"Wha-what's going on, is it an earthquake?!"
Inside the kitchen, a terrified Sun Dajun shouted while clutching his head. Miwa Maeda, sitting beside him, simply screamed.
"Settle down, don't run around! Big Bro, Big Sis, wh-wh-what's happening?"
Green, who was also scared, managed to pull himself together enough to shout at Sun Dajun and Miwa Maeda, then instinctively wanted to run and find the three outside.
"Don't move, the problem isn't on our end! Everyone, quiet down."
Gao Hai's voice rang out. Maki, without hesitation, quickly turned around, got up from the floor, and then took out a wall clock from her backpack.
The source of the violent tremors wasn't Room 208, but 210.
Although they didn't know the specifics, it was obvious that the thing lured into Room 210 was now wrestling with whatever was originally inside. The commotion from these two was far more terrifying than the previous knocking horror story. The intense, successive vibrations made the people inside feel as if the entire building was about to collapse.
"This is…"
Kaguya, closest to the main door, heard the sounds most clearly at this moment.
Maki, in the living room, could only roughly determine that the vibrations were coming from Room 210. Kaguya, however, could clearly hear a suppressed sobbing sound, mixed with roars and screams, coming from that room.
Such chaotic sounds.
The smashing of glass bottles.
A bookcase being pushed to the floor.
The messy clatter of scattered items spreading out.
It was as if everything had lost its original form and was gradually collapsing into ruin.
What on earth…
The wide-eyed girl found that the sounds in her ears were becoming muffled in the next moment.
Gao Hai had rushed in front of her at some point, scrambling and crawling over amidst the violently shaking ground to stuff earplugs into Kaguya's ears.
"Don't. Listen. Carelessly."
Gao Hai spoke these words to Kaguya, enunciating each one. Although Kaguya couldn't hear him because of the earplugs, she read his lips and immediately realized the mistake she had just made.
I was listening so intently without realizing it, completely unaware that I shouldn't listen to such potentially problematic sounds for too long. Have my reflexes really degraded this much?
Giving Gao Hai a slight nod, Kaguya supported herself against the wall to stand up. The two helped each other as they quickly ran across the swaying hallway and into the living room, promptly shutting the door to block out the sounds from outside.
Strangely enough, while the shaking in the room had been incredibly violent just moments ago, it had lessened to some degree ever since Kaguya put in the earplugs. After the living room door was closed, the vibrations rapidly weakened and stopped a short while later.
"Even if we aren't discovered or chosen as a target, can we still be affected just by being exposed to related information, like through hearing? No, if that were the case, we should have been attacked back in Room 205. So maybe it depends on whether the entity is in an 'activated' or 'inactivated' state. This is getting more and more troublesome. By this logic, does this mean we're only safe if we're in the living room with the door closed when something happens?"
Gao Hai seriously pondered the possibilities, still feeling that something couldn't be properly explained.
That corpse in Room 205—if it was 'alive' all along, why didn't it attack on the spot? Why did it have to wait until they left to follow them?
It was able to head to Room 210 based on Gao Hai's misdirection, which proves it has human-like sensory abilities and can understand human language. So what is its thought process? What's its level of intelligence and memory?
That thing in Room 210 clashed with... whatever was already in there. At least, it sounded like a clash. Only Kaguya, with her sharp senses, heard the specific sounds clearly. I'll have to ask her what happened later.
Gao Hai couldn't help but think of the frozen corpse in Room 208 again.
Why did the thing in Room 205 start moving so quickly, while the one in Room 208 has remained inactive?
And in Room 204, which he and Kaguya hadn't fully explored, could there be something hiding inside, perhaps even watching them in secret this whole time?
Few of these questions had immediate answers.
And if they wanted to find those answers, it was anyone's guess whether they could even stay alive in the process.
"Compared to a puzzle game full of questions, I'd much prefer a mindless, satisfying action game with a trainer enabled..."
Gao Hai could only sigh with this sentiment in the end.
"B-Big Bro, what's going on outside…"
Green, who was so scared by the earthquake-like tremors that he nearly wet himself, cautiously peeked his head out of the kitchen and asked.
"It has nothing to do with us. Don't scare yourself. What about those two?"
Kaguya still had her earplugs in; she didn't seem to be in good spirits and probably needed more time to recover. On the other side, Maki sat where she was, seemingly affected by something as well, though it wasn't clear what, so she didn't respond immediately.
Gao Hai, the only one largely unaffected, stood up and asked Green in a cold tone.
"They're fine, both of them are fine. They're behaving."
Green said hurriedly, grinning and waving the hand holding the knife to show that everything was alright.
Gao Hai frowned. He glanced at Kaguya beside him and, seeing that she had recovered a bit, stood up and walked to the kitchen door. He passed by Green, who was a head taller than him, and looked at the two people sitting against the refrigerator inside.
"Wha-what were you guys doing out there?"
Miwa Maeda didn't dare to speak, but Sun Dajun still had some courage and dared to question Gao Hai.
Gao Hai didn't say anything. He just stared intently at the resentful Sun Dajun, the cowering Miwa Maeda beside him, and the refrigerator behind them, which had remained motionless from the very beginning. After watching for a long time, he didn't dare go forward to confirm if everything was really okay.
"In this godforsaken place, we just know a little more than you two fools. 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 trouble for me, I won't do anything to you. Understand?"
As he spoke, Gao Hai casually tossed two chocolate bars to Sun Dajun. Seeing the other man instinctively catch them, he then turned to look at Green beside him.
"Watch them. If you notice any strange changes in them, tell us immediately."
He had considered explaining things properly, but Kaguya and Maki weren't in good shape right now. Plus, his initial attitude had already formed a lasting impression. Furthermore, those two had likely died in the hallway before the clock's time reversal. It was possible that after the reset, they would simply perish at the designated time, like with Bites the Dust. In the end, Gao Hai decided to maintain the current situation for now. He would wait at least an hour, and if the two still seemed fine, he would try to communicate.
"Big Bro, you don't mean they…"
Green swallowed hard. He originally thought he was just watching two ordinary people, but now he was increasingly realizing that this situation was not simple. He was starting to get scared and was reluctant to continue.
"If you think it's inappropriate, you can switch with me. You go investigate the situation instead. How about it?"
Gao Hai just stared at the man's deliberately troubled expression and asked calmly, immediately making Green's face turn as pale as a ghost's.
"Sorry, no, please don't say that. I'll watch them carefully…"
Green apologized timidly behind him. Gao Hai had already turned away and didn't see the resentful and helpless emotions in the man's eyes.
In the living room, Maki had already handed the letter sheets with important information to Kaguya, then slowly sat down on a nearby stool.
Something seems strange.
Although everything seemed normal, Gao Hai felt a vague sense of strangeness upon returning to the living room.
"Sanchez... 109... So, you're saying that Shirakawa Apartments ended up this way because of a chain reaction caused by the extreme actions of a single survivor?"
Kaguya muttered to herself with a frown as she looked through the documents.
"Be careful while you read. These letter sheets... they seem a bit strange. I saw some sentences just now, but they seem to have disappeared…"
Maki didn't seem to be in good spirits. She rubbed her temples and yawned, but her eyelids still drooped irresistibly.
Strange, I feel... my body seems to be getting heavier...
It's like I've forgotten something... It feels important, something I should have said immediately, but I can't quite remember...
It wasn't like this a moment ago. Strange, ugh, what's wrong with me…
"Are you alright?"
A hand patted Maki's shoulder, jolting her a little more awake.
"Hah, what could be wrong with me? Are you concerned about me? You should be more concerned about yourself. We've only just learned some basic information. Don't think you can relax now. You'd better take this seriously and work hard. By the way, you weren't injured earlier, were you? The alcohol and sterilized bandages in the supply box are well-preserved and should be fine to use. Don't just endure it if you're hurt."
The frowning girl retorted bluntly, but her arrogant words turned into concern halfway through.
Gao Hai didn't reply, just frowned, watching the girl who seemed listless no matter how he looked at her.
Her condition was a bit off.
He couldn't pinpoint the exact reason, but he instinctively felt that her condition was off.
It seemed... after he had touched the wall clock, and now that he could constantly feel the gaze of those two—no, three—human-head clocks, Gao Hai noticed a subtle change in his own senses. It was enough that when he looked at Maki and Kaguya, he could faintly sense the abnormality in the former.
Are you really okay? I feel like you're not in good spirits.
Gao Hai opened his mouth, wanting to ask this.
But before he could speak, another sound rang out first.
*Click—*
It sounded like some kind of mechanism being activated, the sound of mechanical parts beginning to move.
It came from the backpack on Maki's back, from the human-head clock she was holding, from its hands, a clear, distinct sound.
The gazes of all three of them locked, almost simultaneously, onto the wall clock beside Maki, the one they could directly observe.
And right before their eyes, the hands on this wall clock suddenly began to accelerate, rushing forward, rocketing toward a future time.
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