Super Righteous Player
Chapter 985 - 43 Scarecrow

Chapter 985: Chapter 43 Scarecrow

"If Bernadino indeed said that..."

Annan murmured to himself, standing up from his seat, his brows slightly furrowed in serious thought.

What had happened to change the course of Bernadino’s life so drastically, especially when he’d almost been convinced?

Annan walked over to the window, gazing at the moon in the sky.

Judging from the moon’s position, it was probably about nine o’clock at night.

Annan made a round of the room and saw that besides a bed and a desk, there really wasn’t much of anything.

Although there was a storage cabinet, he couldn’t spot any diaries inside.

He felt a wave of disappointment.

"This little Bern, not as easy to deal with as Elle,"

Annan clucked his tongue, gesturing around the room.

Even the storage cabinet in this room was barren—this was obviously to keep him from wasting time here needlessly.

This setup sparked an association in Annan’s mind.

"Need to check when I get back... so does that mean there’s a time limit for gathering intelligence?"

Annan murmured to himself.

It wasn’t necessarily a time limit; it could be a plot trigger... for example, Father Ludwig might suddenly return when he searches a certain area.

This corresponded to two completely opposite search strategies.

If time was limited, he had to investigate as thoroughly as possible in one go, without dawdling; if it was event-triggered, he had a lot more time and the emphasis would be "try not to turn back."

As everyone knows, turning back in a horror game is a classic FLAG.

However, luckily, this trigger condition was something determinable...

Annan slowly pushed open the room’s door.

The wooden door issued a creaky, sour noise.

Darkness enveloped the outside corridor, and the damp, cold sea breeze flooded in from outside, seeping into his being.

...Was a window open? Or was the front door ajar?

Such thoughts flickered through Annan’s mind.

He realized he had made at least one misjudgment before...

Knowing Bernadino was a fisherman’s son and having smelled the scent of the sea breeze, he subconsciously assumed that the previous room was Bernadino’s house. After all, that room also had a bed and a desk, and though simple, it met the basic criteria of a home.

But it wasn’t until Annan opened the door that he realized the house was surprisingly large. The room he had just been in was merely a guest bedroom.

This house was even significantly larger than Amos’s home, by his estimate.

There might be a second floor and a basement, who knew.

This house certainly couldn’t be Bernadino’s... Most likely, it was Father Ludwig’s. Though it was just a remote fishing village, it wouldn’t be too strange for a bishop and once-famous artist to have a well-decorated house.

Annan looked around quickly and soon located the position of the room’s main door.

He tried to push it, finding it wouldn’t budge.

After checking it again, Annan realized that the door had been locked from the outside.

Annan tested it himself and found that it indeed wasn’t easy to open.

The door was exceptionally well secured... to the point that when he forcefully tugged at it, it didn’t even shake slightly.

It was as if this wasn’t a locked door, but just a doorknob added to the wall.

"...Got it, classic ’can’t open,’"

Annan sighed, turning to look back into the pitch-black depths of the corridor.

Because he realized that the atmosphere was about to get a whole lot spookier...

Annan could barely make out a clock by the door, using the faintest glimmer of light.

He drew closer, examining the time.

The hour hand pointed between nine and ten, while the minute hand was directly opposite it.

The time was approximately 9:17 PM.

Annan stood there, his right hand resting on his left wrist to feel his pulse, quietly waiting for a minute.

Then, he saw the minute hand jump forward. Another minute passed, and it jumped again.

Annan let out a sigh of relief.

"I get it, it’s time-limited mode,"

he whispered to himself.

—Annan had specifically checked the moon’s position earlier to estimate the time, just for this.

First, he confirmed the rough time, then checked that the time on the clock was accurate and that it was moving. If the time was indeed passing normally, then he monitored his pulse to see if each minute was equal.

The time was indeed passing normally and very accurately.

So, it could only be determined that Father Ludwig would return at some point, triggering the next phase of the story.

Because if time just kept passing like this and the critical event never triggered, then daylight would eventually come. Then, the logic of the story would collapse.

In a nightmare of replay type, death could not save memories—whether this was his first cycle or not, Annan had to be prepared to make it through in one life. Thus, he needed to investigate and gather as much useful information as he could in the available time.

...First, to find the kitchen.

With that in mind and after a final check of the securely locked door, Annan walked slowly toward the depths of the darkened corridor.

The darkness within the room was unnaturally deep.

Earlier, in the bedroom, he could see the moonlight. The room wasn’t this dark... but the corridor and the living room at its end were so dim that there was no light at all.

But if all the windows were sealed... where was this damp, cold evening breeze coming from?

As Annan moved forward, the rustling sound of rain grew clearer.

It was raining outside—he only saw after entering that the windows along the corridor were also pitch black.

It probably wasn’t a draft here, Annan thought.

He stepped forward, intending to check out the window.

But just then, without warning, the window flew open—

The roaring sound of the downpour, along with the sudden influx of rain and gusty wind, soaked Annan’s upper body.

He instinctively reached out to close the window.

But that’s when Annan’s intuition suddenly alerted him... something seemed to be moving outside. This made him hesitate for a moment.

Annan keenly sensed that this intuition was unusual.

Because the body he was inhabiting now belonged to the thirteen-or-fourteen-year-old Bernadino. His sensory capabilities were probably inferior to even a normal person’s. He wouldn’t be able to "intuit" anything...

So, this could only mean the nightmare itself wanted him to see something.

Motivated by this realization, Annan decided to just go with it.

He focused, peering outward.

Just then.

A thunderous clap of lightning struck—sounding as if it exploded right in front of him, making Annan’s heart thunder in tandem. And the simultaneous flash of electric light, brief as it was, illuminated the outside.

Annan’s pupils constricted slightly.

Outside the window was a twisted, headless scarecrow.

It seemed to be holding something spherical in its hand, swaying in the fierce wind... and a stream of black liquid, bound into strands by the torrential rain, dripping steadily to the ground.

It seemed...

to be a human head.