Translator: BambooTriangle
Translation Checker: 7qqy
Editor: yuki_shuichi
On a cloudy day, darkness arrived early, and the street lamps in the narrow street hadn’t been turned on yet; only the star lamps hanging from various shops illuminated people’s way. In the evening, many shops closed early, and the security of this street was very poor, theft and robbery occurred from time to time.
A woman with a graceful figure walked slowly down the dark street. The peacock green satin cheongsam wrapped her exquisite figure. She held a handbag in one hand and a delicate feather fan in the other. Her curly hair was rolling into locks, and the small satin hat on her head had a black veil hanging down, covering her slightly looming, sickly pale face.
The high-heeled shoes stepped lightly on the ground, and the entire narrow street reverberated with this bewitching sound.
Odd Bones saw a few swaying figures appearing in the darkness in the distance. A few hooligans were sitting on stacked, discarded cargo boxes, whistling meaningfully at Odd Bones. Someone even unzipped their pants in the dark and stared at her with bad inventions, solving his needs wretchedly with his hands.
They deliberately released alpha courtship pheromones for harassment. They had no qualms, and beautiful women were a rare commodity here.
Odd Bones snorted softly and walked past them when a drop of cloudy, white, viscous liquid splashed onto the hem of Odd Bones’s cheongsam. The hooligans said a few obscene words and then burst into laughter.
Odd Bones lifted the small white velvet fan to cover her mouth and nose and glanced at them with a frown.
The obscene laughter stopped abruptly.
The man with the unzipped pants was horrified to find that the thing between his crotch had disappeared. He was trembling and screaming in disbelief. People were attracted by his screams, but they realized that their own flesh and blood were also rapidly disintegrating, all the way to the bone.
In an instant, there were only a few skeletons and fallen bones with different postures left on the cargo box. The breeze blew, and the bones that turned into snow and sand, drifted away soundlessly.
Odd Bones walked into the doll shop at the end of the narrow street, and the glazed macaw on the hanging wood in front of the door let out a distant cry.
Puppet Master was sitting at the workbench, wearing black half-palm gloves, applying makeup to a doll’s head. The falling toner fell on his dark brown leather apron with buckles, and the realistic red and blue veins on the doll’s face made it seem alive.
Hearing Odd Bones enter the door, Puppet Master didn’t look up, and the work in hand didn’t stop. He just responded lightly, “You’re back.”
Odd Bones took out an old copper key from her handbag and a bunch of fake passports and ID cards, threw them on Puppet Master’s workbench, and said with some dissatisfaction, “Knicks, I thought you asked me to go to Canada because you had something serious to do.”
Puppet Master laughed. “How is it not serious?”
“You have the money to buy an entire castle, and the forged documents are impeccable. Why do you have to hide your financial ability?”
“After staying in the Red-Throated Bird for so many years, I always want to get some benefits, I can’t work for nothing. I didn’t hide it, didn’t I give you all the keys?”
Odd Bones coughed a few times and said, “You didn’t want to leave until you sucked up that terrorist organization, Red-Throated Bird, from the inside out.”
“These are not important anymore.” Puppet Master asked, “How is it? Is it okay there?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Nfgs kfii, atja mjraif lr cbk ilxf j xlcuvbw bo fzqfglwfcaji reypfmar. Tbeg qeqqfa rfgnjcar tjnf ajxfc ubbv mjgf bo atbrf ilaaif bcfr ktb jgf ralii cegrlcu, jcv rbwf wjaegf reypfmar tjnf mbwylcfv klat fjmt batfg ab ulnf ylgat ab boorqglcu… Vemt j tfjvjmtf.”
Ueqqfa Zjrafg rwlifv. “Nfgs ubbv.”
“I’m tired.” Odd Bones sat down on the sofa wearily. “I thought it was just a whim when you asked us to go to the IOA to snatch the experimental subjects…cough cough…you told me that I can meet many companions in Canada…does it refer to those larvae and nurturing imps? What is the use of collecting them? These experimental subjects are not high-level, and without the supply of nutrients, they cannot grow into powerful mature subjects.”
“P ilxf la. Po sbe tjnf wbcfs, sbe mjc jirb vb ktjafnfg sbe kjca.”
“What do you like about them?”
“Simple and grateful.” Puppet Master put the doll’s head in the box to dry and rested on the back of the chair. “Creatures like you have a long lifespan, strong physical strength, low EQ and high IQ, simple thinking, and are not easy to get sick and die. There’s almost no infighting, so wouldn’t it be good for us to make such creatures the main body of life on land?”
Odd Bones was momentarily speechless to refute.
There seemed to be nothing wrong.
“You rescued me from the Berna Pharmaceutical Factory, was that your selfish intention?” Odd Bones asked.
“Well, Sarcosuchus told me that you two met in the training base, so I rescued you while I was at it. But I didn’t expect to meet Divine Envoy and Electro-optic Phantom that day. What was originally a simple matter became very troublesome.”
“That’s it? You are too confident. Not all experimental subjects are what you like.”
“I gave you such a boring task, and you finished it. Now you are sitting here, not leaving, and not doing anything with me. Isn’t that enough for me to like you?”
“You…”
“I’m back!” The back door of the doll shop was kicked open, and Eris came back with a shotgun, sitting down on Puppet Master’s workbench, knocking the matting paint bottles all over the place. “Oh, Miss Peacock, you’re here too.”
Puppet Master had no choice but to put away the things on the table.
Holding the big hourglass, Specter Hourglass walked in behind Eris, step by step and closed the door.
“Knicks… I…got…the itinerary of the president of the IOA… He… is going…” Specter Hourglass was still in the cultivation stage, stuttering while talking in a clumsy manner. Eris was impatient, so he simply said it for him, “Yan Yi is going to Westminster for a meeting next week, and this time I’m sure he’ll have to discuss the suspension of experimental subjects from the Institute. He’s flying in a private plane, should we blow it up?”
Specter Hourglass was robbed of the conversation, and the curly hair on his head was messed up by Eris. He hugged the glass hourglass and stopped talking, a little aggrieved.
Puppet Master took a piece of candy from the drawer and gave it to Specter Hourglass. “I know you’re the one who investigated it.”
“En.” Specter Hourglass took the candy, stuffed it into his mouth contentedly, and said vaguely, “Knicks, I… have been promoted to… M2-grade… I have new abilities…”
“Oh? What is it?” During the cultivation stage, very few experiments could have their physical fitness raised to M2.
“It’s… attribute exchange…”
Specter Hourglass’ M2 differentiation ability, Attribute Exchange, could make flame flow, water burn, wind extinguish fire, and turn non-toxic substances to highly poisonous substances.
“That’s great.” Puppet Master took out another candy and gave it to him. Specter Hourglass obediently took it, held it in both hands, and ate it cherishingly.
“Pretending to be pitiful and obedient.” Eris, a little annoyed at the silly expression of Specter Hourglass, reached out and grabbed all the candy from Puppet Master’s drawer and stuffed it into his pocket.
Puppet Master looked at Eris. “How about the matter I asked you to investigate?”
“I kept watch of the research institute as you said. It’s the IOA’s fault for making a mess of things. I even passed the news to the research institute that they sneaked into the Greyhound family, but they still let them succeed in blowing up the pharmaceutical factory and destroying the monocrylene. In order to save money, the research institute wants to destroy a large number of experimental subjects. The number is very large, at least 30,000.”
Puppet Master gradually frowned. “Time and place?”
“It should be in Red Fox City, just this month.” Eris hated Red Fox City very much, it was where the nightmare started.
The computer on the coffee table suddenly lit up, indicating that a new email had been received.
On the email was a scanned copy of an anonymous report letter, which stated succinctly, “The 109 Research Institute will destroy a batch of experimental subjects on the 18th of this month at Warwick Pharmaceutical Factory in Red Fox City.”
The signature of the email was “Launching love biubiubiu“, and the IP was hidden.
Puppet Master knew at a glance that this was a message sent intentionally by the IOA. They received an anonymous report letter, but they didn’t want to use manpower to take the risk of proving the truth, so they simply passed the news to them. As long as there was no threat to human safety, the IOA would basically not act rashly.
It seemed that the IOA was still brooding over the last time they snatched the experimental subjects, and at the same time, they had also discovered their unusual obsession with the experimental subjects. This idea was most likely thought up by Bai Chunian. He was known for holding grudges, so much so that he would not easily let go of the opportunity to punish them.
Puppet Master was also hesitant. The experimental subjects destroyed in a centralized manner would not be too strong, so the strength and number of the watchmen should not be too outrageous. However, if this was a trap, they didn’t have many people, so the trouble might not be worth the loss.
But the number 30,000 made Puppet Master very excited. After all, the current warden of the International Prison was with the IOA. The proposal put forward by Yan Yi at the international conference was very likely to be passed. Once the proposal passed, the research institute would have to stop producing experimental subjects within a year. It wouldn’t be easy to obtain any experimental subjects in the future.
Eris couldn’t think of so many long-term things, so he slapped the shotgun barrel and loaded a bullet. “Wait and see, isn’t it just a group of experimental subject cubs, I’ll get them back for you.”
“Tch.” Odd Bones lazily leaned on the sofa, fanned herself with a small fan, and had nothing to say.
Puppet Master shook his head. “I’ll think about it. Go back and rest first.”
Odd Bones stood up and walked out the back door in high heels with her handbag in her hand.
“Go, go, you go too.” Eris lifted the stupid Specter Hourglass from the bench and pushed him out the door. Specter Hourglass squeezed a hand through the crack of the door. “My…hourglass…”
“Hurry and leave, you’re a real hindrance.” Eris picked up the hourglass and threw it out, knocking the petite Specter Hourglass several steps back.
Puppet Master closed the computer, picked up the doll’s head that hadn’t finished makeup, and continued to paint. There was no headlight in the room, only the three-pronged candlestick on the coffee table was burning slightly, and the off-white desk lamp only illuminated a small area of the workbench. Puppet Master worked with his head down, and the light reflected on his profile.
Eris was sitting on the bench next to the workbench, poking his gun into the ground, lying on his stomach as he watched Puppet Master put makeup on the doll, the lights flickering in his eyes as he blinked.
“Why don’t you go?” Puppet Master asked.
“I’m not sleepy, I don’t want to sleep,” Eris said on his stomach.
“If you really decide to go this time, it may be very dangerous. You may have to leave here after the operation is over. Do you want to go?”
Eris scratched his hair. “I don’t know. If you tell me to go then I’ll go. You can’t do it without me either, I’m your envoy.” He smiled a little smugly, showing a row of neat white pointed teeth.
Puppet Master shook his head. “Forget it, I shouldn’t be asking you. If you have nothing to do, go and help me throw out the trash. The sack in the corner is filled with things I don’t want anymore.”
“Oh.” Eris readily agreed, jumped up from the stool, and went to the corner to lift the dusty sack, which was filled with the limbs of some dolls that had not been polished or painted.
“Don’t want these anymore?” Eris picked out a forearm from the inside. “Isn’t this pretty good?”
“The firing is broken. Some have cracks, some are broken, and some have the wrong color. Some have been left for a long time and became moldy because of wet weather.”
“Hmh…” Eris picked up the sack and went out through the backdoor to find the trash and throw it away.
Puppet Master continued to put makeup on the doll’s head. Doing this kind of work allowed him to completely calm himself down and helped him to think about things.
After a while, Eris opened the door again, came back, and sat back on the stool. This time, he pulled the stool much closer and sat next to Puppet Master.
Puppet Master thought he was in the way, so he raised his head and glanced at him, then froze for a moment.
Eris’ pale green eyes looked at him mournfully, and the corners of his lips drooped into downward brackets, but he was a doll at heart, without the delicate tear ducts to cry human tears.
Puppet Master laughed out loud. “What?”
“I don’t want to be thrown away in a sack by you,” Eris said.
“Why would I throw you away?”
“I don’t know. I feel like you’re going to throw me away when I’m old and moldy.”
“I’ve oiled your body so it won’t get moldy.”
“Ah.” Eris felt much better.
Puppet Master put makeup on the doll in silence until late at night. It was pitch black outside the doll shop. Eris sat on the ground, leaning against his legs, sleeping soundly with his head on his lap.
[Staff Corner]
Bamboo: BABY HOURGLASS IS AS CUTE AS EVER. Ur doing great baby. Some tender moments….
7qqy: I finally understand why Hourglass is Bamboo’s fav XD
Thank You for the new chapter ♡⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )