Under the warm sunlight, the shrubs and grass swayed gently in the breeze.
Takumi moved swiftly along the small path through the greenery area. Around him were Mai, and the others moving together with him.
If he did not know the true nature of this place so clearly, then perhaps he really might have been deceived by the superficial appearance of this place.
As Takumi looked at the surrounding flowers and plants, he carefully avoided the occasional blades of grass protruding onto the road, making sure he crossed the area without stepping on anything.
The reason for doing this was simple.
The orderly management regulations Miko had brought clearly stated a rule saying "orderlies must not damage the greenery areas." And just moments ago, one of the rules had already been verified in practice. The result was that the Aberration controlled through Mai's personality fragment had been torn into strips like shredded potatoes. Clearly, the things in this place dealt with violators in an extremely primitive and aggressive manner, so it was best not to violate the rules if possible.
As for the regulations themselves, although Takumi had only read them once, he had already memorized them firmly.
[Hiromoto Psychiatric Hospital Orderly Management Regulations]
[All orderlies of this hospital must strictly comply with the hospital's management systems, uphold the principle of being responsible toward patients and reassuring patients, and provide patients with attentive care and assistance.]
[1. All orderlies of this hospital must undergo strict training before taking up their duties. Orderlies who have not completed training are forbidden from participating in hospital work and forbidden from entering hospital work areas.]
[2. All orderlies of this hospital must strictly manage patients according to their daily schedules and must not disrupt those schedules. If a patient does not appear at the designated location to carry out the designated activity at the designated time, the corresponding orderly shall be considered negligent in their duties.]
[3. All orderlies of this hospital must wholeheartedly complete the work assigned to them. Furthermore, orderlies may only enter hospital areas during work periods. Outside working hours, orderlies may only remain in the staff cafeteria, staff lounge, or outdoor public areas, and are forbidden from entering work areas.]
[4. All orderlies of this hospital have the responsibility to question any suspicious individuals. Aside from the outpatient building, all areas of this hospital are closed to the public, and no unrelated personnel are permitted to enter. Once suspicious individuals are discovered, they must immediately be restrained and reported to management while awaiting hospital administrators to handle the situation.]
[5. All orderlies of this hospital have the responsibility to protect all public facilities within the hospital and must not damage them, including all internal infrastructure and greenery areas of the hospital. Damage to such facilities is prohibited.]
[6. All orderlies of this hospital have the responsibility to implement appropriate protective measures toward patients. In order to prevent patients from engaging in extreme behavior such as self-harm or suicide, orderlies have the responsibility to carry out unrestricted protective measures to ensure the personal safety of patients.]
[7. All orderlies of this hospital are forbidden from engaging in excessive communication with patients who have not completed their treatment process. Only patients who have completed treatment and are approaching recovery may communicate normally. For patients receiving psychiatric treatment, excessive outside interaction often has adverse effects on their condition, and such influences must be eliminated.]
[8. All orderlies of this hospital are forbidden from abandoning their posts or being absent from work. They may not leave their assigned positions for any reason. All orderlies bear supervisory and mutual inspection responsibilities regarding this matter, and other orderlies have the right to take measures to restrain violators.]
[9. All orderlies confirmed to have violated regulations must undergo reprimanding sessions and retraining under the guidance of hospital administrators. All orderlies who enter this hospital are orderlies who agree with this hospital's working principles. We will not abandon you lightly. We will certainly cultivate you into a serious and responsible good orderly.]
Compared to the kind of rule sheets in Alice's games where truth and lies were mixed together and traps were hidden everywhere, Takumi honestly found this sort of rule sheet much more pleasant. The kind where what it says is exactly what it means, and even if some information is hidden, one can still quickly notice it.
At least for now, the rules of this hospital still seemed to follow the principle of "if you aren't seen, it doesn't count as a violation." In that case, things were still manageable.
"The building ahead is the one we're heading for. Looks like there isn't anyone around it right now."
Walking at the front, Mai stopped moving and hid behind a tree to conceal herself. After carefully observing the situation ahead, she spoke quietly.
"That thing behind us doesn't seem to be chasing anymore. Yotsuya-san, are you alright?" Takumi, who was following behind, glanced toward the rear to confirm there was nothing unusual before looking toward the girl beside him and asking.
"Mm... I'm fine..." Miko tried her best to keep her voice calm.
In her field of vision, this group did not consist of only herself, Mai, Takumi, and "Gotō Unit One."
There were eight figures in total.
Of course, the four trailing behind them were not human. They were all those grotesquely twisted, horrifying things.
Originally, they had been wandering around different areas of the hospital. Perhaps because the group passing by had attracted them, those things had begun following after them one by one. As a result, more and more of those things had started trailing behind the group.
And the key problem was not even that.
From the corner of her eye, the girl glanced toward the umbilical cords attached to those things.
Those things...
Those are umbilical cords, right?
Those things that Takumi and the others could not see—those things only she herself could see—all had umbilical cords attached to them. Every single cord extended upward into the sky, though she had no idea where exactly they led.
And it was not only those unseen things.
The orderlies.
The patients.
Every Aberration existing within this place.
Miko saw countless umbilical cords, one after another, extending from those things upward into the sky. They tangled chaotically across the ground, coiled around buildings, writhed across the earth, and slowly shifted among the shrubs and trees, transforming the world in her vision into a hellish landscape.
She did not raise her head.
The girl never raised her head. She never tried to look at what those umbilical cords were connected to.
Miko had a premonition.
If she raised her head and looked now, then she would definitely be able to see it clearly.
She would see something even Red Moon-level players could not perceive.
Something no one who had entered this Instance until now had ever managed to see.
But she also had another premonition.
The one possibility was that she had truly seen that thing.
If she had truly understood it—truly become aware of its existence—then she would never be able to leave this place again.
That thing…
…was absolutely not something that belonged to Fujihana Middle School.
It was something that covered the entire world itself, something that completely blanketed the entire Instance world of "Campus Horror Stories" that Takumi had mentioned. Something far more terrifying, far more horrifying, than anything she had encountered so far.
What exactly was it?
The girl had warned herself countless times in her heart not to think about it. Not to dwell on it.
But the more she repeated that warning to herself, the more uncontrollably her mind kept circling back to it—imagining its appearance, imagining its true nature.
She never told Takumi about this.
Because deep down, Miko had an indistinct intuition that speaking about it would not solve anything. Instead, it would only create new problems.
Even mentioning it through the mental link was absolutely forbidden.
Even though she still did not know why, Miko simply had that feeling. The moment she spoke about it, something terrible would definitely happen. If Takumi became aware that all of these Aberrations were connected to some greater existence—if he realized that thing existed at all—then something unimaginably horrible, perhaps even irreversible, would occur.
So Miko remained silent.
She said nothing at all, pretending she had seen nothing as she continued following the group forward.
Though even so…
The girl lifted her gaze toward the building ahead.
One, two, three…
There were simply too many to count.
At least over a hundred of them.
Dense masses of blood-red umbilical cords stretched out from every corner of the building, extending upward into the sky.
A faint sense of dread welled up inside her regarding the exploration ahead.
There were an astonishing number of Aberrations inside that building.
Why were there so many?
It looked like nothing more than a small, low-rise structure.
While thinking this, the girl stepped forward together with the others, preparing to move out from behind the bushes where they had been hiding.
And at that exact moment—
A light, drifting voice suddenly rang out from behind Miko.
[Miko-chan.]
An incomparably familiar voice.
The voice of her classmate calling out to her.
And in that instant, the voice that made Miko feel a bone-deep chill, the voice that nearly froze her entire body in place.
A small hand had already landed on her shoulder.
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