After leaving the school, Ethan got on the bus home.
On the bus, he suddenly remembered that at the moment he'd climbed onto the warehouse roof, something seemed to have flashed across his arm.
Ethan quickly rolled up his school uniform sleeve. At some point, his arm had… gained a line of countdown numbers.
[44:37:26]
And with every passing second, the numbers on his arm kept counting down.
[44:37:25]
[44:37:24]
[…]
This meant it was a timer counting hours, minutes, and seconds.
Although Ethan had no idea what would happen when the time ran out, it definitely wouldn't be anything good.
But… so far, Ethan hadn't gotten any useful clues.
He could only go back to his starting point first (that is, the place where he had appeared), and see if he could find any clues there.
———
Back at his front door, Ethan found that the entire stairwell, and even the whole residential compound, was eerily quiet.
He took out his key and carefully opened the door, trying not to make any noise. However, the moment the door opened, Ethan saw his mom standing behind the security door, grinning at him.
"You're back?"
"Holy shit!"
His mom's strange smile, combined with the fact that she had appeared without making a sound, scared Ethan badly.
Normally, when someone had a guilty conscience, they were on high alert. At a time like that, even the slightest disturbance could scare them half to death.
Even someone with nerves as strong as Ethan's was no exception.
"Go wash your hands. Dinner will be ready soon."
However, strangely enough, his mom didn't seem to question him about coming home early. Instead, she acted like a robot that had been programmed with some strange routine, simply following her usual daily procedure.
Thinking back to his mom standing by the door just now, the feeling she gave him… was exactly like a robot on standby.
Then, Ethan's appearance was like a program that activated the robot.
The moment Ethan appeared, the robot called "Mom" began operating. It was extremely strange.
"Mm," Ethan answered "calmly."
He forced down the sense of horror in his heart and responded the way he normally would to his mom.
Right now, he was most worried about triggering this strange programmed robot. Before he figured out what was happening in this world, Ethan didn't want anything else to go wrong.
His mom seemed quite satisfied with Ethan's attitude. After giving another strange smile, she continued toward the kitchen.
As she walked, she continued muttering according to her usual routine, "I wonder when your sister's coming back. I made the two of you your favorite braised pork ribs for lunch, as well as seaweed strips stewed with pork bones. Kids your age need to get plenty of calcium so you can grow taller."
Bang!
Ethan didn't answer.
After all, this was how he normally treated his mom, so he absolutely couldn't be too enthusiastic now.
Otherwise, she might notice something was wrong. So Ethan simply slammed his bedroom door shut, putting on an expression that said he didn't want to listen to her nagging.
However, the moment Ethan closed the door, he leaned against it and began gasping for breath.
'That was terrifying.'
'Fuck…'
Everything right now felt like he was in a horror movie.
Anyone who didn't know better would think he'd walked onto the set of a supernatural horror film.
Ethan often felt that the scariest horror movies usually weren't stories about encountering ghosts outside. They were the strange things that suddenly happened in everyday life, like encountering a pale-faced boy squatting in a corner when turning a corner on the stairs at night.
Feeling someone grab your foot when you stuck it out while sleeping at night.
Having a web of spider silk suddenly fall from the ceiling and land over your face, only to discover after pulling it off that it was actually a woman's black hair.
Or seeing something that shouldn't exist when doing a headstand.
Or walking along a road at night and hearing breathing and footsteps behind you, yet seeing no one.
Those were the most terrifying things in the universe.
Tick!
Tick! Tick!
The sound of the second hand moving on the alarm clock beside Ethan's bed was very loud.
Once the room became quiet, Ethan heard the sound of time passing. Only then did he suddenly remember the countdown on his arm.
There was no time to be scared anymore.
"Clues!"
"Right! Find the clues first!"
Ethan hurried to the bedside and yanked open the neatly folded quilt.
However, there was nothing underneath.
But Ethan didn't stop searching for clues. Instead, he continued lifting the mattress, opening drawers, and searching everywhere.
According to his way of thinking, if this was a test, then there had to be clues.
If this was a game… then there would definitely be items needed to clear it.
But… the problem was… Ethan didn't even know what the items or clues would look like.
That made things difficult.
However, the next second.
A red exclamation mark appeared inside the drawer.
[Prompt: There is Clue 1 in the hidden compartment of the drawer]
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