After receiving the commission from Nangong Nayue, Ai Li left the school during the school break, leaving Nagisa and the others to be taken care of by Setsuna, and took the train to the 12th artificial island.

While on the train, Ellie took this opportunity to investigate the information about artificial island No. 12.

According to intelligence, the No. 12 artificial island was built by a chaebol called the Tong Tiao Group, mainly for psychological research and mental treatment. Therefore, compared with other artificial islands, this artificial island has a lot less modern atmosphere, and its main theme is "healing the soul in the countryside and nature."

However, ten years ago, an accident occurred in the research institute of the Kirijo Foundation, causing a large number of casualties. After that, the entire institute was closed and the entire artificial island was in a semi-abandoned state. Because there were no developers, the current artificial island No. 12 feels more like a rural area of ​​​​Genjin Island. At present, the No. 12 artificial island has long lost its original function and is mainly responsible for agricultural work such as crop cultivation.

This cooperation notice came from the Iwatodai branch of the 12th artificial island. According to the intelligence passed on, three serial murders have occurred so far. The victims were a TV host, a convenience store worker and a director of the 12th artificial island.

There were no witnesses in the three cases, and the police did not find any traces of the criminals at the scene. There was also no trace of magic, curses, super powers, etc. However, the tragic death of the deceased did not look like suicide, so the Iwatodai branch asked the artificial island management company for assistance, hoping that the magician could come to investigate.

As for the "late-night TV" ghost story, according to intelligence, it appeared after the first victim, the TV host, disappeared. According to discussions on websites and forums, everyone at the time believed that it was because the female host died with her eyes open that such a supernatural event occurred.

As for the second convenience store worker who died, she was interviewed by a TV host before her death. According to information from her classmates, some of them saw the worker on TV, and then she disappeared the next day. Her body was found on a rainy night the day after her disappearance.

The third deceased was the director of the 12th artificial island. After investigation, it was discovered that he had an improper underground relationship with the first deceased. In other words, as of now, the strange story of "Late Night TV" mainly revolves around the female host.

Of course, if that was the case, it wouldn't be surprising. Many urban legends have similar stories, such as someone dies unjustly, and then some strange things happen, and it's not surprising to find a few scapegoats. But this time, since professionals have been sent to investigate, they still didn't find any signs of curses or magic... This is very strange.

"Um……?"

Just as Ellie was looking up the information, suddenly, she noticed a blue light from the corner of her eye. Ellie raised her head and looked to the left, and saw a butterfly with blue wings flying around in the carriage. It flapped its wings and flew from one side of the carriage to the other, and then gradually disappeared.

“…”

Looking at the blue butterfly, Ellie narrowed her eyes, thought for a moment, and then looked away again.

At the same time, the train broadcast sounded in her ears.

"I'm very sorry, dear passengers. Due to route reasons, the travel time has been greatly disrupted, causing inconvenience to all passengers. I would like to express my sincere apologies again..."

It was already late at night when Ellie arrived at the tram stop on the 12th artificial island.

"I never expected that the train would be late on my rare trip. I would have chosen not to take it if I had known."

After getting off the tram, Ai Li stretched and complained. Because this case was more complicated and she needed to investigate some intelligence, Ai Li chose to take the tram instead of traveling by broom as usual. After all, she didn't want to look at her phone and bump into a telephone pole, which would be embarrassing.

There seemed to be few people coming and going on the No. 12 artificial island on weekdays. There were only a few people in the late-night tram. They walked out of the tram and hurriedly walked towards the exit. Ai Li looked around and then came to the security room of the station.

"Hello, I'm the magician Xiao Aili, I have something I want to ask you."

"Ah, hello, Miss Magician."

Seeing the license that Ai Li showed in front of him, the guard who was on duty in the security room immediately became restrained - for people like them from the "countryside", magic attackers are like FBI agents, and they are the kind of people that only appear in movies and legends.

"What do you want to ask?"

"Have you heard about that rumor about 'Late Night TV'?"

"Ah, this matter..."

Hearing this, the guards also clapped their hands.

"Of course, people outside may not know this, but 'Late Night TV' is very famous here. To be honest, I have seen it before."

"oh?"

Hearing this, Ellie narrowed her eyes and glanced at the small TV in the duty room - this was also why she asked the tram station guard. Compared to ordinary people, people who often work night shifts are obviously more likely to watch late-night TV.

"Can you tell me more about this?"

As she spoke, Ai Li took out a recorder, and the latter nodded.

"Yes, no problem. I remember it very clearly. It was a rainy night. I was on night shift. The TV was playing my favorite TV series "Goemon". Halfway through, there was a sudden power outage, probably because of thunder. I suspected that it was a circuit breaker. Just when I was about to check the circuit breaker, the TV suddenly lit up..."

Recalling the scene at that time, the guard seemed a little nervous and uneasy.

"I didn't think much of it at the time, I thought it was a phone call... But at that time... the content on TV was very strange..."

"What exactly is it?"

"Uh...I can't really explain it."

The guard shook his head.

"To be honest, the picture on TV was very blurry. It looked like it was filmed in a heavy fog. I could only see a figure dancing in it. It looked funny and a little exaggerated... Then I remembered that there was a power outage and the TV couldn't be turned on at all..."

"Then what?"

“That’s all for the first night.”

Faced with Ellie's questioning, the guard shook his head.

"Then, on the second rainy night, out of curiosity, I turned off the TV as the urban legend said, and then waited until about two o'clock in the morning, when the TV came on again. This time I saw the figure clearly. It was a girl, not very old, probably a high school student. She seemed to be performing a show..."

"programme?"

"Yeah, it was a bit like a variety show. I saw a stage and an audience, and then she was yelling there, and then the show was over... Then the next day, I heard that the girl died..."

At this point, the guard's face turned pale. If it were in the outside world, this kind of thing would have been laughed off long ago, but precisely because it happened in the Demon Special Zone, it was credible enough.

"Everyone said that late-night TV was a curse on the female host of the TV station. Because she was dumped by the director, she committed suicide out of resentment and then used late-night TV to take revenge on everyone..."

"That is to say, only when the TV is turned off can you see that weird program. If the TV is turned on, you can't see it, right?"

"That's right."

"very good."

Ellie lowered her head, sorted out the records, then looked at the guard again and asked.

"Then I have another question..."

However, Ellie stopped talking before she could finish her words.

Because at this moment, what stood in front of Ellie was no longer the burly guard just now, but a pitch-black hexagonal coffin, which stood upright on the ground, motionless.

“…”

It was not until this time that Ellie realized that the electrical appliances around her seemed to have stopped working. She glanced at her mobile phone and saw that the time displayed on it was exactly midnight.

The bright moonlight shone in through the window, painting the entire room a bleak green color. If you look closely, you can see blood seeping out from the corners and cracks around it. It feels like a very scary haunted house.

What's going on?

Ellie took two steps back and looked at the coffin in front of her carefully. Then she turned around and walked out of the security room. At this moment, there was no one in the station. When she walked to the exit, Ellie found that the street in front of her was also empty. On the contrary, there were only a few black coffins standing on the street, which looked quite creepy.

"From what happened just now, have the people on this artificial island turned into coffins?"

Ellie walked over to a black coffin and took a closer look.

"The guard didn't tell me that this would happen, and the intelligence I found didn't show anything similar. That is to say, the person who turned into a coffin wouldn't have any perception of it, and wouldn't have any memory of it. Why wasn't this abnormality mentioned in the previous report? Could it be because the members of the branch didn't feel it either?"

While muttering to herself, Ai Li raised her head and looked at the night sky in front of her.

Under the night sky, a huge moon appeared above. Under the moonlight, the entire artificial island No. 12 seemed to be shrouded by some unknown curse, emitting a deathly aura similar to that of a cemetery. Not only that, Ellie could also feel that in this darkness, there was also some kind of frenzied and violent aura hidden.

"It's really a bit weird..."