"Thank you, sister-in-law. Is it difficult to learn how to make puppets like those in Wooden Man Village? The village chief said he'd teach us, but I'm afraid we'll embarrass ourselves if we can't do it properly," Eric asked.
The young woman smiled. "It's not hard—just takes some care and patience. Even my six-year-old Nuonuo has already learned how. Nuonuo, come show the guests the puppet you just made," she called to the little girl leaning shyly by the door.
Though a bit bashful, Nuonuo stepped forward at her mother's call, inching over with small steps before pulling a tiny object from her pocket.
The players all turned their eyes to the little girl's palm. Resting there was a simple childlike puppet—black thread formed long, draping hair, a dress pieced together from scraps of fabric clothed its frame, and two black dots for eyes were stitched above a red, curved line for a mouth.
New player Kai chuckled. "It's actually kinda cute—ah!"
Before everyone's eyes, the puppet's head twitched ever so slightly. Its coarse, black button-eyes seemed to turn toward the players.
It wasn't just Kai who recoiled. A few players new to horror instances let out startled gasps.
Eric instantly held her breath. A sharp sting flared in her right eye—and for two fleeting seconds, she didn't just see a puppet. She saw a swirling black shadow enveloping it.
She blinked. The figure vanished. Only the puppet remained. As if it had never been there at all.
But Eric knew it hadn't been a trick of the eye. There was something truly strange about the puppet in Nuonuo's hands.
Oddly enough, the players' reaction seemed to delight Nuonuo. Her face lit up with a mix of shy pride.
"My little girl has talent, doesn't she?" the woman beamed. "She made a puppet with *spirit*! That's something extremely rare and precious! Though she's still young, so the most it can do is twitch a little." Her cheeks were flushed with excitement, though she tried to appear modest.
It was the second time the players had heard the term "with spirit." Briael quickly asked, "What does *with spirit* mean?"
The woman answered matter-of-factly, "It means it has spirit—like Nuonuo's puppet. It moves on its own without strings. That kind of skill takes true talent!"
Eric crouched before the little girl and softened her voice. "May I touch your puppet, sweetheart?"
Nuonuo nodded.
It was a risk.
Eric gently brushed a fingertip across the puppet's cheek. The texture was disturbingly lifelike—soft, cold, like the skin of a corpse. Her right eye flared with pain once more. In that instant, she saw the black shadow curl around her hand, clinging longingly for a moment before slinking back into the wooden figure.
Eric felt a chill in her heart but kept her face composed. She retracted her hand with perfect ease.
Forcing a smile, she said warmly, "You're really amazing, Nuonuo. How did you make this?"
Nuonuo opened her mouth to answer, but before she could speak, a pair of hands suddenly reached out toward her. Startled, she clutched the puppet to her chest and darted behind her mother, peeking out from behind the woman's leg.
Eric turned to look at the intruding hands. They belonged to a round-faced male player.
Rowan gave Eric a glance and forced a smile. "Come on, Nuonuo, let your uncle have a touch too."
Terrified, the girl bolted like a rabbit.
"Nuonuo, wait!"
The young woman's smile faded. Clearly displeased with Rowan's lack of manners, she no longer made small talk with the players. Instead, she called her husband and returned home with him.
The remaining players turned on Rowan.
"Why are you so rude? You scared her off!"
"Yeah! We didn't even get a chance to touch it!"
Someone asked Eric how it felt.
"It was… quite soft," she replied. When they kept pressing, she frowned. "I only touched it for a second. If you're so curious, why not catch up to Nuonuo and ask her yourself?"
Eric understood perfectly. Some players held back when she took initiative—hoping she'd spring the traps first.
She didn't mind. After all, she *did* want information. Being proactive before danger arose was the only way to learn anything.
But that didn't mean she enjoyed being hounded with questions.
She stood, made her way to the dining table, served herself some food, and carried it back to her room.
Once inside, she quickly stashed the meal into her supermarket storage, then ate two egg yolk pies and drank some milk. Just then, the curtain lifted and player Ximena entered, also carrying food.
"You're done already?" Ximena looked at the empty bowl in Eric's hands, surprised.
"I always eat quickly. What about you? Why are you in here too?"
Perhaps because of how Eric had helped smooth things over earlier, Ximena had taken a liking to her and was willing to chat.
"It's too noisy outside," Ximena said, settling on the bed to eat.
After she entered, more female players followed suit, each bringing food back to their rooms.
With twenty-one players and only four chairs in the living room, it wasn't exactly comfortable dining.
During dinner, the player who had caused trouble earlier stayed quiet, making for a relatively peaceful meal. Once finished, Eric helped collect the dishes. They left the empty pails by the front door, and the young woman said she'd retrieve them in the morning along with breakfast. No need for players to wash anything.
"So, how do we take showers?" Kai asked.
Despite warnings about the dangers of horror instances, nothing too strange had happened yet. Kai was starting to relax, and now his biggest concern was hygiene.
After all, they'd hiked through the summer heat and were covered in sweat—being sticky was unbearable.
"There's a well in the yard," Gavin said. "If you want a wash, check if there's water in it. But don't wander off alone. Best to stay within view."
Kai was reluctant. They were surrounded by strangers, many of them women. He didn't feel comfortable bathing in the open courtyard. Instead, he decided to draw a bucket of water and wash in the bathroom.
"Let's draw lots," Briael suggested. "The bed fits five sleeping sideways. Tonight, whoever draws the short sticks gets the bed. The other four sleep on the floor. We'll swap tomorrow night. Everyone okay with that?"
No one objected.
Using sharpened twigs as lots, Eric drew one of the short ones—she'd sleep on the bed.
Just as they were about to rest, a scream echoed from the courtyard.
"Go check it out!"
The male players had already gathered around the well.
"What happened?" Briael called.
"There's something in the well," someone answered.
Eric's eyes fell on Kai, who sat collapsed outside the circle of players, trembling in panic. He'd only just joined the game—how unlucky to land in a supernatural instance from the start.
Seeing she couldn't squeeze through to the well, Eric knelt before him and waved her hand. "Kai, right? Are you okay? What did you see in the well?"
Kai was too shaken to reply.
At last, the men finished hauling up the bucket Kai had dropped. As they peered inside, silence fell over them, a cold dread spreading through the air like frost. No one could speak.
Eric managed to push forward and look—and lost her voice as well.
Floating in the bucket was the upper half of a girl, no more than fourteen or fifteen.
She was naked. Her skin was pale and smooth, her face delicate and lovely. Wide eyes stared up at them, her thick black hair soaked and draped across her shoulders, water droplets still clinging to her lashes.
Someone drew in a sharp breath. "What the hell… that's a *puppet*?!"
"…Should we take it out and have a look?" a player muttered, trying to swallow his fear. But none dared to touch it. The puppet was too lifelike.
"I'll do it!" Rowan offered eagerly, rubbing his hands together.
"Better if a female player handles it," Gavin said, stepping in front of him. "It'd be inappropriate otherwise."
The men stepped aside. Rowan clicked his tongue, crossed his arms, and leaned back—though his eyes still lingered on the puppet's chest.
"I'll do it," Briael volunteered, but she couldn't lift it alone.
"It took several of us just to raise the bucket," Gavin said. "We'll need a few more hands."
"Who's helping?" Briael asked.
Ximena was closest, so she stepped in. Eric joined as well, eager to glean information from this mysterious well-dweller.
Together, the three women lifted the puppet from the bucket.
It was *heavy*—like a real corpse.
Having touched Nuonuo's puppet before, Eric wasn't too surprised. If a rough child-made puppet could feel so lifelike, this one—so detailed it made grown men wary—would surely feel like real flesh.
Ximena and Briael both gasped under their breath, startled by the texture.
The trio laid the puppet on the table in the living room. Eric noticed its bare chest and removed her jacket to cover it.
The players crowded around. With the body modestly dressed, the awkwardness faded. All eyes studied the puppet, searching for clues.
It was only the upper half. From the navel downward, the body was missing. Briael had Eric and Ximena help tilt the figure as she crouched to examine the cut.
"It's a very clean slice," she said. Then she rapped her knuckles against the puppet's skin—soft and humanlike to the touch, but the sound was unmistakably wood.
The others took turns touching it, all murmuring the same sentiment: "It's really a puppet… but unbelievably real."
Laid flat, the puppet "sat" on the table, still smiling up at them. That smile made everyone's skin crawl.
"Are we supposed to make *this* kind of puppet? There's no way!" Kai's voice trembled.
Gavin looked troubled. "In the real world, you'd need years of skill to craft something like this. But in a supernatural instance… anything is possible."
The players lined up to examine the puppet. Someone suggested smashing it open. "There might be something hidden inside!"
Briael stared at him like he was an idiot. "Then go ahead."
"…Well, I mean, we could all smash it… together?"
"You want to smash it? Then do it yourself. Come on, we're going to bed."
The female players returned to their rooms. The men drifted off too, one after another.
Only two male players remained.
The one who suggested smashing the puppet—Rowan—noticed Gavin still there. Thinking Gavin might be on board, he asked, "So, should we smash it with our hands or grab a tool? I saw a rusty hoe by the wall outside. Still looks usable."