Puzzle Madness

Chapter 207 The First Dream War (Thirteen)

DouDou pouted:
"Big sister, do you have any special moves you haven't used yet? You'd better use them, otherwise it's getting a bit boring."

"For example, a whole bunch of you could pop out of the mirror—it can't be that only one can appear at a time, or that only one of you can exist at a time, right? These kinds of restrictions are weird, let's use them all."

Considering Inoue Marie's intention to buy time, she shouldn't have used all her trump cards at once.

Even DouDou himself knew that the best way to control his actions was to arouse his curiosity; naturally, he couldn't reveal all the secrets.

Marie Inoue covered her mouth with her hand, her false eyelashes trembling as her eyes widened.
"Oh? That's accurate. I'll call out the executioners then, just wait a moment."

She rubbed her face, then suddenly opened her mouth wide and shoved both hands into her mouth—then pushed them in deeper until her elbows were inside; her lips never cracked.

Perhaps it was some kind of ritualistic action, or perhaps there was some kind of controller hidden in the digestive tract: but seeing Inoue Marie's strange way of rolling her eyes, Dou Dou was too embarrassed to ask.

The sound of increasingly frequent tapping echoed through the sales office—the dull thud of high heels striking the tiles.

One after another, Inoue Marie emerged from the mirrors on both sides of the sales department, looking around.

When these ordinary people see each other: first surprise, then understanding.

They walked out of the business hall with small steps, whispering and talking amongst themselves, occasionally pointing at DouDou—as if they were gossiping in the tea room during their lunch break; their faces showed a variety of expressions, including disappointment, expectation, and greed.

"At what stage has it been delayed?"

Quiet inquiries arose from the crowd, and various sharp weapons gleamed between their fingers.

At the very front, Inoue Marie pulled her hand out of her mouth and flicked away her saliva. She coughed twice and waved her hand impatiently.

"We've come out completely! Now we've come out completely! I'll be the first to speak."

The crowd responded with uneasy confusion, the stiletto heels scraping against the pavement.

"Huh? So fast?"

"Hey, did I tell him that everyone used to call me a super white-collar worker?"

Did he ask me out?

"Where should I begin? Ah, I've got it!"

Amidst the whispers, Marie Inoue, at the front, rummaged through her shirt; she pulled out a photograph from somewhere and tossed it into her pocket like a playing card:

"Look at this! Your old friend, a crucial part of this plan."

The young man in the photo has his hair shaved off and his scalp covered in stubble; a small piece of skin has been peeled off between his eyebrows, leaving a circular hole.

His eyes were tightly closed, making it impossible to tell if he was alive or dead.
But DouDou frowned and thought for a long time, but still couldn't remember where she had seen this face before:

"Uh, do I know this person?"

Marie Inoue and the others chattered away, like a flock of birds chirping:

"Oh my, you didn't recognize me? You guys saw me during the typhoon."

"You beat him up! He's the [index finger] of the Human Cataloging Center."

"Oh! [Index finger] No wonder you couldn't tell he wasn't wearing that outer shell. He used to wear something like a mask, which looked really silly."

Some of Inoue Marie placed her hand in front of her forehead and then raised her index finger straight up.

After his eyes darted around, he finally made an impression:

[Oh, I remember now. It was that guy who did the "spiritual broadcasts," how did he get arrested by the Asia-Europe Post?]

Last time, DouDou even took this cataloger to the hospital, but unexpectedly, the Human Cataloging Center didn't rescue or retrieve him; instead, he was taken away by the Asia-Europe Post. It seems the Asia-Europe Post's infiltration of Mong Cai is perhaps the highest among all the organizations—
But DouDou immediately understood:

"Ah, I see. Besides this—you also brought that unlucky guy who makes people's necks hurt to Mong Cai, right? And then... wait, throw that guy out again so everyone's necks hurt."

"Also, let's have this cataloger broadcast this message over the loudspeaker, so everyone thinks the same thing, and everyone gets dragged down by the water ghosts to dream—oh, 'water ghosts' is our local term, but you should understand what it means." "Hmm, maybe we need to address the issue of physical contact. So you want the whole city to dream together? What's the purpose?"

Marie Inoue and the others exchanged glances, and after a few awkward seconds of silence, a voice finally rang out from the crowd:
"Um—it seems we've prepared two plans? One of them is similar to what you described. The two plans also complement each other somewhat."

Compared to her fervent passion, Marie Inoue's clerical work was clearly inadequate. Each time, she was nervously wringing her hands and organizing her thoughts.

"Me too... I'm not quite sure either? Although I'm dressed very professionally, I'm actually not very good at administrative things."

Snapped! Bang bang!

Until Inoue Marie, the first one to step out of the mirror, suddenly fell to the ground, clapping her hands forcefully, blood squeezing out of the corner of her mouth along with her smile:

"Oh, I know! Actually, if I just tell you one thing, you'll understand what we're trying to do."

She jumped up, raising both hands high and pointing upwards:
"Do you know what's in the sky? Do you know where madness comes from? And for example... and for example, why are you so amazing—"

Beep, beep.

Before she could finish speaking, a buzzer sounded from DouDou's raincoat pocket.
All of Inoue Marie's movements stopped, and they stood still, staring at him like statues.

"Ah! Please wait a moment, someone is calling me."

DouDou pulled out his pager, which was beeping, and the screen was flashing; but the words on it were illegible.

Marie Inoue, supporting her lower back, spoke up:

"Oh, looks like it's about to begin."

"It's a bit early, the schedule doesn't match. Outsourced workers are just unreliable."

DouDou scratched his head, his face showing some embarrassment and confusion:

"Uh, I have to go, I'm in a hurry. Do you have any outsourcing? I'll ask your outsourcing colleague later, so I won't listen to you anymore. How about that for now?"

He stuffed the pager into his pocket and zipped it up.
Then bend your knees and kick your legs:
The earth trembled.

The entire asphalt road first folded in half, then collapsed diagonally downwards, like a crisp soda cracker: it was as if someone had pre-installed detonators in the foundations of the surrounding houses, causing these shops to sink into the ground with strange cries amidst billowing smoke.

The entire neighborhood was shaking, and the hole in the middle of the road was expanding; more and more concrete was falling into the city's drainage system and into human waste.

The damage caused by this instantaneous ejection was far greater than that of Marie Inoue's thermal vision.

Meanwhile, Doudou had already joined Inoue Marie and the others—his movements were invisible to the naked eye, only his splattered bodily fluids marked his path.

Every Inoue Marie who was passed through became a scattered limb or a shattered corpse.

There might be a huge, invisible juicer in the air; those bodies, far tougher than ordinary people, are being turned into blood and juice by the spinning blades.

Some of Inoue Marie, who were positioned closer to the edge, still had time to climb higher into the air: but then a hand emerging from the blood mist grabbed her ankle or calf, pulling her back into that swirling, pulsating red mass; she was then slammed to the ground, shattering into a pile.

And more and more Marie Inoue began to emerge from the mirror in the sales department; all sorts of sharp, thin objects pierced their jaws, granting them magical powers beyond human capabilities.

Strange cries, a mixture of doubt, excitement, and joy, rose and fell, drowning out each other, with only the buzzing of flies remaining; closing your eyes, it felt as if you were at a carnival, where tourists were reveling.

They pushed and shoved each other, vying for the path to throw a punch; streams of scalding red light flashed through the crowd, accompanied by cries of blindness, passing through and slicing through the bodies of their companions, trying to reach the yellow dot that was killing.

Chaos spread, taking form from the dust kicked up by collapsing buildings: this storm, a mixture of human creations and human bodies, grew larger and larger until it expanded into a sphere—
A few breaths passed.

boom!
A plume of smoke rose from the storm, streaked across the city sky, and disappeared without a trace.

The impact stirred up the dust: the branch office had completely collapsed, the knotted signs were shattered on the ground, and the fake package that would never have stopped moving was drifting along the pool of blood.

There will never be a complete Marie Inoue again.

(End of this chapter)