Logically speaking, the people outside the coffin pit should have gathered immediately when I called out - especially since their master Daphne was still down here. But no one answered even when I shouted myself hoarse. I realized at once that my voice couldn't be transmitted outside.
What's going on in this coffin pit? Not only are there two Daphnes, but my voice can't reach the outside. It's too bizarre.
"You two stop arguing. Climb out with me and let the houseguests identify which one is their first lady," I said to the two of them.
Looking at their identical faces, I felt my hair stand on end. One was real - but what the hell was the fake one? Could this coffin pit actually grow another beauty? And this female corpse... the more I looked, the more bizarre it seemed. The tattoo hadn't even moved before the needle started attracting moths. Moreover, I seemed to smell fragrance coming from this beautiful zombie's body.
The corpse that had just been tattooed already carried a stench of decay, yet this one actually emitted fragrance. What exactly was going on?
"Let's go! Who's afraid of who?" The two Daphnes kept clamoring, neither yielding to the other, both insisting they were real.
When we emerged from the coffin pit, I found everyone had disappeared. Only the three of us remained. I shouted for Stein several times but got no response. Originally there had been lights all around, but after re-emerging, everything was dark except for my flashlight and the light coming from the coffin pit's depths. The lights below had been arranged there earlier, but now they refracted an eerie green glow that felt unnerving.
This was bad. Was I possessed? Where had everyone gone? What a goddamn mess.
The two Daphnes were still quarreling. Somehow, one of them started slapping the other, and soon they were fighting.
I wanted to stop them, but their fight grew too violent. Pulling each other's hair, they rolled back into the coffin pit. Worried about accidents, I had to follow them down.
The coffin pit wasn't large. If their fighting disturbed the corpse, we'd be done for. If the zombie mutated and jumped out, we'd all die.
Just then, Master Raul's voice suddenly rang in my ears.
"Kid, are you still a virgin?"
I frowned and looked around, but couldn't see Master Raul anywhere.
"Is that you, Master Raul? Where are you hiding? Come out - I'm completely confused," I asked urgently.
Master Raul didn't answer directly, just mechanically repeated his question, his voice fluctuating between near and far.
"Yeah, I'm a virgin. An old virgin. What about it?" I blushed, feeling somewhat ashamed, but answered truthfully.
"Good. Pour child's urine on both of them. Then you'll know who's real and who's fake." Master Raul's voice echoed in my ears once more.
Holy shit, is this a joke? Pouring urine on them is one thing, but pulling down my pants in front of the girls? How the hell would that work?
No matter what I said, Master Raul didn't respond anymore. I searched around but didn't see anyone else.
Forget it. At this point, I didn't care so much about the tattoo—too many weird things had already happened before it was even finished. I'd better just do what Master Raul said!
Holding my breath, I poured it on both Daphnes without hesitation.
The two of them were so engrossed in their fight that they didn't notice me at all—until the pungent liquid splashed over them.
"Ah! What the hell is this?!" The first Daphne screamed and scrambled to dodge.
The second Daphne, however, let out a piercing wail as a cloud of acrid smoke burst from her body. Then her figure twisted and began to melt away...
What the hell? The child's urine actually worked—this Daphne was fake!
When the smoke cleared, the fake Daphne had disappeared. In her place was a small puppet, carved exactly to resemble Daphne, down to the finest detail. It even emitted a fragrance—so strong that it overpowered the stench of my urine.
So that's where the scent was coming from. I'd thought it was the female corpse.
But just then, I suddenly realized that a crowd had gathered at the edge of the coffin pit, all staring at me and Daphne in stunned silence—because my fucking pants were still down!
"Hey, Little Boss, aren't you in a bit too much of a hurry? Even the dead have dignity, you know!" Stein had appeared above me at some point.
The others stifled laughter behind their hands. Daphne's face burned red to the tips of her ears, though she seemed just as confused as I was about what had just happened. She quickly climbed out, probably rushing off to change—she reeked of piss.
As soon as Daphne left, the others followed. I yanked up my pants, dragged Stein down into the pit, and snapped at him.
"Think you're funny? Where the hell were you when I called earlier?"
Stein raised his hands in surrender, insisting, "When did you call me? You never came out of the coffin pit!"
No way. I definitely called for help and climbed out earlier. What the hell was going on? Had everything just been an illusion?
"Stein, what do you make of this?" I handed him the little puppet.
The moment he took it, he yelped. "Isn't this the thing that was hanging on the back of Daphne's dress before she went down?"
Daphne's? On the back of her dress? No way—who would hang this on the back of their skirt? It's weird. And if it were Daphne's, she wouldn't have reacted like that. She obviously didn't recognize the doll.
Stein began scrutinizing the doll and said it was probably a Corpse-scented Demon Puppet. There was an incantation on the back of the doll, so there was no mistaking it.
Stein explained that this thing was evil—it could make people hallucinate. There was even a legend that this Demon Puppet could take on the appearance of the person it was carved to resemble. It was an ancient form of Evil Witchcraft, and there had been cases of people using it to assassinate emperors. However, this kind of dark art should have been lost to time because it was easily countered—a splash of urine could neutralize it.
At this point, Stein suddenly pointed at me and said, "Little Boss, you wouldn't have just taken off your pants for…?"
"Nonsense! What the hell else would I be doing? In this eerie graveyard, with a corpse watching, what else could I possibly be up to?" I was a little angry and smacked Stein on the head.
"Right!" Stein continued.
"Damn it, you're still hung up on that?" I was about to kick Stein into the coffin, but luckily, he was small and dodged quickly.
Just as he tried to escape, I grabbed him back. "Go on, take off the corpse's shoes."
Stein looked at the female corpse and shrank back, as if scared.
He said the corpse must have been from before the Republic of China era, and back then, a woman's feet couldn't be touched—especially a dead one. It was disrespectful. He suggested waiting for Daphne to return and let her do it.
I said I couldn't wait—she'd gone to change clothes, and who knew when she'd be back? Half the day had already passed, and the deeper the night grew, the more horrifying this cemetery became.
I said that on purpose to scare Stein. I wanted to wrap things up quickly, but he was being stubborn. Still, I knew the real issue wasn't the corpse—it was the butler's doing.
The cat's claw had been placed by him, and the Corpse-scented Demon Puppet had been hung on Daphne's skirt by him—all to stop me from tattooing the corpse. Luckily, Master Raul had given me some advice, or else who knows what might have happened? I wasn't sure if this butler was even human or some kind of ghost, but he was definitely sinister and seemed to know a lot of dark Yin magic.
Stein still wasn't happy, asking why I didn't take off the shoes instead of making him do it.
I told him I was a normal man—of course I wasn't thrilled about touching a corpse. But Stein was different—he was a midget, practically half-handicapped, like a eunuch. Touching a female corpse shouldn't be a big deal for him.
What I said was the truth, and Stein couldn't refute it. So in the end, he had no choice but to obey.
He carefully approached the female corpse's feet and tried to remove its shoes. Strangely, he couldn't take them off—the shoes seemed fused to the feet, inseparable.
Damn it, this is too bizarre. A dead person's shoes that can't be removed? What the hell.