Unknown

Li Xue looked up again, her gaze falling on Tang Yao. The slender, fair fingers holding the drawing were white at the knuckles from gripping too tightly.

But Tang Yao didn't look at her, instead idly scrolling through her phone.

Presumably, she found Li Xue's pace too slow.

"..."

Li Xue swallowed hard, then glanced at Tang Yao's beautiful profile, before looking down at the drawing of Uzumaki kissing. She reread it twice but still couldn't figure out the connection between the two.

Just like she couldn't understand the reason for the Uzumaki's appearance in the plot.

However.

However.

Even without a cause, she still felt fear.

The fear came somewhat inexplicably, perhaps from the realistic art style, or perhaps from the bizarre plot.

In short, the impending sense of doom, built up to the appearance of the Uzumaki, finally erupted.

That gloomy, ambiguous, and indescribable feeling completely enveloped her, yet also captivated her.

Although she was frantically asking herself what kind of crazy development this was.

Deep down, she desperately wanted to know what happened next.

So what the hell was this!?

Li Xue thought for a moment, calmed her nerves slightly, and turned to the next page.

The continuation.

She really wanted to know what happened next.

In the manga.

Kazuko, after witnessing the bizarre scene with her own eyes, ran all the way to the police station to report the situation. The police accompanied her to the woods, found nothing, and told her she was dreaming.

At the original spot, there was nothing. The Uzumaki had vanished.

A hallucination?

Seeing this page, Li Xue breathed a slight sigh of relief... As expected, Tang Yao must have been using the grotesque imagery to depict the character's psychological state.

After all, she didn't seem like the type of person who would draw strange manga.

Even though it was already bold, it was just bold.

Yeah.

Li Xue couldn't tell if she was disappointed or relieved, and continued to flip the pages.

In the manga, time jumped to the next day. On her way home from school, Kazuko was telling a few friends about the bizarre event from the previous night.

Her friends, of course, also thought she was dreaming.

And as they were discussing the matter.

Unbeknownst to them, a few black dots began to drift in the clear sky...

Among them, one female companion pointed to the sky and said the black dots looked like balloons.

Upon hearing this, Kazuko looked up sharply and saw the black dots in the sky approaching. They were indeed balloons...

One, two, three, four!

There were four in total.

Except, they weren't ordinary balloons, but... Uzumaki!

The floating, inflated heads perfectly matched the four of them, looking exactly like them. However, in their balloon forms, their expressions were ferocious, and from the neck down, they had no bodies, only nooses... nooses for hanging.

The four Uzumaki rapidly approached the four girls. The ropes hanging from the bottom of the Uzumaki lunged straight at them, as if to loop around their necks.

The four girls immediately screamed in terror. Two of them couldn't dodge in time and were directly dragged up by the balloons bearing their faces, hanging dead in the air.

Li Xue: "!!!!!"

Her page-turning speed paused again. She straightened her back, took a deep breath, and forcefully suppressed her rollercoaster of emotions before continuing to flip the pages.

Ultimately, because they were being chased by their own Uzumaki, in a panic, Kazuko and her only remaining classmate quickly hid in an alley.

The Uzumaki were too large to enter immediately.

But they still floated at the entrance, staring intently at them.

Just then, a resident on the second floor of a building in the alley heard the screams. They opened the window, spotted the Uzumaki, and also screamed in terror, yelling "monster!" Then, they hurriedly ran inside, grabbed a crossbow, and shot an arrow directly at one of the Uzumaki.

Pfft--

With a hissing sound of deflating.

The hit Uzumaki's expression turned to terror as it shouted loudly. Just like a balloon being popped, it visibly deflated at an alarming rate.

Seeing this, Kazuko, while shocked, slowly let out a sigh of relief. As if liberated, she turned to her only remaining companion and said, "That's great, that balloon ran out of air."

Only.

She didn't get a reply from her companion.

Turning her head to look.

The only classmate left beside her had a head that, like a popped balloon, rapidly deflated. Muscles vanished, bones dissolved, skin lost its elasticity, and finally became 'flaky,' like shriveled rubber...

"!!!!!!!!!"

Li Xue squeezed the manuscript again with all her might, her beautiful eyes widening as she watched the heads deflate like balloons. The sight made her feel utterly awful!!!

At this moment.

She finally understood why this manga was drawn in a realistic style!!!

Under the realistic art style, the characters in the manga looked too normal. And because they looked so normal, when their heads truly deflated like balloons, the impact, fear, and horror generated were unprecedentedly strong!

Because the more normal it looked, the more real it felt, and the subsequent collapse brought about a more shocking visual experience.

Li Xue stared at the impactful scene in the manga, her heart racing. After a full minute of stunned silence, she turned to the next page.

And even more shocking things were yet to come.

In the manga, the female protagonist, Kazuko, saw her friend's tragic state and ran home in a panic.

On the road, she saw countless Uzumaki floating upwards – her own, her parents', her younger brother Yosuke's, her teacher's, her neighbors'... they almost obscured the entire sky.

Under the realistic art style.

Countless Uzumaki floated, with nooses tied to their lower ends, filling the entire sky.

A grand spectacle of horrific revelry, developing from a single spark into a massive horror party... unfolded in an instant.

The plot also began to head in a frantic direction... sprinting wildly!!

The manga world descended into chaos. Kazuko finally escaped home, but her family sat restlessly inside, the entire town seemingly helpless.

The TV host reported precautions, but in the next second, was hanged by their own Uzumaki.

And the situation at Kazuko's home gradually deteriorated. Her father, even in this situation, wanted to go to work, believing he would be fine as long as he protected his neck. Little did he know, as soon as he stepped out, he was lifted by his neck and arm, ascending with the countless Uzumaki in the sky.

Next was the female protagonist's younger brother. Since there was no food at home and no one went out to find any, he would die eventually.

So, the younger brother took a sharp umbrella, vowing to stab any Uzumaki that dared to approach, and walked out the door.

But as soon as he stepped out, he encountered his own Uzumaki.

Finally, it was the female protagonist's mother. Distraught by the prolonged absence of her husband and son, she rushed out of the house and never returned.

In the manga, more and more people were hanged. The entire world was filled with bloated Uzumaki, the world seemed to be collapsing.

No.

It had already collapsed!

And the manga's timeline returned to the beginning.

'Knock, knock, knock.'

Someone was knocking on the window.

Kazuko huddled in the corner of the room, trembling, covered in cold sweat, her face filled with terror.

Because she lived on the second floor... the only thing that could knock on the window was an Uzumaki!

Her parents hadn't returned, and her brother, who had gone to find food, hadn't returned either. She didn't know their situation, whether they had escaped successfully or failed... In any case, she was now alone in the house.

She wearily hid by the desk, listening to the sounds of knocking on the window and calling out, nearing madness... but no one came to save her!

And just then... suddenly, Kazuko heard her brother's urgent voice from outside the window.

Her brother told her he had found food and urged her to open the window quickly.

Hunger, fear, and a near-broken female protagonist heard her brother's voice and, like grasping at a life-saving straw, immediately went to the window.

However, she was still holding onto her last thread of composure and didn't rush to open the window. Instead, she began to observe.

Outside the window, a gaunt figure was faintly reflected... it didn't look like an Uzumaki. It really looked like her brother...

Kazuko felt as if she had been granted a great pardon and immediately opened the window.

But...

After opening the window, what appeared before her was only her brother's corpse.

His body was hanging in front of the window, pierced by the umbrella he had brought out. The umbrella's metal frame was deeply embedded in his abdomen. His tongue was sticking out, his death gruesome.

A noose was around his neck, and tied to the upper end of the noose was her brother's Uzumaki.

He hung his own body, looking at his sister who had opened the window, and said, "Sister, thank you for opening the window for me..."

And beside him, Kazuko's own Uzumaki grinned.

At the same time, the noose tied to its tail flew towards the female protagonist.

...The End.

..."..."

The story ended abruptly, with no explanation of the outcome, leaving it entirely to the reader's imagination.

A perfectly placed blank space, leaving a hint of thoughtfulness.

The entire story had no beginning, no end, and no indication of what the future held.

This was not at all! It wasn't about using bizarre imagery to depict a character's psychological state! It was a complete horror unfolding... a horrific carnival!

Li Xue's red lips parted slightly, and she stared blankly at the final scene. Then, her delicate body trembled violently, and she froze in place, feeling as if she had fallen into an unknown terror.