Since Qin Zhibo is a regular customer and eats takeout from this restaurant more than ten days a week, the meals are quickly delivered to Zhibo Detective Agency.
The dumplings in Japanese Chinese restaurants are not boiled, but fried. The spring rolls are also deep-fried and mixed with mango juice.
Qin Zhibo first ate the junk food and solved the problem of food and clothing, then called Koizumi Hongzi and explained the reason for the late night disturbance.
"Voodoo doll?"
Koizumi Hongzi thought for a while, "I have some impressions, please wait while I look for them first."
When in doubt, turn to the book first.
Qin Zhibo didn't know what Koizumi Hongzi's academic performance was in the class, but from the looks of it, the exams involving open books should not be bad.
Because in less than five minutes, Koizumi Anko returned to the phone.
"I found it!"
"How?" Qin Zhibo asked.
Koizumi Anko cleared her throat and said solemnly: "The voodoo doll is an evil magic medium in voodoo. It is mostly used in rituals of revenge, hatred, and harm."
"There are many ways to make them. Straw, paper, cloth, etc. all have the same effect. However, there are also voodoo dolls made from parts of living people. Such voodoo dolls have stronger curse effects and magic power."
"With this kind of voodoo doll, the soul of the victim will be imprisoned in the voodoo doll, and a life needs to be sacrificed at intervals to prevent the soul from going to hell."
"Or the voodoo doll will take evil-minded people to hell and resurrect another soul in the voodoo doll. As long as you wait for a suitable body, you can reshape your life."
"In short, voodoo dolls are an extremely evil method, and voodoo itself is also an evil religious sect."
"You should know this, we have met before."
With Koizumi Hongzi's reminder, Qin Zhibo's brain also recalled those somewhat distant memories.
I once solved some problems for the popular actress Okino Yoko.
During that time, Okino Yoko was very unlucky. She fell down the stairs, fell from the ceiling in the toilet, and dropped a flowerpot while walking upstairs, causing injuries all over her body.
It was Koizumi Anko who noticed something strange about her body and asked to go to her home to take a look. Only then did she discover the magic circle that Okino Yoko's ex-boyfriend had left with fluorescent paint before committing suicide.
After searching for information, it was determined that this magic circle was a voodoo spell originating from voodoo.
As long as the target is held by the hair when dying, the target will be affected by this technique no matter where they are.
Since her ex-boyfriend sacrificed his life, Okino Yoko must also pay the price with his life.
It's just that this process is not an instant death, but a period of torture. Maybe some bad luck will kill Okino Yoko.
In the end, Koizumi Anko used magic to prepare a fatal potion and asked her agent to give it to Okino Yoko to drink.
When the forces of two different systems exist in the same body, they will compete with each other for the power to kill the target, which is regarded as fighting fire with fire.
"Is it the voodoo one? The one from Okino Yoko's ex-boyfriend."
"You finally remembered, it hasn't been long." Koizumi Hongzi complained about Qin Zhibo's memory.
But in fact, for Qin Zhibo, that incident has indeed passed a long time ago.
Koizumi Hongzi continued: "Voodoo originated in West Africa. It is a primitive religion that combines ancestor worship, animism and spiritualism. Voodoo in Voodoo means 'soul' in Fang language."
"It is for this reason that most voodoo spells in voodoo are centered around the soul."
"In addition to voodoo dolls, there is also a kind of 'resurrected corpse' that is also a feature of voodoo. People can be put into a state of suspended animation by taking tetrodotoxin, making them unconscious and able to work.
A 'living dead' who can be controlled by his master."
Koizumi Anko is like a teacher who proposes after-school development for students, and also mentions "resurrected corpse".
But Qin Zhibo was more concerned about voodoo spells at this time.
"Voodoo spells can curse others from countless distances. So is there any voodoo spell that can kill a person instantly without leaving any traces?"
"Similar to heart paralysis"
Koizumi Hongzi on the other side of the phone was silent for a while and said in a weak tone: "How do I know?"
"But there probably will be"
Qin Zhibo thought for a while, if the deposit Fangxiong died of voodoo spells, then everything would be much more reasonable.
Yoshio deposits his wish to the Curse of the Dead, and the Curse of the Dead provides him with the identity of his enemy and the method of making voodoo dolls.
However, when Yoshio Jin was caught by the police, he was killed by the "curse of the dead" people using voodoo spells to prevent the police from following the clues and tracing them.
There is also Okino Yoko’s ex-boyfriend. The channel through which he obtained voodoo spells should also be the “curse of the dead.”
Qin Zhibo looked at the chat history on the computer screen and saw that the time pointed to midnight.
It seems that the only way to log in to this website is at midnight.
But before midnight, Qin Zhibo still had 4 hours to do other things.
Qin Zhibo disposed of the food waste on the table, closed the blinds on the second floor, and summoned his [Substitute Messenger].
There are no secondary lines and no cool light effects.
The dark substitute messenger sneaked out from Qin Zhibo's body and stood behind Qin Zhibo.
The main function of this stand-in is to learn. Qin Zhibo summoned it, of course, for the purpose of learning.
But before that, Qin Zhibo still had an idea to verify.
The substitute cannot be seen in the mirror, which means that other people's eyes cannot see the substitute.
However, the actions performed by the stand-in can indeed affect actual objects, but these actions are often slow and clumsy.
Therefore, Qin Zhibo guessed that the substitute messenger should be a semi-material or energy body between material and non-material.
Just like the Royger encountered by the Twin Skyscrapers, it is usually invisible to the human eye.
If this is the case, is there any way for a substitute to sneak into a certain body and control its actions?
It just so happens that Qin Zhibo's tool list has something that can be called a "body" - a puppet.
Qin Zhibo summoned the puppet, and a proportional puppet exactly like Qin Zhibo stood next to Qin Zhibo with his butt sticking out.
Qin Zhibo has never studied this thing carefully.
Just touch it with your fingers, whether it's the texture of the clothing or the touch of the skin, it's like a real person.
It's just that this thing can't move and can only stand like a fool, making humans or other animals unable to help but have the desire to hammer it.
"If you weren't so handsome, I wouldn't be able to help but beat you."
Qin Zhibo complained to the speechless puppet, and then began to control the substitute and walk towards the puppet.
When the two came into contact, an incredible scene happened.
The dark body of the stand-in soaked into the puppet's body like ink, causing a layer of black ripples on the surface.
Immediately afterwards, blackness sank beneath the surface of the body, and the entire stand-in completely disappeared.
However, from the status of the props in the prop inventory, Qin Zhibo knew that the substitute had not been taken back, but existed in the body of the puppet.
"go ahead."
The puppet took a step forward.
"Back off."
The puppet took a step back.
In fact, Qin Zhibo does not need to use words to command the substitute, he only needs to express his thoughts silently in his heart.
After mastering the skills a little, Qin Zhibo ordered the stand-in user to control the puppet to make more complex movements.
"Get me a glass of water."
The substitute walked to the table, poured the water from the kettle into the water cup, and then brought the water cup to Qin Zhibo.
Although this movement is a bit stiff and the hands and feet feel like they have just grown, they are at least usable.
It is difficult for a stand-in to complete actions alone, and slightly more complex actions, such as pouring water, are almost impossible tasks.
Unless you start to learn a certain skill, the stand-in user's movements can become proficient.
But why is it so much easier to perform actions alone after putting on a puppet?
Qin Zhibo thought for a while and felt that the original setting of the Stand-in Messenger should never change. Its characteristic is double zero power and speed.
Perhaps, the combination of Stand User + Puppet Doll takes advantage of the Stand User's high growth potential?
Qin Zhibo browsed through the skills he had so far. If the substitute wanted to learn, he could only choose one of these skills to learn.
Suddenly, a skill came into view——
Arts and Crafts (Puppetry)
This skill was acquired by Qin Zhibo at the Spider House in Tottori Prefecture.
The Takeda family there is a family that makes puppets. The deceased Takeda family boss dropped this skill, which allows him to create and control puppets.
However, Qin Zhibo felt that this skill was useless and he had not trained it specifically, so he kept putting it aside.
Could it be that this skill works?
"Pour the water in the cup into the toilet, and then pour another cup of water."
Qin Zhibo changed the order to a more complicated one this time and asked the substitute to execute it.
The puppet that looked like himself slowly picked up the water glass and walked into the toilet, where a "clatter" sound came from inside.
Walking out with an empty water glass, the puppet picked up the kettle and poured some water into it.
After completing this set of consecutive actions, Qin Zhibo watched helplessly as his art and craft (puppetry) skill proficiency jumped upwards.
Proficiency +1
Now Qin Zhibo can be sure that the substitute messenger is not acting alone, but the process is regarded as a kind of "learning".
The stand-in is the incarnation of his own will, and the puppet is a kind of puppet, so the stand-in is learning puppetry with the help of the puppet.
This process just takes advantage of the stand-in's high growth ability in learning and ignores the stand-in's own lack of mobility.
"I really don't want to poke~"
This wonderful coincidence made Qin Zhibo a little excited, because the significance of this discovery is so important.
Originally, the stand-in was just a learning machine and could do nothing but learn.
But now, as long as there is a puppet as the body of the Stand, I can use the Stand's learning and growth ability to do some things.
Theoretically, as long as your puppetry proficiency level is high enough, the strength and agility of the stand-in user will reach double A in strength and speed in another sense!
Sure enough, high growth attribute is the way to go!
However, the puppet also has a disadvantage, that is, the puppet has a health bar. Once the health bar is cleared, it will enter a 7-day cooling period.
Qin Zhibo had not calculated how resistant the puppet was to beating, but it had already "died" three times.
Once he was bitten to death by a spider in a spider lair in Tottori Prefecture, another time was bitten to death by Jubei the bear in the mountains, and the most recent time was scratched to death by Royger in the Twin Skyscrapers.
It can also be said that the puppet saved Qin Zhibo's life three times.
Qin Zhibo patted his brother's shoulder and put the puppet back into the system.
As the puppet disappeared, the stand-in remained in place as if filtered out by filter paper.
Although the puppet technique is very useful for the combination of [substitute + puppet], Qin Zhibo does not intend to let it practice this tonight.
In fact, ever since I returned from the United States, the publisher has been urging me to publish the secret chapter of "At the Mountains of Madness".
To be honest, Qin Zhibo is not short of money now. If he really writes novels to make money - it is okay, but it is not necessary.
But with the substitute messenger, everything is different.
This thing can completely write a book for yourself, after all, your own skills and the avatar's skills are shared with each other when learning.
Qin Zhibo, by "sacrifice" the lives of three writers, acquired level 3 art and craft (writing), which is enough to stand in for a messenger to complete a novel of good quality.
Of course, the theme of the novel still has to be based on Qin Zhibo’s ideas, just like a proposition composition.
Qin Zhibo gave up the boss's chair to the stand-in, took out paper and pen from the drawer, and placed them on the table.
"Just write about Mountains of Crazy"
The stand-in skillfully picked up the ball pen on the table and started writing.
[Target Skill: Arts and Crafts (Writing)]
【Start learning】
【Currently learning.】
The title given by Qin Zhibo was "Crazy Mountains", and sure enough, the substitute wrote a title of "Crazy Mountains" at the beginning of the paper.
It's just that the handwriting of the stand-in is very ugly, twisted like a chicken claw. It's pretty good if you can understand it.
Qin Zhibo guessed that this was probably because he still lacked a skill in calligraphy, which made the substitute's writing very unsightly.
Unable to find the dying calligrapher, Qin Zhibo could only make do and wait for the substitute to finish writing before printing it out.
Fortunately, the content written by the stand-in is indeed Mountains of Madness, which is similar to what Qin Zhibo asked Danforth in Arkham Asylum in the United States.
This is not a simple story narration, but with some rhetorical techniques and artistic processing, it is enough to be called a novel.
The writing level of level 3 is indeed not enough.
Qin Zhibo nodded assuredly, walked to the chair opposite the desk and sat down.
Just now, Qin Zhibo not only took out the pen and paper, but also took out "Senma Kyousuke's notes" from the drawer.