Open doll shop in escape games

The gentle sunlight was shining, but the long street paved with boulders was deserted, and there were not many people in sight.

Yan Lou looked away from the shop signs on both sides, squeezed the dark paper in his hand, and knocked on the door of the doll shop.

"Squeak-"

The red carved wooden door opened a crack, and a gust of cool wind rushed in. Yan Lou lowered his head slightly, and saw a pair of erected rabbit ears.

This height is really refreshing!

Yan Lou looked at the creature who opened the door with satisfaction. To be precise, he was not a creature, but a humanoid doll.

The puppet has the appearance of a young man, wearing a small white suit and a top hat. The suppressed silver-white curly hair is raised from the edge, and a pair of furry rabbit ears protrude from the sides. It shakes with his movements, It looks soft and harmless.

Yan Lou handed out the note, and with a gentle smile, the coldness of the facial features was diluted, "Hi, I'm here to apply for the store manager."

The rabbit-eared puppet blinked its ruby-like round eyes, and soon smiled, "It's Mr. Yanlou, please come in!"

"My name is Hughes." The rabbit-eared doll led him into the doll shop, "I've been here since the doll shop was established, and I'm considered the housekeeper of the shop. If you have any questions, you can ask me anytime."

Hughes winked at him playfully, "Even if it's a relationship problem, I can help you as a consultant."

"I don't think it will be useful in this regard." Yanlou said with a smile.

He looked around the shop, the doll shop was very spacious, the lights above his head were dim and gentle, and the marble floor under his feet was as smooth as a mirror.

Right in front is a black wooden cabinet similar to a cash register. There are several rows of wooden display racks on the left and right sides. On the racks are various types of dolls, including cotton, plastic, ceramic, and stone carvings...the variety is beyond amazing. Yan Lou's surprise.

Standing in front of the display rack, he lightly stroked the sharp beak of the carved wooden eagle. The eagle's eyes moved slightly, and it turned its head towards his fingers.

Yanlou quickly withdrew his hand, looked at the eagle that had calmed down again, and asked with great interest, "Is this a doll?"

"Yes, what you see now are all dolls." Hughes explained, "The concept of dolls in escape games is relatively broad, and everything has animal, human, humanoid and artificially created forms, and is not naturally formed with intelligence. Living things are counted as dolls."

This sounds a bit broad, Yan Lou asked: "Can you elaborate?"

"In your world, an interpretation of a doll is a human figure made of wood, clay, etc. The dolls you come into contact with are mostly made of cloth, cotton or plastic, and the image has also expanded to include animals, humanoids, and anime virtuals. Etc. The escape game combines the concepts of both, and expands it, and finally the content covered in this scope is under our jurisdiction."

"For the sake of convenience, the first-generation store manager divided dolls into three categories according to their materials." Hughes explained to him, "Dolls made of soft materials such as cotton, cloth, and fur are called soft dolls; stone, clay, wood, Bone, plastic and other materials need to be carved and shaped in the process of making dolls, so they are called plastic dolls; the third category is some more special materials, such as paper dolls, scarecrows, etc., they are called parity.”

"As for the image of the doll, there is a term in your world called the uncanny valley effect."

I have heard the word Yanlou, and it generally means that if an object has a certain similarity with human beings, then we may love it, but if the similarity exceeds a certain limit, then human beings will easily hate it. .

"Based on the nature of escape games, most of the dolls in the game are humanoid dolls, and in terms of strength, dolls that are close to humanoid are often stronger than other forms." Hughes said, "What you see now is just a doll shop. An inconspicuous small part, the real core of the doll shop is not here."

Hughes walked around the wooden counter, and then pressed the handle of the seat. The wall behind him suddenly cracked, revealing a spacious corridor.

"Please come with me." Hughes walked towards the promenade, and the large glass windows on both sides brought in plenty of light, "This is just the front hall of the doll shop, and it usually faces the residents in the city. Super dolls can be sold here."

Yan Lou asked, "Do dolls have levels?"

"Of course, dolls and dungeons have levels." Hughes said, "Dungeons are roughly divided into five levels: S, A, B, C, and D, while dolls are divided into S, A, B, C, D, E, and F Seven levels. F-level dolls can basically only be sold in the front hall, and E-level dolls cannot be used as the core of the dungeon, but they can participate in the dungeon.”

"The dungeon that is directly managed by the doll shop is the dungeon with the doll as the core, that is, the dungeon with the doll as the boss."

Hughes said seriously: "As the store manager, all you need to do is manage the existing dolls and copies, and continue to expand our strength, create more and more powerful dolls, and create more copies."

Yan Lou nodded in understanding. As a manager, it is only natural to expand the territory on the basis of the established.

Through this long corridor, they came to an empty hall, and there were corridors extending in three other directions.

He saw a garden outside the window on the right, with glass greenhouses, landscape pavilions, rockery, swings and log cabins.

Hughes introduced to him one by one: "The hall and the garden on the right are the activity areas, and the dolls will usually come out to let the wind go. Going forward is the apse, the apse has the living area of ​​the store manager, and there are all levels of dungeons. Dolls. On the left is the store manager’s studio, which is divided into three areas.”

He pushed open the door on the left. Behind the corridor were three arched doors, two of which were locked.

"These two doors can only be opened by the store manager. One is the store manager's studio, which stores the materials collected by the previous store managers, as well as some semi-finished dolls; the other is the contact point for the escape game. I will let you know the specific situation." Not sure."

Hughes led him to the open door, which contained three portals of light.

"These three teleportation arrays are respectively connected to various cities in the dark world, all copies of the escape game, and the contact points of the game in each world."

"You said... various worlds?" Yan Lou raised his eyes, his eyes couldn't hide the color of surprise.

About half a month ago, Yan Lou suddenly received that piece of paper. It was a letter of employment that looked like a joke, and he was hired to be the manager of the doll shop in Angers City, the dark world.

If it wasn't for the magical power attached to the paper, Yan Lou would have probably regarded it as a prank and thrown it into the trash can.

In his previous cognition, there was no dark world, and there was no so-called escape game.Now he has seen everything inconceivable with his own eyes. Although strange things are often frightening, to Yanlou they are more of a novelty and an opportunity to change the status quo.

"Escape games span hundreds of worlds, large and small. Among them, the fantasy world, the dark world, and the world of yin and yang that jointly established escape games are called the three giants of escape games." Hughes told him, "After that, the game gradually expanded, In addition to the Big Three, the more important big worlds include the world of magic, the world of cultivating immortals, the world of science and technology, the world of doomsday, and the wild world."

"You were born in the world of yin and yang, where humans and ghosts coexist. Humans are yang, and ghosts are yin. The game is basically built on the yin part, and living people know very little about the game."

Yan Lou digested the content of his words, lived for 26 years, and died for another 29 years. Only now did he know that the world he lived in was called the world of Yin and Yang.It stands to reason that as a ghost, he belongs to the underworld of the yin and yang realm, but for some reason he has been detained in the human world for many years, so he missed a lot of information.

Hughes continued: "This is the Dark World, ruled by His Majesty Nicholas. Almost all residents are aware of the existence of the game. Dungeons, games, and players are familiar to the residents of the Dark World. Some residents have established independent copies to accept players. , like a doll shop.”

"You may have to live in the dark world for many years in the future, and you will naturally understand this world at that time. What I want to tell you is another thing."

Hughes said with a serious face, "Your Majesty is the veteran of the escape game. Although the manager of the doll shop is directly appointed by the game headquarters, it is also under the jurisdiction of His Majesty Nicholas. Before you officially take office, you need to Go to the palace to meet His Majesty Nicholas, get his approval and get the ring of the store manager."

Yan Lou lowered her eyes slightly, the mole of tears under her phoenix eyes fell in the shadow of her eyelashes, she looked a little cold under the cloudy air.

Hughes was frightened for a moment, but this feeling was quickly diluted by the other party's smile.

Yan Lou smiled and said, "Hughes, can you tell me about His Majesty Nicholas?"

"Of course!" Hughes came back to his senses and comforted him and said, "You don't need to be nervous. Although I didn't have the opportunity to get close to His Majesty, I also learned from the mouths of the previous store managers. Your Majesty is not a harsh person, maybe he It may look a bit serious, but he is an excellent ruler, he has devoted himself to the development of the dark world, and he is very lenient to his subordinates."

"The first store manager, that is, my producer, is also one of the veterans of the escape game, and he is good friends with His Majesty Nicholas. There were only seven cities in the original dark world, and Angos was a remote town. , the first store manager felt that Angos had beautiful scenery and the residents were hospitable, so he stayed here for a while and came up with the idea of ​​building a doll shop.”

"With the doll shop, Angos has gradually developed into a big city, and the dark world has become more prosperous. Therefore, whether it is His Majesty Nicholas or the residents of Angos, almost all of them have goodwill towards the doll shop, even if the doll shop The store manager is an outsider."

Yanlou extracted the key points from his words, "almost" and "outsider", that is to say, there are still people in the dark world who harbor malicious intentions towards the doll shop.

According to Hughes, the doll shop was opened in the territory of the dark world, but the store manager was an outsider directly appointed by the game. Even if His Majesty Nicholas didn't mind, there would always be someone who would be dissatisfied with the airborne.

Yan Lou has encountered this kind of thing before, so he continued to ask calmly at this moment: "According to what you said, doll shops have a special status in Angers City?"

Hughes nodded proudly, "Indeed."

"Because of the existence of the escape game, although the city is managed by the city owner, each city has a leader, that is, the big boss of each city. The leader is the strongest person in the city, in charge of the large dungeon composed of the entire city. has an extraordinary position in it.”

"The doll shop has always been the leader of Angers City. It can be said that all the copies in the city will be under your control."

Yanlou hooked her drooping black hair with her fingertips, and said with a chuckle, "It sounds like a heavy responsibility."

Hughes blinked red eyes and looked serious, "As the store manager, your responsibilities are indeed great, but I believe you can do it."

Yanlou didn't refute, just smiled gently: "Please take me to the palace."