Chapter 25: The Skinless Corpse and the Well to the Sea
Haruto, Kaguya, and Yotsuya Miko hurried toward the front door of the pension. As they descended the main staircase, the teams from the second and third floors were coming down as well, the two groups converging in the foyer with an unspoken agreement.
"Have you finished exploring the first floor? Do you need us to—" King Chen began, about to offer his assistance, but his words trailed off.
Haruto's trio didn't even seem to register their presence, their gazes locked on the entrance as they rushed past with an unnerving urgency. The sudden tension was infectious. Realizing something was terribly wrong, the others immediately fell in step behind them.
When they reached the front door, the entire group froze.
A corpse lay sprawled on the floor just inside the threshold.
It had no skin.
What was left was a grotesque sculpture of raw, crimson muscle and glistening sinew, exposed to the morning air. The coppery tang of blood, thick and cloying, hung heavy in the room, mingling with a pungent, rust-like odor that turned the stomach.
Bile rose in Haruto's throat. This was the first time he had ever been confronted with such a gruesome sight. If he hadn't witnessed the brutal, otherworldly battles between Kaguya and Mokou, he doubted he could have maintained his composure.
The others had a far more violent reaction.
The sole remaining Newcomer, a young man, stumbled back against the wall. A choked, guttural retch tore from his throat, and he doubled over, vomiting what little he had in his stomach. A thin spray of food scraps and a large volume of acidic bile splattered across the wooden floor.
Even the veteran players, men and women who had survived two or three of these death games, felt their legs tremble. The color drained from their faces, leaving them ashen and drawn.
"Did any of you hear a scream last night? Any cries for help?" Haruto asked, forcing down the nausea and turning to face King Chen's group.
They could only shake their heads, their movements stiff and jerky.
"Then the creature must have some kind of anesthetic," Haruto analyzed, his mind racing to piece it together. "It waited for her to fall asleep, drugged her, then skinned her before dragging the body back inside."
He couldn't fathom the motive. Why would a ghost go to the trouble of skinning its victim?
The others nodded numbly, the grim logic of his assessment sinking in.
"You're wrong."
The voice, calm and detached, cut through the tense atmosphere.
At some point, Kaguya had crouched down beside the skinless corpse. She was leaning in, her face unnervingly close to the mangled flesh, observing it with an air of intense curiosity.
The contrast was jarring, almost surreal. Here was this exquisite, doll-like girl, dressed like a princess, calmly poking at a horror that the rest of them couldn't even bear to look at.
How could she even get that close?
Everyone had assumed her reaction would be milder than the Newcomer's, perhaps a gasp or a turned head. But to see her not only devoid of fear but looking faintly… intrigued? A cold dread washed over them, making their scalps prickle.
This wasn't a mild reaction at all. This girl was clearly far more unhinged than any of them. Did she not possess the concept of fear?
"What do you mean, I'm wrong?" a man named Liu Wensong pressed, his voice tight. "What happened?"
"Haruto's initial analysis was mostly correct," Kaguya said, a flicker of excitement in her tone. "But she wasn't dragged in. She ran in herself."
Ran in herself?
The group forced their eyes back to the scene. They now noticed a trail of bloody streaks extending from the doorway inward. They looked like marks left by someone clawing desperately at the floor, but the impressions were faint, as if the person was already incredibly weak.
King Chen's brow furrowed in thought. "If she was anesthetized somewhere else and then dragged in, it's impossible that there would be no marks outside the door. And these bloodstains only start about half a meter inside. They must have been left during a struggle. It can only mean she had just made it back into the pension when the anesthetic took full effect and she collapsed."
Kaguya nodded, a hint of approval in her expression. "Her vocal cords were paralyzed first with a poison. Then, before she completely lost motor function, the creature began to skin her. She could only struggle to escape, but she quickly lost the ability to move. In the end, all she could do was lie there and watch as she was flayed alive."
A dead, suffocating silence fell over the room.
Unable to scream, unable to run, forced to witness her own horrific demise.
Though no one had sympathized with the foolish Newcomer, they were all players in this twisted game. A chilling sorrow for their own kind settled in their hearts, but it was swiftly overwhelmed by a far more potent emotion: absolute terror.
"Maybe… maybe we should just give up," the remaining Newcomer stammered, his face a deathly white. He had vomited until there was nothing left, and his voice was a weak, trembling whisper. "At least… at least it won't hurt as much when we die. It even has anesthesia…"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" King Chen barked, his voice sharp as a whip. "It's only the second day! As long as we stick together, we can clear this instance! I've survived three of these games. As long as I'm alive, I will lead every one of you out of here!"
In a moment of crisis, such defeatist talk was the most dangerous poison.
Liu Wensong quickly chimed in, reinforcing King Chen's words. "Don't lose hope. It's normal for players to die in these instances. The ghost's methods are just a bit more terrifying this time, but that doesn't mean it's invincible. If we work together and find a way out, our chances of survival are still high."
The Newcomer, realizing his mistake, quickly apologized. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean it. I'll follow everyone's instructions."
"We told her the guesthouse was a safe zone, but she insisted on sleeping outside!" someone in the crowd muttered indignantly. "Now look at her! Dead, and she didn't even leave us a single clue!"
A chorus of agreement followed, the group's fear transmuting into resentment for the woman who had brought this horror upon herself.
Kaguya shot them a silent, dismissive glance. Still crouching, her delicate fingers probed a crack in the floorboards near the corpse. With a faint click, she plucked out a three-centimeter-long, translucent shard.
It was a scale, wedged deep into the wood. Scratches from the victim's desperate struggle marred the floor around it.
"Here," she said, casually tossing it to King Chen.
He caught it reflexively. As he examined the long, glassy scale, a flicker of confusion crossed his face. But just as he was about to ask, he felt a slimy, slick sensation between his fingers.
"This is… fish mucus!?" he exclaimed.
The realization hit him like a physical blow. The mermaid from yesterday's blood-red warning. The others gasped, the connection finally clicking into place.
"She wasn't entirely useless," Kaguya said, rising gracefully to her feet. She walked over to Haruto and, with a casual flick of her wrist, wiped the sticky mucus from her fingers onto his shirt. "Whether she meant to or not, she managed to tear something off that creature before she died."
"Holy—! You damn shut-in!" Haruto yelped, jumping back in disgust. He lunged to wipe the slime back on her, but Kaguya had already danced away with a mischievous glint in her eyes. He gave chase, his indignant shouts echoing through the foyer, leaving the rest of the players staring after them in stunned disbelief.
King Chen looked at Yotsuya Miko, his expression a mask of helplessness, silently asking what they were supposed to do now.
"Please follow them," Yotsuya Miko said, looking equally exasperated. "Brother Haruto and Sister Kaguya are probably heading to the water room. We found something unusual there."
Hearing this, the group wasted no more time and hurried after the bickering pair. The moment they stepped through the doorway of the indicated room, a powerful stench assaulted their nostrils, making them recoil.
"Is that a fishy smell?"
"It stinks! How long has this smell been building up?"
"Is that more fish mucus on the floor? If the ghost is a mermaid, then all this slime must have come from it, right?"
The players discussed amongst themselves, their voices a nervous buzz.
"This is mucus from the mermaid's body," Yotsuya Miko confirmed, walking directly toward the well in the center of the room. "This well most likely leads directly to the sea. That means hiding in the pension doesn't guarantee your safety."
The color drained from everyone's faces.
"Th-then how have we been fine until now?" a thin, pale man from Liu Wensong's team retorted, his voice trembling. His name was Liu Cangzhen. "How can you prove this well is connected to the sea?"
"You're welcome to test that theory alone tonight," Kaguya snapped, her patience worn thin. "Who do you think a ghost targets if not someone who wanders off by themselves? Is your brain filled with water?"
The man flinched, wanting to argue back, but shrank away when he saw it was Kaguya. He still muttered under his breath, "Even if that's true… there's no mucus in the hallway leading here. It obviously came in from the ocean outside…"
Kaguya looked ready to unleash another tirade, but Haruto cut her off. He walked to a corner of the room and picked up a mop. It was caked in the same foul slime, looking as if it had been deliberately dragged through a large puddle of the stuff over and over again.
Without a word, he hurled the mop directly at the argumentative Liu Cangzhen. Caught completely off guard, the man was splattered head to toe in the foul-smelling, viscous goo.
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