Horror simulator, if you survive till tomorrow, you win

“Although the nightmare generator outputs images, it should be possible to use the same method to process natural language. In other words, fear can be created.”

Ito Jun ignored Kawakami Tomie and continued speaking.

He said these words to himself.

"We will temporarily call this kind of fear filter the fear function. As long as the signal received by the sensory organs is processed by the fear function, everything will become terrifying. Diseases such as alcoholism and depression can cause the above phenomenon. This is basically known to everyone. Although the above are all malfunctions of the nervous system and only occur inside the brain, the fear function will produce the same effect when it exists in the outside world."

Ito Jun looked directly at the unusual text on the operation panel and touched it with his hand.

Rubbing his fingers on the button, he should have been able to confirm what the text on it was, but Ito Jun was unable to make a judgment now.

"outside world?"

Tomie Kawakami lay on Ito Jun's back and asked casually.

"It's an environment where even the slightest contact distorts cognition. As for the reasons for this kind of environment, it could be social factors, or physical factors such as air pressure or chemicals, but in the end it's to stimulate the human brain's vulnerabilities... The so-called haunted places are probably this kind of space."

Ito Jun turned his head and looked at the face of Kawakami Tomie on his shoulder.

If nothing unexpected happens, this face is also an external factor.

"In other words, the inner world is a giant fear function that changes the human brain. When a person enters the inner world from the outer world, their language ability will be eroded, similar to sensory aphasia caused by higher brain dysfunction. When the Wernicke area in the lateral part of the frontal lobe of the human brain is impaired, they will lose the ability to understand language or speak incomprehensible words... The so-called Cthulhu element, the decrease in San value, is based on this principle."

Chapter 31 Beginning of the Experiment

Faced with Ito Jun's long speech, Kawakami Tomie's eyes were already rolling in circles.

Simply put, she couldn't understand the theories that Ito Jun was talking about.

Perhaps, to fools, scientific knowledge is also weird.

Jun Ito fell into deep thought. These were just his speculations from a scientific perspective. Although Cthulhu Mythos was a science fiction theme, Junji Ito's comics had little to do with science fiction.

A few seconds later, the elevator door opened again.

This time, the other end of the elevator door led to the top floor. In front of the cracked concrete floor, there was a waist-high guardrail. Above was the sky covered with white clouds. A gentle breeze blew by, bringing a moist scent.

Ito Jun turned sideways and pushed Kawakami Tomie out. Kawakami Tomie screamed and turned around to complain, but Ito Jun had already walked in front of Kawakami Tomie from the other side.

When I arrived at the edge of the top floor, I saw that the guardrail outside the top floor was rusty, making it impossible to lean on it.

Ito Jun put his hand on it and made sure that the guardrail would not collapse suddenly before he looked down.

Under the sun that was slightly hazy due to the halo, there was a whole piece of faded yellow grassland.

The lush grassland undulates with the wind like waves.

There were also things that looked like man-made objects, looming in the grass.

For example, buildings covered with vines, or huge rocks scattered around. On the other side of the dense, dark woods, you can see an electric tower that looks like a piece of metal art standing in the middle. As for the one that extends straight out of the swamp, it should be a railway track, right? In the distance, you can see endless low hills.

"The other world..."

The endless grassland makes it hard to believe that this is Tokyo.

"What a beautiful scenery, Ito, is this the date spot you found just for me? I'm very satisfied~~"

Tomie Kawakami walked to the side of Jun Ito with a happy expression.

"You don't have any impression of this place?"

Ito Jun turned his head and looked at Kawakami Tomie.

"No."

Kawakami Tomie blinked and answered in confusion.

Ito Jun lowered his eyes.

The first sentence is less than 50% true, but the second sentence can be judged to be the truth.

"That means that although Tomie Kawakami is a strange phenomenon, she is not a strange phenomenon that originated from the other world. In other words, the other world is just a type of strange phenomenon."

Ito Jun talked to himself in a voice that only he could hear, with a stiff smile on his lips.

Sure enough, it was the right thing to do.

There were no stairs around, only a ladder in the gap of the guardrail. Climbing down from a height of ten floors along the rusty ladder was not a safe behavior at all.

The original Ito Jun would certainly reject such behavior, but now it is not the original personality that controls the body.

Having walked through it twice in the simulator before, I realized that the ladder was not as fragile as I imagined.

Ito Jun convinced his body, walked over swiftly, and climbed down the ladder. Kawakami Tomie showed a resisting expression, but seeing that Ito Jun had no intention of showing any sympathy, she had to follow him.

The ladder creaked as it was stepped on, making people sweat. Ito Jun climbed down while looking into the interior of the building.

This building is completely different in appearance from the one I entered.

After all, this building has no exterior walls, only beams, columns and ceilings on each floor. It is a ruin with only steel bars supporting it and an empty interior.

“It can be used as a safe house.”

Ito Jun talked to himself.

The absence of stairs means it is difficult to go up and down. All you need to do is to open up the floor between the tenth and ninth floors... provided there are no monsters nearby and the monsters from the surface world cannot follow in.

That’s right, one of the reasons why Ito Jun entered the other world was to find a way to avoid the oil-paper umbrella monster.

Judging from the two experiences of entering the other world in the simulator, the other world is not as scary as Step by Step. It has a method of movement similar to space jumping, and you can't just chase people whenever you want.

As long as you build a safe house at the starting point of the other world, you can avoid weirdness to a certain extent.

Of course, it is still in the verification stage.

Bare black soil can be seen around the building, and a trampled path extends through the lush grass.

Ito Jun held Kawakami Tomie's hand and walked along the path.

Tomie Kawakami yawned out of boredom. She only liked a luxurious life and had no interest in outings, but in order to capture the man in front of her, she had to endure it.

There was not a single bird flying across the azure sky, and the breeze blowing through the grass was inexplicably cold. Ito Jun sniffed his nose, and the wind carried a pungent smell similar to that of fish.

"There is a situation."

Ito Jun stopped and said, he didn't think there were normal animals in the other world.

"Eh?"

Tomie Kawakami was troubled and didn't know what Ito Jun was going to do next.

Ito Jun covered Kawakami Tomie's mouth with his hand and squatted down to observe his surroundings.

The wind has stopped, and the scene is so quiet that it almost makes people's ears ring. A swaying white shadow rises from the front, and the scene is like a summer road with bursts of hot steam. At the other end, there is a figure swinging his body wildly.

The moment he saw the white shadow, Ito Jun felt a strong sense of dizziness. He immediately lowered his head and looked away.

"Twisting around..."

Ito Jun lowered his head and used the corner of his eye to catch the twisting figure.

If I'm not mistaken, the floating object in front should be the famous weird thing twisting and turning on the 2CH forum.

The strange story goes like this. Mr. A, a friend of the poster's younger brother, experienced it firsthand. When Mr. A and his brother went to the countryside to play, they saw people in white clothes twisting around in the rice fields. Their bodies were bent very unnaturally, to a degree that was not possible for humans to bend.

My brother looked at the person in white clothes through a telescope and was so scared that his face turned pale. After returning home, he started laughing and twisting his body, just like the white object.

When Mr. A wanted to pick up the telescope, his grandfather came and stopped him.

From that strange story, we can preliminarily judge that twisting and turning is something that would drive a normal person crazy.

Based on the information obtained from the simulator, it should be easier to understand and recognize because it is a weirdness that directly interferes with the mind, and it is also easier to reduce the San value.

"Tomie, can you see what that is?"

Ito Jun softened his tone and asked Kawakami Tomie beside him.

Can the weird recognize the weird? Jun Ito wanted to confirm this, and Kawakami Tomie was a perfect experimental subject. Even if the first experiment failed, he could do the next one.

After all, Tomie Kawakami is immortal and her fighting ability is extremely weak, so even if she goes crazy, she can be subdued.

Chapter 32 Chu Xuan's Inference

For the sake of truth, please be my experiment.

Ito Jun stared at Kawakami Tomie's profile, with the corners of his mouth raised in a smile that seemed both excited and cold.

Tomie Kawakami glanced at the twisting and turning in front of her and a distressed expression appeared on her face.

"My head feels so swollen... I can't take it anymore, I feel like vomiting... Ugh!"

Kawakami Tomie couldn't help but wanted to look away, but Ito Jun ruthlessly held her head down, forcing her to look away and twist around.

After a while, there was no need for Ito Jun to hold down Kawakami Tomie's head, as she couldn't look away on her own.

Kawakami Tomie's eyes began to glow, and transparent substances grew out of her eyes like branches. The protrusions twisted and turned and emerged from Kawakami Tomie's eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, and then even grew out of her pores.

The horrifying scene did not scare Ito Jun, but instead made him understand the way the twisting and turning could cause harm.

"parasitic?"

Ito Jun carefully observed Kawakami Tomie's eyes. If nothing unexpected happened, the twisting and turning of the eyes was caused by the eye contact, gradually parasitizing the witness's brain, and then growing out of the witness's brain.

It takes 10 seconds from eye contact to parasitism.

"Conclusion one, even if they are both monsters, they cannot be immune to the attacks of another monster."

Ito Jun opened the camera lens, twisted his body and pulled the trigger.

"Oh!"

Four bullets hit it twisting and turning.

However, its body, which seemed to be as elusive as mist, continued to sway its body in its original manner.

"Conclusion 2: Although both are weird, they are unable to understand each other or form a cognition."

Jun Ito was not very surprised by this phenomenon.

The key to strange phenomena is understanding and cognition, and Tomie Kawakami obviously has no knowledge about twisting and turning.

"But then, how did the monster in the health room eat Kawakami Tomie? According to the rule that you can't interfere if you can't understand or know it..."

"Hypothesis one, the phenomenon of Tomie Kawakami has not disappeared, only Tomie Kawakami's body has disappeared. Hypothesis two, Tomie Kawakami's death is also part of the phenomenon. The two are not contradictory."

"Some urban legends have a part that needs to be repelled, which means that in addition to looking directly at the essence, imitating the behavior that repels the legend can also repel the legend."

"The reason I was able to burn Tomie Kawakami to death was not because I understood her existence, but because burning her to death was also part of the phenomenon."

"Hmph, mortal wisdom, jumping to conclusions based on a few top-secret pieces of information. If I had truly understood her back then, I wouldn't be where I am now."

While analyzing, Ito Jun took out the machete tied to his thigh, pinned Kawakami Tomie to the ground, and chopped her down hard.

"boom!"

The machete chopped into Kawakami Tomie's neck, but failed to cut it in half.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Ito Jun raised the machete and swung it down hard. After three consecutive hits, he finally separated Kawakami Tomie's head from her body.

The beautiful head rolled twice on the grass, facing the direction of Ito Jun, which made Ito Jun feel the strange beauty.

The things that grew from Kawakami Tomie's face were white and translucent, very slender, and spherical at the top.

Some even branch out from there and continue to grow further.

Those strips, which look like carefully crafted glass works of art or like mycelium, sway and sparkle slightly in the breeze that blows across the grassland.

Not only that, the teeth visible between Kawakami Tomie's pale lips also became crystal clear, as if they were biting together like a complex puzzle.

It was precisely because of seeing this phenomenon that Ito Jun chopped off Kawakami Tomie's head with a knife.

There is a possibility that Tomie Kawakami's body is changing due to the twisting and turning of the parasite.

Ito Jun is not sure whether this change will affect the whole body. If that happens, it is unknown whether Kawakami Tomie's regenerative ability will work.

In desperation, they could only chop off the affected head first.