Finding Sam

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

But he needed to make some preparations first. Meng Zu took out a small blue bottle from his storage space and drank it. 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. Once he was ready, he stepped 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 his danger sense had already been triggered.

The entire theater was quiet—eerily quiet. Not even an insect could be heard. The place was dilapidated, with several large holes in the ceiling that let a little extra light into the dim theater. A huge chandelier lay silently on the floor, having fallen after years without maintenance.

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

Meng Zu carefully surveyed his surroundings before muttering, "If you want to pretend nobody's here, at least make it convincing. What is this, covering 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 abandoned for decades, there was not even any dust on the floor or seats. Did they think he was an idiot?

Meng Zu lifted the curtain on the other side and followed the red arrow backstage. There was a staircase only wide enough for one person. He climbed it and arrived at a hidden platform. From there, he could see the seats on both the first and second floors at a glance. 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, while an old painting hung on the wall, depicting a boy in a suit with a red bow tie.

The red arrow pointed at the glass of the vanity. Meng Zu noticed a thick notebook resting on it and walked over. However, as he passed the three puppets on the floor, he sensed the same aura emanating from them as from the muscular man he had encountered at the supermarket—sinister and icy cold. This made him keep part of his attention on the three puppets.

Meng Zu opened the notebook and began reading. At the beginning were drawings of human proportions, but they were marked as needing to be made from wood. The head, eyes, nose, and other parts had all been sketched out. Next came the puppets' mechanical mechanisms: the rotation of the head and eyes, and the function of opening and closing the mouth.

Meng Zu flipped through it quickly. A picture appeared 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 notebook. Around the middle, he found a newspaper clipping: "Wealthy Young Master Missing." On the next page was a sentence about a perfect puppet.

"Perfect puppet?" Meng Zu continued reading. The following pages discussed what materials could be used to create a perfect puppet, but the notebook ended there. It did not say what Mary Shaw had found to make a perfect puppet.

As Meng Zu lowered his head to read the notebook, the head of a white-haired old woman appeared in the vanity mirror. Several split black scars marked her face, and her eyes were white. Her appearance was twisted and terrifying, though she bore some resemblance to the Mary Shaw in the photo Meng Zu had just seen.

Mary Shaw in the mirror stared venomously at Meng Zu as he read the diary. 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 Meng Zu.

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

Then Meng Zu clenched his left 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. The third puppet was stabbed through the head with Meng Zu's silver dagger.

Meng Zu tore the motionless puppet off his dagger, then walked over to the one that had been smashed apart and drove the dagger into its head. A stream of black mist seeped from the wound before instantly dissipating. Meng Zu turned around and looked at Mary Shaw in the mirror.

Mary Shaw's expression darkened further as she watched Meng Zu turn around and instantly deal with the three puppets. When Meng Zu turned to look at her, her mouth split open into a sinister, terrifying smile before she vanished from the mirror.

Meng Zu walked to the vanity and pushed it aside. Behind the glass was a square block. He pressed it down, and the wardrobe on the other side immediately made a sound and slowly slid aside, revealing a hidden door.

At that moment, the red arrow pointed at the hidden door and vanished. The clue's guidance time had run out. Meng Zu pushed open the hidden door, looked into the pitch-black passage beyond, and took a flashlight from his storage space.

He switched on the flashlight and walked inside. After passing through the corridor, the space suddenly opened up. It was filled with cabinets, each one displaying puppets.

Meng Zu did not pay much attention to these puppets, because he did not sense that sinister, icy aura from them. Even if he had, it would not have mattered. The puppets controlled by Mary Shaw 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 a scream. 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 made a move, Meng Zu might not be her match. But frightening him would be difficult with his spirit at 6 points. For her, simply killing him directly would be easier.

"Are these nesting dolls?" Meng Zu searched around and found a door. After opening it, he found a staircase leading downward.

Following the stairs down, Meng Zu arrived in a secret room and finally saw Sam. Seven people lay on the floor inside. 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.

Slap! Meng Zu struck Sam across the face.

"Hiss!" Sam woke from his unconsciousness and felt a burning pain in his face. He could not help covering his cheek with his hand.

At that moment, Sam saw Meng Zu crouching before him. Terrified, he scrambled backward on his hands and feet. "V-Vampire!"

Meng Zu (╬￣皿￣)

Had this kid been scared stupid?