[There are rats in the house…]
Amidst the gloomy muttering, Gao Hai abruptly lifted his head.
The blurry figure beside him vanished.
In its place was the feeling of being watched by something utterly terrifying, an omen that something incredibly cruel was about to happen.
"Who's talking?"
The young black man, Mameier, looked around in shock but couldn't find the source of the voice.
"Did something happen? Should we turn the clock?"
Startled, Green immediately looked toward Miwa Maeda, who was equally terrified in the corner. He swallowed hard, already planning to go over and force her to turn it.
"What's the damn rush? Just wait!"
But when Gao Hai's roar followed in the next instant, Green didn't dare to act on his own.
He couldn't turn the clock yet.
At least not right now, not immediately.
Enduring the gradually rising temperature of his clothes and the increasingly damp feeling, forcing himself with all his might to ignore the intensifying sensation of being watched in the room, Gao Hai kept his brow furrowed, watching the rapidly running Maki and Kaguya through the doll's eyes.
A Blood Puppet, its limbs replaced with wooden joints, had latched onto the woman's head, holding it back outside the space under the bed.
Creak— Creak—
More and more cracks were appearing on the Blood Puppet's wooden joints.
One minute? No, 30 seconds, maybe not even 20, and this Obsession Item, capable of delaying an anomaly's actions, would completely shatter.
Was it because the level difference was too great?
"Great-Aunt, let's split up! One finds the item, one tears the calendar!"
Maki shouted as she ran.
"I'll tear the calendar, you find the item."
Less than half a second later, Kaguya shot out like an arrow from a bow, dashing out from one side of the bed.
Without a hint of hesitation, Maki started running through the dark space under the bed.
They had very little time.
The anomaly in Room 304 had started to notice them, its effects slowly taking hold. Even using an Obsession Item to temporarily block it wouldn't buy them much time. They had to find that 'precious object' before then.
Based on Gao Hai's experience exploring the first floor, items of great significance would not disappear with the clock's rewind once they were found and held. So, if they could just find that thing and grab it, then rewind, they could definitely take it with them!
"You'd better get the timing right, Hai-kun."
Maki lowered her head and whispered to the doll on her shoulder.
Where could the item be?
A precious object that a child would adore—a toy? Considering her current size and the giant phenomenon of this place, the object should be quite conspicuous. She had to find it, as fast as possible!
With that thought, Maki Shijo scanned her surroundings rapidly.
Meanwhile, Kaguya Shinomiya had already run out from under the bed. She bent down sharply, picked up a rubber band that had fallen to the floor along with the woman's head, and quickly ran to the borderline between the bedroom and the living room.
The calendar was hanging on the living room wall near the kitchen door.
There was no door separating the bedroom and living room in this house, only a doorframe.
After running out, Kaguya, with lightning speed, wedged one side of the rubber band—which to her was now the size of a thick rope—into a crack in the doorframe. Then, she pulled with all her might, leaning her entire body back as she stretched the rubber band taut, as if drawing a longbow.
Against the rubber band, Kaguya held a sharp scalpel Obsession Item, its handle pressed firmly against the makeshift string.
A calm heart.
In that instant, she cast all sounds from her mind, focusing solely on the rubber band in her hands and the blade she was about to launch.
Shooting an arrow to hit a target was, for Kaguya, a very simple matter.
Because she had once shot the ideal arrow of her heart. At a very young age, she had naturally fired a perfect arrow. Ever since then, hitting a target had become something Kaguya could do at will, something akin to instinct.
Swoosh—
The blade flew out in an instant, slicing through the thin string that held the calendar to a nail.
The calendar fell, hitting the floor with a slap. Immediately after, before the man sitting at the table could turn his head, Kaguya had already run to the calendar and grabbed the edge of its pages.
[15th]
That was the date on the calendar.
Rip—
Without any hesitation, Kaguya grabbed the edge of the page and ripped it off, revealing the [16th] underneath. She immediately grabbed the next page and continued to tear.
According to Sanchez's last message, they had to get to the 17th to enter the critical phase.
So, she had to tear this last page off!
[So there really are rats in the house…]
The man, having turned his head, locked his gaze onto Kaguya.
At that moment, the girl didn't turn to look at him; she didn't meet the man's gaze.
But even so, the moment she was seen, she clearly felt the sensation of being stared at by something utterly terrifying. Her movements involuntarily slowed, and even her thoughts began to feel disjointed.
No… I must…
[There really are rats… rats will dig holes… rats will find it… they'll find it…]
A mumbling voice sounded from above.
The man, now standing over Kaguya, raised his foot high, about to stomp her to death on the spot.
At the same time, Maki had stopped in front of a toy doll.
"Is this the one…?"
Maki stared at the tattered doll before her, missing one hand, one leg broken, and its clothes filthy. For a moment, she didn't know how to describe it.
It was simply too pathetic.
In all her memory, Maki Shijo had never seen a doll end up in such a state.
This was the precious object for that child?
The doll on Maki's shoulder nodded gently.
Gao Hai could see that memory.
He saw the dirty child looking enviously at a neighbor's child in clean clothes, at the beautiful doll in that child's hands.
Her parents, of course, would never buy her such a thing.
However, she eventually got a doll—one she salvaged from a trash heap. Though tattered, it was a small doll she could hold in her arms.
It was the only toy she ever had in her entire life.
Crack— Crack—
Amidst the sound of shattering, the woman's head had forced its way under the bed and opened its cavernous, bloody maw toward Maki. It truly could be called a cavernous maw, as the mouth had torn the head apart, opening to almost one hundred and eighty degrees—an angle completely impossible for a human, like a nightmare come to life.
And even with its mouth stretched to such an extent, a near-screeching sound could still be heard coming from it:
[Disobedient—]
In the next instant, Maki's hand touched the dilapidated doll, which was about the same size as her.
In the living room, Kaguya bit down hard on her own tongue, the sharp pain filling her mouth with blood as she forcibly suppressed the mental interference. She threw herself to the ground and, with a final lunge, ripped one more day from the calendar that was almost as large as she was, revealing the dark red insignia of the 17th.
The wall clock in the room stopped moving.
One second, two seconds, several minutes, or was it less than a fleeting instant?
Time seemed to stretch infinitely and shrink infinitely at the same moment.
The entirety of Room 304 rapidly dimmed. Everything began to fall into disarray, to verge on collapse.
And the woman and man in the room also seemed to undergo some extremely bizarre transformation.
Click—
In the next moment, Kaguya Shinomiya and Maki Shijo returned, completely unharmed, to the room on the second floor.
Miwa Maeda, having turned the clock, let out a scream at the sight of the wall clock in Gao Hai's hands, scrambling backward in terror, nearly losing control of her bladder on the spot.
Sun Dajun, having done the work for nothing a second time, scratched his head, sighed with some resignation, and prepared to repair the two doors of 204 for a third time.
Kaguya reached up and touched her mouth, only sighing in relief after confirming the wound she'd inflicted on herself was gone.
Maki, however, looked down with a slightly complicated expression at the palm-sized, tattered doll lying in her hand. From its appearance, it was a filthy doll that looked like a little girl fast asleep.
"You both made it back safely. That's good."
Gao Hai sighed in relief. At some point, he had taken off his soaking wet, steaming jacket and was now standing in the living room wearing only a tank top. Faint scald marks were visible on his arms. His condition wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either.
"If what Sanchez said is correct, then next, we have to take this doll into Room 309."
Having recovered, Maki let out a breath and spoke slowly, looking at the doll in her palm.
"To be precise, we have to get it into 309 two days from now."
Gao Hai sat down on the floor opposite her and calmly added, looking at the shrunken, pitiful corpse in her hand.
"After night falls, then the first sunrise, then the second sunrise, we have to set out. We have to get this child to 309 before the third sunrise. If we can't do it, I don't think we'll get another chance. In other words, the outcome of this entire loop hinges on this one opportunity. Success or failure, there is no third path."
As he finished, Gao Hai noticed the corpse in Maki's palm seemed about to turn its head toward him, so he quickly averted his gaze.
"In that case, we still have plenty of time to prepare."
Maki nodded lightly, her tone equally serious as she replied to Gao Hai. Beside them, Kaguya checked the Obsession Items she was carrying, breathing a sigh of relief after confirming both the Blood Puppet and the scalpel were back in her possession.
"Time? To be honest, I'm not sure if our preparation time is sufficient at all."
Then, Gao Hai showed them the wall clock.
The second hand was moving at an absurd pace, the minute hand was incredibly fast, and the hour hand was moving at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"This is…"
Maki and Kaguya immediately realized the problem.
The time on the wall clock was now accelerating.
The second hand now completed a full circle in about 10 seconds, and it only took the hour hand about 4 hours to pass a full day.
Considering the time they had already spent, they now had less than 6 hours to prepare before the crucial 'third day' began.
And on that 'third day' when they had to succeed, only about two hours counted as 'daytime'. If they couldn't finish everything in those first two hours, it meant they would have to operate during the 'night', when the danger would inevitably multiply.
"This timeline is quite tight. I assume this clock can't be turned anymore, right?"
Kaguya dusted off her clothes, then stood up as she spoke.
"That's right. Our only chance to end all this, to achieve our 'perfect clear', has now entered its final countdown."
After saying this, Gao Hai placed the wall clock face down on the table in the room. He then turned to look at the sealed window, where the light outside was clearly changing.
Everything, at this moment, began to accelerate.
Can we succeed?
After experiencing two painful deaths and finally reaching this point, could he, in this loop, escape from this godforsaken place?
Subconsciously, Gao Hai looked ahead at Maki, who was discussing with Kaguya how to place the toy doll.
Seeing him look over, she smiled at him, then continued her serious discussion with Kaguya.
Gao Hai took a deep breath and clenched his fists, his will completely solidified in his heart.
We will succeed.
In this very attempt, I will—I must—end everything for good!
________________________________________
Get rewarded for helping with our community goals!
🎯 Reward for all: +1 bonus chapter at 100 Powerstones.
🚀 Tier Reward: Help us reach 10 members for +5 chapters on all stories!
🎉 And as a welcome, your first month costs significantly less!
🔥 CODE: MEDUSA
👻 Join the crew by searching Ms. Medusa on (P). You know the spot! 😉