Drawing on his past experience of being assimilated by a Horror Story, Takumi at this moment summed up the true method for completely ending such eerie phenomena—a method countless players had ultimately discovered at the cost of their lives.
The foundation of how a Horror Story operates always lies in Memory and Obsession.
For entities that are no longer human and lack all emotion or sensibility, Memory only becomes increasingly distorted through endless repetition—just like how Shirakawa Apartments had expanded its distortion from Room 304 to encompass the entire third floor.
However, Obsession is engraved in the very foundation of these entities' birth—it is the most fundamental and primal rule of their existence. As long as one can find a breakthrough point within the endlessly repeating and distorting Memory of the Horror Story, and fulfill the Obsession that has never been realized or completed, then the Horror Story can collapse from its very roots.
This is not a method for clearing the instance.
For players who only seek to survive the instance, all they need to do is find a Path of Survival within the Horror Story.
This, in truth, is a method for destroying the instance—annihilating a fully formed rule-based Horror Story, one that continuously devours more lives and creates endless tragedy—returning everything to silence and granting rest.
For Takumi, who had no reliable veteran players to rely on and thus could only think and speculate on his own, the method he stumbled upon by chance was one that led toward a far more difficult path.
Yet it was precisely because of this ignorance that he could, at this moment, feel such confidence.
"In that case, the rule for clearing the game may already be in our hands."
After confirming once more that the shadow outside was gone, Takumi pushed open the door, turned back to say this to Kaguya, and began to move forward again.
"Let's hope you're right."
Without those same memories, Kaguya naturally could not understand what Takumi felt. She could only nod slightly in agreement, though deep inside, she felt a faint sense of frustration.
Right now, she couldn't help but feel as if she were merely an apprentice being led forward by him.
With such thoughts in mind, Kaguya followed Takumi's pace, and the two once again advanced through the distorted and chaotic building.
This time, it did not take long. After passing a half-collapsed staircase, going through a ruined barbecue stall piled high with liquor bottles, a mahjong parlor sealed with a closure notice, and then a decrepit corridor stacked with various garbage, the two finally saw the end of the path—a large, rust-covered door illuminated by a dim red light.
Room 304's door.
...
"I wonder if Takumi-kun and Oba-san are doing all right with their exploration now…"
On the 2nd floor, in Room 206, Maki sat on one side of the living room, letting out a soft sigh, unable to conceal the worry in her heart.
She did not remember what had happened during the first loop, but just from Takumi's description—that she and he had both died on the 3rd floor—she could already understand just how dangerous the 3rd floor of Shirakawa Apartments was.
Now, Takumi and Kaguya had already been gone for an hour.
There were still about two hours left before their agreed return time.
Please, let everything go smoothly.
Please, let them come back safely.
"Please don't let anything happen… Oba-san… Takumi-kun…"
Unconsciously, she reached out and touched her own lips.
Maki's mind went blank for a moment as she recalled that brief contact she had shared with Takumi during the previous loop.
Her heartbeat once again seemed to grow unsteady.
'What is this supposed to be? Could it be that I really… No, no, that's impossible. This is just the suspension bridge effect—it actually has nothing to do with personal feelings. I'm only reacting this way because he saved my life, and in that critical moment, I went through intense emotional fluctuations, causing my heartbeat to accelerate. That led me to mistakenly interpret it as a change in my feelings. But in truth, that's only a psychological illusion. I don't actually feel that way—right, I really don't… Sigh, what's the point in thinking about this anyway…'
Feeling her face grow a little warm, Maki raised her hand and lightly patted her cheeks. Then she couldn't help but recall her friend—her best friend Kashiwagi Nagisa. Yes, and also the boy she had once secretly liked, the one who was now together with that very same best friend.
When it came to Shijō Maki's love life, "tragedy" was probably the most straightforward description. Because she had been unable to honestly express her feelings, she had urged her friend Kashiwagi Nagisa to go tease and ask that boy whether he had a girlfriend. As a result, something must have gone wrong somewhere—because the boy immediately went and cornered her friend against a wall, and the two of them became a couple at lightning speed. From holding hands, to kissing, to the unspeakable, it took them barely two months in total, and that first love of hers that had never even begun was buried by her own idea.
Of course, by now she had more or less come to terms with it—what wasn't hers was never meant to be hers. Still, how should she put it? Just the thought of her most trusted best friend enjoying herself with the boy she had once secretly liked, while she herself had somehow been thrown into a grand theater of a death game, made Maki feel as if no matter how she tried, she couldn't smile—her tears just kept swirling inside her chest.
Hmm, and come to think of it, Takumi was actually a pretty good person.
He was reliable, always taking the initiative to explore and handle the most dangerous tasks.
He had a decisive and ruthless side—someone capable of great deeds. When he confirmed the problems with Tanaka and the fake Maeda, he didn't hesitate in the slightest, striking immediately and eliminating them in the shortest possible time. A strong man with such qualities, if he were to marry into the Shijō family, might even earn the whole family's favor, perhaps even become the vanguard against the Shinomiya family… Wait—why am I even thinking on the premise of him marrying into the Shijō family!?
Maki shook her head hard, feeling a surge of genuine irritation at her own instinctive thought.
Still, Takumi did have a generous side as well. Even though that man Green had committed such a grave act of betrayal, he was still willing to give him a chance to swear allegiance. Although there was certainly an element of strategic utility behind it, this cautious and deliberate aspect of his behavior indeed showed that he was a formidable person.
'And he actually had a gentle side too—especially that moment when he realized I could remember what had happened in the previous loop; his reaction back then was almost as if he were about to cry.'
Clearly so intelligent and capable, standing tall and unyielding like steel, yet he would still occasionally reveal a childlike, vulnerable side. 'What an incomprehensible guy… When that bastard said he wanted me to kiss him, just what kind of thought was running through his mind at that time?'
Shijō Maki couldn't figure out the right answer—or rather, even if she had, at this moment she would have avoided facing it.
No matter what, the only thing she could do now was to pray that the two of them could act smoothly.
Come to think of it, Oba-san wasn't exactly someone with a gentle temperament. Acting together with her, Takumi must be having quite a hard time, right?
It might even be that the two of them were having trouble coordinating properly, unable to work in sync.
With that thought, Shijō Maki once again prayed silently in her heart.
Meanwhile, on the 3rd floor.
Kaguya's figure, just over 1.5 meters tall, was nestled amid Takumi's 1.8-meter frame. The contrast in their builds was like that between a large cat and its owner, stirring within Takumi an almost instinctive urge to pull her into his arms. Of course, it was only a thought—he would never actually act on it.
As for Kaguya herself, even in her state as the Ice Princess Kaguya, her cheeks inevitably flushed slightly, feeling an intense sense of discomfort from such zero-distance contact with a man.
However, neither of them dared to make any movement.
Because hundreds—perhaps even over a thousand—densely packed porcelain doll children were marching through the corridor like an army. And the cabinet where Takumi and Kaguya were hiding was surrounded by these dolls on all sides.
What the hell was with this number?
Takumi really wanted to curse out loud.
Honestly, just moments earlier, when he had reached the door to Room 304 and was preparing to open it, seeing that army-like swarm of porcelain dolls surge forward in such a situation immediately gave him a feeling of "these damn developers just don't want players entering non-accessible areas, so they pull this kind of inhuman stunt."
But complaints were one thing—running was still necessary. So Takumi and Kaguya quickly slipped into the nearest cabinet they could find. Because there wasn't enough space at the top, they had no choice but to stay pressed closely together.
How utterly indecent…
Feeling unbearably awkward, Kaguya couldn't help but think to herself.
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