"Prompt?"
Ethan looked at the prompt in front of him. It seemed familiar, yet somehow strange.
He was instantly confused.
"This… is this really a game?"
Ethan waved his hand at the red exclamation mark in front of him. The red exclamation mark was like a 3D projection. He couldn't touch or feel it, but he could see it.
If this wasn't a game, there was simply no explaining it. A floating red exclamation mark.
If he stared at it carefully, a description box similar to a pop-up window would even appear.
If something like this could appear in the real world, that would truly be terrifying.
Rustle!
Whether it was a game or not, Ethan didn't waste any time and simply pulled the entire drawer out.
He then dumped the stationery and books from the drawer onto the floor, casually knocked on the bottom of the drawer with his knuckles, and soon discovered that one part of the bottom sounded hollow. He pried it up with some force, and sure enough, there was a hidden compartment beneath the wooden panel.
Inside was a thin diary.
Ethan opened to the first page: July 27
[Everything seems to have become strange. I don't know how to put it, but nothing makes sense. For example, when I got up this morning, I clearly remembered that I had already gotten out of bed and even brushed my teeth. But the moment I woke up, I realized it had all just been a dream.]
[And that's not all. Yesterday, I had clearly already finished my handicraft homework, but when I got up today, I still hadn't quite finished it, as if time had suddenly gone back.]
[I'm starting to wonder whether there's something wrong with my brain or something wrong with this world.]
[So I'm going to write everything down.]
Page 2: July 29
[When I came home today, I found Mom acting strange, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It just felt like something was wrong.]
[While I was doing my homework tonight, I noticed Mom secretly watching me from the doorway.]
[I pretended not to notice her, and she just kept watching.]
[Then, when I acted like I'd noticed her…]
[Something even stranger happened.]
[A knife suddenly appeared in her hand.]
[Luckily, it was just a false alarm. She had only come to ask me if I wanted an apple.]
[But who stands in the doorway watching you for an hour just to ask if you want an apple? Maybe the apple was just something she used as a cover?]
Page 3: July 30
[When I came home today, I found that someone had gone through my room.]
[The order of my Fist of the North Star manga had been messed up, and the order of all my notebooks had been switched around too.]
[I suspect Mom wanted to find my notebooks. Luckily, I took them with me to school today.]
[Looks like I have to put this diary away somewhere safe!]
[It's too scary.]
Page 4: August 3
[I haven't written in my diary for several days because I've been hearing a strange sound at night these past few days, like someone drilling through a wall right beside my ear.]
[But every time I wake up, the drilling sound is gone.]
[Where is that sound coming from? It's so unbearable. I wake up in the middle of the night every day, yet nothing has happened. Why?]
[I feel like I'm about to have a nervous breakdown.]
[My sister said she heard it too, and said she'd sleep with me at night. It's not ideal, but I guess that's okay.]
[I hope I can sleep well with someone beside me.]
Page 5: August 6
[I haven't been able to get a good night's sleep for an entire week.]
[I don't know if I was hallucinating today, but when the PE teacher told me and Gian to go to the warehouse and bring out the shot puts, I seemed to see an extra door on the warehouse wall?]
[But when I walked closer, the door strangely disappeared, leaving only a water stain.]
[I told Gian about it, but he said I simply hadn't gotten enough sleep and had seen it wrong.]
Page 6: August 11
[Do I really have neurasthenia?]
[Not long after that door appeared before my eyes, Gian started acting strange too. Today, he asked me to deliver a love letter to Anna for him. What a lunatic. Anna would have to be blind to like you.]
[I refused Gian, and there seemed to be hatred in his eyes toward me. I don't quite understand.]
[Would he really rather be humiliated by Anna to my face than accept my advice?]
[Gian said I didn't treat him like a brother.]
Page 7: August 15
[Gian and I hadn't spoken to each other for almost a week, but he suddenly brought me a bottle of Coke this morning, and we made up.]
[Gian said my sister told him that I had neurasthenia, so he forgave me.]
[But I clearly never told my sister about having neurasthenia. So how could my sister have told him?]
Page 8: August 16
[Today I found that someone had gone through my schoolbag. I suspect Gian did it.]
[After Gian said last time that my sister had told him I had neurasthenia, I suspected that he had secretly read my diary, so I decided to leave my diary at home.]
[But Mom's behavior was strange too, so I could only hide the diary in the drawer's hidden compartment.]
[I don't know why they want to go through my diary, but I just feel that they absolutely can't find out about this, especially that I already know something is wrong with them.]
Page 9: August 20
[Mom suddenly said she wanted to take me to see a doctor because I'd become so weak that I could barely function.]
[Not only had I been hearing that strange drilling sound at night, but I also seemed to have seen Mom kill Dad. It happened in the kitchen. Mom used a bone knife to chop Dad into pieces and take them to make soup.]
[But when I woke up the next day, nothing had happened. Mom said Dad had gone on a business trip.]
[I called Dad, but all I got was a busy signal.]
[It's too strange.]
Page 10: August 21
[The psychiatrist prescribed me a lot of medicine, saying it was for treating neurasthenia.]
[I took some, and sure enough, I slept very well last night.]
Page 11: August 25
[I don't know if I've become normal or if this world has become abnormal. I feel like something is wrong with me, but they say I'm becoming more and more normal.]
[But I'm sleeping very well. Even when a bee stung my temple and left a huge bump last night, I still slept very well.]
[I feel much better.]
Page 12: August 29
[Mom said she'd lost her keys and asked me to help her look for them.]
[I said we should call Dad. He still had another set. Then I seemed to hear a phone ringing on the roof.]
[Mom said I was only making things worse. Dad was away on a business trip, so I shouldn't disturb him.]
[Oh, right. Dad is away on a business trip!]
Page 13 was blank.
Ethan flipped through many more pages. They were all completely blank.
It seemed that the diary ended there.
Today was already September 9.
In other words, he hadn't written another diary entry for ten days.
'What exactly happened in between?'