Glowing Cube

After watching the puppet end the fight that quickly, Max became disappointed; he was never able to see the capabilities of the puppet in a battle.

The only one he saw was when its hand that separated from its body. It shot out without any warning.

From the hand piercing through the water user's chest, and the smooth penetration of it, Max could only imagine the force around it.

Even he wasn't sure how he would defend against it. The only way he could think of was stopping time to move away and dodge it.

Though he also has the Reverse Time so he could heal himself fast enough to around one second before it happened when he was still unscathed.

However, it was too dangerous. Max wasn't someone who would play with his life like that, so that was definitely out of the picture.

Now he was watching the puppet reach down to the water user's chest. Max couldn't see it clearly since some of the fallen debris blocked his vision.

He also couldn't get nearer as the walls were broken down, and the light outside was shining in. No matter how dark his suit is, he will be exposed, and Max only planned to be a spectator today.

There was no point in trying to meaninglessly fight a puppet that might be a disposable one.

And since the fight ended fast, he wasn't able to learn of anything. Max was still considering whether it's only the controller's skill that's making the puppet lifelike or the puppet was a product of the skill.

Max tried to check it with the Weakness Reader, but it only told him that its weakness was its owner, which was quite useless.

Hearing a noise in front, Max focused his eyes to see the puppet holding a cube glowing in a blue hue as it secured the object in a small compartment on his chest.

"I finally got it!"

"How many have I got already?"

The puppet seemed to be laughing while its face wasn't moving, which was a weird sight to look at.

"Where is my next destination?"

The puppet stopped moving like it's puppeteer stopped controlling it when all of a sudden, the time stopped.

Max wanted to have a closer look at it, using one of his Time Stop to have some time to inspect the puppet.

Reaching the puppet, the first thing he did was to touch the skin on its arm, feeling it with his hands and comparing it with his.

Max became surprised when he confirmed that it doesn't have any difference compared to the real one.

He tried pulling it to take a sample, but he was unsuccessful. It felt like he was pulling a piece of steel from a steel rod.

It was soft yet hard at the same time as if every part of the skin was connected as a whole, making it impossible to pull a part of it away.

Max couldn't damage it at all. He wanted to try using a streak of his Purple Lightning to it but zipping it a little bit already showed some damage, melting a small area of the surface, so he chose to stop and restored it with his Reverse Time.

Having limited time to inspect the puppet, Max tried to store it inside his Inventory, but strangely it didn't work!

Max thought it was only an object, but he might have been wrong about it. This finding made him extremely curious that he ultimately used his Purple Lightning to open it.

Melting the middle area of it from its head to between its legs, Max split it open, only to find another compartment around the chest area.

It was where he saw the glowing cube was placed. Max tried opening it with his Purple Lightning, but it was too secured only damaging the surface of it.

Max could have opened it if he had more time, but it would take him more than a few minutes to do so and even if he used his remaining Time Stop, thirty seconds wouldn't be enough to break through it.

Now with his remaining seconds, Max used Reverse Time to restore the entire puppet back together.

Since he wasn't able to store it in his Inventory, he would rather not expose himself to the puppet, removing any trace of damage he did to it.

His Time Stop didn't get wasted since he learned quite a few things while destroying it.

Firstly, he might not pierce through it with sharp objects, but he could melt it with a hot weapon which was what his Purple Lightning was good at.

And secondly, it can't be stored in the Inventory so there should be something magical affecting it that Max couldn't understand or something about the skill he knows nothing about.

Finishing the restoration of it and getting it back to its previous position, Max went back to the shadow where he was hiding.

When the time resumed, the puppet stayed motionless until it spoke again, showing no signs of suspicion.

"So this is where I should go next?"

"My next destination is quite far. I suppose I would have to prepare for it first."

In the next instant, the puppet disappeared like it was never there in the first place, confusing Max that after waiting for a few minutes, he threw a stone to the area where it was standing.

After multiple stones being thrown, Max confirmed that it wasn't just invisible, it was gone, long gone.

...

Max was now on his way back, going down the building as he thought of what just occurred back there.

The puppet disappeared. Max guessed that it was recalled by the owner, instantly moving to its owner's location.

That was arguably the best way to escape a dangerous situation and also the worst opponent to have since he would have no way to defeat it if it disappeared.

"The only way to win against it is to destroy it? No, even if it's destroyed, the owner might still be able to recall it."

"So the only way is to find the one controlling it, huh?"

"What a weird skill."

Before going away from the area, Max collected the body of the skill user in his Inventory since he might have a use for it someday and the space inside it was infinite.

This time, the body smoothly went in, causing Max to think about the reason why the puppet didn't go in his Inventory.

While Max was making his way back, walking on the desolate road, he suddenly heard the sounds of cars behind him.

When he looked back, two suspicious people got out of the cars and slowly walked towards him.

Max knew he was currently wearing black clothes and a mask on his face. There was no way two people would approach him just like that.

He backed off the same time they walked forward, not waiting for them to speak, Max used another Time Stop and ran as far away as possible.

Thirty seconds was a lot of time, enough for Max to run back to an area where a lot of people were more concentrated.