Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard

In front of me was a gray, hazy hospital lobby.

From the layout, this should be the starting point leading to various departments of the hospital.

The lobby was quite spacious, with dim lighting, toppled chairs, shattered glass, and a pitch-black passage ahead leading to an unknown destination... Dark shadows seemed to linger between them... Although it was afternoon, it appeared as quiet as midnight.

"Strange, how... did it become so dark as soon as we entered...?" Kitagawa Sakisa huddled behind Kyujuu Rika, suspiciously scanning the surroundings.

"Weren't you not afraid?" Uesugi Sakura said with a smile.

"Of, of course I'm not afraid... I'm—"

Crash.

A sudden sound of glass shattering came from the right side, and Kitagawa Sakisa almost reflexively turned towards the sound, but there was only a pitch-black area, nothing could be seen... Only some inexplicable dark yellow hard grime on the old floor.

"Ue, Uesugi... give me the flashlight..." Kitagawa Sakisa stared unblinkingly at that blot of darkness, moving to Uesugi Sakura's side.

"No, there's only one flashlight here, if you lose it in such darkness, we won't be able to get out."

"Don't... don't worry... I, I won't lose it." Kitagawa Sakisa looked around hesitantly, her voice trembling.

Uesugi Sakura looked towards the place where the glass shattered earlier, the beam from the flashlight flickered, illuminating a charred, cripple-legged chair...

Above the cripple-legged chair, there were red bloodstains, with a yellowed, tattered scarf hanging on the back.

Hanamaru Hanabi was hiding behind Uesugi Sakura at this point, and when the flashlight swung over, she couldn't help but take a glance, immediately grabbing Uesugi Sakura's clothes from behind in fright, pressing her little head against his back.

Noticing Hanamaru Hanabi trembling behind him, Uesugi Sakura asked Kitagawa Sakisa, who was also shrinking her neck:

"Is this what you wanted to see?"

"Yes, yes..."

"It's nothing, just a chair."

"But when we entered from the small room earlier... didn't we see a woman in the clue introduction? She was the one who killed the doctor... that scarf on her neck was just like that one..." Kitagawa Sakisa said, staring at the silently tattered scarf.

Kitagawa Sakisa felt increasingly uneasy, the atmosphere here was odd, very dark.

The entire hospital lobby had only one dim lamp swaying at the entrance of the passage ahead, surrounded by darkness where nothing could be fully seen, appearing extremely terrifying.

"That clip earlier?"

"Yes."

When they first entered this haunted house, the staff had first led them into a dark little room.

The staff wore a white coat and a mask, saying nothing.

After they entered, the staff turned back and locked the room's door.

Only the four of them remained in that black, cramped concrete room.

Soon after, the wall screen in the darkness suddenly lit up.

Medical disturbance, Doctor Fujiko, the scarfed woman...

The clip, in a style of a horror movie, announced the task they needed to complete.

Find a mirror that was lost by Doctor Fujiko during a medical disturbance incident.

"What was the name of this hospital again?" Kitagawa Sakisa asked nervously.

"Ciji General Hospital," Uesugi Sakura answered casually.

Kyujuu Rika thought for a moment: "Doctor Fujiko is a surgeon, right? We should check around the operating room."

"Which floor is her department on?"

"Seems like the third floor... but the introduction didn't explicitly say."

Uesugi Sakura glanced at the hospital floor map in the lobby, which was made of plastic, with a hard texture but had a similar burnt appearance.

"Let's go, let's check Doctor Fujiko's department first."

The four approached the dim lamp at the entrance of the passage and proceeded along the hospital corridor.

The corridor was lined with worn-out doors, some tightly shut, some ajar, and some wide open.

Though they were open, it was completely impossible to see what was inside.

Once looking past, the gaze would quickly be consumed by the quiet, pitch-black.

The space here was very narrow, with debris and patient-use mobile beds piled up in the corridor, barely allowing two people to walk side by side.

Hanamaru Hanabi dared not even open her eyes, tightly holding onto Uesugi Sakura's clothes hem at the back, following his steps.

She was really afraid of ghosts, having a timid nature since childhood.

If there was a power outage at night and she happened to want to go to the bathroom, she would wake Uesugi Sakura to accompany her.

The four of them arrived at the stairway entrance, with stairs to the left and an elevator to the right.

The elevator was somewhat old, with rusty edges and corners.

The staircase was spiral, and there seemed to be some drawings on the walls, with an unclear liquid puddle on the ground.

"Elevator or stairs?"

"Stairs, stairs! Wait..."

Kitagawa Sakisa said but then looked towards the dark stairwell corner again, worrying... what if something jumps out when reaching the stair corner?

That place was so dark, what if a long-haired female nurse suddenly appeared...

"Let's take the elevator instead..." Kitagawa Sakisa reconsidered saying.

But as soon as she said it, she glanced back at the light coming down from above the elevator.

The light came from above.

In this dark corridor, the elevator door seemed deliberately accentuated by this light source,

The light intentionally highlighted the existence of the elevator in the corridor.

It seemed to imply that players take the elevator.

"Still, the stairs, stairs would be better."

Seeing that Kitagawa Sakisa couldn't make a decision, Uesugi Sakura asked Hanamaru Hanabi, hiding behind him:

"Where do you think we should go to the third floor, Hanabi?"