Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Not just the sheep-headed doll, but all the doll-shaped ‘children’ were visibly tense. Their bodies were taut as they walked step by step to the massive arched door, waiting under the fish-headed monster's scrutinizing gaze to be inspected.

Starting with the first doll, the line moved through the archway at a distance, passing through the blue light barrier one by one.

Behind the arched door was a row of over a dozen small houses steaming with white disinfectant mist. In front of each house stood a queue, and each doll had to spend about ten seconds alone inside before the next one entered.

"Disinfect properly. Don’t bring in any contaminants." The staff, also half-animal and half-mechanical, instructed sternly.

Throughout this process, the fish-headed monster stood behind the archway, its sharp eyes scanning everyone preparing to pass through the blue light.

"No carrying any prohibited items. Toys, snacks, extracurricular books—anything unrelated to learning is not allowed. Hmm? Go, grab it!"

It pointed towards the sheep-headed doll.

As two extremely realistic pig-headed monsters stepped out from the crowd and approached, the audience indirectly felt the suffocating pressure. They frantically left comments, shouting "Bro Hai, hide quickly!" But Ji Xinghai didn't move; he watched the developments outside through a tiny hole, not wanting to miss a second.

The pig-headed monsters approached, and the sheep-headed doll nearly collapsed: "I..."

Its trembling voice couldn’t form words. Unexpectedly, the pig-headed monsters passed it by and dragged out the wooden doll in front of it.

"Open your backpack and empty it. I need to inspect it." The fish-headed monster glared at the wooden doll, which was shaking uncontrollably.

"No, please, I’ll turn it in myself." The wooden doll clutched its backpack and knelt on the ground, trembling and pleading for leniency, but it seemed too late.

The pig-headed monster yanked the backpack, violently tearing it open and spilling out a pile of things. Alongside stationery boxes, books, and file folders, there was a palm-sized mermaid rubber doll.

The mermaid doll, startled by the rough handling, immediately jumped up.

But her movements were limited by her fish tail, and she couldn’t escape the area.

The fish-headed monster glanced at the wooden doll kneeling on the ground without a word. It activated its tracks, bent down, and picked up the struggling rubber mermaid doll, snapping it in front of everyone and tossing it into a nearby basin.

In that basin were three or four other broken dolls.

“!” Not just the live stream viewers who suddenly saw a black screen, but the other students, spectators, and even the dolls themselves were shocked.

Was the first rule no longer protecting them?

‘No, because the rule only restricts the controllers. But these NPCs are not the direct controllers of the toys,’ Ji Xinghai thought.

"I'll say it again: no bringing anything unrelated to learning into the school. Others, be proactive and hand over any prohibited items. Don’t wait for me to find them. As for you..."

The fish-headed monster looked at the wooden doll on the ground as if it were garbage: "Students like you who don’t follow the rules, I think you shouldn’t come back. Notify the parents and see if they want to withdraw you."

The wooden doll trembled violently, its body swelling as it muttered: "I can’t drop out, I can’t drop out. I can’t let them know..."

It trembled more intensely, its originally flat body rapidly inflating like a balloon.

"I’ll die!" the wooden doll trembled.

"Don’t try that trick. I’m not afraid of your threats. If you have the guts, explode! Unfortunately," the fish-headed monster sneered, "you won’t."

The wooden doll froze.

"I said you won’t." The fish-headed monster mocked.

But in the next moment, its body swelled to its limit. The fish-headed monster finally changed its expression, stepping back and waving: "Step back, step back! You..."

But it was too late.

Bong!

The wooden doll exploded, turning into countless red shards that looked like blooming red flowers, adding a splash of color to the gray world.

The shards flew through the air, some landing on the fish-headed monster, some on the ground, and some in the eyes of the stunned sheep-headed doll, almost dyeing its eyes red.

From Ji Xinghai’s perspective, he couldn’t see the sheep-headed doll’s facial expression, but he could see the reactions of the other dolls in the queue.

"Did it commit suicide?"

"Another one... this month..."

For the first time, murmurs appeared in the long queue. The wooden doll’s ‘suicide’ seemed to bring a bit of ‘life’ to these numb dolls.

Panic, sadness, mockery, indifference... various subtle expressions appeared on their faces.

"Silence! Everyone return to your positions! If you make mistakes, don’t think suicide will help you escape. I’ll notify its parents for compensation. Robot, clean this up. Next. Tsk, threatening me?"

The fish-headed monster, having regained its composure, waved dismissively, as if this wasn’t a child’s remains but a pile of useless trash. This terrifying and cold attitude sent chills down everyone’s spine.

The robot quickly cleaned up the red stains on the ground.

"Next!"

The fish-headed monster called out, waking up the sheep-headed doll. It glanced at the fish-headed monster, then quickly lowered its head, walking stiffly toward the arched door.

"Now it’s the sheep-headed doll’s turn. Will Bro Hai be in danger?"

The fate of the unlucky mermaid toy made the audience anxious, but they didn’t see worry or unease on Ji Xinghai’s face. Instead, his beautiful eyes shone brightly.

He seemed to have thought of something.

Though it was only mid-morning, the scenario had already revealed a glimpse of an extreme world.

In that world, they couldn’t see ‘spring,’ the vitality of life, or the ‘hope’ that creates miracles. The children, meant to be the future, were tightly bound by adult values. They weren’t allowed to have toys, anything beyond the prescribed items, or take a single wrong step.

The inspection continued, surprisingly, the sheep-headed doll, which seemed to despise toys, did not choose to open its backpack or stop. The blue light barrier passed over it without triggering any alarms.

It walked forward expressionlessly, keeping up with the previous group.

Only its clenched fists betrayed its true emotions.

The spectators outside couldn't quite understand; the sheep-headed doll had shown brutality towards the students in the morning, but now it chose silence.

This silence was also a form of protection.

"Think about it, it's pitiful. Even an adult would break down in such an environment."

This contrast unexpectedly made the audience feel sympathy for it, almost forgetting that it was still a significant threat to the students.

No one noticed the sheep-headed doll's face, which had turned pale, or the veins bulging on its flesh-colored skin.

Not until it entered the disinfection room and the white mist obscured all sight did the sheep-headed doll begin to tremble uncontrollably.

"Calm down, calm down, I need to stay calm..."

Yet fear is uncontrollable, and its condition worsened.

Suddenly, it yanked open the backpack, reaching in to grab Ji Xinghai, who hadn't hidden himself quickly enough, seemingly trying to strangle him. But Ji Xinghai retaliated with a knife, slicing sharply at its wrist.

Their eyes met: one pair bloodshot with murderous rage, the other cold and emotionless.

The scene froze, neither making any further move.

The crowd in the Black Tower stared intently at the screen, reading a sharp message from the silent image—they both wanted the other dead.

"When I was a college teacher, there was an inexplicable incident at school. A male student suddenly cut off his reproductive organ with a utility knife," said the psychology professor, adjusting her glasses. She spoke in her usual gentle, harmless voice.

Everyone was puzzled, feeling phantom pain while wondering why she brought this up.

"Because it caused such a stir, higher-ups investigated the matter.

"It turned out that this student, overwhelmed by stress, had indulged in sensory stimulation, developing an addiction that led to plummeting grades and eventually being discovered by his family.

"He was a 'well-behaved' child who blamed himself, filled with guilt, yet unable to overcome his addiction, ultimately leading to that decision."

The psychology expert looked at the screen. "The way that boy treated what he removed, believing it to be the source of all evil, is exactly like how this doll treats its toy."

"What? What do you mean?" the others were stunned.

"Hatred, guilt, pain, and deep-seated fear, even self-loathing."

It was afraid because it knew it couldn't escape its dependency, yet it felt guilty, so guilty it wished it could die. These emotions fermented into this twisted hatred.

She silently watched the screen, not continuing: "Other dolls with toys exhibit similar behavior, but this one with Ji Xinghai is the most extreme. It's losing control over this hate."

In other words, it's losing control over its self-destructive tendencies.

"So, the toys make these dolls act like this?" asked the new employee, touching the back of his head, his youthful face showing innocence.

She looked at him with a complex expression and shook her head. "There was a popular saying back then: 'You should be grateful your children can escape through games, otherwise they wouldn't survive.'"

Sometimes the individual seeking therapy is actually the most stable member of the family. In the copy.

"Don't look at me like that!" the sheep-headed doll said to Ji Xinghai, panting heavily, its flesh-colored skin turning red. "Why are you all so mature! Rational! Unmoved!"

Since it was already discovered, Ji Xinghai stopped pretending and sneered, doing nothing—why bother with someone about to die?

Suddenly, the sheep-headed doll waved towards the clown toy, holding a sharp pin, its point glinting as it aimed for Ji Xinghai's eye.

If he blinked, just for a moment...

The sheep-headed doll's smile grew wild, but the pin pierced his pale eyes, and he didn't blink, as if losing the instinctual fear.

The sheep-headed doll froze, its mouth agape, its mind blank.

A palm-sized toy, delicate and fragile, seemed easily breakable, yet instilled a deep-seated fear.

What was this thing?

"A monster!" The sheep-headed doll, triggered, visibly swelled, much like the exploding wooden doll before.

Its panic intensified, accelerating its physical changes. Within seconds, it had swollen to twice its original size, stretching the seams of its fabric to their limits.

The sheep-headed doll was going mad, squeezing the clown toy, wanting to kill it, yet unable to.

'Choosing to preserve the toy in a life-or-death situation, yet the first reaction after losing control is to kill it? Is the toy a drug?' thought Ji Xinghai, whose thick makeup couldn't hide his 'interested' expression.

Hmm, I feel like doing something mischievous.

"Calm down, calm down, I won't be like that guy, I won't commit suicide, I won't..." the sheep-headed doll was still in the throes of its breakdown.

"It's not suicide." The clown-like Ji Xinghai squinted and smiled, seeming to adopt the clown's bizarre and sinister nature. He casually pulled the pin from his eye and tossed it aside—it hadn't harmed him due to the rules' protection.

"It's murder."