Can I Come In?
Can I Come In?
After losing ■■■, Jin had lived half-insane. Completely losing his sense of the passage of time.
His leg was injured. It was a permanent wound. He still limped to this day.
Because of that, it was true that he had trouble in combat, but even considering that, Jin still hadn't put down his profession as a Watcher.
The thing he saw that day. An anomaly in human form. It definitely wasn't a monster.
There were monsters that deceived humans, of course.
However, those were limited to things like making themselves hard to see or emitting spores that caused hallucinations.
He had never seen one before. A monster that could deceive a person to that extent and burrow into their vulnerabilities.
And as soon as it caught the scent of blood, it returned to its true form as if losing its reason; Jin knew nothing at all about a monster that could exert such violent power at that moment.
It still remained in his memory. That hideous true form.
There was no way it could be a monster, something so impossibly bizarre.
Jin continued to investigate it. He investigated that anomaly.
Even if his leg was injured, he could still perform the task of checking various documents and organizing the influx of information.
He was also able to obtain various pieces of information from the corpse of the anomaly whose life he had finally taken that day.
The Company named that anomaly a Doppelganger. He agreed; it was a perfect name for a bastard that mimicked a human form.
As a primary characteristic, it transforms into a human. And it deceives humans.
Can it only transform into real people?
The one that attacked the Watchers, including himself, that day was mimicking the appearance of a comrade.
The original comrade was found at his residence. He was found not as a corpse, but in the form of a hardened, thick pool of blood.
If one were to write a very optimistic scenario, it could be that he only shed blood and didn't die... but that was impossible.
The blood he shed was definitely a lethal amount. The reason no corpse remained was not because he escaped without dying, but because he died so brutally that not even a corpse could be left behind.
Then... does a Doppelganger transform into that form after murdering the person who will become the original?
Well, it didn't seem that way. There were cases where Doppelgangers appeared occasionally after that, and quite a few counterexamples had piled up.
There were clearly many people who looked human on the outside, but beyond having an unclear identity, there were many cases where it was as if they had just dropped out of the sky.
...No, in the first place, the Doppelganger itself is such a peculiar species.
For all the anomalies Jin had met while working as a Watcher, he had been able to create a sort of manual for how to respond.
Starting from, 'Never, ever press the button,' to,
'Do not make eye contact,' or
'Keep making eye contact,' and things like that.
Or there were also slightly irresponsible ones like, 'Run away with all your might. Good luck.'
There were certainly things whose response methods had not yet been properly revealed.
There were things that remained close to a mystery even after several years had passed.
The <The Man in the Dream>, whom many people said they had seen but whose conditions for appearing and purpose remained a mystery, was one such case.
Or, there were things where the manual, that is, the response method, was so simple it was ridiculous.
<Deathbell Co.'s Vending Machine>, <Doom in a Can>.
Never drink it.
If you have drunk it, never associate with other people.
We strongly recommend that you find peace by taking your own life alone—manuals like that.
The only thing written was not to drink it, and if you did, the level was just 'just die,' but even so, it was a manual.
...But this thing called a Doppelganger is difficult.
It wasn't just a matter of the response method being difficult. That was true, but there was an even more headache-inducing point.
Doppelgangers were so diverse in their types that it was hard to group them as one.
The one Jin first witnessed, which had no skin and was made of monster-like bones and muscles.
The one whose shadow occasionally faded and sometimes made a crackling chijijik sound from its body.
The one that looked like a kind of mannequin imitating a human.
He couldn't create a definitive way to distinguish between humans and Doppelgangers. They were too diverse.
The only reason they were grouped as Doppelgangers was simply because all those diverse things mimicked human forms to deceive people.
That's why it seemed difficult. To figure out a manual on how to deal with these Doppelgangers.
Jin had simply made up his mind to face those bastards as much as possible and use the experience he had accumulated.
...But there was one fortunate point.
There is a single characteristic that these Doppelgangers share.
These bastards are weakest when they haven't released their mimicry of the human state.
He didn't know why they insisted on a weaker appearance normally, but if he could launch a surprise attack and finish them in one blow, they were at least manageable.
As the situation flowed this way, one very surprising fact emerged.
The best way to deal with a Doppelganger is to surprise it and kill it in one blow before it releases its mimicry.
Accordingly...
Indeed, very surprisingly,
If Kasen, who taught him the sword, heard this, he would truly hit the floor in rage, but,
It was battōjutsu.
"Hmm?"
It happened one day. An order was handed down. A clean envelope was in his hand.
He wondered what was going on. Until now, there had been no such orders. He had just acted as he pleased and went to face anomalies.
Seeing it now, is it because he's active enough despite one leg being fucked up?
Have they finally felt like making him do something?
He muttered cynically. It could be that. He was probably just being sensitive right now.
He really had cut down a lot during that time. Many Doppelgangers too. Even more ordinary anomalies.
If nothing else, when it came to things regarding Doppelgangers, he could pride himself on the fact that no one knew more than he did.
To the point where it was hard to believe he had suffered an injury that would warrant immediate retirement or a transfer to a desk job.
Anyway, he stops grumbling, tears open the letter, and reads it.
He skips the tedious introduction and even deciphers the useless and annoying code.
And so... if he reads it....
"...Huh?"
They had issued a very, very interesting order.
No. Honestly, it's a bit ambiguous to even see it as an order.
"It's not like a kid tattling to an adult, so what is this?"
They had simply provided him with a single piece of information.
In a city, and a large city with a fairly large population at that, Doppelgangers were said to have appeared in large numbers.
To the point where they strictly managed entry and exit to prevent the spread of further damage.
Nowhere did it specifically order him to go to this place.
Rather, it's a truly dangerous place. It was more like a warning to be careful since it was information few people knew.
...But would they really have sent him this letter for just that reason?
Clearly, they must have been certain that Jin would head there once he read this letter.
Because that's how it had been until now.
"Correct."
And it wasn't wrong either.
He would. Jin had no intention of staying still even after hearing the news that there were Doppelgangers.
That was the biggest reason. The biggest reason he was heading there.
However, this wasn't the only reason.
"...Was it not even the tutorial yet? Good grief...."
Jin had wondered several times how on earth he had come to this other world.
Was it a normal reincarnation, or was it a possession?
If it was possession, was it a novel possession or a game possession?
Lastly, what was the world-view of the place he possessed?
His first guess was a common fantasy adventurer story where one subjugates monsters with swords and magic.
And after properly learning of the existence of anomalies, it was an anomaly story where one faces these anomalies, understands them, and neutralizes them.
...In conclusion, he was entirely wrong. It was true that what he possessed was a game.
It was also true it was fantasy. The setting was a bit mixed.
It was also an anomaly story. In this game, anomalies were treated with much more focus than monsters.
However, excluding that, Jin could painfully realize the fact that he had been acting differently from the original goal of this game all this time.
At the same time, the fact that he was absolutely not the protagonist of this game.
It was only after hearing the name of the city, <Citadel>, and the news that monstrous creatures mimicking humans had appeared in large numbers that he remembered.
The purpose of this game is not to face anomalies.
It is to survive from monstrous creatures that mimic humans.
It was a game where you let them in if they're human and lock the door if they're not.
...And he had been slashing such things until now.
When told to run away if it didn't seem human, he had been catching them and beating the shit out of them.
'What the fuck is this...?'
<Can I Come In?>
The title of this game and its most representative line.
2D, dot-style, survival. And... point-and-click?
He wasn't sure if that was right. It was a genre he had learned about after looking it up because he liked it so much before.
Dots drawn with great care. Cute graphics and character designs.
Lastly, the purpose of the game that contrasted with that.
It was a work that gained quite a bit of popularity. Unless it really didn't suit one's taste, it was worth buying and playing.
What was it called for short?
...Unfortunately, there was nothing like that.
It was just called <Can I Come In?>.
Because the community related to this game wasn't particularly active. It was a game that was quite hard to stick with for a long time.
Every character visits the protagonist's house and spits out this line.
You inspect that character. You inspect them, and if they seem human, you let them in; if not, you refuse.
Even if you let a Doppelganger in, it's not an immediate game over.
You can continue to have conversations at home and confirm whether they are human or not through that.
You just have to kick the Doppelganger out within a few days. Then at least you won't get a game over.
It was that kind of game. He had enjoyed it quite a bit too.
He just hadn't even collected all the endings yet, and he didn't know he would be possessed....
"...Status window?"
This time, too, nothing appeared as usual.
"I didn't even expect it."
He just tried it once because it felt like the game was finally starting.
It was a shame.
Now that he knew this was inside a game, he had no choice but to head for the Citadel.
It wasn't to be incorporated into the game's story.
It was just because it felt like he could get the truth related to Doppelgangers if he went there.
And so, Jin heads for the Citadel.
Where is he right now?
"...The atmosphere is nice."
In the middle of a forest.
Since it was night, he had lit a campfire.