Hey, first of all, thanks for reading my lousy Machine Translation. To be honest, I’d really like it if you guys corrected the mistakes I made. But please speak nicely and politely. My heart is not strong enough to read your too-harsh comments. Have a nice day. 🙂
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With time running short, everyone quickly gathered back in Viscountess Ning Ge’s room for a brief meeting.
Since entering this Dungeon, the players had been working in pairs on their tasks and hadn’t had a chance to meet up or find out how many total players were participating.
Like the man who had collapsed in the hallway, some had already died silently during the warm-up phase.
During the dance, Ning Ge had noticed two other pairs of players besides her and Pei Han, Teacher Su and Owen.
They took turns introducing themselves.
Names, especially when only spoken and not written down, followed no discernible pattern and were far harder to remember than numbers.
Ning Ge still couldn’t recall them and felt too embarrassed to ask again, so she silently gave everyone nicknames in her head.
The man currently speaking had one obvious trait: he was wearing women’s clothing.
He was tall, not much shorter than Pei Han, with rugged features. Yet he wore a silk dress similar to Ning Ge’s, though it was clearly a size too large.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said helplessly, tugging at the hem of his dress. “This is how it was the moment I entered.”
Ning Ge bit her lip, trying not to laugh.
The System, clearly because the male and female players weren’t paired up during Dungeon entry, had unilaterally assigned him female status.
He received all the same treatment as the female players: a viscountess title, his own room, free movement within the Royal Palace, and the Wooden Puppets treated him with utmost respect, never blocking his path.
The cross-dressing guy’s companion was a delivery man, over half a head shorter than him. He tilted his head back and softly reassured him, “Just make do. We’ll be fine as long as we get through the Dungeon.”
This was the delivery man’s first time in a Dungeon. After enduring several rounds of missions, he still seemed like a frightened little rabbit, not fully adapted.
Among the other pair of players, the man was a “Social Bro” whose flamboyant tattoos—blooming branches and flowers—spread across his neck and the backs of his hands, even peeking out from beneath his ruffled high-neck gown.
His companion was a retired electrical engineer, a stark contrast to him.
Engineer Zheng, his hair gray and uncolored, stood ramrod straight in a purple dress.
Ning Ge knew that despite his age, Engineer Zheng’s ability to smoothly pass the first two missions meant he was no ordinary player.
“What does ‘Sprint Time’ mean?” Engineer Zheng asked the group. “I didn’t click ‘Draw,’ but it automatically set it to three minutes.”
“I did it,” the delivery man said quietly. “I didn’t realize clicking it would change it for everyone.”
Ning Ge looked at Pei Han, knowing his extensive experience in Dungeon would surely provide an answer.
Pei Han caught her gaze. “This is a new Dungeon under testing, so it has some unusual mechanics. I’ve never encountered anything like ‘Sprint Time’ before.”
It seemed to be a new gameplay element.
“Now that everyone knows each other,” Owen chimed in, “our next task is to… create a Little Hatch together…”
“Little Husky,” Engineer Zheng corrected.
“Who cares if it’s human or dog? They’re all pretty similar,” Owen said with a grin. “According to the mission description, we need to make a Wooden Puppet.”
Teacher Su asked, “Is there a place in the Royal Palace to make puppets? Or do we need to leave and find a workshop outside?”
“There must be,” Ning Ge said. “I heard someone say the Queen is the Empire’s finest Puppet Maker and Puppet Master. The palace might have a puppet-making workshop.”
Ning Ge called out, “Iris!”
Iris seemed to be waiting at the door and entered immediately.
“My Lady?” Iris asked softly.
“Take us to the puppet-making workshop in the Royal Palace,” Ning Ge said.
Despite his usual fussiness, Iris didn’t object to going to the Queen’s puppet-making workshop in the middle of the night. He quickly found a long, fringed wool shawl and draped it over Ning Ge’s shoulders.
“My Lady, please put this on. It’s cold at night.”
Everyone followed Iris through the Royal Palace’s corridors in the dark.
Candles blazed in the crystal chandeliers overhead, illuminating the halls in a warm glow. Yet the place remained eerily silent, with no one in sight except the Wooden Puppets, tirelessly standing guard.
Owen whispered to Pei Han, “Strange, why were you so quiet earlier?”
Ning Ge had also noticed this. It was unlike Pei Han, who usually naturally took charge when the group entered a dungeon.
“Oh,” Pei Han replied, “I suddenly realized that following behind others isn’t so bad.”
“If I’m not mistaken, someone stepped forward to lead the dance, just as the Queen said—’willing to take responsibility.’ That triggered this storyline to begin.”
Pei Han smiled at Ning Ge.
“So the subsequent dungeon quests should be related to the Viscountess’s role. Ning Ge will take the lead, and we’ll just follow her storyline.”
Ning Ge looked bewildered.
She had only stepped forward to lead a dance, yet it had somehow triggered a cascade of responsibilities.
“What if no one had stepped forward to lead the dance?” Ning Ge asked.
“We would have drawn randomly,” Pei Han said.
A stained-glass window stood half-open, and a small insect flew in. It circled the rose on Pei Han’s wristband before heading straight for the crystal chandelier.
Pei Han twirled the wristband on his arm. “This is the most comfortable dungeon I’ve ever been in.”
He examined the wristband, as if finding the roses on it no longer fresh. He plucked a rose from a tall vase in the corridor, replaced the old one, and carefully adjusted the shape of the new flower.
Owen: “……”
Ning Ge: “……”
The place where the puppets were made wasn’t downstairs. They had to climb endless spiral staircases all the way to the top of the palace.
After a long climb, they reached the uppermost floor and then ascended to a loft-like space.
Through the diamond-paned window of the pointed roof, they could see not only the square where the sacrificial ball had been held earlier, but also the entire Royal Palace and the twinkling lights of the commoners’ homes beyond.
Iris led them to a door guarded by two wooden puppets and pushed it open.
The room was empty but lit.
It was piled high with all sorts of bizarre items.
Hands lay scattered here and there, feet lay scattered elsewhere, and unfinished heads and various body parts were tossed about in a chaotic mess.
Along one wall stood a row of half-finished puppets of all shapes and sizes. Some cabinets and drawers were left ajar, revealing similar parts stored inside.
Ning Ge heard someone behind her gasp sharply—it sounded like the delivery man.
“This place is downright creepy in the middle of the night,” he muttered.
Ning Ge felt nothing in particular. She simply turned to look at Iris.
She wondered what kind of impression this scene made on the Wooden Puppets, especially on the intelligent Iris. If she were to draw a human analogy, it would be like a factory strewn with human limbs—a place she wouldn’t want to stay for even a minute.
As expected, Iris’s long lashes drooped slightly, and he didn’t look around much.
“I’ll just ask a few questions and let you go,” Ning Ge said reassuringly.
Iris lowered his gaze and replied softly, “It’s fine.”
His docility was heartbreaking.
Ning Ge asked, “Is there anything here we shouldn’t touch?” After all, this was the Queen’s puppet workshop, and she didn’t want to cause trouble and delay her mission.
Iris looked up, a hint of confusion on his face, but still pointed to a massive workbench by the window.
“What’s wrong, my Lady? That’s where the Queen works. It would be best not to touch anything on it.”
He pointed to a massive wooden table near the door.
“This is the workbench where you, my Lady, usually craft your puppets.”
Everyone: ???
Ning Ge thought: Pei Han was right. The subsequent plot really does involve my character.
“So, I’m a puppet maker?” Ning Ge confirmed with Iris.
Iris’s beautiful eyes widened.
“Are you joking, my Lady? Of course you are a puppet crafter—and a puppet master too! How else do you think I was made? And why would I move?”
Ning Ge: Huh?
So, Iris’s ability to move was because Ning Ge had created him and was controlling him.
Yet Ning Ge didn’t feel like she was controlling him at all.
“Every Lady in the Royal Palace can craft and control puppets,” Iris said proudly, “but the Queen and you, Vincountess, are the most skilled. You won the palace’s annual puppet maker competition last year.”
“Then what’s Little Husky?” Ning Ge asked, deciding to ask everything at once.
“Little Husky?” Iris replied. “I don’t know. Is it a dog?”
It seemed he genuinely didn’t know.
Owen picked up a table leg from the large workbench and swung it like a weapon.
“So, we just need to piece together these limbs and make a puppet?”
Engineer Zheng replied calmly, “I don’t think so. Firstly, all the wooden puppets here are animated. I suspect our creation needs to be animated to be considered successful. Secondly, this puppet has a name—Little Husky. There must be a reason for that.”
Owen laughed. “Making them move won’t be easy. I can’t figure out how they move at all.”
Unlike ordinary puppets, they had no strings connecting them and weren’t controlled by humans. Even more terrifying, they seemed to possess consciousness, able to determine their own actions.
“If we don’t even know the principle, how can we make it?” Owen turned to Pei Han.
