Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

The light and shadow in the woods began to become abnormal.

It wasn't that the sky had changed, but rather that the spots of light filtering through the gaps in the branches and leaves had, at some point, all transformed into swirling shapes.

Kirie sat in the passenger seat, looking at the "person" in the back through the rearview mirror.

She was a young woman wearing a beige trench coat and a plaid scarf.

Her features were so exquisite that they looked as if they had been measured with a ruler. Her skin was so white that it was devoid of any color. Her eyes were a deep black, with no luster in the pupils, like two glass beads embedded in their sockets.

She hasn't said a single word since she got on the bus.

There wasn't even a rise or fall in his breathing.

Kirie knew who she was, or rather, she knew what she was.

It was a pale humanoid creature with the same face and body as Shen Jue, and its identity was a member of the Tomie Legion under Shen Jue's command.

Shen Jue dressed the mutant type 1 in normal human clothes, covered its face which was exactly the same as all the Tomies, and put a pair of non-prescription glasses on it.

But this did not make Aberration Type I look more human.

Instead, it makes Aberration Type I look like something trying to play the role of a human.

"The place we're going to is called Abyss Forest." Shen Jue's hands were on the steering wheel, his tone as calm as if he were just saying that the weather was nice today.

"A film crew is shooting horror movie scenes there."

"A member of the film crew has gone missing in the Abyss Forest."

"This is already a standard opening for a horror movie."

"This group of people is very brave. The director, with his love and inspiration for horror films, persuaded all the actors in the crew to continue filming."

"Luckily, they didn't split up to film, otherwise when we got there, we would have witnessed the classic opening of those horror movies."

Tong Hui withdrew her gaze from the back row and looked at Shen Jue's profile.

In the dim light of the cockpit, his face seemed to glow on its own, with clean and sharp contours, and the curve from his jaw to his Adam's apple was so beautiful that it didn't seem like a human structure.

Tong Hui had a woman's intuition that Shen Jue was even more abnormal than when he first showed signs of abnormality in Black Vortex Town.

It looks better too.

These two events seemed to occur simultaneously. Tong Hui couldn't say whether they were related, but every time she saw Shen Jue's face, she felt a subtle unease.

That kind of beauty is like an overflow of some kind of excess power, a sign that the inner strength has reached a certain level and is manifested on the skin.

"Why are we going to the film set?" Kirie asked.

"Because there's something interesting there," Shen Jue said softly.

"I've been looking for it for a long time."

"She's funny and can help me in the upcoming operations."

"The reason I'm only now choosing to look for that thing is because of my concerns about my own mental state."

Junji Ito's worries were not unfounded.

The two guys, Death God Shen Jue and Gang Shen Jue, have made no attempt to hide their covetousness for People's Tomie Aberration Type 1 more than once.

Those two bastards even said: If they could have a party with dozens of Tomies, they would be willing to play hundreds of games with super-giant human females who are anthropomorphized from Earth right now!

Junji Ito and Shen Jue were afraid that these two twisted memories would influence his decision.

Shen Jue did not say what that "thing" was.

But Tong Hui noticed that when Shen Jue said those words, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

That wasn't a laugh; it was more like a hunter spotting the tracks of his prey in a dense forest.

The car drove onto the mountain road.

The asphalt road ended and turned into a gravel road.

The gravel road turned into a dirt road, and the trees on both sides became denser and denser, their canopies blocking out the sun, making the light inside the carriage as dim as dusk.

Shen Jue stopped the car in a relatively open space.

Kirie pushed open the car door and stepped onto the soft, humus-rich soil.

The air was filled with the heavy smell of decaying vegetation, mixed with an indescribable sweet and fishy odor.

She looked up and saw the film crew's camp.

Several bread trucks were parked haphazardly on the open ground, the tents were loosely set up, and the lids of the equipment cases were open, revealing the cameras and recording equipment inside.

A man wearing a baseball cap was squatting in front of the monitor smoking, unaware that ash was falling on his pants.

An indescribable sense of anxiety permeated the entire camp.

It's as if something has happened, or is about to happen.

"You've arrived?" A middle-aged man wearing a director's vest walked towards them.

He had deep bags under his eyes, and his eyes were bloodshot, indicating that he hadn't slept well for several days.

"We're from the 'Forest of Abyss' production team. I'm director Tamura. The assistant who contacted you before said you were extras?"

His gaze lingered on Shen Jue's face for too long.

It's an instinctive reaction to being unable to look away after being visually struck.

In the dim light of the woods, Shen Jue's face presented an almost surreal beauty; her skin was smooth and pale, and every proportion of her features seemed to have been meticulously calculated.

This kind of beauty, placed on the exterior of a horror movie set, seems more unsettling than any special effects prop.

"Yes," Shen Jue said with a slight smile, "there are three of us."

Director Tamura then noticed Kirie and the woman wearing a plaid scarf behind Shen Jue.

His gaze lingered on Kirie's face for a moment, then fell on the deformed Type 1 figure whose face was covered, and his brows furrowed slightly.

"Who is this?"

"Our other companion," Shen Jue said.

"She doesn't talk much, she's perfect as a background character, she's just naturally inactive."

The director glanced at the woman again.

Aberration Type I is also watching him, in a way that is unfocused.

Those dark eyes seemed to be looking through the director at something that didn't exist.

"Alright then." Director Tamura looked away and rubbed his arms somewhat awkwardly.

"You guys go wait in the dressing room, filming will start soon."

The so-called dressing room was nothing more than a temporary tent.

Inside sat several extras, all locally recruited, who were huddled together whispering about something.

Tong Hui overheard it.

"...It's true. Yamada from the props team has been missing for two days. The police searched the mountain, but found nothing."

"I heard that sound again last night. It was footsteps walking outside the tent, very heavy, each step sounding like walking on mud, and it seemed to go on for a very long time..."

"Stop talking," a young female staff member interrupted them. She was pale and had blush on her cheeks, which looked a little strange.

"The director said we're not allowed to talk about these things anymore."

"These things aren't really a big deal, those balloons, the strange fish, the terrifying female creatures..."

"The world has gone mad."

The tent fell silent.

But that silence felt more like everyone swallowing their fears at the same time.

Tong Hui sat in the corner, looking at Shen Jue.

Shen Jue leaned against the tent frame, relaxed, with her eyes half-closed, as if she were resting.

But Kirie knew he wasn't resting.

Shen Jue's senses were expanding outwards, like an invisible spider web covering the entire area.

The disguised mutant type I stood motionless beside Shen Jue.

Her scarf hung down in front of her chest, its edges so neat they looked as if they had been cut with a knife, and her breathing remained still, her chest as calm as a solidified wax figure.

The extras next to her would occasionally steal glances at her, their eyes filled with curiosity and an inexplicable unease.

"Action!" came the shout from outside.

The outdoor filming location was below a cliff.

The cliff face was covered with twisted trees, their roots gnarled and twisted like veins on the rock surface, their crowns sparse and deformed, taking on a sickly gray-green hue under the overcast light.

The camera was set up, the lighting technician was adjusting the angle of the reflector, and the actors were standing in their designated positions reciting their lines.

Shen Jue and Tong Hui were placed in the background, playing the roles of mountain climbers passing by.

The mutant type 1 was placed next to a dead tree, and the director's original words were: "Just stand there."

Filming has begun.

Everything was normal at first.

The camera pans, the actors recite their lines, the director stares at the monitor, occasionally yelling "Cut!" and then calling for a retake.

But gradually, Kirie sensed that the atmosphere was changing.

The problem wasn't with the filming itself.

Rather, it's the forest that has changed.

The wind stopped.