The Hundred Stories of Miss Ghost

"No, it's a little different. The connection between believers and gods is, in short, 'I believe in God'. The boundary between people and gods is still very clear. But the connection I want to make in this game is 'I am Whale'ah. This clearly... wants all participants to become a part of that whale."

Sifang Qiuzao's eyes, which had been squinting slightly, opened slightly at this moment, and there was rarely a smile on his face.

He said in a deep voice: "Now, I have such a doubt. The Demon of the Pond itself is an ancient, rather passive strange story. As long as you don't get close, nothing will happen. Such strange stories are generally impossible To adapt to modern society, to spread their own through the Internet. Coupled with the implication of 'I am a whale' everywhere in these topics, this makes me suspect that someone may be deliberately raising a 'demon'?"

"Feeding 'magic'?"

"That's right. It's like the kind of cursed email that if you don't forward this email to more than a few people, you will encounter unfortunate curse emails. It was originally just an ordinary prank, but the person who received the letter subconsciously I still feel a little uneasy, thinking "what if it is true", it is not difficult to forward it, and as a result, it spreads virally, making more and more people hear and believe that this email will really send people It brought misfortune, and in the end, there really was a strange story called 'cursed mail'. This blue whale game is also the same. As long as enough people are brought in, and people believe that as long as they play this game They will definitely die, and the dead people will become part of this 'whale' and become its nourishment. Over time, this 'demon' will of course become more and more terrifying. As for this 'whale' game, it looks like someone has a big pet."

"Why do you think that someone is feeding this 'demon' instead of the 'demon' feeding himself? Doesn't that make more sense?"

"Hehe, Ms. Mochizuki, you are a freak among ghost stories. You don't understand those ghost stories of the past. Those ghost stories with a certain history, their characters...if there is such a thing as character...how should I put it, it's quite It’s like squatting at home now. Because, strange stories are born out of human legends, they rarely take the initiative to do anything, and most of the time they just act according to the content of the legend. Not to mention this kind of complicated, Making full use of the modern network is not something that a ghost story that has been nested in a small lake for hundreds of years will do. The virtual idol created by the tree last time was actually created by Xiaotong's father. Therefore, the designer of this gamer must be a human being, and sometimes human beings are even scarier than ghost stories."

"But... who would do this kind of thing? What's the benefit of raising a 'demon'? This is obviously not a kind and good pet, right? Are you not afraid of backlash?"

"Who knows? Human beings in this world always have all kinds of strange pursuits. Maybe this breeder simply wants all human beings to die together. People with such brain-destroyed ideas don't Not much."

"Judgment Day." A word suddenly popped out of Xiaotong's mouth.

"Huh? What?"

Xiaotong looked into my eyes and said, "Senior sister, have you forgotten the teachings we heard when we went to join that cult? The end is coming, God will judge the world, and the chosen ones will be resurrected in heaven. Sounds...a lot like it, right?"

"Indeed. This game itself has a cult-like flavor, whether it's the so-called 'New World' or this way of attracting newcomers. It's true that the cult's meeting place happened to be in that building, It’s related to going up and down the stairs to the gallery where the painting called [Lake] was originally placed! Let’s go, Xiaotong, let’s go to that building to have a look again!”

Chapter 34 Baptism

Anxin Real Estate Building, from the outside, is just an ordinary commercial office building.

However, according to Police Officer Usui, in this building, three people committed suicide by jumping off the building within half a year.

One is a gallery owner and the other is a high school girl we last saw in person.There was another person...it turned out to be a 40-year-old Obasan.

In fact, the earliest time of Obasan's death is known so far, it was in December last year, and at this time, Xiao Tong's two friends, Mika and Xia Wei, hadn't died yet.Kawakami's notes did not trace back to Obasan's death. Perhaps it was several months later, and he did not collect the newspaper that reported the incident at that time.

According to the records made by the police at the time that Mr. Usui showed us, that Obasan...Ms. Bible study gathering.

Looking at it this way, this Xie religious organization is even more suspicious.

Because we were afraid of being discovered by the believers of the cult, we first went to the gallery on the third floor to find out the whereabouts of the painting called "Lake".

The feeling of coming to this gallery during the day is completely different from the last time I came here. Without the cold feeling of the last time, it feels like an ordinary, somewhat deserted and unattended gallery.

As the police officer said, because it was left unattended after bankruptcy, it seemed to be ransacked, and many of the paintings in the frames hanging on the walls had disappeared.Xiaotong and I looked around separately for a long time, but we really couldn't find the painting.

After busying around for a long time but finding nothing, Xiaotong and I felt a little frustrated.In the end, we decided to secretly go to the assembly place of the believers on the second floor to have a look.

Xiao Tong tiptoed to the door of the big room, and directed me to go through the wall to see the situation with gestures.

I indicated that I received it, and after passing through, I found that the light was on in the room on the other side of the wall, but there was no one in the room.

To be precise, there was only one person sitting in the room, but it was someone we had met, the female college student who warmly welcomed us to Bible study the last time we were here.

It's just that she doesn't look very good now, she is sitting there a little dejected, wiping her tears gently with the palm of her hand.

I floated out of the wall and gestured ok to Xiaotong, and she pushed the door open a small crack with half-belief.

The big sister inside the door seemed to have noticed the movement at the door, she quickly wiped her eyes with her hand, and then looked this way suspiciously.

Xiaotong greeted the big sister who was looking at her somewhat restrainedly, "Well, hello..."

"Ah... You are the one who came to train before... Mikazuki, Mikazuki, right?"

Unexpectedly, the other party still remembered Xiaotong's name, and looking at Xiaotong's embarrassed face, he obviously forgot how to address him, and even cast his eyes on me for help!

Don't look at me, I don't remember either.

"Ueki Asuka, just call me Ueki." As if seeing Xiaotong's embarrassment, the other party reported his name intimately, and then asked with some doubts, "Today... what are you doing here?"

Xiaotong blinked, and said quickly, "Well... I came to listen to the Bible study last time, and I felt... very rewarding. I'm free today, so I want to come here again for an internship..."

"Is that so?" The other party showed a very happy expression, she clapped her hands and said, "That's really great. But... Today is not the time for the assembly. If you want to join our study, the morning after tomorrow How about coming again? We have recently lost a lot of personnel, if Sanriyue, you are interested in joining us, and if you are active and sincerely want to belong to God, you will probably be able to swim in a short time."

"Swimming?" A big question mark appeared on Xiaotong's forehead.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Swimming is a customary term among us. It actually means 'baptized'. Sanriyue, do you know the word 'baptized'?"

Xiao Tong nodded and said, "I'm also a student of a Catholic school, so I know this kind of common sense."

Baptism is the meaning of "baptism" often said in Christianity.Baptism is a ceremony that shows that the person is clear about the Christian faith and believes what he believes, and is willing to separate from the world and belong to Christ.Generally speaking, baptism is a bit of water baptism and baptism.The sprinkling of water means that the giver pours water on the head of the baptized person, which is more common now.But baptism is more troublesome. It is to immerse the whole person in the water, only the head is exposed to the water. The giver makes the head of the baptized person immersed in the water three times and then emerges.

However, after hearing what Xiaotong said, Ueki looked a little worried, and she continued to ask: "Mr. Mikazuki...you should, you haven't been baptized in other churches, have you?"

"This does not."

"It's okay, okay." Ueki patted his chest, seemingly finally relieved, and explained, "Student Sankaiyue, many churches outside are baptizing people with water, which is not in line with the original meaning of the Bible. Yes, what they convey to people is all distorted teachings. Only we are the only organization that truly conveys the will of Jehovah. The original text of the Bible says 'baptism' means immersion in water, not just sprinkling water. Immersion means It is a kind of death. Getting up from the water indicates a kind of resurrection, which means that believers are resurrected from the dead together with Christ. Only in this way can they be saved. Then you can see that the church outside has tampered with the original meaning of the Bible. That is the devil leading people to a distorted path, making them unable to be saved. So, you must keep your eyes open.”

Xiaotong and I noticed the similarity between this baptism and this blue whale game almost immediately.Submerged, dead, and resurrected, the Blue Whale game looks like a larger baptism.This undoubtedly made me more sure that the Blue Whale game must be related to this cult.

Faced with Ueki's persuasion, Xiaotong didn't know how to respond, so he nodded.She looked around the empty venue, and asked another question: "However, you said that you have lost a lot of people recently... What's going on? Have they... strayed from God's belief?"

Ueki shook his head, "That's because... there are devils and evil spirits descending into the world, trying to harm those of us who truly believe in God."

Chapter 35 Routines

"Devils and evil spirits..." Xiaotong swallowed, "Does it mean...that thing we saw last time...that...child who committed suicide?"

Ueki nodded wordlessly.

"But, you said... you have lost a lot of personnel recently... Could it be that this kind of thing has happened many times?"

"Not many times, maybe... three or four times?"

Xiaotong actually has acting skills, she pretended to be quite scared and said: "Three or four times, that's quite a lot. Is it possible that such a terrible thing will happen to you if you believe in God? That , to join the bible study...how about I think about it again?"

Ueki obviously realized that she had said unnecessary words, she hurriedly waved her hands and explained: "No, it's not like this. It's not that if you join us, you will suddenly want to commit suicide. This kind of thing doesn't just happen here, it happens everywhere. They all appeared. You see, the Blue Whale game that was very popular on TV recently was broadcast to us some time ago. Moreover, this game is promoted in a very deceptive way. It says that our organization Deceived them, trying to keep them from going to heaven. And it preached to us the true gospel, only after really dying once, can we be resurrected to God's paradise on earth. How is this possible? It is said in the bible , the righteous will be resurrected in the light of the Lord of Heaven, but that will be after Judgment Day, not after suicide. Suicide is a sin. As long as you don't listen to the voice of the devil, you will not go astray of!"

"But... where did the devil's voice come from? Who is promoting this blue whale game to you?"

Ueki was silent for a while, and after a while, she replied: "Someone stole the LINE account of our sister who committed suicide before, and then sent this kind of news in groups, but some people really believed it, thinking that the dead sister was here. The new world rises and brings us the good news (Gospel literally means the good news of the resurrection of Christ). Some who believed that the game would lead them to the true kingdom of heaven left, and some who feared that the demon would find The people who were on their own left. I hoped to lead them back to the right way, but they didn't listen to me. They said that they had seen the dead rise with their own eyes, so that's the real way. I... I can't help , I am also a pioneer, and my mother who is a special pioneer committed suicide at the end of last year. Recently, several people suddenly stopped coming to the weekly meetings, and the elders have not been contacted at all these days. What's going on... ...How did our happy and harmonious family in the past become like this now..."

The more Ueki talked, the more sad she became. Originally, she still wanted to persuade Xiaotong to join them, but as a result, she turned into all kinds of difficulties she encountered now. It was a proper negative publicity, but in the end it turned into Xiaotong I'm comforting her.It's also fortunate that Xiao Tong didn't really want to join them, but just came here to talk, otherwise he would have left long ago.

After Xiaotong comforted her a few words, Ueki reached out and wiped the moisture in his eyes, and then said embarrassedly: "Sorry, I made you laugh. I have been under a lot of pressure recently. Our group, in the past The internal interpersonal relationship is really good. Everyone will be very tolerant and enthusiastic. They will look at you with friendly and expectant eyes, listen to your speech and give you sincere suggestions. It really makes people feel very, very warm. I think that's why most of us will stay here forever.

"In fact, I also know what many people outside think of us. They go door-to-door to preach, you can't eat food with blood, you can't have blood transfusions, you can't serve in the military, you can't celebrate your birthday, you can't worship idols, etc., and you don't recommend it. Universities don’t want us to have too much communication with other unbelievers. People outside will think these are incredible, but I think these are minor problems. If you are in school, you can go to a short college, and it is okay to not communicate with outsiders. There is no problem, it is enough to have such a harmonious and friendly relationship in our group. But...if we lose this kind of relationship...it must be a conspiracy of the devil..."

Xiaotong frowned, not knowing what he was thinking.And I really have no interest in the interpersonal relationship within the cult.In fact, since the other party reported his name just now, I started to care about one thing.She said that her surname was "Ueki", and Obasan who committed suicide was also called "Ueki", and she also said just now that her mother committed suicide, so I have been urging Xiaotong to ask about it.

Xiaotong didn't seem to be easy to speak, and after organizing his words for a long time, he said, "Well...you just said that your mother...she committed suicide too? No...is it also related to this blue whale game?"

Ueki shook his head in pain, "I don't know... At that time, there should be no such blue whale game. Didn't the blue whale game become popular recently? And...my mother is the person who is the least likely to commit suicide , her belief in God is the most devout of all, and she has always been looking forward to entering the kingdom of the Lord, and those who commit suicide cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. So I have never been able to understand... On that day, we Obviously we were just having a big party together, after my mother ate cakes and drank wine, she went to the toilet as if feeling a little unwell, but after a while... she jumped off the roof of the building! The surveillance only saw me My mother staggered up to the top of the building by herself, looking devastated... This is really incomprehensible, it can only be explained as being possessed by an evil spirit..."

Huh, things are a little strange.Ueki Obasan committed suicide the earliest time, in December last year, even Mika hadn’t died of illness at that time, Fujiwara Takashi hadn’t even painted the painting called [Lake], and the Blue Whale game hadn’t even appeared yet. Start to catch on.Does this mean that this incident has nothing to do with the Blue Whale game?

If I had known earlier, I should have asked Police Officer Usui for more information on this incident.

"Did you lose your soul..." Xiaotong muttered to himself, and then asked, "Suppose, we get rid of the influence of some evil spirits, do you think your mother... under what circumstances would she commit suicide? What's the situation?"

"A person like her...probably only does this kind of thing when she thinks she can't go to the Lord's kingdom of heaven, right?"

"You said, was it a party at that time? Who were there at that time?"

"It's our brothers and sisters who study the Bible together." Ueki frowned, as if he finally felt it, stared at Xiaotong displeasedly and said, "Do you really want to join us? How do I feel... ...You look like a reporter who came to inquire about things? Now reporters will hire children to come in and ask random questions?!"

----

(This volume of Kawen is extremely serious, and it was painful for me to write. It is probably because the subject matter is not easy to write about daily life and then investigate incidents. As a result, the writing is relatively dry and not very interesting. Now I am going to speed up the completion of this volume.)

Chapter 36 Rising Tide

Because Xiaotong's question aroused the vigilance of the other party, no matter how Xiaotong explained afterwards, it was difficult to dispel Ueki's suspicion of Xiaotong.Ueki sent Xiaotong out very politely, but began to refuse to answer Xiaotong's question.

Xiao Tong walked out of the building with a worried expression on her face. Looking at her, I couldn't help asking: "What's the matter, what did you find out from what that person said?"

Xiaotong said in a sullen tone, "Well... I want to know about their so-called sect first. There are some things... that I really care about."

As soon as he returned to the shrine, Xiaotong immediately started to search for information about this sect in front of the computer.Information about this sect is actually not difficult to find, and many results can be found with a quick search. We found that the number of members of this organization in Japan is quite large.

Jehovah's Witnesses, referred to as "Jehovah" or JW, is a wonderful branch of Christianity.This sect firmly believes that the end of "Armageddon" prophesied in the Bible will come, but they believe that the end of the world is not a terrible day, but the day when God's heavenly kingdom begins to rule the earth.It claims that it is the only true church, the correct religion and the organization of God in the world, and persuades others to abandon the dark and turn to the light, leave the wrong religion, and join the correct religion.

Regarding this sect, the most famous dogma is probably "no blood transfusion".

"You shall not eat the blood of any living creature, for in the blood is the life of every living creature. Whoever eats the blood shall be cut off. (Leviticus 17:14)"

According to the content of the Bible, they believe that there is life in blood, so they should not accept whole blood or its main components in any way, including not eating food containing blood, and not accepting blood transfusions.JWD members often carry a medical instruction card of "not accepting blood transfusion for religious reasons", so that even if they encounter some unexpected accidents, they can use this to refuse blood transfusion.

Also, they forbade idolatry.Members are not allowed to celebrate birthdays and all traditional festivals, even Christian Christmas and Easter, they will not celebrate, and it is also forbidden to use crosses, perform military service, sing the national anthem, school anthem, and worship the dead. The worship of a certain group or individual is prohibited.

This sect is considered an extremist organization in many countries and regions. Although you may not feel that they are extremist when you meet them for the first time, they are even very warm and friendly, but after getting along for a long time, you may You will find that they are actually very xenophobic, and even disapprove of too much communication between members and ordinary people who are not Christians.The only purpose of them approaching ordinary people is probably to preach. Knocking on doors from door to door and trying to persuade others to believe in religion is a characteristic of their missionary (there is an ancient anime "Welcome to nhk" that I like very much, in which the group of the heroine Misaki Nakahara is Jesus evidence).

I just scanned one of these information and probably didn’t have much interest, and for some reason, Xiaotong was reading it surprisingly seriously, even some missionary articles with unclear meanings, and the self-reports of former Christian witnesses, she seemed to be word for word looking at the same.

Just when this little pupil was engrossed, I suddenly noticed that Nanako's cell phone on the table vibrated suddenly.

With a premonition in my heart, I quickly picked up the phone, and it was indeed a message from [Koala Bear].

[Koala Bear] Time is running out, how are you thinking?Ready to join us?

I frowned and replied——

【Poison Mushroom】What does it mean that time is running out?

[Koala Bear] means that a great day is coming, if you don't choose to join us, the tickets for the new world will be sold out.

[Poisonous Mushrooms] However, I have such an experience, the more the store shouts that there are only a few items left and they will be sold out soon, the more the stock is abundant and it is a sign that they cannot be sold~

【Koala Bear】………

[Koala Bear] Pretending to be smart, you don't even appreciate my kindness.Why do you think I pulled you over and over again?Do you think we really miss you as a member?Don't be too sentimental, if it's not... forget it, believe it or not.

[Koala Bear] You will soon know that I am right, because the lake... has begun to rise.

The koala sent several messages one after another in one breath, and then fell completely silent, no matter what he sent to her again, there was no response.

I watched her last sentence——

"The water of the lake...is beginning to rise." What does this sentence mean?

It seemed to be raining patter outside the house, and I floated to the window and looked out.

I don't know if it's because of the night, but when I look out through the lights in the house, I always have a faint feeling that the rain falling outside... seems to be red.

In the night sky, the chirping of whales echoed.

-----

The next morning, it was still raining.

Now, I clearly saw that it was not my illusion, the rust-colored rain fell from the sky, hit the stone road of the shrine, and flowed along the cracks in the stone road, as if... like blood flowing.Even the water in the Tsukimi Pond in the shrine was dyed reddish.

Xiao Tong, who was having breakfast, was watching the report on the TV station. The red rain phenomenon seemed to cover the entire metropolis of Tokyo, and it continued to fall all night, causing quite a panic.TV programs also began to report on the cause of the red rain. Some said that the iron ions in the sewage discharged by industrial pollution may have mixed into the rainwater, and some said that it was a phenomenon caused by a large amount of nuclear waste water being discharged into the ocean. Dust storms bring red dirt and more.

All in all, because it is not sure whether it is caused by some kind of environmental pollution, the TV station reminded the public to try not to expose their bodies to the red rain, and to pay attention to the safety of drinking water.

"Xiaotong, this red rain... must have something to do with the Blue Whale game..." I showed Xiaotong the message that the koala bear sent me last night, but she looked at the conversation and was a little lost. I know why she has been in a trance since yesterday.

"It must be, but I don't know how this red rain... will affect people." Xiaotong lowered his head and analyzed, "Look, when you see red rain, you will think of blood. Now we It is generally certain that the Blue Whale game has something to do with that cult. And according to that sect's point of view, souls reside in blood..."

Indeed, although I don't know exactly what the impact will be, I just feel that it is very bad based on intuition.

Then, police officer Usui came to visit.

"The suicides in the Blue Whale Game have stopped." This was the first sentence he said.

"Ah, what?"

Police officer Usui said in a deep voice: "In the past two months, statistics have found that participants in the Blue Whale game commit suicide every day. On average, one or two people per day, sometimes even more. The total number of deaths now... has exceeded 130 people. But... since two days ago, the counting of suicides has stopped. In the past two days, no suicide has been found."

Xiaotong swallowed and said, "A short pause... as if something bigger is brewing."

"Yes." Police Officer Usui nodded. "According to our monitoring of social media, we found that the remaining participants in the Blue Whale game, through some code words, seemed to be meeting for a group suicide. There are quite a lot of people... …Maybe more than a hundred people. And when we tried to continue to determine when and where they met, only to find that all these contact information disappeared from the Internet, and their voices have not been found in various social media since then , It’s as if... In order to prevent us from being noticed, we changed the way of communication. This is the most serious situation at present. Before that, 130 people committed suicide one after another, which has already caused extremely bad effects. But think about it, once Hundreds of people, or even more, the impact these people will have on society if they commit suicide at the same time. The police in the entire Tokyo Metropolis have been mobilized to patrol, and I want to ask, through those...unscientific means, Is it possible to find out when and where those people agreed to kill themselves together?"

Xiaotong thought for a while, then nodded and said, "Probably... that's ok. Officer Usui, please take me to that lake, the lake next to Mika's house, I... have a try."

Chapter 37

In the car of police officer Usui, we came all the way to Fujiwara House in the suburbs.

The quiet and beautiful lakeside villa, away from the crowds, deserves to be the resort chosen by a famous painter for his daughter.