Chapter 66: Little Puppet

“Um… why would his son’s puppet be with Coco?” Guan Ling thought for a long time but still couldn’t figure it out.

“It’s just a guess, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.” Xing Ye said, “I hypothesized it from all the information you gathered earlier. The game world’s still less complicated than real life.”

If this was in the real world, finding Benedict’s son would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. However, the game world had already arranged many obvious clues to guide the following fate players, so it was naturally much easier to guess.

Cao Qian asked, “If we can guess Coco has Master Benedict’s son’s puppet, shouldn’t the following fate players have also guessed it?”

Xing Ye shook her head, “They don’t know about Benedict’s son, right? But they also couldn’t have told us all their information. I suspect they already found something from Coco before trading their used information with us.”

“Then is it possible that they’ve already taken Benedict’s son’s puppet and are planning to give it to Master Benedict?” Guan Ling said anxiously, “I’m not afraid of losing by myself, since losing one or two hundred points isn’t a big deal. However, if they don’t get the real ending, there’s just too many points we would lose.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Xing Ye said leisurely, “Remember Randy? He’s a reincarnation player, his goal isn’t to get points, it’s to get the true ending. He already knows the two following fate players, so if they swapped information, he’ll stop a simple surface ending like this from happening.”  

Guan Ling released a sigh of relief. Cao Qian had been taking down notes the entire time. She stared at the relationship map and her notes on Xing Ye’s analysis for a long time before asking, “Then after Master Benedict gets his son and the surface ending is completed, will the city lord be instinctively forced to submit with his nature as a puppet, allowing Benedict to destroy the city and use the resources to create a new, perfect city? So what we have to do is help the city lord kill Benedict and protect the inhabitants of Puppet City?

Xing Ye didn’t agree or disagree, instead saying, “It’d be good if things were really that simple. Right now, we don’t have enough information. We don’t have to rush. Tomorrow, we’ll visit Coco and maybe we can find an answer there.”

He glanced at Guan Ling and suddenly asked, “Say, how many opposing fate players do you think can reach high level worlds? Wouldn’t most players choose to be blessed by fate since it’d be easier that way?”

“Not necessarily,” Guan Ling said, “There’s many people who think the opposite. Furthermore, we didn’t know there would be such a big difference in luck values until after we picked our camp, so there shouldn’t be a big disparity between the two camps.”

Cao Qian also added, “The hardest part for opposing fate players is passing the novice world. As long as you can break through the novice world, it’s fine. Chaos worlds are PVE, so even if you don’t have any long-term teammates and solo, you can team up with following fate players to pick up some points.

“After going through enough worlds, you’ll reach 50,000 points and become a high level player. There might be less opposing fate players than following fate players, but it’s not like there’s none at all.”

“So it’s like that.” Xing Ye nodded and didn’t continue.

He didn’t tell Guan Ling about the fate of following fate players. It wasn’t because he was worried Guan Ling would no longer want to be his teammate- Xing Ye wouldn’t care about losing one or two teammates. He just didn’t want this to make Guan Ling despair about something he wasn’t quite yet certain about. There might still be a way to prevent it.

The next morning, they watched Randy and the two following fate players leave the city at a distance before quickly going to find Coco.

Just as the public security chief’s son said, Coco was a very ordinary puppet. She was dressed in servant's garbs, quietly sweeping the floor.

Xing Ye lived in the business district, whereas this was the residential district. It was quite close to Cao Qian’s house, only two places down.

“My sister, Linda, is being pursued by the sons of the city lord, Old Nect, the public security chief, and the richest puppet in the city. This setting makes it very easy for her to group with other following fate players. Even if they don’t team up, Coco lives very close to my house so if Linda wanted to search for her, it’d be very easy to find this important clue.” Cao Qian said.

Unfortunately, Linda never cared about finishing the mission and just wanted to drift through her days, doing nothing.

“Hello, could I please ask if you’re Coco?” Xing Ye knocked on the door.

Coco raised her head and looked at them before saying, “I don’t know you guys.”

After that, she lowered her head again and went back to sweeping the floor. Xing Ye kicked Guan Ling, who quickly added, “I’m Old Nect’s son, Little Nect.”

Coco set the broom along the wall and asked, “What did you find me for?”

As expected, mentioning Old Nect’s name was useful. Guan Ling excitedly repeated what Xing Ye had told him to say, “My dad had always wanted to help Master Benedict, but didn’t know what he could do. He’s been very happy recently because he finally found Master’s whereabouts and wants to help Master fulfill his wish.”

“Fulfill his wish?” Coco smiled, “Haa, he knows what Master Benedict’s wish is?”

“This…”

“Why don’t you come in?” Coco opened the door and cautiously checked to make sure nobody was following them, only allowing them inside after making sure. After they entered, she locked the door tightly.

A puppet that looked around fourteen years old was standing in the living room of Linda’s house. He was pushing around a dust sweeper with his feet, cleaning the dust off the floor.

A rush of excitement passed through Guan Ling when he saw the puppet. He walked forward, wanting to grab it, but Xing Ye pulled him to a stop.

“Is he who Old Nect wanted?” Coco asked, “This is the puppet Master Benedict made for his son. If Master Benedict has a wish, it would definitely be to take back this puppet that he still hasn’t installed his son’s heart in yet.”

Xing Ye stopped Guan Ling from agreeing and asked, “Master Benedict can create countless puppets so why would he cling to this one?”

“Because of the nucleus,” Coco answered, “If you don’t use human flesh to create the nucleus, there’s no way to fuse it with the heart.  A puppet without a heart would never become the true young master. After Master Benedict created Puppet City, he used the young master’s corpse to create a puppet. However, before he had time to fuse the nucleus with his son’s heart, he was forced to flee the city.”

“So it’s actually like that. No wonder there’s such a balance between the two.” Guan Ling frantically signalled Xing Ye with his eyes, wanting to take the puppet.

Xing Ye nodded.

Guan Ling said, “We’ve already found Master Benedict and know the heart’s there. Master can’t enter the city due to the city lord’s pursuit and could only ask for the puppet to be brought out. Could you please give us the puppet so we can bring it to Master?”

“Yes, as long as you can help him. I also hope the little young master can return to life soon.” Coco said obediently.

She called the little puppet over and hugged him, her voice gentle, “Young master, go with these big brothers to find your Daddy, okay? This is your destiny.”

The little puppet didn’t have consciousness and could only listen to other people’s orders. He obediently walked to Guan Ling.

Guan Ling was about to accept it when Xing Ye suddenly said, “If I really take him to find Master Benedict, I won’t even know how I’ll have died.”

Coco suddenly choked, stammering as she said, “How, how could that be? Master will definitely thank you. After all, he loves his son.”

“Really?”

Xing Ye had been carefully observing this room the whole time. He tapped the north wall before drawing out a QR code.

The QR code became a boxing glove. It was a replica of Cao Qian’s Glorious Boxing Gloves. Cao Qian equipped them, forcefully punching a hole in the wall.

Behind the wall was a hidden room. Inside, there were countless little puppets that looked exactly the same as the one in front of them. They were like abandoned dolls, tossed in the corner to collect dust.

“Aren’t you clever,” Xing Ye said to Coco, “If anybody comes searching for Benedict’s son, you just have to give them a puppet. Then they’ll take these fake puppets to Master Benedict, enraging him and causing their own deaths.”

Coco said expressionlessly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. My duty is just to give these puppets Master made for his son to those who wish to help Master.”

Guan Ling looked at the pile of puppets, stupefied. If it was him, he really would’ve foolishly taken the puppet and left. He never would’ve thought such a gentle looking puppet would be completely full of lies!

“You can’t trust anybody in Puppet City. They all lie.” Xing Ye warned Guan Ling.

There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Benedict’s son was an important prop for this world, how could it be found so easily?

“Is the reason why the two following fate players told us this information so easily yesterday because they’ve already found the little puppet, so Coco’s information here isn’t important anymore?” Cao Qian asked.

“Probably.”

Guan Ling pondered, “So Coco’s actually just a sign board. Her task is to distribute little puppets and the real little puppet’s hidden somewhere else?”

“Not necessarily,” Xing Ye looked towards the dusty heap of puppets, “The most dangerous place is often the safest place.”