Qi Yan smiled: "Just give it a try." ”

Anyway, he likes to deal with NPCs more than players.

This night was destined to be very busy, Qi Jiu first went to Melissa's room to put the telephone microphone on the table, and then came to the door of the old butler's room again.

He knocked lightly on the door, and said in advance before the old butler got angry: "Good evening, Mr. butler, I am very sorry to disturb you again, Ms. Melissa called and said that there is an emergency to talk to you, very urgent." ”

Qi Zhen was separated by the door, and his tone was just the right amount of nervousness and urgency.

The butler seemed to believe, but he didn't have time to get angry, and hurriedly asked, "What?" Is it really Miss? ”

Qi Zhen: "Yes, let's show 10790230515, do you see if it's Ms. Melissa's contact number." ”

When the housekeeper heard this, he immediately opened the door and looked at Qi Yan in disbelief: "Have you entered the young lady's room?" ”

Qi Yan pretended to smile embarrassedly, nodded and said, "A few naughty little guests forcibly opened Miss Melissa's door, let's go 'clean up' a little, sorry for the interruption." ”

The butler gave them a suspicious look, and without saying a word, or closing the door of his room, he immediately quickened his pace and trotted towards the second floor.

After the footsteps of the old butler disappeared, the four of them entered the butler's room naturally.

The old butler's room had very little furniture, and the furnishings were very simple, the room was lit with dim candles, the wardrobe was very low and old, there was no bed in the room, a wooden bench was placed near the window, and on the north side was a fireplace that looked like it had not been used for a long time.

As soon as Qin Rang, Lu Zhi, and Gu Zhenzhen entered, they urgently launched a search, trying to find the hidden puppet body, but Qi Zhen's attention was always on the damp fireplace.

He walked to the fireplace with his flashlight, the beam of light illuminating the damp ashes, and for a while, Qi Yan said in a regretful and calm tone—

"No need to look for it, we'll never find Catherine's puppet body."

Chapter 164: Highway Circus (58)

Qi noticed that in the damp ashes of the fireplace, there were outlines and fragments of burnt wood limbs.

Perhaps because the housekeeper didn't open the window, there was a lingering smell of wood burning in the room.

"Never be able to find Catherine's puppet body? Why? The three people who were urgently searching in the house were stunned and looked at Qi Yan in puzzlement.

Qi Zhen used the tongs to pluck the ashes in the fireplace, and after reconfirming that it was the remains of the puppet after burning, he said, "Most likely, Melissa burned her a long time ago." ”

This also explains the contradiction that Qi Yan felt just now: since Melissa knew so much about Catherine's actions, and had a firm attitude to destroy her, why didn't she burn Catherine's puppet herself?

Maybe Melissa had already done that......

Qin Rang was stunned: "But if that's the case, why did Melissa ask us to help her kill Catherine?" Isn't she doing it too much? ”

“… Wait, if the puppet body has been destroyed, why can Catherine still exist in this manor, and even manipulate these child puppets to attack guests...? The more Qin Rang thought about it, the more wrong he became, and he was completely stunned.

Qi Yan quickly sorted out his thoughts and analyzed: "So I speculate that it is not enough to destroy Catherine's puppet body, which is why Melissa emphasized on the phone, 'Please help me kill her completely', because burning Catherine's puppet will not cause it to actually 'die'." ”

"Perhaps... Even Melissa herself didn't know what to do. Qi Yan lowered his eyelids and looked at the remains of the puppet in the ashes.

"How so? Then we..."

Gu Zhenzhen: "Then why is Catherine still trying to coax players to find their bodies?" Didn't she know that her body had been burned by the puppeteer? ”

"Maybe Melissa used some kind of trick to keep the other party from knowing," Qi Ji used tongs to tidy up the wreckage in the fireplace, "Put yourself in her shoes, if I were Melissa herself, I wouldn't be willing to let Catherine know the fact that the puppet's body was burned, so that Melissa can create an illusion for Catherine: your puppet's body is still in my hands, and I can destroy you at any time." ”

"But in fact, even if you destroy her body as a puppet, you can't destroy Catherine, an evil spirit." Qi Yan frowned.

Gu Zhenzhen sighed, shrugged his shoulders and said: "Indeed, the 'puppeteer' is easier to control than the 'unscrupulous resentful spirit', hiding the truth that the puppet's body has been burned is probably Melissa's last weight, she must keep this secret and restrain Catherine with the illusion that she can't find the puppet's body." ”

"It's hard to imagine that Catherine would have done something more cruel and crazy if she knew she wasn't bound by the puppet's body."

For a moment, everyone fell into anxiety.

Originally, they thought that in order to deal with Catherine and complete the task of killing Catherine in "The Puppet House", they only needed to destroy her puppet body, but now the development of the plot makes them unable to start......

Qi Yan calmed down and analyzed: "We have to complete the main quest of "Kill Catherine", what we have to do is not as simple as finding her puppet body, but to find a way to completely destroy her existence. ”

Qin Rang: "Catherine's existence is equivalent to an evil spirit, will you have to use the witch's way to directly eliminate the evil spirit?" ”

Qi Ji: "But even if you want to eliminate evil spirits, you have to pay attention to the Basic Law..."

After thinking for a while, Qi Ji analyzed while clarifying his thoughts: "Catherine is essentially a puppet, and the reason why the puppets are able to act is because they rely on the traction of the control line in their body, and the action of the five 'prison breaking' puppets before disappeared because we picked off their control lines, and they also rotted and dissolved after completely losing their mobility..."

Qi Ji paused slightly, then raised his gaze and said, "Therefore, the manipulation line is the Achilles heel of the puppet." ”

Qin Rang: "That's right, according to speculation, Catherine's puppets are all burned down, where are there any control lines..."

Qi Zhen: "Perhaps, isn't it our visible control line?" ”

"Huh?" Qin Rang's face was full of question marks.

Qi Zhen: "The puppet needs the puppeteer hidden behind the scenes to move the control line, and the puppeteer is the source of energy for its actions, so my sister Melissa herself... It is likely that it is the key to the existence of her sister Catherine. ”

At this moment, the system prompt finally sounded-

[Congratulations to Melissa's guests for finding the key clues of the story and unlocking important plot line progress]

[The plot is coming soon, please be patient for a while]

*

On the second floor of the manor, inside Melissa's room.

The door was hidden, and the damp wind on a rainy night lifted the light curtains, and the old door creaked.

The old butler noticed the telephone receiver on the table at a glance, and he walked over quickly to pick up the receiver: "Hey? Is it Miss Melissa, please? ”

But there was a busy sound on the other end of the phone.

The old butler rolled his eyes stiffly: "Strange, has the phone been hung up?" Or the annoying group of guests fooling me. ”

"What an ignorant bunch of guests!" The old butler put the telephone receiver back in place, and was about to come down from the stairs with a curse, when he reached the corner of the stairs when suddenly the sound of "jingle bell, jingle bell" suddenly came from Melissa's room.

The loyal old butler paused slightly, and immediately turned around and trotted to answer the phone, and the "thump" sound of the puppet's limbs hitting the ground spread from the hallway to the bedroom.

"Hello," the old butler answered the phone as quickly as he could, and after a moment showed a kind and polite smile, "Miss Melissa, it turns out that it is really you, may I ask you for any help?" ”

Melissa's voice on the phone was calm and hoarse: "Please let those guests come and answer the phone, I think, they should have something important to ask me." ”

*

On the first floor of the manor, the group had already retreated from the old butler's room, and they waited quietly in the corridor as if nothing had happened.

"What should I do? I just heard the old butler's scolding voice, will he hold a grudge against us when he finds out that we lied to him? Qin Rang said worriedly.

Qi Zhen smiled: "How can it be regarded as a lie to him?" Miss Melissa did call back. ”

Qin Rang glanced at him and tugged at the corners of his lips: "... But Melissa didn't look for the old butler. ”

Qi Yan shrugged: "It's okay, I think Mr. Butler won't be so stingy." ”

Everyone looked down the stairs on the second floor in the corridor, and it was inevitable that they were a little apprehensive when they saw the impatient appearance of the old butler.

But when the old butler was about to go downstairs to rebuke his guests who had disturbed him several times, the telephone rang again in the house, and the old butler's scolding voice stopped abruptly, and he quickly turned back to Miss Melissa's room.

"Huh? What's going on? "The unexpected turn of events was confusing.

After about twenty seconds, the old butler poked his head out of the stairs, looked at the four guests who were waiting in the corridor, and said, "Dear guests, Miss Melissa is calling again, she has important matters to discuss with you. ”

Everyone looked at each other, they couldn't get through to Miss Melissa's phone just now, and now why did the other party take the initiative to call again? Or after they tricked the housekeeper into going upstairs.

Qi Yan curled the corners of his lips: "It seems that the new plot has been successfully launched." ”

The group came to Melissa's room again as quickly as possible, and under the signal of the old housekeeper, Qi Yan picked up the phone receiver again: "Ms. Melissa, I know you will take the initiative to contact me." ”

Melissa's voice came from the other end of the phone: "I'm sorry, due to some special reasons, our call was forced to be terminated. ”

"It's okay," Qi Zhen said straight to the point, "You've already burned Catherine's body as a puppet, right?" ”

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds: "Yes." ”

Melissa's voice was hoarse, but her tone was crisp.

"But as you can see, even if I destroy Catherine's puppet body, I can't kill her completely, so that's why I turned to you for help." At this point, Melissa is finally allowed to tell the truth.

Qi Jiu: "I would like to ask you a question, have you made a deal with the Kraken. ”

Melissa was slightly stunned, and subconsciously spoke: "What? ”

Qi Zhen: "Is Catherine's return as a puppet because you made a deal with the Kraken?" ”

What followed was a long silence, so long that Qi Yan even thought that the other party had hung up the phone.

"Yes," Melissa sighed at last, her voice exhausted, "it seems that you already know everything, the circus cast and crew have the curse of the Siren in their blood, and I made a wish to the Siren for the sake of my own selfish feelings and the dependence on my sister that I have not been able to shake off for seven years, and ask him to bring back my sister who left me back then." ”

"At that time, I made the puppet Catherine with my own hand based on my sister, but the puppet is only a puppet after all, and although I can easily make it move through the silk thread, it is a mechanical thing without a soul after all... As a puppeteer, I know this better than anyone else..."

"But I want my Catherine to have a human soul, I want my dead sister to return to this puppet body that I made for her, I want her to live again on a stage full of lights and applause, I know better than anyone that my sister was born to belong to the stage of puppet theater, she is more suitable than me, she should not have died at the age of thirteen..."

"So I tried to summon the Kraken on that special and desperate night, and as you can see, unfortunately, I succeeded."

Qi Yan held the earpiece and did not speak, patiently listening to the puppeteer Melissa tell the story of her and Catherine.

"The Kraken gave me the choice at the time, and He said, 'The resurrected sister will not be what you expect, she will become an evil being, ruin your stage, ruin your life, this is the price of the deal, are you willing to bear it?' At that time, I just wanted my sister to return to me as soon as possible, and I didn't care about the so-called destruction and consequences, so this terrible deal was made. ”

"Everything is my choice, I proudly think that I can control the overall situation, and use each other's tacit understanding and emotions to strangle the so-called evil in the cradle, but unfortunately, I am too self-righteous."

"I just want my sister back, and every time I stand alone on stage, I know that I am incomplete, that twins cannot exist on their own, and that my performance and life have been missing forever since the night I was thirteen."

"I didn't expect that the resurrected Catherine would be far more evil than I could comprehend."

"Catherine, that puppet, she's not my sister, she's a demon."

Chapter 165: Highway Circus (59)

"But the deal with the Kraken can't be reversed, and I can only kill the demon I created with my own hands."

"But... As you know, even if I burned the puppet I made with my own hands, it would not help, she is the most stubborn and evil being......"

Melissa's voice on the other end of the line grew lower, exhaustion overwriting anger and sadness.

At this point, Melissa's call made Qi Ji clear two things:

First, Catherine's puppet body was indeed burned by Melissa herself; Second, Melissa made a deal with the Kraken in exchange for her sister's "resurrection".

He also learned a key message: twins can't stand on their own.