The Secret Master

The puppet's face was painted in red and yellow pastels to resemble a common clown, with the corners of its mouth raised high, revealing an extremely comical smile. As it opened its mouth, revealing its dark and deep oral cavity, Klein, who was looking at it, felt his body's hair stand on end, and a sudden, unexplained fear welled up in his heart. The scene before him suddenly darkened, as if observing the world through thick, tea-colored glass. Klein's thoughts quickened and slowed down instinctively. He instinctively wanted to call for help, but his neck felt like it was firmly tied by a rope, unable to make a sound. The word "help" could only remain in his mind as a silent recitation. Just then, Dunn, noticing his sudden sluggish arm movement, pushed him hard. The tea-colored glass in front of Klein immediately shattered, and the word "help" in his throat came out, echoing in the carriage, with a slightly sharp panic. "It's stronger," Klein stated with certainty. Being in the same room with this strange seal, "2-049", is a terrifying situation if you're not careful. No, it's impossible to defend against it. You can only avoid it with other methods! "This is normal," El Hassen nodded with a calm tone. Loritta chuckled softly: "It seems it likes you? Don't worry, it's one of the less dangerous 2-level seals." In the natural, lazy voice, that joint became clear, as if corresponding one by one to the human puppet, standing up and staggering to the left side of itself. Its movements were full of difficulty, like an old, rusty steam machine that forgot to add lubricating oil. Robot dance... Klein suddenly flashed these Chinese words, having a new speculation about the reason for the danger of "2-049": Will it assimilate the creatures it controls? If I hadn't been awakened in time just now, it would become a large puppet of human body type, a real-life Barbie doll? While Klein's thoughts were swirling, El Hassen was awakened by Dunn, stretching out his arms and pointing in the direction the puppet was moving slowly, to Leonard, the driver of the carriage: "Over there!" Leonard couldn't make the carriage pass through the building, so he took a detour, and during this process, "2-049" constantly adjusted its direction of movement, firmly acting as the "needle of the Antigonus Family". Seeing this scene, the one with constantly moving arms, Klein, in tension, actually wanted to laugh: "I heard '2-049' was made by the Antigonus Family... So is this a sign of loyalty, or a classic example of a scam?" Next, in the intermittent sounds of El Hassen's voice, Leonard drove the carriage through the streets, heading in a certain direction. And "2-049", this strange puppet, every time it was about to reach the edge of the carriage, would be grabbed back by El Hassen and start over. Whenever this happened, its mouth would open wider, and two people would be simultaneously controlled. As Klein's tension gradually eased, he actually felt that the seal "2-049" wasn't so terrifying. As long as there were more than three people on the scene, as long as they knew to maintain flexing movements, and as long as they mastered the skill of waking up their companions in time, "2-049" was just a somewhat special puppet. The carriage sped through, quickly entering the dock area, and arriving at the gathering place of the warehouses. After circling a few times, confirming that "2-049" was headed towards the innermost gray-white warehouse, El Hassen, with a serious expression and careful movements, grabbed it and put this strange puppet back into the iron black box. Thump, thump, thump! In the continuous, violent knocking sounds, with the help of Borgia and Loritta, El Hassen woke up again and again, struggling to fasten the mechanical switch, and then infused spirit, driving the stars and red moon symbols on the iron box. The invisible seal was replicated. Al Hazen let out a long breath. "Get off the carriage," a deep and mellifluous voice from Dunn Smith rang out. "Leonard, just tie the horses here." Six men and women, either wearing overcoats, formal suits, or shirts, left the carriage and headed towards the innermost warehouse. As they walked, they almost uniformly flexed and extended their arms in a nearly uniform manner. This added a touch of comical and absurdity to the slightly tense atmosphere. The night watch troupe... Klein could only relieve the feeling with a joke. But not doing so wouldn't work either, because according to his observation, the influence of "2-049" first manifested in the upper body. To detect it in time and avoid falling into a more dangerous situation, there were only a few options: bending the arms, turning the neck, and shaking the body. The latter two would make one look like a petty thug. As for actions like blinking and tapping the temples, either they were too easily overlooked or the movement range was too large, and they were not good choices either. The night watch troupe was better than the Gho Steals gang... Klein sighed, resignedly following the captain Dunn and others. The more he got closer to the warehouse door, the deeper his unease and worry grew. Because no one knew what changes the notebook would bring to Rael Bibber! If something went wrong, Klein couldn't hope to be able to time-travel again. And in the usual meat-cutting and cooking, he found that he still got injured, bled, and the healing speed of the wounds was within the normal range, not that of a monster who wasn't afraid of death or fighting. As they walked, Dunn suddenly pressed his free hand down, making everyone stop about ten meters in front of the warehouse door. "Leonard, do a divination to see if there's danger inside. It would be better if you could roughly figure out the extent of the danger," Dunn turned to Leonard and said. His gray eyes remained deep and unfazed. Leonard gave a barely visible nod, stopped flexing his arms, and extended his right hand to the left cuff, unfastening the silver chain with the yellow crystal pendant inside. Because his arm was moving, the delay in the middle was noticed by Dunn in time, and he was awakened. Leonard held the silver chain in his left hand, allowing the yellow crystal to fall naturally, while controlling his right hand and only doing small flexing movements. When the yellow crystal was stable, he half-closed his eyes and sketched a light sphere, entering a meditative state, and silently recited: "There is danger inside the warehouse." "There is danger inside the warehouse." ... After seven rounds, he opened his eyes and saw the yellow crystal pendant slowly rotating in a circle, moving clockwise. It rotated faster and faster, and eventually it felt like it was pulling on Klein's left hand. "There's danger, very great danger," Klein said truthfully. -- Clockwise indicates affirmation of the spoken words, while counterclockwise indicates negation. For other extraordinary individuals, even "Secret Seekers", using the "Spirit Pendulum Method" could only detect the presence of danger at most, and could not obtain further information about the degree of danger. But Klein found that when he used the "Spirit Pendulum Method", the pendant would show a graded rotation speed, indicating different degrees of the answer. Although this was not very accurate and very vague, it could still allow people to roughly distinguish the specific situation. Indeed, this is the "Divinationist" potion... Klein felt quite relieved about this. Just as he was about to put away the yellow crystal pendant, Leonard Mitchell, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke: "Let's do another divination to see if there's any danger around." "Yes, I'm worried that the Secret Society won't give up and has been keeping an eye on Rael Bieber's house and then following us here, causing trouble at the critical moment," Dunn nodded in agreement. Klein immediately took a breath and entered a state of ethereal calm again. When the silver chain was back to its normal state, he silently said in his mind: "There's danger around." ... "There is danger around." ... After repeating it over and over again, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the silver chain. In his dark brown eyes, the yellow crystal pendant first moved counterclockwise with difficulty, then suddenly stopped and began to rotate clockwise. "There is danger around us," Klein thought, his heart tightening. He spoke cautiously. Moreover, someone was trying to interfere with the divination, but in this invisible confrontation, he had lost to himself! As soon as he finished speaking, a fist-sized orange fireball suddenly flew over from a distance. It hit the center of the crowd at an extremely fast speed. Dunn Smith, who had pulled out the long-barreled revolver before the divination, immediately raised his hand and pulled the trigger in advance. Bang! In the sound of the gunshot, the fireball did not waver at all and continued moving along the predetermined trajectory, as if forcing everyone to disperse and avoid it. Originally, Klein was not too concerned about the trackers and troublemakers because there were at least six extraordinary individuals, and even some strong ones like Sequence 8 and Sequence 7, in such a small place in Tingen City, it was a configuration that could be walked around. But when the fireball came, he suddenly realized a fact. That fact was that for him and his companions, the most dangerous enemy was not the trackers, not the troublemakers, nor even the Riel. Bibber in the warehouse who was in an unknown state, but the sealing object "2-049"! If he and his companions dispersed and got into a fight, without time to wake each other up, they would one by one become real puppets! While his thoughts were swirling, Klein was suddenly pushed by Leonard, and he rolled outward, avoiding the fireball. Without time to feel sorry for his clothes, he saw the night watchmen splitting into two groups to hide, very orderly. Puff! The orange fireball landed on the ground, not stirring up any dust, as if nothing had happened. Phantom? Just as Klein was forming this thought, he saw El. Hasen lift the black iron box and throw it far away to one side, at least ten meters away. "Stay away from it! Guard it!" El shouted loudly. Before he finished speaking, Leonard and Borgia approached separately, guarding the box at least seven meters away to prevent others from approaching. And Dunn and Lorcata each held a gun, along with El. Hasen who pulled out the silver slender sword, forming a semi-arc formation and quickly rushed towards the position where the fireball was shot, taking care of the lateral area as well. Seeing this scene, because he was doing stretching exercises, Klein suddenly let out a sigh of relief, realizing that he had overlooked an important issue just now. That was, the influence of "2-049" had a range limit. As long as they kept a sufficient distance from it, there was no need to worry about danger! Klein suddenly rolled to his feet, one hand inserting the yellow crystal pendant into his pocket, and the other hand pulling out the revolver from the gun pocket under his armpit.