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"I will always love Eri…"
As the words reached his lips, Amamiya Natsuki suddenly reacted.
Strange.
Who is Eri?
Hearing the commotion Amamiya Natsuki made, the blonde twin-tailed girl sitting in front of him slowly turned her head.
"Tsk…"
Amamiya Natsuki subtly raised an eyebrow.
The blonde twin-tailed girl, who looked quite cute and pretty from behind, turned her head, and her face was actually a white mask.
This mask was ghastly pale, looking like the Hollow Mask from the Bleach manga, yet it had no facial features or contours, showing neither joy nor sorrow, only despairing indifference and tranquility.
Amamiya Natsuki calmly looked at the others and quickly discovered that apart from himself, the teacher on the podium, and the students in front and behind him, everyone wore a white mask with no expression or features.
"Wait…" Amamiya Natsuki's gaze sharpened, "It's not a mask?"
As he looked, a prompt quietly appeared before his eyes.
[Pain, sorrow, joy, happiness… When everything returns to oblivion, being forgotten by everyone is true disappearance.]
[You have entered the Realm of Oblivion]
[Everything about you will gradually be forgotten as time passes, and you will become one of the Faceless Ones]
[After careful thought, you have determined that the anomalous entity is among the Faceless Ones]
[You have passed the ultimate challenge of the anomaly. According to the rules, you will be immune to the forgetting curse for two hours]
[You have accepted the challenge. The hide-and-seek game now begins]
"The forgotten Faceless Ones, huh?"
Looking at the prompt before him, Amamiya Natsuki pressed his fingers to his temples, quickly thinking.
"So, Yukino's sister and her friends came here after disappearing from the real world?"
"This isn't the real world, but some other dimension."
"No wonder only by passing the ultimate challenge can one face the anomaly directly. Those who fail mid-challenge will start to forget themselves once they enter."
Amamiya Natsuki looked around. The Faceless Ones in the classroom were quietly doing their own things, and Kaguya and Yukino were not among them.
"Time is short; I need to act quickly."
Amamiya Natsuki silently got up and walked out.
The teacher on the podium ignored him, still writing crooked things on the blackboard by himself.
Leaving the classroom, he came to the hallway.
Amamiya Natsuki glanced towards the sports field and couldn't help but take a light breath.
Something's wrong.
Very wrong.
The number of Faceless Ones on the sports field was simply too many.
Amamiya Natsuki walked to the doors of other classrooms and looked inside; they were also filled with forgotten Faceless Ones.
"There are so many of them. Has this anomaly been around for a long time, and due to the special forgetting curse, it wasn't discovered until it encountered players?"
Amamiya Natsuki vaguely felt that something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it for a moment. He shook his head, suppressed his thoughts, and began to search for Kaguya and Yukino.
Three heads are better than one.
First, he needed to rendezvous with Kaguya and Yukino, then figure out how to play hide-and-seek.
"None."
"Still none."
Amamiya Natsuki searched classroom after classroom along the hallway, all of them filled with Faceless Ones whose faces had completely disappeared.
After searching several classrooms in a row, Amamiya Natsuki finally found the flat-chested, long-haired girl in one classroom.
"Yukino."
Amamiya Natsuki stood at the doorway and waved to Yukinoshita Yukino in the classroom.
Yukinoshita Yukino, who hadn't acted rashly because she hadn't figured out the situation, saw Amamiya Natsuki in the hallway and, without hesitation, decisively got up and walked out.
"Where's Kaguya?"
Yukinoshita Yukino inquired.
"Haven't seen her yet."
Amamiya Natsuki shook his head, pulled Yukino to a corner, and told her about the prompt he saw.
After silently listening, Yukinoshita Yukino furrowed her delicate brows, her expression solemn: "So this is that kind of hide-and-seek… We need to find Kaguya as soon as possible."
Amamiya Natsuki nodded and said:
"I've searched this entire floor; I only saw you. Kaguya isn't here."
Yukinoshita Yukino mused:
"What about the restrooms?"
Amamiya Natsuki shook his head: "I really haven't."
"Then let's search them," Yukinoshita Yukino said decisively, "Don't miss a single corner."
"Alright."
Amamiya Natsuki said as he took out the love amulet, whispering, "First, let's go to the restroom. Then I'll go downstairs, and you go upstairs."
Not long ago, Amamiya Natsuki had planned to use the love amulet with Kaguya, but who knew that after the ultimate challenge began, there was no preparation time given at all; they were directly transported to the Realm of Oblivion.
There was no choice but to use the love amulet with Yukinoshita Yukino.
"Yukino, I like you, please go out with me?"
Amamiya Natsuki performed the confession ritual.
"The confession is devoid of emotion, I give it zero points." Yukinoshita Yukino extended her slender hand, not forgetting to complain, caught the love amulet, and said calmly, "But... I accept."
The ritual is complete.
The two of them entered a super intimate state of hearing each other's inner voices. Of course, if possible, even the Young Lady wouldn't want to hear each other's inner voices—thoughts and ideas would appear in other people's minds, which is actually terrible.
No matter how close lovers and couples are, they need to maintain an appropriate distance.
"Let's move."
The two of them quickly took action, first going to the restroom separately, not finding Shinomiya Kaguya, and then, one up and one down, continued searching.
Amamiya Natsuki walked down the hallway, quickly arriving at the next floor.
It should be class time right now, the hallway was empty, but the classrooms were filled with faceless people.
Amamiya Natsuki came to the classroom door, glanced over, and didn't see the Young Lady's figure, so he continued walking forward—this method is only suitable for finding the Young Lady, not for finding the paranormal.
The condition for the prompt to appear is staring for a certain period of time, having to look at each one individually, and not just skimming over them.
After passing a few more classrooms, Amamiya Natsuki quickly arrived at the door of an Office.
In the Office, a female student's figure attracted Amamiya Natsuki's attention.
This female teacher was wearing a well-matched shirt and skirt, with uncommon short black hair, and what was eye-catching was that the white mask on her face had clear facial features.
It's not Shinomiya Kaguya.
But Amamiya Natsuki had seen this face on his phone not long ago…
"Natsuki-kun, I've found Shinomiya Kaguya."
Yukinoshita Yukino's clear, cold voice sounded in his heart.
"What a coincidence." Amamiya Natsuki stopped and said softly in his mind, "I've found your sister."
The short-haired girl in the Office, with fairly clear facial features, was Yukino's sister.
Yukinoshita Haruno.
"Where is my sister?" Yukinoshita Yukino's voice suddenly became excited, "Kaguya and I will go over immediately!"
"…"
A moment later.
Two girls quickly came down from upstairs, Yukino and Shinomiya Kaguya.
"President, I found you."
Shinomiya Kaguya immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's us who were looking for you."
Amamiya Natsuki took the Young Lady's soft hand.
"Yukino is still here."
Shinomiya Kaguya's pretty face blushed slightly, her eyes hinting.
Before, on the crane, he had hugged and kissed her in front of Yukino, what was there to be shy about now!
Yukinoshita Yukino didn't care about the two of them at all, clenched her right hand, pressed it against her chest, excitedly walked to the Office door, and looked inside nervously.
Although Amamiya Natsuki had assured her in his heart that her sister was safe, she still needed to see it with her own eyes to be completely at ease.
The next second.
A familiar figure came into view.
"Sister?"
Yukinoshita Yukino's voice trembled slightly, and the emotions of surprise and relief instantly filled her body.
Her sister was fine… that was really great.
People always know how to cherish after losing something.
Before, for various reasons, there was less and less communication with her sister, but after losing it, she realized how difficult it was to give up that feeling.
"That's your sister, right?" Amamiya Natsuki asked.
"That's right, it's my sister!"
Yukinoshita Yukino took a deep breath, her expression quickly calming down, but she was still holding the amulet, and her inner voice was not calm at all.
The words of thanks didn't stop, and she even had the idea of repaying the kindness, being willing to do anything to repay this favor.
"Then please pledge yourself to me." Amamiya Natsuki subconsciously thought.
Immediately afterwards, some terrible images uncontrollably appeared in his mind—it was truly uncontrollable, it was estimated that only those true enlightened masters could subdue the mind and keep their minds clear and bright, even Liu Xiahui wouldn't be able to do it.
A gentleman can only control his words and deeds, not his heart.
Amamiya Natsuki was just an ordinary person, not even an upright person. At this moment, seeing Shinomiya Kaguya, he felt relieved, and hearing Yukino's inner voice wanting to repay the favor, he relaxed, and his thoughts instantly went astray, mentally placing Nekonoshita-kun in such and such terrible poses…
For example, one day after school, Yukinoshita Yukino wearing a cat ear hairpin, with no other clothes on, a black collar and bell around her neck, and a small piece of leash hanging down, kneeling at the entrance, raising her pretty face and asking her master whether to eat first, or to eat me first…
"Lewd!!!"
Seeing the inner voice simultaneously in her mind, Yukinoshita Yukino's black hair trembled, her pretty face instantly flushed red, and she bit her lower lip in shame.
She had thought that she had already sealed her heart with cement and would no longer care about other people's evaluations and thoughts.
But the scene in her inner voice just now was too terrible.
To actually want to put a collar around someone's neck, hang a bell, and then hold them with a chain… is he a pervert?
He definitely is!
Is that all that's in boys' heads, these lewd things!
"Kaguya-san, here you are."
Yukinoshita Yukino tightened her pretty face, quickly turned around, and handed the amulet in her hand to Shinomiya Kaguya.
Unbearable to look at.
If it continued, she would definitely not be able to resist throwing this guy out.
"That was close…"
Amamiya Natsuki secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
A cat-eared girl waiting for her master to come home was nothing, there were almost even worse scenes in his head, fortunately he reacted quickly just now and shifted his attention in time, otherwise he would definitely have been thrown downstairs.
"President? Why is the amulet in Yukino's hands?"
Shinomiya Kaguya held the love amulet and looked up.
"It's like this…"
Amamiya Natsuki briefly explained the situation.
The Young Lady's voice was faint: "So, you're saying that even though we were only separated for a few minutes, the president confessed to Yukino behind my back?"
This strange space was extremely dangerous, every minute and every second could not be wasted, confessing was also something that could not be helped, the school was so big, splitting up was the most correct choice.
"I'm sorry, I was wrong." Amamiya Natsuki decisively lowered his head and apologized, "Please forgive me, Kaguya-sama."
"Hmph."
The Young Lady snorted softly, seeing Yukinoshita Yukino walk into the Office, put away the amulet, and said softly, "Let's go in too."
The three of them walked into the Office.
They discovered that in addition to Yukinoshita Haruno, there were several other people in the Office, but everyone was wearing white masks, standing silently in the Office, the air filled with unspoken eerie silence.
"Sister, I found you."
Yukinoshita Yukino stepped to Haruno's side, took a deep breath, and called out softly.
As if hearing the call, Yukinoshita Haruno, wearing a white mask, tilted her head, and a slight gap opened in the mouth area, and a confused voice came out softly:
"…Yukino?"
"It's me." Yukinoshita Yukino bit her lower lip, the surprise and excitement in her heart beyond words, her sister clearly still remembered her, "I'm sorry, I'm late."
"Yukino…"
However, before long, Yukinoshita Yukino's heart sank.
Her sister did remember her name.
But that was all.
The current Haruno seemed to have forgotten most of her memories, no matter what she was asked or said, she had a blank expression, only occasionally saying Yukino, completely different from the intellectual and elegant sister in her memory.
At the same time.
"President, look here."
Shinomiya Kaguya stood in front of a world map, suddenly frowning, and pointed with her finger: "What country is this?"
"Huh?"
Amamiya Natsuki curiously looked over, surprised to find that a never-before-seen country name had actually appeared on the map, and subconsciously said: "The world map is misprinted?"
"It shouldn't be."
"This is a school, if the map was really misprinted, such an obvious country error would definitely have been discovered."
Amamiya Natsuki and the Young Lady looked at each other, both seeing the surprise and shock in each other's eyes.
There is only one truth.
If the map was not misprinted, then… there really is a country in the world with a name that has never been heard of?
"It's not just one country." Amamiya Natsuki narrowed his eyes, his gaze quickly sweeping across the world map, corresponding to the world map in his mind, "There are also several countries whose geographical locations have not changed, but the country names are different from reality."
Shinomiya Kaguya frowned and proposed a guess: "Could it be that some kind of illusion is affecting us?"
Unfortunately, it wasn't.
A prompt had already appeared in front of Amamiya Natsuki:
[You are watching a correct world map…]
"It could be an illusion, but there are other explanations." Amamiya Natsuki said in a deep voice, "For example, this map is not misprinted… Let's look for other clues."
"Yeah."
Shinomiya Kaguya nodded seriously.
The two of them did not waste time and began to quickly collect clues.
This was an Office, with teaching materials, books, globes, world maps, etc., everything that one could wish for.
Amamiya Natsuki's gaze fell on a desk calendar, and he quickly discovered that the time on the calendar was actually a year earlier than the time in the real world.
And for some reason, he always felt that the colors of the national flag and the calendar were a bit off…
"President, look at this book."
Shinomiya Kaguya raised the book in her hand.
"History textbook?" Amamiya Natsuki raised his eyebrows slightly, walked over to watch together, even more seriously than usual in class.
Time was tight, there was no time to look at it carefully bit by bit, Amamiya Natsuki and Kaguya first looked at the table of contents, determined the context of major events, and then compared it with the world history in their memory, found the contradictory places, and then read it carefully.
"Most of the major historical events are the same, but there are also events that have never happened, as if the world came to another fork in the road at some point…" Amamiya Natsuki took a deep breath and said softly, "The history of the world is ultimately the history of mankind, every decision and choice has the potential to lead the world in a different direction."
"There are no two identical leaves in the world."
"People cannot step into the same river twice."
"If the world map and history textbook in front of us are not misprinted, then…" Amamiya Natsuki said what he thought in his heart, "Parallel space? Another world?"
Shinomiya Kaguya pursed her pink lips and said softly:
"And it's still another world that is extremely similar to our world."
The Young Lady was no longer the Wu Sia Amon of the past, not only had she come into contact with knowledge that only adults could understand, but also under the leadership of Mrs. Shimizu, she had watched a lot of anime and dramas, so she naturally knew what another world meant, it was difficult not to know—
Nowadays, in Japan's industry, whether it's manga, anime, or even doujinshi, the isekai genre has already occupied half of the market. For example, "The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius the Young Lady," "Gensou Gourmet," "I'm Farming and Building Infrastructure in Another World," "Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire," "Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement," and so on.
As for the reincarnation summoning genre in that world... I dare not speak of it, absolutely dare not.
"No wonder the numbers are off." Amamiya Natsuki thought of the Nameless woman spread throughout the entire school. "Yukino's face still has clear facial features, but those guys in the classroom, their faces have completely turned into blank masks... Clearly, the time they entered here is different. Those people in the classroom are likely people from another world."
Shinomiya Kaguya bit her lower lip: "When Moeha and the others encountered the Nameless woman before, the game said it was a strange invasion... So, it's a strange invasion from a parallel world? What happened to that parallel world?"
Clearly, the situation in the parallel world is not good.
So many classrooms, and so many Nameless woman on the playground. Roughly estimated, there are at least thousands of people in the entire school. The strangeness has not been eliminated, but has instead invaded from a parallel world... Amamiya Natsuki suddenly felt somewhat regretful.
Only after truly understanding the truth of the world did he realize how heavy it was.
"Don't think so much for now." Amamiya Natsuki held Shinomiya Kaguya's right hand, his gaze quickly becoming firm, "Let's finish the hide-and-seek first."
When successful, benefit all under Heaven; when unsuccessful, cultivate one's own moral character.
Mindset is very important.
Even if the strangeness from the parallel world completely invades, a worried face will not have any meaning.
"I know."
Shinomiya Kaguya gently nodded, holding Amamiya Natsuki's fingers in return.
"Yukino." Shinomiya Kaguya turned her head to remind her, "There's not much time left, we need to act quickly."
Yukinoshita Yukino bit her lower lip, her mood complicated. She successfully found her sister, but her sister has almost forgotten everything. Should she take her sister with her, or leave her here?
At this time, Amamiya Natsuki spoke:
"I have a way, it should be able to restore your sister's clarity..."
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