Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

As the stage curtain was fully raised, a dilapidated wooden chair appeared in the center of the empty stage.

A person was sitting on the wooden chair, or rather, the person sitting there was no longer a person.

Instead, it is a brand new puppet.

Wang Mingyue stared intently at the puppet, her eyes filled with a hint of fear, but more than anything, they revealed admiration for Yi Zanglan.

"You're so accurate, Li Shuo really is dead..."

According to the rule of exchanging old for new, if an old puppet is burned, a new puppet must be made to replace it.

The original puppet was burned, and Yang Chi replaced it; Yang Chi was burned, and Li Shuo replaced him.

Originally, the target replacement was random, but that heart-shaped badge infinitely increased Li Shuo's priority.

After all, it was Caroline's beloved possession.

Li Shuo's current appearance is far more terrifying than Yang Chi's from before. Not only is his entire body like a puppet, but his face is also covered in heavy makeup, which, combined with his bald head, makes him look particularly comical and bizarre.

Wang Mingyue calmed herself down and forced herself to observe the other person. The more she looked at the eyeshadow and lipstick, the more familiar they seemed. Suddenly, it dawned on her.

"...Oh! This is Caroline's makeup!"

She had seen the promotional poster, and Caroline looked exactly like that in the poster. It could be said that the makeup imitation was extremely similar.

Yi Zanglan nodded: "To be precise, this is Caroline."

Caroline's ghost possessed Li Shuo's puppet.

As the puppet stood up, its joints creaking as it approached, it clearly locked onto the two of them.

Wang Mingyue hadn't forgotten how Sun Qianqian died. Ordinary humans absolutely couldn't compete with a puppet in terms of brute force, let alone the original owner of the body, Li Shuo, who was naturally strong in limbs.

She frantically tugged at Yi Zanglan's sleeve: "Where's the exorcism gun? Quickly, fire a shot at it!"

Yi Zanglan pulled her deeper into the hall to hide, dealing with the puppet while also having time to explain to her.

"The exorcism gun is for exorcising demons. The ghost is inside the puppet, so we have to kill the puppet first."

"That puppet needs to be burned... Oh no!" Wang Mingyue cried out in anguish, "The match prop is on Li Shuo, we didn't get it! We..."

Before she could finish speaking, she saw Yi Zanglan pull out a lighter from somewhere on the hospital gown.

Yi Zanglan smiled and asked in return, "What happened between us?"

"...Nothing's wrong, it's fine." Wang Mingyue stared at the lighter in her hand, feeling her head buzzing. "When did you get this?"

"He's an embalmer; he's smoking a cigar, so he must have a lighter. I just lent it to him."

"..."

Absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing.

If Wang Mingyue didn't know that the rules of the Doom Game were extremely strict, she would sometimes even wonder if Yi Zanglan was cheating.

Is she really a new player entering the game for the first time?

However, Wang Mingyue didn't have time to think about these random things. Soon, a dull thud from a large area of ​​friction caught her attention.

She turned her head and saw that the thick wooden planks on the walls behind and to the sides were slowly turning, revealing hidden glass compartments behind them.

In each of the hidden glass compartments behind the wall stands a life-sized wooden puppet, with different hairstyles and clothes, some male and some female.

It's not hard to guess that these were all townspeople who had been killed by Caroline.

Crackling sound...

Their necks turned ninety degrees in an instant, their dark eyes staring straight at the two of them, revealing a ferocious and bizarre smile.

Then, they began to swarm towards the two people's position in groups of three or five.

Wang Mingyue seemed to be barely able to remain calm, but she was actually on the verge of collapse: "Lanlan, with so many puppets, they could probably crush us into mincemeat."

"Stepping on you is enough, you don't need to step on me."

"???"

Please stop with the dry humor!

Yi Zanglan tore off the seat covers from the audience seats, lit them with a lighter, and threw them far away towards the puppet group.

She kept moving around and lighting fires, and soon the entire performance hall was ablaze with flames, the scorching heat spreading rapidly.

At this rate, both the man and the puppet will be reduced to charcoal in less than five minutes.

Li Shuo's puppet was the first to be hit, collapsing to the ground amidst the rising black smoke. A flash of light seemed to appear on its chest, followed by an invisible force spreading out and instantly enveloping the entire space.

"Go." Yi Zanglan stared intently at the spot where Li Shuo had fallen, then handed the dagger to Wang Mingyue. "Take its heart."

Wang Mingyue only understood half of what she meant, but she still accepted the knife without hesitation.

"good!"

At such a critical moment, hesitation means certain death; we must trust unconditionally.

She ran towards Li Shuo, and several puppets rushed towards her along the way, but Yi Zanglan kicked them all away.

Yi Zanglan lured the puppet away, clearing an opening for her.

Stimulated by the flames, the puppets became increasingly violent and aggressive. Eventually, Wang Mingyue had to lie down on the ground and crawl forward using the chair as cover to avoid their sight.

...She saw it.

Lying in the ashes of Li Shuo, the heart-shaped badge was undamaged, except that the pin at the back had been shaped like a key.

Only her heart could open that door.

So that's what it means.

……

On the other side, Yi Zanglan held a gun in his left hand and took out a piece of broken glass from his pocket with his right hand.

This morning, when she left the bedroom, she broke the picture frame in the room, as well as the mirror behind it.

She believed that the word "mirror" wouldn't become a clue for no reason.

Trade-in your old for a new, and you're doomed.

Everyone understands the meaning of "trading in the old for the new," but what about "double death"?

It refers to Caroline.

Caroline needs to die twice: once to burn the puppet she's possessing, and again to shatter her true ghost.

Her ghost is now hiding in the hall. How can we find her amidst the flames?

...Yi Zanglan raised the mirror and began to adjust the angle.

In this scene, the image reflected in the mirror is gray and white, like an old movie, full of a sense of age.

Her slightly upturned phoenix eyes lost all their gentleness and became sharp and cold.

there.

Behind the stage curtains, Caroline peeked out, her face half-exposed, secretly observing.

A tattered hem of a skirt fluttered up, becoming the most vibrant color in the gray and white scene.

In the blink of an eye, Yi Zanglan decisively raised his gun, skipping the aiming process and pulling the trigger directly.

The bullet fired from the gun emitted a faint blue light, slightly off-target, and struck Caroline's arm.

The faint, angry roars of ghosts echoed in the air, and the creature quickly left its hiding place, fleeing elsewhere.

Yi Zanglan kept her eyes fixed on Caroline's movement. She fired two more shots, but Caroline was too fast, and each time she missed by just a little bit.

The exorcism gun only has six bullets, and she has three more chances.

She hesitated for a moment, then slowly lowered her gun and moved closer to Wang Mingyue.

"Did you find it?" she asked, raising her voice slightly.

Soon, Wang Mingyue replied, "Found it! The badge has turned into a key!"

"Well done."

……

One step, two steps, three steps.

Yi Zanglan appeared to be chatting with Wang Mingyue, but in reality, he was concentrating on sensing.

A chilling sensation, almost tangible, was penetrating the intense heat and smoke of the flames, heading straight for her back.

well.

This is the moment she's been waiting for.

It was at this moment that the other party thought she had let her guard down.

Yi Zanglan picked up the broken shards of glass again and placed them in front of her eyes. Caroline's bloodied and ferocious face was reflected in the mirror.

At arm's length, Caroline spread her sharp, blade-like nails, as if to slash her body open.

That claw strike would kill anyone who gets hit.

Yi Zanglan neither dodged nor avoided, and didn't even move the hand holding the lens.

She looked into the mirror, without turning her head, and with her other hand holding the gun, pulled the trigger from behind.

A flash of blue light, and a headshot.

Caroline's entire face exploded in an instant, she roared and finally fell backward into the raging fire of her disheveled hair.

……

Wang Mingyue had no idea what Yi Zanglan had gone through. She clutched the key tightly and was dodging the pursuit of the remaining puppets.

She was suddenly punched to the ground by the puppet, and flames quickly spread to her trouser legs. The pain and fear made her weak all over and unable to move.

"Lan... Lanlan! It's that door!"

In the instant she looked up, she saw a black wooden door that had appeared in the center of the stage, resembling the gates of hell amidst the raging flames.

But that was indeed their escape route.

As the circle of flames gradually shrank, Wang Mingyue struggled to climb towards the middle of the audience seats, only to be unexpectedly punched twice more by the puppet.

She was coughing up blood, tears streaming down her face, and felt like she was going to die.

An indescribable despair overwhelmed her, and with her last bit of strength, she threw the key far away.

"Here you go! You can leave now!"

She didn't consider herself particularly kind, but she wasn't malicious either. She knew that without Yi Zanglan, she wouldn't have made it to this final stage.

She can't get out, but at least Yi Zanglan has to. Someone as capable as him should be alive.

...The key fell right at Yi Zanglan's feet. Yi Zanglan bent down to pick it up, but did not turn around and leave.

She glanced at Wang Mingyue, who was still struggling, and walked towards her without stopping.

She kicked two puppets away in succession and pulled Wang Mingyue out from the gap between the seats, only to find that one of Wang Mingyue's feet was stuck and she couldn't break free no matter what she did.

"Bear with it."

The next second, she picked up the fallen dagger and cleanly severed Wang Mingyue's ankle at the root.

"Aa ...

Wang Mingyue was in so much pain that tears and snot streamed down her face. She collapsed and was dragged by Yi Zanglan towards the door.

In the last second before she fainted, she struggled to lift her head and look at Yi Zanglan's profile.

"Th-thank you..."

Yi Zanglan's clothes also caught fire, and she moved forward quickly amidst the flames, her tone calm.

"Go back and work on your physical fitness so you can live a few more years."

"..."

With a gentle turn of the key into the lock, the black wooden door opened with a click, and a burst of bright light seemed to shut out another world.

Yi Zanglan threw Wang Mingyue inside. She remained silent for a moment, then turned to face the theater lobby, which was now engulfed in flames.

The firelight illuminated her face, and she suddenly smiled, as if she had let go of many past events, or as if she had made some preparations.

She walked through that door.