The Delicate, Frail Doll Master

He quickly scanned the large image and soon found a small patch of printed text in the corner.

These texts mainly introduce the work and the inspiration behind it, only at the end emphasizing thanks to his philanthropist, Mr. Tongkou.

The name caught Qin Rang's attention. He had seen it on a dark wall behind the bed when he was searching for Playing Cards during a nighttime game.

It was secretly carved with a fingernail or a small carving knife. The edges are uneven, and there are many messy and unnecessary marks, but you can tell that the person who wrote the words carved them with some kind of strong emotion.

Who could this person be? Is he also in this Instance?

Turning the page again, a piece of paper suddenly slipped out.

Qin Rang bent down to pick up the paper, but suddenly froze halfway up his leg. His eyes were fixed on the ground, and cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead.

At his feet lay a white, fluffy shawl, its shoulders already stained black.

If he wasn't careful and moved forward even slightly, he would step on the white shawl.

Behind the bench, a mannequin's pale, slightly chipped feet appeared beside him, its icy breath brushing against his back.

If he were to get up abruptly, he would surely bump into the dummy.

Qin Rang a deep breath, clenched the note tightly, and nudged Bai Yang beside him with his elbow while his body stiffened.

Bai Yang's inspiration was interrupted. He looked up impatiently and met the eyes of the mannequin that was almost pressed against Qin Rang's back. His scissors stopped moving.

The mannequin is dressed in a well-fitting cheongsam, has no left hand, and carries a pink bag in its right hand; its head is round and shiny.

Its face had no features, only faint marks, and it stiffly maintained a bowing posture. Noticing his gaze, it turned its head to stare at Bai Yang and smiled.

Are these kinds of bizarre insurance fraud schemes becoming this blatant these days?

"This guy lost his left hand, could he be the boss?" Bai Yang asked Qin Rang, looking down at him.

Qin Rang stared into Bai Yang's round, big eyes, his teeth practically grinding together. "... Regardless of whether he is or isn't, is this the time to worry about that?"

"Oh."

Bai Yang craned his neck and shouted, "Boss lady, your clothes are on the floor!"

A woman's voice drifted over softly, "That's fine, just make sure the guest doesn't step on it and get it dirty."

Bai Yang continued, "I don't know how this dummy got here."

The woman's voice didn't come again. Bai Yang called out a few more times, but still received no response.

This Female Specter was intentional.

To be polite here, you can't touch anything in the shop without the Shopkeeper's permission.

In other words, if the woman doesn't respond, he and Qin Rang can't even touch the mannequin that's trying to get closer, let alone move it away.

Bai Yang recalled the Rules and handed the brown bear Puppet he had modified to Qin Rang.

"You can smash his head in, but don't hurt his clothes," he instructed the Little Bear.

Qin Rang, holding a Little Bear with a yellow bow on its ear, looked doubtful. "Can the Rules of this bear override the Rules of this clothing store?"

"No, Rules can't be overridden except for higher-level Rules. My bear is just strong."

Qin Rang quickly realized, "You're trying to cheat."

"Right."

"Then why don't you do it yourself?"

Bai Yang grinned, "What if it doesn't work? You have that mask and the fire, right? You won't die anyway."

Qin Rang's eyes instantly turned cold.

He closed his eyes, regulated his breathing, and quickly suppressed the murderous intent that suddenly rose around him, calming himself down.

Only a few of his teammates knew about the fire; even the Authorities didn't know. How did Bai Yang find out?

Does the organization behind them truly possess foresight and omniscience?

That's impossible!

But now is not the time to dwell on this issue; Qin Rang stared at the Little Bear with a furrowed brow.

Can he be trusted?

This new Puppet Little Bear looks very unhappy, with raised eyebrows, beady eyes, and an inverted V-shaped mouth, making it look much fiercer than the Smiling Rabbit.

But as a plush toy, it actually looks even cuter this way.

Qin Rang held the Evil Ghost Mask in his pocket with his left hand, deliberately loosened his grip with his right hand, and threw the Little Bear Doll on the ground.

"Oh dear, my Doll accidentally fell to the ground, ma'am, is it alright?"

The landlady's cold voice quickly followed. "It's alright."

Upon receiving the answer, Bai Yang frowned and gently channeled energy under the table.

The Little Bear's ears twitched, then its black stone eyes blinked, and it wobbled to its feet.

After stretching its legs and bending over like a primary school student doing calisthenics, the Little Bear kicked the plush shawl on the ground to Qin Rang's astonishment.

The clothes, though made of soft and delicate material, were kicked away by the Little Bear.

It flew past Qin Rang's head like he'd kicked a steel plate, then slammed into the mannequin with a thud, slamming the mannequin's lower body against the wall.

Thump!

A pair of long, slender legs with a gel-like appearance and a shawl left two dents in the wall; the legs, wrapped in clothing, were deeply embedded in the wall.

Bai Yang glanced at the Little Bear's masterpiece out of the corner of his eye, a smile playing on his lips.

The model, with half her body severed, fell to the ground instantly, her half-body thrashing about like a fish out of water. Her exquisite clothes were stained with a layer of blackish-gray, as if they had been polluted.

Qin Rang quickly stood up and sat up straight. The Little Bear also climbed back onto the table along Bai Yang's trouser leg. It stretched out its little feet and hands, positioned itself, tilted its head, and began to play dead.

"Ah! Boss lady, your doll suddenly exploded!" Qin Rang exclaimed dramatically.

The proprietress came running at the sound, her charred body swaying unsteadily. The stench of a burnt, rotting corpse was so strong that the two of them frowned.

She glanced at the disheveled dummy, then at Bai Yang, and the dead man's face darkened even more. "Who did this?!"

"It wasn't me."

"It wasn't me."

The two spoke in unison.

The proprietress sneered, and both of them felt a powerful aura of Rules locking onto them.

She opened her mouth, her mangled lips torn open at the corner, revealing her crimson throat, and roared shrilly, "Since you won't admit it, then die! You who ruin other people's achievements, you all deserve to die!"

The black ash rushed towards him along with the energy, and Bai Yang's weak body was so overwhelmed by the energy that he couldn't breathe. He immediately clutched his chest and sat down with a thud, his face pale.

Qin Rang was unharmed; his physical abilities were almost supernatural. Hearing Bai Yang sit down, he said helplessly, "There's no need to pretend now, is there?"

Bai Yang shrugged. "I'm really just a weak Doll Master. Have you ever seen someone who's fragile enough to fight hand-to-hand?"

[What a frail person!]

[I wish I could be this weak too. Don't think I don't know that the strength of the Weird Object a person controls is related to their own energy, physical fitness, and affinity. He has at least two top-tier Weird Object under his control, and now he's pretending to be weak?]

[This Xiaobai, he's really good at pretending.]

[Show some respect, call him Master Xiaobai!]

[That punch from Little Bear crippled the weirdo; it should be able to kill two of me too, right?]

Qin Rang didn't believe it either, but Bai Yang didn't seem to be faking it when he said it. However, he didn't have time to investigate, as there was still a Female Specter behind him that he hadn't dealt with.

They didn't directly trigger the Rules, so this monster can only rage helplessly for now.

"I know, it might be this." Qin Rang pointed to the Little Bear on the table, his fox-like eyes widening, looking at him with an eerie, earnest expression. "It just fell on the ground, and when I picked it up, this is what happened around here. I'm also very curious about what happened."