Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 308 Puppet Style

He kicked the embroidered shoes lightly, fell to the ground, his eyes rolled back, and he looked like a grown man who had lost all his color.

Is this person still alive?
The blanket spirit crawled over and gently patted the man's cheek with the corner of the blanket.

There is also a mental response; the person is currently in a coma and may transition to sleep in a while. However, considering the mental state before passing out, it is very likely a nightmare.

The Quilt Spirit is a hidden master in the spiritual realm, specializing in the field of sleep.

Toast chewed on the Dream Alloy, crunching crisply in its mouth, and with a half-eaten piece still in its mouth, it took short steps to approach: "Awoo."

They just came over to steal a bite to eat; the people here have such poor mental fortitude.

As a toast that is always confident in its appearance, it felt very rude to have scared someone into fainting!
"Buzz... Hello? Benny, answer me... You didn't really fall asleep, did you?... Buzz... The first move is here... It went straight through..." The earphones next to me kept emitting static, and the words came out in a broken voice.

Lulu's shoes pointed towards the Blanket Spirit and Toast respectively: It seems like something is coming. Should we go back and meet up with the Anti-Boss?

"Aww." The toast felt satisfied with its bite and had no complaints.

The quilt spirit used its power to soothe the sleeping Benny. It couldn't bear to see someone not sleeping well; perhaps it was its instinct, and there was nothing it could do about it.

Just as they were preparing to leave.

pat...

They only realized something was approaching when loud footsteps sounded nearby. A pair of thick brown boots came into view.

Looking up again, you can see the other person's entire appearance.

"Tick-tock...tick-tock..." The signal sound was like the quiet operation of an electronic clock, bringing a sense of peace. It was a doll wearing a white shirt, a gray suit vest, and a brown trench coat.

Its face has some human-like features, but it looks like an unpainted mannequin, appearing stiff and simple. The silver-gray surface contrasts sharply with its warm-toned clothing, and it wears a brown felt hat on its head.

If viewed from a distance, one might initially mistake him for a person dressed in a simple and unassuming manner.

Its most distinctive feature is probably its eye, which is a swinging pendulum, and this is also the source of its calm and regular signal tone.

"Awoo..." Toast let out a subconscious whimper.

It seems I've run into trouble.

Could this be the "one style" that the voice in the earphone just mentioned?

Itsuki looked down at the three strange objects huddled together at his feet, warily watching them. Although they had no distinguishing features and the three objects couldn't even form an eye, they were certainly alert, and it seemed they were "watching" him.

Its scheduled inspections have been delayed for a long time; the last inspections were always glossed over with excuses. But this time, because it's an important occasion coming up, the inspections before then cannot be done half-heartedly.

Therefore, it deliberately arranged to come when the important person was not present, and took advantage of the time difference to conduct the inspection here and cover it up a bit to get by.

Unexpectedly, there was a power outage caused by a line malfunction. To avoid delays, they came to fix it themselves. They also needed to find a certain unfortunate guy who had been pushed too hard and stayed up all night and lost contact on the spot. According to his colleague, the optimistic view was that he was tired and looking for an opportunity to slack off, while the pessimistic view was that he had suddenly died.

It's here now.

Good news: this human is alive, his vital signs are stable, and he even has excellent sleep quality.

The bad news is that these three things that appeared on the scene were not something that Ichishi could quite understand.

It is neither human, nor any other natural creature, nor a doll.

It's like something called "mother".

So, Yishi squatted down: "Tick-tock..." What are you?
"Awoo?" Toast, who was trembling, realized that the one in front of him didn't seem to have any ill intentions, at least not at the moment.

The quilt spirit waved one corner of its quilt as a greeting, and then briefly introduced itself: "I am a quilt spirit, a quilt."

I am toast, a piece of toast.

I am LuLu Shoes, a pair of shoes.

One form: "..."

It paused for a moment before introducing itself: "Tick-tock... I am Yishi, a doll."

After speaking, the doll stared at the three little ones in silence. Yishi could only slowly rise and walk forward. The three little ones looked at each other, then curiously followed.

"Tick-tock..." Why are you here? Did "Mother" bring you here?
LuLu Shoes: We sneaked in on our own.

The quilt spirit: Because the toast said it was hungry and smelled something delicious.

"Awoo~." Do dolls have mothers too?
Lulu Shoes and the Blanket Spirit both looked at Toast. Toast shrank back: "Awoo?" W-what's going on? It was really curious why a doll would have a mother, it wasn't like she was scolding it.

"Tick-tock..." Yi Shi simply replied indifferently.

The birth of it and its two brothers were all partly orchestrated by their mother. Research into creating dolls using Dream Alloy has been ongoing since the stable production of Dream Alloy was confirmed, but technological breakthroughs have been minimal for a long time.

Despite numerous attempts, the "muddy substance" of the Dream Alloy could not be compatible with the existing doll's power core. The dolls made from it lacked basic intelligence, could not receive external signals, and could not obey commands. They were nothing more than mechanical monsters that indiscriminately slaughtered people.

This thing is clearly a failure.

It wasn't until the mother appeared and, after her adjustments, that the project of creating the Dream Alloy dolls made breakthroughs in many aspects, and the development of the Ichimoku and its two brothers proceeded smoothly.

Because the master they served was someone else, and the existence of their mother was mysterious, they were only allowed to refer to each other as "mother".

As they spoke, Yishi had already located the broken part of the wire. It looked like it had been bitten off by some kind of creature. What could possibly be capable of biting through the wire in a place where even rats couldn't get in? It's so hard to guess.

After a simple, easy repair, the wiring was quickly reconnected.

"Awoo~." Toast continued the previous topic.

Following the logic that whoever created them calls them "mother," it seems logical that they would treat the anti-leader as their father. However, the anti-leader has never asked them to address him as such; they still prefer to call Zheng Fan "leader."

"Tick-tock..." So that's how it is. You also have people who created you, just like a father.

The quilt spirit waved its two quilt corners: It's not, it's adopted.

Lu Lu's shoes chimed in, "The Anti-Boss is incredibly good to them, always giving them good things and never blaming them for anything, except for Toast. But Toast brought that on himself."

Toast was pushed aside by Lulu's shoes: "Awoo!" No need to add the last sentence! It's always been the boss's sweet little cotton-padded jacket!
One style conveyed a sense of surprise: "Tick-tock..."

Are they real family?

From the three little creatures' expressions, it sensed that even the relationship between a creator and a creator does not preclude the warmth of existence.

"Tick tock..."

This is different from us.

We were merely given a title. From then on, apart from giving orders on behalf of the master, Mother never contacted us for trivial matters.

We were just three of the more prominent attempts our mother made; nothing more.

(End of this chapter)