Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

She pulled out that bottle and replaced it with the one containing sewage.

She found a lid on the table, covered it up, cleaned up the traces she had left behind, and left the room.

Back in the hallway, she picked up the bucket and headed toward the cloakroom where Oshima was.

Inside the dressing room, Oshima nervously arranged the clothes on the hangers, his eyes constantly glancing towards the door.

Footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by the soft scraping of a bucket being dragged, and then the rustling of a damp cloth being wiped on the floor. Oshima saw Yui's figure vaguely appear at the edge of the door, and his tense shoulders relaxed slightly.

Yui silently wiped the corridor floor outside the cloakroom, while Oshima casually finished tidying up the last hat he was holding, strolled to the door, and glanced at both ends of the corridor.

Without saying a word, Yui took out the bottle of grayish-black viscous liquid from her sleeve, uncorked it, and tilted her head back to gulp it down without hesitation.

puff!

A slight cracking sound rang out, and Yui's figure instantly collapsed and deformed, turning into a gray-black rat in the blink of an eye.

The empty bottle fell from the spot where she disappeared. Oshima's eyes widened, and with lightning speed, he lunged forward and narrowly caught the bottle in his palm before it hit the ground.

Without pausing, Yui, in her rat form, ran on all fours as if it were instinct. She transformed into a gray shadow and darted quickly toward the wardrobe. Her sharp claws gripped the gap that wasn't closed properly, and with a quick movement, she squeezed inside like a rat.

Oshima leaned against the door frame, holding his breath and listening intently to the faintest sounds in the corridor and room.

Light filtered through the gaps, casting faint beams of light inside the wardrobe, barely providing any visibility.

The air was filled with the slightly worn smell of the wooden cabinet, and there seemed to be a hint of perfume and tobacco.

Her gaze swept across the area, her claws hooking onto the heavy wool coat as she quickly climbed upwards, trying to find out why she died in the light.

Soon, she saw a red cross pattern on the top of the wardrobe.

Without the slightest hesitation, Yui pounced on it, her sharp teeth tearing fiercely at the wooden board.

"Sizzle! Squeak squeak squeak!"

Oshima's urgent coded signal came from outside.

This point was not discussed; it was simply Oshima's instinct.

Yui decisively released her grip, letting her body fall freely and crash heavily into the wooden cabinet. Without pausing, she sprinted out through the gap in the cabinet door.

After Oshima and her reached the corridor, he stomped down hard.

Paji.

Yui instantly reverted to human form, curled up on the floor, her face ashen, biting her lower lip hard to suppress the nausea churning in her throat and the intense headache.

She struggled to sit up, grabbed a rag from the floor, knelt down, and mechanically and forcefully wiped the floor, her movements stiff but trying her best to maintain the posture of working.

After a good ten seconds or so, she still hadn't heard any sound. She frowned, her face covered in cold sweat, and looked at Oshima with a puzzled expression.

?

Oshima gave an awkward smile: "Just now... there seemed to be no sound of someone approaching."

Yui twitched the corners of her mouth and, without hesitation, leaned over the sewage bucket and started vomiting.

Oshima could only wait for her to calm down before asking somewhat awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Um, did you find any clues in the closet?"

Yui raised her head from the sewage bucket expressionlessly and pointed to the wardrobe door: "Try opening the door now."

Upon hearing this, Oshima carefully approached the door and slowly opened it.

It's alright, he's still alive.

He breathed a sigh of relief and then began searching for clues.

Soon, he found three keys in the pocket of an aristocratic coat, but they were not marked.

He put away the key and looked towards the door; Yui had already left.

In the evening, the three of them gathered in the hall, picked out three question sheets and handed them to the angel statue, and then began to prepare dinner.

The dinner setup here is quite peculiar. They are responsible for receiving a batch of fresh meat, then washing it according to the butler's instructions, and chopping it into different pieces.

However, their meals were prepared by other chefs.

Another day has passed.

As night fell, the angel closed his eyes.

With a click, the door that had been opened during the day was locked again.

After the three of them had their pea porridge dinner, they wondered how things were going in the dungeon. Anyway, Iwasaki was in a good mood, and the mystery was finally making progress.

Oshima gave him the keys, but the three keys were identical in design and indistinguishable from each other on the surface.

The group discussed it for a long time but couldn't reach a conclusion. It wasn't until around midnight that the Roman numerals that appeared on the key provided the answer.

This clearly represents the room number.

“It’s three of the locked rooms.” Iwasaki followed the problem-solving approach. “Since they gave us the keys, it means we can’t open these three doors by praying.”

"It only shows up after midnight, which means it can only be opened at that time," Oshima added.

If that's the case, then the direction is set.

During the day, find potions for small animals or animals with night vision. If it's a small animal and it happens to be tidying up the study, open the drawer.

If you're a night-sighted animal, then wait until after midnight and use the key to open the doors to those three rooms.

Even if only one room can be opened per night, it's still manageable in terms of time.

"These are the doors to the crocodile, the owl, and the goat."

Yui suddenly said.

"Intuition?" Iwasaki actually thought so too.

"Hmm." Yui didn't say anything more.

19: Special Issues

(Compensation Chapter 1/3)

The third day of this round of the game.

The animal card I drew today was indeed an owl.

But it doesn't matter anymore. Since he noticed those three special animals, the nine people in the dungeon must have noticed them too.

Iwasaki wasn't in a hurry to do anything in the study during his daily tasks.

Based on previous practice, the study needs to be tidied up every two days at most.

Having an extra day to prepare is a good thing. Currently, the only animals that can squeeze through small gaps are tarantulas and snakes. Even though we have already eliminated nearly half of the rooms, the probability of successfully finding the corresponding medicine is still less than one-third.

However, what is somewhat noteworthy is that functional rooms such as walk-in closets and studies only show signs of use on the first day they are tidied up, and then they maintain that state.

Their subsequent so-called tidying up was nothing more than dusting off the dust.

It's as if, from the day the game started, the owner of the manor will never enter those rooms again.

This is the basis for their ability to steal key items; otherwise, if the room is used every day, it would be easy for the owner to discover if anything is missing.

Iwasaki continued to pray to the angels, and today the room opened was the raven's room.

Inside the room, raven feathers and skeletons were piled up like mountains, emitting a musty smell, and the medicine was hidden in the beak of the only raven specimen.

Iwasaki is unsure whether the ravens in the game are normal ravens or ravens from the occult.

Ordinary ravens have excellent eyesight, but it's still difficult for them to pinpoint exact locations in the strange, dim conditions of the manor. However, if it's related to the occult, then having night vision isn't surprising.

At midnight, Iwasaki opened the door a crack and drank the potion.

His body shrank instantly and quickly blended into the darkness.

Yui and Oshima held the keys in their palms and waited quietly.

Iwasaki, in his raven form, looked around. His vision was quite clear, though the color scheme was a bit strange.

He flew to Yui's hand, trying to grab the two keys, but after grabbing only one, he felt it was extremely heavy, making it impossible to carry both keys.

Helpless, he had no choice but to give up. He grabbed one of the handfuls, looked at the number, and then flung it out of the room through the crack in the door.

The entire process was so quiet that even the flapping of its wings was completely silent.

"Did he take it?" Oshima asked in a low voice, weighing the key that hadn't been taken from his hand.

Yui simply hummed in agreement, then sat on the bed, quietly waiting for Iwasaki's return.

Iwasaki had memorized the room numbers within his area of ​​operation, quickly found his bearings, and his claws landed steadily on the brass doorknob.

Adjust the key on the claw and insert it into the door lock.

With a sharp, twisting sound, Iwasaki didn't hesitate for a moment, pressed down on the handle to open the door, and quickly slipped inside.

This is the owl's room.

The bodies of many owls were disassembled and neatly arranged in categories.

Iwasaki wanted to find the medicine as quickly as possible, but instead he saw a piece of paper on a cabinet—a question paper.

Is it related to religion?

Iwasaki landed on the cabinet and carefully examined the handwriting and material of the paper. He confirmed that this was the question paper that needed to be thrown at the statue every day in the game. There was no difference, except that he had never seen this question before.

Why is there a separate one here? Is it because you don't want the prisoners to know about this issue?

Iwasaki flipped the paper over and found a red cross pattern on the back. He put the question paper back and continued to focus on finding the medicine.

But as time passed, he could feel himself becoming heavier and heavier, and his mind kept issuing warnings that his transformation was about to fail.

Unable to find the medicine, Iwasaki had to settle for second best. He used his claws to roll up the problem paper, then flew out of the room, closing the door and taking out the key in one swift motion.

"Well"

He felt his body begin to cramp, his wings were collapsing, his bones were creaking, as if he was about to revert to human form, and his body was getting heavier and heavier, as if he would fall to the ground at any moment.

The dizziness and nausea intensified, and my vision swayed violently; every second was excruciating.

The distance that was easily traversed just now now seems extremely far away.

The range of night vision kept narrowing, until only the area directly in front of us remained.

With his last ounce of willpower, he struggled and swooped down toward the servants' room.

Finally, he managed to squeeze through the crack in the door before the effects of the potion wore off.

Almost the next second, his body twisted and he turned back into a human.

Iwasaki crashed to the floor, his body sliding forward due to inertia, his head slamming into the wall before he returned to human form. He curled up, breathing heavily, his back soaked in cold sweat.

Oshima and Yui didn't move. It was so dark, stepping on it would only make things worse.

At most, I'll just close the door based on where I remember it.

It took Iwasaki a long time to recover from the suffocating feeling of being on the verge of death.

Turning back into a human at the appointed time is even more unpleasant than being attacked and turning back into a human midway through the process. It's like drinking a concentrated cup of sweaty socks and then getting a slap on the head.

He was in so much pain that he crawled on the dark ground like a shrimp.

Fortunately, Iwasaki, being one of the first players, had extensive experience with death, having experienced dismemberment and bone breaking, and he didn't utter a single sound.

"No transformation potion found in the owl room."

Having come back to life, Iwasaki struggled to climb onto the bed. Facing the darkness, roughly the space of two people, he panted and briefly summarized the clues he had gathered from searching the room.

He paused for a moment, suppressing the discomfort in his throat: "But I found a question sheet, 'Is it related to religion?'"

Upon hearing Iwasaki's words, Yui went through all twelve animals in her mind (Note 1).

If we really want to go down this line, we can find religious symbols in every animal.

For example, ravens, cats, snakes, and goats.

But if we're really going to be precise, the most religiously significant one is probably the scarab beetle.

Its formal name is dung beetle, and its nickname is dung beetle.

Is this to prevent the prisoners below from discovering the player representing the scarab?

This serves as a clue; I'll remember it for now.

Silent all night.