Under the light, those figures simply stood silently in place.
A chilling, eerie aura spread outward.
Miko instinctively took a step back, trying to avoid them.
The other girls also retreated instinctively, and Kinoshita Yuka even had the impulse to turn and run.
Only Takumi stepped forward.
Crack!
A bloodstained machete suddenly swung down, cutting one of the animal-headed figures to the ground.
The sound of bones shattering and blood splattering rang out at the same time.
Faintly, there were also sounds of screaming and pleading echoing as if from a distance.
Those figures had already collapsed to the ground.
And Alice, with her golden hair, merely smiled as she held the blade, letting it drag along the ground as she walked step by step toward those figures.
[No… no, no, no… this shouldn't be happening, this shouldn't be happening! You can't harm us—you can't harm us!]
[I order you to stop! Damn it, I order you to stop right now!!!]
[Why aren't the orders working? No… don't—please, don't—aaahhh!!!]
Hearing the wails they let out before death, seeing the ugly expressions they showed before their execution, and the always gentle smile of Alice as she watched all of it—
[Alice just wants to be friends with everyone]
She spoke seriously.
[So, please, teachers, stay behind and become Alice's friends forever~]
Then she raised the blood-soaked blade in her hand.
A dark red color dyed the entire world.
Until all breathing ceased, the blade never stopped swinging.
So that was how it was.
Takumi stopped swinging the blade and returned the machete to the watch. Throughout this process, he remained extremely focused, keeping his senses in a state of full concentration, so the situation from the first loop—where his perception had been deceived and he failed to retrieve the black umbrella—did not occur again.
All the Aberrations in the observation room had already been chopped into chunks of flesh.
Just like what the [Alice] that these people had successfully created back then had done.
This machete had once been used by the teachers to execute students, and in the end, it was used by [Alice] to kill all the teachers in the school—no, perhaps to kill every living person in the school. Therefore, any Aberration within Fujihana Middle School would be especially vulnerable to this machete, easily dismembered by it and temporarily sealed in terms of mobility.
And the side effect of such a simple and brutal Obsession Item was equally clear: an intense bloodthirsty impulse.
"Hah…"
Even though he had already stored the machete away and cut off the source of its influence, Takumi still could not suppress his heavy breathing at this moment. A frenzied emotion continuously surged up from the depths of his heart, almost breaking through his mental defenses and driving him into complete madness.
Kill… kill them all… kill everything, kill, kill, kill it all…
That's right—the girls behind him were perfect. Pin them to the ground, slice open their flesh with a blade, watch their despair and agony, then tear them apart completely. Yes, yes, yes, this is what I want to do, this is what I must do, this is—
"Takumi-san, a-are you alright?"
A somewhat nervous voice from Miko sounded from behind him.
"…I'm fine."
Takumi's breathing had already returned to normal.
He felt a slight dizziness. The burden from the erosion of the sheep-head hood and the machete had already begun to make him somewhat uncomfortable. But he had to maintain this state for now. Taking a deep breath, Takumi steadied himself and then began to move deeper into the observation room.
This observation room completely surrounded Classroom 1.
The walls of Classroom 1, aside from the side with the door, were all one-way transparent glass walls. Thus, those teachers—or rather, those who simultaneously held the identities of teachers and researchers—could observe the students inside the classroom at any time, observing these so-called [Outstanding Students] of Class 1 as if they were experimental animals.
Perhaps even worse than experimental animals. Although experimental animals also died miserably, at least researchers would respect and remember their sacrifices. But in this place, those high-and-mighty researchers treated these students as livestock until the very end.
However, one thing had already been confirmed.
Every Class 1 in [Fujihana Middle School]—including third-year Class 1, second-year Class 1, and first-year Class 1—was a deliberately selected sacrifice.
Under the accumulation of madness and death, some of the Class 1 students would have nothing happen after death, but others, after dying, would give rise to an [Alice] from among them.
Whether the earliest [Alice], as well as the [Alice] born during the school's operational phase, possessed a physical form, whether they could be perceived or interacted with—there was no way to obtain answers to these questions. But one thing that could be confirmed was that the [Alice] ultimately created by this school broke free from control and killed everyone in the school, completely ending this place and turning it into a dead zone where no one survived.
Wait… perhaps not necessarily everyone was killed.
Those two figures mourning the students—could they have been the final survivors? If they chose to mourn the students, were those two survivors among the students, or were they people who opposed the school's horrific experiments?
Some questions had been answered, and even more began to emerge.
But for now, there was no need to dwell too much on these matters, because Takumi could already see the [thing] he needed to find.
It was a card.
Even though it was stained with blood, it still retained a sense of exquisite craftsmanship.
[God-Making Project — Level 4 Supervisor Access Card]
These were the words engraved on the card.
A god-making project, huh?
Takumi said nothing more. Instead, he shifted his gaze to the table where the card lay, and to the documents placed beside it.
[God-Making Project Planning Document:]
[Project 1: Supreme Sovereign]
[Initial planning completed. It is recommended to select locations where young children gather for experimentation, such as daycare centers, orphanages, or elementary schools.]
[Children with simple minds are the best experimental subjects. Expected number of subjects: 20–40. Confidentiality must be strictly ensured.]
[Project 2: Pain Idol]
[Site selection completed. Initial experiments have begun. Experimental area: Fujihana Middle School. Full lockdown of the area has been completed.]
[Children entering early adolescence are the best experimental subjects. Expected number of subjects: 1500–2000. Control over experimental subjects must be ensured.]
[The results of the first phase of experiments have well confirmed our hypothesis. Intense distorted emotions and death have brought about a certain directional anomalous energy change. This time, we were unable to collect data on that energy. I believe we need to attempt to construct a vessel—one capable of attracting and storing this energy.]
[Project 3: Urban Legend Manifestation]
[Site selection completed. Initial experiments completed. Full-scale experimentation underway. Experimental area: Yoruyama Middle School. Covert control of the area has been achieved while maintaining normal operations on the surface.]
[Adolescents who possess relative stability yet retain a degree of instability are the best experimental subjects. Expected number of subjects: 500–800. Control and tracking observation of subjects must be ensured.]
[Through guided manipulation of the subjects, we have successfully reproduced phenomena such as "Hanako of the Toilet" and "Mary-san." However, these phenomena are extremely unstable. Neither the first nor the second phase succeeded in project recovery. It has been confirmed that further expansion of the experiment is necessary.]
[Project 4: Takamagahara]
[Ensure full intelligence exchange with allied nations. All information regarding "Baidōsu Academy" must be treated with the highest priority. Our own information must be concealed as much as possible; true research progress and results must not be transmitted to the other party.]
[The construction of "Takamagahara" is of utmost importance. Even if we are defeated one day, we will obtain immortality here and ultimately rise again, establishing a circle of shared prosperity for this planet that belongs to us.]
[This project takes precedence over all others.]
[Project 5]
[It has been confirmed that during the operation of Projects 1, 2, and 3, certain inexplicable phenomena have occurred. Many researchers and subjects, while dreaming or hallucinating, have found themselves arriving at an unfamiliar school. Some individuals disappeared mysteriously after reporting this.]
[Based on current intelligence, the name of this school is ■■■■ (the text is completely distorted and unreadable for unknown reasons). It is necessary to mobilize personnel to investigate this anomaly and determine whether it is harmful…]
The document was quite long, containing many specific experimental plans. The further one read, the more obscure and incomprehensible terms appeared. Although there were many strange parts and many sections where the text seemed to have been erased by something, Takumi still carefully read through the entire document and finally confirmed one thing.
[Hayadate Elementary School], [Fujihana Middle School], and [Yoruyama Middle School] were all research facilities established under the direction of Japan's upper authorities to study Aberrations.
These three places were all artificially created anomalous zones.
Moreover, that [Baidōsu Academy] was intricately connected to this place as well. That school was likely a facility used by Germany to study Aberrations, and the two countries were even exchanging research experience.
No wonder… no wonder this Instance was so massive—composed of four different regions stitched together. No wonder it felt so fragmented despite its scale. It could be said to be completely divided into separate small Instances. This place—the so-called [Campus Uncanny] Instance—was fundamentally a place that was fragmented, yet secretly interconnected.
That identity card would undoubtedly allow Takumi to enter certain hidden areas. Based on current intelligence, it likely granted access to special zones within all three regional Instances—Hayadate Elementary School, Fujihana Middle School, and Yoruyama Middle School—effectively giving him a special identity that allowed him to traverse most of the Instance.
And right now, he could immediately make use of this card.
Takumi turned his head and looked toward one end of the observation room, where a massive and heavy metal door stood.
He had already seen the card reader on the door. He took a step forward—then suddenly stopped.
Click—
The lights in Classroom 1 outside the room turned on, restoring it to its daytime state.
"Ugh…"
Miko let out a pained groan, raising her hand to clutch her head as she lowered it.
Takumi also closed his eyes, frowning at the intense discomfort he suddenly felt.
He saw something.
It seemed like some kind of scene deliberately shown to him and Miko.
It was the corpse of a girl, her abdomen split open and her internal organs removed, slowly crawling out of the art room's storage.
Though she was already dead, under the influence of some force, she stood up again, step by step walking into the art room, into the displays, until she reached the student corpse labeled [Failed Product].
Then she reached out and began tearing at that corpse, ripping it from its intact state into the same twisted, mangled condition as the other exhibits.
The text on the display case began to change little by little.
On the blackboard to one side of the art room, a 0 appeared, then suddenly turned into a 1.
A female figure, her entire body twisted and shattered—barely recognizable as Alice—appeared in the classroom.
[The bad teacher who stole Alice's things—Alice is coming to find you now.]
Amid soft laughter, that fragmented figure raised her head, her shattered eye sockets locking onto Takumi.
The next moment, the hallucination vanished. But in the classroom outside the observation room, a golden-haired Alice was already standing in the center, staring at Takumi and the others inside.
And also at Kinoshita Yuka, who, out of fear, had not dared to come too close and had not entered the observation room, instead standing by the shattered wall—meaning she was still inside the classroom.
"W-what's going on? Why is the wall restored? Open it—open it, hurry!"
After the classroom returned to daytime, the wall Takumi had broken had been restored, isolating her alone. Only now did the girl realize she had made a fatal mistake, frantically pounding on the wall and hoping Takumi and the others would save her.
Unfortunately, in her current state, even Takumi could no longer help her.
[Gulu… oh… uoooh…]
A viscous mass of flesh surged in through the classroom door. Human eyes opened and closed upon it, and writhing intestines churned like maggots within the rotten meat.
[Alice] could not harm those who were not her [friends].
So she extinguished the giant candle outside Classes 23 and 24.
And thus, that colossal mass—an abomination formed from the remains of an unknown number of corpses, something even Takumi could not quantify—began to move, advancing toward them.
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