Tutorial (9): The Ghost's Twisted Grin
The ghost's lips curled upward in a grotesque, unnatural twist. Then came a brief silence. I steeled myself, ready to respond calmly no matter what happened. Hadn't the bathroom mimic's manual warned about this? Anomalies could instantly sense human emotions—especially fear, frustration, and anxiety. I swore to myself that I wouldn't show even a flicker of surprise.
That was when a black, shadow-like substance began spreading from the woman's body, devouring the light around us. And then...
The woman stood up. With a soft tap, she slowly approached and sat down right in front of me.
“This is strange.”
“What’s so strange?”
“You look nothing like the person in my memories.”
She stretched her neck forward, then suddenly snapped open her eyes that had been tightly shut.
Who are you who are you who are you who are you who are you who are you???
Her pupils were completely pitch black, with no whites visible at all. If this had been a horror movie, I probably would’ve let out a horrified “Ugh!” But right now, a real anomaly was sitting in front of me. If I showed even the slightest hint of fear or let my voice tremble, she might rip me apart alive with unimaginable strength. That knowledge alone kept me grounded.
“What the hell are you making such a racket for at the dinner table!”
“Who are you who are you who are you who are you who are you who are you who are you—”
“SHUT UP!!!!!”
I roared with all my might, like an innocent man proclaiming his innocence. There’s that stupid saying, right? “The one with the louder voice wins,” regardless of cause and effect. If my voice was louder, then I was right. Logic? Reason? Who needed that crap? These anomalies weren’t logical or rational beings to begin with, so why should I play along?
Yelling at the top of my lungs actually felt incredibly refreshing. Fear? Terror? Frustration? They vanished completely, as if they’d never existed. That’s better.
At the same time, the anomaly—who had been repeating the same words like a parrot—abruptly stopped. Now that I’d seized the initiative, it was my turn to press the attack.
“Are you seriously asking because you don’t know who I am?”
“...That’s not what I—”
“And if by some chance I’m not your husband, doesn’t that make you the one at fault? Welcoming a complete stranger into your bed, serving him food, treating him like your spouse without even checking properly?”
“!!!”
What kind of wife lets a man she’s never seen before into the master bedroom without verifying anything?! The anomaly froze as if she’d been stunned. I didn’t let up and kept pushing.
“Don’t worry. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Th-then—”
“Look at my face carefully again. Do I really look like a stranger to you?”
“W-well—”
“Can’t you even see properly?!”
“N-no, my lord. This humble wife’s eyes must have been clouded... I apologize deeply...”
The anomaly closed her eyes again. Looking completely flustered, she tried to retreat to her spot beside me and kneel, but—
Thud.
She accidentally bumped into me. The side dish she’d been holding with chopsticks fell onto my pants.
“Ah, I-I’ll clean it right away—”
But I was so caught up in the act that had even fooled the anomaly, I made one fatal mistake. I raised my left arm to make it easier for her to wipe it off.
Ah, I shouldn’t have done that.
This was the moment I should’ve gotten angry and demanded why she’d dropped it on me. I’d messed up. One mistake could lead straight to death. It was far too careless.
But strangely, the anomaly didn’t show any hostility. Instead—
Twitch! Twitch!
?
She was reacting in a bizarre, incomprehensible way. A red flush rose on her pale face. Her body trembled lightly as she breathed in short, shallow gasps.
Wait, is this...?
I thought, No way~ but at the same time wondered if it really was what I suspected. So I made a very slight, almost imperceptible motion like I was about to slap down with my hand.
“Mmph...!”
She reacted immediately. This crazy anomaly. She was actually hoping to get hit.
I had completely taken control. Using the anomaly who now stuck to my side all day, I ran various experiments. How much physical punishment was acceptable? What exactly triggered her fits? And so on.
She no longer had any room to suspect me. She was too busy getting hit.
Slap!
“Hngh!”
This perverted freak. She had tastes straight out of some weird adult comic. Of course, I was a normal person with perfectly ordinary sensibilities. Even if she was an anomaly, I had no intention of genuinely humiliating a woman. So—
Slap!
“Hah!”
I simply smacked her back with all my strength as she begged for punishment with a completely blank, enlightened expression.
Quite a lot of time seemed to have passed, yet outside the sky remained fixed in that blood-red hue. Eventually—
“I-I shall prepare the bedding.”
“Go ahead.”
It seemed it was time to sleep. The anomaly unfolded the blanket she had folded and placed in the corner.
“Fold it out more gently. You’re kicking up dust.”
Slap!
“H-hngh, I-I’m sorry...”
Ah, it had become a habit. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. Anyway, once the sleeping preparations were complete, I lay down on the bedding. The anomaly lay down right beside me. We ended up sharing a single blanket.
After tossing and turning for a bit, she quickly fell silent. I checked on her, then rolled over and opened the gallery.
Let’s see what everyone’s up to. They were probably all worried about me.
These bastards? They said that if I cleared it alive and got out, they’d have a chance to be liberated! And yet here they were, posting crap like this and having fun?
I briefly explained everything that had happened so far.
The gallery members were flustered, claiming they hadn’t meant it that way at all.
While I was receiving praise, encouragement, and countless rounds of applause (in the form of emoticons) from the gallery members—
A gallery member who had died horribly in the tutorial jumped in with a rebuttal.
...There’s a time limit? And at most two to three days. It could be even shorter. The moment my original plan of calmly searching for an escape route collapsed into ruins.
The next day. After waking up and wandering around outside—
Slap!
“Hngh!”
I smacked the anomaly who seemed to enjoy getting hit and searched every corner of the area. There was no exit in sight. Below the cliff was nothing but an abyss so deep its bottom couldn’t be seen. Time flowed mercilessly onward.
But I couldn’t afford to panic.
The anomaly is sensitive to human emotions. The moment I showed even the slightest crack, she would sense the opening in my mind and start repeating “Who are you!” again. The instant her suspicion turned into certainty, I would be killed by the anomaly in some horrific way I didn’t even want to imagine. So I maintained my composure.
Slap!
“Hah!”
I hit the anomaly to empty my mind. “Please have your meal...” “You call this a meal?!” Crash! “Kyaa?!” I flipped the entire table once. Slap! “Hngh!” And delivered another solid back-smack for good measure. Before I knew it, the second day had passed. I still hadn’t found any escape method.
The gallery didn’t yield much either. After all, four out of five people who had personally encountered this anomaly were apparently lurking without posting. The only one left was the self-proclaimed leader of the Tutorial Faction, the fixed-nick “TutorialHard.”
TutorialHard really didn’t seem to know anything. I let out a quiet sigh and closed my eyes.
On the third day. The same blood-red sky and desolate surroundings. And the anomaly who kept cautiously glancing at me as if asking, When are you going to hit me again...?
What a shitty day.
I had tried to follow the gallery members’ advice and look for a safer method, but it failed. Still, I had no intention of just sitting here and letting myself be “consumed” by assimilating into the anomalous phenomenon.
Slap!
“Eek?!”
While smacking the anomaly, I fell into deep thought. Suddenly, a good idea came to me, and I decided to test it immediately.
“Is this ominous aura also something you’re spreading?”
“W-well, that is—”
“Just answer yes or no!”
Slap!
“H-hngh! Y-yes, it is.”
“Can you retract it?”
“Y-yes, I can. I’ll retrieve it right—”
Slap!
“Hah?! Why, why are you hitting me again—”
“Just because.”
There had been such a simple solution all along. Why had I been struggling so much? I immediately opened the gallery to inform the members.
After explaining my plan to the gallery members in detail—
As I scrolled down the comment section thinking, Of course that’s how it is. This would be way too easy otherwise, one comment suddenly caught my eye.
Surprisingly, the usually serious gallery members all agreed that it was worth attempting. In that case—
There was no time to hesitate!!! I immediately put the plan into action.