Kumagai Mai, 26 years old, was once an overworked office worker.
Now, she was a core member—or more accurately, a missing member—of a Red Moon-level player team called "Slacker Crew."
Well… the name of the team was admittedly a bit strange, but it couldn't be helped. Most of the players in the group were fairly young, generally in their twenties. Only two members were over thirty.
The team had around ten members in total, and Mai was among the first batch recruited when it was established. So far, she had gone through 13 missions: 4 Dusk-level, 6 Dark Night-level, and 3 Red Moon-level. She possessed an A-grade Dusk-level enhancement, an S-grade Dark Night-level enhancement, and a B-grade Red Moon-level enhancement. She also had two different Dark Night-level blessings, had fused the Red Moon-level Obsession Item "Bronze Eye" into her flesh, and carried more than twenty Obsession Items.
Well… those twenty-plus Obsession Items were now all gone.
She had been trapped in Fujihana Middle School for over three months. Aside from the Bronze Eye fused with her body, all her Obsession Items had returned to their original instances. It was basically a complete reset—she had almost been reduced to a blank slate.
But at least… she was still alive.
And she had been rescued by a young man who claimed to be a Dusk-level player—yet seemed completely off in every possible way.
"So you're saying you were dragged into the 'Campus Uncanny' Instance with a group of ordinary people, and it just so happens to be Fujihana Middle School—a high-risk area where the core Obsession Item has never been found? And under those conditions, you managed to seize Alice's Obsession Item in the Teaching Building and suppress it successfully? You're really not a Red Moon-level player?!"
After roughly understanding what Takumi had done, Mai's eyes widened, her face practically screaming: Are you kidding me?!
"Just lucky, that's all. Honestly, I'm already close to my limit. That's why I went out of my way to bring you out—wanted to see if you could help."
Having no way to explain his "cheat," Takumi could only brush it off casually.
"…Alright. I don't know what exactly is going on, but at least you don't seem to have the physical strength a Red Moon-level player should possess… tch, Fujihana Middle School, huh. I really didn't want to come to a place like this. Anyway, let's avoid that Alice first. In my current state, I'm not suited to fight it."
During their brief exchange, Mai could tell that Takumi was holding something back. She guessed that he was unwilling to reveal his Obsession Items and Blessings. That kind of thinking was completely normal among players—after all, those were life-saving trump cards. If they fell into the hands of ill-intentioned players, things could go very wrong.
She could understand that mindset, because she had gone through the same phase herself. At the Dusk-level and Dark Night-level stages, players always had to be wary of one another. Genuine cooperation was rare, because while those Instances were difficult, they usually weren't utterly hopeless. That left room for players to turn on each other.
But once players entered the Red Moon-level stage, that kind of backstabbing rapidly decreased. Even when it did happen, it was usually only under extreme circumstances.
The reason was simple—Takumi himself had already experienced it firsthand. Red Moon-level Instances were simply too difficult. So difficult that it drove people to despair. So difficult that lone-wolf players had virtually no room to survive. So difficult that everyone was forced to band together and struggle as a group, each person pushing themselves to the limit just to have a chance of making it out alive.
So Mai could understand Takumi's caution. And since he had saved her life, she was willing to do her best to help him. Although… entering that Alice's Room—a place no player had ever found—and successfully bringing out two dolls… was that really possible? Could this kid be playing some kind of "hiding his strength" trick? But judging from his presence and the physical strength he had shown in action, he didn't seem like a Red Moon-level player at all—at most, just an outstanding Dark Night-level player.
"Can you sense Alice's position?"
While Mai was still doubtful, Takumi gestured for the girls to follow him and asked the question.
"This is my Blessing, granted by someone known as The One Whose Name Was Forgotten. One of its functions lets me reverse-lock onto the nearest Aberration that has already locked onto me. So right now, I know there's an Alice that has entered the Teaching Building. It's already on the sixth floor. We need to hurry. As for these people… abandon them. If we take them with us, none of us will make it out."
Mai didn't hide her ability at all. As she spoke, she glanced at Miko and the others. The moment she realized they were all ordinary people, disappointment showed clearly on her face, and she bluntly suggested that Takumi give them up.
From her expression, it was obvious that while she didn't look down on them as "players versus civilians," in a high-risk environment like a Red Moon-level Instance, she had no intention of protecting ordinary people. In fact, she even seemed to have the thought of using them as bait—she just didn't say it outright because they had been traveling with Takumi.
"It's fine. I'm pretty confident when it comes to escaping. And I've been watching the entrance to the Teaching Building—so far, it looks like only one Alice has come in."
Takumi then used the Blood Key to open a door on the first floor of the Teaching Building.
"A Dark Night-level spatial transfer Obsession Item? That's a rare treasure—something you can't even buy."
Mai was visibly surprised at Takumi's method. Meanwhile, Takumi had already signaled for Miko and the others to hurry inside.
Seeing how Takumi treated the girls—especially his obvious attention toward Miko—Mai thought for a moment. After following him through the door and arriving on the first floor, she spoke again once he closed it.
"With this, you can mess with that thing for a while. But it'll only buy us a little time."
"Here's what we'll do. Open a door to the third floor of the Swimming Pool building and send those students in. Feeding them to this place will only increase the difficulty for us. If they can live a little longer, then let them live a little longer. In the end, it's just a matter of fate."
"Alice only locks onto people she's interested in. I'll help you stall her for a bit. It'll also give me a chance to show you what I can do—make cooperation easier. But honestly, kid, next time you should know your limits. In a place like this, we can barely survive ourselves. You might not even get any gratitude for saving them. When it's time to let go, you have to let go."
With that earnest, lecturing tone, it was clear that Mai had cast herself in the role of an older, onee-san figure.
Takumi couldn't help but feel a bit amused. In truth, he wasn't trying to save those girls out of kindness. He was just trying to keep Miko at ease—and to prevent those idiots from dying one by one and coming back as something horrifying that would only make clearing the Instance harder.
Still, even though he was being misunderstood, he didn't bother explaining. He simply nodded. After Mai confirmed that Alice had reached the second floor, he opened another door, this time leading to the fifth floor. Following her suggestion, he then opened a door to the Swimming Pool and drove the students inside.
It was fortunate that the Teaching Building was currently in a sealed state. If Takumi had tried something like this during the first or second loop, who knew what might have happened. Back then, the rules of the building explicitly stated that it was "impossible to leave." Even when he had merely broken through a wall, he had been attacked midair. If he had attempted a direct transfer, it was very possible that every Aberration in the building would have swarmed him.
After this transfer, Takumi kept only Miko with him, while Mai stayed in the corridor, facing Alice alone as she approached.
From inside the classroom where he was moving the students, Takumi could faintly hear Alice's giggling. He heard her say, "Kumagai-san, aren't we friends? Why are you making that face?"—the same innocent, almost playful tone she had used when she targeted him in previous loops.
But the next moment, Mai's bronze eye flashed with a faint light.
Alice's figure froze in place.
Her laughter stopped. All movement ceased. She simply stood there, stiff and unmoving—like a paused video.
Expressionless, Mai reached up and wiped the foul blood seeping from the corner of her bronze eye. She let out a small breath of relief, then turned to look through the window at Takumi inside.
"I'm not in great condition right now. I can only hold her for about three minutes. You… never mind. Just hurry and go."
She didn't quite understand why Takumi had chosen to keep only Miko, but she didn't ask. She simply urged him to leave quickly.
Takumi opened another door, and this time they arrived in the corridor on the second floor.
"Your Obsession Item can directly immobilize Alice?"
Takumi glanced at Mai's artificial eye.
That effortless moment of freezing Alice had been deeply shocking to him—especially after everything he had gone through being tormented by that thing.
Compared to those high school girls who were practically useless aside from Miko, this player named Kumagai Mai had, from the very beginning, clearly demonstrated that she possessed the power to contend against Alice. For Takumi, this was an enormous and very real surprise.
"I can pause an Aberration's actions, halt the spread of its influence, and see through illusions—those are my main abilities. Under normal circumstances, I can hold them for ten minutes. But that Alice… since you've already come into contact with it, you should know—it's strange. It's obviously different from normal Aberrations. Because of that, my Obsession Item doesn't work as well on it. At most, I can only stop it for three minutes."
Mai shook her head as she spoke. Looking at the pitch-black, ruined corridor ahead of her, she couldn't help but feel a trace of emotion in her heart.
The feeling was hard to describe.
In her memory, just ten minutes ago, she had still been with her team, cooperating with other players. Five Red Moon-level teams—twenty-seven people in total—had joined forces to tackle Campus Uncanny. Then she and one of her teammates had been attacked by Alice and got hit.
And yet now, judging from the external time Takumi had told her, she had already been trapped inside that doll for several months. As for her teammates, she had no idea what had become of them.
This sense of dissonance wasn't anything particularly strange. It was related to another Blessing she possessed.
That Blessing came from a twisted Instance, whose core obsession belonged to a mentally deranged individual suffering from severe dissociation.
After clearing and destroying that Instance, Mai obtained a very special Blessing. She could at any time "store" her memory and personality. Then, if she ever fell into extreme conditions such as mental disorder or personality collapse, the Blessing would automatically activate. It would only trigger once she had entered a relatively safe state, at which point it would overwrite her current memory and personality with the stored version, restoring her to a mentally sound and stable condition.
It was precisely because of this Blessing that, after being released by Takumi, she had been able to recover so quickly. The price, however, was that she could barely remember what had happened after she was captured by Alice. Of course, not remembering wasn't necessarily a bad thing—she had no interest in reliving the torment she had endured.
"Right now, only one Alice has come after us. But very soon, the three Alices from the Residential Wing will definitely come as well. We can't stay here for long. Let's head to Yoruyama Middle School. Since you said that two core Obsession Items there have already been taken, and the entire school is nearly in a fully sealed state, maybe we can find a relatively safe place there and hold out for ten-odd days until the Instance officially opens."
Although she didn't understand why Takumi wasn't heading directly to the first floor, Mai still earnestly proposed their next course of action.
To be honest, the current situation was giving her quite a headache.
Being dragged into an Instance outside its activation period—and under those conditions, surviving for more than ten days—was, in her view, practically impossible.
But Takumi had saved her life. No matter what, she had to repay that debt. So she could only do her best to come up with ways to increase their chances of survival.
Unfortunately, she was now left with only one Obsession Item—the bronze eye. Still, with an A-rank Dusk enhancement and an S-rank Dark Night enhancement, her physical abilities were more than enough to handle most situations outside of rule-based constraints. Her Red Moon enhancement was only B-rank, but the self-healing and mental recovery it provided were better than nothing—it should still be useful.
High evaluations in Dusk-level and Dark Night-level Instances granted enhancements to physical abilities, allowing players to become something entirely beyond ordinary humans.
Red Moon-level enhancements, on the other hand, granted players a peculiar ability to absorb energy from their surroundings. It reduced their need for food—or even eliminated it entirely—allowed injuries to heal quickly, and enabled rapid recovery from mental contamination or trauma. Mai's Red Moon enhancement was only at the lowest B-rank, so she couldn't completely stop eating or drinking, but going without food and water for over ten days was still no problem. Her resistance to mental contamination was also far beyond that of an ordinary person.
On top of that, both of her Blessings had multiple functions. If the goal was simply survival, she believed she could at least struggle on for a while longer while dragging this junior along with her.
To survive…
Mai couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
She had already reached what was essentially the peak among players—standing at the Red Moon level—yet she still had to struggle like this, desperately fighting just to stay alive…
Still, she was an experienced player, and she had just been pulled out of a certain-death situation. From here on, she would do her best to push forward and help this kid survive a little longer. For now, the priority was to leave the Fujihana Middle School area. There was no point getting entangled with something as insane as Alice. Even if her Obsession Item could break through the illusions, in a prolonged standoff, she would inevitably be the one to collapse first as her Obsession Item lost control—and that would be game over.
At that moment, Mai carefully considered and weighed her options. She had already come up with a survival strategy—one that involved repeatedly moving between Hayadate Elementary School, Fujihana Middle School, and Yoruyama Middle School.
"I can't go to Yoruyama Middle School. I need to break the core obsession of the Fujihana Middle School area. So next, I'll be heading to the Residential Wing. Kumagai-san, could I ask for your help? Dealing with this situation alone is a bit difficult for me."
And then, she heard Takumi make that request in a completely serious tone.
"Uh… wait… are you serious?"
Caught completely off guard, Mai's expression turned to one of shock.
"I plan to take the Obsession Item of Alice beneath the Residential Wing, uncover the true side of Fujihana Middle School, and break the core obsession of this Instance. For that, I need your help, Kumagai-san."
Takumi's expression and attitude didn't change. He continued speaking just as seriously.
"…"
Mai didn't respond. She simply stared at Takumi.
Takumi didn't say anything more either. He simply looked back at her with sincere eyes.
The two of them locked gazes for several seconds. Behind them, Miko wore a confused expression, having no idea what the two of them were doing.
This kid… he's serious…
Very quickly, Mai understood his intent from his gaze. The expression on her face gradually shifted into one of utter disbelief.
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