Lying on the sofa was a wooden doll in the shape of a little girl.

The doll was close to half a meter tall, its whole body wooden, its surface painted a skin-tone color close to that of a human. In its left hand it held a box cutter, in its right a TV remote, and around its neck hung a string with a cross-shaped key.

The doll was wearing a red dress, with a brown wig on its head, two braids, blush on its cheeks, and a bright, lively smile.

Have to say, the doll’s overall craftsmanship was quite exquisite.

Its eyeballs, ears, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and even each individual finger could move independently,

more realistic than a Barbie doll,

yet lacking some of the "life" of a modern BJD (Ball-jointed Doll).

Under the gloomy glow cast by the TV screen, it looked ghostly and terrifying.

Clang—

Li Ang’s chopping motion with the meat cleaver was blocked by the doll’s right arm holding the remote.

Not only did the blade fail to chop off any wooden chips, it was instead like hitting solid steel, making the cleaver tremble slightly and his wrist ache.

Ka, ka.

The puppet jerked its neck bit by bit, raising its head extremely slowly.

The eyelids made of wooden pieces blinked lightly, and the pale green pupils stared fixedly at Li Ang above.

Crack.

The puppet suddenly clenched its right hand hard, crushing the remote control in its grasp.

The television in front of the sofa, as if someone had hit a button, switched back to a snowy screen that kept emitting a "shhh shhh shhh" static noise.

After that, the back of the puppet’s right hand flipped backward with great flexibility, five fingers hooking down, pressing toward the meat cleaver’s blade.

Li Ang pulled back the meat cleaver without hesitation to avoid having his weapon snatched,

while his foot stomped hard on the floor and his body retreated several steps in a burst, flashing into the dining room.

Ka, ka.

The wooden doll in the red dress stood up from the sofa with stiff, robotic-dance-like movements, its body still facing the TV, but its head suddenly snapped ninety degrees left without any warning, staring at Li Ang.

So this is the "threat" mentioned in the mission objective hint, the one that can potentially cause fatal damage...

Looking at this inexplicably eerie doll, Li Ang didn’t rush to attack. Instead, he opened his mouth and tried to negotiate, "Hello?"

From the information he had gathered earlier, the character Li Ang was playing was likely the male owner of this house.

Facing this doll, there might be a solution other than combat.

"..."

The doll stood motionless on the sofa, its left hand still gripping the box cutter, completely unmoved by Li Ang’s words.

"Little girl, you don’t seem very willing to talk, huh?"

Li Ang put on a professional-looking friendly fake smile. "How old are you, little sister? Ever been to school? What meds are you on now?"

"..."

The doll remained silent, no reaction at all.

"Little sis, how about we put the knife down first, okay?"

Li Ang said with a fake smile. Although this script mission restricted players’ skills and equipment, the title ability of [Delver] was still in effect,

displaying the doll’s inner secret as: [I hate what I am now]

Hate what she is now?

Does that mean the doll wasn’t originally a doll, but was transformed from a living person or something else?

Or is it simply that the doll thinks she looks ugly?

Li Ang’s mind raced, and he immediately said, "If you can tell me how to get to the second floor, I’ll help you with some maintenance and care.

Don’t be fooled by how I look now—back in the day I was a professional doll maker with a great reputation in the community.

Judging from the noise I heard when you were moving just now,

your joints haven’t been maintained for a long time, right?

Even dolls have to stay refined and pretty on their own, y’know.

My suggestion is to use some Clin wipes first to clean your joints,

then use joint pads, put them inside the joints to prevent wood wear,

and then we’ll do a de-yellowing and sanding on your surface, and finally redo your face-up and body blushing,

I guarantee you’ll become the most beautiful doll who drinks dew, eats nectar, and walks on rose petals..."

Crack!

The doll in the red dress suddenly twisted its head, raised its arm, and pointed the box cutter at Li Ang.

Still want to fight, huh?

Li Ang’s expression instantly darkened, and his tone turned nasty. "Little sis, I’d advise you to behave yourself. See this meat cleaver in my hand?

I held back just now because I didn’t want to hurt you, but if you insist on being my enemy, then I’ll have no choice but to..."

Before he could finish, the doll suddenly swung the box cutter in its hand.

He saw the thin blade of the box cutter extend a two-meter-long narrow blade of compressed air,

with a ripping sound,

the sofa, TV, and coffee table were all cleanly cleaved in two by the air blade.

The coffee table collapsed with a crash, the upper half of the TV fell to the ground, and the lower half still standing kept spitting out electric sparks.

"Fine, you’re ruthless."

Seeing this, Li Ang unhesitatingly stowed away the meat cleaver and baseball bat, turned around, and ran.

What a joke. This doll even learned the legendary ranged Fighting Energy slash.

That strike just now was clearly the System’s way of telling him he couldn’t go head-to-head with it, giving the player some time to run.

Li Ang fled from the dining room toward the kitchen, and out of the corner of his eye he caught the doll jumping down from the sofa, hopping quickly toward him in pursuit.

While running, Li Ang kept hurling objects like plates and stools at the doll,

all of which were effortlessly chopped to pieces by the box cutter radiating visible blades of aura, scattering as fragments across the floor.

Moreover, this doll seemed to possess intelligence, deliberately avoiding the doors along the way,

refusing to follow Li Ang’s intention of destroying certain fixed set pieces—like the bathroom door, garage door, and the French windows in the side hall, etc.

Li Ang made a full circuit around the house. Although the doll’s damage output was terrifying, its movement speed wasn’t fast,

allowing him to discover more information about the house along the way.

For example, on the other side of the first floor, to the right of the living room, there was another red wooden door,

with no doorknob or keyhole on it, only a circular recess in the center of the door that looked like it was meant to hold something.

In addition, Li Ang also discovered that behind the living room there was indeed a corridor staircase leading to the second floor,

but in the middle of the stairs stood a heavy, silver-white steel gate blocking the way.

"What’s that supposed to mean?

What kind of family would deliberately install a steel gate inside their own house?

Even if you’re into doomsday survival, this is a bit over the top, right?"

Just as Li Ang was pondering, his heart suddenly throbbed violently again,

as if a giant hammer had slammed hard into it.

Bang!

Li Ang’s face instantly turned pale. His left hand loosened reflexively and pressed against his chest. The baseball bat, losing its restraint, fell freely and hit the floor with a thud.

The pain in his heart was so intense that all his limbs and bones lost control,

his legs stumbled and his body pitched forward, crashing to the ground,

while behind him, that doll was still slowly and steadily approaching, continuously waving its deadly box-cutter blade.

How could this...

Li Ang used his left elbow to barely prop himself up from the floor,

The stabbing pain in his heart wasn’t something a player could control; it should be part of this script mission’s own settings.

Ever since he entered the script, he was sure he had already finished the early information-gathering phase, and he hadn’t made any mistakes in his decisions—or rather, he had just entered the script not long ago and barely had any chances to make decisions at all.

If he ruled out the possibility of player error,

then the current predicament could only be one of those so‑called preset phases of the script mission.

In other words, under the current conditions, there definitely existed a theoretically viable way out.

Where would that way out be...

Li Ang subconsciously took out the two items he’d obtained after entering the script mission from his pocket:

a metal padlock and a high‑power flashlight.

At the same time, an intense burning pain spread from the back of his left hand—as if being seared—while a black, worm‑like, distorted English tattoo appeared out of thin air on the back of his left hand,

displaying: [Use the flashlight]

Where did this tattoo come from?

Use the flashlight?

How?

Was the flashlight indestructible, tough enough to block the blade aura from the puppet’s utility knife?

Or maybe...

Li Ang narrowed his eyes, and the instant the puppet was about to rush him, he double‑clicked the button on the base of the flashlight.

The flashlight first burst out a beam of white light,

and then, because Li Ang had clicked twice,

the flashlight immediately switched to Strobe Riot Mode,

rapidly flashing, emitting a dizzying strobe glare.

Something bizarre happened. Faced with the strobe light from the flashlight, the wooden puppet’s movements slowed again and again,

and after a few seconds, it froze on the spot, motionless.

The pain on the back of Li Ang’s hand flared up again as the twisted tattoo surfaced once more: [The flashlight can Seal them for twenty minutes. Each time you use it, the Seal duration is halved. Hurry up and find a way to get to the second floor]

Flashlight... Seal...

Li Ang furrowed his brows deeply. While keeping the high‑power flashlight trained on the wooden puppet, he raised his head and shouted toward the house, "Hello?

Is anyone there?

Who are you people?"

...

The house was dead silent, no response at all, and the tattoo on the back of his hand neither faded nor continued to update.

Li Ang stood where he was and waited for a moment. Seeing no change, he had no choice but to walk forward and study the Sealed puppet.

Up close, the smiling wooden puppet looked even more eerie and horrifying.

Li Ang reached out to pull the utility knife from its hand, but it wouldn’t budge at all.

The puppet itself felt like it had been hit with a freezing spell, solid as steel, welded firmly to the ground, impossible to destroy.

Only the Cross-shaped Key on the puppet’s neck

could move,

probably because it wasn’t part of the puppet’s body.

Li Ang took the Cross-shaped Key from the puppet’s neck and weighed it in his hand.

On the entire first floor of the house, the only door with a cross‑shaped keyhole was the wooden door that led to the garage.

"So if you want to get to the garage, you have to encounter the puppet first..."

Li Ang muttered, shifting the strobing flashlight slightly aside.

After confirming that the puppet wouldn’t move even out of the beam, he switched the flashlight back to the less eye‑searing constant‑on mode, stood where he was and scanned around,

then found a medium‑sized ceramic flowerpot, pulled out the ornamental plant growing inside, and dumped out the soil,

covering the puppet with the overturned pot and placing some shattered glass from the broken coffee table on top.

This way, even if the puppet woke up, Li Ang would hear it immediately from a distance.

The mysterious tattoo claimed the flashlight’s beam could Seal them for twenty minutes, with each Seal halving the duration,

but Li Ang wasn’t about to fully trust what a tattoo said.

There were far too many strange and uncanny things in this house.

He—or rather, the character he was playing—why did his heart seize up in pain from time to time?

Why was the TV broadcasting programs from the real world?

If this was happening in the real world, then why hadn’t any neighbors called the police after hearing the commotion in the house?

Too many things were suspicious, too little information to go on, and thinking too deeply about it would just lead to overcomplicating things.

Li Ang shook his head, cleared the clutter from his mind, took the Cross-shaped Key, went down the hallway to the garage door, and used the Cross-shaped Key to unlock it.

Knife in hand, he cautiously pushed open the wooden door,

and saw that the light in the garage was on.

The garage was neither big nor small. On both walls, a cross‑grid of wire mesh had been nailed up, and all sorts of tools hung from the mesh,

such as chisels, hammers, saws, cotton string, wrenches, and so on.

There were also tennis rackets, ping‑pong paddles, and a golf bag.

Parked in the middle of the garage was a silver‑white mid‑size car.

"A Chevy SUV?"

Li Ang frowned and immediately thought of the news he’d just heard on the living‑room TV.

There had been a serious car accident in Carmel Town: a Chevy SUV had unexpectedly Lost Control while driving and collided with a motorcycle.

Could this be the very vehicle from the news?

Li Ang circled the SUV once but didn’t see any signs of a collision on the body. The paint looked brand new; there were no traces of a repaint to cover up a hit‑and‑run.

"A hint, or just a coincidence?"

Li Ang narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, "Could it be that the homeowner I’m playing ran over and killed a motorcyclist and then fled the scene, causing the victim’s death?

The guy on the motorbike turned into a vengeful spirit and came for my head?

But there are no impact marks on the car.

Or is it just a coincidence, and I’m overthinking it..."

He carefully inspected the SUV and found a square wooden box placed on the driver’s seat. There seemed to be some pattern printed on the right side of the box,

but it was hard to see clearly through the window glass.

Unlike the floor‑to‑ceiling windows and the back door of the house, the SUV did not carry a [Cannot Enter] System prompt.

Li Ang tried the car door and found it locked, so he took a length of cotton string from the tool rack and tied a slipknot in the middle,

then pinched both ends of the string with his fingers

and gently fed it down through the gap in the driver’s door of the SUV,

pulling both ends left and right to lower the string gradually into the car.

Next, he used the slipknot in the middle of the string to loop around the interior door lock,

pulled on the string so the slipknot tightened and cinched the lock,

and finally lifted the string upward, popping the door open.

"I’m rusty. Back when I was younger, opening a door like this didn’t even take fifteen seconds..."

Li Ang grumbled as he pulled the handle and opened the door, immediately catching a strong whiff of lavender air freshener from inside the car.

He checked the interior; the car was very clean and there were no keys inside. In the glove compartment were several photos, identical to the framed one in the side room—family portraits of four,

and just like before, the children’s faces were missing.

Aside from that, there was nothing suspicious in the car’s interior,

leaving only the wooden square box on the driver’s seat.