Chapter 4

Chapter Four: The Ring

In the dark bottom of the valley, at the scene of the tragic incident by the riverbank, Dorothy sat on a wet, cold stone, seriously examining the letter in her hands. Her brows furrowed as she thoughtfully contemplated the contents of the letter, analyzing the information contained within. To be honest, the letter surprised her.

From the contents of the letter, it could be inferred that the guy she had shot, who seemed to be a robber leader, was named Edric, and he was supposed to be the head of a black market gang in a place called Wokan.

It appeared that Edric had previously wanted to join a certain organization and had even written an application. The letter Dorothy held in her hands was a response; the organization Edric longed to join had given him a special initiation test. The test required him to kidnap a white-haired girl of around thirteen years old at a specific time and location—clearly referring to Dorothy herself!

The primary objective of this gang’s robbery was not for valuables but to target Dorothy, an ordinary peasant girl?! What was going on?

Thinking this, Dorothy pressed her fingers to her forehead and carefully searched through the memories of the original owner of this body once more, but found nothing particularly special. Dorothy had always been obedient, smart, hardworking, and earnest, without much money, no special abilities, no strange patterns in her eyes, and nothing sealed within her body—just a slightly rare hair and eye color… Why would a mysterious organization be after her?

For a moment, Dorothy was perplexed. After pondering to no avail, she shook her head and turned her analysis to other information in the letter.

The specific details of this mysterious organization were currently unknown, but one thing was for certain—they were definitely not good news. They had dealings with someone like Edric, not to mention avoiding the Hidden Security Bureau and the Church. The Church aside, the Hidden Security Bureau sounded like a government institution. Anyone hiding from the government must be a criminal organization; otherwise, Edric wouldn’t be attempting to join.

Additionally, the letter mentioned extraordinary domains and extraordinary items…

At this, Dorothy glanced over at the pile of “loot” she had just searched from Edric’s belongings. After rummaging through this pile of “treasure,” she found a ring, which she had taken off Edric earlier, initially hoping to see if it could fetch a good price.

Dorothy held the ring up to the light for a closer look. The ring was made entirely of copper, with a faintly etched pattern encircling it. Upon closer inspection, the pattern appeared to be a circle of tiny figures holding hands and dancing in a strange manner.

From the previous letter’s contents, Edric possessed a so-called Zombie Puppet ring that could manipulate corpses—could this be it!?

With this thought, Dorothy slid the ring onto her index finger. At the moment the ring fit snugly, she felt an anomaly.

Instantly, Dorothy sensed her consciousness extending outward, forming two lines that reached far away. At the ends of these lines were the two lifeless, strange hunting dogs lying on the ground.

Seeing this, Dorothy took a deep breath. With a thought, the two dogs, which should have been dead, began to twitch and then stood up, slowly approaching Dorothy. However, it seemed they had been badly injured from the close-range Dragon Roar, and both dogs limped and moved very slowly due to severe fractures.

As expected… These dogs were originally corpses? Edric had used the power of this ring to make them move; no wonder they didn’t move after he died. This robber leader had such an extraordinary item…

Dorothy was also surprised by the sight of the two resurrected hunting dog corpses. In her original memories, she had never seen such a bizarre phenomenon; this extraordinary occurrence surpassed her previous experiences…

“It seems this world is not as simple as it appears…”

Touching the unusual ring on her finger, Dorothy murmured to herself. Then, she shifted her gaze to another envelope in her hand.

Opening the second envelope, Dorothy began to read the letter inside. Compared to the previous letter, this one was much shorter.

……

Dear Mr. Edric,

We have received your response. We knew you wouldn’t let this rare opportunity slip by. We have immediately sent someone to Wokan with your soon-to-be reward, and it will arrive shortly. After you successfully acquire the target, all you need to do is take a photograph and drop it in the mailbox in front of the abandoned house at 24 North Street, Wokan.

Our people will verify your success based on the photograph. If confirmed, they will wait for you at midnight on the following day in the central area of the western woods of Wokan, where you will turn over the target to us, and we will provide you with that generous reward.

Our people will be waiting for your news in Wokan for three days. We wish you success in your endeavors.

……

After reading the letter, Dorothy neatly placed both letters back into the envelope. Clearly, this was a response from the mysterious organization after Edric had replied, and Dorothy gleaned quite a bit of information from this letter.

‘It seems that the mysterious organization has someone in Wokan now. Isn’t Wokan the town I’m supposed to go to later? Seems I need to be extra cautious when entering the town; although I don’t know what this organization wants with Dorothy, if they are a criminal gang, then it can’t be anything good…’

Thinking this, Dorothy took her dagger and cut a piece of curtain fabric from the overturned carriage. She divided the fabric into two parts—one to wrap the collected “loot” and the other to use as a headscarf to cover her hair when entering town later.

After completing all her preparations, Dorothy set off. To be on the safe side, she continued to control the two zombie dogs as her bodyguards. However, due to their severe fractures, they could hardly move quickly.

‘Who would have thought this power had such tremendous effect? Although these dogs can still move, they’re no longer battle-ready in this condition…’

Looking at the two zombie dogs who couldn’t even stand up due to their severe fractures, Dorothy thought this and then, after considering for a moment, she tried releasing her control over the two corpse hounds. Watching them collapse again, Dorothy turned her gaze to Edric’s body lying nearby.

In her attempt, Dorothy successfully connected with Edric’s corpse through the “spirit lines” extending from the Zombie Puppet ring and manipulated him to stand up unsteadily. Faced with this reanimated robber leader with blank eyes and a pale complexion, Dorothy took a deep breath.

“I’ll just make use of you for now…”

As Dorothy spoke, the silent corpse of Edric picked up the gas lamp from the ground and opened the black umbrella to shield Dorothy from the drizzling rain, behaving as if he were a servant serving a noble lady.

Afterward, Dorothy gathered her belongings and left the scene of the tragic incident with her “servant.”