For Xu Fu, teaching that creep a lesson had been nothing more than a minor aside. By the time the train slowly pulled into the station, she had already forgotten about it, and she got off with Nagata Takaya and Yoshida Saori, carried along by the surging crowd.
The station they got off at was underground. The mall nearby seemed to be quite popular; the platform was packed with people who had finished shopping and were carrying armfuls of bags, waiting to catch trains to other places.
The escalators carried the noisy mass of people slowly upward, but plenty of others had no desire to squeeze in with everyone else and went straight for the stairs to the surface.
"You two, come hold my hands. And whatever you do, don't get lost."
With one hand, Yoshida Saori took Xu Fu's; with the other, she took Nagata Takaya's. The two of them were long past the age where holding hands would make them blush, and were even relaxed enough to joke about it.
"Don't worry~! Even if you two do get lost, Xu Fu will find you again~!"
"Oh my~! Having someone as reliable as Xu Fu-chan with us is just the best! I feel so safe."
There wasn't a trace of a lie in Yoshida Saori's words. The sense of security Xu Fu gave her was something no one else could match. Evil spirits really were terrifying—terrifying enough that she felt incredibly lucky that when danger came for her, when an evil spirit attacked her for the first time in her life, the one she met was a Taoist as reliable and adorable as Xu Fu.
And the "getting lost" Yoshida Saori had in mind was not necessarily because of the crowd. It could just as easily mean some paranormal phenomenon like being spirited away. That, on the other hand, fell completely within Xu Fu's field of expertise.
The narrow escalator area was crammed with people, all of them trying to save time and effort. Those who could not squeeze on simply clustered around to wait, while the impatient and the hurried gave up on the escalator and took the much wider staircase beside it instead.
Xu Fu and the others had no interest in squeezing in with that many people, so the three of them took the stairs. They were all young, after all—not nearly enough of a climb to leave them winded.
"Xu Fu-chan, what's wrong?"
Xu Fu suddenly stopped, then turned to look back the way they had come. The strange move left both Yoshida Saori and Nagata Takaya baffled.
After a brief silence, Xu Fu finally spoke.
"Unfortunately... it looks like the three of us really did get 'lost.'"
"Huh?"
Yoshida Saori let out a startled sound. Only then did the two of them belatedly notice that something was wrong.
It was far too quiet.
With that many people getting on and off at once, the station should have been noisy. But at some point, everyone around them had vanished without a trace.
In the empty corridor leading to the exit, only the three of them remained.
"There's no doubt about it. This is a paranormal phenomenon. Someone... or perhaps some spiritually active object is behind it," Xu Fu said calmly. "The moment the three of us stepped onto that last stair just now, we entered an isolated space."
"...You're right. This corridor feels completely unfamiliar."
Yoshida Saori had been to the mall around here before—that was why she had brought Xu Fu here in the first place. She had used this station and walked this corridor before as well. But the corridor they were standing in now differed from the one in her memory in several obvious ways.
The most striking difference was the bright yellow sign overhead. It only showed that Exit 8 was straight ahead, with no indication of any other exits.
"There's no signal... and calls won't go through either."
Nagata Takaya pulled out his phone and tried everything he could think of, but every attempt to make a call or send a message failed. They had no way of contacting the outside world.
The two of them were reminded of the monk evil spirit they had encountered at the temple a few days earlier. But this time was different...
This time, Xu Fu was right there with them.
The calm, composed look on Xu Fu's face was enough to drive the panic and fear from their hearts.
"Do you two want to leave?"
Seeing the alarm in their expressions, Xu Fu said evenly, "If you're scared and want out, I can get the two of you safely out of here right now."
"Really?!"
Yoshida Saori and Nagata Takaya both stared at Xu Fu in delight.
They had only just been caught up in this paranormal phenomenon, and Xu Fu was already confidently saying she could get them out safely.
She was absurdly reliable. At this point, Xu Fu-chan might as well have been their god.
"Xu Fu-chan, what about you? Aren't you leaving?"
"I want to stay and investigate. At the very least, I need to figure out whether this phenomenon is being caused by an evil spirit or by some kind of cursed object," Xu Fu explained.
"There are so many people in this station. I'm worried some of them may be trapped here too, just like us. While I'm investigating, I'll do my best to rescue them as well. It'll be troublesome, but right now it looks like I'm the only one who can save them, so there's not much for it~."
If Yayoi Hozuki had been here too, she could have shared some of the burden. Besides Yayoi Hozuki, Xu Fu had also visited a few better-known shrines and temples over the past few days and met several spiritualists there—shrine maidens, monks, shrine priests, and the like.
If she had to put it simply... they had some ability, but not much.
The evil spirits Yayoi Hozuki kept hidden in her room were only "kindergarten kid" level—so weak that a single glare from Xu Fu would be enough to make them drop dead on the spot. And yet even that level of evil spirit was enough to leave those somewhat famous shrine maidens, monks, and shrine priests completely helpless.
At best, those spiritualists could put up a barrier that prevented a single "kindergarten kid" level evil spirit from approaching, then wait for it to leave on its own... and of course, that kind of barrier could only block one at a time. If too many showed up, the barrier would fail.
Nagata Takaya and Yoshida Saori exchanged looks, then after a quick conversation with their eyes, reached the same decision.
"We want to stay," Yoshida Saori said, meeting Xu Fu's gaze with determination. "Since we can leave whenever we want, then we want to stay with you. We want to do whatever little we can too."
"Though to be honest, we don't actually know what it is we can do," Nagata Takaya said with a helpless shrug.
"There really isn't much ordinary people like you can do." A gentle smile appeared on Xu Fu's face. "So~! You two absolutely have to stay close to me and not wander too far away from Xu Fu, okay~! As long as you stay by Xu Fu's side, Xu Fu will abso~~~lutely keep you safe!"
The three of them first walked back the way they had come. They had entered this corridor from the staircase, so in theory walking back should have brought them to those same stairs. Instead, what greeted them was the exact same corridor as before, with the bright yellow overhead sign bearing the number 8 and the word "Exit" glowing above them.
On the right were three doors, two vents, a fire safety cabinet, and a no-smoking warning. The wall on the left was lined with posters. There was also a surveillance camera on the ceiling and a tactile paving strip on the floor.
"Huh? There's someone over there!"
Yoshida Saori cried out in surprise. A balding middle-aged office worker had appeared from around the corner at the far end of the corridor and was walking straight toward them.
"Excuse me, are you trapped in here too...?"
Yoshida Saori stepped forward to greet him, but the man brushed right past her with a vacant expression, as though he had not seen her at all.
Something about his behavior made Nagata Takaya instinctively uneasy. As the man approached, he reflexively stepped aside to let him pass.
The balding man walked straight on without sparing Xu Fu, Nagata Takaya, or Yoshida Saori a single glance, then disappeared around the corner.
"Don't mind him. That man isn't human in the first place," Xu Fu reminded the bewildered pair. "He isn't even a spirit. Just treat him like a robot that only repeats one single action."
At a glance, Xu Fu had already seen through the man's nature. He was merely one part of this ghost wall's setup—no different from the posters or the air vents, all of it following a certain set of rules here.
Just to be safe, Xu Fu let Red Hood out as well. With her helping protect Yoshida Saori and the others, Xu Fu could relax a little more.
"Come on~! Let's go see what kind of stunt the mastermind behind this place is trying to pull." Xu Fu smiled faintly. Not only was she unafraid, she was even a little excited.
The corridor was one long stretch, leaving them only two choices: forward or back. Xu Fu and the others continued down it. After passing through two zigzag bends, they found two signs mounted on the wall at the third corner.
The bright yellow sign displayed a glaring "0," indicating that the way ahead led to Exit 0.
Several lines of black text were written on the white sign.
"If you detect an anomaly, return immediately. If there is no anomaly, continue forward. Repeat the correct action continuously, and you will find the real Exit 8," Nagata Takaya read aloud.
"Xu Fu-chan, what's this supposed to mean?" Yoshida Saori pointed at the white sign and looked at Xu Fu in confusion. "It looks like a game hint."
"It probably is a hint. Or rather, the game's rules. If we find the Exit 8 written there, we can leave this place." Xu Fu looked down the corridor, her gaze deepening. "But we still don't know what exactly it means by an 'anomaly.'"
"So it's basically spot the difference, then?" Yoshida Saori said encouragingly. "It's fine! There are four of us—this should be easy! Let's do our best together!"
They continued forward and once again found themselves in the same familiar corridor. At the far end, the vacant-faced balding middle-aged man appeared again and marched straight toward them like a wound-up machine.
They searched carefully, but found no trace of anything unusual, so they decided not to turn back and kept going. After passing through two more bends, they saw the bright yellow sign again—except this time it no longer showed Exit 0, but Exit 1.
Having roughly figured out the game's rules, the four of them entered the next corridor and once again saw the balding middle-aged man approaching from the front.
Because they still had not spotted any anomaly, they chose to continue forward again—only to find that the number on the yellow sign had changed back to 0.
"That's weird. Did we miss some little detail?" Yoshida Saori scratched her head, utterly baffled.
"Who knows? It's not like we can go back and check now." Xu Fu did not think much of it. It was only one failure, after all. After all the times she had been dragged down by pig teammates in Honor of Kings, this level of pressure barely even registered. "All we can do is keep going."
They stepped onto that corridor again—familiar and yet somehow strange. The same tactile paving, the same posters, the same balding middle-aged man. There was no visible anomaly at all.
And then, when Xu Fu and the others reached the middle of the corridor, the bright yellow sign on the ceiling suddenly began to ooze blood.
Dark red, sticky blood streamed down from it and dripped onto the floor. The sight was horrifying.
That anomaly could not have been more obvious. Xu Fu and the others immediately turned back, and just as expected, the number on the sign had changed to "1."
"Hahaha! Saori, you screamed so loud just now."
"What was I supposed to do?! That thing was genuinely terrifying! All that blood just suddenly started pouring out of the sign, and it landed right by my feet..."
At Nagata Takaya's teasing, Yoshida Saori flushed bright red, equal parts embarrassed and annoyed.
"It's fine, it's fine. You look cute when you scream too, Saori. Kind of like a little marmot."
"Who're you calling a marmot?! You're getting awfully full of yourself in front of me... nngh..."
Puffed up with indignation, Yoshida Saori scooped up the Xu Fu standing beside her and stuck out her tongue at Nagata Takaya.
"I'm not talking to you anymore! Xu Fu is ten thousand times cuter than you! Blehh~!"
"Hmph! Isn't it only natural that Xu Fu is cute~?" Xu Fu not only did not resist Yoshida Saori's closeness, she even lifted her chin proudly at the compliment. "If being cute is a crime, then Xu Fu has already reached the point of being utterly unforgivable. Wahhaha~!"
After that, they ran into all sorts of anomalies—an entire corridor plastered over with no-smoking warnings instead of just one, the surveillance camera on the ceiling flashing red, the doorknob on the door to the right shifted to the very center of the door, and the corridor's originally white lighting changed to a warm yellow.
Then they arrived at the sign for Exit 5.
"Hellooo there, balding office-worker mister! Fancy seeing you again!"
Even though she knew he was just part of this place's setup—that he could neither hear her nor respond—Yoshida Saori still greeted him with a smile.
The balding middle-aged man would walk straight down the corridor, stop after turning the corner at the end, take out his phone, and then never move again.
That was how it had been in every previous loop. No matter what Xu Fu and the others did, his behavior pattern never changed. Like a machine, he only followed the program set for him from the beginning.
But this time, after Yoshida Saori finished greeting him, the balding man suddenly curled his lips upward into a bizarre smile.
Yoshida Saori thought for a moment that she must have seen it wrong and was just about to rub her eyes—
Then she saw the balding man suddenly break into a sprint straight at them, the smile on his face growing more and more sinister.
"Aaaahhh!!"
---
T/N: oh! its that game exit 8 or something idk