Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
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In the elevator's double-sided mirror, among my endlessly repeating and diminishing reflections, there was one single anomaly.
The back figure that had beaten me at rock-paper-scissors.
The 'thing' in the mirror was craning its neck to look back at me, smiling.
Clunk.
I barely snapped out of it at the sound of the elevator.
What I held was a fist.
What the something in the mirror held was... paper.
'...Lost.'
For now, since I lost, I have to do it again.
Until I win.
The elevator was ascending.
With trembling hands, I raised my fist toward the mirror again.
"Rock, paper, scissors."
My back figure, head turned and smiling, changed its hand on its own.
I had scissors.
The mirror had rock.
...Lost again.
Clunk.
...The ascending elevator paused for a moment, then resumed as if nothing happened.
In reality, that was all.
But in the elevator reflected in the mirror...
The door was slightly ajar.
Suddenly.
A white hand protruded from the gap.
"......"
The elevator was ascending.
"Rock, paper, scissors."
Tie.
'Just once.'
I just need to win once. Before reaching the top floor, the 12th...
"Rock, paper, scissors."
I had scissors, the ghost had rock.
'Lost...'
Clunk.
The elevator shook briefly.
That was it. No changes in reality.
But in the mirror's elevator...... the door was open wider.
An arm and leg were visible through the gap.
"......"
The torso was half inside this elevator, almost touching me......
But it still wasn't visible in reality. Only the mirror showed this bizarre scene, so I couldn't tear my eyes away.
'Please, just once!'
Just one win, and it all ends.
I can go with this instruction.
'I have to go that way.'
It's the least scary and fastest path. Please, please...
"Rock, paper, scissors."
Tie.
"...Rock, paper, scissors."
......
I raised my head.
My fist-clenched hand.
And in the mirror, my face smiling with palm fully open.
Lost.
Clunk.
The elevator stopped.
All the red lights on the buttons went out, plunging the interior into darkness. I barely suppressed a scream.
'Crazy, crazy...'
I barely lifted my head.
In the massive mirror illuminating this pitch-black elevator interior...
"......"
The elevator door was fully open.
1930819F, a bizarre floor number lit up on the display. Beyond the wide-open door in the mirror was only void.
And...
The ghost was standing right next to me.
"......"
I was breathing heavily.
The ghost from far in the mirror, the one I'd played rock-paper-scissors with, had entered through the open door and was now right in front of me in the mirror.
I rolled my eyes to look beside me.
The empty, dim interior, the firmly closed elevator door.
But in the mirror,
From the darkness of the wide-open elevator door, another version of me stood beside me, grinning ear to ear with joy, staring piercingly at me...
......
The smiling something in the mirror lowered its hand.
Lip movements without sound.
Rock, paper, scissors.
And it puts out rock.
"......!"
I broke into a cold sweat seeing my own hand thrust out rock just in time.
I have to match it.
"Rock, paper, scissors."
Once more, I extended my hand.
Opponent had rock. And I...
Scissors.
"......"
Lost.
From now on, it's not you.
The entity in the mirror will ask the questions.
The ghost in the mirror, taking my form, moved its fingers to leave marks on the mirror.
Fuck.
With trembling hands, I wrote on the mirror.
Hee hee hee.
The ghost in the mirror standing beside me laughed.
...I have to endure.
I'm going insane.
'Why can't I win even once?'
Even scouring the wiki's exploration records in my head, no answer.
Because the rock-paper-scissors with the ghost wasn't the focus to begin with.
The emphasis was on what questions came after. There was no bypass like how to beat rock-paper-scissors.
Rock-paper-scissors is a game of luck to begin with.
No sure win method. But...
I barely stared at the ghost in the mirror beside me, piercingly watching me.
'...If it never loses even once until now, how?'
Simple luck?
The cliché where the mirror me knows what I'll play?
'But then how did others win?'
And in my case now too.
'If it knows everything, it shouldn't tie either, right?'
If it can win, why...
"Rock, paper, scissors."
Damn.
I hurriedly extended my hand.
I had scissors, the ghost had... rock.
"......"
My fingers trembled.
The ghost in the mirror hopped around madly.
...Because only one was left.
"......"
I've already answered twice.
My name.
My birthday.
......Now I only have one chance left to mess up.
'It's over.'
...That's what 99 means.
I'll get swapped.
With the something in the mirror.
'No.'
Cold sweat poured.
But no time to mull it over. I no longer had control...
"Rock, paper, scissors."
I hurriedly extended my hand.
Paper vs. paper. Tie.
'Phew......'
Barely catching my breath...
Rock, paper, scissors.
"...!"
Missed it.
Failed to respond.
'Fuck.'
I gritted my teeth, bracing for what came next...
......
Huh?
Nothing happened.
'...Ah!'
I realized. Since I hadn't lowered the hand I was holding, it counted as responding to the new rock-paper-scissors.
'Right. I was holding paper...'
"......"
Wait a minute.
I recalled all the rock-paper-scissors results with the ghost so far.
This, could it be...
"Rock, paper, scissors."
I didn't change my hand this time either.
Tie.
"Rock, paper, scissors."
Again.
And after that too...
I kept putting out paper and stayed still.
What's amazing was that the ghost did the same.
Three ties in a row.
'...As I thought.'
I swallowed hard.
I seemed to have realized something crucial.
That's why paper always ties.
If I play paper, it has to play scissors to win. But it can't, so to avoid losing, it has no choice but to play paper too.
'Why?'
Why can't it?
There must be backstory... No, right now it's just groundless speculation, so focus on the phenomenon.
Anyway, I have a defense method now...
Rock, paper, scissors.
I hurriedly spread my hand.
From now on, if I just keep playing paper this way, I can always tie.
'But I can't tie forever.'
That's even more hopeless because it's not in the manual at all.
Yes. The condition hasn't changed.
'I absolutely have to win once, just once.'
How can I win...
'...If the ghost, being the "me in the mirror," already knew what I'd play,'
The bypass was surprisingly simple.
'Just play randomly.'
That's probably how everyone passed.
Whether civilians in panic playing randomly without knowing what they were doing,
Or Field Exploration Team employees with strong nerves who don't feel fear, casually playing whatever came to hand since they knew the manual.
Even if they snapped out midway and got predicted, five or six rounds would net a win. No need to record what was played or not.
But I avoided both.
The reason...
'...Silver ring!'
Wearing a mental defense item so no panic state, but scared and calculating each one led to this mess. Damn...!
A coward not getting debuffed is the worst outcome.
'Should I take off the ring now?'
No, too late. Only one chance.
'How the hell...'
I roughly wiped the sweat streaming down my temple.
In the process, a sleeve button scraped my cheek, drawing blood. I wiped the sweat and blood together.
...That instant.
A red line appeared on the ghost's cheek in the mirror too.
"...!"
And red stained its sleeve.
...The blood mixed with my wiped sweat, exactly.
Wait.
'It shares my status...?'
Yeah. It's a mirror reflecting me after all.
Even if it's a ghost shaped like me moving alone in the mirror, it's affected by the 'me' outside...
......!
Yes.
'...Then!'
A flash of realization hit.
I gritted my teeth and rummaged in my pocket.
The ghost shaped like me in the mirror mockingly rummaged in its own pocket, pulling out the exact same thing.
But what I pulled out wasn't some great item.
Just a pen and rubber band.
'Hurry.'
I slipped the pen onto my fingers and started wrapping the rubber band...
Rock, paper, scissors.
"...!"
Responded.
While responding to the mirror me's sudden rock-paper-scissors with a tie, I fixed one pen vertically on the thumb and index finger of my right hand.
And left hand too.
'Qui-ckly.'
Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Like it was interfering, the ghost in the mirror kept extending its hand. I breathlessly responded while continuing the work.
The ballpoint tip scraped my arm and hand several times as I slipped.
But...
Rock, paper, scissors.
'...Done!'
I hurriedly extended my hand.
But this time, it wasn't paper.
With index and thumb fixed so they couldn't bend...
Scissors.
......!
But the opponent in the mirror still had all fingers spread wide in paper.
To be precise...
'It can't play anything else!'
The pen and rubber band I'd fixed to prevent bending index and thumb restrained its fingers.
'Can't make a fist.'
But from its position unable to play scissors either... it could only spread its hand. In the end...
Scissors vs. paper.
"...!!"
Won.
"Yes...!"
Thud!
The ghost in the mirror slammed its head against the glass.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
I froze in place.
Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud!!
The mirror cracks.
Fractures spread like ripples, shattering.
But, but...
The thing in the mirror couldn't come out.
....
The vibrations stopped.
The thing that had been headbutting outward lifted its head in the mirror.
What had been grinning ear to ear until moments ago was expressionless.
It looked down at its both hands, bound unable to bend joints, then twisted its face.
Twisted it!
With an inhumanly bizarre expression, no, that bizarre expression glaring at me...
Kya ha ha ha!!
It laughed maniacally and dashed out the open elevator door in the mirror.
"......"
"Huuuuu..."
I collapsed to the floor.
The elevator moved again.
The bizarre text vanished from the floor display, showing normal numbers...
Ding-dong-
I'm alive.
I staggered out into the dim hallway.
Though I'd entered during the day, it felt like night had fallen; the hallway's glass windows were sparsely shattered, taped up, or covered in graffiti.
The interior of the abandoned building where I'd have screamed and fled if alone now gave even that fear a sense of relief...
I moved toward the nearest one, directly across.
The glass was hazed with dust, but without hesitation, I placed my finger on it.
The question I was most curious about.
The wish I desired.
I lifted my finger from the glass.
Then, at the bottom of the glass window, other letters began to appear...
"...!"
The answer to my question.