Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 292, Mechanism 291
"Generally speaking, if a body is to be cremated, it's either due to local customs or..."

Klein and Fors exchanged a glance, and Fors spoke first: "There's something wrong with the body."

"Furthermore, cremation shouldn't usually be done so quickly. At least in my memory, there should be a considerable amount of time between death and cremation, which is what's known as the period of mortuary care..."

The mother of this identity sent a telegram to Klein yesterday, and he hasn't returned yet. He was cremated so hastily, which is definitely not a small matter.

As a keyboard warrior before his transmigration, Klein had also studied folklore for a period of time. Now that he knew that the person who designed this examination room might be from his hometown, Klein couldn't help but use his knowledge of folklore from before his transmigration to view this abnormal part.

Anderson chuckled, "Looks like we're thinking the same thing."

They had informed each other of their respective tasks. Regardless of Anderson, a Sequence 5 Beyonder, Klein, who was also a Sequence 9, had different questions from Fors, but in this strange situation, their hints were the same.

Location 1: Uncle/Neighbor's funeral, 'Dad, Dad, why is the smoke from Uncle's funeral black?'

Black smoke isn't unusual in itself, but bringing it up and what one wants to say requires careful consideration.

"In other words, this 'uncle's' funeral is very important in a certain sense."

After getting off the carriage, the group walked into the crowded crematorium, soaked by the rain.

Almost everyone at the crematorium was dressed in mourning clothes. Some were weeping with their faces covered, some were comforting those who were crying, some were lamenting, some were chatting, and some were helping out. They all looked normal, and it was impossible to tell what nationality they were. The language they spoke was the same as the station sign at the steam train station, which was ancient Hermetic.

Klein paused, then slowly exhaled.

Fortunately, he had learned his ancient Hermetic language quite well after a month of practice, otherwise he might not have been able to understand what they were saying.

However, because of this, Klein, Fors, and Anderson all secretly became more vigilant.

Ancient Hermes is a language capable of manipulating the forces of nature; if they say something they shouldn't, it could directly cause corresponding changes.

However, this did not happen. Everything was normal, and those people did not suddenly have their bones shattered, their heads twisted, or crawl towards them in a dark manner.

It was very calm, but there was an indescribable eeriness in the calm.

"Just because it hasn't turned out that way now doesn't mean it won't turn out that way in the future."

"Klein."

A woman holding an umbrella nearby saw the group of people at the entrance of the crematorium and quickly walked towards them.

She was a woman with fairly refined makeup, dressed in white clothes with traces of burnt paper money. She looked somewhat haggard, and her eyes held sorrow and a hint of hidden fear—Klein's spiritual intuition told him that the woman in front of him was afraid of something.

What is there to be afraid of?

Klein frowned. "The only possibility..."

All that remained was the hastily cremated body.

"You silly child, why didn't you tell your mother you were coming back?"

Klein's expression shifted, but he quickly adopted a professional fake smile, got into character, and seriously began to play the role of his "son."

One is born, the second is cooked.

Fors and Anderson exchanged a glance. While Klein was getting information from the NPCs here, they split up and headed into the crematorium to see if there was anything wrong.

The staff at the crematorium seemed quite relaxed. Fors deliberately chose to walk in areas with few people. When no one was around, he used the "apprentice's" ability to open doors to pass directly through the wall, saving time and concealing himself.

Following her spiritual intuition, Fors quickly walked to the staff break room. Leaning against the outer wall near the window, she vaguely heard two people talking inside:

"Isn't it strange? There have been more and more suicides in Black Vortex Town lately, and hey, their deaths are all pretty much the same. It's said that when they died, their internal organs and bones were all shattered and bent over, which doesn't look like they killed themselves at all. If the police hadn't ruled it wasn't a homicide, I would have suspected that some serial killer had come to our town..."

Fors took out a handwritten notebook from his pocket.

She usually likes to jot down her inspirational material when she has a burst of inspiration to provide plot for her novels. As a result, Fors has a habit of carrying a notebook with her, and now is the perfect time to jot down key information.

"Who says otherwise? You wouldn't believe it, when I was sorting through the body of the person who was cremated today, tsk tsk, that was the most gruesome one I've ever seen. I felt like he was curled up like a snail. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me sick. I don't know how these people manage to curl themselves up like that..."

Fors quickly jotted down several labels: "died by suicide" and "strange manner of death," and then wrote down the Rune word "snail."

“But this method of suicide is really novel,” one of the crematorium workers said. “I’ve never seen a suicide like this before. Hey, do you think some cult might have infiltrated our Black Vortex Town?”

"Cult? That's unlikely, isn't it?"

Another crematorium worker replied, "This is a place of divine protection. If this kind of death were truly a suicide sacrifice by cultists who believe in evil gods, then His Excellency the bishop of the church would certainly have reacted."

"Too……"

Fors once again wrote down the words "cult" and "church" and added several exclamation marks after them.

The exam questions, which have a religious theme and involve cults and orthodox churches, may not be part of the background story, but they might actually be helpful for their future actions.

"But we need to figure out first what the mainstream belief is in Black Vortex Town."

Thanks to the efforts of many ritual masters at Miskatonic University, although there are many ritual magics that do not require faith, that is, do not require the participation of gods, or are tacitly approved by gods, one of the most powerful types of ritual magic is that inevitably involves gods.

Lighting three candles symbolizes the self, the divine, and one's honor, drawing power from the divine; this ritual magic will maximize its effect.

“If the church here is a craftsman's church, and they worship the God of craftsmen, then we can try this approach.”

While listening to the staff's casual conversation, Fors looked out at the low-hanging clouds.

Then, her pupils suddenly dilated, as if she had seen something extremely terrifying and indescribable, which caused her to hear tinnitus and her mind to become a complete mess.

"That is--"

She couldn't help but scream. The staff in the break room stopped talking. Some crematorium employees came over, saw Fors by the window, and saw the rain-soaked sky with its low-hanging clouds in the distance. They screamed.

-

Anderson, carrying a camera almost half the size of his head, tried to complete his mission using a camera that could take pictures normally. Unfortunately, it was quite normal to get beaten up for doing such random walking around and taking pictures at someone else's funeral.

Since these people all looked like ordinary people, Anderson smiled insincerely at the person chasing him but who couldn't outrun him, then put away his camera without immediately checking if he had captured anything extraordinary.

Taking advantage of this time, Anderson calmly walked to the incinerator.

The incinerator at the Black Vortex Crematorium is an old-fashioned type, with a long, tall cylinder that connects to the sky to release the smoke produced by the burning flames.

This old-style incinerator has a small glass window in the area where the body is placed, allowing the incinerator staff to see the incineration process.

I don't know why, even though something was burning inside, there were no employees on duty there.

"It's like they were waiting specifically for me to come and see what's inside."

Anderson walked over, approached the small glass window, and glanced at what was inside.

The object being roasted and baked over the flames did not resemble a human; rather, it looked like a tortoise shell or a round shield.

It had been burned until it was somewhat softened, charred, and deformed, completely fused with the flames, making it difficult to see what it actually was.

In short, it doesn't seem like a human being.

Anderson narrowed his eyes and used his extraordinary ability to slightly separate the thing inside that was completely integrated with the flames, revealing its more specific appearance.

"hiss……"

After seeing clearly what that thing was, even Anderson, who was known as the strongest hunter in the Misty Sea, couldn't help but gasp.

That was a snail.

But it was a "snail" that had been burned to carbonization, yet you could still vaguely make out its hands and feet, and its head that had not yet been completely burned to ashes.

That was someone who rolled himself up, turning into a bizarre vortex!
But how could a human bend and twist their body like that? Only mollusks could make such movements that cannot be performed at a normal angle!

"Look at the sky!"

Anderson, who was carefully examining the strangely burned corpse, was startled by someone shouting loudly. He instinctively looked up at the overcast sky outside the awning.

His pupils also dilated, and his mouth was slightly open, as if he had seen something extremely shocking that left him stunned on the spot.

The rain continued to fall in a light drizzle.

A huge vortex had formed in the overcast sky at some point. Black smoke rising from the crematorium furnaces as corpses burned was constantly drawn into the rain-soaked air and drifted towards the vortex.

At the edge of the enormous swirling cloud, a huge, eerie, ferocious, and terrifying cloud shaped like a human head is slowly taking shape as the cloud deepens in color and as the corpses in the incinerator are burned.

That dark cloud, with its mouth agape and its empty, lifeless eyes, stared down at this seaside town, at this ordinary town under the torrential rain.

He, or rather, it stared at the town, and slowly, with its mouth opening, revealed an extremely eerie smile.

The smile was enormous, the face was enormous, much like the megalophobia and uncanny valley effect ingrained in many people's genes. Just looking at that cloud made one feel a chill run down one's spine and shiver.

Anderson could vaguely make out some familiar features from the human-shaped cloud that wasn't very clear.

He slowly turned his head and looked at the huge crematorium where the corpses were burning.

That face was exactly the same as the face of the strange corpse lying in the crematorium.

"Warning candidate 018875: Your mental value is decreasing due to the observation of something indescribable. Current mental value: 80."

-

Klein, Anderson, and Fors all saw that face.

After leaving the crematorium, Klein greeted the NPC mother under the pretext of catching up with friends, and then met up with Anderson and Fors.

"Your mental stats have all been reduced by 20? Is this a fixed reduction method?"

According to Miskatonic's official explanation, this mental value symbolizes our mental stability, which is the probability of losing control.

Anderson stroked his chin. "In other words, the lower a person's mental strength is, the more likely they are to lose control. The mental strength threshold that would get us out of the exam room is 20. Once our mental strength drops to this level, it means we are not far from losing control and cannot stay in the exam room."

“That’s certainly how it is,” Fors continued. “But there’s one thing I don’t quite understand. Our initial mental values ​​are all 100, but it’s impossible for everyone to drop by 20, or rather, for everyone to only drop by 20.”

Different sequences, different levels, and different pathways should result in different levels of resistance to things that can affect mental values.

Just like facing the incomplete mythical creature form of Sequence 4, the Mystic Master of Sequence 5 and the Diviner of Sequence 9, the former may only have an intensified tendency to lose control, while the latter may turn into a monster on the spot.

It's impossible no matter how you look at it. She, Klein, and Anderson are three candidates with completely different sequence pathways, even worlds apart, yet they all lost the same amount of mental energy.

"There is a possibility."

Klein spoke based on his extensive experience in online games.

"What's possible?"

Anderson and Fors both looked at Klein, who was deep in thought.

Klein took a breath, smiled, and slowly said, "This is a mechanism. As long as we see or observe the scene involving the exam questions and complete our task, we must deduct 20 points of mental energy as a price."

(End of this chapter)