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"… Amamiya-kun, surrender yourself."
A voice as cold as ice, devoid of any emotion or warmth, entered his ears, like the bitter wind of the coldest winter days, threatening to freeze both body and soul.
The girl speaking wore a high-quality moon-white dress-pajama. Her silky black hair fell naturally to her waist. She had luminous, snow-white skin and delicate, flawless features.
If he wasn't mistaken, she seemed to be his classmate… Shinomiya Kaguya?
The new semester had just begun, and he happened to be in the same class as the girl in front of him. However, they had never spoken until now, making her a standard 'background classmate.'
Amamiya Natsuki took a deep breath, looking down at his hands. His left hand held a black collar, and his right gripped a white leash. He couldn't help but fall into thought.
He was clearly about to go out and walk his dog. He had just crouched down to tie his shoelace, and when he looked up, his Akita Inu had turned into an ice sculpture girl wearing pajamas?
Could it be a dog-girl's repayment?
It wasn't for nothing that he worked hard walking her every day… Just kidding.
What kind of repayment starts by telling someone to surrender!
Amamiya Natsuki looked up and scanned his surroundings.
The familiar street had quietly vanished, replaced by a strange room. To call it a room might not be accurate—no one would build a room the size of a soccer field.
There were no doors or windows on the walls. Besides Amamiya Natsuki and Shinomiya Kaguya, there were no other people or creatures in the room. There weren't even tables or chairs, as if it were just an empty box.
Even stranger, despite the lack of any light source, he could see clearly in the room.
The bizarre phenomenon, completely unexplainable by science, made Amamiya Natsuki wonder if he was dreaming.
"… Surrender."
The clear, pleasant voice, like the collision of pearls and jade, sounded again. Shinomiya Kaguya clutched her chest, her face showing no emotional fluctuations.
"Sorry, I refuse," Amamiya Natsuki instinctively retorted.
His first conversation with a classmate started with surrender; something was definitely wrong!
Shinomiya Kaguya's voice was clear and cold, her eyes like a still lake, without any ripples: "Although I don't know how you secretly kidnapped me here, my bodyguards will track you very soon… Your only way out now is to surrender."
What was with that look, as if he were 'a dying man'?
If he didn't surrender immediately, would he end up feeding the fish in Tokyo Bay?!
"Shinomiya," Amamiya Natsuki said with a serious expression, "you must have misunderstood something."
"… "
Shinomiya Kaguya didn't speak, only lowered her gaze to the collar and leash in Amamiya Natsuki's hand.
"I was just about to go out and walk my dog," Amamiya Natsuki replied frankly. "It's perfectly normal to be holding a collar and leash, isn't it?"
Hearing Amamiya Natsuki's explanation, the ice sculpture girl's eyes widened slightly, and a chill several times more intense suddenly erupted.
"Wait," Amamiya Natsuki quickly said, "This really is a collar and leash for walking a dog, not tools prepared for you."
The cold current index soared again; his soul was about to freeze.
Amamiya Natsuki silently raised his hands: "… Is it too late for me to surrender now?"
Shinomiya Kaguya didn't speak. She suddenly widened her eyes, her pink lips slightly parted, revealing two rows of teeth like perfect shells. Compared to the ice sculpture girl from before, her current dumbfounded expression was unexpectedly cute.
Wait—
"Something's behind you!"
Amamiya Natsuki's heart stirred, and he quickly turned to look.
Holy crap!
What a big snake!
A giant snake, easily over ten meters long, had appeared in the room at some point. Its body was clearly segmented, and even stranger, besides its larger head, its body's length and thickness were exactly uniform.
The next moment.
A peculiar sound suddenly echoed in both their minds.
[Welcome to the Bizarre game]
[game Instance: The Snake Catcher's Tale]
[Clear Conditions: 1. Successfully catch the snake, 2. game time of thirty minutes. Fulfill either condition to exit the instance.]
[Clear Reward: See the true nature of the world]
[Failure Penalty: Random]
[The game is about to begin. Wishing players a pleasant game.]
As the strange sound faded, the motionless Anaconda suddenly 'came alive.' Without any probing or hesitation, it swam directly towards Amamiya Natsuki and Shinomiya Kaguya.
Amamiya Natsuki took a deep breath and turned to Shinomiya Kaguya, whose face was pale and who clearly hadn't recovered: "What are you spacing out for? Run!"
Shinomiya Kaguya finally snapped out of it.
Even the 'Ice Princess' couldn't remain calm and composed when facing a monstrous snake.
Fortunately, the giant snake didn't pursue them relentlessly. Instead, it made a turn, swallowed a light orb nearby, and then swam away at a leisurely pace.
Besides the giant snake, many scattered light orbs, about the size of a soccer ball, also appeared in the room. There was one in the corner where the two of them were leaning. Amamiya Natsuki cautiously touched it, and his finger passed through it as if through air, without any tactile sensation.
The two stopped against the wall. Amamiya Natsuki caught his breath and looked at Shinomiya Kaguya:
"Shinomiya, did you hear a strange sound just now?"
"I did," Shinomiya Kaguya's face was pale, and her chest heaved continuously. She was clearly terrified of snakes and showed signs of melting from an ice sculpture into a snowman. She tried her best to keep her voice steady. "It said, 'Welcome to the game'…"
Indeed, both of them heard the exact same sound.
"It seems we two are the game players," Amamiya Natsuki analyzed in a deep voice. "The Snake Catcher's Tale… should be about catching that giant snake."
In the entire enclosed space, besides Amamiya Natsuki and Shinomiya Kaguya, the two 'players,' there was only one giant snake. The target was exceptionally clear.
The problem was that this snake was too big!
With an ordinary small snake, he might grit his teeth and try to catch it bare-handed. But catching an Anaconda bare-handed?
That's like an old man eating arsenic, just asking for death!
"That giant snake suddenly appeared out of thin air…"
Shinomiya Kaguya took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly. She could face robbers calmly, but an unknown giant snake beyond her comprehension was truly difficult to remain composed about.
"I was just about to go to the Park to walk my dog. I bent down to tie my shoelace, and when I looked up, I found myself here. Now there's this thing appearing out of nowhere… let's call it an Anaconda for now." Amamiya Natsuki didn't notice the ice sculpture girl's subtle movements. He frowned, "We must have encountered a bizarre phenomenon that cannot be explained by science."
The giant snake was full of indescribable oddities, as if it weren't a creature from Earth. Only an Anaconda was closest in terms of size.
Now the problem came.
How could an ordinary person capture a giant Anaconda bare-handed?
Amamiya Natsuki carefully considered all usable items: a collar, a leash, and an ice sculpture girl… He quickly reached a conclusion.
Can't catch it.
Just wait to die.
The only way to clear the game seemed to be surviving for thirty minutes…
Looking at the giant Anaconda in the distance, Amamiya Natsuki was already preparing to give up when he suddenly felt a slight warmth in his eyes. Immediately afterward, a line of text slowly appeared above the Anaconda's head in his field of vision:
[I have a dream…]
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