The Puppet's face was painted with red and yellow paint to resemble a common Clown, with the corners of its mouth turned up high, giving it an unusually comical smile.
As its mouth opened, revealing its dark and deep oral cavity, Klein, who was staring at it, felt a sudden, inexplicable, and intense fear rise up all over his body.
What he saw suddenly dimmed, as if he were observing the world through thick, brown-tinted glass.
Klein's thoughts raced, and he instinctively wanted to call for help, but his neck felt like it was tightly bound by a rope, and he couldn't make a sound. The word remained only in his mind.
Just then, Dunn noticed that his arm-bending movement suddenly faltered and gave him a hard shove.
The tinted glass in front of Klein shattered instantly, and the word "help" escaped his throat, echoing in the carriage with a slightly sharp hint of panic.
"It's stronger," Klein stated with certainty.
Being around such a bizarre Sealed Artifact as "2-049" is truly dangerous; the slightest carelessness could plunge you into a terrible crisis—no, it's completely unavoidable, and you can only rely on other methods to avoid it!
"This is normal," Al Hasson nodded calmly.
Lolota chuckled softly:
"It seems to have taken a liking to you? Don't worry, it's one of the less dangerous Level 2 Sealed Artifact."
In a naturally languid voice, the Puppet, whose joints were so clearly defined they seemed to correspond one-to-one with a human, stood up and swayed as it took a step to its left.
Its movements were stiff and awkward, like an old, rusty Steam engine that had been forgotten to be lubricated.
Robot dancing... These Chinese characters flashed through Klein's mind, giving him a new guess as to the reason why "2-049" was dangerous:
Will it assimilate the organisms it controls?
If I hadn't been woken up in time, I would have become a giant Puppet the size of a normal person, a real-life Barbie doll?
While Klein was lost in thought, Al Hasson was woken up by Dunn. He stretched out his arm and pointed in the direction the Puppet was slowly moving, saying to Leonard, who was driving the chariot:
"There!"
Unable to maneuver the carriage through the buildings, Leonard had to take a half-circle. Throughout this process, "2-049" constantly adjusted its direction, steadfastly acting as the "guiding light for the Antigonus Family."
Seeing this, Klein was constantly "moving" his arms, actually wanted to laugh despite his tense state.
"I heard that '2-049' was created by the Antigonus Family... So is this a sign of loyalty, or a prime example of betrayal?"
Next, accompanied by the occasional sound of Al Hasson's voice, Leonard drove the carriage through the streets, heading straight in a certain direction.
The eerie Puppet "2-049" is always pulled back by Al Hasson just as it's about to reach the edge of the carriage, forcing it to start over.
At such times, its mouth will widen even further, and two people will be controlled at the same time.
Klein's tension gradually eased, and he even felt that the Sealed Artifact "2-049" was not so scary after all. As long as there were more than three people present, as long as they knew how to maintain the bending and stretching movements, and as long as they mastered the technique of waking up their companions in time, "2-049" was just a slightly special Puppet.
The carriage sped along, quickly entering the Dock Borough and arriving at the warehouse cluster.
After circling around a few times and confirming that "2-049" wanted to go to the innermost gray-white warehouse, Al Hasson, with a serious expression, carefully picked up the strange Puppet and stuffed it back into the iron-black box.
Knock knock knock!
Amidst the incessant, violent pounding, with the help of Borgia and Lolota, Al Hasson awoke time and again, laboriously fastening the mechanical switch, then infusing it with Spirituality to activate the star and crimson moon symbols on the iron box.
The invisible seal reappeared, Al Hasson let out a long breath.
"Get out of the carriage," Dunn Smith's deep, mellow voice followed. " Leonard, you can tie the horse here."
Six gentlemen and ladies, dressed in trench coats, suits, or shirts, disembarked from the carriage and headed toward the innermost warehouse, bending and stretching their arms in near unison as they walked.
This added a touch of absurdity and comicality to the already tense atmosphere.
The Nighthawks' Awkward Dance Crew... Klein could only alleviate this feeling by making sarcastic remarks.
However, he had no choice but to do so, because according to his observation, the effects of "2-049" first manifested in the upper body. To detect it in time and avoid slipping into a more dangerous situation, there were only a few options: bending and stretching the arms, turning the neck, and shaking the body. The latter two would make him look like a thug.
As for actions like blinking and tapping your eyebrows, they are either too easy to overlook or involve too much movement, so they are not good choices either.
"A dance crew is better than the gangsters of Causeway Bay..." Klein sighed and resignedly followed Captain Dunn and the others.
The closer he got to the warehouse door, the deeper his anxiety and worry became.
Because nobody knows what kind of changes that notebook will bring to Riel Bieber!
If something serious goes wrong, Klein doesn't dare hope he'll be able to time travel again.
Moreover, in his daily work of cutting meat and cooking, he found that he would still get injured and bleed, and the healing speed of his wounds was within the normal range. He wasn't the kind of Monster who was fearless and unafraid of death.
As they walked, Dunn suddenly pressed his free hand down, stopping everyone about ten meters in front of the warehouse gate.
" Klein, could you Divination see if there's any danger inside? It would be even better if you could roughly determine the level of danger," Dunn said, turning to Klein.
His grey eyes remained deep and unfathomable, revealing not a trace of fear.
Klein nodded almost imperceptibly, stopped bending and stretching, and reached his right hand to his left sleeve to untie the silver chain with a yellow crystal pendant inside.
Because his arm was moving, when he slowed down, Dunn noticed in time and woke him up.
Klein held the silver chain in his left hand, letting the citrine fall naturally, while controlling his right hand to make only small flexions and extensions.
Once the citrine had stabilized, he half-closed his eyes, outlined the sphere of light, entered a Cogitation state, and quietly recited:
"There is danger inside the warehouse."
"There is danger inside the warehouse."
After seven repetitions, he opened his eyes and saw the citrine pendant slowly spinning in a clockwise direction.
It spun faster and faster, until finally it felt like it was pulling on Klein's left hand.
"It's dangerous, very dangerous," Klein said truthfully.
-- Clockwise is an affirmation of the silently recited words, while counterclockwise is a negation.
For other Beyonder, even " Mystery Pryer," the " Spirit Pendulum Method " can at most detect whether there is danger, but cannot obtain further information about the degree of danger.
But Klein discovered that when he used the " Spirit Pendulum Method," the pendant would exhibit gradations of rotational speeds, indicating different degrees of the answer.
While this is not accurate and is quite vague, it still allows one to roughly discern the specific situation.
As expected of the " Seer's " Potion... Klein was quite pleased with this.
Just as he was about to put away the citrine pendant, Leonard Mitchell, who had been silent behind him, suddenly spoke up:
Let's do another Divination to see if there's any danger around.
"Yes, I'm worried that Secret Order won't give up and will keep an eye on Riel Bieber's house, then follow us here and cause trouble at a crucial moment," Dunn nodded in agreement.
Klein immediately took a breath and entered a state of serene tranquility once again.
Once the silver chain was stable again, he silently recited in his heart:
"There is danger nearby."
"There is danger nearby."
After repeating the process over and over again, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the silver chain.
In his deep brown eyes, the citrine pendant first moved counterclockwise with difficulty, then suddenly stopped and began to rotate clockwise.
"There's danger around." Klein's heart tightened, and he spoke cautiously.
Furthermore, some people tried to interfere with the Divination, but in this invisible battle, they lost to themselves!
No sooner had he finished speaking than a fist-sized, orange fireball suddenly flew in from a distance.
It crashed into the center of the crowd at an extremely high speed.
Dunn Smith, who had drawn his long-barreled revolver even before Klein's Divination, immediately raised his hand and pulled the trigger with anticipation.
Bang!
Amid the gunfire, the fireball remained unshaken, continuing along its predetermined trajectory, seemingly forcing everyone to scatter and take cover.
Klein wasn't too concerned about the troublemakers, since there were six extraordinary individuals here, including some who were Sequence 8 or Sequence 7. In a small place like Tingen City, they were a force to be reckoned with.
But when the fireball came hurtling towards him, he suddenly realized a fact.
The truth is, for them, the most dangerous enemy wasn't the stalker, the troublemaker, or even Riel Bieber, whose situation was unknown inside the warehouse, but the Sealed Artifact "2-049"!
Once we are separated and caught in the battle, and there is no time to wake each other up, we will all become real-life Puppet!
As his thoughts raced, Klein was pulled by Leonard, and rolled away with him, avoiding the fireball.
He didn't have time to worry about his clothes; he saw that the Nighthawks were divided into two groups and taking cover in a very orderly manner.
puff!
The orange fireball crashed to the ground without stirring up a speck of dust, as if nothing had happened.
Phantom? The thought had barely crossed Klein's mind when he saw Al Hasson pick up the iron-black box and toss it far to the side, throwing it at least ten meters away.
"Stay away from it! Stay away from it!" Al shouted.
Before he could finish shouting, Leonard and Borgia moved closer, standing at least seven meters away to guard the box and prevent anyone from getting close.
Dunn and Lolota, each armed with a gun, joined Al Hasson, who had drawn a silver rapier, to form a semi-circular formation and swiftly rushed towards the location from which the fireball had been launched, while also covering the flanks.
Seeing this, Klein, who hadn't brought his cane because he needed to do some stretching exercises, breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that he had overlooked an important issue.
That means the impact of "2-049" is limited in scope; as long as you stay a sufficient distance from it, there's no need to worry about danger!
Klein suddenly flipped to his feet, stuffing the citrine pendant into his pocket with one hand and drawing a revolver from his armpit holster with the other.