"Hmm? It opened?"
Natsuki raised an eyebrow slightly.
He had thought he would need a room card or a key, but he didn't expect the door to open easily with just a gentle twist.
"Eh, it opened so easily?"
"Be careful, there might be a trap inside."
"President, open the door wider."
...
The girls remained vigilant, ready for anything.
Natsuki gently pushed with his right hand, and the door silently swung open inwards, revealing the interior to everyone.
No evil spirits rushed out, nor were there young couples committing suicide. It was just a quiet hotel room, with no sound coming from within.
There was lighting in the corridor, but the room was dim, shadowy, and unclear.
Natsuki directly took out a flashlight produced by the game, turned it on, and shone it into the room. He saw that it was clean and tidy, with no abnormalities whatsoever.
"It just feels like a very ordinary hotel room..." Chika's tone was puzzled. She put her hands to her mouth and turned to look at Natsuki. "President, should I shout?"
Natsuki nodded:
"Shout loudly. Just don't look back if someone calls you."
"Definitely won't look back."
Chika took a deep breath and shouted into the room: "Hey, is anyone there?"
...
The room was silent; no one responded.
"We are players from the Strange Tales Management Bureau. We just entered the hotel. If anyone is here, please respond."
...
"Russia recently destroyed Ukraine's last naval warship. We are truly humans; monsters definitely wouldn't know the news."
...
From beginning to end, no one responded.
"Alright." Chika lowered her hands, her tone disappointed. "It seems to be an empty room with no one."
"Not necessarily." Kaguya gently shook her head. "The flashlight can only illuminate a small area. There might be guests inside who can't respond, or..."
Or they were already dead.
"I'll go in and check." Natsuki said seriously, "You all wait for me outside. Remember not to look back, especially Chika."
"I'm not an idiot; I definitely won't look back." Chika puffed out her pink cheeks slightly, retorted, and then said, "I'll go in with the President. We need to be together to Seize and Eliminate Evil."
Kaguya crossed her arms and said:
"I'll go in too."
This hotel was too strange; no amount of vigilance was too much.
"Kaguya, you take care of everyone outside." Natsuki looked at Kaguya and said seriously, "If an emergency occurs, you make the decision."
Kaguya parted her lips, did not insist further, and nodded silently, agreeing. She said softly:
"Leave it to me."
Now that Marin and Sayu had turned into dolls, there were still Haruno, Hayasaka, Senpai, Juju, and Shoko left. Among them, Juju and Shoko had to be looked after; acting alone was worrying for them. Senpai's decision-making ability was insufficient in emergencies.
Hayasaka had always disguised her identity and deliberately kept a low profile.
Although Haruno had sufficient decision-making ability, she was still a novice.
The only person truly capable of handling things alone at the moment was Kaguya.
"Everyone, don't be so nervous." Chika put her right hand on her hip. After confirming that Sayu and Marin were fine, her mindset had recovered. "It's just a very ordinary room. The President and I will go in, take a look around, and come out."
Natsuki looked at Chika speechlessly, unable to resist complaining:
"Don't set up flags."
"Ahhh, President, quickly take that back." Chika puffed out her pink cheeks. "There wasn't one originally, but now that the President said it, there might be one."
So, it was clearly you setting up the flag, don't push the blame onto others!
Natsuki extended his right hand and held Chika's soft hand to prevent any accidental separation. Then he nodded to Kaguya and the others in the corridor and said softly:
"Chika and I are going in."
Tsubame: "Natsuki-kun, be careful."
Juju bit her lips: "If anything happens, call us."
Hayasaka Ai urged:
"Don't close the door, keep in touch at all times."
At this moment, Kaguya suddenly said:
"Let Chika use the Pure White Bride Skin Card. There might be some kind of curse in the room that subtly affects one's mind."
"Good point." Natsuki nodded slightly, took out the Pure White Bride Skin Card, and handed it to Chika.
Chika naturally wouldn't refuse. She used the Skin Card, and a pure white wedding dress instantly appeared on her, its spotless colour clashing with the dim corridor.
"This is the correct way to open a wedding dress…"
Natsuki felt an inexplicable gravitational pull, a different kind of gravity from the law of universal gravitation. His gaze involuntarily fell below secretary Chika's collarbone, almost unable to look away.
Fujiwara's genes were indeed extraordinary.
"I've changed," Chika said with a clear voice. "President, let's go."
"Let's go."
Natsuki exhaled lightly, reached out to hold secretary Chika's hand, held a flashlight in his other hand, and stepped into the guest room.
The girls in the corridor had subtle expressions.
Not only were they wearing pure white wedding dresses, but they were also holding hands, looking less like an adventure and more like walking into a wedding hall together… In short, their feelings were complicated.
Entering the room.
Natsuki and Chika simply walked around, finding nothing unusual. No players who had entered before, or guests who had stayed previously, were found. It seemed like just an ordinary empty room.
"How is it, President?" Chika put her right hand on her hip, proudly raising her chin. "How could I set a flag every time? Impossible."
"Don't get carried away…"
Before Natsuki could finish speaking, his gaze suddenly noticed Chika's wedding dress hem, which had quietly turned black at some point. Immediately, a surge of dizziness washed over him, his consciousness continuously falling, and only one thought remained in his mind.
Crow's mouth!
It was indeed a hundred percent crow's mouth!
The dizziness dissipated.
Natsuki opened his eyes again and found himself lying on a bed. The environment was no longer a hotel, but an unfamiliar, clean room, not large but very cozy.
"Natsuki, why are you awake?"
A familiar sweet voice came from behind him, followed by a soft touch pressing against him.
Natsuki turned his head and saw a pink-haired girl lying behind him, wearing pajamas, her eyes bright. A name quickly appeared in his mind, and he blurted out:
"Chika?"
"Natsuki, get up quickly." Chika hugged him from behind, rubbing against him playfully. "Go make milk powder for the child."
"…Child?"
Natsuki was startled, and then a memory flooded his mind.
That's right.
He needed to get up and make milk powder for the child.
He and Chika had been dating since high school, officially married after graduating from university, and had a child a year later.
Natsuki looked up at the wall. On the wall opposite the bed, there was a hung wedding photo, and the people in it were none other than himself and Chika.
But… what gender was the child?
Boy or girl?
Natsuki thought for a while, only feeling that the memories in his mind were hazy, as if covered by a mist, and he couldn't recall the child's gender for a moment.
"Strange…" Natsuki shook his head, giving up on thinking. He gently pressed his forehead, always feeling a dull ache and a strange sense of pressure. "I'm going to the restroom."
"Hmm…" Chika hugged a pillow and rolled around on the bed. "You need a kiss before you can go."
Natsuki lowered his head, kissed Chika, then got up from the bed and left the room.
Click.
He pushed the door open and walked out of the bedroom.
What greeted his eyes was a neat and clean living room, but for some reason, familiarity was tinged with strangeness.
Natsuki rubbed his forehead and walked into the restroom.
Splash.
The sound of the faucet started.
After a quick wash, Natsuki looked at himself in the mirror, feeling both familiar and strange. However, after staring for a few seconds, a line of text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
{You find yourself in a nightmare…}
{After careful observation, you discover that your memories have been shielded and falsely altered}
{You decide to use Miko's advanced spiritual vision to break through the cognitive distortion}
"What… is going on?"
Natsuki raised an eyebrow and waved his hand above his head.
However, his palm swung through the air, not touching anything.
The text prompt still floated above his head in the mirror, unaffected.
"Nightmare… memory shielding… some new type of prank?"
But his subconscious told Natsuki that the text before him could be trusted and was not false.
In other words, no prank could achieve such a degree.
"Miko's advanced spiritual vision, huh?"
Natsuki thought silently.
The next second, an indescribable hot current surged into his eyes, as if something was washing over them.
Natsuki instinctively closed his eyes.
Standing still for a few seconds, when he opened his eyes again, Natsuki looked at himself in the mirror and let out a soft sigh.
"…I remember."
Miko's advanced spiritual vision eye could grant immunity against the effects of illusions, and nightmares could also be immunized.
At this moment, as he used Miko's copied ability, the memory shielding effect quickly broke, his memory recovered, and he recognized himself.
"I am Natsuki, a high school student, unmarried."
"This is the kaidan Hotel."
"Chika and I entered the hotel room on the second floor, trying to find other players or guests, and then a dizzy sensation came over us…"
Natsuki quickly cleared his thoughts and thought of Chika in the bedroom.
It seemed that not only himself, but Chika had also been affected.
At the same time.
The prompt text appeared before his eyes again.
{After careful thought, you discover the true nature of the Nightmare Hotel. As a hotel that provides unique experiences for its guests, its main business is actually immersive nightmare experiences}
{There are different types of nightmares in each room}
{When you enter the room, the nightmare will activate, shield your memory, and take you to experience a different kind of thrilling joy}
Joy my ass!
Who could be happy staying in such a terrible hotel!
"No wonder those players who came to scout before, including Yukino, none of them managed to get out."
Natsuki took a deep breath silently.
There was a nightmare in every room of the hotel. Once entangled by a nightmare, your memory would be shielded, a false identity would be implanted, and you would experience the thrill of horror immersively, completely defenseless.
As for what would happen to those trapped in the nightmare unable to wake up, Natsuki didn't know, but he imagined the situation wouldn't be good.
The reason was simple.
This was not a live-action game.
But a hotel occupied by kaidan.
"This is troublesome…"
Natsuki quickly realized a problem and frowned.
Miko's advanced spiritual vision had a cooldown and couldn't be kept on all the time, and it was also a temporary skill that would disappear after use.
But this hotel was quite large. Trying to find all the passersby players and guests and eliminate the kaidan within half an hour… was clearly impossible.
As Natsuki frowned in thought, the prompt appeared before his eyes once again.
{You try to find a way to stay awake, and finally, you look at your clone…}
"Hmm?"
Natsuki looked down.
The nightmare in the hotel should not be an illusion, and it wouldn't disappear even if he woke up. For example, now, even though Natsuki had regained his memory, he was still wearing unfamiliar pajamas and in an unfamiliar restroom, not back in the hotel room.
{You feel ashamed of your lewd thoughts, then take out the Black Sludge, inject consciousness, and activate the clone state}
"Sludge, huh?"
Natsuki quickly remembered that the so-called sludge should be the instance reward obtained after clearing "Summer Time Rendering."
He stretched out his right hand, and a mass of black sludge appeared in Natsuki's hand.
Although called black sludge, it wasn't smelly at all, had no odor, and felt similar to modeling clay, but softer. However, the quantity was very small, only one lump in total.
As Natsuki focused his consciousness, a palm-sized black figure appeared in his palm. The feeling was quite peculiar, as if it was 'at his beck and call,' hard to describe, but there was no hindrance at all. He could control the little figure's movements with his mind… Other than that, it seemed to have no significant use.
Not long after getting the black sludge, Natsuki threw it into his backpack. If the prompt hadn't appeared, he would have almost forgotten the black sludge's existence.
"A clone?"
Natsuki didn't know how this thing would keep him awake, but the prompt wouldn't lie.
"Go back and find Chika."
With a thought, Natsuki made the clone climb into his hair, then turned around and left the restroom.
Back in the bedroom.
As soon as Natsuki sat down by the bed, before he could even speak, the wife Chika already hugged him tightly, her face pale, eyes teary, and her voice trembling slightly:
"You, why did you just come back…?"
Natsuki said speechlessly:
"Why are you crying?"
He just went to the restroom, it wasn't like he was going to a battlefield. Being teary-eyed was too strange!
"J-just now my phone accidentally fell from the bed…" Chika, with teary eyes, lowered her voice and said nervously, "When I bent down to pick up my phone, I s-saw under the bed…"
Natsuki raised an eyebrow slightly and whispered:
"What's under the bed?"
"There's a person!"
"…"
So that's it.
Natsuki understood what the 'nightmare' was.
His memory was shielded, and he was just an ordinary newlywed man. He woke up with his wife and suddenly found someone hiding under the bed. Who wouldn't panic!
But now…
"Don't panic." Natsuki touched Chika's conscience. "Let me see."
He wasn't sure if this Chika was real or fake for now, but in terms of temperature, feel, and softness, she was exactly the same as in reality, with no difference whatsoever.
The two of them were now legal spouses, and their wedding photo was still hanging on the wall, so he could measure her conscience however he wanted.
"Don't look." Chika quickly shook her head, nervously hugging Natsuki's arm, and whispered, "Natsuki, let's go out first, and then call the police?"
Natsuki spoke nonsense with a straight face:
"Don't worry, have you forgotten that in high school, I once fought ten people alone?"
"Eh?" Chika's lips parted slightly, her eyes wide, a blank look in them, and she asked doubtfully, "Fought ten people alone… Why don't I remember that?"
Natsuki declared with conviction:
"You were just groggy from sleep; it's normal not to remember right away."
Chika blinked, her expression hesitant:
"Pe-perhaps..."
"So don't worry," Natsuki assured her, "No matter who is hiding under the bed, there's no need to be afraid."
"Th-that's good then..." Chika hugged a pillow, nervously saying, "Natsuki, you must be careful."
Natsuki nodded, preparing to turn on the light, but it didn't light up at all.
"The light is broken," Chika explained softly, "We haven't had time to fix it yet."
It wasn't broken before, it wasn't broken during play, but it just had to break at this moment. It was truly a horror movie trope.
Natsuki didn't mind. He picked up the phone Chika handed him, turned on the flashlight function, and then slowly looked under the bed.
As the light shone, the dark space under the bed was gradually illuminated.
A pink-haired girl in pajamas was hiding under the bed, covering her mouth, her eyes misty, and her face looking extraordinarily familiar.
Natsuki: "..."
The 'thing' hiding under the bed was, astonishingly, another Chika.
"Natsuki!" Seeing Natsuki peeking under the bed, the Chika under the bed immediately became agitated. She picked up a phone, quickly typed, and then nervously turned the phone to Natsuki for him to see.
Natsuki looked closely and saw written on the phone:
"Natsuki, don't believe that guy!"
"She's fake!"
"After you went to the restroom, I don't know what happened, but she just walked out of the closet. I was so scared then, so I hid under the bed... Quickly, kick that imposter out!"
At the same time.
A soft and warm sensation pressed against Natsuki's back, followed by secretary Chika's sweet voice in his ear, filled with nervousness and fear, asking softly:
"Natsuki, what did you see?"
"..."
Natsuki silently straightened up.
One Chika on the bed.
Another Chika under the bed.
Two Chikas, who was real and who was fake?
Or were both Chikas fake?
"Natsuki, what exactly did you see?" The Chika on the bed pressed closer, nervously saying, "Quickly, speak up, don't scare me."
If this were a horror film, the next answer would determine the direction of the entire story.
If Natsuki answered incorrectly, the fake Chika might directly tear off her disguise, revealing her true evil spirit form.
At this moment, the correct answer should be...
Natsuki's mind raced, and he said in a deep voice:
"I saw..."
Chika pressed him:
"Saw what?"
Natsuki suddenly smiled and said:
"Of course, it's your twin sister."
Chika: "..."