The puppet's face was painted with red and yellow greasepaint into a common clown's face, its mouth corners turned up high, giving it an exceptionally comical smile.
As its mouth split open, revealing its dark and deep oral cavity, Klein, who was staring at it, felt his hairs stand on end and an inexplicable strong fear suddenly surge in his heart.
Everything before his eyes dimmed, as if he were observing the world through a thick, amber glass.
Klein's thoughts rapidly slowed. He instinctively wanted to call for help, but his neck felt as if it were tightly bound by a rope, unable to make a sound, and that word could only stay as a silent chant.
Just at that moment, Dunn, who noticed his arm bending movement suddenly become sluggish, gave him a hard push.
The amber glass in front of Klein shattered, and the word "help" burst from his throat, echoing inside the carriage with a slightly sharp panic.
"It's stronger," Klein stated in a definitive tone.
Staying together with such a bizarre Sealed Artifact like "2-049" really meant that a moment's carelessness could lead to a terrible crisis. No, it was impossible to guard against at all; you could only avoid it by other means!
"That's normal," El Hassen said with a steady nod.
Lolota then laughed lightly: "It seems to have taken a liking to you? Don't worry, it's one of the less dangerous Level 2 Sealed Artifacts."
In her naturally lazy voice, the puppet, whose joints were so clearly defined that they seemed to correspond to a human's, stood up and took a swaying step to its left.
Its movements were full of awkwardness, like a steam machine that had rusted over the years and forgotten to be lubricated.
Robot dance… The Chinese words flashed through Klein's mind, and he formed a new guess about the cause of "2-049"'s danger: Does it assimilate the beings it controls? If I hadn't been woken in time, would I have become a large puppet the size of a person, a life-sized Barbie doll?
As Klein's thoughts raced, El Hassen was woken by Dunn. Moving his arms to bend and stretch, he pointed in the direction the puppet was slowly moving and said to Leonard, who was driving: "Over there!"
Leonard couldn't drive the carriage through buildings, so he had to make a detour. During the process, "2-049" continually adjusted its direction, tenaciously acting as a "pointer to the Antigonus family."
Seeing this, Klein, constantly "exercising" his arm, felt a urge to laugh amidst his tension: "I heard '2-049' was created by the Antigonus family… So is this a manifestation of loyalty or a textbook example of sabotage?"
Next, with El Hassen's voice sounding from time to time, Leonard drove the carriage through the streets, heading straight for a certain direction.
And each time the bizarre puppet "2-049" almost reached the edge of the carriage, El Hassen would grab it and start over.
Whenever this happened, its mouth would open even wider, and two people would be simultaneously controlled.
Klein's tension gradually eased, and he even felt that the Sealed Artifact "2-049" wasn't so scary, as long as there were more than three people present, as long as you knew to keep bending and stretching, and as long as you mastered the technique of waking companions in time. "2-049" was just a slightly unusual puppet.
The carriage sped swiftly, soon entering the dock area and arriving at a place where warehouses gathered.
After circling a few times and confirming that "2-049" wanted to go to the innermost gray-white warehouse, El Hassen's expression turned serious. He carefully grabbed the puppet and stuffed it back into the iron-black box.
Thump thump thump! Amidst the incessant violent knocking, El Hassen, with the help of Borgia and Lolota, kept waking up, struggling to fasten the mechanical lock, then infused spirituality and activated the star and red moon symbols on the iron box.
The invisible seal reappeared, and El Hassen let out a long breath.
"Get off," Dunn Smith's low, mellow voice rang out. "Leonard, you can tie the horses here."
Six gentlemen and ladies, some in trench coats, some in suits, some in shirts, left the carriage and headed towards the innermost warehouse. As they walked, they bent and stretched their arms in near unison.
This added a bit of comedy and absurdity to the slightly solidified tense atmosphere.
Nighthawk Awkward Dance Troupe… Klein could only alleviate this feeling by grumbling in his thoughts.
But he had to do it, because from his observations, the effect of "2-049" first affected the upper body. To detect it in time and avoid slipping into a more dangerous state, he only had options like bending and stretching his arms, turning his neck, and shaking his body. The latter two would make him look like a thug.
As for blinking, tapping his forehead, and other actions, they were either too easily overlooked or had too large a range of motion, so they weren't good choices either.
The Awkward Dance Troupe was still better than a Causeway Bay gangster… Klein sighed and resignedly followed Captain Dunn and the others.
The closer they got to the warehouse door, the greater his anxiety and worry grew.
Because no one knew what changes that notebook would bring to Riel Bieber!
If a serious problem occurred, Klein didn't dare to hope for another transmigration.
Moreover, in his daily cutting of meat and cooking, he found that he could still get injured, bleed, and his wound healing speed was normal. He wasn't a monster that feared neither death nor pain.
As they walked, Dunn suddenly pressed his free hand down, making the group stop a dozen meters before the warehouse entrance.
"Klein, do a divination to see if there's danger inside. It would be better if you could roughly determine the degree of danger," Dunn turned to Klein and said.
His gray eyes remained deep, showing no trace of fear.
Klein nodded imperceptibly, stopped bending and stretching, and reached his right hand into his left sleeve, untying the silver chain with the yellow crystal pendant.
Because his arm was moving, when he became sluggish in the middle, Dunn noticed in time and pushed him awake.