"Come in."

Even though they were invited . . . Since it was two creepy monsters welcoming them at the door, no one in their right mind wanted to enter the Mansion.

If you look at it . . . One was a maid with black buttons for eyes, wearing a creepy smile on her lips, while the other was a giant corpse who had gloomy eyes and matching heavy eyebags that was darker than night. And every time he blinked, his skin cracked.

Ominous dark blue thunderclouds constantly encircled the Mansion, and lightning strikes flashed across the two monsters on the door, casting their shadows on the floor as if they were souls screaming and struggling to break free from their bodies.

Leonel was about to faint again while Nikolai trembled and muttered encouraging words in an attempt to comfort himself.

No one moved for fifteen seconds.

Ren took the lead and started climbing the stairs, followed by Evie. With the couple as the vanguard, the others followed.

Leonel stick like glue to Isolde's foot.

Nikolai, on the other hand, tightened his grip on Sumeri's clothes until his fingers turned white.

Roz was calm like Ragnar, vigilant and looking for any sign of ambush.

When the two scaredy cats, Leonel and Nikolai, were about to go past Nano and Frank, their entire body turned stiff.

It took all of their efforts to pin their eyes forward and not think of the monsters that were in their peripheral vision who were staring at them without blinking.

Once everyone was inside, Ren and the others marveled at the interior of the place.

But when they looked around the room, they noticed several heads of different creatures hanging on display.

Most were grotesque mixes of different races. They were life like and felt like . . . they were alive.

"I will guide you to the Doctor," said Nano with a wide smile that almost ripped her face.

". . . Thanks," Evie replied since the others didn't even react.

They were led into the Grand Room, where most creatures working for the Doctor socialized.

Comfortable chairs and sofas were placed near an arched window, revealing the view of the forests surrounding the Mansion. In this room, there was a Steampunk Orc that was out of place.

"Are they going to eat us?" Leonel stuttered.

"No, we're the Doctor's guests. All the monsters and workers wouldn't harm us," replied Ren.

"The Orc looked like he would attack us, though," Sumeri said.

"It won't," Ren assured. "Players could bribe that Orc for fifty candy points per hour to aid them in their fight with the monsters here. But if they attacked it, then the Orc would retaliate in kind."

"Candy Points is the currency here, huh?" Ragnar muttered. "No wonder they limited the items a player could bring, but not the gil."

"Gils are useless here, it seems," added Sumeri.

Another monster inside the grand room was the Jester.

The Jester, popularly known as the Plague Doctor, was the cruelest creation of the Doctor. No one knew what he was except the Doctor. It was one of the Doctor's special creations.

Its face was covered by a mask of a crow with dark goggles on its eyes. Layers of coats also covered its body.

The Plague Doctor's looming figure dominated this room of horrors. It had its own room to explore its sadistic tendencies. The Experiment Room was its domain, and it was used to electrify monsters to assess how resistant they were to pain.

Next, they were led to the Gallery room, where ornate statues, exquisite paintings, and precious jewelry were on full display. The little light from the windows caused each item to sparkle and shine as they walked around the room. The artworks depicted various exotic paintings, and behind the gallery was a small storage room with several large chests.

They went through another series of corridors and archways before finally arriving at the tower in the south of the Mansion.

Ren guessed that they traveled through a shortcut since it would take a day of horror to reach the Lab proper.

The tower, better known as the Mad Lab, was where the wildness of imagination met with the coldness of the scientific mind.

Players had three levels to explore in The Mad Lab. In this tower, bold experiments designed to test the limits of mortals to mimic the gods were unfolding.

The ground floor of the Mad Lab was the Doctor's preparation room, and Ren and the others found a trapdoor that led to the underground Storage Room.

Monsters lurked at every corner, waiting to attack players who entered, but stayed hidden when they noticed Nano in sight.

When the group entered the tower's ground floor, they saw automation workers picking up and moving creates. One worker slipped, causing the crate to break and spilling different body parts and organs on the floor.

For the nth time, Leonel's eyes rolled at the back of his head. Every time he thought that he was getting used to everything he saw, an unexpected surprise would send his soul almost to the afterlife.

Nikolai gasped, and Sumeri was quick to cover his eyes.

They should censor this type of thing. She thought. There were still minors playing this game, after all.

"This way . . . please," Nano called them and waved her hand when they paused at the sudden 'body parts' surprise.

Moving on, there was a stone spiral staircase leading to the next floor.

In the back room was a marble table with body parts loosely connected to roughly form something like a humanoid. Seeing that, Ren and the others tried hard to ignore it.

The second floor of the Mad Lab was known as The Honey Room due to the numerous large glass vat of Soul Honey in which monsters' bodies were manufactured.

A large clockwork wheel slowly spun and ground, filling the second floor with continuous noise supplemented by the whirring of electrified machines.

Dominating the room were massive glass vats filled with Soul Honey. Within the vats, monsters were growing.

There was also automation working with the Doctor in managing the machines.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)