In stark contrast to the hellish panorama of Ikebukuro's streets, a strange, eerie peace pervaded the Chihaya family home.
Or so it seemed.
"Woof! Woof woof woof!" Overly excited barks echoed, thudding on the wooden staircase.
"Aiko—calm down a little! Don't jump on the table!"
Yuutenji Nyamu frantically tried to stop her. Between her short purple hair, a pair of matching cat ears stood up tensely, and her fluffy tail was raised high in anxiety.
"Woof—woof!" Her response was an even more cheerful bark.
Chihaya Anon made a nimble leap. Between her pink hair, a pair of fluffy dog ears twitched excitedly as she easily dodged Nyamu's "net" and landed steadily on the living room coffee table.
She proudly wagged her equally fluffy tail, which was wagging vigorously behind her. Her light grey eyes sparkled, completely immersed in the joy of "conquering the high ground."
"Meow!"
Nyamu shrieked, not because of the table, but because of Anon's next move—she suddenly leaned in, and her wet, pink tongue enthusiastically licked the girl's cheek.
"Don't lick my face anymore—!"
Nyamu frantically pushed away the fluffy pink head, her face covered in suspicious drool marks. At this moment, she realized with absolute clarity: although both of them had undergone "beastification," the extent was vastly different!
She herself had only gained a pair of cat ears and a tail; her consciousness and behavior were still essentially human. But Anon... her thought patterns and actions seemed to have been completely overridden by the "pink-haired large dog" setting.
Lively, enthusiastic, destructive, expressing affection by pouncing and licking... she was a veritable husky overflowing with energy and desperately needing a walk.
"No, I need to find Mr. and Mrs. Chihaya!" Nyamu decided immediately. Taking advantage of Anon's sudden interest in the sofa cushions, which temporarily spared her face, she turned and rushed towards the master bedroom.
The situation was too bizarre! She had to inform Anon's parent... She abruptly pushed open the master bedroom door.
Morning light filtered through the curtains, gently illuminating the spacious bed. Mr. and Mrs. Chihaya lay embraced in sleep, their breathing even.
However, upon seeing their forms, Nyamu instantly froze.
The loving couple was now nestled together in an incredibly slow, utterly languid posture.
Their cheeks were covered with a layer of grayish-brown, slightly coarse short fur. Their arms seemed to have lengthened, and long claws had grown on their hands, which they were slowly resting on each other's backs.
Sloths.
And a pair of sloths who looked very much like a married couple.
Looking at their serene expressions, as if they could sleep until the end of time, they were clearly oblivious to their own "beastification," and perhaps even found it... more comfortable?
"..." Nyamu opened her mouth, but no sound came out of her throat.
'Even the adults... What on earth is going on?!'
Thump! Crash—!
Suddenly, a deafening crash of something heavy falling and breaking echoed from upstairs.
"Aiko!" Nyamu's soul nearly fled her body. She immediately cast the sloth couple out of her mind and rushed back to Anon's room on the second floor, taking the stairs two at a time.
The scene before her was a mess.
The chair was overturned, small ornaments from the bookshelf lay scattered on the floor, and Anon, happily bouncing on the bed with her favorite rabbit doll in her mouth, her light grey eyes sparkling with the pure joy of successfully wrecking the house.
Seeing Nyamu return, she immediately dropped the doll, barked happily, and made to pounce and lick again.
"Stop! STOP!" Nyamu's scalp tingled. She darted forward, trying to grab Anon's arm.
"Aiko! Calm down! This house can't withstand your demolition work!"
She didn't want the Chihaya family to wake up to find their cozy home transformed into a war-torn landscape.
Anon's strength also seemed to have increased considerably. She twisted her body, struggling, letting out aggrieved whines, and rubbed her wet nose against Nyamu.
One "cat" and one "dog" engaged in a fierce struggle in the room strewn with dolls and fragments.
"This can't go on..." Nyamu panted, trying to control the overly excited "pink-haired big dog" while using her tail to hook her phone from nearby.
She had to figure out what was happening outside; this was definitely not just their family's problem!
With one hand, she painstakingly operated her phone, unlocked the screen, and opened her usual video website. The homepage was almost entirely flooded with one keyword—[Ikebukuro].
She clicked on the most popular video, its title boldly proclaiming [Shocking! Ikebukuro Chaos! Live Report!].
The footage initially showed the usual bustling scene of Ikebukuro Sunshine Avenue: throngs of people, flashing neon billboards. But after only a few seconds, the camera shook violently.
Screams instantly tore through the background music.
The camera panned across the street:
An office worker in a suit, his briefcase on the ground, clutched his head in pain. The hair on his head grew wildly, twisting, and in an instant transformed into a pair of huge, branched antlers. He screamed in terror, wildly kicking a nearby vending machine with his newly formed, velvet-covered, hoof-like feet, the metal exterior making a grating denting sound.
On the street corner, a female student with a schoolbag suddenly stopped. The back of her clothes bulged and ripped! A pair of huge, white wings "whooshed" open! She frantically tried to flap her wings and fly off the ground, but clumsily crashed into a nearby utility pole, shedding feathers everywhere, causing even more intense fright and screams from the surrounding crowd.
Inside the convenience store's glass window, a young cashier in uniform was filled with terror. His cheeks and neck were rapidly covering with a layer of fine, cold-glowing snake scales. He unconsciously flicked out a crimson tongue, watching the animal kingdom-like scene outside, and his body shrank towards the corner of the counter.
The camera suddenly tilted skyward! Several "creatures" with black raven wings but contorted human heads let out shrill, unpleasant "caw-ah—caw-ah—" cries, circling and diving over the chaotic city.
Police sirens approached from a distance, red and blue lights flashing, but they were instantly drowned out by more beast-like roars, terrified cries, shattering glass, and the deafening crashes of colliding vehicles.
The footage shook violently, spun, and finally froze on a chaotic street scene—a burning trash can, an overturned motorcycle, and a "half-bear man" pounding on the roof of a police car with a huge, thick fur-covered bear paw—then the screen went completely black.
The video ended.
Nyamu's palms were drenched in cold sweat as she held her phone.
This wasn't special effects! Not a movie! This was a live, incomprehensible disaster unfolding. Ikebukuro... no, possibly even further, was a complete mess.
She instinctively tried to refresh the page to see if there were any new updates, but... [This video has been deleted or is unavailable.]
[Related search results are not displayed.]
Refresh, refresh again. All search results for keywords like "Ikebukuro," "chaos," and "animals" instantly became clean, as if the chaotic scene from moments ago had never existed.
'If the videos are all taken down, then it's highly likely to be real...'
A cold truth struck Nyamu's mind.
'Humans gradually turning into animals... This isn't some sci-fi movie!'
She tried to analyze it rationally.
'Is it a biochemical experiment leak? A mad scientist's evil plan? Or... is the whole city caught in a battle between magical girls and monsters?'
The thoughts became increasingly outlandish.
'No, not even sci-fi novelists would easily adopt such a setting.'
Just as Nyamu racked her brain over this surreal situation, almost falling into wild speculation—
Snap.
The phone screen suddenly went completely dark without warning.
It wasn't the dimness of a dead battery, but a pure, abyssal blackness.
Immediately after, in the center of this unsettling dark screen, a line of stark white, pixelated text, like an inscription on a tombstone, coldly appeared:
[Do you want to understand the meaning of life?]
The text paused briefly, then a second line appeared:
[Do you want to truly... live?]
Finally, two glaring options, like tickets to an unknown abyss:
["Yes" or "No"]
The stark white light reflected in Nyamu's cat-like eyes, which were slightly widened in shock. This scene, this atmosphere, was filled with the cheap suspense of a low-grade horror game.
However, after a brief silence, the girl's reaction was—
"Hah—boring."
She rolled her eyes, her cat ears twitching dismissively.
Having experienced real-life beastification, Anon's house-wrecking, the shock of the sloth couple, and the chaotic Ikebukuro video, this kind of ghostly electronic trick seemed laughably childish to her.
[???]
The stark white text on the screen was instantly replaced by a flood of question marks.
Nyamu didn't even glance at the screen again. She casually tossed the "haunted" phone onto the bed and turned to pull Anon by the collar, who was still trying to chew on the table leg.
"Come on, Aiko, let's go for a walk in the garden, get some fresh air. It's stifling in here."
"Woof?" Anon looked up blankly, her dog ears twitching, seemingly developing a conditioned reflex to the word "walk."
[Wait? Eh—? Hold on!]
The question marks on the phone screen instantly vanished, replaced by larger, more scrawled text, conveying a sense of frantic disarray. Immediately after, a static crackle sounded, and a distinctly electronically synthesized, emotionless Siri-like voice stammered out from the phone speaker:
"W-wait! Don't go!"
"Why is such a classic scene boring?!"
The electronic voice actually carried a hint of exasperated grievance.
Nyamu stopped, turned, and crossed her arms, her cat tail impatiently swishing behind her. She looked down at the "haunted" phone on the bed, her face saying, "Let's see what other tricks you have up your sleeve."
"So you're finally done playing spooky?" She raised an eyebrow, a hint of sarcasm in her tone.
"You're the one who's been [ding ding ding—] constantly ringing in my head, right? Persistent as a ghost, what exactly are you? Why do you keep clinging to me?"
"Uh... well..." The electronic voice suddenly became bashful, its synthesized tone becoming somewhat erratic. "Don't be so formal with me~ We're actually very close..."
"Aiko, let's go." Nyamu, without another word, went to pull Anon again.
"Wait wait wait! I'll tell you! I'll tell you, okay?!" The electronic voice instantly broke down, its tone rising, and its speech rate accelerating as if on fast-forward.
"Seriously, why is it that such an interesting, charming, and dramatic soul like me has a host who completely lacks humor and romance, a total blockhead!"
"Host?" Nyamu caught the keyword.
"Exactly!" The electronic voice seemed to regain some of its momentum.
"You are my 'Host,' and I am the 'Manifestation' of your soul's form! I am the concretization of the deepest, most radiant, and most unwilling-to-be-ordinary part of your inner self!"
"To put it more directly—" It deliberately paused, as if to announce a shocking secret.
"I am the truest you!"
"..." Nyamu fell silent.
This explanation... was a bit hard to accept. She looked down at her fluffy cat tail, then at Anon next to her, who was curiously sniffing the tip of her tail with her nose, and finally, her gaze returned to the phone.
Absurd, utterly absurd.
However, a faint voice in her heart whispered: the other party's exaggerated tone, that eagerness to show off, to seize every opportunity to attract attention... it did bear a subtle resemblance to her own desperate attempts to chase trends and use exaggerated language to grab attention when she first started that half-dead video streamer account...
Although that account ultimately never gained any traction.
"So, then," Nyamu shook off that strange sense of recognition and went straight to the core, "why are you appearing before me now? Playing ghostly tricks with this multiple-choice question?"
"Do you know why those people outside turned into animals? Do you know how to fix it?"
"Hmph hmph~"
A smug, electronically distorted sniff came from the phone, making Nyamu's fists clench.
"To be honest, I don't know the cause of this current event, nor the specific solution..."
"Aiko, let's—"
"But it's not hopeless!" The electronic voice instantly raised its volume, speaking rapidly like a machine gun, as if afraid Nyamu would actually leave.
"As long as you follow the 'System's' prompts and complete the tasks, it's possible to resolve this situation and turn this damned tide!"
"System?" Nyamu was startled, remembering the illusory status panel and task prompts.
"Exactly! That's it!" The electronic voice affirmed.
"Although I myself don't know exactly what happened, as long as you, as the Host, have an incredibly strong 'Wish' and a clear, firm 'Goal'—such as'solving the beastification crisis,' 'protecting the Chihaya family,' 'restoring things to normal,' 'becoming a beloved superstar.'"
"Then, the 'System' will provide you with corresponding 'Tasks' based on your Wish!"
"No matter how outrageous, how nonsensical, how insane the 'Tasks' seem! Do not doubt, do not hesitate, just complete them! Do everything you possibly can! Use all your strength to complete it!"
"As long as you are determined to do it, to complete it, to overcome those seemingly impossible obstacles..."
The electronic voice gradually increased in volume, and a previously unheard, almost sacred fervor seemed to infuse the synthesized tone:
"Your 'Wish' will come true! Even miracles will happen!"
"This is my 'Ability'!"
"This is me—"
The phone screen suddenly erupted in dazzling light. The light wasn't harsh; instead, it carried a profound, vast feeling, as if it contained infinite possibilities.
The electronic synthesized voice also reached its peak at this moment, enunciating a name with a declarative, immensely solemn power:
"'Freely Tomorrow'!"
============
[Task:'Shout! Ikebukuro Wild Kingdom']
[Goal: Go to Ikebukuro Sunshine Avenue. (0 / 1)]
[Hint: Get on your bike, Working Warrior!]
[Reward:???]
Nyamu's gaze swept over the task description, finally settling on the 'Reward' field, which was filled with question marks.
She looked down at the pink-haired big dog gazing at her with wet eyes.
"Aiko..." She gently rubbed Anon's fluffy dog ears, her voice soft but with an unprecedented firmness.
"It seems we have to go to Ikebukuro."
"Woof?" Anon tilted her head, seemingly sensing a change in the girl, and her tail wagged gently.
'Freely Tomorrow... beginning with this hellish Ikebukuro?'
Nyamu gripped her phone tightly, a resolute light shining in her cat-like eyes.
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