"Wh-What's going on, is it an earthquake?!"
In the kitchen, Sun Dajun screamed in panic, clutching his head. Sitting beside him, Maeda Miwa let out a piercing shriek.
"Calm down! Don't run around! You two, wh-what the hell is happening?!"
Green, also visibly shaken, barked at them with what little composure he had, and instinctively made to run toward the hallway to find the others.
"Don't move. The problem isn't with us! Keep everyone quiet."
Takashina Kai's voice rang out then, calm and commanding. Without hesitation, Maki turned and scrambled to her feet, pulling out a wall clock from her backpack.
The source of the violent shaking wasn't Room 208, but Room 210.
While the exact situation was unclear, it was obvious—the thing they had lured into Room 210 was now engaged in some sort of clash with whatever had been originally dwelling in there. The sheer scale of the confrontation was on a whole different level than the previous knock-knock ghost story. The tremors felt so severe, it was as if the entire building was about to collapse.
"This is..."
Kaguya, who was closest to the door, heard the sounds most clearly.
While Maki could only roughly identify the direction of the quake as Room 210, Kaguya could hear the oppressive sounds coming from within—sobbing, roaring, and shrieking, all jumbled together.
Such chaotic noise.
Glass bottles smashing.
Bookshelves toppling over.
Scattered items strewn across the room.
Everything seemed to be losing its original form, unraveling into madness.
What in the world is going on…?
The girl's eyes widened—just as the sound in her ears started to distort.
At some point, Kai had scrambled over to her through the shaking floor, shoving earplugs into her ears.
"Don't. Listen. To. It."
Kai spoke each word with emphasis. Kaguya couldn't hear him due to the earplugs, but by reading his lips, she immediately realized her mistake.
She'd become too absorbed in the sounds. She hadn't even realized how dangerous it was to keep listening. Her own awareness had dulled to the point of becoming a liability.
She gave Kai a slight nod, then used the wall to steady herself as they both helped each other down the swaying hallway, rushing into the living room and quickly shutting the door to cut off the noise.
Strangely enough, though the entire room had been shaking just moments ago, once Kaguya put in the earplugs, the tremors began to ease. After closing the door, they rapidly diminished and soon stopped altogether.
"Even if you're not seen or directly targeted, just being exposed to the right stimulus—like sound—can cause contamination? No… if that were the case, we should've been attacked while we were in 205. Maybe it depends on whether the entity is in an 'active' or 'inactive' state."
Kai pondered the possibilities. There were still things he couldn't explain.
That corpse in 205—if it was always alive, why hadn't it attacked immediately? Why wait until they left and then follow?
The fact that it could be misled into going to 210 showed it had human-like senses and could understand speech. So what kind of thinking process did it have? What was its level of intelligence and memory?
Now it was in 210, seemingly fighting something else. From the sounds alone, only Kaguya had the sensory acuity to make sense of what was happening. He'd have to ask her later.
Kai's thoughts turned again to the frozen corpse in Room 208.
Why did the creature in 205 move so quickly, while the one in 208 hadn't done anything yet?
And what about Room 204, which he and Kaguya hadn't fully explored? Could something be hidden there… possibly watching them from the shadows?
Few of these questions had immediate answers.
And whether they could even survive long enough to find the answers—that, too, was uncertain.
"Compared to this puzzle-filled nightmare, I'd rather just play a brainless hack-and-slash with full buffs from Wind Spirit Moon Shadow..."
That was all Kai could say in the end.
"B-Bro, what the heck is going on out there...?"
Green poked his head out of the kitchen cautiously, still trembling from the violent shaking—he was probably one step away from wetting himself.
"It has nothing to do with us. Don't scare yourself. Where are those two?"
Kaguya still hadn't removed her earplugs. She looked mentally drained and clearly needed some time to recover. On the other side, Maki sat silently on the floor—whatever just happened had clearly shaken her up too.
Kai, seemingly the only one unaffected, stood up and coldly asked Green the question
"It's fine, everything's fine. Everyone just stay calm."
Green hurriedly said, waving the hand holding the knife with a forced smile to signal that everything was okay.
Takashina Kai frowned, glanced at Kaguya beside him, and after confirming she had recovered a bit, stood up and walked toward the kitchen door. He passed Green, who was more than a head taller than him, and looked at the two people sitting against the refrigerator inside the kitchen.
"You… what were you two doing outside?"
Maeda Miwa didn't dare speak. Sun Dajun, on the other hand, had enough courage to question Takashina Kai.
Kai didn't reply. He simply stared intently at the angry Sun Dajun, the cowering Maeda Miwa, and the refrigerator behind them that had remained still the whole time. After observing for a while, he didn't dare approach to confirm if it was really safe.
"In this cursed place, we only know a little more than you two idiots. I don't want to make things difficult for anyone. I just want to get out of here alive. So as long as you don't cause me trouble, I won't do anything to you. Got it?"
As he said that, Kai casually tossed Sun Dajun two chocolate bars. When Dajun instinctively reached out to catch them, Kai turned to Green.
"Keep an eye on those two. If you notice anything off about them, let us know immediately."
He had considered explaining things clearly, but Kaguya and Maki weren't in great shape right now. Plus, his initial behavior had left a fixed impression, and those two had likely died in the hallway before the clock's reversal. For all he knew, they'd disappear again like the "Losers Who Eat Dust." In the end, Kai decided to maintain the current status for now. If an hour passed and they were still fine, maybe then they could talk things out.
"Boss, do you mean… they…"
Green gulped. He had thought he was just watching two normal people, but now he was starting to realize the situation was far from simple. Fear crept in, and he was getting hesitant to continue the job.
"If you're not comfortable, we can switch. You go investigate, how about that?"
Kai stared calmly at the guy pretending to hesitate. Green instantly went pale, almost as white as a ghost in an old village horror film.
"Sorry, no, please don't say that. I'll watch them properly..."
Green stammered out his apology behind him as Kai turned away, not seeing the resentment and frustration flickering in Green's eyes.
Meanwhile in the living room, Maki handed the letters with important information to Kaguya, then slowly sat down on a nearby stool.
Something felt off.
Though everything seemed normal, when Kai returned to the living room, he couldn't shake a faint sense of unease.
"Sanchez… 109… So Shirakawa Apartments ended up like this due to a chain reaction caused by a survivor's extreme actions?"
Kaguya frowned as she muttered while flipping through the documents.
"Be careful when reading. These letters… they're strange. I saw some sentences just now, but now they've vanished..."
Maki seemed mentally unstable. She rubbed her temples, yawned, and her eyelids started to droop uncontrollably.
Strange. Her body felt heavier...
It felt like she'd forgotten something important. Something that should be said right away, but she just couldn't recall it.
It wasn't like this a moment ago. What was going on...?
"You okay?"
A hand patted Maki's shoulder, jolting her slightly awake.
"Hah, what could happen to me? What, you worried about me? You should worry about yourself instead. We've only just gathered some basic intel. Don't think you can relax now. You better pull your weight. By the way, did you get hurt earlier? There's alcohol and bandages in the supply box, still in good condition. Don't try to tough it out if you're injured."
She spoke harshly, but her sharp tone halfway turned into concern.
Kai didn't answer. He simply frowned, staring at the girl who clearly seemed mentally drained.
Something was wrong with her.
He couldn't explain exactly why, but instinct told him so.
Ever since he touched the hanging clock and began sensing the gaze of not two, but now three head clocks, his senses had changed. When he looked at Mafuyu and Kaguya, he could faintly sense the former's abnormality.
Are you really okay? You seem off…
Kai opened his mouth, about to ask, but another sound cut him off.
Click—
A mechanical noise, like some mechanism had been activated, echoed through the room.
It came from Maki's backpack, from the head-shaped clock in her hand, and from the clock hands themselves.
The three of them all turned to look at the hanging clock next to Maki.
In their view, the hands on the clock suddenly began spinning forward—accelerating rapidly.