Chapter 1:
Halloween—Day 2
GOOD MORNING! The weather is lovely today. Oh, wait, it’s actually quite cloudy. I suppose the climaxes of horror stories always take place during thunderstorms. It’s normal in games too, although in this particular game, thunderstorms actually have quite the negative impact. I doubt actual lightning strikes will come down around us like they did during the camping event, but the wind and rain are quite a headache on their own. It also makes it more difficult to see.
Anyway, let me take a look at the information gathered while I slept. Oh, there’s new entries. I’ll start with the two subjects I saw before I went to bed.
Nothing new regarding the kitty.
Nothing new regarding the pumpkins.
Well, there’s nothing that can be done if the cat ran away. But the lack of information about the pumpkins surprises me. Did they sprout legs like that weird mascot, Nishiko-kun, and run away? I’m imagining a pair of beautiful legs attached to a pumpkin. They would be orange, in this particular case. Actually, that’s enough of that—I need to focus.
I’ll take a look at the other new pieces of information next.
Hey, how did I end up here? Where am I?
I somehow ended up in a strange place. Now I can’t get to my destination!
Oh, how very horror-like. It sounds like a time loop scenario, but if they went to a “strange place,” perhaps that’s not actually the case. Ending up on the same route each time would be more like a time loop. This sounds like they got lost, so perhaps people are ending up in trances, or it’s like one of those stories of people who can never escape an enchanted forest after entering it.
The problem is what, exactly, causes this phenomenon? Since the barrier is destabilized, it must have something to do with Space Magic. I can’t rule out some sort of game mechanic unique to this area too. This is an official event, after all.
Perhaps residents are causing this somehow—more likely an evil NPC rather than the townsfolk. It’s certainly possible, but what could their motive be? I won’t get anywhere by sitting and pondering that, so hopefully it will come to light the more digging we do.
Okay, time to get to work.
I thank the church staff, ask to stay again tonight, and exit into town.
The campfire in the town square is still alive and roaring. I only see residents around too. The players must still be sleeping. Let me see who in my union is awake.
“Good morning. Is anyone up yet?”
“Yeah, I’m up!”
“Morning, Princess!”
“I don’t see many player markers around. Is everyone asleep?”
“They’re taking naps now that the sun’s up.”
“Since this event seems like it’s supposed to be a horror story, everyone thinks all the important stuff will happen at night.”
They’ve only just gone to bed? Well, I don’t intend on changing my sleep schedule.
For now, I’ll ask what happened after I went to sleep. It’s important to exchange information.
“There were quests you could only do at night, like looking for lost kids and checking on the bonfires.”
“So there was a quest about missing children? I thought something like that might come up.”
“Hmm, what else? They say it might rain tonight.”
“Oh, there’s a way to tell that?”
“I heard you can use a skill to look it up, but the accuracy’s kinda questionable.”
“Wind or storms will probably grant us some sort of modifiers too.”
“Although, that definitely depends on your race.”
I see. So a weather forecasting spell has been found now. Since he mentioned using a skill to look it up, it must be like Contrail, the spell that allows you to send letters.
Weather forecasts are sometimes already posted in certain towns. Perhaps they’re absent from others because no one with the weather forecasting skill lives in those towns. Most large towns have weather forecasts posted somewhere, but not this one, it seems.
All that said, few players are particularly concerned with this function. We haven’t determined any obvious ways in which weather makes the game more difficult, so right now, weather doesn’t matter for anything other than whether or not to wear a cloak outside. On the other hand, the farmers like Mr. Steiner do pay lots of attention to the weather.
“We’ve only seen the kitty from behind too.”
“And the pumpkins are just normal pumpkins, as far as we can tell.”
The cat was only seen from the back, so no one managed to get a look at its face. It runs away from light produced by players as well as bonfire light, making it impossible for anyone to get a proper glimpse of it. It was no different when the players chased after it too, or so I’m told. Hmm, this strikes me as suspicious.
The pumpkins that appeared to be moving turned out to be normal pumpkins too—in fact, none of the pumpkins in the area have given us any new revelations yet.
“The flying players didn’t find anything either.”
“And that’s about where we’re at now!”
“I see. Thank you all. I’m surprised how few developments there have been when the event is only four days long.”
“And the fourth day is for wrapping things up, so the main events should be happening today or tomorrow.”
“I really expected there to be something more.”
“It’s a horror event, right? I bet we’re building suspense up to day three, when everything happens at once!”
“That’s possible too.”
“I just hope Cthulhu stuff isn’t involved somehow.”
“What’d be wrong with that?”
“Because with those types of stories, it’s all about gathering information before leading up to one final conflict.”
“Exactly. Right now, it doesn’t seem like we’ll have any way of fighting back.”
“In other words, if we don’t find something now, we’ll be waving the white flag at the end of the event.”
“Yes, it will all be up to luck at that point.”
In a way, it’d be easier if this were a locked-room type of event—for example, one where the players are locked inside a mansion, fleeing from a crazed killer, all while searching every corner of the building for information. Compared to that, we have a nearly infinite amount of territory to search.