'Why?'
'Why did this happen?!'
Tanaka wanted to roar at the top of his lungs, to scream his rage at this incomprehensible situation before his eyes.
Where was his Obsession Item? His huge Obsession Item?!
Why did it disappear as soon as he entered?!
Why was his Obsession Item gone?!
Of course, Tanaka knew that many high-difficulty game instances imposed strict limitations on players' Obsession Items. For example, if a player in a Red Moon-level game carried a non-core Obsession Item obtained from a Dusk-level game into it, the Obsession Item would inevitably lose control the moment they entered. This was because the rank of the Horror Stories within Red Moon-level games was too high and could directly trigger the loss of control of lower-tier Obsession Items. Therefore, once a player decided to participate in a Red Moon-level game, they had to clear out all their Dusk-level Obsession Items; at the very least, they needed to carry a Dark Night-level Obsession Item or a Dusk-level core Obsession Item before daring to enter.
But the problem was—even the most dangerous, terrifying Red Moon-level games merely caused Obsession Items to lose control; they didn't outright steal them!
And this was clearly just a soon-to-be "Fixed" Dusk-level game—at most it might reach the upper limit of Dark Night-level difficulty—so why had his Obsession Items been directly taken away? What the hell was going on?!
[Thud!]
With a heavy dull sound, Tanaka crashed into the wall and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Then a headless male corpse in the living room grabbed him by the neck, lifted him clean off the ground, and hurled him across half the room. He hit the floor and rolled, his elbow and cheek scraping against it until blood streamed down.
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
After painstakingly gathering information from various channels about this soon-to-be "Fixed" Dusk-level game—and confirming that no one had yet bid on this instance—Tanaka had thought he was fully prepared.
He had purchased intel on the instance, learning that the Shirakawa Apartments had once been managed by a man named Kyosei, who led a group of survivors to summarize many rules and leave behind various things to aid later survivors. For example, the cabinet in the hallway was said to have saved many lives, as well as those supply boxes inside the rooms. He also knew that the main dangers of the Shirakawa Apartments came from the "Debt Collectors" roaming the corridors, the "Rescue Team" that appeared on the first floor on the seventh day, and the doll-like "Children" that emerged at night.
For a game that had not yet been "Fixed," this meant the core origin of the rule-based Horror Story was still in a state of evolution and transformation. As such, the game's difficulty would be much lower, since many elements tied to the core Horror Story could not yet take full form at that stage. Once it was "Fixed," however, the core of the Horror Story could be considered completely stabilized—under normal circumstances, the difficulty of the instance would rise to some degree, and in certain cases, even leap across levels.
For example, in the case of the Shirakawa Apartments, this Dusk-level game might, during the "Fixed" phase, actually reach Dark Night-level difficulty. However, that damned Sacrifice Game would not update the displayed difficulty at that time; it would only change the level rating after the "Fixing" was complete.
The downside of this was that when veteran players came down to "fish for newbies," there was a risk of total failure—after all, a Dark Night-level instance was already an extremely dangerous and terrifying existence. But Tanaka was full of confidence. He believed that, with his wealth of survival experience, he could easily clear the Shirakawa Apartments and obtain its core Obsession Item. To him, this was the best opportunity—because once the "Fixing" was complete, the instance would open up to all veteran players, and then there would be far too many competitors.
In the end, due to lack of funds, Tanaka had been unable to purchase the intel entirely for himself and was forced to share the admission ticket and related information with another anonymous player. This meant that he and the other party each only possessed half of the information. But Tanaka wasn't worried at all—having survived multiple Dusk-level missions and even escaped alive from a Dark Night-level one, he believed that with his experience, completing a Dusk-level mission in the middle of "Fixing" would be a piece of cake. As for that other buyer—if they dared to show up, he would make them understand why his nickname was "Old Ghost."
Of course, he also knew that by entering this instance through an admission ticket, without an "official identity," he would face many difficulties. For example, the very first thing he had to deal with was the corpse in Room 210—something that should have been protecting the homeowner, but instead identified him as an intruder and immediately launched an attack.
For Tanaka, who possessed multiple Obsession Items, dealing with that sort of thing should have been simple. All he had to do was use his Blood Puppet, which had an extremely strong restraining effect on physical-type Horror Stories—wait, where's my Blood Puppet? Where the hell is my Blood Puppet?!
The most crucial Obsession Item—the one that guaranteed a safe start—the one he had taken such care to store away—was now… gone!
[Bang!]
With a dull crash, Tanaka was sent flying, his body slamming against the ceiling before crashing back to the floor, covered in dust and bleeding from multiple wounds.
Struggling to his feet, he tried to see if he had any other Obsession Items left—then he realized.
Where's my Faceless Head-Eater?!
The item he used specifically to deal with players—to kill humans—capable of precisely devouring human flesh without harming any Obsession Items, one of his most precious possessions, was gone. Why couldn't he see it anywhere? Where had it gone?
Before Tanaka could figure out where his treasures had disappeared to, the headless male corpse pinned him to the ground, then picked up a stain-covered machete and swung it down toward his neck.
At that critical moment, Tanaka had no choice but to throw out some of his ash powder, using it to barely halt the corpse's movement.
But this substance had been designed to prevent living people from turning into horrors, and had little effect on beings that already bordered on Horror Story entities—especially on something like this headless corpse, which had already become a complete part of the story's rules. As a result, Tanaka scattered nearly all of his remaining ash, yet it only managed to restrain the corpse for a single second. Before he could even reach the doorway of the living room, the corpse caught up with him, slashing across his back with a single stroke that ripped open his protective suit beneath his clothes and left a deep gash.
"Bastard!"
Finally realizing that his life might truly end here, Tanaka had no choice but to resort to explosives, using the blast to collapse the old, unstable wall and seize a chance to escape, covered in dust and blood.
At the same time, while Tanaka was struggling desperately, the two women inside Room 205 were staring wide-eyed at each other.
"You… what are you doing? I don't have any money! Kidnapping me won't do you any good…"
The trembling Maeda Miwa shrank back into the corner, too terrified to move.
The woman standing before her, however, wore a cold expression. She gritted her teeth, standing motionless, not killing the woman before her as she had in the previous two loops—using the Obsession Item hidden within her body to strip away the other's existence and turn her into something she could disguise as, a "second life" she could abandon at a critical moment to divert the Horror Story's attention.
The reason she did not act was simple: upon checking her equipment, she suddenly discovered that one of her scalpels—the weapon she used to attack—was missing, and more importantly, her stealth doll used for eavesdropping had also vanished.
What was going on?
What the hell was happening?!
Her things—her Obsession Items, the ones she had painstakingly acquired—were gone. Completely gone!
The game had only just begun, and everything was already spiraling out of control. The woman grew increasingly hesitant to make any move, her expression twisting into something more grotesque and terrifying by the second. Her face began to squirm like a centipede, frightening Maeda Miwa in the corner so much that she nearly fainted.
[Click!]
Then the sound of the living room door's lock being opened rang out.
The woman looked up and saw a tall, burly white man carefully opening the door, followed by a dignified-looking youth who stepped inside and smiled at her.
"I was just thinking: if you can't find your Obsession Items, someone like you who prefers to sit back and enjoy the fruits of others' labor shouldn't dare to act immediately. After all, a person who only knows how to sneakily hide in the rear to watch others and then pick the fruits when the chance comes will always be flustered when they face a crisis."
The other's words were far from polite.
Understanding the implication, the woman's expression turned increasingly savage, and a scalpel silently fell into her hand.
It was obvious this was all the other party's trick, but she wasn't exactly defenseless—did they really think she would be so easy to manipulate by approaching her like that?
"Ah—looks like I've messed up this time, but I'm new here. Your greatness, please go easy on me—"
The woman feigned weakness, but before she could even finish her feigned plea, she screamed and collapsed to the ground.
A human head with its facial skin ripped off opened its mouth wide and bit off the woman's thigh in one bite, swallowing the entire leg like a bottomless pit.
While she was still trying to feign weakness to find an opening, the other party made no hesitation and moved first, intent on killing her outright.
"Ahhhhh—"
The severed thigh sprayed an astonishing amount of blood.
In agony, the woman wailed and struggled, swinging the scalpel in her hand as if to do something, but the youth who closed in cut off her knife-wielding hand in a single strike. It was a clean cut at the wrist—just like in the previous round when that woman had severed his wrist.
The corpse beneath the bed had already crawled out and locked its target on the woman with the severed hand and leg.
Takumi had already lifted the head, casually picked up the woman's scalpel, then signaled for Green—who had been frozen with fright and had Maeda Miwa on his back—to run. On the way, Takumi also grabbed the wall clock from Room 205, and they ran out of the room and back into the corridor. Maki was already waiting at the door to 206, holding Tanaka's backpack and having taken his pistol and explosives.
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