ryethenovel Chapter 243 The Night of the Puppet, the Eerie Hot Spring Town!
Chapter 243 The Night of the Puppet, the Eerie Hot Spring Town!
A week has passed in the blink of an eye since the twelfth episode aired.
Friday night at 8 PM.
After the classic and rousing opening theme ended, the screen fell into a suffocating silence and darkness.
Immediately afterwards, several cold, large characters slowly appeared in the center of the screen—
Episode 13: "Night of the Puppet"!
The main feature starts at zero frames.
The scene was dark, accompanied by a strange and jarring telephone ring.
"Ring ring ring—ring ring ring—"
A young girl pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
There was no human voice on the other end of the phone, only a sharp, strange static.
"Who are you?"
But before any information could be sent from the other end, the screen suddenly cut to several extremely strange flashes!
In the dimly lit alley, a young boy named Zuo Long was running, covered in sweat.
"elder sister……"
"Xiao Long...it's your phone..."
A distorted female voice echoed in the background, and the boy clutched his head in pain.
The entire city suddenly seemed to be twisted by some invisible force!
The villagers, carrying farm tools, gathered together like zombies and walked towards the boy.
"No!!!"
As the boy screamed in agony, a bizarre monster face appeared on every electronic device with a screen in his vision!
The only sounds in the city were eerie cell phone ringtones, and a giant jellyfish seemed to flash across the dark clouds in the sky.
[Holy crap! Zero frames starting?!]
[Protect me! Protect me! Protect me! Protect me! Protect me!]
[Holy crap, did I wander onto the wrong set? Is this Ultraman or Ju-on?]
[Gu Nan, you son of a bitch! I was watching this alone in bed late at night, and I was so scared I almost dropped my phone on my face!]
What's with this eerie atmosphere created by the thick fog?
[The previous shots also looked familiar; the camera work and lighting are definitely from a horror movie!]
[That ghostly figure! It's Mezad again!]
The scene then shifts to the brightly lit offices of KCB television station.
Since the fourth episode featuring the Mezad generation, Tabata has repeatedly reviewed interviews with disaster victims. Without exception, all the survivors felt as if their brains had been spied on.
Therefore, in his speculation, urban desertification is only a disaster visible to the naked eye, and this jellyfish-like enemy seems to be brewing other conspiracies!
However, as the voices of criticism came, the chilling atmosphere vanished instantly.
"Chengyan Town! Look at these numbers from last week's special report!"
The TV station manager slammed a document on the table, pointed at Tian Duan's nose, and yelled, "Last place!"
Tian Duan frowned, wanting to explain, but was interrupted by his superior.
The boss persisted: "What 'fundamental destruction-inducing entity'? What 'Earth's consciousness'? Your research direction is outrageous! These monsters' destructive actions don't actually share a common purpose! Nobody will read this kind of nonsense!"
Finally, Tian Duan couldn't hold back any longer. He abruptly raised his head, his eyes filled with unwavering determination, and retorted, "But! There must be some clear intention behind these unreasonable acts of destruction!"
"I don't want to hear your nonsense!" his boss interrupted him mercilessly. "Go find some more relatable topics! Something that will grab attention! Something that will boost ratings!"
Tabata gritted his teeth and said in a low but extremely firm voice, "I just... I just want to find out the truth!"
Tian Duan is truly a media professional with integrity.
In this era where traffic reigns supreme, there are few journalists left who still insist on pursuing the truth.
[The trio of reporters, who have so many scenes in Ultraman, must have their shining moments!]
[In previous Ultraman series, the news media often portrayed the characters negatively, so it's rare to see these three from KCB acting so normally.]
……
Everything in the picture.
Tian Duan, Jing Ling, and Lun Wen gathered at their workstations, where a low-quality video was playing on their computers.
The video footage was extremely chaotic, resembling a small town engulfed in a frenzied riot, with people attacking each other in the streets like wild beasts that had lost their minds.
"This is a videotape sent by that brat named Zuo Long."
Tian Duan's expression was solemn.
Tadashi keenly sensed something was amiss, and he immediately asked a classmate from the International Department to investigate the foreign trademarks appearing in the videotape.
……
Meanwhile, Sato, Takaga Yume's best friend from university who had gone back to his hometown on his motorcycle to clear his head after being dumped by his girlfriend, returned to Shiroiwa Town.
"Xiao Xun, you've grown so much..."
When Sato arrived home, he expected a warm welcome, but found his parents and sister with their backs to him, not saying a word, creating an extremely strange atmosphere.
Just then, my sister's phone suddenly rang.
"Brother, your phone."
My sister turned her head, her eyes terribly empty.
Sato took the phone with a puzzled look, put it to his ear, and the next second, his expression also became stiff and awkward.
……
The scene suddenly shifts.
They switched directly to the command center of the XIG air base, which was far away in the sky.
The urgent alarm echoed in the command room.
On the large screen, a red dot was flashing wildly on the map representing the territory of the Xia Kingdom.
Gao Wa Meng sat in front of the control panel, her hands rapidly typing on the keyboard, bringing up rows of complex data codes.
"There's an anomaly at POINT 779 D3!" Li Muzi reported.
"Abnormal? What's abnormal?" Commander Ishimura quickly walked up behind him, his eyes sharply fixed on the screen.
"There is a slight electromagnetic interference from microwaves," Georgie said.
"However, numerically speaking, it doesn't quite reach the level of an anomaly that's comparable to the appearance of a monster."
Shi Shi looked at my dream, hoping to hear his explanation.
"It's not exactly unusual, but..."
Koga Yume turned around, looking at Commander Ishimuro with an extremely serious expression: "I have a friend whose hometown is there. If it were just a coincidence, it wouldn't matter. But I'm still a little uneasy..."
Gao Womeng paused, his tone becoming extremely firm: "Could you let me go to the scene first?"
Commander Ishimuro gave Koga Yume a deep look, then nodded without hesitation: "Go."
"Yes!" Takaga Yume immediately grabbed her coat, turned around, and ran towards the hangar.
As the EX fighter jet spewed out blue flames and pierced through the clouds, heading straight for its target location, the episode's progress bar was exactly halfway through.
[My dream: I had a friend (referring to myself)]
[Gaia's unique unconditional trust in its commanders! Commander Shishi really spoils my dream!]
[If this were another defense unit: the Yamanaka members! Would you be sober?!]
[Go ahead and go. I'm just killing time anyway. It's normal to value brilliant scientists.]
[Hurry and save them! Those three from KCB are about to be devoured alive by zombies!]
[Warning: I'm about to encounter that eerie microwave monster in my dream!]
……
The scene shifts.
KCB TV's interview vehicle stopped on a desolate mountain road.
"You want to get us killed!" Tian Duan roared angrily at Lun Wen.
"The tire's punctured! Lunwen, this is your fault! Fix the tire now!"
Lunwen squatted down next to the tire, looking aggrieved, holding a wrench in his hand: "Why should I be responsible?!"
"What did you say?"
"This cut is so big, it won't heal in less than half an hour!" Lunwen shrugged helplessly.
Tian Duan decisively slung his camera bag over his shoulder: "Jing Ling, let's go! We must see that boy before sunset!"
"I knew it..." Lunwen muttered irritably as he watched the two figures disappear into the distance. "They always treat me like a handyman."
[Classic horror movie trope: The car will inevitably break down!]
[Hahaha, poor Lunwen, he's the number one scapegoat.]
Should we split up and take action now?
[Is everyone here digging sweet potatoes, haha?]
[High-energy warning ahead! Use comments to protect yourself!]
At that moment, the stereo in the interview vehicle suddenly started playing eerie music.
When Lunwen got up to check, he found that the area was already surrounded by expressionless villagers.
Tian Duan and Jing Ling walked into the town to look for Zuo Long, but were turned away at the door.
Turning around, he bumped right into Sato, who was already under control.
Sato pressed forward relentlessly, like a zombie.
The two realized something was wrong and immediately took off running. They managed to escape back to the repair shop, only to find that Lunwen had disappeared without a trace.
[A common plot device in horror movies: a teammate goes missing.]
[Things are starting to get weird.]
"Ring ring ring—"
Suddenly, Tian Duan's phone rang; it was a call from a colleague in the international department.
"The foreign trademark you asked me to look up is for a small resort in the US... It was locked down a month ago because of a new virus that's making the residents very aggressive..."
My colleague's voice was broken and filled with fear.
Before the words were even finished, the phone went dead. Immediately afterward, the monitor in the interview vehicle flashed, playing a confidential video of residents of that small American town killing each other!
Good heavens, a small American town is rioting and has been locked down.
[Why is this plot starting to resemble Resident Evil?]
[I'm guessing something bad is going to happen to the boy's hometown too!]
This must be caused by aliens or monsters controlling them. What kind of virus could make people fight each other?
The KCB trio is up to their old tricks again.
Suddenly, a buzzing sound came.
"What's going on...?"
Tabata clutched his head in pain, "It feels like something's rummaging around in my brain!"
From the surrounding woods, the controlled townspeople surged out like a tide, surrounding them completely.
[Back to the classics! A thick fog is coming!]
To be honest, these kinds of insidious monsters are really scary.
[If there were no Ultraman in the world, it would be truly terrifying if a monster like this appeared!]
What a bizarre rule! All electronic devices are banned!
……
At this moment, inside the air base.
Director Di Cheng and Commander Shi Shi watched my dream leave.
Di Cheng said something meaningful:
"My dream perception is different from ours. It has a special ability to detect unknown dangers."
He then looked at the commander.
"Commander, you think so too, don't you?"
Meanwhile, Ishimura watched the EX ship plunge into the clouds, seemingly accustomed to my dream's behavior.
"This ability should be cherished..."
[Commander Ishimura should have realized it by now!]
[Oh no! It's a X-ray vision cheat!]
We must cling tightly to Ultraman's coattails! Oh no! We must cling tightly to the coattails of the Earth's will!
……
the other side
Tian Duan grabbed the camera and shoved Jing Ling aside: "Get out of here right now! I'm going to fight them my own way, and I'm going to report this incident!"
Jing Ling fled into the woods in a panic, only to be stopped by a policeman with a blank expression and a gun in his hand.
The dark muzzle of a gun was pointed at her.
At this critical moment, a black figure suddenly darted out, cleanly and efficiently snatched the gun from the policeman's hand, and knocked him unconscious.
The person who arrived was none other than Fujimiya.
"Those guys are interested in humans, and whether it's a desert city or here, these are all experimental sites they choose."
Fujimiya stared coldly at the policeman on the ground.
However, Jingling did not understand what Fujimiya meant.
However, this man was his only lifeline.
"Please, save them!"
"That's too dangerous. I think you should give up."
Fujimiya remained unmoved and turned to leave.
Jing Ling gritted her teeth, picked up the gun from the ground, and her eyes became incredibly determined: "I won't beg you anymore! I'll go save them myself!"
Fujimiya stopped in his tracks, his brow furrowing slightly: "I saved you, and you don't even appreciate it."
"I have no idea who you are!"
Jing Ling held up the gun, her voice trembling yet full of strength, "But I also hope you'll listen to me! Humanity should never give up hope for survival!"