Chapter 4: The Missing Teammates
Atlantis 9:18 AM
Do your best.
Nothing’s going to happen.
There seemed to be a voice echoing in my head.
Softly, as if it was singing.
“Yang Yang!”
Just as I was in a trance, all of a sudden, someone grabbed my shoulder hard from the side. With a start, I instantly woke up from my trance, “What is it?”
Narrowing his eyes as he stared at me, Yado released his hand, “Nothing.”
Nothing?
I suddenly had the kind of feeling that he probably felt it’d be too bothersome to explain, so he directly skipped it.
Wait a minute! Standing next to me is Yado?
I remember that it should be Senior standing next to me just now, and he was even holding onto my collar, right?
“The others seem to have gotten separated.”
Once Yado said that, I realized that there really wasn’t anyone else around. In front of me, what I saw was the exact same place from the three-dimensional projection, a small town like the ones that often appear in foreign thrillers. The only difference is that now the real thing has appeared around me, not the mini-scene that I saw two days ago.
“Why would the others be separated?” Looking around, I hurriedly questioned Yado, who originally didn’t have much to say. Basically, in all those thrillers, from the beginning, it’s already been decided that there’ll only be one or two people left, who will then be chased by ghosts or crawling corpses to their deaths. Everyone knows about this law. So according to this rotten-till-it-can’t-get-any-more-rotten setting, I should always be on the lookout for any corpses charging out…
Yado looked at me, and was silent for three seconds, “During the spatial transference, someone did something to interfere with the array, resulting in spatial fluctuations, so each of us was transferred to a different spot.”
Who was the one to do something, I know it from the bottom of my heart…
It could only be that face-changing person. I’m eight-hundred percent certain it’s him without even having to think about it.
“Then why was it that I was transferred here with you?” I looked at Yado who was beside me. No matter how you put it, if I really was going to be transferred together with someone, it should be with Senior, right?
“…Who knows.”
Good answer.
“Then we should find the others first, right?” I looked at the expressionless Yado, and had a maybe-I-should-help-myself-first kind of thought. “Lake Town seems quite large. If we don’t find the others first, we’ll be in big trouble should something happen.”
Yado nodded, which counts as agreeing, “We’ll first look for the easiest one then.” Next he lifted his left palm, “Draw a cut and we’ll be able to find one of them.”
“Ah?”
Draw a cut?
In front of me, Yado was still expressionless, and then he took out a small, dagger-like knife from the backpack he carried, and quickly drew a slash on his palm. Blood immediately spurted out right before me.
I took a step back.
This boss…Did you really have to use such a shocking method to find someone!?
Just as I was about to tell Yado that we could find someone without going through so much blood, sweat and tears, an earth-shattering roar instantly sounded from a distance away at the other side, and it even carried a ferocious spirit of the highest level-
“Ya, do!”
There was an idiot who ran over here.
Clutching his other hand that was currently spurting blood, Leido, who was somehow able to find us, was running like hell while howling, “Bastard, bastard, bastard! I’ve told you hundreds of thousands of times already not to randomly get yourself hurt, so why can’t you understand that!? I was just about to take out the map for a look when you made me start bleeding! Did you know that the blood got splattered all over the map, and now I can’t even see a single thing!”
Ah, that’s right. I heard that this pair of twins has an invincible telepathic link.
I suddenly understood what Yado had meant when he said that we’ll be able to find one of them by drawing a cut.
“Oh.” Yado took out some medical bandages and then casually gave a one-word answer to his twin.
“Oh your damn head!” With a “pa” sound, Leido snatched the medical bandages from his hand before he finally noticed my presence, “Yang Yang, you’re actually here too?”
I shouldn’t have such a low presence, right…
“You were by yourself?” I saw that there seemed to be no one following behind Leido, and looked at the twins currently bandaging their palms, before asking.
“Nah, I was with Ziray just now, but it looks like he didn’t follow me here.” Leido also realized that there was no one following him, and shrugged.
“You were with Ziray?” He and the five-colored rooster head landed together in the same place?
“Yeah, when everyone was separated, he was beating me up, so both of us landed at that place two streets away.” Leido indicated the approximate position, which was in the direction he just charged over from.
“He was beating you up?” Just what exactly were you two doing just now!?
Leido nodded, with a serious face as he looked at me. “During the transference just now, I thought about how he didn’t seem to like hedgehogs. So I asked him how he felt about pufferfishes, and he suddenly started beating me up.” He pulled up the sleeve of his robe, and sure enough, there were a couple of bruises on his arm. It appears he took quite a beating.
I feel like getting beaten up is what you deserve.
Wait a minute, you were beaten up?
Next to us, Yado also pulled up his sleeve, and as expected, he had the exact same bruises from getting beaten up. “I’ve told you hundreds of thousands of times already not to randomly get yourself hurt. Can’t you understand human speech?” And then, he returned those same words just now to Leido.
“Ahaha, that’s an accident…” Leido hurriedly laughed to pass it off.
“This town gives off a strange feeling. We have to find Yido first.” Interrupting him within a second, and also returning to the matter at hand, Yado took out a white crystal from his pocket. “Nn…?” His action suddenly stopped.
“The tracking spell doesn’t work, right? I’ve already tried it before.” Leido shook his head and then looked around for a bit, “Felt like there was something blocking it, but I couldn’t find what it is.”
Since the white robe had even said it like that, it seems that based on our abilities, it might be rather difficult for us to immediately find the others.
“In short, let’s just wander around the place first. At any rate, we’re bound to bump into them since there’re so many people who have come here.” The optimistic Leido held onto the idea of when the boat reaches the bridge, the current will naturally bring it under the arch.*
[T/N: Everything will work out in the end.]
“Nn.” Yado followed by nodding.
There was a second when I suddenly felt that my future seemed dark.
There should be… no problems, right?
Probably.
***
The “small town” before me was on a far greater scale than I’d expected.
How should I put it…I’ve always thought that it should be pretty small, like the kind that would only take you ten minutes to run from the start to finish. In the end, the three of us have already walked for ten minutes or so, and we still haven’t reached that place in the recordings, the main square where the white robe had been drawing an array.
“According to the previous information, after nightfall, it’ll be no longer possible to walk around in Lake Town.” Flipping through the information book in his hand, which had hints recorded inside, Yado, who seemed rather calm, said.
“It’ll be no longer possible to walk around after nightfall?” This town is definitely very strange, extremely strange!
“Nn, after nightfall, the nearby river will swell up, and then flow into the town. The water will begin to build up on the ground, and the entire town will be flooded to nearly a hundred centimeters high. If you see it from above, it looks like a large lake, which is why it’s known as Lake Town.” Giving the book in his hands to me, Yado folded his arms and continued speaking, “At first it wasn’t like that when this place was a flatland, but because of the town’s overdevelopment, the water started to counterflow. See, all the buildings here are raised off the ground, and most of the first floors are empty. Even businesses are on the second floors as well.”
Once Yado said that, I just noticed that the buildings here really are raised about ten centimeters off the ground. Some of them had their doors open, but there was nothing inside at all. And I thought that was because the residents were preparing to leave, so they cleaned out everything.
I looked at the book in my hands. For a moment, I felt like the back of my head was filled with black lines.
The words inside the book were all these alien words. I couldn’t even read a single one, and could only casually flip it around for a while before passing it back to Yado.
“If that’s so, then it’d definitely be fun to go swimming at midnight.” Leido issued a conclusion that no one wanted to answer.
About five minutes later, we eventually found that huge main square from the recordings. The square still had that halfway drawn array, but maybe it was because the water had washed it away that it looks a bit blurry.
“Without a doubt, this is a large-scale teleportation array.” Yado and Leido were crouching at the side as they examined it for a while. “There’s just a tiny bit left before it would’ve been finished. It seems like it happened quite abruptly at that time. So abruptly, they were caught completely off guard.”
As soon as they said that, I once again remembered the matter of that white fog and how someone disappeared after it came.
Speaking of that… it can’t be that we’ll also encounter it, right…
Just as they continued exploring the area, I got bored and went strolling around the vicinity a little. In that instant, I seemed to have seen some kind of shadow-like thing disappearing out of the corner of my eye.
Is someone here?
I turned around to look at the place that I suspected had some movements just now. I saw a large house. The empty first floor was wide open and the second floor had a sign hanging outside. Even if I couldn’t read the words on it, I could still tell that it should be a store that sells some sort of thing.
Just now there was a shadow that flashed past the second floor window.
“Yado, I’m going over there for a while, okay?” The two of them seem to be inspecting those small arrays that appeared all over the place, so I’m too embarrassed to drag one of them away to accompany me. Since I’m only going there to take a look, there wouldn’t be any problems, right?
Besides, now that I can use Minas, I guess it should be sort of alright for me…to do something myself.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Yado lifted his head, put down the objects in his hands, and was about to follow me.
“No need, I’m not a little kid.”
And also, it seems as if the more they follow me around, the more I feel like I can’t do anything right.
Yado stopped his steps, “Then be careful. If something happens, immediately shout and we’ll come right away.”
I nodded, then took a deep breath, and just bit the bullet and headed into that building. Since I’ve already said that I’ll go, I can’t back out now.
Even though I really do want to scream and run away after a second.
Entering the first floor of the building, the interior was completely dark as the sunlight outside wasn’t able to go in. The wind passing through the window made supernatural “hu hu” sounds, causing me to want to turn around and return to the human world even more.
Nn, at this time, I need to relax, relax…
I glanced around and saw a big staircase next to the house. I continued to bite the bullet as I climbed up the stairs. It was much more brighter above. As soon as I got to the second floor, the first thing I saw was an area that looked a lot like a grocery store. Not too far away from the entrance of the staircase was a cash register, and placed in the back were some household goods, as well as beverages, biscuits, seasonings, kitchen supplies and whatnot.
This is one of the town’s grocery stores.
“That…Is anyone here?” I glued myself next to the staircase and softly called; that way if something really does rush out, I’d be able to run for my life at the very first moment. “Yo, is anybody home?”
There was not a sound in the vicinity at all, except for the sound of the wind coming through the window.
I think I should find something to boost my courage.
Minas? No, last time, she’d already said that if it’s nothing, don’t casually summon her spiritual body out.
Old Man?
Definitely not, if he comes out, it’ll make this place look even more like a haunted house.
And the ghost child always shows up on his own, so I have no idea whatsoever how to find him.
I thought for a moment, but there was nothing that could accompany me. I had no choice but to take a deep breath again, and lift up my courage, which was small enough to be a grain of rice, to leave the side of the staircase and carefully walk inside.
Actually, this grocery store isn’t big at all, to be honest, since you could just walk two laps and you’ll be able to go through the whole store. It should be considered a small family shop. The beverage cooler and the small freezer placed at the end have yet to be turned off, as if the boss was still here and would start selling products any time.
Due to my curiosity, I opened the small freezer. Inside were ice cream and some of this and that. Because no one defrosted the freezer, a thick layer of frost had formed over them. However, what caught my attention wasn’t the frost, it was the red thing underneath it, and since it was frozen, its color hasn’t changed at all.
Uh…that shouldn’t be what I think it is, right…
I looked around, and found a new pair of pliers within the shop. Then I forcefully broke through the thick frost, and sure enough, underneath it was a thin layer of…blood.
Just like the things that those fishes my mother freezes had, it was blood, and when I leaned closer, there was even a faint fishy smell.
I think this probably isn’t…*cough cough*…human blood, right…It might be fish blood, pig blood, etc. And besides, if the thing isn’t properly placed, it’s naturally going to flow out.
At the same time that I was naively thinking so, the nearby frost that was also cracked automatically broke apart with a “ka” sound. And then I saw something that I shouldn’t have seen appear before my eyes.
…
It was a piece of a human finger. Due to it being frozen, it looked rather like a prank toy.
There shouldn’t be anyone who would put a prank toy in the freezer, right…
I very calmly closed the freezer, and then began to back away.
This place really does have something!
***
“Chu!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh——”
There’re ghosts, there’re ghosts, there’re ghosts, there’re ghosts! There’re ghosts in this place!
“Shut up!” All of a sudden, a very familiar slap smacked the back of my head.
As soon as my dizziness passed, I immediately recovered my senses; then warm tears filled my eyes and I had the feeling of seeing my savior descend, “Senior…” In my whole life, this was the first time I was ever so touched.
“So damn noisy.” Frowning, Senior, who for some reason had appeared in this grocery store, pushed me away, “Why did you come here?”
Didn’t you also come here?
Red eyes glared at me, “I came over here because I was too close and heard you being noisy.”
Oh, oh! The wireless radar really is convenient!
I suddenly had a feeling that having my thoughts eavesdropped was a good thing, “That, just now I thought I saw a person’s shadow flashing past, so I came up here. I was originally together with Yado and Leido. They’re still downstairs inspecting the ground.”
“Yado and Leido are downstairs?” Senior narrowed his eyes, “When I came here, there was no one outside.”
Eh?
I hurriedly rushed to the side of the window. Sure enough, after looking left and right, there was not a single person there. Yado and Leido, who were clearly examining the small arrays just now, had completely vanished. “How did this happen?”
They disappeared?
“There’s something wrong with this place. None of the tracking spells are working here. It’s almost as if some ‘virtuous’ person had cut off this whole town from the rest of the world. Looks like this is going to get very interesting.” Senior opened the freezer from a moment ago, and took out that finger, “Just as I thought, all of the people in this town are probably already dead.”
You can tell just by looking at a finger?
Isn’t that too godly?
Tossing the finger back into the freezer and then shutting it, Senior grabbed onto my collar while going upstairs. “Don’t get lost.”
Three words were thrown at me.
I don’t know why but when I saw Senior here, I seemed to feel a lot more at ease. And even though Yado and Leido had vanished, I had the feeling that it’ll definitely work out. Besides, this place doesn’t seem as creepy as it was a moment ago.
This entire building only has a single staircase that leads to all the floors. After we climbed halfway up, there was a locked door in the middle of the stairs. It should be a door used to separate the store from the owner’s home, and placed beside it were even a few pairs of shoes, which gave a sense like there should be someone upstairs.
“Open!” Senior pressed his hand on the lock, and less than a second later, the locked door was forcefully opened.
Speaking of which, this seems to be called “breaking and entering”…
“Stop nagging.” Glaring at me sideways, Senior continued to drag me up the steps. Perhaps because it’s a house, the upstairs feels a little darker than the second floor. After going upstairs, we saw a living room, a small, ordinary family living room with tightly closed curtains and no one inside.
As soon as he released his hand, Senior walked over and completely opened the curtains. The whole room instantly brightened up, “There’s no sign of a person’s presence here. It seems there’s nothing left.”
I looked around. Behind the living room were the kitchen and two rooms. The stairs that continued upward were smaller, so it was obvious that there was something like a warehouse or an attic and the like above.
Opening the rooms, kitchen, and bathroom one after the other, Senior had already gone around in a circle when he came back, but there was still no results. “Let’s go upstairs to take a look.” He looked at the small door above, and went up with not a bit of fear.
Oftentimes in thriller movies, the ghosts would appear in the attics…
I bit the bullet and hastily followed him.
The door upstairs wasn’t locked and opened with just a light push from Senior. The interior was pitch-black, and full of junks and boxes. The boxes had a couple of illustrations on them, and were probably some supplies to restock the grocery store.
There’s a smell.
A very stinky smell.
“I think there’s something rotten here…” I covered my nose. That smell was rather nauseating, and almost made me throw up.
Senior snapped his fingers, and the whole attic immediately lit up. “It should be that thing.” He lifted his chin. Following his gaze, I saw a dead rat, which has been rotting for who knows how long, in a relatively empty spot at the end of the room.
“Uhh…” I want to throw up.
“How interesting. There’re no maggots growing on the corpse. It’s just slowly decomposing.” Leaning on the nearby junk, Senior gave a kick at that rat corpse, which had already rotted to the point where even its bones could be seen, and the stench immediately grew stronger. Once he said that, I noticed that the rat really didn’t have any sort of worm or maggot on it. It’s only quietly rotting away here.
Shouldn’t it be very easy for a normal warehouse, especially those with snacks and product stocks, to have worms and whatnot?
“Probably…”
Senior was about to say something when he was unexpectedly interrupted by a sound.
A loud burst of cheers suddenly erupted downstairs, followed by some rustling noises, and then the sounds of animals. The sounds were very loud and completely unable to be ignored.
Turning around and leaving the warehouse, Senior had a calm expression as he ran down the stairs. I also didn’t dare to stay here any longer and immediately ran downstairs as well.
Then, I was stunned.
There was someone leisurely sitting on the sofa in the living room, with his back facing us. Then, holding the remote control, he turned on the living room’s TV and changed the channel. All of those sounds had come from the TV.
Not even Senior was aware that someone had come?
Hearing our footsteps, that person slowly pressed a button on the remote control, and the TV turned off with a “pa” sound. “Was the tour to your liking? You two.”
He turned around. It was that person who we definitely did not want to see.
The face-changing Andellar.
Chapter 4: The Missing Teammates
Atlantis 9:18 AM
Do your best.
Nothing’s going to happen.
There seemed to be a voice echoing in my head.
Softly, as if it was singing.
“Yang Yang!”
Just as I was in a trance, all of a sudden, someone grabbed my shoulder hard from the side. With a start, I instantly woke up from my trance, “What is it?”
Narrowing his eyes as he stared at me, Yado released his hand, “Nothing.”
Nothing?
I suddenly had the kind of feeling that he probably felt it’d be too bothersome to explain, so he directly skipped it.
Wait a minute! Standing next to me is Yado?
I remember that it should be Senior standing next to me just now, and he was even holding onto my collar, right?
“The others seem to have gotten separated.”
Once Yado said that, I realized that there really wasn’t anyone else around. In front of me, what I saw was the exact same place from the three-dimensional projection, a small town like the ones that often appear in foreign thrillers. The only difference is that now the real thing has appeared around me, not the mini-scene that I saw two days ago.
“Why would the others be separated?” Looking around, I hurriedly questioned Yado, who originally didn’t have much to say. Basically, in all those thrillers, from the beginning, it’s already been decided that there’ll only be one or two people left, who will then be chased by ghosts or crawling corpses to their deaths. Everyone knows about this law. So according to this rotten-till-it-can’t-get-any-more-rotten setting, I should always be on the lookout for any corpses charging out…
Yado looked at me, and was silent for three seconds, “During the spatial transference, someone did something to interfere with the array, resulting in spatial fluctuations, so each of us was transferred to a different spot.”
Who was the one to do something, I know it from the bottom of my heart…
It could only be that face-changing person. I’m eight-hundred percent certain it’s him without even having to think about it.
“Then why was it that I was transferred here with you?” I looked at Yado who was beside me. No matter how you put it, if I really was going to be transferred together with someone, it should be with Senior, right?
“…Who knows.”
Good answer.
“Then we should find the others first, right?” I looked at the expressionless Yado, and had a maybe-I-should-help-myself-first kind of thought. “Lake Town seems quite large. If we don’t find the others first, we’ll be in big trouble should something happen.”
Yado nodded, which counts as agreeing, “We’ll first look for the easiest one then.” Next he lifted his left palm, “Draw a cut and we’ll be able to find one of them.”
“Ah?”
Draw a cut?
In front of me, Yado was still expressionless, and then he took out a small, dagger-like knife from the backpack he carried, and quickly drew a slash on his palm. Blood immediately spurted out right before me.
I took a step back.
This boss…Did you really have to use such a shocking method to find someone!?
Just as I was about to tell Yado that we could find someone without going through so much blood, sweat and tears, an earth-shattering roar instantly sounded from a distance away at the other side, and it even carried a ferocious spirit of the highest level-
“Ya, do!”
There was an idiot who ran over here.
Clutching his other hand that was currently spurting blood, Leido, who was somehow able to find us, was running like hell while howling, “Bastard, bastard, bastard! I’ve told you hundreds of thousands of times already not to randomly get yourself hurt, so why can’t you understand that!? I was just about to take out the map for a look when you made me start bleeding! Did you know that the blood got splattered all over the map, and now I can’t even see a single thing!”
Ah, that’s right. I heard that this pair of twins has an invincible telepathic link.
I suddenly understood what Yado had meant when he said that we’ll be able to find one of them by drawing a cut.
“Oh.” Yado took out some medical bandages and then casually gave a one-word answer to his twin.
“Oh your damn head!” With a “pa” sound, Leido snatched the medical bandages from his hand before he finally noticed my presence, “Yang Yang, you’re actually here too?”
I shouldn’t have such a low presence, right…
“You were by yourself?” I saw that there seemed to be no one following behind Leido, and looked at the twins currently bandaging their palms, before asking.
“Nah, I was with Ziray just now, but it looks like he didn’t follow me here.” Leido also realized that there was no one following him, and shrugged.
“You were with Ziray?” He and the five-colored rooster head landed together in the same place?
“Yeah, when everyone was separated, he was beating me up, so both of us landed at that place two streets away.” Leido indicated the approximate position, which was in the direction he just charged over from.
“He was beating you up?” Just what exactly were you two doing just now!?
Leido nodded, with a serious face as he looked at me. “During the transference just now, I thought about how he didn’t seem to like hedgehogs. So I asked him how he felt about pufferfishes, and he suddenly started beating me up.” He pulled up the sleeve of his robe, and sure enough, there were a couple of bruises on his arm. It appears he took quite a beating.
I feel like getting beaten up is what you deserve.
Wait a minute, you were beaten up?
Next to us, Yado also pulled up his sleeve, and as expected, he had the exact same bruises from getting beaten up. “I’ve told you hundreds of thousands of times already not to randomly get yourself hurt. Can’t you understand human speech?” And then, he returned those same words just now to Leido.
“Ahaha, that’s an accident…” Leido hurriedly laughed to pass it off.
“This town gives off a strange feeling. We have to find Yido first.” Interrupting him within a second, and also returning to the matter at hand, Yado took out a white crystal from his pocket. “Nn…?” His action suddenly stopped.
“The tracking spell doesn’t work, right? I’ve already tried it before.” Leido shook his head and then looked around for a bit, “Felt like there was something blocking it, but I couldn’t find what it is.”
Since the white robe had even said it like that, it seems that based on our abilities, it might be rather difficult for us to immediately find the others.
“In short, let’s just wander around the place first. At any rate, we’re bound to bump into them since there’re so many people who have come here.” The optimistic Leido held onto the idea of when the boat reaches the bridge, the current will naturally bring it under the arch.*
[T/N: Everything will work out in the end.]
“Nn.” Yado followed by nodding.
There was a second when I suddenly felt that my future seemed dark.
There should be… no problems, right?
Probably.
***
The “small town” before me was on a far greater scale than I’d expected.
How should I put it…I’ve always thought that it should be pretty small, like the kind that would only take you ten minutes to run from the start to finish. In the end, the three of us have already walked for ten minutes or so, and we still haven’t reached that place in the recordings, the main square where the white robe had been drawing an array.
“According to the previous information, after nightfall, it’ll be no longer possible to walk around in Lake Town.” Flipping through the information book in his hand, which had hints recorded inside, Yado, who seemed rather calm, said.
“It’ll be no longer possible to walk around after nightfall?” This town is definitely very strange, extremely strange!
“Nn, after nightfall, the nearby river will swell up, and then flow into the town. The water will begin to build up on the ground, and the entire town will be flooded to nearly a hundred centimeters high. If you see it from above, it looks like a large lake, which is why it’s known as Lake Town.” Giving the book in his hands to me, Yado folded his arms and continued speaking, “At first it wasn’t like that when this place was a flatland, but because of the town’s overdevelopment, the water started to counterflow. See, all the buildings here are raised off the ground, and most of the first floors are empty. Even businesses are on the second floors as well.”
Once Yado said that, I just noticed that the buildings here really are raised about ten centimeters off the ground. Some of them had their doors open, but there was nothing inside at all. And I thought that was because the residents were preparing to leave, so they cleaned out everything.
I looked at the book in my hands. For a moment, I felt like the back of my head was filled with black lines.
The words inside the book were all these alien words. I couldn’t even read a single one, and could only casually flip it around for a while before passing it back to Yado.
“If that’s so, then it’d definitely be fun to go swimming at midnight.” Leido issued a conclusion that no one wanted to answer.
About five minutes later, we eventually found that huge main square from the recordings. The square still had that halfway drawn array, but maybe it was because the water had washed it away that it looks a bit blurry.
“Without a doubt, this is a large-scale teleportation array.” Yado and Leido were crouching at the side as they examined it for a while. “There’s just a tiny bit left before it would’ve been finished. It seems like it happened quite abruptly at that time. So abruptly, they were caught completely off guard.”
As soon as they said that, I once again remembered the matter of that white fog and how someone disappeared after it came.
Speaking of that… it can’t be that we’ll also encounter it, right…
Just as they continued exploring the area, I got bored and went strolling around the vicinity a little. In that instant, I seemed to have seen some kind of shadow-like thing disappearing out of the corner of my eye.
Is someone here?
I turned around to look at the place that I suspected had some movements just now. I saw a large house. The empty first floor was wide open and the second floor had a sign hanging outside. Even if I couldn’t read the words on it, I could still tell that it should be a store that sells some sort of thing.
Just now there was a shadow that flashed past the second floor window.
“Yado, I’m going over there for a while, okay?” The two of them seem to be inspecting those small arrays that appeared all over the place, so I’m too embarrassed to drag one of them away to accompany me. Since I’m only going there to take a look, there wouldn’t be any problems, right?
Besides, now that I can use Minas, I guess it should be sort of alright for me…to do something myself.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Yado lifted his head, put down the objects in his hands, and was about to follow me.
“No need, I’m not a little kid.”
And also, it seems as if the more they follow me around, the more I feel like I can’t do anything right.
Yado stopped his steps, “Then be careful. If something happens, immediately shout and we’ll come right away.”
I nodded, then took a deep breath, and just bit the bullet and headed into that building. Since I’ve already said that I’ll go, I can’t back out now.
Even though I really do want to scream and run away after a second.
Entering the first floor of the building, the interior was completely dark as the sunlight outside wasn’t able to go in. The wind passing through the window made supernatural “hu hu” sounds, causing me to want to turn around and return to the human world even more.
Nn, at this time, I need to relax, relax…
I glanced around and saw a big staircase next to the house. I continued to bite the bullet as I climbed up the stairs. It was much more brighter above. As soon as I got to the second floor, the first thing I saw was an area that looked a lot like a grocery store. Not too far away from the entrance of the staircase was a cash register, and placed in the back were some household goods, as well as beverages, biscuits, seasonings, kitchen supplies and whatnot.
This is one of the town’s grocery stores.
“That…Is anyone here?” I glued myself next to the staircase and softly called; that way if something really does rush out, I’d be able to run for my life at the very first moment. “Yo, is anybody home?”
There was not a sound in the vicinity at all, except for the sound of the wind coming through the window.
I think I should find something to boost my courage.
Minas? No, last time, she’d already said that if it’s nothing, don’t casually summon her spiritual body out.
Old Man?
Definitely not, if he comes out, it’ll make this place look even more like a haunted house.
And the ghost child always shows up on his own, so I have no idea whatsoever how to find him.
I thought for a moment, but there was nothing that could accompany me. I had no choice but to take a deep breath again, and lift up my courage, which was small enough to be a grain of rice, to leave the side of the staircase and carefully walk inside.
Actually, this grocery store isn’t big at all, to be honest, since you could just walk two laps and you’ll be able to go through the whole store. It should be considered a small family shop. The beverage cooler and the small freezer placed at the end have yet to be turned off, as if the boss was still here and would start selling products any time.
Due to my curiosity, I opened the small freezer. Inside were ice cream and some of this and that. Because no one defrosted the freezer, a thick layer of frost had formed over them. However, what caught my attention wasn’t the frost, it was the red thing underneath it, and since it was frozen, its color hasn’t changed at all.
Uh…that shouldn’t be what I think it is, right…
I looked around, and found a new pair of pliers within the shop. Then I forcefully broke through the thick frost, and sure enough, underneath it was a thin layer of…blood.
Just like the things that those fishes my mother freezes had, it was blood, and when I leaned closer, there was even a faint fishy smell.
I think this probably isn’t…*cough cough*…human blood, right…It might be fish blood, pig blood, etc. And besides, if the thing isn’t properly placed, it’s naturally going to flow out.
At the same time that I was naively thinking so, the nearby frost that was also cracked automatically broke apart with a “ka” sound. And then I saw something that I shouldn’t have seen appear before my eyes.
…
It was a piece of a human finger. Due to it being frozen, it looked rather like a prank toy.
There shouldn’t be anyone who would put a prank toy in the freezer, right…
I very calmly closed the freezer, and then began to back away.
This place really does have something!
***
“Chu!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh——”
There’re ghosts, there’re ghosts, there’re ghosts, there’re ghosts! There’re ghosts in this place!
“Shut up!” All of a sudden, a very familiar slap smacked the back of my head.
As soon as my dizziness passed, I immediately recovered my senses; then warm tears filled my eyes and I had the feeling of seeing my savior descend, “Senior…” In my whole life, this was the first time I was ever so touched.
“So damn noisy.” Frowning, Senior, who for some reason had appeared in this grocery store, pushed me away, “Why did you come here?”
Didn’t you also come here?
Red eyes glared at me, “I came over here because I was too close and heard you being noisy.”
Oh, oh! The wireless radar really is convenient!
I suddenly had a feeling that having my thoughts eavesdropped was a good thing, “That, just now I thought I saw a person’s shadow flashing past, so I came up here. I was originally together with Yado and Leido. They’re still downstairs inspecting the ground.”
“Yado and Leido are downstairs?” Senior narrowed his eyes, “When I came here, there was no one outside.”
Eh?
I hurriedly rushed to the side of the window. Sure enough, after looking left and right, there was not a single person there. Yado and Leido, who were clearly examining the small arrays just now, had completely vanished. “How did this happen?”
They disappeared?
“There’s something wrong with this place. None of the tracking spells are working here. It’s almost as if some ‘virtuous’ person had cut off this whole town from the rest of the world. Looks like this is going to get very interesting.” Senior opened the freezer from a moment ago, and took out that finger, “Just as I thought, all of the people in this town are probably already dead.”
You can tell just by looking at a finger?
Isn’t that too godly?
Tossing the finger back into the freezer and then shutting it, Senior grabbed onto my collar while going upstairs. “Don’t get lost.”
Three words were thrown at me.
I don’t know why but when I saw Senior here, I seemed to feel a lot more at ease. And even though Yado and Leido had vanished, I had the feeling that it’ll definitely work out. Besides, this place doesn’t seem as creepy as it was a moment ago.
This entire building only has a single staircase that leads to all the floors. After we climbed halfway up, there was a locked door in the middle of the stairs. It should be a door used to separate the store from the owner’s home, and placed beside it were even a few pairs of shoes, which gave a sense like there should be someone upstairs.
“Open!” Senior pressed his hand on the lock, and less than a second later, the locked door was forcefully opened.
Speaking of which, this seems to be called “breaking and entering”…
“Stop nagging.” Glaring at me sideways, Senior continued to drag me up the steps. Perhaps because it’s a house, the upstairs feels a little darker than the second floor. After going upstairs, we saw a living room, a small, ordinary family living room with tightly closed curtains and no one inside.
As soon as he released his hand, Senior walked over and completely opened the curtains. The whole room instantly brightened up, “There’s no sign of a person’s presence here. It seems there’s nothing left.”
I looked around. Behind the living room were the kitchen and two rooms. The stairs that continued upward were smaller, so it was obvious that there was something like a warehouse or an attic and the like above.
Opening the rooms, kitchen, and bathroom one after the other, Senior had already gone around in a circle when he came back, but there was still no results. “Let’s go upstairs to take a look.” He looked at the small door above, and went up with not a bit of fear.
Oftentimes in thriller movies, the ghosts would appear in the attics…
I bit the bullet and hastily followed him.
The door upstairs wasn’t locked and opened with just a light push from Senior. The interior was pitch-black, and full of junks and boxes. The boxes had a couple of illustrations on them, and were probably some supplies to restock the grocery store.
There’s a smell.
A very stinky smell.
“I think there’s something rotten here…” I covered my nose. That smell was rather nauseating, and almost made me throw up.
Senior snapped his fingers, and the whole attic immediately lit up. “It should be that thing.” He lifted his chin. Following his gaze, I saw a dead rat, which has been rotting for who knows how long, in a relatively empty spot at the end of the room.
“Uhh…” I want to throw up.
“How interesting. There’re no maggots growing on the corpse. It’s just slowly decomposing.” Leaning on the nearby junk, Senior gave a kick at that rat corpse, which had already rotted to the point where even its bones could be seen, and the stench immediately grew stronger. Once he said that, I noticed that the rat really didn’t have any sort of worm or maggot on it. It’s only quietly rotting away here.
Shouldn’t it be very easy for a normal warehouse, especially those with snacks and product stocks, to have worms and whatnot?
“Probably…”
Senior was about to say something when he was unexpectedly interrupted by a sound.
A loud burst of cheers suddenly erupted downstairs, followed by some rustling noises, and then the sounds of animals. The sounds were very loud and completely unable to be ignored.
Turning around and leaving the warehouse, Senior had a calm expression as he ran down the stairs. I also didn’t dare to stay here any longer and immediately ran downstairs as well.
Then, I was stunned.
There was someone leisurely sitting on the sofa in the living room, with his back facing us. Then, holding the remote control, he turned on the living room’s TV and changed the channel. All of those sounds had come from the TV.
Not even Senior was aware that someone had come?
Hearing our footsteps, that person slowly pressed a button on the remote control, and the TV turned off with a “pa” sound. “Was the tour to your liking? You two.”
He turned around. It was that person who we definitely did not want to see.
The face-changing Andellar.
