Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1270: After Scattering Apart

"No, no—this isn't right," Bohemia said and spun in place, looking at Puppeteer, then at Lin Sanjiu, as if seeking their opinions. "Are we letting him stay inside? It doesn't make sense, does it?"

Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and said, "Wait there, Yuan Xiangxi. No matter what, don't close the door and go inside. Give us a few minutes to think."

Yuan Xiangxi pursed his lips as he walked out the door a little uneasily and sat on the porch steps. There were only six or seven steps between him and the others.

"Is Magus considered a person in her current form?" Lin Sanjiu asked, turning to Puppeteer. "Was Magus influenced by the pocket dimension when inside?"

Magus would only constitute a fifth person if she was also assigned a role, right?

Puppeteer was silent for a while before answering slowly, "She doesn't know if she is considered a person. She said when she looks at all of you, it's like an elder looking at juniors, and it was the same when she was inside the pocket dimension."

"So, she wasn't influenced then," Lin Sanjiu said, relieved. However, before she could turn around to inform Yuan Xiangxi, she caught Bohemia's expression, and her heart skipped a beat. "What's wrong?"

"I... I don't think that proves that she wasn't influenced," Bohemia said, clenching her fists tightly, as if she hated what she was about to say.

"Why?"

"The host's mother lived outside. Although she wasn't physically present in the house, she had a strong presence there. The couple often talked about her and wrote her letters..." Her voice grew lower. "Don't you think it's similar to Magus's situation?"

Lin Sanjiu fell silent. She hadn't expected there to be a host's mother in the playhouse's storyline. 'When looking at them, isn't it just like a grandma looking at the younger generation?'

"Then I'll go in again and bring him out," she blurted. "If we rest for the second round and two people come out, that should be enough, right?"

She looked around and found that no one said a word. After a moment of contemplation, Lin Sanjiu finally realized it as well. She couldn't help but bury her face in her hands.

The people left behind in the last round were from the previous round. Even if only one person entered the second round, at most, only one person would come out—there was no way to bring out the person left behind from the previous round. It was a one-to-one problem. Otherwise, how many resentful spirits would have been left behind in the pocket dimension before? How could new entrants play their roles?

No one dared say with one hundred percent certainty whether Yuan Xiangxi had to stay in the house. However, if they let him out, Lin Sanjiu or someone close to her would face considerable risks.

"Didn't you come out with me last time?" Bohemia said to the ghost not far away. "Last time you were so stu—"

She got stuck on the 'S' sound when Yuan Xiangxi suddenly screamed. Seeing Bohemia fall silent, he whispered, "Have you already forgotten? The round has ended; be careful what you say!"

'Right.'

Lin Sanjiu slapped her forehead, replaying their conversation so far. They discussed matters objectively, and nothing was good or bad about it. Except for asking whether Magus counted as a person, everything else was quite neutral—and when Magus said she didn't even know if she counted as a person, there wasn't any sound of wood creaking in the house.

"Let's move farther away and discuss it," she said, gesturing for the others. Then she turned to Yuan Xiangxi and ordered, "You sit there and wait for us. We'll come back after we've finished discussing!"

It wasn't until the small white house became the size of a card that the group finally stopped their footsteps near a large wheat field. At this distance, the playhouse pocket dimension would no longer react to their conversations.

"What were you going to say before?" she asked Bohemia.

"We previously entered the year 1981, where the hostess killed the host, and the rest of the family died. According to the plot, only the hostess should be able to leave. But because he's already dead, he came out with me!" Bohemia explained anxiously. "Why can't we do the same this time? Let him fake a heart attack in the house, and when the plot assumes he's dead, everything should be fine, right?"

Even if Lin Sanjiu hadn't experienced the previous storyline, she realized several significant differences between the two situations.

"In 1981, the plot required someone to die, so it wasn't surprising that a person died. But in 1973, everything was peaceful," she whispered. "If the hostess died in 1973, then all the subsequent plots wouldn't make sense, so the pocket dimension might not acknowledge that Yuan Xiangxi is dead. Besides, this round has already ended. Even if he fakes his death, I'm afraid-"

Bohemia interrupted angrily, "Then what should we do?"

Lin Sanjiu didn't know what to do either. She tried desperately to think for a moment, but another worry surfaced in her mind—she remembered all the foreign objects slowly swallowed by the house floor. Were the posthumans previously left behind by the pocket dimension also submerged in the floor like that?

"We can't stay here for too long. I'm worried about him. Let's go back and check first," she said.

Bohemia and J7 had no better ideas and nodded in agreement. Just as they were about to move, Lin Sanjiu looked back and noticed Puppeteer's brow was slightly furrowed. He was lost in thought and not moving.

The wind kept blowing from the sky, and the wheat around them undulated like waves. The feathers on Puppeteer's shoulders and the scattered black hair floated gently in the wind. However, something else caught Lin Sanjiu's attention.

If she had to describe it, it was like a cloud shadow cast from somewhere, constantly swaying on Puppeteer. It seemed like some object was causing this effect.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I just received a message," Puppeteer said, raising his hand, and a small, lead-gray slip lay in his slender palm. "I found a consular officer."

Lin Sanjiu was taken aback. "Are you going to find that consular officer now?"

"What else?" Puppeteer didn't even look at her. He turned his hand, and the slip disappeared. "Do you prefer to wait until people disappear before searching for them?"

"But, Yuan Xiangxi—"

"What you want to do is your business." He raised his eyelids slightly, and his dark eyes lacked any glint. "I'll go and bring that consular officer here."

'In other words, was he only going to leave and come back?'

Lin Sanjiu breathed a sigh of relief but still found it hard to accept what was happening. "We'll wait for you in this area. After we rescue Yuan Xiangxi, we'll set up camp by the roadside." After a moment of hesitation, she asked, "How long will it take you?"

Puppeteer glanced at her. "Do you want to know where I'm going?"

Of course, it would be best if he told her...

"Should I send you a paper crane every day?"

Sure enough, she couldn't expect too much from him.

"Are you a parasite afraid of losing your host?"