When Takumi opened his eyes, the sky was already bright.
Everyone gathered once again, just like yesterday, still meeting in Yamamoto Hiroshi's Room 206. This time, Yamamoto Hiroshi happened to be the one in charge of cooking noodles.
Those in the living room held a rough discussion—more precisely, it was Takumi, Kaguya, and Maki who finished discussing the situation and then began preparing for the upcoming exploration of the third floor.
"This time, Maki and I will go to the third floor to explore. Takumi, you stay on the second floor."
Kaguya set this operation plan.
"I actually think I can continue to handle the exploration task. After all, I already explored twice yesterday, and I've been to the third floor, so I have some experience."
Takumi hesitated a little, feeling he should still be responsible for the investigation.
"It's precisely because you've investigated twice already that you need to rest today, and besides, we need you to keep watch here."
Kaguya shook her head and directly rejected Takumi's words, directing her gaze at Maeda Miwa sitting to one side of the room, emanating a foul smell.
This woman, now mentally broken, was dragged out again, and the reason for bringing her out was simple: to have her turn the clock. Yamamoto Hiroshi and Green had already turned the clock, and Takumi claimed he had already rewound once, so he was treated as someone who had already turned the clock. In that case, Maeda Miwa was the only remaining person who could be used to turn the clock, so after some consideration they had Green open the door and bring her out.
Perhaps because she'd been locked in the room for two days and gone a bit stupid, Maeda Miwa was much quieter this time; she no longer shouted randomly and was even slightly more lucid, barely able to communicate. Seeing Kaguya looking at her, she wobbled to her feet, muttering, "I'm not useless, I'm useful, I'm useful," twitching her hands nervously and jumping twice, then laughing.
"To be honest, I actually think it's quite inappropriate to let this woman out."
Takumi watched this woman whose mind had completely broken and shook his head.
Only Room 205 contained two corpses, and behind the sealed kitchen door they didn't know whether anything might exist. Because they had sensed that Room 205 was abnormal, Takumi and the others had not investigated it, and Takumi had always been suspicious of Maeda Miwa who came out of that room.
What is the point of tossing such a pure deadweight into this instance? Is the Sacrifice Game really that indiscriminate?
"I know there are many problems with this, but right now we have no choice. If we don't consider her, the only person left who can rewind is Maki. So even if she's very suspicious, we have to use her—at least make her turn the clock once and have her fulfill whatever role she can."
Kaguya clearly understood the issue Takumi was referring to; she was also helpless about it, worry showing on her face.
If Tanaka hadn't appeared last night, and both Kaguya and Maki could rewind, activating Maeda Miwa could have been postponed.
But now only Maki can rewind. Given Maki's excellent ability, leaving her on the second floor to turn the clock isn't appropriate. Therefore, they had to use Maeda Miwa this round and make her do whatever she could.
"I'm useful, I'm useful, really, really—don't believe me? Try me, hehe, I'm very powerful."
At that moment, Maeda Miwa came closer, walking up to Takumi and Kaguya, and suddenly lifted her clothes.
Seeing this scene, Takumi immediately stepped back without the slightest hesitation, distancing himself from the deranged woman. While signaling for Green to come and take her away, he reached into his pocket, pulled out the key to Room 304, and handed it toward Kaguya.
"No matter what, be careful out there. You're the backbone of our team."
To keep the atmosphere from becoming too tense before the operation began, Takumi made a small joke to Kaguya.
"Hmph, such little flattery won't work on my Oba-san."
Not far away, Maki, who was stretching in preparation to head out, glanced over and huffed at Takumi.
Green, meanwhile, held onto Maeda Miwa's shoulder as she tried to step forward again. His eyes, almost involuntarily, drifted toward the skin exposed beneath her lifted clothes. He swallowed hard, a hint of lewd intent flashing in his gaze.
"Don't worry. As the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family, I won't fall in a place like this."
Ignoring the restrained Maeda Miwa, who was still babbling "I'm really useful!", Shinomiya Kaguya faced Takumi with a faint, almost imperceptible smile at the corner of her lips. Speaking with a touch of arrogance, she raised her hand, ready to receive the key Takumi was handing over.
But what she caught was not the key in Takumi's hand.
It was Takumi's severed hand.
[Splat—]
Blood sprayed violently from the broken wrist.
In Maeda Miwa's hand, the sharp knife spun once, slicing open Green's neck as he stood beside her, then immediately severed Takumi's right hand.
With astonishing speed, the woman lunged forward. The instant she cut off Takumi's hand, her left hand was already gripping a second slender knife, thrusting straight toward Kaguya's face.
At that fleeting moment of danger, Kaguya's eyes widened in reflex. She raised her hand to block, only for the blade to pierce her palm, cutting across her cheek and leaving a bloody gash.
[Thud!]
A heavy kick landed hard against Kaguya's stomach in the next instant.
Takumi, enduring the searing pain of his severed hand, rammed forward, but the woman twisted away with snake-like movements, seizing the severed hand and snatching the key clutched in its grip.
A heartbeat later, Kaguya's horizontal kick struck the woman squarely in the back. The blow sent her sprawling to the ground, but she immediately rolled over and leapt to her feet, moving to retreat toward the side of the room.
Her attempt to withdraw did not succeed.
Maki, reacting quickly, rushed forward and grabbed the thin cord attached to the key, yanking it tight to stop the woman's motion.
Kaguya, ignoring the pain in her pierced hand, charged again, ready to attack.
"My, my—what an impressive group of newcomers. This was never supposed to be a mission that newbies could survive."
With that mocking tone, the woman slashed her knife to cut the cord, then moved again—her body darting with impossible agility, evading Kaguya's strike in an instant. In one swift motion, she dashed toward the living room door and hurled a knife, embedding it into the wall clock at the side of the room, slicing clean through its hand.
At that moment, Maeda Miwa's entire appearance and aura had undergone a complete and shocking transformation.
"You're just like Tanaka… an old player who broke the rules to get in? You're not Maeda Miwa at all…"
Yamamoto Hiroshi was so terrified he nearly collapsed to the ground, and Takumi, kneeling with his bleeding severed hand clutched tight, stared at the woman's form—finally understanding everything in that moment.
The two corpses in Room 205—the one that had died recently from suffocation—was actually the room's original player. This woman, like Tanaka, had forced her way into a scenario she had no right to enter, killed the new player in that room, and by some means—perhaps through the power of an Obsession Item—had taken over that person's identity. The reason the corpse in Room 205 had left the room during the day was likely because her interference had caused the rules of that room to go awry, leading to this abnormal phenomenon!
"So you really are quite an impressive group of newbies. If you'd had time to grow, advancing through regular instances, you might have become some of the top Red Moon players. Unfortunately, it seems you no longer have that chance."
The woman grinned broadly, her tone dripping with malice.
Kaguya once again charged forward to attack—but her fist passed straight through the woman's body, striking nothing.
Before everyone's eyes, the Maeda Miwa who had been a useless, babbling lunatic for the past three days began to melt like mud, her body gradually dissolving and seeping into the floor.
"As for me, I don't have any particularly powerful abilities—just got lucky and found two Obsession Items that are rather good for staying alive. So, you see, I like to sit back and reap the benefits. The first floor of Shirakawa Apartments has been nearly impossible to explore ever since it worsened, so thanks to you all, truly. As a little reward, I'll tell you the original way to clear this instance: find the Debt Collector's clothing. As long as you put on the Debt Collector's outfit and walk out through the first-floor door before your thoughts are assimilated, you can leave the instance."
"It's true—I'm not lying. Of course, that was the old method. Now the Debt Collector has lost its form and become something invisible. This instance is being Fixed—maybe because it's devoured enough lives, maybe because it's been triggered by something else. The original strategy for clearing it has completely failed. But on the other hand, the core Obsession Items that couldn't be touched before can now, in fact, be reached."
"It's a pity you've run into all this. With the anomaly of the instance and two non-newbie players forcing their way in, this apartment has become more dangerous than ever before. Still, the fact that you managed to get me the key to Room 304—I truly, truly appreciate it. Hehehe~ I hope you manage to survive, newbies~"
Even though the woman's form had almost completely collapsed into a pool of sludge, her voice continued to echo through the room.
Those words, filled with cruel amusement, seemed deliberately aimed at provoking everyone present—wanting to see them lose their composure, so she could mock them even louder.
"All this time… you were pretending on purpose…"
Kaguya's voice was cold as frost, her expression darkened to the extreme. Her fists clenched, yet she had no idea what to do—only provoking louder, more brazen laughter from the other woman.
Maki rushed over to bandage Takumi's wound, while on the other side, Yamamoto Hiroshi—perhaps because of his poor health—took one look at the blood all over the floor and Green convulsing on the ground with his throat slit, and promptly fainted dead away.
They couldn't let her get away.
They couldn't allow this suddenly hostile "second old player" to just walk off with the results of everything he had risked his life to obtain.
That state she was in now—had she used some kind of teleportation-type Obsession Item?
Then where would she have teleported to? It shouldn't be a place she had never visited before.
Takumi immediately thought of the sealed kitchen door in Room 205.
No—by now it was already too late to chase her. Since she had chosen to make her move at this moment, there was no way she could be caught.
He had to act here—stop that bitch right now, in this place.
Turning his head, Takumi first made a gesture with his left hand for Kaguya and Maki to cover their ears. Then, in the next instant, he fixed his gaze on the vague, small silhouette inside the room.
"Takeda Yūsuke, Takeda Kazue…"
He whispered those two names.
The sludge on the ground was already about to disappear completely, and the woman's voice was fading.
But Takumi was certain that she could still hear the sound from here—she could still hear what he was about to say next.
There was no need for any thought.
After uttering the first two names, the third name naturally slipped from Takumi's lips. It was as if he wasn't the one speaking it—as if some force had borrowed his speech, and under the pressure of his own desperate will, expressed that third name that should never have been spoken.
"■■■!"
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