doll city

Chapter 113 Dress up

11 points.

Yan Ge blinked under the bright lights of the arena.

He looked at the empty seat beside him, and touched that seat hesitantly.

It was cold, and no one had sat there just now.

Then why... I feel that Li Ya has come?

"Yan Ge, come down and have a look, is it the 'theater' you need?" Xiao Yi waved at him with her hand holding an oil pastel under the green field.

"It's here."

More than half of the entire arena is no longer grass, but a garden of bungalows, with two rows of ancient trees planted here and there. The corridor of water-milled square bricks and the fountain pools on both sides are intertwined, forming a mixed style of Chinese and Western styles.

Behind the arched flower gate made of white roses is a huge stage. Castles, forests, and even the iconic tiles of Ciling Gujia, although empty, can also create a sense of "this is a grand wedding" atmosphere.

"I can only do this at most, 6 hours at most." Xiao Yi wiped the sweat from her brow, "The picture you drew for me of Ciling Gufu is too sloppy, if I hadn't worn it since wearing I have heard a lot about the architecture of the Republic of China from the teacher, but I don't know how to start."

"very good already."

Xiao Yi's painting almost reproduced [-]% of what Yan Ge saw and the style of the Ciling Gu Mansion, so Yan Ge didn't need to expend so much energy to arrange an overly elaborate "spiritual theater" just for Luca.

To kill the heart of the Puppet King, he must go all out and let himself be "into the play".

"By the way..." Yan Ge asked after being slightly dazed, "Have you seen Li Ya?"

Xiao Yi looked around: "Lao Li is back? When?"

"Is it a hallucination..." Yan Ge pinched one of his earlobe, while thinking, he glanced at the watch on his wrist from the corner of his eye, and suddenly froze.

This is a watch that has been stopped for a long time, and Yan Ge remembers that its hands have always stopped at zero.

But now, it points to - 11:50.

……

"Whose time is a treasure,

King, jester, watchmaker?

He has wishes tonight,

A heart made of wood, stone, and flesh..."

Inorganic singing is sung on the street, red and blue eyes are shining like stars in every corner of the city, street lights drag the traveler's shadow for a long time, until the sound of walking sticks hitting the concrete floor passes by, playing Jia just opened his eyes suddenly.

The silver light strings crossed an arc, and there was a crisp strike, and all the singing on the street fell silent.

The clock in the store stopped its abnormal counterclockwise rotation and started ticking clockwise again.

Li Ya's light-colored pupils reflected a figure, he couldn't see the face clearly, but the figure approached actively.

"Yange?"

"Li Ya..."

Yan Ge's voice was attached to the side of his face with his cold fingertips, his voice was ethereal like a midnight phantom, singing a pitiful opera.

"Why are you Li Ya? Deny your blood and bones, abandon your name... Maybe you don't want to do this, but as long as you are willing to swear to love me, I will no longer miss the identity of a human being."

...Why would he say that?

Those babbles like a dream entered his heart without hindrance, echoing throughout his chest.

"Only your name is my enemy. Even if you abandon your name, you are still like this. What does your existence have to do with your name?"

"Any name a rose, and it still smells. Name another piece of music, and it still rings...so do you."

"Abandon your name, I am your servant, I am willing to use my soul to make up for the empty name outside your body."

In the night demon whisper, Li Ya's heart was as quiet as a frozen ice lake, but when the ceramic hand was about to grab it, Li Ya moved.

"Om-"

The ear-piercing strings shattered all the glass on both sides of the street, and the bow in his hand swept across the porcelain puppet's neck like the sharpest sword.

That was not Yan Ge, he was wearing an exquisite top hat and a gorgeous and complicated dress, and his figure was outlined by street lamps—that was not Yan Ge, but Luca.

Li Ya shook his body and broke free from the spiritual baptism.

"I have to admit... I have such a momentary heartbeat." Although Yan Ge would say this kind of thing only in his daydreams, "I almost forgot, Twelve Actors... you too 'Servant' background."

Acting has the connotation of a person who is good at performing arts. In a sense, Luca and Yan Ge are interlinked.

They can all see through a person's heart at a glance.

"This is the third time you have refused to accept this gift."

Luca's face was hidden in the shadow of the street lamps, and he was as uninterested in human struggles as ever, but just now, he seemed to see what he cared about from Li Ya's heart.

"...I don't understand why you have to restrain yourself. You clearly have a heart that can love others."

"You can say love to him, you can shed tears for him, you can play music for him that only he can understand in the whole world...you can catch him."

"But I still don't know where to find her."

Li Ya felt that his blood vessels were freezing, and the world in front of him seemed to be covered in a layer of fog, and even the usual spoken language had to be organized carefully before he could speak it.

"It's not a gift, it's a dehumanization, Luca...you'll never understand a lover if you don't understand humanity."

"This is where your arrogance lies." Luka raised his hand and made a "twist" motion towards the bell tower of Ciling City in the distance.

Except for Li Ya, no one noticed that somewhere in the city, a slight sound of gears reversing quietly sounded.

Then the bell was rung.

—He's targeting me.

Realizing this, Li Ya's pupils dilated slightly: "Luka—"

"..." As I said at first, accept me, be me, and then you can fight me, musician. "

There was even an illusion of politeness in Luca's ethereal voice.

The moment his voice fell, Li Ya opened his eyes again, and he appeared in a strange street.

The time of the dull pain in the trance was even shorter, and within a few seconds, he remembered that he had met Luca just now.

"Time..." Li Ya subconsciously looked at his wrist, remembering to give the watch to Yan Ge.

At this moment, there was a clamor of people in the distance, and several sports cars drove towards this side like crazy with huge smoke.

"Kill it! Trade for freedom!!!"

Ok?

At first, Li Ya thought that those people were coming towards him, but soon when they approached, he found that these people had no sense in their eyes, and even saw a trace of righteousness from their faces.

He stretched out his hand and grabbed a sports car.

In an instant, an invisible sound wave hit the engine inside the sports car, the wheels slipped, and the crazy people on the car hit the street lights on the side of the road.

"Lend me the watch." Li Ya walked over unceremoniously and took off the gold watch in his hand. The moment he held it in his hand, the pointer on the gold watch stopped, and immediately pointed to 11:30 s position.

"It was reversed by him for another 5 minutes." Li Ya tapped the side of his head, perhaps affected by the sequelae of reversing time, he felt that his thinking was fragmented from time to time.

At this time, the driver woke up slowly and saw Li Ya who was grabbing the watch. To his surprise, the victim was not angry. He jumped up and ran in the direction of the arena. side shouted.

"Fight for freedom! I will protect everyone and be a hero!"

Li Ya: "..."

As soon as the word "hero" came out, Li Ya looked at these people as if he was looking at a group of zombies.

"Leon, it's you." Li Ya turned his head and looked at the figure in formal suit behind the street lamp.

Leon smiled and nodded at him: "It's better to say, it's to help the villains find the brilliance of their humanity."

The light of death is also light, it just brainwashes the wicked to make them die better.

The crowd was still frantically flocking towards the direction Luca left. It seemed that there were a thousand if not five hundred people. At the end of the street, Li Ya heard the sound of crows flapping their wings.

Immediately afterwards, screams sounded from the distant night sky, and many figures were picked up from the ground by densely packed crows and carried into the air, making a rain of blood.

... They probably never met the Puppet King at all, and died on the road.

"Respect death as home, the highest virtue." Leon seemed to be very relieved to watch these people flock to the cemetery, and then his eyes paused on Li Ya, who seemed to have a headache, "You look more pleasing to the eye today than in the past Many, of course, the warden friend is still at the top of my mind—”

Leon took off his half-shaved hat, and the street lamp beside him also suffered, hitting the ground and bursting out a series of sparks.

"..."

Li Ya looked at his hands, his movements were completely instinctive, even faster than reason.

His slightly red eyes looked at Leon, and the depths of his pupils gradually lost consciousness.

"You can't covet my 'one', and neither does Luka... We have to kill him, crush him, and bury him."

He didn't open his mouth, but the words passed directly into his cochlea.

Leon was silent for a while, and said: "...With all due respect, you seem to be running out of time as a human being."

Following Leon's line of sight, Li Ya, who looked slightly dull, saw his own shadow.

He didn't move, but his shadow was playing the violin slowly, the image gradually became clear, and there was already the sound of music.

"The King of Performers is deliberately influencing you. I saw your bones turn into fifes and your blood into strings. Everything about you in the eyes of the world is fading away, leaving only pure things like performers and lovers."

Leon looked at his shadow and continued:

"If you love everyone, you can be a hero."

"If you love only one person, you'll be a living puppet."

"I don't want it to be the latter. Undying love will only lead to a tragic tragedy."

When Leon said this, he suddenly fell silent, and he involuntarily closed his eyes to listen—because the performer had already put the violin on his shoulders, and the moment his fingertips rested on the strings, his movements coincided with the shadows under his feet. up.

"When I play to the moonlight, the stars are my audience.

When I play to the tide, the quicksand is my audience.

When I play to my lover, everything is my audience..."

Everyone in the whole city stopped for a moment. In the corner of a certain block in the city, the giant snake in the ruins stopped chewing, raised its head like a skyscraper, and looked in the direction of the source of the playing sound.

……

It was raining on the street outside Ciling Stadium.

"Snake, snake... That big snake devoured everything in the distance, and we escaped with great difficulty."

In the last stronghold outside the arena, Dai Chengze led Gu Lili and the surviving M82 team members to finally meet up, but at this time the temporary command center was busy with the final battle, and no one listened to the message carefully. Orochi's intelligence.

Compared with King Ling's battle, no matter how terrifying the snake was, in their eyes it was just a bigger mutant puppet.

Gu Lili wanted to ask about Yan Ge's situation several times, but she didn't know how to ask the busy crowd, so she had to find Yi Ziang who was still helping to direct at this base.

"... a snake that can devour everything?" Yi Ziang looked very tired, "Li Li, we don't have the energy to deal with other puppet right now, your brother has bet everything in this battle, we must do our best All in my power to help him."

Gu Lili fell silent, even she could see that in the distance outside the window was a living hell-like scene.

With the sound of hurried footsteps behind him, Tang Yuan climbed up from downstairs, holding a smoking gun in his hand.

"How could that monster not obey the laws of physics?! Dozens of times we clearly felt that we were hit, why!"

Yi Ziang said: "Because time has been reversed, the reason why you still have the impression is that the surrounding environment has not changed with time, and it is the individual human beings whose time has been reversed."

Tang Yuan's comprehension was far above that of ordinary people, and he was just a little stunned for a moment before he immediately understood the meaning.

Then he questioned: "How did you observe it?"

"I'm a paper man, not a real person in the strict sense, and time has not been reversed ideologically." Yi Ziang pointed to the clock on the wall, "It's 11:50, but in fact, it should have been a long time ago." It's past 12 and we're stuck in the day."

Yi Ziang's own skills belong to the category of time, he can "load files" again, but he himself is not a combatant, even if he wants to, he can't do it.

"Diana can't show up easily. Unlike the Red King of Death, she only has one shot this time. Otherwise, even if she hits the target, as long as the King of Kings reverses time, all previous efforts will be for naught."

"So what else can we do?"

Yi Ziang grasped his arms tightly, frowned and thought for a long time: "Time...time...he must have some restrictions."

Tang Yuan glanced at the crow group that was approaching in the distance, and said, "Your own skills are also related to the concept of time. Think again! What kind of restrictions does he have!"

"Time, time..." When Yi Ziang's biting finger was about to break off, a picture suddenly flashed in his mind, and he stood up abruptly, "There is a problem! Lili, your uncle... left behind when he left." Let me have a look at the USB drive that came down! Where is the progress?"

Gu Lili hurriedly handed it over and asked them to find a computer and plug it in. After a flash on the screen, the progress bar reached 90%.

Yi Ziang tapped on the keyboard for a while, and brought up the source files of the USB flash drive. From the rows of codes, he frowned and observed for a while, and suddenly yelled.

"Why is the city only 'reversing' time instead of pushing it forward?"

Tang Yuan said "ah": "Didn't he want to push it back?"

"No, absolutely not!" Yi Ziang spun around on the spot, "Living puppets have no concept of good and evil, so why are they bound in hunting grounds to take human lives and bring them back from the real world?! Is it hatred of human beings, no, otherwise how to explain Wu Yun, how to explain what they said about the lion dance?"

"The whole city is a huge ecological cycle. The living people who are pulled in are like ears of wheat. They grow up, are harvested by living puppets, are pulled in again, and harvested again. What is harvested is not life, but is taken away by crows. It is their fate and time to go!"

"Luka's 'time' that can be manipulated is limited. He must obtain time from the supply chain of killing people. As long as this supply chain is broken, his ability will be self-defeating."

Tang Yuan's head was buzzing, and he didn't question Yi Ziang's statement, because it was the intuition of the "player"'s own speculation mechanism. Once he can figure out all the clues and logic, then this idea will come to fruition. No matter how unconstrained the model is, it is the one closest to the truth.

"So how does this 'supply chain' get cut?"

Yi Ziang was dumb for two seconds. At this moment, Gu Lili stared out the window blankly, murmuring unconsciously.

"I hear it, it's eating... it's eating people."

"What did you say?"

"That snake is eating people. It wants to eat up everything here... Its heart is so empty, so empty, no matter how much it eats, it can't fill it up."

Tang Yuan finally noticed something unusual about the "snake" they were talking about.

"Could it be... is this an arrangement of fate? Let that snake eat people, eat King Ling's 'wheat field', cut off his source of power, and he will be killed."

The blood rain hit the glass window, leaving streaks of blood like tear stains.

On the other side, a shadow that has been lonely for nearly a century came outside the arena.

Luca has already remembered the voice of the slave.

In fact, he has never remembered any human face, but he remembers Yan Ge's eyes very clearly - when facing the wind and rain, he has the same strength as her.

Their eyes are alike...very alike...

Thinking of this, Luca pushed open the heavy iron door in front of him.

What greeted him was not a brutal battle, but a rose garden as white as snow flakes.

The blazing light almost burned him who was used to the darkness, but he didn't care, all his eyes were attracted by the girl in the white pearl dress.

They have been separated for too long, so long that his cracks are filled with the dust of history, so long that he has long been used to the fragrance of the graveyard.

"Luka." His princess smiled at him, "Welcome home."