Underworld Player

Orphanage, second floor.

"Judging by the coagulation, the corpse has to be at least five or six hours old," said Daoloth as she carefully distanced herself from the disemboweled body.

"And yet, we just heard him over the walkie-talkie a few minutes ago."

Iron Blood was unmoved.

"I fuckin' knew he was no good. He was the one who suggested we split up, even under these conditions! That's a sure sign that people are gonna die in horror movies, don't you know?" scoffed Douchey, SoWhat with his arms folded.

Despite his cocky speech, he kept his eyes averted, clearly afraid to even catch a glimpse of the gory remains.

Of the three squads, they were the only one which had yet to have a direct encounter with a supernatural entity. The search on the first floor had gone smoothly, and since the brief alarm about the drawings, they had discovered nothing else of note.

Once they were sure there was nothing more to find on the first floor, the three of them had moved in single file up to the second, which was where they discovered the dead body of Traveler, strangled to death by his own intestines.

Just as they were reeling from the shock of the discovery, there came, from the walkie-talkie, the sound of Traveler's request for assistance. Their eyes were drawn to Traveler's corpse undeniably dangling in mid-air, even as they heard his voice unmistakably coming from the walkie-talkie...

Faced with this paradox, they quickly suspected that the walkie-talkies had been tampered with. Douchey, SoWhat had been the first to fling his walkie-talkie away.

"He's a real Player, though. He even showed his handle half an hour earlier, and as you know, information like that can't be fabricated," said Daoloth, frowning. "Besides, didn't we get those notifications about the strange activity getting neutralized just a few minutes ago? The first one soon after Traveler asked for help, and another about five minutes after that... Presumably Traveler was saved somehow, followed by Black&White's squad successfully resolving another problem."

"How do you explain this corpse, then?" Douchey, SoWhat contorted his face in disgust as he pinched his nostrils shut, desperately trying to keep out the putrid smell which seemed to want to drill its way into his skull. "Look at the evidence—that voice coming from the walkie-talkie has to be a ghost or something weird. Either way, it's definitely not human."

Iron Blood narrowed his eyes at the corpse dangling from a noose made of its own intestines.

"We should cut it down, at least."

With a subtle movement, what looked like a metal playing card appeared between his fingers. He flicked his wrist, and the card neatly severed the makeshift cord before embedding itself into the far wall with a solid "thwock".

Without its erstwhile tether, the eviscerated corpse finally gave in to gravity's compulsion and collapsed in a heap.

Determined to give it a thorough inspection, Iron Blood approached the body, as did Daoloth, but Douchey, SoWhat did the exact opposite. With fingers firmly clamped against his nose, the weakest Player in the squad scrambled as far as possible from the corpse, revulsion written all over his face.

Clearly, even the young girl, Daoloth, had more nerve than he.

After some poking and prodding of the body, Daoloth looked pale as she concluded, "The internal organs appear to have all been removed. You could say it's no more than a husk..."

"Just the husk of a body? That explains how it could be suspended even from something as weak as a hanging lamp..."

Iron Blood hummed thoughtfully before getting to his feet. "Not enough here to prove it's really Traveler's corpse. Even if handles can't be fabricated, bodies can."

"Then why did you destroy your walkie-talkie?" Daoloth looked askance at him.

He seemed to ignore her, saying, "Three sources of strange activity, total, have been found and neutralized. The mission is halfway done. We just have to focus on doing our part.

"Regardless if that 'Traveler' on the third floor is friend or foe, when they realize they can't contact us on the walkie-talkies, they have to come down to us. Hopefully, he's a Player, but if not, we'll hold him off and take him out."

After a moment's thought, Daoloth nodded. "'Be still that we may adapt to change', huh... Fine by me."

"Copy that."

"Let's go already."

"Very well, if we all agree, then—"

Suddenly, Iron Blood cut himself short and frowned. Another metal card appeared in his hand as he whirled around to look at the door.

"Wh, what?"

Iron Blood's killing intent so shocked Douchey, SoWhat, who was still holding his nose by the door, that his hands shot up into the air, as if by reflex.

"I heard, not two, but three responses," said Iron Blood in reply. More metal playing cards appeared in his hand as he said flatly, "Repeat your last answer to me."

"Uh... 'Be still that we may adapt to change, huh... Fine by me'."

Seemingly having realized something suspect about the situation herself, Daoloth answered with no reservation. Besides, the metal playing card embedded in the wall from earlier was ample warning—if Iron Blood had even one of those trained on her, the smart thing to do was to cooperate.

"Let's, let's go already?" Douchey, SoWhat stammered out as he held his hands aloft in surrender.

"Copy that."

The third voice came from behind Iron Blood and a look of alarm flashed across his face.

Reacting instantly with no hesitation, Iron Blood's sent several deadly playing cards whizzing at the source of the third voice before even looking.

Only then did he turn around to see... it was none other than the so-called husk of Traveler's body.

Iron Blood's cards had found their mark, as evidenced by the fact that they protruded from the flesh, but the thing did not seem bothered at all as it reached one desiccated arm toward the gold-rimmed glasses on the ground and put them on.

As it noticed the Players staring at it, the animated corpse raised its head and attempted to make a grin, which came off stiff and creepy.

"Copy that," it said again.