NOVEL WEB Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Heartless
The hotel lobby, corridor, and double bed room.
Hayakawa Aki began to review all the methods they had used so far. Whether it was the windows, ventilation ducts, or stairs, none of them led outside the actual building. They all ultimately brought them back to the starting point, which was the hotel lobby.
And time had also been paused, permanently frozen at 8:24 PM in the dormitory lobby.
"Ding~ Detected Himeno's frustrated emotion. System rewards 5 points."
Himeno sat to the side, smoking. She had originally held a sliver of hope for the elevator shaft, thinking she could try to climb back up through it. However, let alone climbing, the elevator shaft had flown off to who knows where; that place had become a wall.
Renji Kuroda also brought the Eternal Devil's head over, but because the head kept shouting "So hungry, so hungry" and was too noisy, he simply cut off its lower jaw, which quieted it down.
Without listening to Hayakawa Aki's review, Renji kept staring at the Eternal Devil's head. The more he looked, the more he felt something was off. Although it was very ugly and abstract, vaguely, it always looked like a woman's face.
"Hey, I say, the Eternal Devil isn't a female, is it?"
Denji lay lazily on the large bed, covered by the blanket, her eyes half-open, half-closed, about to fall asleep.
She heard Renji's words, glanced lazily at the Eternal Devil's head, and replied as a matter of course, "Of course. There are only females in this world, whether human or Devil."
"Ah?! Seriously?!"
Renji was startled. Even Devils are female? He suddenly recalled the bald appearance of the Zombie Devil and couldn't help but murmur to himself.
Could something that looks like that also be a female Devil?
And according to Denji, the concept of only females existing in this world is truly broad—even Devils have all become female.
Renji suddenly thought again: Then the Darkness Devil, Hell Devil, Gun Devil... aren't they all female too?
"Huh? Renji, you don't know?" Denji looked surprised, but soon she returned to her lazy demeanor, yawning.
"Oh... right, if it's Renji, it's normal not to know. After all, Renji, you're not normal either, hehe~"
"Hey, you two, if you're not listening, don't interrupt."
Hayakawa Aki noticed Renji and Denji's small actions.
"Ding~ Detected Hayakawa Aki's jealous emotion. System rewards 5 points."
"It's useless... all of us will die here... From the moment we stepped into this building, everything was over."
Higashiyama Kobeni, who was sitting on the bed on the other side, was now trembling even more violently due to fear.
She hung her head, her hands weakly clasped in front of her, nails digging deeply into her palms without her noticing, already starting to give up.
"Ding~ Detected Higashiyama Kobeni's fearful emotion. System rewards 10 points.""Ding~ Detected Higashiyama Kobeni's scared emotion. System rewards 10 points."
...
Since being trapped here, Renji's mind would periodically hear about Higashiyama Kobeni's fearful and scared emotional points, and the scores were quite high. This was one of the reasons Renji hadn't revealed a solution until now.
He wanted to farm some points here.
On the other hand, Renji liked Higashiyama Kobeni's weak demeanor.
If he had the chance later, he would definitely torment Higashiyama Kobeni severely.
Arai Hirokazu tried to comfort Kobeni, but it was completely useless.
"Ding~ Detected Higashiyama Kobeni's collapsing emotion. System rewards 10 points."
"We'll be trapped... trapped to death here. Didn't Himeno Senior already say it? Time here has been paused... This means that people outside looking at the building... won't see any abnormalities! One second outside might be a year in the dormitory lobby? A hundred years? Ten thousand years, who knows! Wuwuwuwu..."
As Kobeni spoke, her fear, like a bursting dam, could no longer be controlled, and tears streamed down like broken strings of pearls.
She kept wiping the tears from her face with her hands, her movements appearing so clumsy yet adorable.
"Ding~ Detected Power's happy emotion. System rewards 10 points."
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Look! Look at this idiot! It's killing me with laughter, hahahahaha!"
Power had no human decency. She pointed at Kobeni with one finger and clutched her stomach with the other, laughing so hysterically that she eventually rolled around on the bed.
Himeno finished smoking the rest of her cigarette, put it out, and threw it into the trash can.
"Aki, is the Gun Devil's flesh still in that head?"
Hayakawa Aki shook her head."It's gone."
Himeno sighed, then suddenly thought of something and looked at Power, who was laughing wildly and rolling around.
"Speaking of which, Power, why did you react so strongly when you saw that woman in the black hat? Do you know her? Who is she?"
"Huh?"
Power instantly stopped laughing and began to stammer.
"She... she... I... I... I don't know... I don't know... I don't know!"
Hayakawa Aki saw Power's attitude and was about to get angry, but Renji explained for Power.
"Her name is Fami, and her true identity is the Hunger Devil, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Her ability is to turn hungry people, or other Devils, into her pawns."
Renji Kuroda's tone was flat when he said this, but the meaning of his words exploded like a heavy bomb in the room.
In an instant, the entire space fell into a deathly silence. Even Kobeni, who had been crying, stopped sobbing and stared at Renji with a look of utter astonishment.
"Apocalypse...? Four Horsemen?! Wh-?! How is this possible?!"
Hayakawa Aki was incredulous; she was the first among them to react.
"Hunger...? The Hunger Devil, one of the Four Horsemen?! Why is she here?!"
Himeno gradually came back to her senses, but her focus was different from Hayakawa Aki's.
"Oh... so that's how it is. No wonder the Eternal Devil kept shouting about being hungry. So, all of this was secretly manipulated by the Hunger Devil? So she's the biggest boss, but... what's her goal? Going to all this trouble just to trap a few insignificant Public Safety officers like us?"
Renji didn't respond to Himeno's words, because he felt that the Hunger Devil's target was most likely him.It was better not to say this in the current environment.
"Well, I can't hold on anymore. It'd be a waste not to sleep on such a comfortable big bed. I'm going to sleep for a bit. If you find anything, just wake me up."
Denji raised her hand and said. She finally couldn't hold on, so she rolled over and peacefully closed her eyes.In less than three seconds, her breathing became rhythmic.
Arai Hirokazu instantly got angry and was about to go wake Denji. "This scoundrel! How can she sleep in this situation!"
Renji reached out to stop her. "Forget it, she really can't help much, let her sleep for a bit. Hayakawa Aki, give me the backpack."
Hayakawa Aki was still carrying the backpack Renji had asked her to hold earlier. Hearing this, she took off the backpack and handed it to him.
Renji opened the backpack and dumped all its contents onto the bed.Inside were six large bottles of mineral water and a large pile of compressed biscuits.
"Ding~ Detected Himeno's suspicious emotion. System rewards 5 points.""Ding~ Detected Higashiyama Kobeni's shocked emotion. System rewards 5 points.""Ding..."
Everyone looked at Renji, their expressions varied.
"Renji, did you... did you anticipate this situation?"
Himeno looked suspicious. She then remembered her conversation with Renji before entering the building. She had asked what was in his backpack, and Renji had casually replied that it was food.
She had thought he was joking at the time, believing it might be tools or something.
"Renji, what kind of Devil did you contract with? What exactly is your ability? How do you know so many things?"
Himeno asked.
P@treon Rene_chan