"...Amamiya-kun, turn yourself in."
A voice cold as ice, devoid of any emotion or warmth, reached his ears—like the bitter winds of the coldest winter days, threatening to freeze both body and soul.
The girl who spoke wore a high-quality moon-white dress as sleepwear. Silky black hair cascaded naturally to her waist. Her skin was luminously pale, her features exquisite and flawless.
If he wasn't mistaken, this seemed to be his classmate... Kaguya Shinomiya?
The new semester had just begun, and by coincidence they'd been assigned to the same class. But up until now, they had never exchanged a single word—the textbook definition of "background classmates."
Natsuki Amamiya took a deep breath and looked down at his hands. His left hand held a black collar, his right gripped a white leash. He couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
He had clearly been about to take his dog for a walk. He'd simply crouched down to tie his shoelaces, and when he looked up again, his Akita had transformed into an ice sculpture of a girl in pajamas?
Could this be the grateful repayment of a dog-girl?
All those days of painstakingly walking you weren't in vain... as if!
What kind of repayment starts with telling someone to turn themselves in?!
Natsuki raised his head and surveyed his surroundings.
The familiar street had silently vanished, replaced by an unfamiliar room—though calling it a "room" might not be accurate. No one builds a room the size of a soccer field.
The walls had no doors or windows. Besides himself and Kaguya, there were no other people or creatures in the room. Not even a table or chair. It was like an empty box.
Stranger still, despite the complete absence of any light source, everything in the room was clearly visible.
These inexplicable phenomena, completely defying scientific explanation, made Natsuki wonder if he was dreaming.
"...Turn yourself in."
That clear, melodious voice—like jade beads clinking together—rang out again. Kaguya covered her chest with one arm, her face betraying not the slightest emotional fluctuation.
"I'm sorry, but I refuse." The retort slipped out before Natsuki could stop himself.
His first conversation with a classmate, and it started with being told to turn himself in. Something had definitely gone wrong here!
Kaguya's voice remained cool, her eyes like a still lake without any ripples. "I don't know what method you used to secretly kidnap me here, but my bodyguards will track us down soon enough... Your only way out now is to turn yourself in."
What was with that look—like she was gazing at a dead man walking?
If he didn't immediately confess his crimes, was he going to end up feeding the fish in Tokyo Bay?!
"Shinomiya-san." Natsuki's expression grew serious. "You've definitely misunderstood something."
"..."
Kaguya said nothing, but her gaze drifted downward to the collar and leash in his hands.
"I was about to take my dog for a walk," Natsuki answered frankly. "Isn't it normal to be holding a collar and leash?"
Hearing his explanation, the ice sculpture girl's eyes widened slightly, and a blast of cold air several times more intense erupted from her.
"Wait." Natsuki spoke quickly. "This really is a collar and leash for walking dogs. It's not some prop I prepared for you."
The chill index skyrocketed again, threatening to freeze his very soul.
Natsuki slowly raised both hands in surrender. "...Is it too late to turn myself in now?"
Kaguya didn't respond. Instead, her eyes suddenly went wide, her pink lips parted slightly, revealing teeth like neat rows of pearls. Compared to her earlier ice sculpture demeanor, her current dumbfounded expression was unexpectedly adorable.
Wait—
"There's something behind you!"
Natsuki's heart lurched. He spun around.
Holy shit!
What a massive snake!
A giant serpent at least ten meters long had appeared in the room at some point. Its body was clearly segmented in ring-like sections. Even stranger, aside from its oversized head, its body maintained the exact same width and thickness throughout.
The next moment.
A bizarre voice suddenly echoed in both their minds.
[Welcome to the Bizarre Game]
[Game Instance: The Snake Catcher's Tale]
[Victory Conditions: 1) Successfully capture the snake, or 2) Survive for thirty minutes. Achieving either condition will allow you to leave the instance]
[Victory Reward: See the world's true nature]
[Failure Penalty: Random]
[The game is about to begin. Wishing the players an enjoyable experience]
As the strange voice faded, the previously motionless anaconda suddenly came "alive." Without any hesitation or testing, it glided straight toward Natsuki and Kaguya.
Natsuki took a deep breath and turned to look at Kaguya, whose pretty face had gone pale, clearly still in shock. "What are you spacing out for? Run!"
Only then did Kaguya snap back to reality.
Even the "Ice-Cold Princess Kaguya" couldn't maintain her composure when facing a serpentine monster.
Fortunately, the giant snake didn't pursue them relentlessly. Instead, it turned, swallowed a nearby orb of light, then glided away at an unhurried pace.
Besides the giant snake, many scattered orbs of light had appeared throughout the room, roughly the size of soccer balls. One floated near the corner where the two of them had stopped. Natsuki cautiously reached out to touch it—his fingers passed through as if through air, without any sensation.
The two stopped against the wall. Natsuki caught his breath and looked at Kaguya.
"Shinomiya-san, did you hear a strange voice just now?"
"I did." Kaguya's face was still pale, her chest rising and falling noticeably. She was clearly terrified of snakes, already showing signs of melting from an ice sculpture into a snowman. She struggled to keep her voice steady. "It said something about welcoming us to a game..."
So they had heard the exact same thing.
"It seems we're both players in this game," Natsuki analyzed gravely. "'The Snake Catcher's Tale'... that must mean we need to capture that giant snake."
In this entire enclosed space, besides himself and Kaguya—the two "players"—there was only the one giant snake. The objective was crystal clear.
The problem was that this snake was way too big!
With a normal small snake, you could grit your teeth and try catching it bare-handed. But catching an anaconda bare-handed?
That was like an old man eating arsenic—a death wish!
"That giant snake appeared out of thin air earlier..."
Kaguya took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly. She could face kidnappers with perfect composure, but an incomprehensible giant snake from beyond the realm of understanding was genuinely difficult to stay calm about.
"I was just about to go to the park to walk my dog. I bent down to tie my shoes, and when I looked up, I was here. And now there's this thing appearing out of nowhere... let's just call it an anaconda for now." Natsuki didn't notice the ice sculpture girl's subtle movements. He furrowed his brow. "We must have encountered some kind of bizarre phenomenon that can't be explained by science."
The giant snake was strange all over, as if it weren't a creature of Earth at all. Only an anaconda came close in terms of size.
Here was the problem:
How were ordinary people supposed to capture a giant anaconda bare-handed?
Natsuki carefully considered all the tools at his disposal: a collar, a leash, and one ice sculpture girl... He quickly reached a conclusion.
Impossible.
Might as well give up and die.
The only way to clear the game seemed to be surviving for thirty minutes...
Looking at the giant anaconda in the distance, Natsuki was ready to lie down and accept his fate when he suddenly felt a slight warmth in his eyes. The next moment, a line of text slowly appeared above the anaconda's head:
[I have a dream...]