[Note: How many strokes does the character for "correct" have? Practice enough, and you can write it in one stroke.]
Besides those, there was also a strange red string. Each person tied it around a finger, and when one person moved their finger, the other person's finger moved along with it.
A special Universal key. It could open anything except locks.
Travel Frog, a consumable. Send a frog out on a trip, and it'll mail you local specialties. There's a very high chance they'll be bugs.
A Qiuqiu people mask. Wear it when you're sick, and a strange rhyme will ring in your ears: "The big Qiuqiu's sick, the second Qiuqiu looks, the third Qiuqiu gathers herbs, the fourth Qiuqiu boils..." In short, they had all sorts of items.
The trading continued, and both sides were quite satisfied. Only the ghost lady had tears in her eyes as she despairingly ate chives.
"I feel like we're being a little mean," Fujiwara Chika whispered.
Fujiwara had always been kindhearted. Seeing the vengeful spirit with tears in her eyes, looking as if she were about to break, stirred up sympathy in her too.
"We are being a little mean," Amamiya Natsuki agreed, nodding. He quickly came up with an idea. "How about this: go tear a strip of cloth off the bedsheet."
"Eh?" Fujiwara Chika looked puzzled. "What do we need a strip of cloth for?"
"We'll blindfold the ghost lady," Amamiya Natsuki said solemnly. "I saw a news story on Twitter before. A farmer put VR glasses on his cows to simulate a pasture under blue skies and white clouds, and the cows' milk production went up by twenty percent."
Seeing the Beast-girl vengeful spirit glare at him, Amamiya Natsuki spoke earnestly. "We don't have VR glasses right now, so we'll have to use a strip of cloth instead. Just bear with it. You can imagine a big barbecue feast in your head."
The tears in the Beast-girl vengeful spirit's eyes grew more abundant. She swallowed the chives in her mouth, her voice trembling. "You can't do this. You can't bully a vengeful spirit like this..."
Meanwhile.
Another player timidly walked forward. She was a newbie who had only participated in one game. The item she'd gotten had already been used up, so now she was empty-handed and wanted to beg for food.
"Sorry, no."
Shinomiya Kaguya refused coldly.
A merchant wasn't a philanthropist, much less a saint.
If they gave milk just because someone asked, what would the players who'd traded items for food think?
"But you can trade other things for food." Looking at the dejected girl with a despairing expression, Shinomiya Kaguya changed her tune. "Information you've gathered, anomalies you've noticed, or even completing a small request for us. Any of those can be exchanged for food."
There was no doubt about it: reputation was a kind of power.
If they wanted to become capitalists in a Horror Game, quietly keeping their heads down and developing wouldn't do. They needed to make a name for themselves.
"Information..." The girl's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly said, "I know something related to the real world. Can I trade it for food?"
"Yes, but don't try to fool us with false information. The consequences will be serious."
"It's true." The girl said excitedly, "I once met an old woman. She told me that most vengeful spirits in the real world were humans who'd died and become spirits, but there were exceptions. Some people had obsessions and kind hearts, and after death, they wouldn't become evil spirits. Instead, they'd become beings like White guardian spirits."
Vengeful Spirit Survey Form
"Earthbound spirits are rare. They're white, glowing humanoids. I heard they can only stay in places they were attached to when they were alive."
The girl continued her account timidly. "I have a really close friend whose mother died a long time ago. A while ago, I went to her house to play and saw that her mother had become an Earthbound spirit. She looked almost exactly as she had in life, and I could even hear Auntie talking."
"Auntie said my friend usually stayed cooped up at home all by herself and was very lonely. She hoped I'd take her out to play more often... I didn't dare answer. I pretended I couldn't see her."
"I don't know what would happen if Auntie found out I could see her."
I see.
Amamiya Natsuki nodded slightly.
So Miko's dad was an Earthbound spirit. No wonder he was completely different from the other wandering evil spirits.
It was a shame they didn't know the specifics about Earthbound spirits. Pretending not to see him was the safest choice.
"...Dad."
A soft cry suddenly sounded in his ear.
Amamiya Natsuki looked toward the sound and saw the Chuunibyou girl, Rikka, with slightly reddened eyes and a hazy mist gathering in them.
The Beast-girl vengeful spirit sounded surprised. "She actually called you Dad?"
"Don't make things up," Amamiya Natsuki said helplessly. "Obviously, she wasn't calling me."
"That's not necessarily true." The ghost lady scoffed. "Don't think I don't know that human men like making women call them 'Dad.' There's even something called Daddy live..."
She even knew about Daddy live? She really was a vengeful spirit who kept up with the times and stayed on top of current events!
Amamiya Natsuki asked curiously, "How do you know so much?"
"A human showed up in my ward before. I was bored, so I had her tell me stories." The ghost lady had made it a habit by now. She chewed chives as she mumbled, "That spineless human said she was an author writing a Light novel. I can't quite remember the title, but it was something like Grasping a High School Girl's Weakness in Daddy Live and Forcing Her to Play Dog-Walking Games."
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
Cao Cao waving his sleeve.jpg.
A title that awful would never get past the review process!
Meanwhile.
"Rikka, what's wrong?" Fujiwara Chika asked with concern.
"I want to go home." Takanashi Rikka wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, her cowlick drooping. "Dad must be all alone back in our hometown, waiting for my sister and me to come home."
Fujiwara Chika blinked, then gently stroked the top of Rikka's head. Her voice was tender. "Rikka-chan, don't cry. If you're worried about him, then go home and take a look. Just be sure to stay safe."
"Mom... Earthbound spirit..."
After hearing this information, Shinomiya Kaguya silently pressed her right hand against her chest. Her long eyelashes cast shadows over her pretty face.
"Um... could you give me some food?"
The girl asked timidly.
Shinomiya Kaguya let out a soft breath and turned her face aside. "Amamiya-classmate."
"Got it."
Amamiya Natsuki nodded.
The deal was done. Next came the milking.
The Beast-girl vengeful spirit sat propped up on the hospital bed, chewing chives as she threatened them viciously. "Eighteen times. Eighteen people in total, and you didn't let me rest for even a minute. I've memorized every one of you humans!"
"Sure, sure." Amamiya Natsuki answered perfunctorily. "So, are you going to let me tie a blindfold on you or not?"
"I'm going to eat you!"
"..."
After downing a cup of milk, the player girl's hunger quickly disappeared. She thanked them gratefully and was about to take her leave.
"Wait." Shinomiya Kaguya folded her arms over her chest, her voice cool. "There's one more thing."
"Eh?"
"Describe the 'wardmate' in your room. The more detailed the information, the better."
The player girl looked surprised. "What are you planning to do?"
"Better safe than sorry." Shinomiya Kaguya turned her head slightly toward Fujiwara Chika. "Fujiwara."
"Coming."
Fujiwara Chika had already switched into her secretary role. She went over to the girl and handed her a sheet of paper. "Please go ahead."
The player girl looked down and saw a hand-drawn survey form. It asked for the room number, the identity of the vengeful spirit in the same room, what the vengeful spirit wanted, and what the player suspected about it. The sight left her dazed.
Wasn't this supposed to be a Horror Game?
Everyone else was on edge, struggling to survive. Why did these people have the time to make survey forms?
"Please hurry," Fujiwara Chika kindly reminded her. "The hallway is about to get dark again."
"Sorry."
The player girl instinctively bowed in apology, then took the pen and sat down at the table. With a complicated and subtle feeling, she began filling out the survey.
A short while later.
"I'm done."
She handed over the form with both hands, then quickly took her leave.
Darkness fell.
The door closed, and the trading finally came to an end.
"Finally, I don't have to eat chives anymore." The Beast-girl vengeful spirit lay on her back on the hospital bed, wearing an utterly listless expression, like a toy that was about to break. "I almost threw up."
Don't worry. There was no way she could throw up.
According to the law of conservation of energy, the chives she'd eaten had already been converted into energy.
To be safe, Amamiya Natsuki stayed beside the Beast-girl vengeful spirit to keep watch. On the surface, she seemed completely obedient and had even given up, but she was still a vengeful spirit, so they had to be careful.
If those saw-like teeth bit down on someone, they could probably crush their bones.
"Um, what should we do now?"
Asuka, the second girl to choose to cling to them, raised her right hand and asked quietly.
"Organize the information, analyze the clues, and extract the key elements." Shinomiya Kaguya quickly skimmed the surveys in her hands without looking up. "Information is the most valuable thing. Closing the door and making things up out of thin air is meaningless. Analyzing and organizing a large amount of data is the right way to complete missions."
In fact, all the players who'd come to trade for food had filled out a survey. The forms didn't involve any personal information, so there was no reason to refuse. Many players had even been quite cooperative, hoping that Amamiya Natsuki and the others would come over for a friendly visit.
"Ahem... that makes a lot of sense."
Kujo Asuka coughed awkwardly twice. She didn't understand what they were talking about, but it sounded impressive.
As expected of the big shots. Choosing to cling to them really had been the right decision!
Shinomiya Kaguya read very quickly. She soon finished all the surveys and handed them to Fujiwara Chika. "Everyone, read through them, then tell me what you think."
A decision-maker needed to be decisive.
But before that, it was even more important to listen to everyone's opinions.
"We all have to share our opinions?"
Kujo Asuka felt even more conflicted. Why did this feel like a meeting where a boss was discussing work?
The Horror Game's whole atmosphere was getting more and more bizarre!
A short while later.
"Natsuki-classmate, here." Secretary Fujiwara handed him a stack of surveys. "I've finished reading them."
Amamiya Natsuki took the surveys and began to read through them carefully.
The wardmate described on the first survey was a Succubus.
Dark skin.
Fangs.
A pair of demon wings and a tail on her back.
Very revealing clothes.
Frightening red slit-pupil eyes.
Finally, there was a sentence left by the Unlucky Player:
"—I feel like it wants to eat me, but I'm a girl!"
This Time, She'd Been Thoroughly Drained
"Finished reading." Amamiya Natsuki put down the survey in his hand. "This game really is dangerous."
"Shameless! Hypocrites!"
The Beast-girl vengeful spirit gritted her teeth in fury. "You humans love to lie!"
"Hmm?"
Before you continue