Doll House(3)

The little boy was beautiful as a custom-made porcelain doll, doughy obsidian eyes staring back at them cutely. Outisde the instance, his lovable appearance would have been adored and pampered by all ,but now such simple words were enough to send stinging chills down their spines.

"Do you also want to play dollhouse."

Like a scratched record, the little boy repeated the same invitation over and over again.

And everytime he repeated the sinister words, they could the feel danger levels rising exponentially, a soft thump starting from the floorboards beneath them growing louder and louder and louder.

The walls around them seemed to be collapsing in on each other every second and goosebumps crawled along their skin as childish giggles echoed unseen in their ears.

Maybe if one of them agreed to play, the boy would stop but that also meant guaranteed death to that same person.

No one was selfless enough to sacrifice their lives for unfamiliar strangers whom they just met.

At this point, the walls had started bleeding, foul blood blossoming on the floor - oxygen levels were falling rapidly. Each breathe they took stinged sharply in their lungs. They shuffled hastily- trying to avoid being stained with the disgusting blood but soon the entire room was flooded in the liquid, blobs of ground flesh floating in it like meatballs in soup.

"Hehehhehehehehhehe"

"No one wants to play, no one wants to playyy"

The boy started giggling happily, a beautiful grin spreading across his face. In a sing-song voice, he clapped his tiny hands in glee.

"I'll play."

As if a pause button had been pressed, all movements stopped abruptly. Chu Yi looked dead in the boys eyes unfazed.

The little boy observed him for a good moment before breaking out in a wide, sunny grin.

"I knew you'd play. "

Chu Yi was non-committal, only watching with casual indifference as everything in the room, returned to normal, even the dead players corpse or what was left of her corpse for that matter; had disappeared and the room reverted back to being the same parallel blocks.

The little boy, presumably the little young master had already turned around to leave, dragging the doll dressed in a beautiful red dress with him.

"Dollhouse starts at 5. Remember to be there big brother. Mommy hates when people are late."

His voice was coquettish and sweet and seemed just like the innocent reminder of a well- behaved kid. Not like the particularly dangerous bear child a moment ago.

The others looked at Chu Yi with varying reactions. Some were sympathetic, some were inquiring and some were mocking but they all had defaulted that Chu Yi was going to die.

He didn't care about their gazes however and took the lead walking out of the room.

By the time the rest of them had followed him down to the Hall, the Butler was already waiting impatiently. A distorted scowl marring his already liver mortis like face.

When he saw that they were all here, the scowl grew deeper but in the end he didn't say anything other than throwing them a scalding look

"Today we'll be distributing your duties here at the castle. I'm sure each of you has already known your roles-

Zhao Pengyu with a greater deal of courage than most was the first to interrupt,

"Sorry but we haven't yet been informed of our roles."

The Steward stared at him as if looking at an ignorant imbecile and with a peeved scuff, he spat,

"The dolls in your rooms were dressed according to your roles."

With a harsh jolt, they realized,

Yes.

Each of the dolls had been dressed like the diffrent servants in any castle, and immediately they all furiously tried to recall the costumes of the dolls in their rooms.

Chu Yi remembered that the little doll in his room, had been dressed like a jester. With large red tassels dropping onto its tiny face.

Seeing that they've figured it out, the butler continued,

"The Candle Lit Festival to worship the souls of the 104 children buried on the castle grounds will commence in 6 days. As the temporary servants of the manor, you must do your best to fulfill your tasks or else the children will be unhappy."

There was a slight grimace in his tone, when the butler mentioned the children, a glassy look of fear passed quickly through his beady eyes.

The butler was afraid.

"Alright. Each group will carry out their tasks individually while the rest stay to accompany the Madam and Young Master and protect their safety."

"Carpenters should go up to the forest behind the castle and chop wood to make the alter. Maidservants had launderesses are to clean the toys.

The Kitchen Hand is to help the Carver prepare the meat.

The Jesters should entertain the Madam and Young master.

And the clerks should follow me to sign all the invitation letters to be sent out."

Each task sounded deadly and strange and no one could say that they had a better chance of survival. There was about 3 people to each role, and only Chu Yi's group had two.

Evidently the dead girl, had been a jester.

Surprisingly Zhao Pengyu was together with him, however he looked more or less apprehensive.

He had already percieved that Chu Yi was a strong player but having saved all their lives a moment ago, he couldn't be sure whether he could survive.

If Chu Yi died, that left him alone to face all the dangers to come.

He didn't want to die.

With a sputter, the untimely system made itself known.

[In this instance, you are the temporary servants of the Baron estate tasked to help with the preparations for the Candle Lit Festival.]

[You must ensure that you complete all tasks before the big day and keep the children happy.]

[Main Task issued: Survive for 5 days.]

[Side task issued: Find out the truth of the Baron Estate]

[Hint: The young master really likes beautiful things.]

The hint at the end reminded Chu Yi of the warning at the beginning of his first instance and for some strange reason he got the feeling that the system was subtly trying to make him wary of Ruan Quixi but he had instead become intrigued.

Completely opposite to its intention

He could almost hear the systems cries of grievance at that time.

But the butler's cough pulled him out of his musing.

"The first group today is the Carpenters. The rest of you can stay. "

The people who had been named included one of the newcomers Zhu Pengxing and at that moment he was as pale as a sheet. The rest didn't look good either but managed to follow the butler out the room with composure.

Everyone stared at their backs apprehensively,

"Then..we'll explore?"

Their was nothing else they could do besides that and they once again split off into groups. This time according to their roles in the instance.

Zhao Pengyu, glanced questionably at Chu Yi.

He nodded to acknowledge him and they both set off in search .

There was not much difference in the rooms from the day before and neither was their any unpredictable elements.

Nothing seemed to have changed until Chu Yi got to the 18th room.

In the middle of the room appeared a large, heavy trunk.

It wasn't empty however and they could occasionally discern muffled groans coming from inside the chest and the first thing that popped up in their minds, was that one of the players had been caught.

"Open it?"Zhao Pengyu inquired,

"Mmh."

His instincts didn't scream any danger.

It was not a complicated lock and Chu Yi had it unlocked in mere seconds. But the moment the lock clicked open, Zhao Pengyu eyes widened; he saw what was inside the trunk.

"Ah ..... ah ..... " The child whose body had been broken into a distorted shape in order to fit inside the box let out a faint groan. Her body was almost completely twisted around, stuffed into a snug fit inside the trunk in front of them. It was hard to ascertain if she was alive or not just by looking at her.

Chu Yi frowned at the sight of this.

Zhao Pengyu was about to step forward, wanting to take the child out, Chu Yi reached out an arm to stop him, "There's no need, she is dead."

Zhao Pengyu, "What ... but ... she ... "

Chu Yi "Look at her neck."

Zhao Pengyu looked at it and found that the child's neck was bent at an abnormal angle. If a normal person had their neck bent at this angle, they would have already been dead. But inside the shuttle, made everything impossible, possible

She's one of the 104 beggar children.

Zhao Pengyu had nothing to say and could only watch with some dread as the little girl in the trunk twisted pitifully, tongue rolling about outside, groaning helplessly.

But there was no precedent of helping ghosts in the instance and Zhao Pengyu wasn't about to become a heretic.

Ding- Ding -Ding Dong

At the same time that Zhao Pengyu slammed the trunk closed heartlessly, the clock outside striked.

5 o'clock

Zhao Pengyu immediately swiveled to look at Chu Yi worriedly,

"Are you really going to that young master's room?"

Chu Yi could guess what he was worried about but he didn't care anyways.

"Its not like I can 'not' go"

Leaving behind this rhetoric, he turned away heedlessly, footsteps being guided imperceptibly to the young masters room.