The containment chamber fell silent once more.
By the time anyone entered again, the invasion was over, and security personnel from the Defense Department came in to search for monsters left behind by the Antimatter Legion.
After they left, staff from the Department of Weird Things came to take inventory of the Strange Objects.
Once they confirmed that none of the Strange Objects here were missing, they left.
Then one day, a girl with gray hair and golden eyes slipped inside, poking this and prodding that.
"Eighty-four points!"
The Rating Gun's voice startled the girl.
She stared at the Rating Gun, and its lone eye stared back at her.
The two stared each other down for a long while.
In the end, the Rating Gun wearily closed its eye.
Only then did the girl look pleased with herself, like a king returning victorious from the battlefield!
Just then, she noticed the piece of broken wood beside it.
She reached out with her baseball bat and tapped the wood.
Then she reached out to touch it-
Instantly, a boom resounded in her mind, followed by a weary voice:
"At last, you're here."
The girl's eyes widened. She jerked her hand away and bolted for the exit.
But after running only a few steps outside, she came back.
She pressed her palms together reverently and prayed to the broken wood:
"O spirit of the Ambrosial Arbor, grant me inexhaustible treasure!"
"Come on, don't get carried away," the voice said in her mind.
When the girl raised her head again, the broken wood was gone. A boy had taken its place.
More precisely, a puppet in the shape of a boy.
His face looked just like a real person's, but his joints were the ball joints of a puppet.
The girl froze for