The stars and moon shone brightly in the dim night sky. A rustling evening breeze gently tapped on the door and window, blowing the curtains open.
Kiana sat on the floor, controller in hand, her attention completely focused on the game character on the screen.
Even as her hands moved, her mind couldn't help but drift back to that clumsy fool from earlier today.
How can anyone be so clumsy as to burn their own hand buying a sweet potato? What an idiot. If someone like that ever runs into a case that requires some real brainpower, they're going to be in big trouble!
Maybe I should add him as a friend, just in case he gets scammed and ends up counting money for the scammer.
Is that idiot a paramecium? Only capable of simple life functions?
And the teacher calls me a paramecium, says there's no one dumber than me. Isn't he right there?
Drip... drip...
The sound of dripping water in the living room grew steadily closer, but it was drowned out by the game's music.
The moonlight was brilliant, pure and flawless.
As the light passed through the window and into the room, its sacred aura instantly became corrupted, a foul, turbid crimson glow replacing the specks of pristine white.
"As expected of me, how could a mere thousand-match veteran beat me?"
Kiana focused all her attention on the glowing screen, trying to banish the incessant thoughts from her mind.
But at that moment, a graceful figure had appeared behind her.
It looked almost identical to her, but possessed an aura of deathly stillness and cold indifference. Its long hair cascaded to the floor, its eyes a crimson red, as dim and lightless as the endless night sky.
"..."
The Bizarre Kiana stood behind Kiana, her eyes vacant, staring at her with a strange expression.
The blood-red moonlight, like a guided thread, began to extend towards Kiana.
Finally, the moonlight fell upon her.
The Bizarre Kiana stretched out her pale hands and covered Kiana's clear, azure eyes.
"Why do I suddenly feel... so sleepy..."
A crimson handprint appeared on Kiana's cheek. Her consciousness descended into a disordered chaos. The moment her reason collapsed, the game controller fell to the floor with a thud.
Kiana's head drooped, like a doll that had run out of power.
The moonlight gradually climbed up her spine, rewinding the spring.
As if granted power, Kiana stood up, her eyes vacant, like a walking corpse, and headed towards the bathroom.
Once again, she stood before the mirror. Slowly, she raised her right hand, reaching towards the mirror's surface.
A bizarre phenomenon occurred. Her hand passed through the mirror, and the person in the mirror also reached out. Both closed their eyes at the same time. When the real Kiana opened her eyes, the Kiana in the mirror collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"..."
"..."
Descending through Kiana's body as a medium, the Bizarre Kiana calmly looked at herself—the flimsy pajamas, the fragile body.
She surveyed her surroundings. The layout was simple, with nothing familiar.
She tried to search for the person her soul yearned for, but even after searching the entire world, she couldn't find him.
He wasn't here.
The only familiar person the Bizarre Kiana could find was the other self in her consciousness.
After being brutally killed by the Bizarre Kiana, Kiana's consciousness had fallen into a brief silence, but that didn't mean she would dissipate.
She and the Bizarre Kiana shared the same soul; in other words, they were different states of the same person.
Although Kiana herself didn't agree with this view, the other her was too crazed and twisted.
After a few minutes, the Bizarre Kiana's pale lips moved involuntarily, uttering only a few cold words: "He's not here..."
She looked at her own somewhat childish hands, her face a mask of deathly stillness.
There was only a faint, lingering trace of Li Mo's presence here.
The Bizarre Kiana's consciousness began to descend into chaos. Without a medium, without Li Mo's coordinates, her presence was meaningless.
Ding-dong~
The doorbell rang, crisp and clear.
The sudden sound made the Bizarre Kiana instinctively stand up. Expressionless, she walked to the door without hesitation and opened it. It didn't matter who was on the other side, or what their intentions were; it was all meaningless.
"Kiana, it's so late, why is your game account still online? You have to..."
It was Mei who had opened the door. She had woken up in the middle of the night and saw Kiana's status update. Thinking she should urge Kiana to go to sleep, she had changed her clothes and come to Kiana's house.
But all she saw was a pale, red-eyed, and bizarre Kiana.
An icy chill instantly enveloped her.
Can't... can't move?
Mei's face was filled with panic. She found she couldn't control her body, as if she were frozen, standing blankly on the spot.
Aside from being able to think, she had no control over her body.
The Bizarre Kiana grabbed Mei's wrist, yanked her into the room, and pinned her to the floor.
Her crimson eyes condensed from a turbid haze into a single point of blood-red light. Finally, her gaze focused on Mei's heart.
Rip—!
Mei's jacket was violently torn open, revealing the rosy, tender skin underneath, white tinged with pink, soft and supple.
"Ki-Kiana?"
"Wait... no!!"
Mei cried out in shock and terror, but it didn't awaken the dormant consciousness.
A sharp pain shot through her. The room was filled only with piercing screams and moans, so loud that even the sound of chewing was completely masked.
Before long, Mei's heart was chewed to a bloody pulp.
Her eyes lost focus, becoming cloudy and scattered, as if she were dead.
"..."
This time, Kiana's consciousness didn't awaken immediately after eating Li Mo, as it had before.
Eating Li Mo could revive Kiana's dormant consciousness, but it was clear that the unremarkable Raiden Mei couldn't fully bring Kiana's consciousness back.
Even if her heart contained some "special rule" that couldn't be erased.
The Bizarre Kiana couldn't understand this rule. She only felt a familiar aura on it and instinctively expressed her love.
It was just that her way of expressing love was rather "special."
The familiar aura was indeed present. Little Mei, at the cost of the complete erasure of her original personality, had endowed all her counterparts across all timelines with this rule.
"Mei will not let you die, absolutely not."
This rule involved Li Mo, which was why the Bizarre Kiana had instinctively eaten the heart that carried the rule.
"..."
The gnawed wound healed bit by bit. Soon, blood began to flow through the vessels again, driven by the heart.
Mei's physiological signs gradually recovered. Though she could have been declared biologically dead just moments ago, she now showed signs of life again, defying human understanding.
It was as if... she had restarted herself.
The Bizarre Kiana's expression remained unchanged. She faintly sensed the presence of her own kind on this person.
After eating Mei's heart, the Bizarre Kiana's other human consciousness was gradually recovering.
Having lost her target, the Bizarre Kiana simply vanished, no longer suppressing the consciousness of Kiana of Finality.
"..."
"What did I just do?"
Kiana was recalling what the Bizarre Kiana had just done—
"Thank goodness, I only ate a heart," Kiana said with relief.
At least this time, Kiana hadn't woken up to find she had devoured Li Mo whole.
But looking at the unconscious Mei, who could wake up at any moment, Kiana knew that when she did, she would surely remember the painful memories of last night.
"After doing so many wrong things, what will A-Mo think of me..."
Kiana was a little dejected, muttering to herself, lost in thought.
Inferiority and fear filled her lonely, fragile heart.
Kiana stretched out her bloodstained right hand and placed it on Mei's forehead. The space-time around her began to distort, a sacred gold and a bizarre crimson intertwining, coiling together like vipers.
Mei once again returned to the point in time when her heart was devoured and her body torn apart, then rewound to the doorway, and finally back to the point in time before she woke up.
"It's over."
Kiana was a little tired. She trudged to the sofa and collapsed onto it.
Li Mo wasn't in this world. Kiana didn't want to stay for a moment longer. Her consciousness fell silent along with the Bizarre Kiana's, exchanging her body back to the original Kiana.
One person, one Bizarre entity, waiting for the next call of love.
---||---
Haunted Manor, Second Floor.
The Knocking Ghost arrived at the door of the eighth room. The corridor in front of the door had been crushed by its footsteps, making a sharp sound.
The members of the Occult Club huddled in the room, trembling. Even though the Bloody Newspaper had predicted this for them, the fear of a ghost standing outside their door still uncontrollably seized their minds.
"The ghost... it won't come in, right..."
"It's okay, the ghost definitely can't get in."
The members of the Occult Club discussed in low voices. They weren't entirely sure, mostly just seeking validation from their companions, to gain a temporary sense of security and psychological comfort.
They knew very well themselves that objective reality does not change according to subjective will.
"Shh—"
The president made a hushing gesture, reminding everyone not to talk, lest they attract the ghost standing outside the door.
All the members of the Occult Club crowded around the two beds, swallowed hard, and stared nervously at the door.
They were terrified that the next second, the door would be opened, and a horrifying face would appear before them.
After a long time, there was no sound from outside the door, and no sign of it opening.
The tension in everyone's hearts eased slightly.
"Looks like we're fine in the room. We were talking just now and the door didn't open. Maybe the ghost can't hear human voices."
"That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? I think it's the relationship between the candle and the room. The ghost can't actively enter a room with a burning candle. That's a rule the Bloody Newspaper mentioned."
"Haha, I was just guessing. Let's rest first, I'm getting a little sleepy."
Seeing no movement from the ghost outside, everyone's vigilance gradually relaxed.
The room was small, so the Occult Club had to huddle together, covering themselves with the large blanket they had prepared, and sleep in each other's arms.
But just then, a crisp knocking sound rang out...
Bang... bang...
Two knocks, a second apart, the frequency very slow.
"That ghost is knocking? What's it knocking for? Does it expect us to open the door and walk to our deaths?"
"We're not stupid. Only an idiot would walk to the door and open it for it!"
The next second.
Bang bang bang bang bang...!!!
Frequent knocking rang out, the sound getting louder and louder, the rhythm faster and faster.
The shadows in the room began to sway, because the candle, as if in a raging storm, flickered nonstop, as if it could go out at any moment.
"So a ghost really is knocking." The president pursed her lips, looking at the message Kanagawa Yume had sent on her phone.
In a daze, she seemed to see the six people who had died on the first night, right behind her. If she turned around, she would see them.
The heads of the six dead people drooped at a ninety-degree angle, shuffling towards her, their cracked lips asking one after another:
"Why didn't you listen to that person?"
"Why didn't you drive the ghost out earlier?"
"Why did you push them towards that ghost?"
"Why did you get them killed!?"
"It wasn't me!" the president suddenly shouted. Instantly, all eyes turned to her.
"President, you... what's wrong?"
Realizing her loss of composure, the president quickly adjusted her facial muscles, maintaining her kind expression.
"It's nothing. Everyone, let's hide under the bed first. Let's not have any more accidents..."
The president was the first to hide under the ruined bed. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but the moment she got in, she felt a slight chill.
But it wasn't bone-chillingly cold, just a little colder than the room temperature, still bearable.
But she couldn't sleep, because she might catch a cold if she did.
Seeing the president lead by example and crawl under, the others followed.
But the ruined bed was limited in size, and its height didn't allow for two people to stack on top of each other.
So three people couldn't squeeze under the ruined bed and had to choose to hide under the other bed.
The two beds were adjacent, so they could see the faces of those under the other bed.
"President~ if you're too crowded, you can come over to our side."
The person hiding under the eighth room's original bed whispered.
The people under the ruined bed looked at each other. They couldn't even move slightly, it was very uncomfortable.
It was too painful to stay like this all night.
"President, it's too crowded here. I'm going to their bed."
"Take me with you."
Two people couldn't stand the pushing and crowding and crawled under the more spacious bed.
Even more people wanted to go to that bed, but "suddenly, the room plunged into darkness, the candle went out...
The entire room fell into a soundless silence.
No, many strange sounds began to appear.
The gnashing of teeth, the dripping of water, the breaking of a mirror, the grating of bones...
Everyone could only see the general situation in the room with the dim moonlight.
"Ugh... Presi—!"
Before the person could speak, the president immediately covered her mouth, placed her index finger to her lips, and motioned for everyone to be silent.
The person tremblingly raised her hand, pointing to the pale feet outside. Most were without flesh, just a withered, dry skeleton, floating in the air.
The room suddenly became lively. The sound of footsteps constantly echoed in their ears. The skeleton feet that appeared out of nowhere walked back and forth in the room, as if looking for something.
The president immediately understood that person's kindness. These feet were all ghosts... looking for the living in the room.
If they weren't hiding under the bed right now, they would definitely be found.
Being caught by a ghost, the president didn't want to experience that a second time.
Under the bed, everyone was quiet, not speaking, whether out of reason or fear...
No one dared to take out their phones, because no one knew if the ghosts would see the light and bend down to find them.
The president observed for a long time and finally figured out why these ghosts couldn't find them.
They wouldn't bend over. Their feet were always straight, so they couldn't see the people hiding under the bed at all.
Unless they directly flipped their bodies over...
The others under the bed more or less realized this too. They looked at each other, exchanging glances.
But no matter what, as long as they hid under the bed tonight, they would be fine.
"Aaaaaah—!"
A heart-wrenching scream came from the member under the next bed. She scrambled out from under the bed in a panic.
The people under the ruined bed cast a look of disgust.
But the next second, their disgust instantly changed, only endless nausea filled their minds, stomach acid uncontrollably surging up.
There were five people under the ghost bed. One had run out, and four were still under the bed.
When they saw the scene under the ghost bed, everyone was stunned. Some of the more timid ones even closed their eyes.
Four humanoid snails writhed on the ground, their bodies shrunken, their hands and feet all absorbed into their bodies, turning into a mass of soft tissue that constantly oozed slime.
Their heads were even more bizarre than a newborn teratoma, with two pairs of tentacles extending from their heads. One pair of tentacles had eyeballs connected to them, swaying back and forth.
The four of them collapsed on the ground like that, staring at the people under the ruined bed with strange expressions and pale faces.
On the back of the four people's heads, a ferocious ghostly face was gradually devouring their normal human faces.
Thick liquid oozed from their noses, ears, mouths, and hair follicles, flowing out from under the bed, almost reaching the ruined bed.
A foul, raw smell filled the room, very similar to the stench of a sewer.
"President! There's a ghost! A ghost! Save me! Save..."
The last survivor of the five had just crawled out from under the ghost bed, trying to hide under the ruined bed.
Her head exploded with a bang, like a firework, shattering into pieces, splattering all over the room.
Looking closely, you could still clearly see the structure inside the broken neck. The spine was exposed, falling into a pool of scarlet blood.
"Ugh..."
The mentality of the people under the ruined bed had changed drastically, from calm and composed to panic, their hearts racing, their breathing becoming more and more frequent, with no rhythm at all.
Without a doubt, if they left the ruined bed now and were seen by the ghosts, their heads would suffer the same fate.
Instant explosion.
No one dared to respond, and no one had the courage to take out their phone to film it.
They could only tremble under the bed, holding each other's hands tightly, only to find that the other person was trembling even more fiercely than themselves.
Worse things happened.
The people under the ruined bed saw that all the ghosts' skeleton feet were facing them and actively surrounding them.
"..."
The president gritted her teeth, feeling like her heart was about to jump out of her throat.
There was no other reason. Before the person whose head exploded died, she had reached out towards them, wanting help.
It was probably because of this that she was exposed, letting the ghosts know that there were still living people under this bed!
Damn it!
The others showed looks of hatred, hating the dead person for revealing their location.
If the ghosts directly flipped the bed over, or bent down and looked, then they would surely die.
What to do? What to do?
Can't speak, can't ask the Bloody Newspaper.
The candle isn't burning, these ghosts won't leave.
Why did this happen? Didn't the Bloody Newspaper say that as long as we stayed in this room and didn't leave, we would be fine!?
It lied to me?!
The president clenched her fists, crumpling the Bloody Newspaper.
Even though it was useless for breaking the stalemate now, they were already at a dead end.
Pairs of skeleton feet surrounded the ruined bed, as if they knew there were living people under this bed.
Time passed minute by minute. Everyone's hearts became more and more uneasy, shrouded in the fear of death.
They could be killed by the ghosts at any moment, because the ghosts already knew they were here. It was just that for some reason, whether to toy with them or for sport, they didn't act immediately.
"Ugh..."
I don't want to die...
Someone couldn't take the pressure anymore and started crying, covering her mouth, her eyes turning red and swollen.
They had managed to survive until now, but they were going to die before they could enjoy life.
Why did they come to the haunted manor? Why didn't they leave earlier?
Why did their classmate crawl towards them before she died?
For a moment, everyone began to regret, regret why they came to this room.
Yume must be alive now, because it was the man with her who had told them to hide under the bed. All the things that man did during the day were preparations to avoid the ghosts' attacks at night.
If they had believed Yume at the time, and followed him...
Unfortunately, it was all too late. They would all die tonight.
---||---
Second Room.
"I think I heard screams from the eighth room," Kanagawa Yume, who hadn't fallen asleep yet, suddenly said.
Li Mo was unconcerned, nodding perfunctorily. "You heard right. Someone died."
"Just like that?" Kanagawa Yume found it a little hard to accept. It could have been completely avoided... if they had just put a few more ruined beds.
But Li Mo thought it was too wasteful, and she had no right to criticize his actions.
After all, Li Mo had said that these ruined beds were the key to whether they could survive on the third floor. They couldn't be wasted on the second night.
"Yes, it's that simple for a ghost to kill someone."
"I guess a few people hid under the ghost bed, turned into snails like you did before, and then the lucky survivors were consumed by fear, screaming and shouting in panic. They're dead now, no need to guess."
Li Mo's face was calm, completely unconcerned.
"The bed we burned, is hiding under it really useful? Thirty-two ghosts... what if they find the people under the ruined bed? All the ghosts have to do is bend over and look."
Kanagawa Yume expressed her doubts.
"If they can really do that, then it can only mean your companions have bad luck. No one to blame."
"If they really die because of this, it would give us key information. The ghosts can find the people under the ruined bed. The memory you saw needs to be questioned. Was your memory confused, or was it some other special reason?"
Speaking of which, Li Mo took out the Bizarre pistol, aimed it at Kanagawa Yume, then put it back at his waist.
Li Mo had considered this possibility, but the probability was not high.
Although the ghosts on the first and second floors could continuously complete themselves, their mechanisms were quite simple.
On the surface, the Human-Spider only killed people who were alone. Its killing method was similar to the Head Ghost's physical attacks, and its intelligence was worryingly low before it had completed itself.
If not for the fact that its shadow could control a body regardless of combat power, this ghost wouldn't even be a threat to an S-rank Valkyrie.
But once you stepped on its shadow while alone, you could just wait for death without outside help.