The Crawling “GIFT”

Hearing the noise coming from the second-floor bedroom, Ye Shengge’s furrowed brows pulled even tighter.

That sound didn’t ring with the sharp clarity of a small object hitting the floor; it was a heavy, dull thud—the unmistakable sound of a body falling.

But in this villa, aside from his childhood friend, the giant, and himself, there was no one else. The idea of someone falling on the second floor simply didn’t make sense.

It couldn’t be one of those dolls that can’t speak or move, right?

That made even less sense.

Ye Shengge remembered clearly that when he was moving the dolls, he had found it too much of a hassle to carry them upstairs. He had dispersed them all into the guest rooms on the first floor. There shouldn’t have been a single doll in the master bedroom on the second floor…

The more he thought about it, the stranger it felt.

Seeing this, the system offered a helpful reminder: [Do you remember the doll that was on your bed when you first entered this dungeon? The naked one that was clinging to your waist?]

The moment those words were spoken, Ye Shengge suddenly realized what he had forgotten.

When he first arrived in this world, his very first action was to observe his surroundings with total concentration. Seeing nothing unusual and finding himself in an ordinary bedroom, he had relaxed. Just as he was about to get out of bed, he realized something was pinning him down.

He had been terrified by the thing circling his waist and didn’t dare look back. It took a massive amount of mental preparation before he dared to turn around, only to find a doll that wasn’t wearing a single stitch of clothing.

Remembering this, Ye Shengge’s emotions became incredibly complicated.

How could I forget something so important? He had left that naked doll alone in the bedroom for so long without even giving it a shirt.

It’s over, it’s over. Would that doll—the one the dollmaker had just created and supposedly cherished—hold a grudge against him for this?

If he put himself in the doll’s “shoes,” the situation was indeed suffocating.

To make matters worse, the childhood friend and the giant seemed to think the situation wasn’t chaotic enough. Hearing the commotion from the upstairs bedroom, they exchanged a look and reached a simultaneous decision.

“Shengge, would it be convenient for us to go up and take a look at your bedroom?” Wen Jishi asked softly.

He heard the noise coming from his neighbor’s room and felt a strange sense of unease—a premonition that whatever was about to happen would exceed his limit of acceptance, making him instinctively want to avoid it.

But he hadn’t forgotten Peng Biao’s earlier warning. Worried that the noise was related to the powerful “dirty thing” Peng Biao sensed, he suppressed his inner turmoil and decided to check the bedroom.

Peng Biao felt too embarrassed to suggest something so intrusive to the beautiful youth, but after Wen Jishi spoke up, he followed with a nod. He stared expectantly at the boy, hoping he would agree.

He didn’t want anything to happen to the sweetheart he had finally found.

Peng Biao was confident that if the thing in the bedroom really was an evil spirit, he could disperse it and ensure it had no chance of harming the youth.

However, under the eager gaze of four eyes, the person in question rejected them without a hint of hesitation.

The boy’s face was exquisite, his voice was soft and delicate, but the words coming out of his mouth were infuriating.

“Don’t you think this request is a bit rude? I’ve said it before—I don’t believe in that superstitious nonsense. Even if I did, there’s nothing in my bedroom, let alone any ‘dirty things’ appearing in my home.”

After speaking, the youth even made a provocative gesture, pointing toward the exit: “The two of you, please see yourselves out.”

He was truly being maddeningly stubborn.

If anyone else had treated them with this attitude, neither Wen Jishi nor Peng Biao would have bothered to help. Even if the person regretted it later and begged on their knees, they wouldn’t have spared them a glance.

But because the person facing them was Ye Shengge, they couldn’t just walk away.

Wen Jishi’s face was full of gravity: “This isn’t a small matter. What if something really happens?”

However, the youth, acting like a newborn calf that doesn’t fear the tiger, failed to appreciate his childhood friend’s good intentions. Hearing this, he felt Wen Jishi was overthinking and became impatient: “I didn’t realize you had started believing in this stuff too.”

Peng Biao, hearing this exchange, stood silently to the side, not even daring to breathe too loudly for fear of being targeted by the angry youth.

He was afraid of hearing hurtful words from the boy’s mouth.

Fortunately, the youth was focusing all his energy on sniping at Wen Jishi and gave him no attention at all.

This made Peng Biao feel relieved, but also a bit empty.

The argument eventually ended with Ye Shengge’s victory and the two men’s compromise.

Before being kicked out, Peng Biao hesitated for a few seconds. He huddled close to the youth and handed him a business card, his face turning red as he stammered: “If… if anything strange happens, you can come find me.”

Seeing the youth’s disdainful look, he quickly added: “Please, don’t throw it away yet. Even if you don’t like it, keep it. You can find me for anything.”

The youth’s voice was bratty as he countered: “Anything? Can I call you for errands then?”

In the modern world, anyone knows you can just order a delivery service for errands. It’s fast and efficient. There’s no need to ask someone else to take time out of their day to do it.

The youth was clearly playing dumb just to toy with him.

But the person being toyed with didn’t get angry. Instead, his eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly: “Yes! I can do that!”

This way, he would have an excuse to see his sweetheart often. It was wonderful!

As for the “wolf” who had been forced to the side—feeling a stomach full of grievances while watching the wolf he had invited into the house try to snatch away his favorite neighbor—his face turned pitch black. He asked Peng Biao coldly: “Are you leaving or not?”

“Then we’ll be going. Remember to contact me if anything happens.” Peng Biao gave the youth one last lingering look before reluctantly turning to leave.

The door slammed shut.

The living room instantly returned to its previous silence.

Ye Shengge slumped onto the sofa, clutching the business card like a treasure. Gone was the arrogant, disdainful look from before. He whimpered to the system: [Why did you suddenly make me offend Peng Biao? Weren’t we supposed to suck up to him so he’d help suppress the doll bosses?]

The system was also helpless: [Your previous line had a high probability of violating the character persona. Even though Wen Jishi and Peng Biao didn’t notice, we have to be strict to prevent flaws. Otherwise, the one being ‘suppressed’ might end up being you. Taking shortcuts like before is unacceptable; we must follow the requirements strictly.]

Although “suppressing” in this context meant finding a way to keep the host in this world forever, the metaphor was effective. It made Ye Shengge realize the severity of the situation and raised his vigilance to maintain the persona.

Sure enough, Ye Shengge stopped complaining about offending the Heavenly Master. Instead, he said gratefully: [Thank you for the reminder, otherwise I would have been in trouble.]

The system gave a hum of affirmation and added: [I know you wanted to use the ghost from the basement as an excuse to find the Master without breaking character, but that ghost never appeared in the plot. Do you have any thoughts on that?]

It wanted to nudge Ye Shengge toward thinking about the dolls, but…

[I do.] Ye Shengge thought for a moment and asked tentatively: [Are you trying to tell me that perverted ghost is a special existence, so I shouldn’t offend it or tell Peng Biao about it?]

The system was silent for a few seconds before answering slowly: [If you want to think that way, I suppose it’s fine.]

The result was the same—it made the host more cautious. As for who that perverted ghost actually was, the system couldn’t say directly for fear of its permissions being sealed again.

Ye Shengge didn’t know about the system’s restrictions. Hearing its response, he thought he had guessed correctly and felt great. He was about to say more when he was interrupted by another noise from the bedroom.

His face turned white instantly. His happiness vanished as he asked the system tremblingly: [What is making that noise? Is it really that doll?]

This was bad.

He should have waited a bit longer before kicking his childhood friend and the giant out.

The system’s tone became serious: [Detection: Deviation in the doll bosses.]

[What does that mean?] Ye Shengge’s eyelid twitched with an ominous feeling.

System: [It means that some of them might break through their seals early and become able to move and speak…]

This change wasn’t part of the confidential information. For the sake of game fairness, the system had to inform the player so he could prepare for danger.

Almost the second the words fell, a pair of practically perfect hands appeared at the edge of the second-floor hallway.

The fingers were well-defined, hitting every aesthetic mark. They were hands that no hand model could ever hope to match.

If they hadn’t appeared in such a crawling fashion, it would have been perfect.

Seeing the handsome doll—covered in a snow-white bedsheet like Sadako from a horror movie—crawling on the floor and slowly dragging its stiff body forward, Ye Shengge nearly screamed out loud.

No matter how good-looking someone is, they can’t survive this kind of presentation. The doll looked no different from a ghost. The only difference was that the doll had short hair.

What terrified Ye Shengge most wasn’t the appearance, but the fact that the doll, upon hearing his low gasp, didn’t stop. Instead, it accelerated its crawl down the stairs.

It looked like it had encountered something that made it extremely excited. As it sped up, it let out a strange, wheezing sound. As it reached the first step, it suddenly jerked its head up, staring straight at Ye Shengge with a stiff, eerie grin.

The moment he saw that smile, Ye Shengge’s scalp went numb.

His first instinct was: Run!

But the doll, ignoring all pain, suddenly changed its crawling posture and lunged down the stairs. It was much faster than his own stiff legs.

He only had time to turn and take a few steps before his ankle was gripped firmly by something ice-cold.