Beep, beep, beep...
The ringing finally stopped.
"Hey, Meng Fan."
"Calling me out of the blue to invite me to a movie?" Natsume Fan Zhi asked with a laugh on the other end.
"That's right. Where are you? I'll pick you up."
"No need. I've already seen your movie. I was the one who voiced Freddy."
"If you won't come for the movie, you could come see me." Meng Fan had never actually intended to invite Natsume Fan Zhi to watch a movie. If he came, what awaited him wasn't a seat in the theater, but an interrogation room in the second layer of the dream.
"See you? I just saw you yesterday. What you really want to ask is whether I've watched the other video, right?"
"You're pretty sharp. Then tell me the truth. Lying comes at a price, you know."
"I watched it." No sooner had Natsume Fan Zhi said that than he hurried to explain, "But I closed it as soon as Makima appeared, because I knew you must have sent me the wrong video."
"You're really that quick on the uptake?"
"The opening was unmistakably your dream space. Makima appearing in your dream couldn't be anything simple. Add in how strangely she's been acting lately, and I could guess that the video recorded whatever caused her abnormal behavior."
"Good thing you caught on fast. But I'll still test you first the next time we meet. You'd better be ready."
"Whatever makes you happy. Anyway, I happen to have something to discuss with you too."
"What is it?"
"Do you remember that Baseball Man from the Moore Family?"
"Of course."
"He wants the Gluttony Devil's corpse, and he'll pay whatever price you name."
It wasn't just the residents of Osaka who had suffered at the Gluttony Devil's