"Damn it...!"
Discovering he'd been deceived again, the ghost captain flew into a rage. Unfortunately, before he could make any move, the jackal-headed death god appeared out of nowhere, bit down on the ghost captain, and both monsters vanished together.
As the ghost captain was taken away by the jackal-headed death god, the two player ghosts' bodies trembled—their autonomous consciousness restored.
The male ghost covered his forehead, his expression pained and somewhat dazed.
The girl looked at her own body sitting against the wall. Having already understood the truth, the mist in her eyes immediately surged forth.
"Sorry."
Natsuki sighed lightly and apologized quietly.
"I'm sorry."
Kitagawa Marin and the petite girl bowed in apology together.
Six people had participated in this hide and seek game. Two were eliminated—four remained.
During the earlier chase, if the ghost captain had only seen three people, he definitely would have become vigilant. So they had to gather four people.
Therefore, in the earlier room, Hayasaka had taken off her clothes and switched identities with the first eliminated girl—
This was something only Hayasaka could accomplish.
Kitagawa Marin was a bit too tall. The petite girl's physique resembled a middle schooler's. Neither fit.
After switching identities, Hayasaka hid in the room, lurking in secret, waiting to strike.
Natsuki's "group of four" fled for their lives, drawing away the ghost captain.
The girl's eyes were hazy with tears. She shook her head. Her lips moved as though wanting to speak, but unfortunately she could no longer make a sound.
The ten-second return countdown quickly ended.
The next instant.
The world before their eyes suddenly froze.
Natsuki only felt his vision briefly blur—he'd already returned to the lively late-night supermarket.
"Ahhh—the game is finally cleared."
Kitagawa Marin hugged Natsuki's arm in one motion and let out a long, excited breath.
All told, the hide and seek game on the ghost ship hadn't even reached an hour—yet the feeling was as though an entire day had passed.
Natsuki complained:
"So why did a ghost ship hide and seek game trigger when we were clearly in a supermarket?"
"Mmm..." Kitagawa Marin blinked and pointed at the sushi in the shopping cart. "Could it be because of the seafood sushi?"
"..."
Natsuki looked down.
In the shopping cart he was pushing sat the half-price seafood bento Kitagawa Marin had just rushed to buy—which clearly contained a small octopus.
So the game just now was actually seafood's revenge?
At the same time.
Hayasaka covered her forehead, her expression dazed, contemplating the three philosophical questions.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Was everything just now an illusion or reality?
If it was an illusion, it was too realistic. But if it was real...
"Hanamori-chan!"
A sweet, pleasant voice fell into her ears.
Watching the blonde girl turn around and wave at her, Hayasaka couldn't help but bite down on her lower lip.
Not an illusion.
Hanamori or whatever—that's clearly a name I made up in the game.
Everything that had just happened wasn't false. She'd now become an unlucky horror game player.
"Hanamori-chan, we really owe you back there." Kitagawa Marin walked to Hayasaka and spoke quietly in a whisper: "We were already blocked just now. Fortunately you ended the game in time. That was close."
"The figurehead wasn't easy to approach. It took me some time to climb over..."
The two had entrusted their backs to each other in a life-or-death friendship. Kitagawa had already come to regard Hayasaka as an exceptionally close companion.
"Hanamori-chan, do you live nearby?"
Kitagawa Marin asked curiously.
"No." Hayasaka raised her right hand, tucking the strands of hair that had fallen to her chest behind her jade-like ear as though nothing had happened. "I'm just working part-time nearby. I came to the convenience store to buy things."
This was a lie.
She wasn't working part-time, nor had she come to the convenience store to buy things. Her real objective was investigating and monitoring these two people.
Of course, that wasn't necessary anymore.
Kitagawa Marin pulled out her phone: "Hanamori-chan, I've already told you the player mutual aid group number—go ahead and join."
"Thank you."
Hayasaka inconspicuously switched to a backup account.
As a spy maid, having multiple identities is perfectly normal, right?
"Done." Kitagawa Marin's fingers skillfully tapped the screen. "I've approved you. If anything comes up in the future, you can ask everyone in the mutual aid group."
"I'm deeply grateful."
"..."
After chatting a bit more, Hayasaka was the first to take her leave.
She arrived at the register.
Paid and walked out of the supermarket.
Looking at the flickering neon lights on the street, Hayasaka let out a quiet breath, took out her phone, entered the player mutual aid group, and silently browsed the group members.
Several familiar names and profile pictures came into view.
"Airhead Fujiwara, and the young miss, Kitagawa... as expected, they're all here."
She put away her phone.
Hayasaka was preparing to hail a car back to the villa when her gaze swept over a young man nearby—the girl's pupils suddenly contracted.
She saw a skeletal ghost shadow clinging to the young man's body, bone-thin arms tightly wrapped around the man's neck.
Its mouth held shark-like serrated teeth. Its nails were sharp as bayonets. One could vaguely make out it was a woman's form... Its horror level was even above the ghost captain's—as though an evil spirit from Junji Ito's manga had come to reality.
Strangely, both the man and other passersby showed normal expressions with no reaction—as though they couldn't see the evil spirit at all.
"What is that thing?"
Hayasaka's eyes widened slightly.
A hallucination?
Why would such a thing exist in reality?
The next second.
The female evil spirit tightly clinging to the man seemed to sense something. It suddenly turned to look. Its pitch-black, hollow eyes were filled with surging malice.
Their eyes met.
Hayasaka only felt the hairs on her arms stand up one by one. Danger alerts continuously flashed in her mind. She quickly shifted her gaze away.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The skeletal ghost shadow actually released the man, stretched out its bamboo-pole-like withered legs, and walked before Hayasaka.
"You... can see me?"
A sinister, hollow whisper filled with malice rang in her ear, making one's scalp tingle.
Ahhh! What kind of monster is this?!
Hayasaka had at least watched urban legend series. She had a premonition—if she answered "I can see you," perhaps something very terrible would happen.
"You were just looking at him!"
"He's mine—you're not allowed to look!"
"You actually dared stare at him—I'm going to eat you!"
"..."
Hayasaka bit down tightly on her lower lip, tensed her body, and tried hard not to let herself show an abnormal expression.
Danger danger danger!
Hayasaka felt every cell in her body screaming danger. She wanted to turn and run, but she forcibly endured.
Stay calm.
Can't run.
Definitely can't outrun this kind of monster. It would also expose the fact I can see it... What should I do?
"Hanamori-san?"
At that moment, a voice rang out behind Hayasaka.
The spy maid suddenly turned around. Seeing Natsuki who'd just walked out of the convenience store, she drew in a deep breath, turned and ran over, wrapped both arms tightly around Natsuki's neck, and surrendered at light speed:
"...I like you! Let's go out together!"