How a Regressor Conquers the Tower of Urban Legends
Chapter 35
I looked at the person standing in front of me.
They were wearing a badly tattered doctor's coat.
Just like all the others I'd seen so far, the places where their eyes, nose, and mouth should have been were completely smooth, like some faceless ghost.
They frantically waved their hands.
I placed the eyeball into one of them.
The figure accepted it.
"..."
Then, as though nothing had happened, it simply walked past us.
"...Huh."
So the caller had been right.
"Maybe that two-ornament item wasn't such a bad deal after all."
"..."
I looked away from the mascot, which was silently staring at me.
For now, let's figure out what kind of place this was.
I grabbed a random sheet of paper and started sketching a map.
Roughly like this.
If so, it shouldn't be too difficult.
All we had to do was head toward the exit.
I quickly recorded the route in the notebook, then picked up the pace in case that thing changed its mind and came after us.
Other than being completely dark, there was nothing particularly unusual about the corridor.
We kept walking without stopping.
Before long, an old elevator came into view.
"..."
This is an elevator I shouldn't take.
I'd been warned so many times not to take an elevator from the offstage area that the warning was practically carved into my brain.
Normally, I wouldn't have touched it.
Normally.
"Wait here."
"!!!"
"I know, I know. I'm not pressing the button."
The moment I walked toward the elevator, the mascot threw both hands up as if trying to stop me.
I calmed it down and stepped inside.
Considering the conditions of my ability, this should be right.
With that thought, I looked around.
It was an ancient elevator.
If the elevators I normally rode were the kind you'd find in ordinary buildings, this looked like something from my parents' generation.
And then...
"...What's that?"
I saw an old notebook.
It had exactly the same design as the one I was carrying.
No way.
Countless thoughts immediately flashed through my mind.
Take it.
I reached for the notebook, then stopped.
"Can you hold the door?"
"!"
If I touched the notebook, the elevator might suddenly close.
I asked the mascot to hold the doors open.
Then I grabbed the notebook and hurried back outside.
Sure enough...
CLUNK!
"!!!"
If the mascot hadn't been holding the doors, I would've been trapped inside that elevator.
Maybe if I died now, I'd wake up here instead.
At least, I hoped so.
But more importantly...
I quickly opened the notebook.
"..."
I could read it, but...
The beginning had deteriorated so badly that almost nothing was visible.
The farther back I flipped, the clearer the writing became.
But that wasn't the real problem.
"How many numbers are there...?"
The entries passed No. 300 before I could even begin reading anything properly.
Only several pages later did legible writing finally appear.
I slowly read what I could.
There were only a few lines.
[520. The information in the earlier entries doesn't match at all. You lunatics.]
[521. Looks like I'm way too late. Everything's already flooded.]
[522. I drained all the water. But now I can barely breathe, so I think this is as far as I go.]
Those three lines were the only readable entries.
I couldn't tell exactly what had happened.
But at the very least, things had clearly gone badly.
And there was a high chance the same rules applied to me.
We continued through the corridor for some time.
"...The smell of water is getting stronger."
"!"
My unease grew along with the increasingly heavy fishy smell.
Then I heard splashing.
Like a child playing in shallow water.
Or someone happily dancing in a pool.
The mascot immediately stepped in front of me.
I moved behind it and looked toward the sound.
Someone was dancing in the corridor.
Splashing through the water with every step.
No.
I wasn't sure I could call that thing a person.
It might have been roughly human in height, but its neck was grotesquely long.
Something resembling lungs had grown from that neck, spraying water outward.
And behind it...
"...The exit."
An elevator was faintly visible.
The monster that had crushed my head several times was gone.
Now that I could compare them clearly, I finally understood.
The elevator I normally used and the elevators in the offstage area had completely different designs.
There was no way to confuse them.
But the real problem was...
"..."
We had to get past the thing performing those dance-like movements.
Could we lure it away?
How?
For now, we should back off.
The caller had also warned me not to step in water.
The mascot seemed to think the same thing and immediately retreated while shielding me.
"..."
How were we supposed to get past it?
Then...
The song stopped.
The creature slowly turned its head and stared at me.
"Run."
"!"
The mascot and I turned around and sprinted.
By now, I was practically an expert at running away.
We fled all the way back to the elevator area before looking down the corridor.
Nothing had followed us.
Thank goodness.
I sighed in relief and looked at the mascot.
"But how are we supposed to get past it?"
"...?"
The mascot tilted its head as if to say, How would I know?
Right.
If I didn't know, there was no reason the mascot would.
"Let's think for a—"
Splash.
