12:33
Dormitory Building, Room 212
Dim light filtered through the curtains, past the wash area and the slightly ajar door, casting faint illumination over the silent dorm room.
Takakai stood inside, his gaze lingering on the neatly made bed—the same one he'd woken up in earlier. His eyes traced its surface before drifting downward, as if tempted to peer beneath it.
Is that thing still under there?
He had to admit, he was curious.
But only in passing. He wasn't actually going to check.
The [Dormitory Survival Rules] were clear:
Rule 3:If you detect anything abnormal beneath your bed, you must not sleep there for the rest of the day. Do not attempt to check again.
Takakai wasn't the type to court death unless absolutely necessary. And right now, things hadn't deteriorated enough to warrant recklessness.
Since there was nothing else to investigate here, he'd have to find another way to spend the lunch break.
Maybe I'll run into something interesting.
With that thought, he stepped out of the dorm, ignoring the three "roommates" lying motionless on their beds.
Yet, he could feel their eyes on him.
Watching.
Because I'm alone? Because I don't fit their idea of a "proper" student?
For a brief moment, he considered marching back in and slapping the shit out of them—maybe even asking "Like what you see, fuckers?"—but the memory of Gotou Hitori's shattered mental fragment and her forced memory wipe held him back.
It had been over five hours since they'd entered the dungeon at around 7:00 AM. Takakai had already replenished Hitori's lost fragment, and in another three hours, the blessing from Hachiya Chiyo would generate a new one, refilling his current 9/10 capacity.
Speaking of which…
He now had blessings from three underage girls.
Li Zhaodi's Blessing: Discern truth from falsehood. (Plus a slight sweet tooth—probably because the kid had a thing for candy.)
Alice's Blessing: A safe room stocked with snacks.
Hachiya Chiyo's Blessing: A blood-soaked, life-draining mental fortress.
…The third one's a bit of an outlier.
But that wasn't the point. The point was figuring out how to spend the next hour and a half before classes resumed at 2:00 PM.
Neither the official school rules nor the hidden [Survival Rules] mandated a nap. Students were free to do as they pleased—hence the groups playing soccer and basketball outside.
But Takakai had returned to the dorms for a reason.
He'd hoped to trigger something—anything—by testing the rules during lunch.
No luck.
No screams. No falling bodies. No shadowy figures calling his name.
Nothing.
The anomalies listed in the rules were nowhere to be found.
Without a clear lead, he couldn't afford to break rules blindly. So for now, he'd play it safe.
"Mas—ahem—everything alright?"
Hayasaka Ai, waiting outside, nearly slipped into her usual honorific before catching herself.
She looked mildly annoyed at having to censor herself.
Still hung up on that "master" thing, huh?
"Nothing major. But solo actions seem to draw attention now. What about 508?" Takakai replied, glancing between Ai and Miko.
"No findings. We investigated the dorm together. I avoided looking under beds; she checked beneath them. No anomalies detected."
"No reactions from other students either. Being paired up seems safe for now."
Their answers were disappointingly predictable.
Still, no danger was better than bad news.
With free time on their hands, the players had split up to cover more ground:
Dorms & Main Building: Secondary sweep.
Annex Building & Cafeteria: Deeper investigation.
Auditorium, Pool, Gym, Outdoor Courts, Pathways: First-time exploration.
The sheer volume of rules they'd collected was already overwhelming—gym regulations, library policies, annex classroom usage, pool rules…
A newbie would've been buried under the info dump. Even veteran players had to strain to keep up.
And this was just the basics.
{Takakai: Maki, status?}
The mental link via the black wristwatch connected him to Shijou Maki.
{Shijou Maki: No anomalies yet. But the books here… many have blank pages or garbled text. We think they're memory recreations—imperfect because their sources don't recall them clearly.}
In the Annex Building's library, Maki sat at a reading table, flipping through a book while keeping an eye on her surroundings.
Kaguya and Nanami were with her, each poring over their own stacks.
{Takakai: So the library's contents are copied from someone's memories?}
Descending the dorm stairs with Ai and Miko in tow, Takakai continued the mental conversation.
{Shijou Maki: Exactly. I found every book I've ever read, perfectly replicated. There are also Chinese, English, and some… unfamiliar texts. We're checking those for clues.}
Memory recreations, huh?
Other players had mentioned the mimic-students resembling their old classmates. If the same logic applied here, any books none of them recognized might hold answers.
{Takakai: We're coming to the library. Maybe we can find more odd ones together.}
{Shijou Maki: Be careful. We don't know when they'll strike.}
Exiting the dorm, Takakai spotted Kumami and Kenbei on the basketball court, playing—or rather, fighting—with a group of mimic-students.
The students were aggressively excluding them—shoulder-checking, eye-gouging, even aiming for the back of the head.
But Kumami and Kenbei, both Crimson Moon-tier, held their ground.
Same as Fujioka Middle School. Kumami always takes the risky roles.
Their approach could provoke a reaction, but if things went south, they'd be the first to face the consequences.
A brief nod was exchanged across the distance before Takakai moved on.
Hayasaka Kenbei (Red Knot Society): Investigating the indoor gym alone. No updates yet.
Gotou Hitori: Infiltrating the auditorium, using her guitar Obsessional Item to create decoys for scouting.
Fujiwara Chika & Nanakawa Ren: Checking the pool.
Every area of Yoruochi Middle School was now under scrutiny.
But Takakai had a sinking feeling they'd hit another dead end.
Might have to wait until midnight for real action.
"…Hm?"
Beside him, Miko frowned.
A gaze.
Faint. Fleeting.
She turned her head subtly, pretending to look elsewhere before tracing the sensation back to—
The main building?
She couldn't pinpoint the floor. The presence had vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Illusion? Or something else?
Unwilling to dismiss it, she tugged Takakai's sleeve—
Two light pulls. One firm.
Their prearranged signal for "Unconfirmed anomaly."
Takakai didn't react outwardly.
Main building, huh?
If it was a mimic, why look away so quickly?
Strange. Best not to act rashly.
Meeting Miko's eyes, he confirmed the direction through her discreet hand gestures.
Then, as they entered the Annex Building, a single [Rescue Team Member] slipped out through a window, heading for the main building to sweep floor by floor.
Meanwhile, Takakai's group stepped into the library—
Where Maki, Kaguya, and Nanami sat surrounded by stacks of books.