With the hint, finding the puppet in the corner was no longer a difficult task.
Upon closer inspection, A Gentle Kiss finally brightened up; that puppet was wearing a red hat!
Since the problem in this stage lay with the Big Bad Wolf, then... Little Red Riding Hood might prove useful.
With a target in mind, A Gentle Kiss immediately took action!
She dodged the Big Bad Wolf puppet's attack, quickly put some distance between them, and moved toward the stage.
The Big Bad Wolf was long past interested in the other players, who were all avoiding it, but this damn A Gentle Kiss kept jumping up and down, provoking it!
Naturally, it chased after A Gentle Kiss!
A Gentle Kiss was certainly no pushover. She suddenly accelerated, forcing her way through one of the wolf's lunges, and stepped onto the edge of the stage in a few strides.
Just when she thought victory was in sight, a sudden change occurred the moment she stepped onto the stage!
The forest that had been still on stage seemed to come alive. The rough wooden trunks emitted creaking sounds, and the branches, like living tentacles, whipped toward A Gentle Kiss from all directions with sharp, whistling winds!
But A Gentle Kiss was, after all, the fourth-ranked player in the Dragon Country region! And... a lone wolf player at that!
The value of this ranking was absolutely genuine.
She ranked fourth ultimately because the second and third place players had consolidated the resources of their entire factions. If considering individuals alone, only Angry Crow could firmly suppress her and hold the throne of first place.
Facing such a situation, A Gentle Kiss even had the leisure to tug at the corner of her mouth, revealing a curve of near-excitement.
The dagger danced between her fingers. Every precise block or slash was accompanied by flying wood chips and the cracking sound of splintering wood. She didn't just meet the attacks head-on but used them as leverage, dodging and weaving as she neared the small puppet in the corner of the stage!
A rusty axe blade whistled past the top of her head.
This was the method A Gentle Kiss had devised.
"Pfft!"
The dagger sank in, but the tactile feedback was wrong.
It wasn't the sensation of piercing wood as expected, but more like stabbing into a mass of cold, viscous liquid.
But it seemed to have some effect.
The process was a bit off, but the answer was correct!
A Gentle Kiss's eyes lit up, and she kicked the puppet's backside with all her might.
She was terrified of any further mishaps, so she used her full strength.
The small puppet was sent flying by her kick, its wooden body arching through the air like a parabola toward the audience seats.
Driven by the instincts of a canine, the wolf's gaze was immediately drawn to that flash of flying red!
It let out a low, excited growl in its throat, lowered its hind legs, wiggled its bottom in a rather cute fashion, and lunged again. Its massive body leaped into the air like a gray cannonball, its blood-stained maw wide open, fangs glinting coldly under the dim yellow light as it precisely intercepted the half-puppet flying in mid-air.
Immediately following, a tooth-aching crunching sound echoed.
Wood chips, stuffing, and that little red hat were all caught in the Big Bad Wolf's mouth.
It swung its neck, tossed the tattered puppet body into the air, caught it again, and tore at it frantically as if playing with its favorite toy.
The puppet's stuffing scattered everywhere like snowflakes.
At the same time, on stage, the attacks from the trees ceased abruptly. They stopped stiffly in mid-air, then slowly retracted, turning back into harmless scenery props.
A Gentle Kiss immediately distanced herself from everything, half-kneeling in the center of the stage, watching the Big Bad Wolf as it fed.
It was focused on tearing at the wooden remains in its mouth as if it were treating them like its favorite large bone. Its throat continuously emitted satisfied purrs, eyes half-closed, as if enjoying a gluttonous feast.
How was this still a wolf?
This was clearly just a big dog.
The players below were stunned. Looking at the scene, they didn't even dare to breathe, fearing they might do something to disturb it.
Cheng Shuili also stared fixedly at this scene. Before she could figure out what was going on, her attention was pulled away by another exceptionally intense gaze.
Turning to look, A Gentle Kiss was pressed against the one-way glass of her SVIP box, a pair of eyes staring straight inside.
Her gaze was so intense that Cheng Shuili began to doubt whether this glass was truly one-way.
After a while, perhaps seeing no movement inside, she raised a hand to tap on the glass and asked in a low voice, "Boss Crow?"
Cheng Shuili, on the inner side of the glass, felt her mouth twitch imperceptibly.
She could be spotted even like this?
Separated by one-way glass, amidst the commotion of such a large stage, A Gentle Kiss could still accurately locate her position based on sound and recognize her voice?
Should one say this person's intuition was terrifyingly sharp, or that she possessed a near-blind obsession with finding her teammate?
Cheng Shuili didn't move, nor did she speak.
She simply took another piece of meat jerky from the Abyss Ring in a leisurely manner, put it in her mouth, and chewed slowly.
Her gaze returned calmly to the face pressed against the glass outside, which was almost being flattened.
Outside, A Gentle Kiss received no response, her brow furrowing even tighter.
She knocked two more times, her voice slightly louder: "Hey? Is anyone there? Crow? Is that you?"
She even pressed her ear against the glass, trying to hear movement inside.
Cheng Shuili: "..."
The more she called out, the less Cheng Shuili wanted to respond.
It was a bit embarrassing.
Really.
At this moment, the Big Bad Wolf shook its head, tossing the last bit of wood chips from its mouth. Its green eyes reopened, but the violence and hunger within had dissipated significantly, replaced by a kind of... post-feast lethargy, even carrying a touch of innocence.
And it was precisely because of this innocence that, despite the monster not being particularly good-looking, it now possessed a certain ugly-cute charm.
The Big Bad Wolf's massive body swayed. It didn't look at the players below again, but slowly turned and walked toward the forest in the depths of the stage that had already returned to calm.
Halfway there, its massive body began to turn transparent, then faded, like a melting wax figure, finally disappearing completely into the shadows of the stage scenery.
The stage lighting changed once more.
The gloomy forest light faded, replaced by soft, warm orange lighting that illuminated the slightly messy stage.
Scattered wood chips, stuffing, and that lonely, rusty axe lying on the ground.
The second act... was over.
Glancing at the gray puppets starting to arrange the scenery again, A Gentle Kiss shifted her attention back to the one-way glass in front of her.
She was absolutely certain that Angry Crow Takes Flight was sitting inside, but the other party didn't seem to want to deal with her.
A Gentle Kiss took a few steps back, sat down on the chair closest to this glass, and stared straight at it, as if she could see Cheng Shuili sitting behind it through the one-way glass.
Cheng Shuili, however, remained as steady as a mountain, leisurely finishing the piece of jerky she had taken out and then pulling out another.
This was the most relaxing dungeon Cheng Shuili had ever participated in.
The entire theater performance had little to do with her; she only needed to treat all of this as an immersive, bloody horror movie.
And A Gentle Kiss?
She stared at the one-way glass that reflected her own blurry silhouette, her brows knitting tighter and tighter.
She wasn't a fool. If she hadn't called anyone out with that shout just now, either it wasn't Crow inside, or... that person was intentionally ignoring her.
Recalling the brief interaction they had during the meeting, A Gentle Kiss leaned toward the latter.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue in annoyance, stopped trying to call the door, and turned her gaze back to the stage.
The gray puppets were working silently, removing the messy forest set and bringing in new props.
This time, it seemed to be... the interior of a castle?
One could see rough but tall stone walls, a magnificent large bed draped with heavy curtains, and a floor-length mirror with twisted patterns embedded along its edges.
A new story was about to unfold.
A Gentle Kiss withdrew her gaze, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes as if recuperating.
But her ears twitched slightly, capturing an extremely subtle... chewing sound coming from inside the box?
It was very light, very restrained, but in the ears of a player who had undergone sensory enhancement, especially in the relatively quiet theater during the intermission, how could she not hear it?
A Gentle Kiss hooked the corner of her mouth into a knowing curve.
She finally confirmed that Crow was indeed inside.
Not only was she quite leisurely, she even had something to eat.
A Gentle Kiss didn't do anything else, just waited quietly.
As the set was about to be completed, the theater lights dimmed again, and the few audience members in the stands immediately quieted down as well.
This time, without the need for a cue, they consciously found intact chairs to sit in, their expressions tense as they waited.
The third act, beginning.
The stage lights focused on that magnificent large bed.
Cheng Shuili immediately noticed that the biggest difference from before was that this time, all the furniture, or rather the set, was real.
That large bed had a real wooden structure, the curtains were heavy velvet, and one could even see frayed threads along the edges.
The floor-length mirror was even more so; the brass-inlaid patterns were intricate and old, and the mirror surface clearly reflected the stiff figure of a blonde puppet on the bed.
Even the texture of the stone bricks on the walls exuded a cold, hard aura.
This subtle difference caused Cheng Shuili's chewing motion to pause slightly, her gaze sharpening a bit.
On stage, a person with blonde hair draped in a complicated, classical nightgown slowly sat up from the bed.
Cheng Shuili frowned, staring intently at the person's face for a long time before confirming she hadn't seen wrong.
It was an extremely beautiful woman.
Her long golden hair was like flowing sunlight, shimmering with a soft luster even under the dim stage lights.
Her skin was white to the point of transparency, her features exquisite, not like those of a mortal. Her long eyelashes drooped, and she was dressed in a silk classical nightgown with intricate silver patterns embroidered on the collar and cuffs, the whole person enveloped in a dreamlike aura.
What Cheng Shuili cared about was that the person standing on the stage this time wasn't some puppet, but a real human.
No... this thing might not necessarily be human.
Besides players, what kind of normal humans were there in the dungeon?
The magnificent woman on stage had only just sat up when she attracted the gaze of all the players.
They stared tightly at her every move, even their breathing unconsciously lightened, as if fearing they might disturb something.
The woman sat on the bed, her posture lazy and perfect, as if she were a meticulously carved work of art.
She sat up from the bed, raised her hand, and stroked her draped long hair. Every movement was incomparably elegant, yet it felt like a child who had just learned to walk imitating an adult's posture, carrying a subtle stiffness.
It was like a top-tier movie that kept stuttering; no one would say there was anything wrong with the plot, but if asked about the viewing experience, absolutely no one would feel it was good.
Applied to this woman, what the players felt was a strange, non-human sensation.
She slowly turned her head to face the audience.
The light hit her face, and everyone saw those beautiful, glass-like eyes.
She slowly stood up, her bare feet stepping onto the stage.
But that stiff, unskilled sensation remained; as if she hadn't moved for too long, she fell down onto the stage all at once.
The players below squeezed out a cold sweat for this sudden turn of events.
Yet the woman on stage didn't reveal any look of embarrassment or pain; she just gently raised her hand and continued to lie there motionless.
Just as the players below were bewildered, two gray puppets emerged from somewhere, hopped onto the stage, caught the woman's arms one on each side, and with a simultaneous effort, lifted her up.
These two gray puppets were quite respectful toward the woman, even carrying a touch of caution.
Perhaps the woman couldn't stand steadily on her own at all, so the two puppets simply maintained this posture, heads lowered, their demeanor humble.
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