Chapter 59 The Fall into the Well.
Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi all saw the hand in the picture that reached out from the well and clung to the edge of the well.
Immediately afterwards, a second hand appeared and also grabbed the well opening.
The dark environment, the old television set with its dim light that occasionally flickers and displays glitches, the eerie laughter of children, and the image of someone slowly crawling out of a well on the unpowered television... all these elements combined create a truly classic horror movie atmosphere.
At least Tsukino and Chiya, who were in this bedroom, had a premonition that "the situation might not be good."
"ah."
Faced with such a bizarre and terrifying scene, Wang Ma Xiaoji blinked and looked to Qianye for his opinion. There was little sense of urgency in his tone and expression.
"Should we run away? Judging from the way it's acting now... 'this' inside might just crawl out of the TV like Sadako, right? Waaaaaah, how scary! That's the legendary Sadako!"
"this……"
Tsukino and Chiya selectively ignored the performance that followed. He hesitated, but sometimes, hesitation meant that he already had a bias in his heart.
So, seeing the figure in the picture who had climbed most of its body out of the well, Tsukino and Chiya quickly made up their minds: "I plan to stay in the room and see how things go."
This also implies that this is his own plan. If Ohma has other ideas, Tsukino and Chiya will not stop him.
Indeed, the situation looks a bit dangerous. But the "person" in the picture hasn't done anything yet, and the speed at which they climb out of the well can even be described as "slow," so slow that they could take this opportunity to cut their losses and run away before any danger occurs.
After all, judging from the intensity of the illusions they were seeing, they should still be able to see the sun rise tomorrow. Their death wasn't imminent; running away and trying again tomorrow wasn't out of the question.
but--
"Hehe, since you've said something like that, it seems like you and Koyuki are going to take a gamble."
The "person" at the bottom of the well is gradually revealing its form in the picture. It looks like the voice they heard before, it's a child... or more accurately, a "some kind of being" that looks like a child.
It was wearing what looked like a school uniform and generally resembled a normal human figure. However, because the image quality was even worse than the previous two instances, the child's face on the screen was blurry.
Even if they couldn't see the face clearly, the clues they had gathered were enough for Chiya and the others to confirm that the ghost of the Sarayashiki was Chishima Yu.
At this moment, the petite figure, who had completely climbed out of the well, fell heavily onto the messy grass after leaving the well's boundaries, and then lay there motionless.
However, the two people in the bedroom did not let their guard down... although it was not very obvious from their appearance that they were on guard.
Wang Ma Xiaoji habitually put his hands behind his head and began to complain with a half-serious, half-joking smile.
"That's really too much, Kozuki no Kazu—"
"I know what you're thinking. It's true, many people like to pin their hopes on 'maybes' that have no basis whatsoever. It's like knowing the consequences of cheating on an exam, but still risking having your grades canceled and going all in."
"They do this because if they win the gamble, they will get the benefits they want. Those benefits are absolutely tempting, so tempting that they are willing to do it even though they know there is danger. So for Kazuo Kozuki, that's the situation right now."
The child in the video is twitching strangely, as if trying to tame its limbs to crawl out of the dirty pile of weeds. But taming the body is clearly not so simple, so much so that it now appears to be twitching continuously.
"And so am I—"
Wang Ma Xiaoji stretched, as if foreshadowing a classic chase scene from a horror movie, while saying "Hey-hoo" and stretching his arms to the left and right.
"However, rather than choosing to take risks for certain benefits, I would say that I am now choosing the one with greater benefits in two situations where there are also unknown dangers."
Tsukino and Chiya understood and said, "So you've decided to stay too."
"Well, after all, no one can say for sure whether it's more dangerous to escape or stay here. In the end, the idea that staying here would be dangerous is just our guess. It's just that the classic 'Ring' movie is so deeply ingrained in people's minds. Maybe the scene on TV right now is no different from the previous two, and the 'person' in it won't even crawl out of the TV."
"Perhaps quite the opposite."
Wang Ma Xiaoji put a finger to his lips, seemingly to match the eerie atmosphere of the room, and lowered his voice as if he were telling a ghost story.
"What if I run away now, only to encounter some strange creature that I can't defeat or outrun, and I end up dying? I've been given a second chance at life, I don't want to die!"
Rarely seen again...?
Before Tsukino and Chiya could think about it, they heard Ohma Kokichi continue speaking.
"So in terms of danger, both sides are actually about the same, the situation is unknown. Or rather, since Kozuki is in the bedroom, it might actually be safer? Because even if you are willing to take risks for profit, the scope of risk should generally be within your own capabilities."
"Just like someone who cheats on an exam is confident they won't get caught in the exam hall, my organization members also act within their capabilities when doing bad things. For example, even if they rob a bank and then deposit all the money back, even if there are some risks, it's all within our control."
"So, the reason Kozuki is staying here is not because she foolishly gambles on the idea of 'what if,' but because she is confident that she can escape unscathed even if she encounters danger, right? Hmm, considering her previous two experiences, even when facing a monster face-to-face, it's not a completely insurmountable dead end. In that case... Oh? It's coming."
As if finally realizing it couldn't stand up on its own, the humanoid figure in the picture gave up standing and crawled towards the camera using only its hands.
Is it coming?
Halfway up the mountain, the strange creature suddenly stretched out its right hand towards the camera.
As it made this move, the camera suddenly went blank, followed by an eye that took up the entire screen.
A pair of eyes, bloodshot and wide open to a terrifying degree, seemed to be staring intently at the two people in the bedroom, as if they were looking through the screen.
"Is it hidden well?"
The instant I heard that familiar voice and those words coming from the television—
The floor beneath their feet suddenly became ethereal, and the sense of solid ground vanished. Under the influence of gravity, the two of them fell down simultaneously.
******
The bizarre is truly a being that is both reasonable and unreasonable.
They are reasonable because sometimes their actions and thoughts are surprisingly simple, while they are unreasonable because their abilities and the impact of those abilities are always unexpected.
"Pfft...cough cough cough cough!!"
Suddenly, a wet, purple head emerged from the calm water.
Wang Ma Xiaoji shook his head violently like a drowning animal trying to shake off the water, coughing up the water that had gotten into his mouth when he fell in. Then, unusually disheveled, he wiped his face with his hand, and after quickly wiping the water off, he opened his eyes and looked around at his surroundings.
"Cough cough cough...Where is this..."
By the moonlight, Wang Ma Xiaoji could barely make out the surrounding scenery.
The water wasn't very deep, but it did help him avoid injury when he fell in.
This is... inside the well.
Wang Ma Xiaoji reached out and touched the inner wall of the well, immediately feeling a cool, damp sensation.
Actually, before he fell into the well... his hands were grabbed by Tsukino and Chiya.
That was the black-haired boy's immediate action the moment he fell... it could be described as subconscious, and his reaction was incredibly quick.
Was it because of that vague and unfounded promise? No... actually, it's because, given the uncertainty of what might happen, it's better for the two of us to stay together than to separate, right?
However, with decentralization now a reality, these things are no longer important.
Wang Ma Xiaoji looked up. Through the well opening, which was still quite a distance away, he saw one or two stars.
Given this height... and the fact that there's no ladder inside the well, and the well walls are exceptionally smooth and damp, it's highly unlikely that one could climb up by hand.
If Kazuo Kozue were carrying a backpack full of various items, he might very well be able to pull himself out of the water.
But right now there doesn't seem to be any way to contact Kozuki Kazuha... his phone? Although he took the phone from her, he casually put it on the bed afterwards.
However, since he had arrived at the well so easily, Wang Ma Xiaoji wanted to verify one of his conjectures.
"Oh dear—this is a terrible situation. Isn't this putting us in a completely passive position? Well, complaining won't solve anything now."
"If it's a plot from The Ring, then it should be searchable... Okay! Let me see if that's the case~"
Wang Ma Xiaoji reached out and groped around underwater.
Not long after, his movements paused slightly.
"Oh dear... I think I've found it."
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