Earth, a parallel world...
Westoria Country, Gravemont City...
In a dimly lit room, the floor was strewn with broken limbs.
If a stranger were to enter, they would likely scream in horror at the scene before them.
But on closer inspection, these weren't actual limbs, they were intricately carved puppet parts.
Gabriel sat in a chair, a carving knife twirling deftly between his fingers, gliding across the puppet's wooden body laid out on the table.
Sawdust continually fell from the puppet, some of it landing on Gabriel's face, yet he remained silent and focused.
This was a work of art. Crafting such a figure demanded immense patience.
Finally, after making the last precise cut, Gabriel exhaled a long sigh of relief.
Before him, an ordinary block of wood had been transformed into a puppet the size of a newborn baby.
Purple hair, a jet-black Gothic dress, and a dainty umbrella in its hand.
It resembled a gothic-style doll straight out of a dark fairytale.
Its long lashes and smooth, porcelain-like skin made it look more alive than artificial.
If someone were to carry this doll out in public, it would no doubt attract anime enthusiasts and collectors alike.
Gabriel trembled slightly as he set the carving knife down and exhaled deeply once more.
He had finally completed this hard-won creation entirely on his own.
There was no doubt... this was a masterpiece.
If Gabriel hadn't carved it himself, even he might've believed it was a living being.
He gently lifted the doll, a glimmer of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.
For three generations, the Bennett family had been puppet masters. Gabriel's grandfather crafted paper and bamboo figurines, passing the tradition down through the years.
By the time it reached his parents, the Bennett name had become synonymous with master-level puppetry.
Growing up in such an environment, Gabriel naturally developed a deep love for dollmaking.
He discovered a hidden world after stumbling upon an ancient book on crafting "true" dolls.
The book was a family heirloom, a relic left behind by his parents, and within its pages were detailed instructions for creating dolls that were far from ordinary.
These "true" puppets were made by imbuing wooden materials with the souls of evil people, using them as nourishment for the wood.
By applying different methods, each soul-fed piece of wood could be crafted into a doll with unique supernatural abilities.
The one Gabriel had just finished was known as a Dream Doll, as described in the old notes.
Dream Dolls could travel through the spiritual realm, a mirrored world accessed via reflective surfaces like mirrors and glass.
The spiritual realm was the inverse of the physical world, a mirror dimension humans couldn't reach, but Dream Dolls could freely navigate.
According to the records, Dream Dolls could peer into a person's subconscious and travel anywhere through reflections.
But crafting a Dream Doll was no simple task. Even a top-tier puppeteer like Gabriel had only succeeded after countless failures.
He took a deep breath and turned on his computer, typing a string of characters into the browser.
Click to enter.
The screen flashed "Cannot access."
But Gabriel didn't panic. He waited patiently.
The computer flickered, and then the webpage shifted, revealing a dark web portal.
This was a hitman's marketplace, a place filled with bounty listings and contracts for elimination.
---
[Bounty: $10,000,000 – Target: CEO of Longridge Corporation][Elimination Conditions: No restrictions][Eligibility: Silver-Ranked Assassin]
...
[Bounty: $500,000 – Target: XX of United Provinces of Aurelia][Elimination Conditions: No restrictions][Eligibility: Rookie-Level Assassin]
...
[More bounties listed below...]
This dark web hitman forum was filled with contracts, each listing a target, a reward, and the conditions to claim the prize.
Complete the job within the designated timeframe, and the reward was yours.
So why was Gabriel browsing this site?
Simple, he was desperate.
His younger brother, Ethan, was clinging to life, waiting on an urgent kidney transplant that required an astronomical amount of money.
Unlike Gabriel, Ethan was brilliant, driven by a fierce sense of justice. He had no interest in doll-making or the eerie family trade. While Gabriel spent his days secluded in his workshop, Ethan wanted to be out in the world, standing up for what was right.
Since childhood, Ethan had dreamed of becoming a police officer, not just any officer, but a detective who could bring down the worst criminals.
He was a top student, excelling in every subject. It was no surprise when he aced the entrance exam to the police academy.
Once there, he collected award after award, graduating at the top of his class and earning the attention of the Serious Crimes Division at the Central City Police Department.
Everything was going according to plan, until the unthinkable happened.
Just before graduation, Ethan was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure.
The news hit the brothers like a freight train.
Gabriel said nothing at first. Instead, he sold the house he had just bought to help cover the initial treatment costs.
With no health insurance, he was left scrambling to borrow from anyone he could. Dialysis was expensive, and time was running out.
During this time, Gabriel learned the true meaning of hardship. Friends who once called him "brother," and relatives who used to drop by for dinner, suddenly vanished. The moment he needed them most, they disappeared.
But none of that mattered to him.
What broke Gabriel wasn't their absence, it was seeing Ethan, once so full of life, lying in a hospital bed silent and motionless, eyes blankly fixed on the ceiling.
He looked like a ghost of himself.
Gabriel couldn't take it. Ethan was his only family, he wouldn't let him die like this.
So when Gabriel stumbled upon the secrets of crafting real dolls, and understood how to use them, he registered on the dark web's hitman network.
The goal? Take on bounties. Eliminate monsters. Earn the money to save Ethan.
Was it wrong? Maybe. But Gabriel had stopped caring about right and wrong.
If killing the worst of humanity meant saving his brother, then he would do it, without hesitation.
Still, Gabriel had boundaries. He refused to take contracts on innocents. Only the wicked. That was the line he would never cross.
He entered his credentials into the dark web site and logged in.
To activate an account, the site required a $50,000 deposit. Gabriel had poured in his final savings to cover it.
In that moment, there was no turning back.
As the interface loaded, a new prompt appeared on screen:
[Please enter your codename. This will represent your identity from this point forward.]
After inputting his offshore account information and finalizing the security measures, all that remained was a name.
He paused for a moment, fingers hovering over the keyboard. The glow of the screen lit up his face, reflecting in those dark eyes where a storm seemed to be slowly forming... No doubt, no fear, no hesitation.
The sound of keys being pressed echoed once more in the small room, each keystroke marking the beginning of the infamous and enigmatic...
["Puppet Master"]