While Kanoe Yuuko was doubting herself and the diary in her hands, Miyauchi Hikage made a new discovery.
His progress bar for helping other diary holders complete their commissions showed a significant increase.
Originally, Miyauchi Hikage had been completing Shiina Mashiro's daily commissions and the occasional B-rank commissions that popped up in Tokyo, in addition to Kasumigaoka Utaha's daily commissions.
Now, his commission progress bar had accumulated to about 25%, which was about a quarter of the way.
If he continued at this pace, he would be able to obtain the ability to perform a targeted skill draw in about a month or so.
But now, after he took the initiative to bring Kanoe Yuuko, who had obtained a diary without her own knowledge, here, and as she discovered her diary, Miyauchi Hikage's progress bar jumped by nearly 10%.
In other words, this progress bar wasn't just about helping those heroines complete their commissions.
Did it mean that as long as he interacted with them and helped them in some way, it would also affect the progress bar?
Miyauchi Hikage analyzed in his mind.
This new progress bar itself was a reward mechanism created by the "higher-dimensional being" who gave him the diary to encourage him to actively interact with other girls.
Compared to only being able to accumulate progress by helping to complete commissions, this more lenient condition, which was also less likely to be noticed by the girls, was naturally more beneficial for him.
So, in the end, it still required him to interact with more girls.
Although a flicker of emotion rose in Miyauchi Hikage's heart upon learning this, it was forcefully suppressed almost as soon as the thought emerged.
Almost all of Shiina Mashiro's daily commissions were related to him, and he was the one helping her complete all the B-rank exorcism commissions.
And Kasumigaoka Utaha had only interacted with him a few times, and it had already triggered a commission for him to help her. Now, almost every day, she had to deliberately come up with problems to consult him, and as time went on, it seemed to become easier for her to trigger commissions related to him.
He had just met Honma Meiko again yesterday, and he didn't even know if she had triggered any commissions related to him yet.
And now there was this ghost before him.
Fortunately, Kanoe Yuuko had just gotten the diary and had not yet unlocked the authority to open the commission function, so he didn't have to worry about these problems for the time being.
It could be inferred that the "being" must have secretly adjusted the probability. Any girl who had contact with him would be more likely to trigger commissions related to him.
The current situation was still manageable. Miyauchi Hikage had only provoked these few girls, and among them was Shiina Mashiro, the mole who could help him cover his tracks.
But if he got involved with a few more girls, Miyauchi Hikage felt that he might not be able to handle the pressure.
So, even though he knew about this "shortcut," he still intended to act according to his original pace and not give up his belief in lying low until he was invincible just for the sake of rewards.
Looking at Kanoe Yuuko, who was reading the diary before him, Miyauchi Hikage controlled his expression to be as consistent as possible with Fujimiya Konomi's.
At this moment, he maintained an appearance of still having many questions in his mind, but seeing Kanoe Yuuko's "pensive" look, he felt it would be rude to press her with questions.
However, while Miyauchi Hikage could wait calmly for Kanoe Yuuko to read the diary here.
On the other side, the three people who had entered the old school building were not having such an easy time.
After walking into the old school building, Kanoe Kirie had been sticking closely behind Hiiragi Inori, who, in her miko attire, gave off a full sense of security, not leaving her side for a moment.
And although Itou Kaiji was also nervous about having to search for the remains of a woman who had been dead for more than half a century in this old school building, he thought that although his boss probably wanted some alone time with his little girlfriend and had deliberately sent him away.
But on second thought, these two short-haired girls were not bad looking either.
Kanoe Kirie, a little girl who was just in middle school, could be ignored, but if his performance was okay, maybe he could even make an impression on that Hiiragi Inori in the miko uniform?
Thinking that he could also get overtime pay, Itou Kaiji cheered himself on in his heart, telling himself not to be nervous if he saw any remains later, and that he must show his masculinity.
He had completely forgotten that his image had already been thoroughly destroyed by his performance as a crying, whining猪队友in the previous videos.
Hiiragi Inori, on the other hand, had not noticed Itou Kaiji's thoughts at all.
Her attention was now mostly focused on the surrounding environment.
She released her spiritual power, carefully observing the surroundings, checking for any abnormal fluctuations in spiritual power. She would only occasionally ask Kanoe Kirie behind her a few questions, as a way of testing whether she really had talent in this area.
"She's really good at hiding. If I weren't so sensitive to spiritual power, I might not have been able to find the location even after searching for several more hours."
After walking through the entire old school building again carefully, and at the same time setting up some spiritual power-sensing barriers, Hiiragi Inori walked to the door of the room furthest and deepest from the main entrance of the old school building and stopped.
She had been here many times before, and since the door was not locked, she had naturally gone in to see the structure inside.
Inside was an old, but well-decorated and furnished office. It was probably used as the chairman's office several decades ago.
However, the old school building itself had not been used for classes for several decades.
According to Kanoe Kirie, this old school building was usually only used by a few small clubs that couldn't find a clubroom in the new school building or hadn't been approved by the student council. They would apply for a few classrooms closer to the main entrance of the old school building as temporary activity spots.
Anyway, no proper club would ever come to the old school building to conduct activities, let alone in the deepest room of this building.
Even if they did come, it was usually just to hold some test of courage event.
Looking at the dust in the room, Itou Kaiji was a little puzzled as to why she had stopped here.
Could this be the burial place of that Kanoe Yuuko?
Could it be that Kanoe Yukariko had built a chairman's office on the very spot where her sister had lost her life?
But in the next moment, Hiiragi Inori's action completely stunned him.
She took out a few pre-prepared talismans and stuck them on the wall to the side.
In the next moment, Itou Kaiji felt as if his vision had blurred for a moment.
Then he was stunned to see that on the wall in front of him, which had seemed empty, an even older wooden door had appeared.
But when he blinked, the wooden door disappeared again, as if what he had just seen was all an illusion.
"Hey, hey, did you guys see that... I didn't see it wrong, did I? Did a door just appear on the wall?" Itou Kaiji asked the two girls with wide eyes.
But no one paid him any attention.
Hiiragi Inori carefully examined the talismans she had stuck on the wall and found that the spiritual power inside had been completely drained in that instant.
It seemed that ordinary ones wouldn't work.
A ghost that had completed its transformation with residual divine power before the spiritual resurgence, with the resurgence of the supernatural, its strength had indeed been greatly enhanced.
Her own mother had been able to suppress it back then, but now if her mother were to come, it probably wouldn't be so easy.
Thinking of this, she tried again. Although she had found this place through some subtle fluctuations in spiritual power, it seemed that it was not so easy to get through its blockade.
She turned her head to look at Kanoe Kirie and asked her to stand at the position where the door had just appeared.
That ghost of Kanoe Yuuko had probably taken control of the ley line located below the old school building and used it to complete a small barrier, perhaps even a domain.
It was a very irrational act to pit one person's spiritual power against the entire ley line of this vicinity.
On the other hand, Kanoe Kirie was, after all, a descendant of Kanoe Yuuko. The two of them inherited the same bloodline in their bodies, so perhaps this restriction could be broken through this method.
And as Kanoe Kirie's hand pressed on the position of that door, she immediately told Hiiragi Inori on the side that she seemed to have touched a doorknob.
"It seems that the similar bloodline is useful. Can you open the door?"
In response, Kanoe Kirie gave it a try, and then carefully pulled the door open, revealing another, even dimmer room where almost no light could be seen.
By this time, no matter how thick-skinned Itou Kaiji was, it was impossible for him to pretend that nothing had happened.
He rubbed his eyes again, confirming that he had not seen wrongly.
Then he began to retreat with some trembling, pointing a shaky finger at the two girls before him.
In response, Hiiragi Inori finally turned her head to look at Itou Kaiji.
Miyauchi Hikage probably wanted this guy to witness this "supernatural" world, which was why he had him follow them.
Although Hiiragi Inori didn't think this timid man would be of any use even if he knew these things, she still gave Miyauchi Hikage this face.
"If you're scared, then just go out. After I've dealt with things here, I'll call you guys over to film."
Itou Kaiji was already at the exit of the room at this time. He didn't hesitate for a moment upon hearing Hiiragi Inori's words.
He just wanted to leave this place quickly, go out and find his boss to tell him that there was really something wrong with this old school building, and that they should run away quickly!
As for the video?
Anyway, he hadn't even thought about it at all.
It was only when he reached out to grip the doorknob of the exit and found that he couldn't turn it no matter what, that he suddenly remembered—they hadn't closed the door at all when they came in!
So who closed this door now?
Just thinking of this made Itou Kaiji break out in a cold sweat.
He tried to pull the doorknob with force, but the doorknob at the exit still didn't move an inch, as if it had been welded shut.
Seeing Itou Kaiji's strenuous appearance, Hiiragi Inori's expression also became much more serious.
"So she has completely turned this entire room into her possession? Or is it that the entire old school building can be affected by her?"
She walked towards the exit, and Itou Kaiji obediently made way for her.
Standing at the door, she just used her spiritual power to sense it briefly and immediately detected a wave of resentment emanating from the exit. It was this wave of resentment that had sealed the exit of this room. This closed door was actually formed from resentment.
"Such dense resentment... it's already at the level of a Grade 1 vengeful spirit. A vengeful spirit of this level shouldn't be so unstable, right?" Hiiragi Inori muttered with a frown.
It seemed that many changes had indeed occurred to her in these ten years.
"It seems she doesn't want anyone to leave this room. Before we figure out what's going on with that Yuuko, you'd better just stay here and wait for us to come out."
"After all, your boss and the others are still outside. If we don't come out for a long time, he will definitely help contact other people to come over."
As she said this, she was about to go and investigate the dim room that Kanoe Kirie had opened.
That should lead directly to the location of Kanoe Yuuko's remains and the ley line of this land.
As long as she found the ley line, the situation here would still be within controllable range.
But upon hearing that he was to be left here, Itou Kaiji almost fell to his knees before Hiiragi Inori on the spot.
For the past half month, in order to train his courage, he had been forcing himself to watch several horror movies.
He had watched them all with trepidation and had nightmares for several days in a row.
However, not only did these horror movies not improve his courage, but they also affected his performance in the subsequent filming, making him seem even more jumpy in the videos.
But after watching these horror movies, he did gain something.
That is, although the ghosts and monsters in horror movies all have their own special characteristics, the people who die most easily are still those fools who don't listen to advice and insist on acting alone.
Apart from being killed off by the plot, these supporting characters who inexplicably want to act alone are the most likely to get a bento box in the story.
In the current strange atmosphere, if he really stayed here alone waiting for someone, he would probably soon become one of those cannon fodder supporting characters in the movies.
In just a short minute, Itou Kaiji's mentality had already changed from the original slacker mentality of relying on teammates to win in a smooth sailing situation, to the current super-adverse situation of encountering a crisis in the supernatural world.
After realizing this, his thinking became much more active. He confirmed that being alone now was equivalent to being a useless person at the mercy of others. Only by staying with these two women who clearly had considerable strength could he feel a little more at ease.
Hearing Itou Kaiji's trembling voice, but resolute refusal to be left alone, Hiiragi Inori didn't mind.
"Then you can continue, but be careful not to make any noise. If you really accidentally do something and provoke that Yuuko, I might not be able to save you in time."
Itou Kaiji quickly covered his mouth, indicating that he would be absolutely obedient from now on and would do whatever he was told.