Chapter 101
Translated by X-treme
Edited by X-treme
C101: Games, Horror, and Me
After dinner, I went back to my room to play with Destiny and take some pictures, but when I picked up my phone, the lamp was glowing.
“Oh, so I got a call before I went to bed…”
When I hurriedly turned on my phone to see if it might be an extra job, I found out that the caller was……Makoto. What is it? Is it about work, or is it related to the “Village of Destiny”? Either way, I’ll know if I ask, right? I selected his name from the list of contacts, which was no more than two digits, and tapped it.
“Hello, I just saw that you called me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to bother you. I wanted to talk to you about the village we talked about earlier.”
Well, I remember bringing up the topic during a break at work. I guess I casually mentioned where everyone was as one of the topics to kill time. The president and Ms. Misaki had never heard of it, but Mr. Yamamoto knew about the old days and the video distributor, so we had a good time with it.
“Oh, that story.”
“Since then, I’ve been interested in it, so I looked into it. Some of my friends in the game loved that kind of story. So I heard some information that caught my attention. I’ll send the link to your PC.”
I received the data from Makoto on my new PC. Five addresses were displayed, and I clicked on the top one. This was the same video distribution site with the suspicious title.
“It seems that there are a lot of video distributors who take advantage of that video because it went viral, and most of them are just wandering around unrelated places with random speculation, but can you take a look at the last one I just sent?”
“The bottom one?”
I clicked on it and saw [Finally found! That village!] in red bold letters that filled up most of the screen.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be the same as the other one, but the entrance to the tunnel looks exactly like it.”
To make it easier to understand, he pasted a video clip of a scene from a popular video. If I compare them side by side, they look like the same place.
“I think I’ve hit the jackpot.”
“Yes, it is. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but the video goes all the way through a pitch-black tunnel and ends with a scream as soon as you exit the tunnel. I checked his other videos, but the part where he mentioned the location had blown up the sound and the image was distorted, so I couldn’t find the location.”
“I see. If this is really a promotion for a movie, I’m impressed. I’m starting to want to see the movie.”
If it entertained me this much, I think it’s worth watching even if the content of the film is dull.
“Well, um, apparently it’s not for the purpose of promoting a movie, so, um, can you take a look at this too?”
The next thing I saw was an exchange on an internet forum. It was also this—
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that will help you out.”
The main purpose of “the forum ” is to collect information about the game, but there are also threads for just talking about useless things. This was one of them, an uninspired thread titled [Is there anything interesting in the game or in real life lately?]
It’s such a popular topic. I’m not surprised that it’s being talked about on the forums, but the fact that Makoto took the trouble to tell me about it makes me wonder if there’s something…..about it. I thought it would be quicker to read the article than to question it, so I read through the contents displayed on the screen.
278: Do you have anything interesting to say?
279: Let the village grow.
280: Now that it’s in a stable period, it’s just peaceful. It seems to be a very remote area, and even the evil gods aren’t coming after it, which is a good thing!
281: If you’re bored, watch a video.
282: Could that be that? It’s a horror-like thing that went to some village.
283: Iryu-Mujin-Village, right? That was really well done, wasn’t it?
From there, they talked about the video for a while.
378: There’s something strange about this village that bothers me.
379: What, you too? It’s the same for me. It’s not just a rumor, it’s something that’s bothering me.
380: I want to say no……but I understand.
381: You know, maybe it’s because of the name of this village.
382: That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?
This was a bit of a thought for me too. When I first saw the name of the village, that was the first thing I thought of. The name of the village fit the situation of the God we were playing. I wanted to dismiss it as a coincidence, but when I remembered all the events I had been involved in, I couldn’t do it.
383: Stories are more interesting when they’re told in an exaggerated way, so let’s assume that’s what’s going on!
384: I’m on board with that!
385: So, if you think it’s related to the game we’re playing, what is that village…..?
386: Could it be that players from the evil god side are secretly living there?
387: ……Maybe there are? If they want to abuse the power of miracles, it would be more convenient for players to cooperate with each other.
388: It’s rumored that players over there are all dirty with money. I wonder if they’re running some kind of shady company there and using it as a front.
389: But if that were the case, would you name a village after such an easily associated name?
“Oh, 384 and 390 is me!”
I hear a happy voice from the other side of my phone.
“That’s a good question.”
In fact, it was a question I had, too. If they’re going to be secretive, what’s the point of naming the village? Why would we, the players, give it a name that would ring a bell?…………Maybe?
391: Isn’t it more like an invitation?
392: Who are they inviting?
393: Well, you know, the players on the Lord God side.
394: For what purpose?
395: To make it easier to attack us in the game, to capture and imprison players who went there?
There was a player from the evil side who actually attacked me for real. I can’t ignore this hypothesis. Is it possible that players from the evil side are really involved?
396: We’ve been having a lot of fun hypothetically, but there’s no evidence, it’s all speculation.
397: Well, there’s no way to find out. Unless you go to the……site.
398: Someone should go. I’m definitely not going.
399: Then I’ll go.
400: No, I’ll take care of it.
401: I’ll take care of this.
402: You thought I was going to say……didn’t you? Stop this trend!
They seem to be having a light-hearted and fun conversation, but what is this buzzing in my chest? As a person who has experienced real attacks many times, I can’t laugh at this conversation.
403: I can’t help it. Do you want me to perform a miracle for you?
404: Oh, really? But is there such a thing as a convenient miracle?
405: You’re just lying to get attention, aren’t you?
406: You can’t lie on this forum, so I guess not.
407: My miracle is called “clairvoyance”. I can’t see inside buildings, but I can see into any distant place as long as I know where it is.
408: Ooh……isn’t that the same as Google Maps?
409: Don’t put them together! I can see into the most inaccessible places.
410: That’s a satellite photo……
411: I’m not going to do it for you.
412: No, no, no. I played a little too hard. But, you know, how do we find out where it is?
413: Does clairvoyance has to be used in an exact location?
414: Well, if you know the general location, you might be able to find it by searching the sky.
415: I’ll take care of that. That’s where my miracle of exploration comes in. I’ll explain, the more accurate the information about what you want to find out, the better your detection ability will be and the more you can find out where it is!
Damn, I wish I could have been a part of this conversation in real time. Players working together in using miracles is a hot development.
434: Not yet. Hey, not yet.
435: Don’t rush me. I just finished. It’s pointing to the sea pretty far south in Wakayama Prefecture. It’s quite far from the main island, so I know it looks like……island. Sorry, this seems to be the limit with the information I have.
436: OK, that’s all I need to know. It might take a while, but I’m going to try to scour the island.
437: I just looked it up on Google, and all the islands in Wakayama Prefecture are close to land. Are there any in remote areas?
438: It’s pretty far south of Wakayama Prefecture, right? Hmm, islands, islands, islands.
The other players cooperated in looking for it, but in the end, they couldn’t find it and the game seemed to be over. I heard that players who can use “clairvoyant” will continue to search for it, so let’s hope for the future.
However, I hadn’t imagined that the topic would be connected like this. Is there some kind of conspiracy going on behind the scenes? If so, what are the evil gods thinking?
“What do you think, Yoshio?”
“That was an interesting story. If there really is an island and the players on the evil side are playing tricks on it, it could be quite a big deal, so I’ll look into it myself.”
Hopefully I can tell the God of Destiny and get some information. From there, Makoto and I talked about work and small things, then I thanked him and hung up the call.
“I thought it was deep in the mountains, but it’s an island.”
I had assumed that the location of Iryu Mujin Village was somewhere in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, but I had lost sight of the possibility of an uninhabited or remote island. If it was an island, it would make sense that it would be hard to find.
When it comes to gathering information on the evil god side, there is one person I know of. But I don’t want to get involved with him, and I don’t know what he’ll demand of me if I owe him anything. If I had to use him, it would be as a last resort.
I turned my attention to the old computer screen to take a look at the village to rest my head, and there – I saw a familiar scene that looked like the entrance to a tunnel.
“What?”