Found Sam

The result disappointed Meng Zu. A red dotted line pointed straight at the theater before him. "Fine, I can only go in and take a look."

But he needed to make some preparations first. Meng Zu took a Blue Potion from his Storage Space and drank it, checking to see that his energy had recovered to 55 points. He put the priest-blessed Tiger Knuckles on his left hand and tucked the silver dagger into his belt before stepping into the theater.

The moment he entered, a faint electric current buzzed in his mind. This was why Meng Zu disliked dealing with supernatural creatures. He had not even seen the real culprit yet, and Danger Sense had already been triggered.

The entire theater was quiet—eerily quiet. Not even an insect could be heard. The place was decrepit, with several large holes in the ceiling that let a little extra light into the dim theater. A massive chandelier lay silently on the floor, having fallen after being left unrepaired for so long.

The distant stage was also in ruins. Several floorboards had collapsed, and more than half of one of the two curtains had fallen onto the ground. Windows, seats, door cracks, and other places were covered in cobwebs. Everything suggested that no one had come here in a very long time.

Meng Zu carefully observed his surroundings, then quietly mocked, "If you're going to pretend no one's here, at least make it convincing. What is this, hiding your ears while stealing a bell?"

With Meng Zu's current physique, his hearing was four times that of an ordinary person. There was not even the sound of an insect crawling anywhere in the theater. Were the spiders that spun these webs hunting air? And in a theater that had been abandoned for decades, there was not even any dust on the floor or seats. Did they take him for an idiot?

Meng Zu lifted the other curtain and followed the red arrow backstage. There was a staircase only wide enough for one person. He climbed it to a concealed platform that overlooked the seating on both the first and second floors. At the end of the platform corridor stood a door.

Meng Zu pushed open the door and entered. It was a dressing room. Three puppets lay on the floor, and an old painting hung on the wall, depicting a boy in a suit with a red bow tie.

The red arrow pointed at the dressing table mirror. Meng Zu noticed a thick notebook on the dressing table and walked over, but as he passed the three puppets on the floor, he sensed the same eerie, icy aura that had radiated from the burly man at the supermarket. This made him keep part of his attention on the three puppets.

Meng Zu opened the notebook and began reading. At first, it contained drawings of human body proportions, though notes indicated that all of them were to be made from wood. The wooden heads, eyes, noses, and other parts had all been sketched out. Next came the puppets' mechanical mechanisms—the movement of their heads and eyes, and the functions for opening and closing their mouths.

Meng Zu flipped through it quickly until he found a picture of a white-haired old woman sitting in a chair and holding a puppet dressed in a suit. "So she's Mary Shaw!"

Meng Zu guessed the old woman's identity and continued flipping through the pages. Around the middle, he found a newspaper clipping: "Wealthy Young Master Missing." The next page bore a single sentence about a Perfect Puppet.

"Perfect Puppet?" Meng Zu continued reading. The following pages discussed what material could be used to create a Perfect Puppet, but that was where the notebook ended. It did not say what Mary Shaw had found to make one.

As Meng Zu lowered his head to read the notebook, the head of a white-haired old woman appeared in the dressing table mirror. Several black, split scars crossed her face, and her eyes were white, giving her a twisted and terrifying appearance. Still, she bore some resemblance to the Mary Shaw in the photograph Meng Zu had just seen.

Mary Shaw in the mirror stared viciously at Meng Zu as he read the journal. At the same time, the three puppets lying on the floor behind him silently turned their heads toward him. Then they stood up and slowly approached him.

They were clearly puppets, yet they made no sound as they walked. When they finally reached Meng Zu's back, he suddenly snapped the notebook shut, spun around, and kicked one of the puppets behind him away. It slammed into the wall and shattered apart.

Then he clenched his left hand into a fist and smashed the Tiger Knuckles into the head of a puppet that leaped through the air at him. Its head instantly exploded into wood chips, while the last puppet was stabbed through the head by Meng Zu's silver dagger.

Meng Zu yanked the motionless puppet off his dagger, then walked over to the shattered one and plunged the dagger into its head. A stream of black mist rose from the wound before instantly dispersing. Meng Zu turned to face Mary Shaw in the mirror.

Mary Shaw's expression darkened as she watched Meng Zu suddenly turn around and eliminate the three puppets in an instant. When she saw him looking at her, her mouth split open into an eerie, horrifying smile before she vanished from the mirror.

Meng Zu walked to the dressing table and shoved it aside. Behind the mirror was a square button. He pressed it, and the wardrobe on the other side immediately made a sound as it slowly slid aside, revealing a hidden door.

At that moment, the red arrow pointed at the hidden door and vanished. Clue Guidance had run out. Meng Zu pushed open the hidden door, looked into the pitch-black passage beyond it, and took out a flashlight from his Storage Space.

He turned on the flashlight and walked inside. After passing through the corridor, the space suddenly opened up. It was filled with cabinets, each of which displayed puppet after puppet.

Meng Zu did not pay much attention to these puppets because he could not sense that eerie, icy aura from them. Even if he could, it would not matter. The puppets Mary Shaw controlled were not very strong, at most as strong as an adult. As long as Mary Shaw did not act personally, he was not in much danger.

But Sheriff Donnie had already told him that Mary Shaw needed a medium to kill, and that medium was screaming. Ordinary people who encountered these moving puppets would most likely panic and scream in fright, giving Mary Shaw the medium she needed to act. If Mary Shaw attacked, Meng Zu might not be her match. But trying to scare him, with his Spirit at 6 points? It would be easier for her to just kill him directly.

"Are these nesting dolls?" Meng Zu searched the area and found a door. Beyond it was a staircase leading downward.

He followed the stairs down into a secret chamber, where Meng Zu finally saw Sam. Seven people lay on the floor of the chamber, and Meng Zu's eyes flickered as he looked at them.

He walked over to Sam, crouched down, and checked him. He was still alive, only unconscious.

"Smack!" Meng Zu slapped Sam across the face.

"Hiss!" Sam woke from his unconsciousness, his face burning with pain. He could not help raising a hand to cover his cheek.

Sam then saw Meng Zu crouching before him and scrambled backward in terror. "V-Vampire!"

Meng Zu (╬￣皿￣)

Had this kid been scared stupid?