Chapter 2691: Gang Crime

Climbing the Puppet Wall during the day would get discovered by the surrounding puppets and become targets for attack, so they could only wait until night. During the carnival performances, many puppets would be attracted and there’d be a vacancy near the Puppet Wall. However, such situations didn’t occur daily and mostly led to a decrease in the number of puppets and puppets people, though sudden appearances of live props weren’t ruled out. Overall, the situation was much better compared to the day.

Puppets and puppet people didn’t possess the outstanding attack capabilities of live props, but their large numbers and outstanding physiques made handling them far more troublesome than dealing with a single live prop.

To prepare for the nighttime, Xu Huo and the others needed to find tools originally from Circus City to use as shields, like suitable movable equipment, small toys for optical illusions, and the best of all, magic props.

"Circus City has more than one or two magic-performing live props; they’re less active during daytime and mostly resting. Earlier, I found a place where a magic clown keeps props, now I’ll take you to steal them," Yan Jiayu led the way and pointed out some tools she had long set her sights on.

"Floating Fireworks and Ghost Face Smoke are a must-steal tools; when the fireworks flash, nobody will be able to see anything. The Ghost Face Smoke can last for five minutes and even fool some live props - very fun!"

"Don’t get so excited," Jiji Bird reminded, "We’re preparing to escape, not join the celebration."

"Understood!" Yan Jiayu replied cheerfully.

Soon they reached the place, a haunted house that from the outside appeared to have only two doors and three rooms, even smaller than a public toilet. Its exterior looked plain with just a "Haunted House" sign on the front door.

"It becomes much larger at night," Yan Jiayu bounced to the back door, "We will enter from here. Be careful not to touch the wall hangings; anything hanging on the walls will trigger an alarm when touched. Not sure if the magic clown would appear during the day, but it’s better to be cautious."

She was accustomed to moving around in a bulky kangaroo suit, so even when walking through a narrow passage, she didn’t touch any items on the walls.

The haunted house was small; its furnishings seemed very cramped, with many items stacked together, looking more like a storage room.

There wasn’t much room to maneuver, so only Xu Huo and the Girl in the painting entered with her.

Once the three entered, the haunted house door automatically closed, Zhu Bo and others picked two decorations to prop the door open, but the smoothly closing door sliced the decorations neatly in half, halting any further attempts to wedge them.

With the door closed, the haunted house fell into darkness, obstructing their view; they could only rely on sensing surrounding objects.

Yan Jiayu squatted in front of a pile of tools, searching while speaking: "Take anything useful first, talk about it after we leave..."

She hadn’t finished talking when she noticed someone approaching from behind, instinctively dodging to the side as a wide blade flew past her shoulder, crashing into the pile of junk in front.

In her dodging posture, she rolled to the side, but heard several swishing sounds as multiple wide blades came at her, further narrowing the already tight passage.

Fortunately, she was agile enough to evade them safely, immediately crawling on the ground, and nimbly rushed into the adjoining room.

Once inside the door, she didn’t move, waited for two seconds to confirm the blades didn’t follow, then stood up, but before she planned to start searching, someone moved ahead.

Judging from the figure and footsteps, it seemed to be Xu Huo. As she prepared to advance, a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder.

Yan Jiayu reacted quickly, ducking and kicking backwards, then used the momentum to spring forward, drilling ahead like a bullet... but she didn’t get far before being netted back.

Xu Huo had just taken her kick, used a Materialized Item to pull her to a corner, and casually tossed a glow stick out.

The glow stick hit the ground and lit up, instantly illuminating both sides of the passage and allowed them to clearly see the shadow momentarily flashing and disappearing when the light came on.

"What was that?" Yan Jiayu finally looked back at the person beside her: "So strange, I clearly felt you were ahead, no one was behind me."

"Perhaps it’s a magic illusion," Xu Huo untied the Materialized Item from her body, "What just flew away was merely a piece of clothing."

A peculiarity in his perception showed the state of that piece of clothing resembling the Girl in the painting.

"Where’s Li Chun?" Yan Jiayu asked.

"Disappeared once we entered," Xu Huo replied.

Originally, they entered one after another and should’ve been close together, but amidst the haunted house’s attack and while dodging, they entered different rooms and got separated in that brief moment of distraction.

Thankfully, the dungeon venue hadn’t opened, and the haunted house space hadn’t expanded, making it easy to regroup; they just didn’t expect props mixed in.

"Click-clack." The glow stick’s light hadn’t faded, footsteps echoed at the corner of the passage along with a rising glow approaching.

Behind the curtain, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu weren’t sure what was coming, but the next moment, a few more glow sticks flew over, lighting up the entire passage.

Yan Jiayu, wearing a raccoon suit and holding a lantern, stepped across the threshold, immediately seeing Xu Huo and the others, delightfully waving at them.

"It seems with light, the props in the haunted house don’t act erratically," Yan Jiayu remarked.

"Where did you get that lamp?" Xu Huo asked, looking at the old-fashioned handheld lamp in the Girl in the painting’s hands.

"Picked it up from the haunted house," the Girl in the painting replied: "Kicked it a few times and it rolled back, picked it up and it lit up."

"Did you see anything else?" Yan Jiayu curiously asked.

"No, nothing." The Girl in the painting held her own judgment about the value of tools and instruments, and wasn’t impressed by anything here. Initially, she planned to just grab a bag and fill it with random items when she heard a rolling sound nearby. She went over to find a lamp rolling.

She casually kicked the lamp away, but two seconds later, the lamp rolled back. Annoyed, she gave it another kick, and the lamp rolled back again.

After kicking it three times, she picked up the lamp.

Once the lamp was lit, those bizarre noises in the haunted house ceased completely. Holding the lamp in one hand and dragging a bag in the other, she collected everything except the items hanging on the walls; she just took all the tools and instruments piled on the ground.

"What a haul!"

Yan Jiayu rummaged through the bag, "The fireworks and Ghost Face Smoke are here. Let’s take them outside and see."

She cheerfully tugged at the other side of the bag, dragging the items out together with the Girl in the painting, asking as they left: "Are there any friends of yours here, giving you so many things for free?"