Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

"Hi~ We meet again, this must be fate."

After Liu Gaosheng and An Xiaoyou left, the puppeteer walked slowly towards Song Yuan and Qiao Ran with his hands behind his back, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Great, now it's just the three of us left~"

Ah... after something like this happened, the entire school's surveillance system and point deduction system must be paralyzed. Now no one can regulate our behavior anymore; it feels so good to be so carefree.

Song Yuan leaned against the wall, looking at him coldly—as expected, they had encountered the worst situation, facing the puppeteer and Liu Gaosheng head-on.

To be honest, she wasn't too worried about An Xiaoyou. An Xiaoyou was currently a B+ level player, and after this game, she would be close to A level. With her current skills and talent, she would have a hard time even surviving against an S-level player like Liu Gaosheng.

However, An Xiaoyou has a very high luck stat. With her talent activated, Liu Gaosheng's agility can't catch her within fifteen seconds. After that, as long as she keeps playing hide-and-seek with them and holds out until they come to her aid, she can still... wait, what about Qiao Ran?

She turned her head and glanced at Qiao Ran, whose hands were tied, whose long eyelashes were lowered, and who stood quietly beside her.

She didn't know when it started, but Qiao Ran seemed to have become much quieter. Generally speaking, even in situations where it wasn't convenient to talk, Qiao Ran would make eye contact with her, seemingly saying nothing, but actually quite talkative. She wouldn't just sit there lost in thought like this.

Before she could even ponder why Qiao Ran had become like this, the puppeteer's voice rang out first:

"Haha, what are you thinking at a time like this?!"

A sharp gust of wind from a punch exploded at the tip of her nose. She turned her head to avoid the straight punch thrown by the opponent, and when she looked at the opponent again, her eyes showed more surprise. She was a little surprised that a player like the Puppet Master would choose not to use any skills and directly fight her hand-to-hand.

Without time to think, she untied Qiao Ran's ropes, pushed him towards the stairwell, said, "You go first," and then focused on fighting the puppeteer.

After only a few moves, she realized that her opponent was unlike anyone she had ever fought before. Her previous opponents, such as He Xiao and Fu Zhengyang, were of higher levels and had more elaborate weapons, but their attack power and agility were not on the same level as hers.

Although Song Yuan doesn't have arrogant thoughts like "I am the only one who matters," she has always completely overwhelmed everyone in terms of physical skills, and has never lost a game since she entered the game. This is a fact.

But puppeteers are different.

Both possessed attack power and agility exceeding the system's measurement standards, and both had undergone formal training in the real world. The man's expression grew increasingly frenzied, and the joy deep within his pupils intensified:

"This is amazing... This is the first time I've met someone like me who is similar in strength and agility. You really are the most precious one~"

Song Yuan had no interest in responding to such meaningless banter. Their fists clashed again with a dull thud, forcing both of them back several meters. She steadied herself at the top of the stairs, preparing to continue her attack, when a chill ran down her spine to the back of her head:

She quickly adjusted her position, but the knife tip only missed her heart, eventually piercing through the school uniform fabric and penetrating deeply.

[Ding~ Player "Song Yuan" was attacked by player "Qiao Ran". The sharp scalpel did not pierce the heart. You are a lucky player~ Player "Song Yuan" HP -10; Entering a state of continuous bleeding. Please treat the wound immediately and stop the bleeding in time.]

Song Yuan immediately felt the unique icy touch of the scalpel, followed by a sharp, stinging pain. The scalpel was then withdrawn, and warm blood gushed out like a madwoman, her life force plummeting.

She coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, then turned around to look:

"Qiao Ran" did not go to meet Xu Tai'an alone as Song Yuan had instructed. She didn't know how long she had been watching them fight. The "Qiao Ran" in front of her was different from the image of "Qiao Ran" in her memory. The "Qiao Ran" in front of her had a strange and eerie smile on her lips, which was obviously malicious.

Perhaps she misjudged the situation.

Qiao Ran has never been free from control from the very beginning.

If she could fight the puppeteer to a draw after being attacked by a horde of monsters, then being stabbed in such a vital area as her chest cavity would make it even more impossible for her to win. The violent movement of her chest would cause the wound to bleed profusely, reducing her health bar to zero in just a few seconds.

Song Yuan gripped the stair railing and slowly sat down. Her dark eyelashes drooped, and bright red blood continued to gush from the knife wound on her back with each breath; she seemed to have only one breath left.

Qiao Ran stood to the side expressionlessly, her eyes vacant and devoid of any emotion, like an exquisite doll made of precious materials.

The puppeteer elegantly took a small tissue from his coat pocket, walked slowly towards her, and wore a regretful expression.

"How could this happen? I didn't want to hurt your body this way at all, otherwise it wouldn't be in its most perfect form when it's put in the shop window."

Ranran is the same; I know he won't let me down. Of course, it would be even better if he were truly loyal to me—but I know he would never do that.

He knelt down in front of Song Yuan and took out a square crystal box:

[Ding~ Player "Puppeteer" has used the god-tier item "Magic Space," which allows the player to take anything out of the instance except for living beings and monsters, and even into the real world—including the player's corpse.]

"Isn't it beautiful? Those exquisite dolls in the guild are made from this."

The puppeteer waved the crystal box in front of Song Yuan, but Song Yuan was too busy adjusting her breathing to pay any attention to him.

However, he didn't care about any of that and continued talking to Song Yuan. To ensure she died knowing exactly what was happening, he even explained his skills to her in detail:

"My weapon, [Puppet String], when used with skills, can control all players below S+ level, including those at S+ level."

However, this control skill is a bit special; the controlled players don't always remain in the same state. The degree of my control over them is directly related to the distance between me and the [Puppet String]. The greater the distance, the weaker the control; the closer the distance, the stronger the control.

This kind of control can be transmitted, and I'm not entirely sure why you two are alright. But none of that matters anymore.

That makes sense. The reason Qiao Ran acted so strangely from the start, and at the same time made so many mistakes that she was easily exposed, was because her level of control was too low:

The controlled individuals not only lacked the original body's complete memories, but also frequently made mistakes in their behavior. The reason Qiao Ran was later "cleared of suspicion" was not because she recovered, but because the distance between them and the puppeteer had narrowed and the level of control had increased, which is why they were able to handle her interrogation so easily.

If it were any other player, and it was An Xiaomei who was being controlled, Song Yuan would probably have seen through her disguise. But Qiao Ran was different; his acting was too good. He imitated not only a person's outward manner of speaking, but also that person's emotions and soul.

So she was fooled.

"That's settled then."

The puppeteer gave her a warm smile, took the scalpel from Qiao Ran's hand, and looked at her bloodless lips:

"Don't worry, I'll leave the wound in the most inconspicuous place so as not to ruin your beauty."

The blade slowly approached her skin, and at that moment, Song Yuan suddenly opened her eyes:

"That's enough, fire."

"boom--"

A gunshot rang out in the narrow stairwell. Once again, the puppeteer's exquisite face was shattered into pieces before her eyes by a platinum bullet.