Simultaneous traversal: All Abyss difficulty.

Chapter 373 The Immortal Kayako, Fang Yu's Response

On the outskirts of Kyoto, an old inn called "Matsuha" stands quietly in the night.

Kenta Sato, the hotel owner's son, is an ordinary high school student. He is introverted and has few friends.

His only hobby was sneaking into empty hotel rooms after school and rummaging through items left behind by guests.

That evening, Kenta, as usual, took the spare key and opened the extra-large "Room 404" at the far end of the second floor, a room that had been unoccupied for a long time.

"I heard that three strange Chinese guests stayed in this room last week and left a lot of big jars here. They were later taken away in a big truck," Kenta muttered to himself as he pushed open the door.

The room smelled musty, and the sheets were in disarray. He casually opened a drawer and found an old VHS videotape inside.

The cover features a blue-skinned, eye-rolling, dead child.

The title was prominently displayed on the brat's face. Kenta pouted and said dismissively, "The Curse?"

Kenta scoffed, "That's an old-fashioned horror movie formula. Did those middle-aged men and women in China actually watch this kind of stuff in their rooms last week?"

However, out of curiosity, he still stuffed the videotape into his backpack.

That night, Kenta sneaked into the audiovisual room and played the videotape on an old-fashioned projector.

The scene begins with a blurry, static-filled image, followed by a slow, zooming-in view of a dilapidated Japanese-style house...

"That's it?" Kenta yawned, about to turn it off, when suddenly—

"Giggle..."

A strange laugh came from the speakers, as if someone was laughing close to his ear.

Kenta turned around abruptly, only to find that he was the only one in the audiovisual room.

When I looked at the screen again, the picture had changed!
A pale-faced woman is crawling out of the television!
"Ah—!" Kenta screamed and fell to the ground, and the projector automatically shut off with a "snap".

He was panting heavily, his school uniform soaked with cold sweat.

"A hallucination...it must be a hallucination!" he tried to reassure himself, his voice trembling. But when he looked down, he noticed a bruised finger mark on his wrist.
The next day, Kenta brought the videotape to school.

"Hey, do you guys dare to look at this?" he boasted to a few classmates during break. "This thing is really creepy! I bet you guys won't dare to look! You might see ghosts!"

"Huh? You're kidding, right?" The delinquent Yamamoto snatched the videotape. "Come to my house tonight, we'll all watch it together!"

That evening, five high school students sat around in the Yamamoto family's living room, while the strange videotape played on the television.

At first, they were laughing at the clichéd horror movie plot, but as the images became increasingly distorted and the temperature in the room plummeted...

"Hey...don't you guys feel...a little cold?" a girl asked, shivering.

"Click!"

The television suddenly turned off, plunging the room into darkness.

"Yamamoto? Stop messing around!" someone shouted.

But the next second.
"Giggle..."

That familiar, chilling laughter came from the ceiling...

A week later, five bodies were discovered in the Yamamoto family's living room.

Their deaths were extremely bizarre.

They were all huddled in the closet, their limbs twisted, their eyeballs bulging, and their faces frozen in extreme fear.

The police investigation yielded no results, and the case was hastily closed as a "mass suicide." But what's even more terrifying is...

That videotape disappeared.

A month later, an urban legend began to circulate in schools, internet cafes, and even convenience stores in Kyoto.

"There's a videotape that anyone who watches will die..."

Meanwhile, sightings of Kayako began to appear in more and more cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Nara.

At first, people thought it was just a prank, until...
The whole of Japan fell.
In room 203 of the Matsuba Inn, Kenta huddled in a corner, his eyes vacant.

His skin had turned deathly pale, his hair had fallen out, and his limbs were twisted into bizarre positions...

"Giggle..."

He laughed, and his voice was exactly the same as the one on the videotape.

Kayako's meme has spread into reality.

And all of this is simply because...

After Erniu rewatched the "Ju-on" DVD, he didn't take the videotape with him.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"I found it!"

Inside the temple, Ma Gu, who was holding a laptop, had just finished browsing the forum. "It all started with this case—the mass suicide of students!"

Fang Yu leaned closer. "Where did this happen? Is it far away?"

Mako checked the message, "Kyoto!"

"So, have you figured out the global situation yet?"

“Yes!” Ma Gu nodded. “Except for Japan and South Korea, the global internet has been shut down. The whole world is using internal networks, and regarding…” Ma Gu swallowed, still shaken by the horror of the day, and continued, “anything related to Naga is strictly forbidden. It’s a taboo subject that cannot even be thought about!”

“Yes, that’s how horror memes work. The more people know about them, the greater their effect.” Fang Yu looked up at the sky, where the air quality was clearly beyond redemption. “I reckon there’s no one left alive in Japan right now, and the world is probably only one trigger away from falling.”

Horror memes are far more perverse than zombie crises. Zombies need to spread gradually, through animals and humans. In today's world with firearms, situations like those involving Umbrella Corporation are unlikely to actually occur.

But the terrifying meme is that as long as humans know of Kayako's existence, even if a kid in California opens an email sent from Japan and learns about Kayako, a Kayako will be born in California.

When a Kayako appeared, the others learned of its existence.
That's how we get a situation like Japan—kaya trees everywhere.

Li Yingqi, who was listening, frowned deeply. "What kind of evil spirit is this? Why is it even more difficult to deal with than the Netherworld Blood Demon?"

Fang Yu sighed, "In terms of lethality, Kayako is not as good as the Netherworld Blood Demon, but she is far more troublesome than the Netherworld Blood Demon. This thing is a rule-based thing; it cannot be killed or eliminated. The only thing that can be controlled is the range of its spread to achieve a containment effect."

As he spoke, he raised his Reincarnation Watch, "The mission gave us thirty days to survive, and we've been forced into this situation before even reaching the end of that day. There are only twenty-nine days left. This B-level side quest is really hard to earn!"

Newcomer Cheng Xiao suddenly suggested, "How about we go to other countries? The news hasn't spread to other countries yet, has it?"

Fang Yu shook his head. "It's no use. Since the main god has done this to Kayako, it won't let us off easily. However, your suggestion is indeed feasible, but not to seek refuge abroad, but rather..."

Fang Yu flexed his wrist, "Let the world focus its attention on the Central Continent Team!"

Three days later, beneath the largest billboard in Times Square, Fang Yu controlled his body to rise into the air, until everyone looked up at this incredible scene!
Passersby were stunned speechless by the scene and exclaimed that it was a miracle!

Fang Yu muttered, "I, Fang Yu, will dominate the trending topics on the internet for the next twenty-seven days!"

(End of this chapter)