Chapter 21: Door to another world
Half an hour later, the six of us were walking through the older part of the city.
The streets grew quieter the farther we moved away from the academy district. Most of the shops had already closed for the night, leaving only a handful of convenience stores and late-night restaurants with their lights still on. The sidewalks were almost empty, and the occasional passing car only made the silence feel more noticeable once it disappeared into the distance.
Ryan crumpled another empty chip packet and tossed it into a nearby trash bin.
"...That’s the last one."
Ethan looked inside the remaining plastic bag and sighed dramatically.
"We’re out."
Ryan stared at him.
"We bought enough snacks for six people."
"We also ate enough snacks for twelve people."
Marcus looked at the empty bags in Ethan’s hands.
"You two finished all of that before we even got there?"
Ryan looked genuinely confused.
"Weren’t they meant to be eaten?"
"I thought they’d last until we reached the factory," Daniel said.
"They did."
Ryan pointed ahead.
"Look."
The abandoned toy factory stood at the end of the road.
"Told you."
Ethan looked at the empty bag in his hand before shrugging.
"Mission accomplished."
Marcus let out a long sigh.
"You two have the self-control of starving raccoons."
"We prefer the term ’efficient.’"
"I don’t think that word means what you think it means."
The laughter gradually faded as they drew closer.
The abandoned toy factory stood behind a rusted chain-link fence that had collapsed in several places over the years. Moonlight reflected off shattered windows lining the upper floors, while vines climbed across cracked brick walls that hadn’t seen maintenance in over a decade. The faded company sign hanging above the entrance had lost so many letters that only a few remained readable.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
The building felt...
Wrong.
Noah slowed his steps.
"...Did the temperature just drop?"
Marcus rubbed both arms.
"I was about to ask the same thing."
Ryan looked between them.
"What?"
"I don’t know," Marcus admitted. "I just got chills."
"So did I," Noah said quietly.
Neither of them looked like they were joking.
Even Ethan glanced around a little more carefully than before.
"It’s probably because the place looks creepy."
"Maybe."
Marcus didn’t sound convinced.
Daniel switched on his flashlight.
"Well..."
He looked toward the entrance.
"We came all this way."
Ryan adjusted the strap of his backpack.
"No turning back now."
Nobody argued.
We climbed through the opening in the collapsed fence and made our way toward the factory entrance. The metal doors had long since rusted open, leaving only darkness waiting beyond them.
The moment I stepped inside, the system appeared.
______
[Mission Updated]
Linked Idiots
Previous Objective Cleared.
New Objective:
Find clues regarding the supposed ghost inside the abandoned toy factory.
Reward: ???
Penalty: ???
______
Before I could fully process the change, another notification appeared immediately afterward.
______
[Temporary Ability Granted]
Detective Mode
- Mission Exclusive.
- Focus to activate.
While Detective Mode is active, your surroundings will become desaturated. Objects, traces, and abnormalities related to the mission will remain highlighted.
This ability will be revoked upon mission completion.
______
My heartbeat sped up.
Detective Mode.
I knew exactly what it was.
It only appeared in Nightmare Mode.
Unlike the normal routes, Nightmare Mode expected players to investigate crime scenes themselves instead of simply following dialogue choices. Detective Mode highlighted evidence that ordinary people would overlook, but it came with severe limitations. The ability consumed concentration, had a strict time limit, and could only be activated a handful of times during an investigation.
Players constantly complained about those restrictions.
The system had just given me a mission-only version.
Which probably meant...
No limits.
I took a slow breath and focused.
The world changed instantly.
Every color around me drained away.
The walls.
The floor.
The rusted machinery.
Everything became different shades of grey, as though someone had drained the life from the factory.
Only a handful of things refused to lose their color.
Near one of the conveyor belts, something faintly glowed.
Not brightly.
Just enough to stand out from everything else.
Another dim trace lingered near a broken doorway leading deeper into the building.
I released my focus.
The colors immediately returned.
"...Adrian?"
Ryan looked at me.
"You coming?"
I blinked.
"Yeah."
I looked once more toward the two places that had remained visible inside Detective Mode.
Whatever the system wanted us to find, it was already somewhere inside the factory.
The six of us spread out across the production hall, though nobody wandered far enough to lose sight of the others. Our footsteps echoed through the enormous building, bouncing off rusted machinery and empty walls before fading into the silence. The factory smelled of damp concrete, old metal, and years of neglect. Moonlight filtered through shattered skylights high above us, casting pale beams across conveyor belts buried beneath layers of dust. Rows of forgotten machines stood exactly where they’d been abandoned, as though the workers had simply walked away one day and never returned.
Ryan swept his flashlight around the room with exaggerated confidence. "So... where’s the ghost? I was promised at least one creepy doll."
"You sound disappointed," Ethan replied with a laugh.
"I am."
Daniel pointed toward a row of broken shelves near the back of the hall. "Give it time."
Marcus wasn’t listening anymore. His flashlight moved slowly across the darkness, stopping every few seconds as though he expected something to answer his stare.
"...You guys still feel that?"
Ryan looked over.
"Feel what?"
Marcus rubbed both arms.
"I don’t know. Ever since we got here, it feels like someone’s watching us."
Noah quietly nodded.
"I thought I was imagining it."
"You too?"
"Yeah."
Ryan forced a grin.
"You two have been watching horror movies again."
"Maybe," Noah admitted, "but I don’t usually get chills for no reason."
Nobody argued with him.
I quietly activated Detective Mode.
The world immediately lost its color.
Everything around me faded into different shades of grey. The conveyor belts, broken windows, piles of scrap metal, and cracked walls all blended into the same lifeless landscape. Only objects connected to the mission retained a faint glow.
This time, the glowing conveyor belt wasn’t the only thing highlighted.
A wooden office door on the second floor overlooked the production hall, and its outline now shone with a pale blue light that hadn’t been there before.
I frowned.
That definitely wasn’t glowing earlier.
Keeping one eye on the others, I made my way toward the rusted staircase leading to the office. Ryan and Ethan were still arguing over whether abandoned hospitals or abandoned factories made better horror settings. Daniel had wandered over to inspect a row of employee lockers, while Marcus and Noah stood near one of the support columns examining several deep scratches carved into the metal. None of them noticed me climbing the stairs.
Each step groaned beneath my weight.
The closer I came, the brighter the outline around the office door became.
I reached the landing and wrapped my hand around the old brass handle.
It turned without resistance.
The door creaked inward.
Beyond it was darkness.
Not the ordinary darkness of an abandoned office.
This darkness seemed almost solid, swallowing the room beyond the doorway until nothing inside could be seen.
Every instinct told me to back away.
Instead, I stepped forward.
The instant my foot crossed the threshold, the shadows surged around me.
The office disappeared.
The doorway vanished.
The staircase, the factory, the voices of the others...
Everything was gone.
I spun around.
There was nothing behind me except endless darkness.
"Ryan?"
My voice sounded distant, swallowed almost immediately by the silence.
"...Marcus?"
Nothing answered.
My heartbeat quickened.
For a moment, panic threatened to take over, but I forced myself to stop. Blindly running through an unfamiliar place was exactly how people died in horror games. I closed my eyes, took a slow breath, and steadied myself.
The system had given me Detective Mode.
There had to be a reason.
I focused once more.
The darkness remained, but glowing footprints slowly appeared beneath my feet. They formed a single trail leading deeper into the void, each print shining faintly against the black floor as though someone had walked this path only moments earlier.
There was nowhere else to go.
I followed them.
Time became impossible to judge. The footsteps continued through the darkness without end, and the silence never changed. I had no idea whether I’d been walking for one minute or ten when something finally emerged ahead of me.
An old black-and-white television sat alone on a wooden stand.
Its cracked screen flickered with static.
Kssssshhh...
The sound echoed through the darkness before the interference abruptly disappeared.
The screen changed.
My blood ran cold.
It was showing a live feed of the boys.
All five of them were lying on the floor with their hands bound behind their backs, tied together by thick rope. Their heads hung forward, completely motionless. They looked unconscious.
"What...?"
I took an involuntary step closer.
The image remained perfectly clear.
This wasn’t an old videotape.
It looked live.
But that was impossible.
I’d only been separated from them for a few moments.
Hadn’t I?
A chill crept down my spine as I slowly turned away from the television, keeping Detective Mode active.
That’s when I noticed something standing against the left side of the room.
It was a life-sized silicone doll shaped after a female.
Its height was almost identical to mine, and in the pale flickering light from the television, the synthetic skin gave it an unsettling resemblance to a real person standing perfectly still. It wore no expression, made no sound, and showed no sign of movement.
It simply stood there...
Facing me.
