into a piercing noise. Liu Chengyi shouted, ”Let’s retreat first!”

That was everyone else’s thought too. They all rushed toward the stairway almost simultaneously, but just as they were crossing the display cabinets, Xie Ling, who was at the back, suddenly had a doll grab her ankle and yank her down!

She crashed onto the aisle floor. Turning back to kick off the hand gripping her, she never expected the doll to have incredible strength—it directly snapped her leg bone! Then it raised its other hand, stabbing a meter-long metal spike toward her abdomen!

”Click!” With the sound of a metal latch engaging, armor automatically formed over Xie Ling’s chest and abdomen, blocking the metal spike. She swung her arm, severed the doll’s hand, grabbed the shelf divider to stand up, and used a grappling hook to quickly pull herself away.

Unfortunately, before she could make it past the nearest display cabinet, the doll with the missing hand stood up again. Like a wild beast, it unleashed explosive force and hurled that metal spike!

A streak of white cold light, too fast for the naked eye to track, pierced through Xie Ling’s defensive item, tore through her chest, and embedded itself into the wall on the second floor!Xie Ling hit the ground with a thud. That doll wobbled its bloated body as it charged over, firing new metal spikes one after another like crossbow bolts. The speed was so fast it left afterimages!

Xu Huo jumped onto a nearby display cabinet, deflected the first metal spike, and used the kite string to pull Xie Ling up!

”Clang, clang, clang, clang!” The dense volley of metal spikes turned the ground into a pincushion. The frustrated doll twisted its head to stare at Xu Huo.

Liu Chengyi and the others had already scattered. Xu Huo noticed that the surrounding dolls were all tracking him with their eyes. So he flicked the lighter in his hand, first burning the life-sized doll that could move freely, then detonating the lights on the second floor.

The lamps caught fire, plunging the entire floor into darkness. Xu Huo led Xie Ling toward the stairway, but the moment they moved, metal spikes came flying at them from behind again!

Dodging and blocking the relentless barrage of spikes, Xu Huo swept his gaze across the display cabinets and noticed that some dolls had fluorescent eyes. That faint glow wasn’t enough to make out a person’s face, but it was enough to see a silhouette. And for those dolls, a single silhouette was more than enough!

A half-human-height doll charged at him, swinging a metal spike like a club. It kept hacking at him. Though its strength was slightly weaker, it was incredibly fast. Even though Xu Huo used his characteristics to move rapidly between two points, the doll quickly caught up. And when he reached the stairway entrance, he realized that more than one doll could move freely!

”Crack, crack, crack!” The dolls’ mouths kept making noises, their bodies trembling up and down. They climbed the display cabinets, climbed the walls, and attacked Xu Huo from all directions. Some threw metal spikes, some gouged out their own eyes and tossed them, and others just leaped out to latch onto his face!

Using ”Concentrated Air” to block these dolls one by one, Xu Huo stomped on a few crawling out from under the display cabinets, then set fire to the mobile ones. He said to Xie Ling, ”Find a doll that represents the twins!”

Xie Ling caught on immediately. She grabbed a random doll from the shelf and twisted its head backward. The doll came to life, jumped to the ground, and ran facing backward toward the approaching dolls.

The dolls in the venue were very sensitive to humans but completely indifferent to their own kind. That doll crawled over the others, broke out of the encirclement, and began moving between the display cabinets.

Xu Huo wasn’t sure if the clue from the Wax Figure Hall was accurate. The players’ stories were random, but the clues were targeted. Considering the massive number of toy dolls in the Doll Clothing Store, perhaps the pair of dolls on the paper was just a reference. The thing the players needed was still somewhere in this venue.

The wound on Xie Ling’s chest wasn’t fatal, but her leg injury made it hard for her to move without Xu Huo’s help. During this time, she kept using items. But items that worked on humans were useless against the dolls. Defensive items had limited effectiveness. She had chopped up quite a few dolls, but even more came running out afterward. And these dolls weren’t stupid—they knew how to coordinate long and close-range attacks. If not for Xu Huo’s wide-area defensive items, she would have been turned into a pincushion long ago!

”These dolls all use needles. It must be connected to Needle Mountain Therapy!” she said.

The area was already flooded with dolls. These little bastards were clever too, attacking from above and below in turns. Whenever they got close to a display cabinet, a metal spike would suddenly stab out from behind. The whole scene was like a doll rebellion. Those cute-looking toys had instantly turned into mindless killing machines!

After a few minutes, the doll Xie Ling had sent out came back. She bent down to grab it, but the reverse-running doll suddenly leaped up and pulled a metal spike from behind its back!

”What the hell!” Xie Ling cursed, nearly getting her throat slit. She backhanded an electric stun gun, smashing the doll into the display cabinet, then stabbed it viciously!

The doll trembled like a person under the electric shock, but even so, it stubbornly hurled the metal spike in its hand.

”My characteristic failed. That thing got turned the moment it went out,” Xie Ling said, turning to Xu Huo.

”How many can you affect at once?” Xu Huo asked.

”Theoretically unlimited, but it’s one at a time. And it’s only useful for searching,” Xie Ling said quickly.

”It’s fine,” Xu Huo said as he kicked over the cabinet in front of him. While a large batch of dolls was crushed underneath, he jumped over to a display cabinet in the corner. ”Just stall for time!”

Xie Ling pressed her back against the wall and did as he said. Xu Huo signaled her to be careful, then leaped out of the encirclement, dragging two wildly flailing dolls with him. Sticky mucus secreted from his protective suit. As a doll lunged at him, he casually caught it mid-air, and their hands fused together!