Chapter 2676: Welcome to the Suitcase Man’s Joyful Circus City

The mention of Battle Dolls made everyone’s face turn grim, Xu Huo raised his voice and asked, "Are you following the Battle Doll?"

The middle-aged man who spoke earlier took out a miniature device and looked at it, then slapped his forehead, "We overshot it, that doll is still behind us..."

Just as he finished speaking, a Battle Doll suddenly appeared less than five hundred meters away from them. The middle-aged man immediately turned and pursued it, but the doll did not run away; instead, it moved closer toward them.

Xu Huo felt something was wrong and reminded the Girl in the painting and Dai He beside him, quickly retreating with Qi Cong. However, before they could move far, a faint white light appeared from Yongta’s direction, and with a strong spatial power fluctuation, they suddenly found themselves in an extraordinarily bustling city.

Balloons painted with various cartoon characters floated past, and the rich fragrance of food and flowers continuously filled their noses. As the balloons rose, a vibrant street came into view.

Wide stone steps meandered upwards, with shops of varying sizes on either side. Although the architectural styles were not homogeneous, each shop was mixed with a rich palette of colors, from the rooftops to the decorations, down to the tables and counters, with both exterior and interior adorned in vivid, intense colors.

To match this bright and cheerful atmosphere, the store’s music was chiefly light and pleasant, with various tunes rising and falling. Coupled with laughter and conversations constantly echoing on the streets, every inch of air here was permeated with a unique sense of enjoyment...

In fact, it wasn’t just this street; every street radiating from where Xu Huo and the others stood had the same amusement park vibe. In addition to pedestrians wearing different masks and cartoon costumes, some streets even had special parade teams, where adults and children danced and rejoiced together, as if happiness was the only thing left in the world.

But Xu Huo and the others, as well as the people from Yongta Country, all chose to stand still.

Being suddenly teleported from the forest to this place was already bewildering enough, and this seemingly lively place exuded a sense of incongruity everywhere, prompting them to stop instinctively.

Qi Cong’s forehead was sweating, and he discreetly nudged Xu Huo’s arm. It was a small gesture, but it immediately made a person in a puppet costume nearby turn their head—since they entered, it was as if they were invisible to those on the street, who seemed unaware of their presence. However, once one person turned, nearby puppet people began turning to stare at them one after another, transforming from smooth movements to stiff, mechanical actions, spreading layer by layer in an eerily bizarre way!

It’s not just those pedestrians and shop attendants who ignored them; even though the street was filled with the scent of food, much of the food in the shops was plastic fake goods. Sellers treated them as real food, and buyers did too, munching and swallowing them like delicious delicacies, oblivious to anything being amiss. The laughter mixed with the strange crunching sounds made it impossible to distinguish whether those eating were real people.

However, now wasn’t the time to delve into these details, as all the "people" on the street were now focused on them, occasionally emitting gulping sounds. Their once calm, serene eyes suddenly became filled with desire, inspecting them from head to toe!

When tasting delicious food, one often chooses their favorite first, and the gaze naturally and swiftly moves from the food during the process... just like these people in puppet costumes now!

"Run!" Xu Huo grabbed Qi Cong and dashed out into the street before the puppet people could react, kicking away approaching shop attendants. He smashed through the shop’s back door, crossing to the opposite street, but his movements were noisy, abruptly halting the joyful atmosphere of the street as those puppet people turned to focus on them one after another like they were driven by spasms.

"Are they real people or fake? Surely they aren’t actually going to eat us?" Qi Cong saw a puppet person open its mouth wide to bite him, terrifying him so much that his voice changed pitch: "Run, quickly! They really are going to eat us!"

The game’s personal panel couldn’t be summoned, indicating they most likely entered the instance trapping Yan Jiayu, but the lack of instance prompts counted as good news.

Xu Huo activated the "Soaked Kelp," a massive colorful defensive shield swirling around him gracefully, keeping the puppet people trying to charge him at bay.

The puppet people’s attack methods were rudimentary, relying mainly on their limbs and available weapons. Some held props, but since they had no effect, they were no different from ordinary objects—puppet people clung to the "Soaked Kelp," attempting to pull it to the ground. Others jumped through gaps when props were caught, repeatedly attacking them.

After a few attempts, discovering these people felt no pain, Xu Huo opted to use the Black Blade to cut down two, finding that the puppet people, rather than being human inside as he expected, were empty.

The empty puppet costumes soon deflated on the ground, differing from previous Battle Dolls, as their main construction was purely fabric.

But undoubtedly, these puppet people, or rather puppet costumes, were props.

Seeing the street’s crowd surging at them again, Xu Huo took Qi Cong and leapt to the next street. Passing shops, he found many decorative drapes in the warehouse, kicked a working puppet out, grabbed a drape to cover Qi Cong, randomly cutting two holes as eye slots, then pushed him onto the street.

Qi Cong staggered, nearly bumping into two puppet people of different sizes passing by, and after barely steadying himself, he looked down to meet their gaze.

The two puppet people neither attacked nor ignored him; they instead nodded at him like ordinary people, then went on their way.

Other puppet people nearby behaved the same, as if Qi Cong was one of them, naturally existing on this street.

Qi Cong, both relieved and frightened, sneaked back to meet Xu Huo who was also dressed in drapes, cautiously using the communicator to ask, "Will we become people here by wearing these clothes?"

By common logic, this space couldn’t connect with the game, and even container props would be ineffective, but these freely moving people seemed unaffected.

Wearing a metal suit, Xu Huo temporarily felt no discomfort, so he lowered his voice, "Let’s keep wearing them, we’ll discuss after finding others."

"So we can speak," Qi Cong stowed away the communicator, accidentally catching a decorative rabbit at a shop entrance while following Xu Huo. The fluffy rabbit hopped twice, then spoke human words:

"Welcome to the Suitcase Man’s Joyful Circus City!"