The crying outside the door still hadn't stopped.
That idiotic blonde woman, Maeda Miwa, was still wailing nonstop.
The corpse in her room must have given her quite a shock. Hah. Though in Takumi's view, compared to the danger posed by Shirakawa Apartments itself, that "shock" was nothing more than child's play—but saying that now, no one would understand anyway.
As for the new information he had just obtained—whether about the "core obsession item" or about Tanaka himself—Takumi didn't have the time to analyze and think it through.
The crisis that was about to arrive was what truly mattered.
"Huff…"
Takumi could feel his breathing gradually steadying.
That thing must have already heard Maeda Miwa's voice and started coming down the stairs.
Just like last time, it would walk into the hallway to the rhythm of those calm, steady footsteps—and then, amid the silence, kill everyone present.
He had to survive this crisis.
Even though the difficulty of surviving this time was far greater than in the previous round.
Behind him, the suspicious gazes of Kaguya and Maki hadn't changed in the slightest.
Inside the room, Yamamoto Hiroshi, who had gone in first to search for the so-called "hidden cameras left by the reality show crew," would surely come out soon once he realized Takumi still hadn't entered.
[Click—]
After a faint sound of a closing door, Takumi heard the voice of that black guy outside, shouting about something. He couldn't make out the words clearly, but he knew the man was confused about Tanaka's sudden decision to shut the door.
Time was running out.
Unable to foresee his rollback cheat in advance—and having inherited the gruesome memories of being boiled alive—Takumi hadn't been able to adjust his emotions or mindset in time. After the rollback, he'd even acted foolishly for a moment to ease his nerves. Combined with his poor acting skills that exposed countless flaws, this time Takumi had completely failed to earn the trust of Kaguya and Maki, while Yamamoto Hiroshi had only been barely kept in check by his bluffing.
The anomalies within Shirakawa Apartments were basically all death on sight—there were almost none suitable for a "beginner tutorial." And Maeda Miwa, this team-wipe trigger, had started everything off by screaming, summoning a horror that couldn't be interacted with at all. One could say this woman had created the single hardest challenge in the entire game. Even after experiencing a rollback, facing this problem again still gave Takumi a massive headache, leading to the situation now before him.
There was nothing else he could do. After all, he didn't know any "secret only those who trust each other can share," or any "truth that makes the other person believe unconditionally." In fact, with Shinomiya Kaguya's cautious and suspicious nature, even if he did say such a thing, she absolutely wouldn't trust him—instead, it would only deepen her doubts.
That left only one last, stupid, and most direct method.
To show everyone the real thing—and then roll back before it became irreversible.
Although it would waste one rollback, there was no helping it now.
"Takumi, why are you still standing out here in the hallway? Uh, I've been looking around inside and couldn't find any cameras at all—do those things really exist?"
Yamamoto Hiroshi had already walked out of the living room, approaching Takumi with a puzzled look.
His expression was showing odd changes—it looked like he'd been frightened by something, yet also as if he was gradually realizing something, growing more and more uneasy. Or rather, perhaps from the very start, this middle-aged man had vaguely realized that he hadn't been dragged into some sort of reality show at all—only his stubbornness as an older man kept him from entertaining certain thoughts.
Takumi's bluff had merely given him a temporary straw to grasp, but now that the "test" had failed and he'd found no evidence, the fear buried in his heart naturally began to swell.
"Did you find the corpse?"
Takumi simply asked Yamamoto Hiroshi this question.
"Wha—corpse? You mean that thing in the cabinet? No way, that can't really be—"
Shuddering all over at those words, Yamamoto Hiroshi's face went pale.
Got it. Looks like the dead person in Room 206 had died in some especially abstract way—so much so that even after seeing the corpse, Yamamoto Hiroshi couldn't quite be sure what he'd seen.
Come to think of it, Tanaka's reaction to Room 210 in the previous round had been a little strange. As the occupant, he shouldn't have been attacked by the corpse while inside his own room, yet he had specifically warned Takumi that 210 was dangerous and to be careful of the corpse.
At first, Takumi had thought this was because, as a veteran player, the man could recognize the threat—but after that self-exposing line just now, Takumi couldn't help but overthink it, suspecting that Tanaka, this "old player," might actually be different from the rest of them.
Perhaps… he had come here targeting Shirakawa Apartments specifically through some special means, and thus wasn't recognized as a "resident," which was why he'd been attacked inside 210?
And then there was the other problem-ridden room—204—the one where he and Kaguya had awakened together.
That room alone hadn't contained any corpse, and it was also the only room where 2 players had appeared simultaneously.
Maybe that room had some hidden issue too?
Or could the problem lie in one of the 2 players—himself or Kaguya?
A flood of questions flashed through his mind.
But Takumi's face showed no hint of hesitation. Having steeled himself, he put on a pair of earplugs—but didn't insert them fully yet—then extended his hand toward Kaguya and Maki, revealing a second pair of earplugs resting on his palm.
"All of us heard that voice. That voice told us to join the sacrificial game—and threw us into this bizarre place."
"Yamamoto-san, you probably just felt terrified at being unable to move your body after hearing that voice—but Shinomiya-san, Shijō-san, you two must have realized that such a thing isn't something a human could do, that there's something horrifying hidden behind it."
"Shinomiya-san, you were wary of me just now because you realized I knew who you were. That much I admit. But what I want to tell you is this: the reason I know you is because not long ago, we already acted together in this apartment and faced all kinds of dangers. And the reason you—and everyone else—have no memory of it, is because you all died inside this apartment. Or rather, we all died in this apartment."
Takumi's tone was deadly serious.
But clearly, there was no way the three people before him could believe what he was saying.
"What nonsense are you spouting? I died in this apartment? Don't tell me you think ridiculous talk like that can shake my mind?"
Shinomiya Kaguya's expression grew more dangerous by the second. She was already prepared to subdue Takumi right here and now. From start to finish, this man had been far too suspicious—she had even begun to think, this entire thing is Takumi's plot.
"Wait, didn't you just say this was a reality show? Takumi, why are you suddenly saying all this incomprehensible stuff again?"
Yamamoto Hiroshi had fallen into even deeper confusion and fear, standing there helplessly, not knowing what to do.
Only Shijō Maki remained silent, quietly observing Takumi's reactions.
Known as a genius beauty on par with Shinomiya Kaguya, yet raised in a normal family environment, Maki wasn't as pathologically suspicious or untrusting as Kaguya. At this moment, she preferred to rely on her own powers of observation.
And no matter how she looked at it, Takumi's reactions didn't seem like those of a liar—or rather, Takumi himself seemed utterly convinced of what he was saying, with not a trace of deceit.
What in the world was going on?
Maki furrowed her brows, uncertain what to think.
At the same time, out in the corridor beyond the door, everything had gone quiet—there was no longer any sound.
Takumi knew that the black guy and that team-wipe blonde, Maeda Miwa, were already dead.
And with only a single door separating them now, their voices inside the room were without a doubt being heard by that thing outside.
"The people in the hallway are already dead. Next, that thing will notice us—it'll realize we're still talking, that we haven't concealed our voices. Based on my previous experience, once that happens, it'll start knocking on this door… and then the horror begins."
Takumi drew in a deep breath, meeting the three pairs of eyes on him—each filled with a different emotion—and spoke in a calm tone.
"Sound is its medium of influence. So next, I'm going to put in these earplugs to avoid hearing it. You wanted to verify the truth, didn't you? Then choose one of you to wear this pair. When one person can hear and the other can't, the truth will reveal itself naturally."
He extended his open palm toward Kaguya and Maki.
Takumi waited for their answer.
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