Guang looked at Xingchuan with some caution.
"Is it a witch troop recruited from the imaginary number space? What is your purpose in approaching Xiao Wu?"
"Hey, hey?! Even though I don't understand what you are talking about, how did you know?! Classmate Li Wu, is it you? Did you tell the truth?!"
Xingchuan grabbed Li Wu's collar and dangled it.
"Calm down."
Li Wu slapped her hands away, walked up to Guang, pointed at Xingchuan and said, "This is my classmate, his name is Xingchuan Aoi."
He paused and continued: "Xingchuan is a... um... paranormal enthusiast. When she was a child, she discovered a mysterious letter left by a distant relative at home, and embarked on the journey of becoming an investigator to fight against unknown evil things. Journey, I came here today to investigate the Seven Mysterious Lost Video Game Stores in Chiyo City.”
Hoshikawa Aoi: "?"
"So that's it." Guang lowered his guard and stepped forward to grab Xingchuan's hand. "The knowledge from another world that chases people is indeed harmful. Please let me help you, Miss Investigator!"
Hoshikawa Aoi: "??"
Li Wu coughed lightly: "Then Xingchuan, this is Hori Rinko, who is my childhood sweetheart. Didn't you just say that you still have something to ask the boss? Let's go together."
Although Xingchuan still looked confused, she still followed the instructions and led the two of them towards the counter.
"Little girl, you're back. I'd better not care about any weird stories. It's a rare day off, so why not enjoy the game with your friends."
The boss behind the counter is a friendly middle-aged man.
"My friends are also very interested in that story. Please tell me, boss!"
Xingchuan clasped his hands together and showed a cute smile.
"Hey, there's nothing to say. It's just boring people's speculation."
The boss tapped the surface of the counter with his finger: "Before such a big building was built in this place, it was said that there was an arcade store here."
"It's the kind of small store that costs 10 yuan a time, which is rare nowadays. According to the old people around, it opened in 1981."
"Business was booming at the beginning of the business, but gradually, fewer and fewer people came, and finally, six years later, it reached the point where it could no longer operate."
"In the end, the debt-ridden boss hanged himself in the store. Before his death, he was still looking forward to the arrival of the next arcade wave. This land was quickly acquired by other developers."
The boss shrugged and concluded: "Okay, it's just such a story that is not interesting at all. Now you should go and play. Today's arcades are much more interesting than in the past."
"Okay, thank you boss."
Xingchuan thanked him, and Li Wu paid for it in exchange for a bunch of game tokens.
"This is a better way to express gratitude." Li Wu said as the three of them walked away from the counter. He looked at Aoi Hoshikawa: "Have you come to any conclusion?"
"Judging from the boss's words, maybe this is the truth of the weird rumors circulating on the Internet, but I still feel that something is wrong."
She glanced at Guang, who seemed to be uninterested in the story her boss was telling, and said to Li Wu: "You are here to have fun today, right? Then forget about these things and go enjoy your rest day."
Guang's eyes brightened significantly.
Li Wu nodded and asked, "Then do you want..."
At this moment, Xingchuan showed a serious expression that he had ever seen before.
"careful."
If I want to use a closer word to describe it, it would be that the world has "liquefied".
Like a wax figure that has been melted by fire, the ground, walls, game equipment on the floor, even the surrounding players, and even the light beside Li Wu, except for Xingchuan and himself, everything has lost its real shape , flowing in all directions in a fluid-like form, the matter in the real world is no longer distinct, but mixed together like stirred egg liquid.
Then, the vision in front of him became clear again, but the scenery changed.
A moment ago, he was inside a modern building made of reinforced concrete, but now he was standing on a street that had changed drastically.
"Light!"
Although he had somewhat guessed what phenomenon he was encountering, his instinctive reaction was still to cry out in worry.
"She's fine. It's us who should say something is wrong, classmate Li Wu."
Xingchuan stood opposite him, frowning as she looked at the surrounding scenery.
Li Wu had also calmed down, and he guessed: "Is it the invasion of negative realm monsters?"
"Correct answer." Xingchuan pointed at the tops of the two people's heads. The sky was the same as the last time he encountered it. It was shrouded in a blood-colored light curtain, extending to the end of the street, buckled down like a bowl. .
"I have opened a barrier to restrict their intrusion, but this is the first time I have encountered such a change of scene."
"Where are the others?" Li Wu asked.
"They're fine. We are essentially in a space that exists parallel to reality. When we kill the monsters and return to reality, we will be in a state where nothing has happened. Speaking of which, classmate Li Wu, do you think this is the case? Does the street look familiar?"
"That may be because this is the street in front of Around1." Li Wu looked at the place where a large entertainment city should have been. "What we see now may be from the past in the 1980s."
There was an unassuming bungalow with a narrow doorway on the right side of the front, from which you could see a staircase going down.
The wall to the left of the door is covered with portraits of various game characters. The most eye-catching one is a huge skeleton with empty eye sockets that seem to be staring at everyone who approaches.
The name of the store is written in crazy fonts above the door.
This is an arcade shop.
"So, this is the arcade store that closed down in 1987 in the weird story? Wow, it feels a bit scary."
"You don't sound scared at all... let's go in and have a look?"
However, just when he made the suggestion, the culprits who caused this accident appeared.
The scene he had witnessed happened again, and a monster appeared in the air that seemed to be randomly found from the nightmares of ten thousand people and then roughly stacked together.
It's still a bright red [Negative Realm Monster].
"I would have brought the crowbar with me if I had known earlier. Now I can only fight hand to hand."
The difference is that this time he already has the power to resist.
"Wait a minute, isn't it the time for me to appear?"
Hoshikawa Aoi put her hand on the ribbon on her chest.
"The Negative Realm Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, the active magical girl, codename Xinghui, begins the operation to clean up the monsters, henshin!"
