Puzzle Madness

Chapter 110: What an important quality is the ability to have three heads and six arms
The sound from the speaker grew louder, and a few words could be vaguely discerned:
"..Give.you.the.face"

It was like a pair of sponge earplugs were stuffed into my left and right ear holes, and someone was yelling not far away:
The dull human voice seemed to be separated by a barrier, indistinguishable--
Suddenly, the sound became clearer, but the ending of each sound was prolonged and the pitch became lower, making it sound particularly rich and strong:
"--Whale--Bo--Dou--Dou--Can-you-hear--?"

Doudou suddenly supported himself on the handrail and raised his legs; he no longer touched the pedals under his feet.

The trembling and rotating image then stopped. The upper half of the screen was shrouded in darkness, making it difficult to see clearly; Ruan Jingbo should now be looking up with his eyes rolled back.

"It's Ai Xi's voice, but it's slowed down—time flows at different speeds. The one in the arcade is faster. This one is similar to Taro Dream."

"That's right! If I've attracted her attention, it means my eyes are also moving around in real life."

"Well! This dance machine can indeed control Ruan Jingbo's eyes."

The low, slow-motion voice sounded again, making the dance machine's speakers rumble:

"--I'm--talking-to-you--through-bone-conduction--"

Doudou rubbed his chin. Amidst this cluster of twisted and tangled dance machines, there were a dozen or so machines of various models:
"Ai Xi, remember the bone conduction secret conversation technique I taught her! Why is normal speech so poorly received, only bone conduction can hear it?"

"Then how can I communicate with her? Ruan Jingbo was able to speak yesterday, so I should be able to dance and speak with her tongue."

He now understood—or rather, had a complete guess:
The reason why Ruan Jingbo crawled into the classroom yesterday like a locust, with his elbows twirling, was because
Because her [mind] and [body] were separated for some reason:
Each of the dance machines in this giant mass of mechanical seaweed can control a part of her body.
The reason why I asked Ai Xi to customize school uniforms with rulers was probably for this reason.

"This one controls the eyes. Try another one. Which one controls the hands?"

He jumped out of the "Dancing Revolution" machine, and randomly picked up another "Fever Beat" from the hill-like cluster of machines, ready to climb up and try it out.

Snap, snap.
At this moment——
The sudden noise made Doudou stop.

A figure stepped out from the empty arcade. The footsteps sounded damp and sticky, yet not very loud.

It was a girl in a school uniform. She was tall, her head even higher than her pockets; her sleeves and trouser legs were rolled up completely, and her body was covered with dried red marks.

She walked from the hazy colorful mist to the fluorescent light of the dance machine -
It's like growing an extra pair of hands and feet:
The middle finger and index finger were split apart by something sharp, from the palm to the forearm, with one half still attached to the arm bone, and the other half detached and limp.

There was no blood oozing from these wounds, as if they had dried up. Due to blood loss, the cross-section of the muscle appeared grayish pink.
The same thing happened to his legs. His shoes were taken off and the soles of his feet were cut all the way to his knees, with the wounds directly touching the ground. His limbs were already slender, and now they looked like a stick insect.

In his left "hand" was a pair of household scissors, and in his right "hand" was a fire axe - the blade was covered with red and brown spots; on his shoulder was a plastic bag with the arcade hall's logo printed on it, and there was a ping-ping sound inside.

It looked like it came straight out of Silent Hill; Doudou knew that Parapsychology had no reader rating, and the editors didn't like this guy with an overly scary look.

The girl walked hurriedly, with worry and deep thought between her brows. Even with such strange limbs, she still looked like a student rushing to class.
Snap/crash!

When she saw Doudou, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, her whole body trembled, and the plastic bag flew up: her eyes suddenly widened, and she raised the weapons in her "hands" to her face, making a clumsy defensive gesture.

The girl's face was very round, not shriveled due to the loss of blood, and looked very gentle; the tip of her nose was raised with fear, and her short trimmed hair revealed her ears.

There are clearly demarcated tan marks between the upper arms and neck, evidently from frequent exercise under the scorching sun.

Doudou and she looked at each other in surprise.

The face was familiar yet strange, but he felt that there could only be one person here at this moment:

"Ruan Jingbo? Are you Ruan Jingbo?"

Doudou looked at the panic and terror emanating from the other person's nightmare-like body—and quickly pointed at himself:

"Do you remember me? I was your classmate! I'm a real human being." *Sigh*
The girl in school uniform suddenly let out a sigh, nodded seriously, and the corners of her tightly pursed lips relaxed; her body was trembling with excitement or nervousness.

She raised her split hand, the scissors hanging from her thumb; it must be a greeting:
"Oh! Uuuu. Uuuu!"

She opened her mouth, revealing two sections of her tongue that were cut at the root, just like her hands and feet. The frenulum was cut off, making her tongue look much longer than that of an ordinary person. The tip of her tongue should be able to lick her neck.

Ruan Jingbo's face was already pale from blood loss, and now, in the flickering light of the screen, her skin was almost pierced through, revealing her skull. She tapped her tongue with her fingertips:

"Hmm."

"Can't speak?"

She closed her mouth again, looking less interested in talking.
According to Doudou's physiological knowledge, Ruan Jingbo should have been dead long ago given his horrible appearance.
But this is a dream after all: no matter how close it feels to reality, the internal logic may still be different.

Ah, it seems like I have to ask those "yes" and "no" questions again. 】

Doudou looked back at the dance machine, then back at Ruan Jingbo's strange appearance. He clapped his hands and feet:
"You made it yourself? You modified the axe and scissors you have?"

"Is it because—it's so that I can control my body more easily with the dance machine?"

Ruan Jingbo raised his eyebrows, as if he was surprised by Doudou's quick reaction; then he nodded quickly and raised his arm -
The severed hands were incredibly flexible, even able to swing lightly and dance in wave-like shapes; the muscle tissue showed no signs of dysfunction or even inactivity:
She split one hand into two, as if making a "yeah" gesture, and also as if making a "2" gesture.

With a rustling sound, Ruan Jingbo took out several pieces of broken mirror from the plastic bag; no one knew where they came from.

She shook the mirror, then waved her hands towards the sprawling dance machines.
After a while, he understood what Ruan Jingbo wanted to do.

If you fix the mirror on the dance machine and adjust the angle, you should be able to see the content even if you are not facing the screen directly:

"Oh, you've figured it out too. Great minds think alike! Humans only have two hands and two feet, which is not enough."

Doudou thought of the wish he had just dreamed of yesterday, that of having three heads and six arms, and for a moment he couldn't help but feel a sense of sympathy for the hero:
"The hands and feet are split in half. Are you trying to play two dance machines at the same time like this? How clever."

Although the flow of time in the [Electronic Dungeon] is slower than outside—perceived to be about two to one with reality—
But if each dance machine controls different body muscle groups.
It is indeed necessary to operate multiple dance machines at the same time to make the real body move slightly like a normal person.

In the past two days in the real world, Ruan Jingbo has been motionless like a statue: now it seems that the reason is that she is busy transforming her [body in the dream].

Doudou roughly estimated Ruan Jingbo's height and the length of her limbs - based on her current "form".
I can almost play Dance Dance Revolution and Beat the Beat at the same time (using the forked tongue to flash the left and right front flashlights), but if I add a Korean-made Pump It Up, I probably won’t be able to step on that weird diagonal arrow:
It depends on the distance and layout between the dance machines, as well as the "real parts" that each dance machine is responsible for.

Unless the limbs are cut off several times and more "tentacles" are grown, there is still a long way to go -
I just don't know. If I just chop the limbs off, will they still be able to move? Doudou thinks that would be more efficient.

"You know you're dreaming right now, right? And it seems like I'm in your dream too—can't you change the scenes or something? Or maybe use a different model?"

Doudou has never dreamed, but he has read articles about lucid dreaming: If you want to control your dreams, you must first know that you are dreaming.
Judging from the mechanism of the large group of "Dancing Machine Seaweed" behind it, this arcade should be Ruan Jingbo's dream.

"Ahh. Oh!"

Ruan Jingbo suddenly patted his head with his "tentacles," then expertly inserted the axe blade into the gap in his forearm and yanked it hard, widening the wound.
More blood gurgled out, it seemed that it had not completely dried up yet.

Ruan Jingbo dipped his fingertips in some blood, smeared it on the back of the mirror, and then turned it over:

[I know it’s a dream, I can’t change it, I can only play Dance Dance Revolution.]
She quickly wiped the writing clean with her elbow, as if to avoid being unable to write new content after it dried.

(End of this chapter)