Chapter 32 : Children’s Playground

The battlefield was still. Not silent—still, like the whole world had exhaled and forgotten to breathe in again. The goblins were gone. Vanished. Not retreated, not slain. Simply... gone. In the aftermath, the air was filled with disbelief, confusion—and tension. None of us moved. Not even Volt, who hovered above us like a winged omen, his wings barely twitching in the cooling air. The van stood open. The sword? Gone. Stolen. Not by a monster, not by a player—but by a teddy bear that had walked away as if following orders. And now... nothing. Hyun-Tae snapped. He was shaking. His whole body rattled like a pressure cooker ready to explode. We hadn’t even processed the sword’s disappearance before he started spiraling. His eyes darted wildly from the open van to the rooftop, then to each of us—his breath coming in short, ragged bursts. "That girl!" he screamed, pacing in tight, erratic circles. "You brought her! It’s her! She’s cursed! YOU LET HER IN!" "You don’t get it!" he screamed, backing into a stack of crates. His shotgun, still strapped to his shoulder, bounced with every tremor of his body. "That thing—that bear—it took the sword! It walked! It’s HER! That girl! She’s cursed! You brought the devil inside with her doll! You let her in—" "Sir—" I tried to step forward, calming him down. "NO!" he roared, yanking the shotgun up. "I knew it! From the moment she showed up—!" The barrel tilted upward— And that’s when Volt dropped. The sky crackled. In a flash of yellow and blur of wings, Volt shot down like a comet, curling his serpentine body mid-air. His tail slapped Hyun-tae’s hands with pinpoint accuracy, knocking the shotgun across the room. The impact spun Hyun-tae in place, and he crashed into a pile of scavenged car doors with a loud metallic clang. He groaned, half-conscious, slumped against the wall. After picking himself up, he drops backwards, unconscious. He slumped with a thud. "Damn it," Song-woo muttered, lowering his weapon. "That man’s one hair away from putting holes in all of us." Ye-Rin stormed over, hissing under her breath. "He could’ve shot one of us." She ripped off a length of rope from a broken curtain rig and began binding his wrists. "We’re not dealing with two fronts right now. One panic attack is enough." Volt hovered silently for a beat, then floated down near the rest of us. Mother didn’t speak. Her eyes were locked on the walkie-talkie, her face gradually hardening with tension. "Mother?" I asked. She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she reached into her coat, pulled her scythe from its compressed shard, and stabbed it into the floor. "Activate: Bloody Eyes." The air changed. Her pupils bled scarlet. A pulse of red swept through the room like sonar, invisible but felt. "There is a mana thread that connects that teddy bear and it extends towards that direction which happens to be the same building where In-ji, Seo-yeon and Eun-ha were staying. I clicked the walkie-talkie. "In-ji, Seo-Yeon—what’s going on up there?" Seo-Yeon’s voice came through, hushed but shaken. "All the goblins on the streets below just... disappeared. At once. It was like watching ghosts dissolve." "And the girl?" I asked. "She’s still unconscious," NG answered. "But—Si-Yeon’s been getting weird feelings. Like something’s... wrong." Mother turned to Volt. "Take me to them." Volt didn’t hesitate. She climbed onto his back, and within seconds, they took off, cutting through the sky like a black comet. Inside the warehouse, we exchanged wary glances. None of this added up. The goblins were gone. The sword was gone. And a teddy bear had walked off with it. Nothing about this was normal—even for our twisted new reality. Minutes later, Mother’s voice rang out in our comms, breathless. "The goblin didn’t vanish. It’s still here. But it’s not in the streets." "What?" I asked in shock. "Something’s wrong," she whispered. "There’s a presence. A goblin... but not physical. It’s layered inside her. Sitting on her head like a crown." My heart clenched. "She’s not alone in there," Mother said. "There’s something curled around her consciousness, feeding from it. I can see it, its hands wrapped around her skull like vines." Seo-Yeon’s voice crackled through the comms. "She’s still sleeping... but her breathing’s uneven." "Wait—what?" Sang-Woo asked. "Inside the girl?" There’s a goblin’s hand resting on the girl’s head. It’s using her—controlling her from the inside." The temperature in the warehouse felt like it plummeted. "Wait," Ye-Rin said. "You mean it’s possessing her?" "No... worse," Mi-Sun said. "It’s cohabiting." Then her voice shifted, low and analytical. "I’m using my Bloody Eyes. Scanning her stats..." Name : Han Eun-ha Gender : Female Age : 8 Level : 4 Nature : Guardian spirit Hidden Nature : Children playground Class : Puppeteer Sub-Class : ( Unlocks after Mission 5) Title : (Unlocks after Sub-Class) Strength: 0016 Agility: 0040 Health Point: 0030 Magic point : 0084 Stamina : 0030 Nature : Guardian Spirit Description: A spirit is bound to a user. It will possess any moveable object to protect its contractor. Hidden Nature: Children Playground Description : A sub-space controlled by the user. Everything happens according to the users will. It may include memories, imaginations and fears. Class : Puppeteer There was a pause. Then Mi-Sun said the words that made us all freeze. "She has a hidden nature. It’s called Children’s Playground". I blinked. "What the hell does that mean?" "It’s a subspace," she replied. "A sealed pocket dimension created within her consciousness. A kind of mental world—except in there, she’s God. It’s hers, shaped by her thoughts, memories, and fears. And right now... a goblin is hijacking it." Ye-Rin stepped back, visibly shaken. "So it’s using her own mind... as a prison? And weapon?" "Yes. And she has no idea how to control it. She’s too young," Mi-Sun said. "The system doesn’t restrict abilities by age. She’s unlocked something way beyond her capacity." "And the goblin?" I asked. "It’s hiding in her world. Using it. Bending it." I clenched my fists. That... thing... had taken everything from her. Her family. Her safety. Her own damn mind. The system chose that moment to chime. [New Challenge Detected] "Mental Siege: Mind’s Playground" Only two players may enter the subject’s subconscious. Objective: Restore control. Time Limit: 1 hour. "We have to get in there," I said. "Wake her up. Free her." Mi-Sun hesitated. "We could kill the goblin now. Cut its link. But..." "But we don’t know what that would do to her," Seo-Yeon finished over the line. I’ll go," I said without hesitation. Seo-Yeon’s voice was firm. "I’ll go with him." "No," Ye-Rin said. "I—" Seo-Yeon interrupted. "No offense, Ye-Rin. But let me deal with this. If she’s stuck in her own mind, drowning in fear, we need to understand her—not scare her more." I looked at Seo-Yeon. "You sure?" "I’m always sure," she said, but her fingers trembled around the comm. Mi-Sun exhaled. "Alright. But Ye-Rin—if anything happens while they’re inside, you’re our sword. Kill the goblin." Ye-Rin gave a solemn nod. Then Mi-Sun turned back toward—the little girl asleep with her teddy bear missing and her soul under siege. And then I saw it. For the briefest moment—just as the light hit her cheek—I saw her eyelids twitch. And under them, the faintest golden glow. Like something was watching us. From within.