A whole Town that size had vanished?
After what had happened in Strange Tales City, Annan's first instinct was to get out of this damned place!
But he was too late. Before he could climb onto the White Dragon's back, a familiar wave of drowsiness washed over him.
Somewhere between dreaming and waking, a vaguely familiar voice sounded in Annan's head. Was it someone from the Mercenary Guild?
"Lucky tester, welcome to Puppet Town's hundredth test. Every resident of the Town is a Magic Puppet. Please rate how intelligent Puppet Town seems. Note that no one will be harmed during this test."
"One point: I knew this place reeked of fakery before I even set foot on it. Two points: flawless from afar, full of holes up close. Three points: something seems off, but I couldn't say what. Four points: do real and fake even matter? Where's the line between them? If I believe something fake is real, does that make it real? And who am I? Is it me deciding what I think, or this body? Five points: good heavens, I didn't even realize any of it was fake!"
Thinking back on his awful day, Annan decided it deserved a terrible rating. No question.
Yet Annan gave it five points and asked, "May I leave a comment?"
"What's a comment?"
"It's where I offer my suggestions and opinions."
"Oh, what a splendid idea! I'll add 'comments' to the next test... Ahem. What would you like to say, tester?"
"Puppet Town is astonishingly realistic. It captures the bloated bureaucracy of an empire perfectly. No one would ever guess it's a Town full of Magic Puppets."
Annan had plenty of complaints. His words sounded like praise, but he was really mocking whoever controlled Puppet Town for wasting their time.
"But no