Escape Manual for 666 Village — Precautions
First and foremost, we recommend that you avoid touching or carrying any object that does not appear on the list described above whenever possible.
In this ominous space, you should assume that virtually nothing is a normal object.
As an example, there is a Broken Silver Pocket Watch that our side discovered while investigating the village.
When carried, this watch most often produces no effect at all — yet we have confirmed instances of sudden spatial displacement within the village, bodily dismemberment, and even the healing of wounds.
There have also been agents who vanished with nothing but a sudden death cry.
This pocket watch disappeared after its ability activated only once.
Helpful items, by contrast, are exceedingly rare — though they are occasionally found.
Originally, we had no choice but to leave this manual only along the outer edges of the village.
Items brought in from the outside were confirmed to vanish somewhere the moment an agent escaped.
It follows, then, that there have been victims who failed to escape simply because this manual was not present.
However, this notebook that we discovered within the village was confirmed to automatically record, over time, the experiences of the agent who carried it during the investigation. We therefore used it to transcribe the contents of the manual as that agent remembered them.
It harbors various other unknown abilities as well, but no usable beneficial power has yet been identified. After multiple sealing procedures, only the contents of the 666 Village Escape Manual can currently be viewed.
Countless objects remain unidentified, and the work of examining each one to uncover new methods of escape falls to our Counter-Anomaly Terror Strategy Department.
You need only concentrate on escaping according to the rules set down in this manual.
We reiterate once more: do not possess or covet any object within the village.
The moment you emerge outside, that object will vanish — and if fortune turns against you, you may never return to reality at all.
Should you need to leave the house and operate outside, trust no one you encounter in the village.
Above all, never let them see you.
They are murderers.
At times they will make no attempt to hide their true nature and will throw everything into killing you. Others will appear as kind residents. Still others will try to deceive you by wearing the face of a sacrificial victim fleeing just as you are.
Do not be fooled by any guise.
Even if it appears that one person is killing another, run.
They have been trapped here for a long time, and for that long time the only offerings available for human sacrifice have been one another.
No matter how many times you kill them, they will return.
However — if you have acquired an ominous golden ring from a house within the village, put it on and show your hand before the residents outside catch you.
Unless you do something conspicuous, they will recognize you as one of their own.
But please: do not make the mistake of trusting the ring and strolling the streets at your leisure.
As stated above, they feel no aversion to killing even among fellow residents. They simply prioritize offering outsiders as sacrifices first.
Furthermore, if someone came here with you from the outside, we recommend that you constantly suspect them — or better yet, move alone.
There are beings here that mimic human form.
They love to toy with people.
Before you know it, they will appear wearing your face, or the face of the one who came with you.
They are excellent actors.
It has been confirmed, however, that they cannot seize people's memories.
Use this as a means of verifying one another — but do not put too much faith in it.
As we have said, they are very clever, and they act extremely well.
They may be listening somewhere to every scrap of information you let slip.
Never let them catch you. You will endure something far more horrific than anything you can imagine.
Next: beware of the large tree that bears bizarre fruit.
Whenever a living creature — or any being at all — draws near, this tree begins dropping its fruit.
Dozens of small fruits fall at once. Should even one of them enter your mouth, ear, or eye by accident, that fruit will somehow reach your innards and begin to boil.
The tree slowly relocates itself by means of the countless vines wrapped around its trunk, branches, and roots.
If a massive shadow falls over your head, leave that spot at once.
The tree is nearby.
Next: beware of the fog.
This fog, spread without a single gap through the forest that surrounds the village, begins to writhe as if alive.
Without special preparation, do not attempt to escape into the fog in order to leave the village.
It has not yet been determined where those who vanished into the fog went. But from the case of an agent who left only a long, terrible scream — without even time to speak — before radio contact cut off and they disappeared, we have confirmed with certainty that the fog, or something within it, is extremely dangerous.
Fortunately, it can do no harm so long as you remain outside it. But if you have made even the slightest contact with the fog, attempt to escape as quickly as possible.
Most of those who touched the fog could not resist a strange urge to leap into it within approximately five minutes.
Do not look up at the sky.
In proportion to the time you spend outside the house wandering the village, the urge to look up at the sky will grow.
The time it takes for this urge to intensify has been confirmed to vary according to a person's mental fortitude.
The sky that briefly enters your peripheral vision while you look ahead is fine. But do not tilt your head back to look up.
Above the sky, either a landscape your mind cannot endure is spread out, or an unknown being is present — so we presume.
Do not throw away your life out of curiosity.
Finally: beware of the giant Black Goat with yellow glowing eyes.
That thing which walks on two legs does not appear in the village frequently, but it does show itself on very rare occasions.
From the moment it discovers you, that thing of bizarre form will give off a sulfur stench and pursue you with relentless tenacity.
It is no different if you are the one who spotted the goat first.
You have seen the object of their worship — and as is always the case, the moment you perceived it, it also perceived you.
At first it will move at a very slow speed. But as time passes, that speed will increase.
To date, no upper limit to the increasing speed has been observed.
At the same time, the ground of the village will gradually crack into multiple fissures.
The cracked earth will open wider and wider until you fall through.
It can know your location regardless of where you are or where you hide.
By all means, do not be discovered. But if you have been found, attempt to escape regardless of how prepared — or unprepared — you may be.
As a rule, entities encountered outside can almost all be shaken off by entering a house within the village. The goat is the exception.
It only makes surviving inside the village houses more difficult.
If it seems the goat is about to catch you, run into the forest without any preparation at all.
Attempting escape through the forest with no preparation has a vanishingly slim chance of success — but it is nothing compared to being caught by the goat.
When every escape attempt from Envy's House — where you are currently located — has failed, you must next attempt escape from Greed's House, situated toward the inner village.
But please: we hope there will be no need for any escape attempt from Greed's House.
Greed's House has an owner, and escape will become even more difficult.
In principle, escape can be attempted from each of the village's four houses. But keep just one thing firmly in mind.
Access to the indescribably vast mansion at the center of the village is prohibited.
Statistics show that the goat's appearances have been most frequent in the vicinity of the mansion — and to date, not a single escape using the mansion has succeeded.
Be sure to escape using the four houses on the outer edge of the village.
If escape using Envy's House has failed, turn the pages of the notebook, check each table of contents, and attempt the appropriate escape for each house in order.
Should you succeed in escaping, you will in most cases arrive at a currently unused bus stop one kilometer from the demolished 666 Village.
Please call the phone number printed on the flyer posted inside the phone booth beside the bus stop.
Our Counter-Anomaly Terror Strategy Department will dispatch agents to extract you.
If, against extreme odds, you manage to escape under the guidance of our Rulebook, you may receive free of charge the memory-and-anomaly erasure service administered by the Counter-Anomaly Terror Strategy Department.
Of course, declining the service is also possible. But most survivors who refused it could not bear the memories of what they had experienced. They crumbled little by little until, at last, madness took hold, intensified, and they met an end of total insanity.
We hope you make the right judgment.
And may fortune be with you.
I skimmed through the writing at speed and grasped the situation — including why I was still alive.
I wanted to read further, but a presence stirred from the hallway. I snapped the thick leather notebook shut, shoved it into my bag, and began pretending to search the study.
The instant my finger touched a book on the shelf, the door opened and someone walked in.