I created a foundation

An irrepressible thought was growing wildly in her mind.

Is it because I have some... unique physical condition? Like that girl named Yotsuya Miko, who's always scared?

She recalled what Lin Qing said when he mentioned Yotsuya Miko, "You seem to be very popular with these things."

Could it be that I, too, have a physique that attracts monsters like a beacon? So, while "collecting materials," I happened to walk into the alley where the monster was hunting?

This speculation made her feel a chill deep in her bones.

Then, an even more terrifying thought that almost made her blood freeze came into her mind.

If...if I really attract those monsters...

So, are the dad and mom who live in this house... still safe?

What if one day, a more terrifying monster is attracted by me and appears in this house...

That gentle mother who only worries about whether I have eaten well, that father who is far away overseas but always cares about my health every time they call, they are unarmed and they know nothing about the darkness of this world!

What should I do then?

Can I... protect them?

An unprecedented sense of responsibility as heavy as a mountain and a huge fear that could drive a person crazy, at this moment, were like two huge mountains, pressing down heavily on her still young shoulders.

She is no longer the young lady who can act arbitrarily and devote herself to her beloved career.

She is now a "trainee investigator" at the foundation.

He is one of the few people who knows the truth of the world and therefore bears a heavy fate.

This realization, this responsibility, was suffocating her.

That night, Eriri stayed awake all night.

Whenever she closed her eyes, all sorts of bizarre, bloody, and insane scenes would surface in her mind. Countless monsters roared and ran wildly in her dreams, causing her to wake up in a cold sweat time and time again.

This extremely heavy mental pressure eventually destroyed her body.

The next morning, when the mother opened her door with breakfast, she found her daughter who was in a coma with bloodshot eyes, chapped lips, a face as pale as paper, and a forehead that was frighteningly hot.

She had a high fever.

Lying on the soft bed, her consciousness wavering between lucidity and drowsiness, Ying Lili felt incredibly weak and powerless.

So what if I knew the truth? So what if I joined the Foundation?

Faced with real danger, he could do nothing but scream and run away. He even needed the protection of his despised "enemy."

Just as she was enveloped by this deep feeling of powerlessness and self-loathing, and her consciousness was about to sink into darkness again, the cell phone on the bedside table suddenly vibrated.

She reached out her hand with difficulty, took the phone, and saw a familiar name flashing on the caller ID.

It was her good friend, Itamaki Motoyo.

She swiped the answer button, and immediately heard her friend's energetic and excited voice on the other end of the line, which was in stark contrast to her current weakness.

Chapter 0022: Don't commit suicide! That phone call will really kill people!

Eriri finally forced herself to come to school despite her illness.

She didn't want to overwhelm her mother, but more importantly, she was afraid. She was afraid of being alone in that empty, luxurious house that no longer gave her a sense of security. At least, the popularity and bustle of school could temporarily help her forget the cold darkness lurking beneath her daily life.

But this kind of "forgetting" is just a self-deceiving wish.

She sat in her seat, surrounded by the laughter and chatter of her classmates, the classroom filled with the vibrant energy of youth during recess. All of this should have been part of her most familiar, accustomed daily routine. But now, these sounds reached her ears as if they were blocked by a thick, inaudible barrier.

She felt like an alien, a spy who had sneaked in from the "inside" world, and was incompatible with the bright and ignorant world around her.

She subconsciously observed everyone, watching for any strange shadows behind them, observing their expressions for any inhuman weirdness. This vigilance, already exhausted by the high fever, further tensed her spirit.

"Eri-chan! Are you okay? Why is your face as white as paper?"

A lively and carefree voice pulled Eriri out of her own world.

Her friend, Itamaki Motoyo, stood at her desk with a worried look on her face, along with two other girls she was usually close to. Itamaki Motoyo was the quintessential chic chick, with flaxen hair dyed high, several sparkly earrings, and a school skirt altered to be significantly shorter than the regulations allowed. She exuded a "not to be messed with" aura.

But at this moment, her face with delicate makeup was full of undisguised concern.

"You, if you're sick, just rest at home. Why are you coming to school?" Another short-haired girl echoed, reaching out to touch Eriri's forehead. "Oh my god, it's so hot! You must be forcing yourself!"

The concern of her friends warmed Eriri's heart, which had been frozen by loneliness and fear. She forced a smile and was about to say "it's okay" to get over it.

Itamaki Kiyo suddenly came over mysteriously, lowered his voice, and spoke in an excited tone as if he had found some excellent "explosive news".

"I get it! Xiao Yingli, you must have been under too much pressure recently and your spirits are not good! Coincidentally, I recently discovered a super exciting game that can instantly cheer people up! Let's gather everyone together tonight!"

"What game?" the short-haired girl asked curiously.

Itamaki Kiyo's face showed a smile that was a mixture of excitement and a prank success. She announced the name of the game word by word.

"Mary's phone call."

boom--!

This name, like a black lightning, struck Eriri's brain without any warning, making her dizzy and her ears buzzing.

Her face instantly drained of all color, becoming even paler than before. A bone-chilling chill, emanating from the depths of her soul, surged up her spine, causing every hair on her body to stand on end.

Mary's calling!

The most classic and strangest "rule-based" anomaly in urban legends!

She remembered the top-secret file on "rule-based anomalies" that Kasumigaoka Utaha had played on a high-tech projector during her "on-the-job training" in the office.

"...Unlike entity-based anomalies, rule-based anomalies are more like a concept, a curse, a meme born from humanity's collective subconscious and fear. They have no fixed form and cannot be eliminated by conventional physical means. Once their triggering conditions, the so-called 'rules of the game', are met, they will begin to run like an indestructible computer program until their 'goal' is achieved..."

Senior Shiyu's cold and serious voice seemed to still echo in her ears.

"No playing!"

Eriri practically screamed, leaping up from her seat. Her reaction was so intense and her voice so sharp that it startled all the students around her, causing them to look sideways.

She grabbed Itamaki Kiyo's arm, her nails almost digging into her friend's flesh out of sheer fear and anxiety. She stared intently at her friend's surprised face and spoke with an unprecedented seriousness, a mixture of fear and pleading, each word drawn out.

"Jiyu! Listen to me! You absolutely cannot play that game!"

"That thing... isn't a game!" Her voice trembled with excitement. "It's real! It can kill people! You absolutely can't touch it!"

Seeing her intense, almost hysterical reaction, Itamaki Kiyo and her friends were completely stunned.

They looked at each other, and the expressions on their faces changed from initial concern to surprise, and finally to a strange look of being at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

"puff--"

Finally, the girl with short hair was the first one who couldn't help laughing.

Immediately afterwards, Itamaki Motoyu also burst into exaggerated laughter.

"Hahahaha! Eriri-chan! You...you're so into the role! Your acting is so good! You're worthy of being teacher Kashiwagi Eriri!" She laughed so hard that tears almost came out, and patted Eriri's shoulder while laughing, "You scared me to death! I thought something happened to you!"

"That's right," another girl chimed in, "Judging from your reaction, this game must be super scary! I want to play it more and more!"

"Don't worry, Eriri," Itamaki Motoyo wiped away tears of laughter, treating Eriri's heartfelt and desperate warning as a brilliant improvisation to fit the theme of "horror game". "It's just a game, no need to be so exaggerated. We'll wait for you tonight. It's bound to be super fun if we all play together!"

Their laughter, their words that were full of kindness yet extremely cruel and indifferent, were like the sharpest knives, stabbing Eriri's heart.

She looked at her friends' smiling faces, which were full of sunshine and vitality and knew nothing about the darkness of the world, and she could no longer utter a word.

A deep, suffocating feeling of powerlessness completely overwhelmed her.

She finally understood.

Between "daily" and "abnormal" lies a gap called "cognition" that ordinary people can never cross.

She couldn't explain it.

How was she to explain it? Tell them that there really were ghosts and monsters in this world, and that she had just joined a secret organization that specialized in dealing with these things?

They just think of themselves as poor people whose brains have been damaged by a fever, or who have gone crazy because of drawing fan fiction.

She could only watch her friends laughing, making noises, holding hands, and happily discussing their "suicidal" plans for the evening, step by step, walking towards the bottomless dark abyss that they had opened with their own hands.

Eriri sat back in the chair weakly, feeling cold all over, as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

She knew that some things, once started, could never be turned back.

Chapter 0023: I am Mary, and now... behind you

The night is getting darker.

Eriri lay in bed, the dizziness from the high fever and the immense anxiety mingling within her, leaving her tormented. She felt like a powerless person standing on the shore, watching her friends, in a small boat called "ignorance," happily paddling towards a giant whirlpool called "reality" that was destined to devour everything.

She struggled, picked up her phone for the last time, and sent a message to Itamaki Kiyoshi.

[Jiyu, please, don't play that game, trust me this time! ]

The message was sent, but it fell into oblivion and there was no response for a long time.

Just when she was about to give up, the screen of her mobile phone lit up. It was a reply from Itamaki Kiyo, but the content made her heart sink to the bottom.

It was a playful emoticon with a tilted head and sticking out tongue, followed by a line of small words.

[Don't worry, Xiao Yingli, you're just too timid! We're about to start, I'm so excited!]

Eriri helplessly put her phone down and buried her face deep in the soft pillow. A thick feeling of despair completely enveloped her.

……