Are you here... to give me dolls?

In a forest filled with bones and skeletons, as well as an incredibly eerie castle... the sentence the demonic beauty wearing a black dress had uttered was completely in contrast with the environment around her...

As if a gust of cold wind had blown past him, Ling Chen’s body erupted with goose bumps, and his heart began to beat many times faster.

“Dolls?” Ling Chen could not help but repeat. He looked at the rabbit doll that the girl was holding, and his eyes narrowed. There was a castle in the heart of the Forest of Bones, with a young girl inside... was she the one controlling the skeletons? Was it her that turned this forest into a forbidden place of death... and was it her who had reduced all those people to skeletons and rotting corpses?

“You don’t... have any dolls?” Seeing that Ling Chen wasn’t answering, and that he wasn’t taking out any dolls, the girl’s soft voice held a hint of disappointment. The black light in her eyes grew stronger, and she floated up from the giant skeleton’s knees. She began to descend to the ground, drawing nearer and nearer to Ling Chen. As she came closer, Ling Chen felt that the surrounding light became dimmer and dimmer...

“Then... you... become... a... skeleton doll...”

Her voice was soft and gentle, yet in Ling Chen’s ears it sounded like gusts of terrifyingly evil wind.

Become... a skeleton doll...

These skeletons and corpses strewn across the ground were all her... skeleton dolls?!

“Little master! Quickly run!! Get as far away from her as possible!”

Qi Yue’s voice suddenly appeared in Ling Chen’s mind, shaking him out of his shock. He took a step back and asked, “What’s with this girl...”

“Semi-spirit girl!” Qi Yue replied.

“Semi...spirit girl?” Ling Chen vacantly asked.

“This girl only has half a spirit... no! Less than half. Not only that, but she doesn’t have a true body, sort of similar to me. Although I don’t have a true body, because I reside in the Lunar Scourge, I can borrow the Lunar Scourge’s power to temporarily create a body. However, this girl is much more pitiful than me, because at least I have a complete spirit. A long time ago, she must have taken a lot of damage, causing her body and half her spirit to be destroyed. She probably doesn’t have any memories left of her life, only some personality traits.” Qi Yue quickly explained.

“... So she doesn’t have a physical body, and only half a spirit... so why can I see her?”

“What you’re seeing isn’t her body... but rather, a projection! A projection that can be seen but not touched. As for why she is able to make a projection, I have no idea. However, this isn’t important. Right now, you need to get out of her field of vision, otherwise you’ll definitely die!”

Qi Yue’s voice was extremely serious. As the girl floated closer and closer, Ling Chen felt that the deathly aura became stronger and stronger. However, the castle’s only entrance and exit had been sealed, and he was unable to open it. There was no way to escape.

Semi-spirit girl... the girl didn’t have a body, so she wasn’t a living creature, but her half-spirit still had a bit of consciousness, so she wasn’t entirely an undead either... she was a half living, half dead phenomenon.

“This girl, why does she have a visible projection... she seems like she’s existed for a long, long time...” Qi Yue softly said to herself. She suddenly thought of something, “Before, at a certain place, there was a way to achieve such a result. That method was...”

“Awoooo!!!”

Xiao Hui stood in front of Ling Chen and let out a howl. At the same time, he transmitted information regarding the girl to Ling Chen.

[????]: Type: ????, Level: ????, Grade: ????, HP: ????. An abnormal girl residing in the castle at the heart of the Forest of Bones. She has an unknown history, and only has a damaged spirit and illusionary body. She is always holding a doll, as she holds an almost creepy love for dolls.

Passive Abilities: 1: With an illusionary body, physical attacks have no effect on her, neither do Darkness attacks. Immune to all status debuffs, and can freely float up to 100 metres in the air. 2: ????, 3: ????.

Attack Skills:

[Dark Spike]: Uses Darkness element to create a spike within 20 metres, and can direct the spike to stealthily stab through a single target. Upon being hit, the target has a 5% chance of instantly dying. Usage frequency: Very high.

[Darkness Lock]: Uses Darkness energy to surround the 20 metres around the target, causing the target to be locked by illusory chains. For 30 seconds, the target’s Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Jumping Ability, Hit Rate, Evasion will be reduced by 30%. Usage frequency: Medium

[Underworld Lock]: Uses Darkness energy to surround the 20 metres around the target, locking all active skills of the target for 30 seconds. Usage frequency: Low.

[Sin Lock]: Uses Darkness energy to surround the 20 metres around the target, attacking the target’s spirit, causing them to release the hidden evil side in the hearts and enter the “Berserk” status for 10 seconds, attacking everything around them furiously for 10 seconds. Usage frequency Low.

[Soul Lock]: ????

Ultimate Skills:

[Eternal Eyes of Darkness]: ????

[Doll Bombs]: ????

The information from Xiao Hui all appeared in Ling Chen’s mind. It was very obvious that because the girl was much higher level, or because of her abnormal condition, Xiao Hui’s information was not complete. Her name, stats, most skills and strongest attacks were all unknown. Her description also mentioned that she did not have a physical body, only that she was a ‘semi-spirit girl’.

Why was this semi-spirit girl in such a place, what happened to her before? And also...

“She is always holding a doll, as she holds an almost creepy love for dolls.”

Ling Chen suddenly remembered the first sentence she had said to him...

“Did... you... come... to... give... me... dolls?”

“She probably doesn’t have any memories left of her life, only some personality traits...” was what Qi Yue had told him.

Personality traits... dolls...

This girl, she really was asking him for dolls! If she didn’t get any, she would turn him into a “skeleton doll”, or rather, kill him!

In that case, if he gave her a doll, would she reconsider turning him into a “skeleton doll”?

Ling Chen immediately went through his bag... in any world, dolls were very common objects. The Azure Dragon’s Toy Store had many different types of dolls, and could even customise dolls for customers. However, the market was aimed towards young girls... how could he, a man among men, go to buy this sort of thing and keep it on him... monsters definitely would not drop any either!

As he was desperately looking for dolls in his bag, the young girl had already floated down, and stared at him with her pitch black eyes...

“Turn... into a skeleton doll...”

She raised both hands, and the darkness began to gather around her body, devouring the light around her. A bead of cold sweat trickled down Ling Chen’s face. Although he tightly gripped his weapons, he did not attack, as he was sure that this girl was incomparably scary, and that she could probably destroy him in a split second. However, in return, he would not be able to hit her with his physical attacks.

“Little sister, do you want dolls?” Ling Chen quickly asked. Although she only had half a spirit, she should be able to understand his words. Given her love of dolls, if he could tempt her with his words...

However, his plan completely failed. After speaking, the girl did not reply, but rather shot two rays of darkness towards him. Immediately, he felt as if his body had been crushed by something extremely heavy and extremely solid...

“Ding... you have been restricted by the “Darkness Lock”, your Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Jumping Ability and Evasion have been lowered by 30% for 30 seconds, no effect on your Hit Rate.

“Ding... you have been restricted by the “Underworld Lock”, you cannot use any active skills for 30 seconds.”

Ling Chen: “......”

The Darkness Lock and Underworld Lock hit him so stealthily and unexpectedly that he did not have any chance to react to them. His body became incredibly heavy, and his skills were locked... his physical attacks were useless on this girl, so a decrease to his attack speed didn’t matter to him too much. However, the decrease to his Movement Speed and Jumping Ability pretty much put him one foot in the grave already.

Just as Ling Chen was still in shock, his sense of danger alerted him of something from above. By the time he had looked up, the Dark Spike shooting towards him was only half a metre away from him. Under normal circumstances, with his reaction time and agility, it would be easy for him to dodge this spike. However, he could only sluggishly move as he watched the spike stab into himself...

............

It was over...

Countless experts had died here. This girl’s casual attacks were probably enough to kill him countless times. It seemed that entering here, death was the inevitable outcome... what awaited him for his first death in this game...

After dying, his level would be reset to LV0...

As Ling Chen sighed, the Darkness Spike pierced into his body.

-820.

The number floating above Ling Chen caused him to suddenly open his eyes. Seeing that he didn’t immediately die, he became very shocked and confused.

He had only lost 820 HP... being hit by this girl’s attack, he actually hadn’t been killed!!

This was completely out of Ling Chen’s expectations. He quickly thought... although his physical attacks were useless, perhaps magical attacks would still be of use. Based on her attacks, she was probably a LV30 Lord Boss. With this sort of strength, Xi Ling should be able to kill her easily!

“Xi Ling!!”

Ling Chen moved backwards as quickly as possible, and replenished his HP with a potion. Just as he shouted, Xi Ling shot out a Red Laser towards the girl. Simultaneously, Qi Yue also called out in his mind.

“Don’t attack her!!!!!”

Qi Yue suddenly remembered that the girl was just a projection, but she shouted a bit too late. The Red Laser squarely hit the girl’s body...

-90,750!

A gigantic damage number floated up into the air... with Xi Ling’s current attack power, the Red Laser did about 45,000 base damage. This damage figure that was over 90,000 was obviously because of elemental weakness double damage.

The Red Laser evidently hit the girl’s body, but the red damage figure was not above the girl, but rather above the giant skeleton’s body.

“Oh, shit...” Qi Yue muttered.

Rumblerumble...

Before Ling Chen knew what was happening, the ground began to tremble. It seemed as if the whole Eerie Castle was shaking. The one who was causing this was the gigantic 20-metre-tall skeleton sitting on the platform, which had just begun to move.

An ancient and eerie voice boomed out, attacking Ling Chen’s mind.

“Who... dares... disturb... my... slumber...”