LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 51: Chapter 51: A Small Nightmare from a First-Person Perspective, Like It?
Chapter 51: A Small Nightmare from a First-Person Perspective, Like It?
Step by step, Kaguya cautiously entered the hallway ahead.
Maki followed closely behind Kaguya, carefully observing their surroundings while closing the door behind them tightly to prevent anything from sneaking in through the open door.
Both girls were fully aware that stepping into this place meant they might not survive to come back out.
Thus, before the situation could worsen, they needed to gather as much useful information and clues as possible.
"This place looks like the second-floor hallway," Maki whispered to Kaguya.
"Don't talk now. There might be something here that 'triggers' through sound. Use signals," Kaguya gestured with her hand to remind Maki. Seeing Maki nod, she continued forward.
Takakai silently observed the surroundings through the perspective of the doll. He had called Sun Dajun, Green, and Mameir back to the room. Since he couldn't be certain whether anything would go wrong, he needed all three of them there to ensure Maeda Miwa could adjust time by turning the clock if necessary.
At the same time, Takakai prepared himself mentally to disconnect from the doll at any moment, halting his observation of room 304.
However, at least for now, he didn't sense anything unusual. Perhaps because he was observing through an Obsession, its properties somewhat prevented the curse from spreading?. But how long this Obsession's effect would last, Takakai wasn't sure—he could only hope it would hold out as long as possible.
At this moment, Kaguya, leading the way, had reached the end of the hallway.
Turning the corner, an unbelievably massive room appeared before her eyes.
It felt as though she had entered a giant's kingdom.
Sky-high tables, boots as large as trucks, and scattered grains of rice on the floor the size of basketballs.
A glance across the room revealed no visible end in sight.
No, this wasn't right.
This room—it was a room magnified to an absurd scale!
The bizarre and incredible sight left Kaguya stunned in place. But moments later, Maki grabbed her by the collar from behind and pulled her back into the hallway they had just come from.
A pair of giant feet, clad in slippers, stepped onto the floor, causing a faint tremor in the ground.
Next came the ominous voice of a woman echoing in the ears of the two girls.
"Looks like there are mice in the house again..."
In the low, droning sound, the giant feet slowly moved, revealing the face of an old woman. She wore a filthy apron, tattered clothes, a face covered in blemishes, disheveled hair, and crooked, broken teeth.
The woman held a large bowl, mumbling something under her breath as she slowly moved about the room.
"Again? Where's the wine?"
From the other side of the table, a man's irritated voice rang out.
Kaguya and Maki heard the loud crash of a porcelain bowl slammed onto the table. Moments later, a wine bottle rolled off the table, shattering with a resounding crash, shards scattering everywhere.
"Want wine? Want wine? Why break things?"
The woman's voice turned annoyed immediately after.
"Enough talking, bring the wine over!"
The man's voice instantly grew more enraged, resembling a furious beast on the verge of snapping.
"Wine, wine, wine, all you care about is drinking all day!"
The woman's footsteps slowly approached. She bent down, opened a cardboard box placed against the wall, took out a golden beer bottle, and threw it toward the man.
The scene before them seemed like nothing more than a typical family with a "less-than-harmonious" relationship.
If not for their absurdly towering heights and exaggerated physiques, Kaguya and Maki might have found the scene dull. However, in their current situation, they had to remain extremely vigilant and carefully consider how to handle the unfolding events.
"This must be what Kai-kun mentioned—the phenomenon of [Memory Reenactment] in Sanchez's journal. In this room, the family from Room 304 continuously replays a memory from their past, like a film looping endlessly. We can't let them notice us. Although these two appear to be following a script, the moment they spot us, the situation will undoubtedly change," Maki quickly explained her thoughts to Kaguya through hand signals and eye contact.
"I understand. The issue now is, where should we go? If this is Room 304, then what we're looking for must be somewhere inside this house."
Kaguya calmly responded, using gestures and glances to communicate. The pace of their exchange gradually quickened.
From Takakai's perspective, the two looked like ninjas practicing hand seals at lightning speed.
The exit of the narrow hallway now appeared as a "mouse hole" at the edge of the gigantic house.
To the right of the "mouse hole" was a large dining table against the wall, with three massive chairs and a small stool around it. The man sat in the chair farthest from the hole, seemingly drinking while staring at the TV in the room. However, from Kaguya and Maki's view, the TV was merely a static-filled screen, broadcasting nothing at all.
Further to the right, closer to the wall, there was an old water dispenser in the corner, alongside a low chair—both of which could serve as cover. Beyond that lay a pathway leading to the bedroom.
Farther away, in a corner of the wall, there was a box containing liquor bottles. At intervals, the woman cleaning the living room floor would take a bottle from the box to hand to the man amidst his cursing. Then, she would mop the floor in the area from the main door to near the old TV before heading to the semi-open kitchen opposite the "mouse hole" to rinse the mop. Afterward, she would resume her routine.
Though they appeared human, these two figures were essentially hollow shells replaying a fragment of the past. After observing for a while, Maki and Kaguya identified their movement patterns and derived predictable trajectories.
"Let's try the bedroom first. Those two don't enter there, so it might be a temporary safe zone for searching. From there, it's also easier to access the kitchen. Move along the left wall, using available cover. As long as we time it right, we can avoid being spotted by those two," Kaguya suggested before quickly taking action. Seizing the moment when the woman turned her back, she slipped into the gap behind the water dispenser.
Without hesitation, Maki followed and hid alongside Kaguya.
"Don't block my TV! Damn it, do you have to mop the floor right when I'm watching TV?"
The man cursed again.
"Alright, alright, I won't block it anymore. Keep your voice down, don't wake the kid," the woman replied in an almost lifeless tone, muttering as she shuffled back a bit to continue mopping near the main door.
At this point, Kaguya and Maki had advanced further, hiding behind the low stool and using its legs as cover to conceal their position.
This feeling… it was like a scene straight out of Little Nightmares in first-person view.
From Takakai's perspective, observing everything through the doll, he was sweating profusely and couldn't help but let out a remark about the current situation.
Room 304 had inexplicably transformed into a massive, bizarre house. The two gigantic figures endlessly repeated fragments of their dialogue from before their deaths, while the two small girls carefully maneuvered, avoiding the gaze of entities long dead.
The gaze…
Takakai felt a gaze.
Through the doll's perspective, it was unmistakable—a distinct sense of being watched, coming from somewhere.
The doll perched on Maki's shoulder slowly turned its head, looking back toward the mouse hole from which the two girls had just emerged.
And then, Takakai saw it—a faint silhouette standing in the mouse hole's entrance, silently watching him from afar.
Tick.
A drop of hot liquid fell onto Takakai's face, burning his skin and making him recoil in pain.
Sitting on the sofa in the second-floor living room, he looked up—and saw an inverted figure standing on the ceiling. Its head was twisted at an almost broken angle, staring directly at him.
The core curse of Room 304 had once again fixed its chilling gaze upon him.
Back at the doll's location, Kaguya took a deep breath before suddenly darting out from behind the low stool, sprinting toward the bedroom door.
At the same time, the woman's muttering voice slowly echoed again:
"There's a mouse in the house… again…"