Doll Survival Game

One minute later.

The doll maneuvered the magician to land lightly on the tall tree where Duan Miaomiao was leaning. He barely made a sound, but Miaomiao instantly looked up, her usually relaxed round eyes turning serious for a moment.

Upon recognizing him, she relaxed again. “Did you really finish in one minute?”

The doll looked disdainfully at the blood-stained silver thread. He stretched it out and placed it between the branches, pulling it sharply to leave the blood on the tree.

“To be precise, it took forty-two seconds. That guy’s chain pulled me away a bit, so it took some time to get back.”

“Impressive.” Duan Miaomiao curled up and gave him a thumbs up.

“You’re impressive too.” The doll had the magician sit on a branch, the surrounding leaves concealing them well. He looked at Miaomiao. “Xia Lang said you guys kept running when you encountered Lei Jing. I thought you were weak.”

But she had detected even the slightest noise just now, clearly not weak at all.

Miaomiao scratched her head awkwardly. “I couldn’t do much then… In that instance, I was heavily restricted.”

“Want to go fight now?” The doll swung his legs.

“No way!” Miaomiao was firm, clutching the cross around her neck. “I’m a pacifist!”

The doll had just casually suggested it. After speaking, he looked around. Though he could only see branches and leaves, he knew there were quite a few players nearby.

It seemed like some ability or item had let other players discover their location, and those players had called others to join the ambush. So now, there were indeed many people around.

This is a bit troublesome. If they keep fighting non-stop, Lin Ye and the others, with their human bodies, won’t hold up, especially since they can’t rest during the day.

“Don’t leave me!”

A loud voice suddenly shouted, and then Xia Lang’s upper body appeared below. He sat up, gasping for air, his eyes frantically searching around.

“Ranran…”

“Up here,” the doll interrupted him. “And don’t panic. You’d better wrap yourself with what you’re holding.”

Xia Lang still looked a bit dazed. He thought for three seconds, then gradually relaxed. “It’s in the game… not middle school, not middle school… Thank goodness.”

Ranran is up there? Where? It’s too dark, I can only see the magician…

And what’s in my hand? Feels like a cloth… Xia Lang looked down, and then the system’s voice reached his ears.

He groggily looked up. “Ranran, the system said something about being challenged. What does that mean…? Who’s challenging me?”

Too late.

Duan Miaomiao clicked her tongue, poking her head out with a helpless expression. “It means a fight, a life-or-death kind of thing.”

Xia Lang: “…”

Xia Lang: “?!”

Luo Yiran wrapped the silver thread around the magician’s arm, then descended with it into Xia Lang’s view. “Can you handle it?”

Xia Lang looked at the little doll floating in mid-air, then remembered. He had been bitten by the serpent man, and before that, he had already killed a member of the [hunter].

But he clenched his fist and still asked, “Can I kill?”

Luo Yiran paused, then a smile spread across his face. “It’s just a game… and in this game, if you don’t kill him, he’ll kill you.”

Xia Lang nodded in understanding, then glanced at Duan Miaomiao nearby. He stood up and walked away-he couldn’t fight here, it would affect Miaomiao.

Watching Xia Lang disappear around the corner, Duan Miaomiao finally reacted, letting out a hiss, “Wait, he doesn’t have any special abilities or items, right? What if the other guy does? That’s too big a gap.”

“Via slipped him a dagger,” the doll-controlling magician said, pulling himself back onto his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Xia Lang with a weapon is different from Xia Lang without one.”

Besides.

“As long as they’re still flesh and blood, Xia Lang won’t lose that easily.”

Special species are all biological special species, fused with animals, causing their bodies to mutate, but that just gives them a few more abilities than normal people.

And while items can be all sorts of strange things, the people using them are mostly just human.

“So, does that mean… Xia Lang is really good at martial arts?” Duan Miaomiao’s eyes lit up with envy.

“…Do you think he looks like someone who’s good at martial arts?” the doll countered.

Duan Miaomiao was stumped-he didn’t seem like it.

Luo Yiran thought for a moment, then his red eyes narrowed slightly. “It’s a killer instinct, I guess. He knows how to kill someone quickly and easily in a standoff.”

Duan Miaomiao blinked, not fully understanding, but-

“If you put it that way, he’s a natural-born killer.”

The doll paused. “Maybe.”

The magician chuckled. “A killer with no fighting spirit.”

Duan Miaomiao hesitated, then spoke up after a moment, “Xia Lang, he mentioned middle school just now… uh, never mind.”

She stopped herself.

They were teammates, but to be blunt, their trust was temporary, based only on their shared goals.

And that trust wasn’t enough for her to pry into his real-life matters.

But the doll looked up, gazing at the moon through the gaps in the leaves. “Nothing happened, it’s just that the world keeps trying to force him into being the ‘villain’ in other people’s eyes.”

“But,” Luo Yiran lowered his head, his bright red eyes seeming to glow like a light in the deep sea, evoking a sense of eerie fear, “the world failed.”

Duan Miaomiao looked up at him, drawn to the doll’s unique aura. At that moment, her gaze was solely on the doll, the magician forgotten. “You’re the one pulling his strings.”

The magician let out a cryptic laugh.

The doll said nothing, but Duan Miaomiao watched him intently. “And who’s pulling your strings?”

Luo Yiran’s fingers twitched, meeting Duan Miaomiao’s eyes, then he smiled slightly. “He’s dead.”

Duan Miaomiao clutched her cross, snapping back to reality, and sighed, “Kids these days have it rough.”

Her gaze drifted to the ground, lost in thought-she hoped Luo Yiran would say his string was Xia Lang.

After all, if it’s not mutual salvation, the balance will eventually tip and collapse.

And rather than being strings connecting people to each other, they’re strings connecting people to the world, necessary for one’s existence.

The doll’s gaze shifted away from Duan Miaomiao as he absentmindedly twirled his index finger. Duan Miaomiao was a rarity-a genuinely kind and pure-hearted individual.

From the moment they met, he had never sensed any malice from her.

It was peculiar. In “World Human,” the players were all people who had, directly or indirectly, taken lives. Yet, so far, the proportion of “bad” people he had encountered was surprisingly low.

This wasn’t normal.

Unless… the players weren’t chosen purely by the rules. Perhaps there was another entity involved in the selection process.

The doll’s gaze drifted into the distance.

-Back when he had stepped through the dessert shop’s door and into the game, was there something non-human lingering nearby?

“Oh, right.” Duan Miaomiao suddenly remembered something. She said, “Today, an elementary school student taught me through their actions that fairness matters between people. So, since you told me some things about Xia Lang, I think I should share something about myself. Could you pass it on to Xia Lang for me?”

The doll froze for a moment-an elementary school student?

Duan Miaomiao clutched the cross around her neck tightly. “The one pulling my string is dead too. I killed them myself.”

Humans are emotional beings, and emotions can’t simply be self-contained. They need to be entrusted to others, pets, or even objects. Anything that carries a person’s emotions becomes the tether that pulls their “string.”

And she had killed the only relative she had left in her world, severing that string.

“But,” Duan Miaomiao said, glancing in a direction where someone was approaching, “I’m a really good person, you know. Grandpa used to say that about me all the time.”

She stood up from the bushes and bent down to pick up her invisibility cloth. “Sigh, the invisibility cloth might make them think there’s someone else hiding here… They’re coming to check. Are you leaving?”

“Yes.” The doll looked toward the serpent man’s territory, then touched the horn on his forehead. “When you have time, go find Lin Ye. He’ll tell you how to avoid being hunted by these people.”

Duan Miaomiao blinked, her eyes lighting up. “So we don’t have to be moving targets anymore?”

“That’s right, but you’ll have to wait until daytime. In the meantime, it’s best to avoid fighting with anyone,” the doll said with a smile.

Then, he manipulated the magician to leap to the highest point of the tree, hiding himself among the leaves.

Duan Miaomiao watched as the doll and the magician disappeared into the canopy. Her gaze shifted to the moon. The sound of the system echoed in her ears, pulling her focus to the side. From there, a burly man suddenly lunged out of the shadows-

Well, since the doll said so, she might as well take him down and then go find Lin Ye.

Her skin began to sprout coarse, gray-black fur. Her round eyes narrowed into vertical pupils, and her arms grew larger as sharp claws extended from her fingers.

[Item: Bio-morphing.]

Hot breath escaped her mouth as she saw the burly man’s expression twist in shock.

Just like the doll had said about Xia Lang-there was a stark difference between him wielding a weapon and not. Coincidentally, she was the same way.

And with the moonlight enhancing her now, it was the perfect time to test out the boost.

“Roar-”

From below came the howls of beasts, yet Luo Yiran remained unfazed as he pondered Xia Lang’s condition. Then, he sent a message to the group: [Xia Lang, I’m here.]

“May I ask something?” The magician, seated cross-legged on a slender branch above, suddenly spoke.

The doll heard the commotion and glanced downward, spotting a young man with gray curly hair leaping from the tree. Moments later, blood splattered into the air.

-Via was having quite the time.

“Go ahead and ask,” the doll replied, leaving the decision to answer up to him.

“Young master, have you truly never killed anyone?”

The doll raised an eyebrow. “I thought you’d be more interested in who pulls my strings.”

“You wouldn’t tell me,” the magician stated with certainty.

“True enough.” The doll flashed a bright smile and answered sincerely, “In our world, I have indeed never killed anyone, whether directly or indirectly.”

Our world.

The magician let out a mocking laugh.

“We have people specifically chosen to bring you into the game, and this selection process began long ago,” the magician continued, ignoring the warning beeps ringing in his ears. “Killing is a necessary condition for selection, after which it becomes a matter of personal preference.”

Personal preference? So there are many who select players?

“But the one truly responsible for selecting you is 2657 alone.” Blood seeped from beneath the bandage, and the magician seemed to know what the doll was thinking, his voice lowering slightly. “However, any of us can borrow 2657’s pass to enter your world for selection.”

The magician emphasized the words “your world.”

Yet the doll paid no mind, only raising an eyebrow slightly at the mention of 2657. Then, Luo Yiran turned to the magician with a certain tone, “You’ve been there too.”

“Of course I’ve been there,” the magician replied with a low, suppressed laugh.

“After all, Xia Lang was chosen by me.”