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"Cuisine… cuisine that glows…"
Looking at Secretary-sama, whose eyes were unfocused and who had unknowingly fallen victim, Shinomiya Kaguya lightly moved her pink lips and covered her forehead with her right hand, saying:
"I take back what I just said."
"As is well known, there's an idiom called 'a wide heart makes a fat body'," Amamiya Natsuki held Chika's wrist and pressed Secretary-sama into a chair to prevent her from moving around and falling. "As long as your heart is wide, you can fall asleep anywhere."
Fujiwara Chika hadn't fallen asleep, she had merely yawned, and yet she was pulled into the nightmare. Clearly, entering a dream didn't require the hassle of actually sleeping; merely the onset of drowsiness was enough.
As he spoke, Amamiya Natsuki pulled Marin over again, pressed her into another chair, and then extended his right hand to Kaguya.
Shinomiya Kaguya silently offered her hand.
Hands clasped.
The Sheltered Ojou-sama's skin was delicate and smooth, like soft, tender jelly, feeling exceptionally comfortable in his hand, making him want to playfully pinch it.
"What are you doing…?"
Shinomiya Kaguya's pretty face flushed red, and she couldn't help but glare at him.
Once was enough.
There was actually a second, and a third time…
How could she possibly feel sleepy if he kept pinching her!
"I'm sorry," Amamiya Natsuki said sincerely. "My hands, like my knees, have a mind of their own."
Shinomiya Kaguya smiled: "I recently saw a saying on Twitter: if you don't need your hands, you can chop them off and donate them to people in need."
"You actually learned how to surf the internet?" Amamiya Natsuki said, shocked. "That's incredible."
Shinomiya Kaguya puffed out her pink cheeks slightly: "Even elementary school student can do that!"
"…"
After a brief low-voiced conversation, Amamiya Natsuki and Kaguya quickly stopped chatting, as continuing would take who knows how long.
The room quickly fell silent.
Amamiya Natsuki closed his eyes, holding the Sheltered Ojou-sama's hand, silently searching for an opportunity.
Not long after.
A wave of drowsiness quietly swept over him.
With a sensation like cool lake water gently soaking his body, Amamiya Natsuki opened his eyes again and saw a bright silver moon in the sky, casting boundless clear light.
His gaze shifted downwards.
Before his eyes was a courtyard, where a massive cherry blossom tree bloomed. It was the season of full cherry blossoms, with the entire tree in full bloom.
A gentle breeze blew, and the falling cherry blossoms scattered, dreamlike and ethereal.
Small paths paved with white sand and stones extended in an orderly yet irregular fashion through the courtyard. Not far away were bamboo water basins and stone lanterns, and in a corner, a clump of secluded bamboo and a pavilion, all appearing to possess a quiet, Zen-like tranquility.
Besides that, there were quite a few tourists in the courtyard, gathered in twos and threes, admiring the flowers and the moon.
Amamiya Natsuki withdrew his gaze and looked to his right.
He was standing in a hall, and under the eaves, white lanterns were hung at regular intervals, illuminating the entire inn.
"Who am I?"
"Where am I?"
Amamiya Natsuki covered his forehead, feeling as if he had blacked out, his memory somewhat blurry.
He remembered.
He had come to the hot spring inn alone for a trip…
"Strange."
Amamiya Natsuki looked down at his right hand.
A delicate, warm sensation lingered in his palm, as if he had just been holding someone's hand.
"I would actually come to a hot spring inn alone instead of playing a game at home?" Doubt surfaced in his mind, but was quickly thrown to the back of his mind by an unknown force. "It's possible to want a change of pace occasionally. Let's go back to the room first."
"Oh, right, where's the room?"
The memories in his mind quietly completed themselves again, and a room number appeared in his head.
Amamiya Natsuki walked along the hallway.
Before long, he saw a Grandma holding a broom and with a towel wrapped around her hair, cleaning the hallway. Her hair had all turned silver, and her face was full of wrinkles and furrows.
"Tsk, at such an old age, she still has to work hard. As expected of a Sakura Island Country where the retirement age is eighty."
Continuing to walk forward, a young girl under a cherry blossom tree came into view.
She was a girl as clear and cold as if carved from ice and snow.
Skin as fair as snow.
Calm, indifferent crimson eyes.
An aura that kept people at a distance.
An unbelievably beautiful profile.
And a sigh-inducing flat figure.
"Shinomiya Kaguya?" Amamiya Natsuki looked at her curiously. "To actually meet a classmate here, this world really is too small."
As if sensing Amamiya Natsuki's gaze, Miss Ice Princess silently turned her head to look.
Their eyes met.
Miss Ice Princess quickly shifted her gaze away indifferently, as if Amamiya Natsuki was just an ordinary passerby.
Amamiya Natsuki didn't mind and continued walking towards his room.
Although they were classmates, they weren't sitting next to each other, nor in front or behind. Since the class assignments at the beginning of the school year, they had never exchanged a single word, so there wasn't much difference between her and a stranger.
But… why was she a bunny girl?
Her clothes felt very strange.
Never mind, everyone has the freedom to dress as they please. As long as it's not public nudity, there's no need to care.
He continued walking forward.
Amamiya Natsuki then saw another girl, wearing a little devil outfit, holding a set of clothes in her hands, with an exceptionally bright smile on her face, entering the hot spring bathroom.
A strange sense of familiarity flashed by.
"Never mind… I must have mistaken her for someone else."
Amamiya Natsuki shook his head and entered his room.
What's the first thing to do when you come home from outside?
Wash your hands, of course!
The good habit of frequent hand washing had already become instinct.
Amamiya Natsuki took off his shoes, pushed open the door, and walked into the bathroom, preparing to wash his hands.
The inn's bathroom wasn't large. Above the washbasin was a rectangular mirror.
Seeing himself in the mirror, Amamiya Natsuki suddenly froze.
Unexplained text prompts were floating above his head.
[You have successfully entered the Nightmare World]
[After careful observation, you found that your cognition has been distorted]
[You decide to use Miko's Advanced Spirit Vision to break through the cognitive distortion]
"What is this…?"
Looking at himself in the mirror, Amamiya Natsuki raised an eyebrow and waved his hand above his head.
His palm waved through the air, not touching anything.
The text prompt still floated above his head, unaffected.
"Nightmare World… cognitive distortion…"
Amamiya Natsuki instinctively felt that everything in front of him was absurd. "Some kind of reality show prank?"
"What if it's not?" Amamiya Natsuki calmly washed his hands. "How do I activate Miko's Advanced Spirit Vision?"
As he silently recited in his mind, the next second, an indescribable warm current surged into his eyes.
Amamiya Natsuki subconsciously closed his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, looking at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but let out a soft breath.
"…I remember now."
Miko's Advanced Spirit Vision allows immunity to illusions, and it can also provide immunity to nightmares.
At this moment, as he activated Miko's ability, the effect of cognitive distortion was quietly broken, and his memory instantly recovered, allowing him to recognize himself.
"Kaguya, Marin, Chika… and myself."
"Without a doubt, we are all in the Nightmare World right now."
Amamiya Natsuki recalled the staff and tourists he had encountered on his way and thought to himself.
"That means everyone in the inn has been pulled into the Nightmare World. The current situation is… a multiplayer online dream game?"
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