The tags for the female puppet are “loving to children,” “gentle and virtuous,” and “hoping for the best for their children.” Gu Zhan removes the “hoping for the best for their children” tag and replaces it with “hands-on.”
Suddenly, the female puppet gets up from the sofa and walks toward the child's room.
She is worried that the child is not doing well in school and plans to help him with his homework personally.
The new little puppet does not understand what his mother intends to do at all, but his tags say “obedient,” “well-behaved,” and “does not like to argue with others.”
So, even though he has doubts in his heart, he does not oppose or raise any objections.
Time passes, and soon, Happy Town is enveloped in darkness.
Xu Yu glances worriedly towards the factory and sees that the clown cat is still obediently staying in the office.
Gu Zhan says, “Don't worry; the time here is different from the time outside.”
The two main elements that make up a complete world are time and space.
It seems that these two elements do not interfere with each other between the inner and outer worlds.
From the moment they entered the inner world, the time in the outer world has frozen relative to their timeline.
With Gu Zhan's explanation, Xu Yu feels much more at ease.
They continue to watch the female puppet with the switched tags, and soon, it is dawn in the town.
It seems like today is another exam day at school. The little puppet is very nervous and tells the female puppet before leaving that he will do his best.
Suddenly, the female puppet says, “I will take the exam for you!”
The little puppet is stunned; he instinctively feels that this is wrong, but because of the tags “obedient” and “does not like to argue with others,” he does not express his surprise. Instead, he watches his mother put on her own backpack, wear her school uniform, and... go to school in his place.
The confused little puppet is momentarily frozen. After the female puppet leaves, he does not move, still standing in place.
The gears connected to him make a “creaking” sound.
The walls next to Gu Zhan and the others begin to tremble slightly.
The entire space exudes a very uneasy feeling.
Xu Yu looks around and asks, “Is this really okay?”
Gu Zhan frowns; it seems that the unusual behavior of the puppets above will also affect the world below.
These two worlds may originally be complementary.
“Let's wait and see.”
Having come this far, it is impossible to give up because of a slight tremor.
On the other side, the female puppet has arrived at school.
The doorman does not notice anything unusual and lets her in.
Perhaps due to differences in social status and roles, the quality among the puppets varies. The doorman does not realize that the female puppet is not a student, but the teacher soon notices something amiss…
The teacher starts arguing with the female puppet. Although the female puppet is “gentle and virtuous,” she does not have a tag that says she cannot argue with others.
The two of them get into a heated dispute, causing chaos in the school.
The contradictions between the inner and outer worlds grow larger, and the gears tremble slightly, seemingly opposing Gu Zhan's reckless behavior.
It seems that this tactic is working.
Gu Zhan then shifts his gaze to the clown cat in the factory.
The factory holds a transcendent position in Happy Town; all puppets are repaired here.
It can even be said that the factory defines the meaning of “happiness.”
The clown cat appears to be the master of the factory.
Indeed, the clown cat also relies on these gears for movement.
Its tags are: “likes perfect things,” “cannot tolerate imperfections,” and “respects rules.”
Xu Yu asks, “What do you plan to do?”
Gu Zhan stares at those three tags.
“Likes perfect things” is the fundamental reason it targets them, and because it “cannot tolerate imperfections,” its tolerance for non-perfect things is zero… as for “respects rules.”
This tag is complex; the former represents standards, while the latter represents severity.
It is evident that a character so unrelated to “harmony and beauty” possesses three positive tags.
This shows that good intentions do not always lead to good outcomes.
Sometimes, two negatives can result in a positive.
At this point, Xu Yu understands Gu Zhan's plan.
He wants to change the clown cat’s personality by modifying its tags.
The inner world controls the outer world, but what can be changed are only these tags.
In the end, they still have to return to the outer world to solve the problem... Those tests are likely unavoidable.
“What tags can be changed? Replace its ‘likes perfect things’ tag?” Xu Yu cautiously suggests.
This is the clown cat’s core tag against them. If it cared less about perfection, it wouldn’t have kidnapped Yu Ye Zhou and Yang Lin.
Gu Zhan tries to remove the “likes perfect things” tag, but unexpectedly, that tag remains stubbornly attached to the cat, unresponsive to Gu Zhan’s efforts to push it away.
Xu Yu draws his knife: “Let me try.”
The outcome is predictable; he fails.
Gu Zhan says, “It seems that this tag is unchangeable.”
“How can this be...”
“It's quite normal,” Gu Zhan replies without feeling frustrated. “Perfection is a fundamental term in this world, an unshakable foundation… Let’s try something else.”
Saying this, he focuses on the other two tags.
When Gu Zhan was trying something new, Xu Yu was watching nearby.
At first, Xu Yu didn’t quite understand why Yu Yezhou insisted on having Gu Zhan join their team.
After all, he was a stranger. No matter how talented he was, did he deserve such treatment from Yu Yezhou?
But now, as Gu Zhan faced setbacks in his initial attempts, he seemed to completely ignore the feeling of failure and quickly moved on to the next try.
During their time together, Xu Yu felt that Gu Zhan was like a machine that had completely discarded human emotions, moving forward solely based on his own goals… No, he couldn't be called a machine; after all, machines operate according to goals set by others.
Gu Zhan, on the other hand, although his emotions never overflowed, had a very stable and complete personality inside. All his actions were driven by his own objectives.
Such a person is truly admirable.
Xu Yu gradually understood why Yu Yezhou insisted on bringing him into the team.
Gu Zhan quickly discovered that while the label "loves perfection" could not be removed, the other two labels could be changed.
In other words, they had to alter the outcome while the clown cat still only accepted perfection?
He carefully observed the other puppet people in the factory.
Although they seemed like mere mechanical beings executing orders on the surface, these puppets also had their own personalities.
Sure enough, a label passed in front of him.
"Kind, unwilling to harm others."
"Is that going to work?" Xu Yu asked. "Should we use a more severe term?"
Gu Zhan noticed that the clown cat, who had been sitting behind the table, seemed to have realized something. It opened its eyes and began looking around the room.
These core NPCs in this scenario were different from mere bystanders.
Gu Zhan didn’t dare to make too many changes, so he said, "That should be fine. Let's try it."
There were currently two of them, so they still had one chance to make a mistake.
After placing the "kind, unwilling to harm others" label, the ground beneath them began to tremble again. This time, the tremors grew stronger and more intense… Unlike before, it felt as if this world could no longer tolerate their recklessness and was preparing to fight back.
"Not good!" Xu Yu grabbed Gu Zhan and exclaimed, "This world is about to collapse!"
"It’s not collapsing." Gu Zhan observed the internal gears closely. They seemed to be moving in a pattern. He quickly understood, "They want to hide!"
"Hiding?!"
Such a personified term was hard to imagine appearing among a bunch of machines.
There was no time for confusion; this place was indeed collapsing.
Xu Yu grabbed Gu Zhan and leaped to a place where the gears were still stable. His enhanced combat talent greatly boosted his physical abilities, allowing him to jump and move at speeds beyond human capability.
As Xu Yu moved, the gears beneath them continued to shrink and collapse!
Fortunately, he was fast enough to leave the place just before it fully collapsed!
Above the gears, there was still that mist… After jumping into the mist, Xu Yu felt a lightness in his body, and soon after, he began to float.
They slowly rose and ultimately saw the familiar white road.
Time seemed to have stopped, and at the end of the road, Yang Lin and Yu Yezhou were still unconscious.
Once they landed, Xu Yu looked around to confirm that everything seemed unchanged, "It feels like we never left."
"Not the same," Gu Zhan said. "It’s coming."
In the next moment, there was a loud bang in the air, and the clown cat appeared above them.
It looked very angry, waving its staff, and said, "You bad people! Imperfect beings! How dare you use despicable means to try to escape the test!"
"I will punish you! I will turn all of you into the most perfect puppets! In this world, only puppets are the most obedient and well-behaved!!"
From its words, it was clear that the clown cat believed puppets were the most perfect beings.
No wonder the town had become this way.
But at that moment, Gu Zhan spoke up: "But we are humans. Changing to mechanical organs will only bring us pain. Do you want to make us suffer?"
"……" The clown cat wanted to say it didn't care about anyone's pain! It only liked perfect things… However, in that instant, a strong feeling of unwillingness surged forth, stopping it from saying what it wanted next.
Why is this happening?!
The clown cat’s face contorted with frustration!
After a while, it decided that these imperfect beings who violated the rules should be dealt with!!
No need for any more words; it would directly scrap them!
However, when it tried to act, it realized it couldn’t move!
From Gu Zhan and Xu Yu’s perspective, it looked as if the clown cat was being stifled.
Xu Yu couldn’t help but show a hint of joy; the label they changed had taken effect!
Gu Zhan continued, "Losing friends will also cause us pain. Though they are imperfect, they are irreplaceable to us."
The clown cat: "……"
Even though it wanted to do nothing, the ropes binding Yang Lin and Yu Yezhou at the other end of the road automatically fell off!
Seeing this, Xu Yu hurried to the side and successfully reached Yu Yezhou. He lifted him without any adverse effects!
Gu Zhan added, "Right now, we are scared, exhausted, and in need of a comfortable environment to rest. Otherwise, we will also feel sad and suffer."
The clown cat: "……"
It gritted its teeth, forcing a word through its clenched teeth: "Go."
As soon as it spoke, the surrounding whiteness faded, replaced by the factory’s normal plaza.
The clown cat had long since disappeared, leaving only its voice lingering in the air.
"The room is still the same; you can go there yourselves!"
At this point, Gu Zhan finally confirmed that his plan had succeeded completely.
He approached Xu Yu and leaned down to ask, "How are they doing?"
Xu Yu replied, "They're fine; they just fainted."