The Rise of Otaku

Chapter 65 Puppet Show

Since there were family members in the house, Zhou Yu was much quieter than before. Not only had he stopped going out to catch small beasts, but he also restrained himself from talking to the villagers of the ACG world more often. Even when he was playing movies, he would also try to be as natural as possible. He couldn’t let other people notice something unusual.

Fortunately, the most important activities of his parents these days were to visit their old friends and relatives, so it did not raise any suspicions.

The new year’s eve was approaching, and more and more people were coming back. Luhua Village was getting more and more lively. On the contrary, Zhou Yu’s small yard became a lot quieter. It was actually quite understandable. Since the ones, that were closest to those kids, were always their parents. Having not seen them for a very long time, of course, they wanted to spend more time staying with them. After all, brother Yu could be seen every day, but they could only get together with their parents during the new year.

This was the time where every kid should be staying in the arms of their parents all day long. However, Little Rat was feeling very sad. Because his father was a soldier and he could not return home during the New Year. Looking at other people’s family reunion, it was natural for him to feel sad.

There were also some other kids with the same situation as Little Rat. However, Zhou Yu could not help them. After all, no matter how powerful the villagers of the ACG world were, they could not magically teleport their fathers in front of them. However, it was at this time, a strange new building came out of the Gashapon machine. It instantly gave him an idea of how to make those children happy.

This building was The Midnight Troupe’s Theater(Wandering).

Just like what it said, this was a theater. The performers on the stage were all puppets, while the manipulators were the members of The Midnight Troupe that were hidden behind the scenes. They used a variety of magic to manipulate puppets to do all sorts of incredible movements, while also showing amazing sound and light effects.

However, the building of the Gashapon machine was always some cheap knock-offs. This troupe just wandered here. When they saved enough tolls, they would leave again. And when they left, the theater would lose all its functions, and all the puppets would no longer be able to stand up.

The even more frustrating thing was that troupe was only able to perform after 12 o’clock in the midnight. No wonder why it was called the midnight troupe.

Anyway, the puppet show seemed to be quite good entertainment. He remembered that when he was a kid, he enjoyed the puppet show a lot. He just didn’t know how good this troupe was.

It was said to be a theater. However, it was actually similar to the puppet theater stage that he used to see when he was young. The height of the stage was about one meter. The front stage and the backstage was separated by a curtain that was around three to four meters. The backstage was much larger than the front stage. It was enough to accommodate four or five adults, and it was also covered completely.

The head of the troupe was the chief director of the theater. He was the man who managed everything. Not only did he need to pay attention to the puppet operators, but he also needed to pay attention to the synchronization of the sound, light, and performances. Any mistakes were not allowed. The troupe had roughly about 20 people. It was enough to perform a wonderful show.

Using the eyes of reality, all Zhou Yu could see was, that puppets were moving on the front of the stage, but there was no one at the back of the stage. This was a bit scary. Because anyone who saw a bunch of puppets walking around on the stage without anyone controlling them, they would be scared to death.

The puppets were very well made. They were more lively than the wooden dolls that were made by the carpenters. Together with the movable limbs and the tender skin, they were similar to those very expensive dolls.

However, this added another layer of horror.

Zhou Yu intended to ask those dispirited brats to watch a puppet show to soothe their feelings. Of course, he was only able to show them once. After all, a puppet show would cost 1000 Moe coins. Even if everyone in this troupe were master-level performers, it was still a lot of money.

In the afternoon, Zhou Yu called Little Rat over, and asked him to call other little brats over as well. He also told him that they would need to be staying in his house tonight.

Little Rat was confused, “are you going to play us a movie? Everyone will be sleeping at midnight, and it is not good to disrupt other people’s sleep.”

Zhou Yu gently smacked the back of the Little Rat’s head and said with disappointment, “all you know are movies, can you not dream something big? You brother, I have invited a magician tonight to perform a great show that is absolutely unprecedented. Remember, you can only look, but you can not ask any questions. If you irritate the magician, he will turn you into a horse and ride you around!”

Of course, Little Rat would not believe this kind of words. But hearing that there was a magic show, he quickly went to other children’s houses to get them. After telling someone in their houses, that they were going to stay in brother Yu’s house for an evening, all of those kids’ guardians agreed.

After getting permission, seven or eight kids showed up in Zhou Yu’s house. Although Zhou Yu’s parents did not know what their son was doing, they did not ask him too many questions. Instead, they went back and forth to prepare a big room for those kids to sleep in the evening.

At 12 o’clock in the evening, Zhou Yu came to the children’s room and woke up those kids, who had already slept, one by one. While quietly making a shush hand gesture, he carefully opened the door and sneaked out of the house with those kids.

Fearing the noises might wake up other people, the theater was set up quite far away. However, Little Rat and other kids were very familiar with the place that brother Yu took them to. Because it was their school – Luhua Primary School.

The school in the night was always unreasonably scary. Although there was an adult who was leading the way, the children were still slightly scared. However, this interestingly new and unusual experiences also made them a little bit excited.

After walking in the dark for a while, Little Rat suddenly discovered a terrifying thing. Brother Yu, who was leading the way in the front earlier, suddenly disappeared after he took a turn in a corner.

Oh shoot, this was the classic scene of the beginning of every horror movies.

Little Rat was so scared that he instantly had many goosebumps. However, the children that were behind him were much younger than him, so he could only grit his teeth and prepared to lead them back to Brother Yu’s house.

It was at this moment, a light beam was suddenly projected from the sky and shone at them, scaring the souls out of those kids.

“Welcome to the Midnight Magic Show of the Midnight Troupe, children, please grab a seat and enjoy the show that you probably won’t be able to see it again in the future!”

The voice of the head of the troupe sounded in a corner, and then another light beam appeared. The whole theater was then lit up by it. Then the cheerful noises immediately followed, and the curtains were opened. The five clowns were walking on five balls, forming a straight neat line, moving onto the stage.

It would be normal for a clown to walk on a ball, but it was very strange for a puppet, that was clearly controlled by strings, to walk on a ball. And there were even five of them! The attentions of those kids were immediately attracted. And the fear quickly disappeared.

This was just a small performance to hype up the audiences. The real show had not been performed yet. But the clown’s funny performances had already made the children laugh constantly. One of the clowns not only made a backflip on the ball but also stood upside down one the ball for a while. However, it fell off the ball in the end.

If the audiences were a bunch of adults, they would begin to sense something was not right. Although those puppets seemed to be controlled by those visible strings, could puppets really perform this kind of movement?

Suspicion was the nature of adults, but those kids were obviously still very young, they were still thinking that they were just watching a puppet show.

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