The Ones Within: Utaite Version

Chapter 4: Hide and Seek

"This is an urgent announcement. Due to the rule-breakers penalty the next level will have a difficulty degree S. The doors to the entrance of the tower are locked for now.

It's a shame everyone has to be dragged into this because of Soraru-sama and Mafumafu-sama. Let the Stage 4 "Hide and Seek" begin." "I don't know what's happening but I think we should run away from that girl!", Sakata said.

"For once I agree with Sakata! Let's go!", Urata said as they all ran away from her. While they ran away Retrodot started to speak again.

"While you are all running I am going to explain the rules to you. Successfully escape Doll until morning at 7 am and take her most beloved thing away. To get the 03 Chromosome you'll have to destroy her most beloved thing after stealing it and at least 4 players have to be untouched by Doll.", Retrodot explained.

"What do you mean 'untouched'?", Urata asked but Retrodot didn't answer. "I hate you!", Urata shouted as they kept running away from the girl following them with a surprisingly fast pace.

They ran into a storage room and slammed the door in the face of the girl breathing out as they slumped onto the floor. "So to clear this game we have to escape that girl until 7 am and steal her most beloved thing. But what would that be?", Amatsuki asked. "We could leave this to Soraru.

He is the one who plays the most mystery games, right?", Shima said.

"Good idea! We'll leave it to you then!", Sakata smiled but Soraru just frowned. "This is too much work...", Soraru complained.

"Please, Soraru-san! We need your help!", Mafumafu clapped his hands together looking at him with puppy eyes making Soraru sigh and finally give in. "Fine. Just shut up for a second so I can concentrate.", he said.

They all shut their mouths looking at Soraru making him slightly uncomfortable but he decided to blend them out of his mind and soon enough he pieces everything together connecting the dots while from the outside they just saw him holding his front bang while crossing his arms.

"To clear the stage—". "Wow, that was fast! How cool!", Mafumafu said in excitement.

"To clear the stage you'll have to steal her most important item and because she was only carrying the doll it means we have to get it from her grip somehow.", Soraru explained.

"That does explain some things... but what does he mean when he said that four of us players have to stay untouched by her?", Kashitaro asked.

"Something is probably going to happen to us if she does catch us while searching for us—", Soraru answered. "So we just to stay here to be safe, right? There are about 10 hours left so just have to keep each other company until then.", Sakata said smiling as he sighed out in relief.

"Idiot. Stage 4 is difficult for a reason. We still have to destroy her doll and to destroy it we have to take it away from her first.", Urata sighed.

"That's right. We have to make a plan to take that doll away from her first. Like I wanted to say, something might happen to us when she catches us making us unable to keep playing. I don't know what she does yet but we should stay in small groups so no one is alone.", Soraru said.

"So we will split up... in how many groups?", Mafumafu asked.

"We will see about that. Splitting into groups is also efficient to find the girl. Simply hiding is not enough so we have to go find her.", Soraru explained. "But how will we find her?", Sakata asked. "That is easy. We just have to get out and walk around. Because she is searching for us it won't be difficult to find her.", Soraru said.