"Are you guys all right?"
"Can we undo our seatbelts now?"
"Do any of you smell something weird?"
While the visitors were chatting, the screen in the cinema suddenly started playing a movie.
The protagonists were also seven people, just like these seven visitors, sitting side by side in the first row of the cinema.
All seven people on the screen had their backs to the visitors. Those seven people were also watching a screen, and at that moment, a screen within the screen began playing a recording.
"On the Night of Returning Souls, seven best friends made a date to watch a movie at the cinema. They did this to commemorate their teacher. That respected teacher's favorite movie just happened to be screening on the Night of Returning Souls."
"When the movie first started, none of them noticed anything unusual, but gradually they began to sense something strange."
"Mysterious silhouettes kept flickering across the cinema screen, and occasionally they could hear eerie crying."
"One of the classmates went to the restroom midway through, but after a long time, she never came back. When one of them went to look for that classmate, they suddenly realized that the private screening room they had booked still had seven people sitting in it."
"Everyone panicked. They unbuckled their seatbelts, left their seats, and hurriedly ran toward the exit—but they had no idea that what awaited them beyond the door was an even more desperate scene…"
The screen-within-the-screen froze at that point. The seven visitors on the screen began whispering among themselves and murmuring excitedly. They seemed to find that video rather interesting.
"Have you guys seen any movies with similar scenes? Is this the plot of some horror movie?" the bespectacled man asked in a low voice.
"Can't think of one off the top of my head," the youngest man shook his head. "Even if the setup is similar, we can't just copy the solution from the movie. Don't forget—thanks to a certain someone, we're dealing with a fusion of forty scenarios."
"So what do we do now?"
"Wait. There might be more hints."
The visitors around
He noticed that the scene on the screen closely mirrored what was happening in reality. The visitors in the film also started discussing after watching the footage.
"A fusion of forty Hell-level scenarios—the scare points should be incredibly dense,"
He unbuckled his seatbelt and was the first to stand. "Everyone, it's time to go."
"What's the rush? The first scenario is the simplest one. If we don't gather more information here, it'll only get harder the further we go." The fashionably dressed man looked around at the other visitors. "Each of our abilities has limited uses, so I suggest we stick together and help each other. How about this—let's all introduce ourselves first so we can plan ahead and coordinate."
Before the man could finish,
"Hey! Why are you being so antisocial? Everyone's introducing themselves. You're part of this team too!"