The voice that had sounded from behind her belonged to Yoshino Rika.
It sounded almost no different from usual—the voice of her classmate Yoshino Rika speaking.
But it should not have appeared here.
Not at this time.
Rika should still have been inside the hospital. She should still have been locked inside her ward. There was no possible way she could appear here.
At that moment, Miko almost instinctively turned around—then suddenly snapped awake and forcibly stopped herself.
However, the "Gotō No. 1" walking beside her—the one that had seemed to possess no special qualities whatsoever aside from comic relief ever since its introduction—abruptly halted in place.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Gotō Hitori took a deep breath. A faint glimmer appeared in her pupils.
Then, inside the Instance, "Gotō No. 1" bent down, picked up a stone from the ground, and threw it toward another direction.
The things pursuing Miko immediately shifted targets, chasing after the stone instead.
This was the miko blessing Gotō Hitori possessed from a shrine Instance.
An extremely rare special blessing that, despite only being a Dusk-level blessing, could still function inside a Red Moon-level Instance without suffering excessive suppression.
The power of this blessing was very simple.
It allowed her to select any object she could find and interchange its identity with that of a designated person.
For example, if a player accidentally triggered a Horror Story rule and was about to be erased, Hitori could use her blessing on them and swap the player's identity with a nearby object—a cabinet, a stone, even a spiderweb.
Then, when the Aberration carried out the rule-based killing, it would attack the cabinet, the stone, or the spiderweb instead, while completely ignoring the actual player who had violated the rule, allowing them to survive.
The reason this blessing could function regardless of Instance difficulty was equally simple.
Because its target was not the Aberration.
Its target was people.
No matter how the Instance's difficulty changed, players participating in the Instance always maintained stable attributes and characteristics. And generally speaking, nobody resisted Hitori's blessing.
Because of that, her blessing often produced miraculous results.
At this very moment, she had swapped the identity of the casually picked-up stone with that of Miko, causing the things chasing Miko to mistake the stone for Miko herself, thereby interrupting their pursuit.
"Watch out!"
Mai had already spun around abruptly, aiming the Bronze Eye toward the thing that had appeared.
This…
Before them stood smiling girls with vacant, dazed expressions.
Every single one of Miko's classmates had appeared within the greenery, all wearing patient uniforms.
Their bodies had become translucent.
Their human presence had almost completely vanished, leaving behind only the endless resentment unique to Aberrations.
[Come on, Miko-chan. Come on, Miko-chan.]
Those things whispered softly.
[Let's become Alice's good friends together.]
[Everyone should like Alice. Everyone should become Alice's friend.]
[You too. Come with us too. Become Alice's good friend together with us.]
All of them whispered endlessly as they surrounded the stone, nearly overlapping into one another while continuously circling around it.
"They…"
Miko could see the thin threads attached to those things, see those threads extending into the psychiatric hospital.
At the same time, she could also see the umbilical cords connected to them—
illusory umbilical cords linked to something high above the sky.
They were no longer human.
All of the classmates who had been dragged into this together with the girl had already permanently become part of this Instance.
They had become the same kind of beings as those Aberrations.
So it was like this again…
Every single time…
This was always how things ended for them…
Aside from silently sighing to herself, there was nothing else Miko could do.
"So just completing a single 'treatment session' turns them into this, huh? And it looks like they can even use memories from when they were alive to search for more people and try to convert them too. What a disgusting mechanic. Looks like staying inside the hospital area basically guarantees a quick death sooner or later. Alright, enough staring. Let's move already. They won't stay fooled by Gotō-san's blessing for long, and we can't afford to waste time here dealing with this kind of thing."
After observing the behavior of those things for a moment, Mai quickly grasped the situation and motioned for the visibly shaken Miko to keep moving.
Before leaving, Takumi took one last look at those things.
At Yoshino Rika, Ogawa Kyoko, and the other girls he had at least crossed paths with before—some of whom had even traveled together with them.
Seeing them die such miserable deaths once again, even turning into things resembling vengeful spirit thralls, made him sigh inwardly as well.
After confirming that Miko was alright, he immediately turned around and continued forward without hesitation.
For ordinary people without any special traits, surviving inside a Red Moon-level Instance was simply too difficult.
After four loops, these completely ordinary high school girls had accomplished little besides unlocking new ways to die.
Even Takumi himself, despite being a player with supernatural abilities, had still lived through one brutal death after another.
Only now, after finally gaining reliable teammates, had things stopped being a desperate solo struggle.
Infiltrating the building ahead proved even more difficult than expected.
Security cameras that they had never noticed before now appeared in large numbers, almost completely covering the outer perimeter of the building.
There were also many security guards patrolling the area.
Judging from the ribbon-like accessories on their bodies that strongly resembled Alice-themed decorations, these people were most likely fanatical followers of Alice as well.
Mai and Takumi first circled the entire building with practiced efficiency, scouting every surrounding area and identifying several possible testing points.
Afterward, Takumi began by deliberately creating small disturbances.
For example, he threw stones against the concrete ground, trying to draw their attention.
The result was that every single time, at least two or more guards would immediately come over to investigate.
And they would always inspect the exact location where Takumi had hidden himself to throw the stones.
Next, Mai attempted to destroy one of the cameras.
But the moment she smashed one with a thrown pebble, every guard in the area reacted as if they had gone insane and began searching frantically in every direction, forcing Takumi and the others to retreat a considerable distance.
Then even more orderlies emerged behind them to conduct inspections.
To avoid those orderlies, the group was forced into a nerve-racking game of hide-and-seek.
After that, two administrators even appeared.
Those administrators seemed capable of directly detecting Takumi and the others within a certain range. They walked straight toward them without hesitation.
With far too many enemies around, the group had no choice but to flee even farther away.
In the end, they circled nearly the entire outer hospital area before finally returning to their original position.
And by then, the destroyed camera had already been repaired.
"This is troublesome. Looks like the only option is to find a way to replace those guards… or directly replace the administrators instead?"
After more than half an hour of completely failing to find a way inside, Mai frowned as she spoke.
"There's definitely something wrong with the administrators' identities. Those things are practically using wallhacks—the second you get close enough, they immediately notice us. We almost got separated several times trying to avoid them. Let's target the administrators. At the very least, we need to figure out what's so special about their identities."
Takumi nodded and took a deep breath.
To some extent, he was actually beginning to enjoy this infiltration game.
Once again, they tested the building.
Mai smashed a second surveillance camera, drawing the attention of those things.
Then the group immediately fled, once again facing simultaneous pursuit from multiple Aberrations.
Just as expected, they encountered those administrators dressed in refined clothing yet again.
None of those administrators had faces.
Above their necks was only a completely blank surface, as though they could no longer remember what they once looked like.
Mai attempted to immobilize one of the administrators.
But that action seemed to stimulate every Aberration in the area, causing all of them to begin searching frantically.
As a result, the two of them did not even have time to remove the administrator's clothes properly.
Takumi simply hacked a slit into the clothing with his machete before forcefully tearing it apart.
Then, after thinking for a moment, he directly took out the Sheep-Head Hood and shoved it onto the administrator's head before retreating together with Mai and attempting to escape the pursuing Aberrations.
This chase lasted nearly an hour and a half.
The sky grew increasingly dim, already approaching nightfall.
Miko had been left behind under the protection of "Gotō No. 1," while simultaneously using the mental link from afar to help guide Takumi and Mai toward suitable escape routes.
After the exhausting pursuit finally ended, the utterly drained pair rested for a while before returning to investigate the situation again.
What they found was that the administrator with the damaged clothing had already been torn into pieces, reduced to a puddle of flesh spread across the floor that was still writhing and slowly reassembling itself.
"They seem more disorganized than before?"
After scouting near the building for over ten minutes, Mai confirmed that the guards defending the structure had begun to spread out more loosely and were no longer maintaining the same level of strict vigilance as before.
"The orderlies and guards here were probably all brainwashed. They're fanatical followers of Alice. As for the administrators, they've likely undergone an even deeper level of brainwashing—to the point that after becoming Aberrations, they can't even remember what their own faces looked like anymore. Hm… being fans and being diligent workers aren't necessarily the same thing. Without the administrators around, maybe these things are essentially missing the enforcers who maintain the rules. That could be affecting how active they are."
Takumi proposed one possible explanation.
After briefly thinking it over, Mai prepared for another round of action.
Unable to help with any of this, Miko could only remain hidden far away together with "Gotō No. 1," silently watching everything unfold.
During that time, her former classmates were drawn toward her several more times, and each time, Hitori had to find a way to drive those things away.
The bodies of Rika and the other girls clearly still remained inside the hospital.
What had emerged from the hospital were their Aberration-corrupted consciousnesses, following the memories inside them to seek out Miko and attempt to transform her into one of their own.
Interestingly, those things never went after Takumi or Mai.
They only targeted Miko.
Perhaps because she had been their classmate, they retained deeper impressions of her, which was why they kept returning for her again and again.
Time slowly passed.
By the time Takumi and Mai worked together to destroy the clothing of a third administrator—causing that Aberration to lose the recognition of the orderlies and guards before being torn to pieces—the Aberrations had already begun trampling across the grass on their own, seemingly no longer caring about violating any rules whatsoever.
Realizing something from the changes in their behavior, Takumi decided to take a risk.
He deliberately stepped out from his hiding place and appeared directly in front of one of the orderlies.
The expressionless Aberration rotated its head a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
Its body still faced away from Takumi, yet its head stared directly at him.
It did not attack immediately.
Nor did it attempt to verify Takumi's "orderly" duties.
Seeing that the thing made no move, Takumi thought for a moment before raising a hand and saying: "Alice is amazing."
The orderly instantly revealed a satisfied expression, turned around, and walked away, completely ignoring Takumi's existence.
Feels like a gaze just came from inside the hospital… was that Gun Bro? Just praising Alice is enough to attract its attention, but it ignores Miko's classmates even after they've completely transformed into Alice fanatics… wait. Those girls basically died the moment they were transformed. They're already dead and have become Aberrations, which is why Gun Bro no longer cares about them. But whether at the end of the third loop or just now, I'm still fundamentally alive, so that thing reacts to me?
Takumi still could not fully confirm the exact situation.
After all, there was no way he could currently run into the hospital and inspect Yoshino Rika and the others' bodies to check whether they had bullet holes in them.
They approached the heavily guarded building once more.
This time, however, the guards finally displayed obvious gaps in their defenses.
And after Mai destroyed another surveillance camera, their reactions became far more sluggish.
It was now more than enough for the players to infiltrate the building together.
"Finally…"
After spending several straight hours under extreme concentration—and nearly failing multiple times even while working together—Takumi let out a long breath.
For a moment, he felt so exhausted that he wanted to collapse onto the ground and sleep right there.
"We still don't know what's waiting for us inside. Don't let your guard down."
Mai was equally exhausted, yet her eyes still shone brightly.
With a cigarette hanging from her mouth, she spoke casually as she walked at the very front of the group, becoming the first to arrive at the building's side entrance.
At this moment, night had almost completely fallen.
The time was roughly eight in the evening.
Inside the hospital, the third treatment cycle was currently underway.
The guards who had lazily gone off to search had not yet returned.
After repeatedly confirming the surrounding situation, Mai grabbed the side door's handle and carefully twisted it open, slowly pulling the door apart.
Creeeak—
Accompanied by a somewhat grating sound, a spotless corridor illuminated by white lights appeared before the players' eyes.
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