‘The other way.’ If I don’t go to the second floor, the plot probably won’t progress. And my little sister is so resistant to letting Nuo Ai’er go to the second floor.
There must be something strongly related to the main plot up there. But they said if caught, there would be punishment…
“Ugh”
Thinking this, Nuo Ai’er looked at her little sister, who was grinning foolishly beside her.
‘If I get caught, I probably won’t be able to resist either.’
But…
“I still have to go…”
‘After all, although Nuo Ai’er survived the first day, she was still completely in the dark…’
So let’s do it.
Nuo Ai’er carefully held her breath and slipped her arm out of her sister’s embrace.
After confirming she hadn’t woken her, she quietly threw off the covers, stepped barefoot onto the carpet, and silently left the bedroom. The hallway was pitch black and eerily quiet.
‘It was a little scary…’
“I’ll just go and come back quickly…” Nuo Ai’er decided.
Nuo Ai’er swallowed and walked toward the stairs.
However, the moment she stepped out of the room, a change occurred.
Deep in the previously quiet hallway, a thick black fog suddenly surged out.
“?!”
“Oh no, it’s the same black fog from when she opened the refrigerator earlier!”
As if it had spotted prey, the black fog rolled toward Nuo Ai’er, carrying a suffocating, icy aura.
“Damn it”
‘If I get swallowed by this, I’ll restart immediately.’
Nuo Ai’er instinctively wanted to run, but the black fog was too fast to dodge.
Just as the black fog was about to engulf her, the warm jade bracelet on her wrist suddenly emitted a green light.
Hum
The light turned into an invisible barrier, forcibly blocking the black fog outside.
The black fog kept crashing against the barrier, but it couldn’t break through no matter what.
[Grandma’s jade bracelet blocked a black fog attack.]
[Current durability: 4/5.]
[Warning: When durability reaches zero, the item will shatter and disappear.]
“I see… so that’s how the bracelet is used…”
‘Night exploration requires the help of grandma’s bracelet.’
‘But with durability, that means if this thing breaks, Nuo Ai’er is done for.’
Nuo Ai’er looked at the system notification and tried to calm herself down.
She dared not slack off any further and quickly rushed up to the second floor.
Nuo Ai’er pulled out the brass key and opened the wooden door.
The layout of the second floor was similar to the first floor, with three closed wooden doors along the hallway.
‘In this situation, there should be something inside.’
Nuo Ai’er tried each one, but only the door on the far left could be opened; the other two were still locked.
“Looks like I can only investigate this room for now.”
Nuo Ai’er pushed open the door and entered the room.
It was a storage room, and a moldy smell hit her as she entered.
“Let’s see… let me check here…”
Nuo Ai’er spotted an old desk.
After rummaging through the desk drawers, she soon touched a worn-out notebook.
[Obtained key item: Sister’s diary (1/3)]
“Sister…?”
‘Why would her sister’s diary be in the second-floor storage room?’
‘Does it contain critical information!’
Nuo Ai’er quickly opened the diary, moved to the windowsill, and started reading by the moonlight.
[Emi’s Diary]
The first page had these words written in crooked handwriting.
Emi should be the name of the diary’s owner.
In other words…
“So my sister’s name is Emi.”
Nuo Ai’er continued reading, and the more she read, the more her brow furrowed.
“Ugh, I don’t want to read this (2AC)”
Because what the diary recorded… was all of Emi’s tragic experiences.
When she was very young, her father ran off with his mistress and never came back.
Little Emi could only depend on her single mother.
But the mother, who had lost her husband, did not pull herself together. Instead, she vented all her anger on Emi.
[Mom hit me again today… She took a broom and beat me while calling me a burden.]
[Ever since Dad left, she’s been like this…]
[I heard Mom’s footsteps again… She’s coming to beat me again…]
The handwriting in the diary became more and more messy, some parts even blurred by water stains.
[The only place I can cry is the closet in the house…]
‘…So that’s how it is.’
Nuo Ai’er’s heart sank when she saw this.
No wonder the rule said “Hide in the closet to avoid the footstep monster” because for Emi, the closet was the only place she could feel safe.
Those black fogs and footstep monsters were probably the embodiment of her childhood trauma.
The footsteps were her mother… then what would the black fog be?
Nuo Ai’er continued flipping through.
Until she reached the last page of the diary, where the handwriting became a little neater:
[I always think… if only I had an older brother or sister…]
[If only someone could protect me, play with me, love me…]
[And then, that day, I met—]
The diary stopped abruptly there, and the following pages had been torn out.
Nuo Ai’er’s face went blank.
“No way?!”
“How did it cut off at the most crucial part?!” Nuo Ai’er couldn’t hold it together.
So who did she meet after all…
From the diary, Emi was a poor child, but there must be a reason why the house became so strange.
It must be strongly related to the person she met…
However, to find out the truth, she probably needed to find a way to open the other two locked doors.
Nuo Ai’er: “It’s getting late, I’d better go down quickly. Can’t let her find out…”
“Oh? Who can’t find out about what~”
“Huh?!”
Just as Nuo Ai’er was about to close the diary, a bone-chilling cold suddenly hit her from behind.
A pair of icy arms wrapped around her neck from behind, hugging her tightly.
“Big sis is so disobedient… running around during bedtime…”
Sister… Emi’s voice sounded in her ear, but her tone was full of hostility and suppressed anger.
Nuo Ai’er instantly broke into a cold sweat, her body stiff and unable to move. She didn’t dare turn around.
For some reason, she had a feeling… that her sister’s expression behind her right now was probably not normal.
Perhaps a terrifying face at the level of mental pollution…
“I, I…” Nuo Ai’er tried to explain.
“Shh—” Her sister pressed her lips to Nuo Ai’er’s ear and whispered, “Quiet, big sis. It’s very late now.”
“Ah?!”
As soon as the words fell, Nuo Ai’er suddenly felt something coil around her wrists and ankles.
She looked down and saw countless thin red threads crawling out of her sister’s sleeves, quickly winding around Nuo Ai’er’s limbs, binding her whole body tightly.
“Ugh…”
The red strings tightened more and more; Nuo Ai’er could no longer escape.
“Big sis, are you ready?” Her sister’s voice carried anger.
“No, not ready…” Nuo Ai’er instinctively joked.
But Emi didn’t care about that. She pulled the rope and dragged Nuo Ai’er away.