I raised a megaphone and shouted at the anomalies lined up in a row.
"Roll call begins. Count off from left to right."
"Y-yes! One...!!"
"Do it again, without the ‘yes’ at the front."
"Yes!! One!!!"
"Oh, come on."
When I pressed a hand to my throbbing temple,
the anomalies clutched one another and trembled.
[Six nonhuman entities have felt fear.]
[+60 GP!]
I wasn’t trying to get that.
I lowered my hand and looked over the anomalies before me.
First, there was the humanoid anomaly with three white tails, which had just demonstrated a spectacularly useless moment.
An anomaly shaped like a blind anglerfish.
An anomaly whose entire body of flesh had been compressed into one enormous ball.
And so on.
From the tips of their hair to their toes,
they were anomalies that looked exactly as I had envisioned them.
"We’ll skip roll call. Other than Miho, you’re all low-intelligence anomalies anyway, so I wasn’t expecting much."
"...!!"
"Grrrurk!"
"Kieeeek!!"
The anomalies answered resoundingly in their respective cries.
All except one—no, one anomaly.
Miho, whose tails were standing stiffly upright.
"Why aren’t you answering?"
"H-how do you know my name...?"
"Ah."
Miho stared up at me with her eyes wide and round.
Come to think of it, they wouldn’t know.
I had naturally assumed Maestro would have told them.
"To put it simply, it’s because I’m your dad."
"...What? No, yes!?"
"I am your father."
As though she had lagged out, Miho stood frozen in place for a while.
A moment later, Miho finally came to her senses, vigorously shook her head, and spoke.
"S-Senior is my dad—no, my father!?"
"Something like that."
Not her biological parent, of course.
Still, since she had come into being because I envisioned her, Miho could be considered my child—my daughter.
I had named her too.
Then Miho gave me an odd look and asked,
"...Should I call you Father from now on?"
"Forget it. Just call me Senior."
"Phewww..."
Calling me Father was a bit much, no matter what.
I wasn’t even married yet.
Leaving Miho behind as she let out a sigh of relief for some reason,
Clunk.
I set the megaphone I was holding down on the floor.
"Actually, the newcomer welcome party was just an excuse. There’s another reason I called you here."
"Geggek?"
"Don’t eat or harm people."
Unlike Miho, the others liked killing.
Because that was how I had set them up.
They were monsters that mindlessly rushed at people to devour them.
There was no telling what would happen if I just left them alone.
"If you’re short on food, come get it from me. I’ll replace it with something better and tastier."
"Krrrraaargh...!"
The anglerfish anomaly cried out, swinging the bulb on its head.
Yeah, I had expected this much resistance.
"Here. I’ll give you one as a sample."
I reached into the plastic bag I had brought along.
Whoosh!
"Krak—!?"
I tossed an energy bar into the anglerfish anomaly’s mouth.
At first, it looked startled.
But its expression gradually brightened, and the bulb on its forehead lit up brilliantly.
"Is it edible, at least?"
"Krak! Krararak!!!"
"Energy bars are pretty crackly, yeah."
That settled the food problem.
They probably wanted to eat energy bars more than flavorless humans anyway.
All that remained was their innate love of slaughter.
"Miho. I need a favor."
"Yes, Senior! Leave it to me!!"
At my call, Miho confidently stepped forward.
The dignified bearing of a fox anomaly radiated from her expression alone.
Trusting her, I quietly waited.
"..."
"...Miho?"
"Um, what exactly would you have me do?"
Miho scratched one of her pointed ears and stared blankly at me.
Right, she was still a three-tailed fox.
It made sense that she would be a little lacking in the intelligence department.
"Make these guys a little gentler. Make sure they don’t take the first swing at humans."
"Ah! Understood!"
Miho turned to face the anomalies.
Fwoosh!
When she extended both hands, a bluish ball of flame appeared before her.
"O roots of evil, cruel by nature, be cleansed of your sins by this flame."
With Miho’s chant, the flame shot toward the anomalies.
I had heard blue fire was extremely hot.
Yet the anomalies put up no resistance at all.
As if bewitched by something, they merely stared quietly at the flame.
"Puhu! That should have made them quite gentle, Senior!"
Miho crossed her arms and wore a smug expression.
"Yeah, Miho. Thanks, but—"
"Ufufu! It was nothing—"
"You don’t need to chant when you use your ability, though."
"...!!"
Flush!
Miho’s face turned red as a carrot.
The whole chanting setting had been discarded during the planning stage.
It was the sort of setting that belonged in some superpowered battle series, not a ghost story.
Which meant Miho had gone out of her way to chant because...
"Chanting is cool, though. I respect the preference."
"N-no, it’s not like that..."
"Good work with the chanting. I’ll send you a reward through the gallery, so dismiss the others."
"Please listen to me, Senior...!!"
I waved a hand behind me and stepped away.
This was when a parent shouldn’t interfere.
She was at that age when she needed some alone time, mm-hmm.
[One nonhuman entity has felt fear?]
[+50 GP!]
Yes, points.
**
[Help] Um... are there any anomalies available right now...?
Author: MadamRabbit
(Photo of an endlessly sprawling swimming pool)
(Photo of rabbit ears barely visible in the left corner)
I accidentally got trapped in a location-type low-intelligence ghost story...
No matter how hard I look for an exit, I can’t find one at all.
Please, could someone rescue me?
I’ll send you the location in a private chat.
[Total comments - 14]
YoungIsBest: Huh? Quit lying.
└ YoungIsBest: How does a gallery member old enough to be an auntie get trapped?
└ FenceLover: This guy is always fighting with her lol.
└ CleanlinessKing: They say rivals know their rivals best.
└ CleanlinessKing: At least he acknowledges her skills lolol.
└ [Author] MadamRabbit: No, the escape button doesn’t work here—
└ [Author] MadamRabbit: Anyway, please save meㅠㅠㅠ
EightSpiderLegs: I’ll go. Send the address.
└ [Author] MadamRabbit: Oh my god, really??
└ LookAtMyEyes: Wow, someone’s actually saving her.
└ EightSpiderLegs: Gallery members have to help each other out, yeah.
└ DevotedSpider: As expected of our queen!!!!!!
ㅇㅇ(599.5): lol
└ Chrishimas: Who’s this? Why are they so famous?
└ WindWind: Haven’t seen them on the gallery before. Must be a newcomer.
**
"Ow, my aching body... Handing out energy bars is hard work."
The moment I got home, I flopped facedown on the floor.
I had given every energy bar I brought to the anomalies.
The plastic bag that had definitely been stuffed to bursting
had been emptied by their countless requests to take some.
"At least they probably won’t attack people anymore. The problem is this."
Tap, tap.
I tapped on my phone and opened the Status Window.
「Status Window: Stage 2
User: ㅇㅇ(999.1)
Available abilities:
Ghost Story Minor Gallery
Nonhuman Communication
Ghost Story Enhancement
Ghost Story Summoning
Increase Ghost Story Trust
■■ ■?
■■ Win■
The Status Window’s stage is too low, so some abilities have been locked.
Remaining GP: 658
Cost of next enhancement: 1000 GP」
"I expected it, but... I’m still nowhere near enough."
The remaining problem was acquiring GP.
Now that I knew my ghost stories became real, I could no longer post ghost-story threads.
But if I did that, I couldn’t obtain fear, which meant I couldn’t acquire GP either.
It was like reading web novels at dawn and being too sleepy the next day,
but feeling reluctant to go to sleep instead.
"What am I even supposed to do about this? Should I seriously get a part-time job at a haunted house?"
Slide.
Just as I reached for an energy bar,
"...Ah, right. I gave them all away."
I realized I had run out of the energy bars I had stockpiled.
"I should stop by the Backrooms again. Might as well check in on our Backrooms too."
I took the Backrooms Summoning Ticket from my pocket.
At the same time, dozens of hands blocked my vision.
When I opened my eyes, I should have seen the familiar scenery of the Backrooms—
"What the hell? Where is this?"
...But that was not the case.
A gigantic sinkhole had split the yellowish-brown floor clean in half.
And inside it was a swimming pool.
[Chat] It’s cleaner inside than I thought.
Author: EightSpiderLegs
(Photo of an endlessly sprawling swimming pool)
But it’s seriously freaking huge, damn...
No, most location-type ghost stories end after walking for around thirty minutes,
but I’ve been walking for three hours here and I still can’t see the end.
(Photo of a web stretching far behind the camera)
I’m shooting webs as I walk for now,
so if you find them, follow them to me.
[Total comments - 9]
MadamRabbit: Thank you so muchㅠㅠ I’ll definitely repay you once I get out.
└ YoungIsBest: You should be grateful to that gallery member for the rest of your life, auntie.
CleanlinessKing: But how are you going to escape?
└ CleanlinessKing: Do you even know the way out?
└ [Author] EightSpiderLegs: Nope? I don’t know.
└ CleanlinessKing: ?
└ [Author] EightSpiderLegs: Worst case, I can just smash everything until we get out, yeah.
└ WhiteBear: Lmao.
└ ChaoticLife: You think someone who went up against a branch director is a joke or something? Lmao.
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