Chapter 113: Outside the Cabin
"Isn't—isn't this 'The Ring'? If you watch the tape and get the call, you die in seven days."
The blond man's lips trembled, his face paling as the realization dawned.
"Congratulations, you got it right," Haruto said, casually hanging up the Ghost Phone. "But this isn't a movie; it's a real instance. And I don't think we'll have seven days. My guess is we have one."
"One day?" Tao Shou didn't understand. Just as his bodyguard, Number Six, was about to explain, Yotsuya Miko, standing beside Haruto, spoke first.
"It's the food," she stated, her voice calm and clear. "You should have all noticed the bread and snacks piled in the living room. I checked them. The expiration dates are all very recent, and the quantity... is exactly enough for all of us for a single day."
Number Six nodded in agreement. "To be precise, it's calculated based on the healthy daily caloric intake for an adult. The portions are exact."
Those words sent a wave of cold dread through the group.
Tao Shou nervously shuffled closer to Haruto. "Boss, what do we do now? Are... are you going to be okay? Is there anything we can do to help?"
Before Haruto could answer, a trembling, indignant voice cut through the tension.
The young man in the brown shirt was ghostly pale, still reeling from the terror of the video. He patted his chest, a look of deep relief on his face. "Good... good... Thank god I wasn't the one who answered that phone."
Thump—!
A vicious kick slammed into his side, sending him flying once again. The blond man stood over him, seething.
"Damn it, I should have let you answer it!" he snarled, his earlier anger reignited.
The man in brown clutched his abdomen and scrambled up from the ground, his face a mask of resentment. He pointed a shaking finger at Haruto and roared at the blond.
"Is your brain filled with water? Yeah, clinging to a powerful player is the smart move! But open your eyes and look! He just answered that ghost phone! He's a dead man! And you're still here sucking up to a corpse?"
He grew more agitated as he spoke, his voice piercing the deathly silence of the basement.
"Have none of you ever watched a horror movie? That's Sadako! Has anyone who answered her call ever survived? He's a walking plague! Anyone who gets close to him is just asking for bad luck!"
The blond was momentarily stunned by the tirade, but his anger only flared hotter. He strode forward and landed two more solid kicks, knocking the man back to the dusty floor.
"We finally found a reliable expert, and this instance was supposed to be a sure thing! Now it's all been ruined by an idiot like you!"
Haruto's eyes narrowed slightly at those words. He had to admit, this blond was surprisingly sharp. Even if something did happen to him, Kaguya and Miko were clearly veterans. By decisively taking a side now, the blond was currying favor and actively increasing his own chances of survival.
Aside from one other random player who cautiously shuffled away, no one else distanced themselves from Haruto because of the brown-shirted man's outburst.
Miko and Kaguya, of course, were unbothered.
As for Tao Shou, he had already witnessed Haruto's power in the group chat. He simply couldn't believe that this so-called "Sadako" could possibly be more powerful than the false god from the video.
He even had a sneaking suspicion that if Haruto wasn't intentionally letting them gain some experience, he could have ended this entire instance with a single Magic Cannon blast the moment it began.
Thinking of this, he felt the million yuan and the ghost artifacts were a bargain. Hiring someone else might have been cheaper, but it would never have come with this level of absolute security or the built-in "experience-building service." Besides, it wasn't like he was short on cash.
Although Number Six hadn't seen Haruto's power with his own eyes, he had heard the reports. More, he observed that neither Haruto nor the companions he brought with him showed the slightest hint of panic. That alone was enough to prove that Sadako posed no threat to them whatsoever.
Kaguya's eyes narrowed, her light tone laced with a subtle displeasure. "It's not just Haruto who's been marked. The key element just now was the well on the screen. Everyone saw it, correct? Sadako uses the image of that well to mark her targets."
"Impossible!" the man in brown immediately retorted. "How would you know that? We didn't answer the phone! There are no clues saying we'll be targeted too! This is only the second instance; if it's that hard, how could we possibly survive? The difficulty would be insane!"
"I just know," Kaguya replied, glancing at him coldly. "As for why... why would I need to explain myself to you?"
That icy, almost inhuman gaze immediately choked the retort dying on the man's lips.
At Kaguya's words, the faces of most of the other players stiffened. The man in brown, in particular, turned a deathly white. His legs gave out, and he slumped bonelessly to the floor.
"It's over... it's all over... I don't want to die...!" he whimpered. His despair quickly twisted into rage, and he glared at Haruto with a distorted expression. But before he could spew any more venom, Tao Shou cut him off with a curse.
"If you dare say one more word, I'll have someone beat you silent. You do nothing but spread negativity and drag everyone down."
Beside him, Number Six cooperatively cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing crisply in the tense air.
Gazing up at the tall, sturdy bodyguard, the man in brown immediately clammed up, his expression shifting rapidly into one of fawning subservience.
Yotsuya Miko then spoke, bringing the focus back. "What we need to do now is stop her. Kaguya was right. The phone ringing was a signal that the countdown to our survival has begun. The clue is to stop Sadako before she comes for us again."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Then keep searching," Haruto said. "There's nothing else in the house. Go check the yard outside."
Hearing this, those who had considered searching the house again immediately dropped the idea. The group filed out of the small cabin and into the surrounding woods, leaving only the man in brown standing alone, his hands clenched into tight fists, his expression unreadable.
Crack...
A sudden noise from the corner of the room made him jump. Terrified, he bolted outside, only to find the yard empty. His teammates were gone.
Panic seized him. He shouted for help, his voice cracking with fear, but no matter how loud he yelled, no one responded.
"Damn it! You all deserve to die!" he roared, his voice thick with hate. "You're all deliberately leaving me here to die!"
He stumbled backward, cursing them, but the sound of footsteps behind him grew closer, louder—
Tap, tap... tap, tap...
In his daze, he didn't realize how close the sound had become until it was right behind him.
"Aaaaaah—!"
...
On the other side of the cabin, in the backyard, the searching group suddenly heard a bloodcurdling scream from the front.
Haruto's eyebrow twitched. The voice was familiar; it belonged to the guy who had been spreading his toxic panic.
"Good riddance," Tao Shou said without a moment's hesitation. "I saw him just standing there earlier. He clearly wanted to reap the rewards without doing any of the work."
He was a classic deadweight teammate—contributing nothing but complaints all day.
The group met his comment with a heavy silence, a tacit agreement hanging in the air. Teammates with such unstable emotions were a liability. Not contributing was a minor issue; the real fear was that they would stab you in the back at a critical moment.
At this moment, two choices lay before them.
One: go investigate immediately. They might obtain firsthand clues, but the danger level was obviously at its peak. No one could be sure if that thing was still at the scene.
Two: stay put and wait a while before going. This was the safer, more stable option, but by then, any clues they might find would be fewer, or perhaps gone entirely.
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