Sequence 137 - Marionette

It all happened so abruptly.

The two fallen team members were foaming at the mouth, their eyes rolled upward.

Xiao Yu hurriedly crouched to examine them.

First, she reached out to check their breathing.

"They're still breathing. They've probably fainted!"

Dart crouched down too, looking just as puzzled.

Just then, another team member dropped to the ground with a thud.

Immediately afterward, Liuguang and Sly collapsed as well.

All five had exactly the same symptoms.

As Dart pondered this, he felt his thoughts beginning to slow.

His limbs began to stiffen at the same time.

In an instant, he understood.

"Sequence 137 – Marionette!"

"J01 Containment Facility!"

Dart's eyes reddened slightly. His limbs had grown so stiff that he could no longer move, and then he toppled to the ground.

Hearing Dart's words, Xiao Yu suddenly understood as she worked.

She kept moving her hands mechanically while distancing herself from the other team members lying unconscious on the ground.

Meanwhile, Lu Xiao stopped, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked at the six fallen people.

Catching sight of Lu Xiao stopping out of the corner of her eye, Xiao Yu hurriedly shouted.

"Keep moving! Don't stop!"

"This is Sequence 137 – Marionette!"

"Within fifty meters of it, anyone whose hands stop moving for five seconds will be assimilated into a puppet under its control!"

But it was already too late.

Lu Xiao felt his limbs grow heavy, and his thoughts seemed to freeze.

In an instant, his mind went completely blank.

His soul seemed to have left his body, looking down at it from a god's-eye view.

Click, click, click!

The unconscious team members stood up.

Their eyes rolled upward, and their bodies twisted into bizarre poses, making them look like marionettes.

Keeping her hands moving, Xiao Yu rushed toward Lu Xiao.

Lu Xiao had not yet been assimilated by the String Puppet. As long as she could force his hands to move, she could break the assimilation.

In Lu Xiao's vision, everything seemed to be slowly freezing. The once-fluid scene now looked as though the graphics card had malfunctioned.

It turned into stop-motion animation, one frame at a time.

At the same time, the bones inside his body began to vibrate faintly.

The Alchemy Array Ivan had carved onto his bones had activated.

At that instant, Lu Xiao felt his thoughts return to his brain.

His little finger bent slightly.

Even though that was already the limit of what he could do.

That tiny bend alone interrupted the String Puppet's assimilation of him.

An even stronger force followed, as though it wanted to manipulate his limbs.

Lu Xiao understood that he had bought himself another five seconds.

Those five seconds were already enough for him.

Watching Xiao Yu draw closer in his vision, Lu Xiao's lips slowly spread into a grin.

Thud!

Xiao Yu threw herself into Lu Xiao's arms.

Both of them fell to the ground.

Not far from them, seven figures emerged from the darkness.

Each held a gun in one hand while making repetitive motions with the other.

Their gun hands also kept moving up and down.

The seven stood in a circle around a wooden coffin roughly half a meter long.

They had suspended the coffin from their waists with ropes.

With Xiao Yu's help, Lu Xiao had broken free of the assimilation.

"Girl, who are these people?"

Moving his arms, Lu Xiao turned to ask Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu gritted her teeth and spoke coldly.

"Sequence 137 – Marionette is contained at J01 Containment Facility!"

"Clearly, they're J01's Prison Warden team!"

Lu Xiao asked another question.

"Where is J01 Containment Facility?"

Xiao Yu answered coldly.

"J01 is in Japan!"

"Oh-ho! Well, isn't that a coincidence?"

The expressions on Lu Xiao's face were quite a sight.

They kept switching between a smile and madness.

"Girl! All I have to do is keep both hands moving, right?"

Hearing Lu Xiao's question, Xiao Yu nodded.

"Sequence 137's property requires everyone within fifty meters of it to keep both hands moving at all times!"

"Otherwise, they'll be assimilated by the String Puppet!"

"If someone is assimilated, everyone else within fifty meters of that person also needs to keep both hands moving!"

"In other words, if someone is assimilated every forty-nine meters, the String Puppet could theoretically assimilate the entire world!"

"But once an assimilated person moves more than fifty meters away from the String Puppet, the assimilation will be cut off!"

As a member of the Prison Warden Special Operations Team, Xiao Yu knew the properties of these Contained Anomalies inside out.

Likewise, these were things every Special Operations Squad member had to memorize.

Lu Xiao pulled out a Bone Spur from somewhere.

The Bone Spur bore exquisite, intricate patterns, with a large Azure Gem at its end.

Lu Xiao grinned, then drove the hand holding the Bone Spur downward, plunging it into his own thigh.

The entire Bone Spur sank into Lu Xiao's thigh.

Bathed in blood, the Azure Gem at its end emitted an intense light.

Then a white halo spread outward from the gemstone.

Just as Xiao Yu was wondering in surprise why Lu Xiao had harmed himself like this, her eyes suddenly rolled back, and she fainted.

At the same time, the seven Special Operations Soldiers carrying the String Puppet also passed out.

But Dart and the others, who had already been assimilated by the String Puppet, remained standing where they were.

They slowly raised their guns and fired wildly toward Lu Xiao.

For a time, gunfire engulfed the entire manor once again.

Fighting back the dizziness in his head, Lu Xiao scrambled away on all fours.

Holding the Bone Spur between his teeth, he crawled rapidly along the ground.

Soon, Lu Xiao passed Dart and the others and rushed toward the nearby J01 Prison Warden team.

Countless bullets struck behind him.

At that moment, the team slowly rose as well, seven dark muzzles spitting fire at Lu Xiao.

At the same time, the sound of grenade pins being pulled rang out.

Dart and the others had thrown them.

Without so much as a glance, Lu Xiao attacked straight toward the J01 team.

Squelch!

Boom!

The grenades exploded behind him.

The Bone Spur instantly pierced the first man's heart.

The soldier's body armor was like a slab of tofu before the Bone Spur.

But the soldier whose heart had been pierced did not die.

His eyes rolled upward, exposing large expanses of white, and saliva dribbled from the corners of his mouth.

One hand clamped tightly around the Bone Spur embedded in his chest, while his other hand abruptly fired his gun at Lu Xiao.

Lu Xiao tried to pull the Bone Spur free, but the soldier's grip was astonishingly strong.

For the moment, Lu Xiao could not pull the Bone Spur out.

At the same time, every gun present was aimed at him.

Including Xiao Yu's, who had just stood up.