Part 1. the clown chapter 72 – tracking
The puppet’s face was painted with reddish-yellow oil paint to look like a common clown, and the two corners of its mouth were turned up high, bringing out an unusually funny smile.
As its mouth widened, revealing a dark, dark mouth, the hairs on Klein’s body stood on end as he stared at it, and an intense, unexplained fear came over him.
What he saw before him dimmed for a moment, as if he were looking at the world through thick, tea-colored glass.
Crane’s thoughts slowed rapidly, and he instinctively tried to call for help, but his neck felt as if it were firmly tied with a rope, and he could not make a sound, and the word could only remain in silence.
It was at this moment that Dunn, who had noticed the sudden lag in the flexing of his arms, gave him a heavy shove.
The teal glass in front of Klein’s eyes shattered instantly, and the word “help” came out of his throat, echoing through the carriage with a slightly sharp note of alarm.
”It’s stronger.” Klein stated in an affirmative tone.
Spending time with a weird seal like “2-049” was a terrible crisis to be in if you were not careful, no, there was no defense against it, and you had to avoid it by other means!
”It’s normal.” El Hassan nodded in a calm tone.
Loretta, for her part, laughed softly:
”It seems to have taken a liking to you? Don’t worry, it’s one of the relatively less dangerous of the level 2 seals.”
In a naturally lethargic voice, the puppet whose joints were so clear that it seemed to be responding to humans one by one stood up and took a wobbly step to its own left.
It moved with a sense of arduousness, like a piece of steam machinery that had rusted with age and forgotten to add lubrication ref.
Robot Dance …… Klein flashed these Chinese words, and had a new guess as to the reason for the danger posed by “2-049”:
It will assimilate the creatures it controls?
If I hadn’t been awakened in time, I would have become a human-sized puppet, a real-life Barbie doll?
While Klein’s thoughts were racing, Al Hassan, nudged awake by Dunn, flexed his arms while pointing in the direction of the puppet’s slow forward motion to Leonard, who was driving:
”That way!”
Leonard could not get the wagon to cross the building, but made a half circle, during which “2-049” kept adjusting its course, and acted with fortitude as the “Finger Antigonus Family Pin.”
Seeing this scene, Klein, who was constantly “moving” his arm, actually wanted to laugh in the midst of the tension:
”I heard that ‘2-049’ was made by the Antigonus Family …… So is this a sign of loyalty or an example of a pit bull?”
Next, in the voice of Al Hassan that rang out every now and then, Leonard drove the carriage through the streets, heading straight in a certain direction.
And every time “2-049”, the creepy puppet, was about to go to the edge of the carriage, it would be grabbed back by Al Hassan and start all over again.
Every time it did, its mouth would open even wider, and two people would be in control at the same time.
The tension in Klein’s heart gradually eased, and he actually felt that the seal “2-049” wasn’t so scary, as long as there were more than three people on the scene, as long as they knew how to maintain the flexion and extension movements, and as long as they mastered the skill of waking up their companions, “2-049” was only a somewhat special puppet. Only a little special puppet.
The carriage flew quickly, soon drove into the dock area, until it came to the place where the warehouses were gathered.
After circling around a few times and confirming that “2-049” wanted to go to the grayish-white warehouse in the innermost part, Al Hassan, with a serious expression and careful movements, grabbed it and stuffed the strange puppet back into the iron black box.
Thud thud thud!
In an uninterrupted pounding sound, Al Hassan awakened again and again with the help of Borgia and Lolota, painstakingly snapped on the mechanical switch, and then poured in his spirituality to actuate the symbols of the star and the red moon on the iron box.
The invisible seal reappeared, and El Hassan let out a long breath.
”Get off.” Dunn Smith’s low, mellow voice followed, “Leonard, you can just tie the horses here.”
Six gentlemen and ladies in either trench coats, formal dresses, or petticoats left the carriage and marched toward the innermost barn, flexing their arms in near-uniformity as they went.
It added a bit of silliness and absurdity to the slightly frozen tension.
The Night Watchers Awkward Dance Crew …… Klein could only ease the feeling by spitting.
But not doing so was not an option, because from what he had observed, the effects of “2-049” reacted first in the upper body, and the only options to catch it in time and avoid slipping into a more dangerous situation were flexing his arms, turning his neck, and shaking his body, the latter two of which would make a person look like a punk.
As for actions such as winking and tapping one’s eyebrow, they are either too easy to ignore or too large of a movement, again not great options.
Awkward dance troupes are better than Causeway Bay kooks …… Klein sighed and resigned himself to following Captain Dunn and the others forward.
And the closer he got to the warehouse door, the deeper the apprehension and worry in his heart became.
Because who knew what kind of changes that notebook would bring to Riel Bieber!
If something went terribly wrong, Klein wouldn’t dare to hope that he would be able to cross over again.
And in his usual cutting and cooking, he realized that he still got hurt and bled, and his wounds healed at a normal rate, not the kind of monster that wasn’t afraid to die or fight.
As he walked, Dunn suddenly pressed his free hand downward, stopping the group about ten meters in front of the warehouse door.
”Clyne, divine if there is any danger inside, it would be better if you can roughly figure out the extent of the danger.” Dunn turned his head to Klein.
His gray eyes were still dark, and he couldn’t see any hint of fear.
Klein nodded his head imperceptibly and stopped his flexing motion, bringing his right hand up to his left cuff and undoing the silver chain with the citrine pendant inside.
Because his own arm was in motion, he was caught by Dunn in time to nudge him awake when there was a lag in the middle.
Klein held the silver chain in his left hand, letting the citrine fall naturally, while controlling his right hand with only small flexions and extensions.
When the citrine was steady, he half-closed his eyes, outlined the orb of light, and entered a meditative state, serenely murmuring:
”There is danger inside the warehouse.”
”There is danger inside the warehouse.”
……
After seven times, he opened his eyes and saw the citrine pendant slowly spinning in a clockwise motion.
The more it spun, the sharper it became, and in the end it actually felt like it was pulling on Klein’s left hand.
”There’s danger, a lot of danger.” Klein said truthfully.
– Clockwise was an affirmation of the silent words, counterclockwise was a denial.
For other extraordinary people, even “secret peepers”, using the “Spirit Pendulum Method” could at most measure whether there was any danger or not, but could not obtain further information on the degree of danger.
However, Klein realized that when he used the “Spiritual Pendulum Method”, the pendant would appear to rotate at different speeds, which indicated the different degrees of the answer.
Although this is not accurate, very vague, but also allows people to roughly distinguish the specific situation.
As expected of the “soothsayer” magic potion …… Klein was quite pleased with this.
Just as he was about to put away the citrine pendant, Leonard Mitchell, who had remained silent at the back, suddenly spoke:
”Divine again if there is any danger around.”
”Right, I’m worried that the Mishu will refuse to give up and keep an eye on Rielle Bieber’s house, then follow us over and mess up at the critical moment.” Dunn nodded in agreement.
Kraven immediately took a breath and once again entered a state of ethereal calm.
When the silver chain was smooth again, he murmured in his mind:
”There is danger around.”
……
”There is danger around.”
……
After repeating it over and over again, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the silver chain.
In his dark brown eyes, the citrine pendant moved with difficulty first counterclockwise, then suddenly paused and turned clockwise.
”There’s danger all around.” Klein’s heart tightened and he spoke cautiously.
And there was someone else who tried to interfere with the divination, but lost to himself in the invisible confrontation in this area!
As soon as his words fell, a fist-sized orange fireball suddenly flew from the distance.
It smashed into the center of the crowd with great speed.
Dunn Smith, who had drawn his long-barreled revolver long before Klein’s divination, immediately raised his hand and pulled the trigger with an advance.
Bang!
In the midst of the gunshot, that fireball didn’t waver in the slightest and continued to move forward according to its intended trajectory, seemingly forcing the crowd to scatter for cover.
Originally, Klein didn’t care too much about tracking the troublemakers, because there were six extraordinary people here, and there was even no lack of Sequence 8 and Sequence 7 powerhouses, which belonged to a configuration that could walk horizontally in such a small place like Tingen City.
But when the fireball smashed in, he snapped out of it and realized a fact.
That fact is, for himself and others, the most dangerous enemy is not a stalker, not a troublemaker, not even in the warehouse in the unknown situation of Ruier Bieber, but the seal “2-049”!
Once he and the others are scattered, caught in the battle, too late to wake up each other, then one by one will become a real puppet!
While his thoughts were flashing, Klein was pulled by Leonard, and followed the other party to roll outward, avoiding the fireball.
Too late to feel sorry for the clothes on his back, he saw that the night watchmen were dodging in two groups, rather methodically.
Poof!
The orange fireball smashed into the ground without stirring up any dust, as if nothing had happened.
Phantom? Klein had just floated this thought when he saw El Hassan lift the iron-black box and throw it far to the side, at least ten meters away.
”Stay away from it! Guard it!” Al shouted.
Before he could finish shouting, Leonard and Borgia each leaned over and guarded the chest at least seven meters apart, preventing others from approaching.
And Dunn and Lolota, each armed with a gun, formed a half-arc formation along with Al Hassan, who drew his silver thin sword, and darted towards the location where the fireball was shot from, taking into account the side areas.
Seeing this scene, Klein, who didn’t have his cane with him because he had to do flexion and extension exercises, was instantly relieved and realized that he had just overlooked an important issue.
That is, “2-049” has a limited range of influence, as long as it is separated from it by a sufficient distance, there is no need to worry about the danger!
Klein rolled over and stood up, stuffed the citrine pendant into his pocket with one hand, and pulled out the revolver from the gun pouch under his armpit with the other.