The project manager from the Japanese distribution company looked curiously at Atlas Vance and the three people standing beside him before speaking rapidly in Japanese.
Atlas understood almost none of it, so he glanced toward Sadako Yamamura with a helpless expression.
“What did he say?”
Sadako looked mildly annoyed at once again being used as a translator.
“He wants to know why an American production company came all the way to Japan to release a movie first.”
Atlas smiled and asked her to translate his response.
“For certain reasons, our domestic release has been delayed, so we’re planning to premiere our newest horror movie in Japan.
We came here because we’d like to discuss distribution.”
The moment the manager heard the words “horror movie,” his expression became slightly awkward.
He apologized before explaining that he wasn’t deliberately trying to insult them, but Vance Studios had no reputation in Japan, and what little information he had found about its predecessor wasn’t flattering.
From his perspective, investing in an unknown foreign horror movie from a previously unsuccessful company sounded unnecessarily risky.
After Sadako finished translating, Atlas showed no irritation.
Instead, he reached into his bag and placed a black USB drive on the desk.
“Don’t decide yet.
Watch the trailer first.”
Atlas had already prepared a Japanese-language version of the trailer with professionally translated subtitles and promotional text.
The manager reluctantly inserted the USB drive into his computer, clearly expecting to watch a few minutes of low-budget horror before politely refusing them.
His expression began changing almost immediately.
The gloomy forest appeared first, followed by the old well and fragments of the cursed videotape.
When Sadako’s silhouette entered the trailer, the manager unconsciously leaned closer to the screen.
Then came the sequence where she crawled from the television and slowly turned toward the camera.
“Ah!”
The manager jerked hard in his chair.
When Sadako began moving toward the camera as though she intended to crawl directly beyond the screen, he immediately paused the video.
He remained silent for several seconds before taking a breath and looking toward Atlas with a completely different expression.
“That was…
extremely effective.”
Sadako translated while Atlas smiled.
The manager looked slightly embarrassed.
“I apologize for what I said earlier.
If the trailer alone can make me react like that while sitting in an office during the day, I can imagine what the full movie will do inside a dark theater.”
He extended his hand.
“Let’s discuss the contract.”
By the time Atlas and the others finally left the distribution company, it was already noon.
Daniel Mercer looked back toward the building and still seemed slightly stunned by how quickly everything had changed.
“That’s it?
We actually got a distributor that easily?”
Emily Brooks smiled.
“So now we basically wait for them to handle promotion, theater negotiations, and the release schedule?”
Atlas nodded.
“Pretty much.
There are still details to finalize, and the movie won’t release immediately, but the hardest part is done.”
Then he noticed Sadako walking beside him with an obviously unhappy expression.
Atlas sighed.
She had barely spoken during the entire meeting except when translating, and judging from the way she was pouting now, being treated like a human translation service had apparently wounded the dignity of the legendary Sadako Yamamura.
Atlas had already learned that forcing her to perform mundane tasks was one of the fastest ways to irritate her.
“Since we’re already in Japan, why don’t we stay for a few days and actually enjoy ourselves before flying home?” Atlas suggested.
“We don’t have to spend the entire trip talking about distribution.”
Emily was the first to react.
“Absolutely!
I’ve always wanted to explore Japan.”
She immediately pulled out her phone and began searching for nearby attractions.
After scrolling for less than a minute, her eyes lit up.
“Wait, Fuji-Q Highland isn’t that far away.
They have that famous abandoned-hospital haunted attraction!”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“A haunted house?”
Emily looked up from her phone.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared.”
Daniel cleared his throat.
“I didn’t say that.”
Emily stood on her toes and lightly tugged his beard.
“I’m younger than you and I’m willing to go.
What’s a grown man with a beard like this worried about?”
Daniel swatted her hand away.
“Stop touching my beard.”
Atlas ignored their argument and looked toward Sadako.
“What about you?
Interested in visiting a haunted house?”
Sadako stared at him expressionlessly.
“Am I supposed to scare them, or are they supposed to scare me?”
“Either one is fine as long as you enjoy yourself.”
Sadako’s eyes showed the faintest hint of interest.
“Are you sure?”
Atlas immediately reconsidered his wording.
“Actually…
keep it restrained.”
Sadako gave him a small smile that Atlas didn’t find reassuring.
The four first stopped for lunch and then headed toward Fuji-Q Highland near Mount Fuji.
Following the navigation on Emily’s phone, they eventually entered the amusement park and made their way directly toward its famous walkthrough horror attraction.
Even from outside, the abandoned-hospital design created a gloomy atmosphere very different from the colorful rides and attractions surrounding it.
Emily stared up at the building.
“This is the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear.”
The attraction was themed around the fictional Jikyu General Hospital, a supposedly cursed medical facility connected to organ trafficking, unethical experiments, and countless victims.
The official backstory described the hospital as having been abandoned after horrific scandals, while the attraction itself used long hospital corridors, treatment rooms, darkness, sound, temperature, and live performers to create its frightening atmosphere.
Fortunately, the line wasn’t especially long.
Emily continued reading information from her phone.
“According to the attraction’s story, Jikyu General Hospital was involved in organ trafficking and horrible medical experiments before it closed.
That’s why the whole place is supposed to be filled with angry spirits.”
Sadako stared toward the building for several seconds.
Then she calmly nodded.
“There is resentment here.”
Emily stopped reading.
Daniel slowly turned toward Sadako.
Sadako continued as though she had said something perfectly ordinary.
“It isn’t especially strong anymore.
So many living people constantly pass through this place that whatever was here has been diluted.”
Atlas’s face immediately stiffened.
Emily blinked.
“Wait…
what?”
Atlas laughed awkwardly.
“My sister likes supernatural stories.
She gets really into character sometimes.”
Sadako turned toward him with clear displeasure.
“You’re the one talking nonsense.
If you don’t believe me, I can show—”
Atlas immediately covered her mouth.
Sadako’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Emily, Daniel, you two stay in line,” Atlas said quickly.
“We’re going to get drinks.”
Before either of them could respond, Atlas pulled Sadako away from the entrance.
Once they were far enough from the others, he released her and sighed.
“Miss Sadako, please stop casually revealing supernatural information in front of normal people.”
Sadako looked confused.
“Why?”
“Because normal people aren’t supposed to know ghosts exist.”
“I exist.”
“Yes, which is exactly the problem.”
Sadako still didn’t understand why Atlas looked so concerned.
Atlas lowered his voice.
“If people discover what you really are, eventually somebody with money, authority, or government resources is going to become interested.
Then they’ll start asking questions about you, me, the system, and everything else.”
Sadako tilted her head.
Atlas continued, “Worst case, somebody tries to capture us and study us.”
A cold wind suddenly circled around them.
Sadako looked completely unimpressed.
“Who is going to capture me?”
Atlas stopped.
Sadako added, “Even if someone tore my body apart, I would simply come back.”
Atlas stared at her for several seconds.
“That’s really not the point.”
Sadako clearly thought it was.
Atlas decided continuing the argument would only give himself a headache, so he walked toward a nearby drink shop instead.
He ordered several cups of Japanese milk tea and handed one to Sadako while they waited.
“Here.”
Sadako looked suspiciously at the cup before inserting the straw and taking a small sip.
Her eyes widened.
Atlas noticed immediately.
Sadako took another sip.
Then another.
[Ding!
Sadako Yamamura’s favorability increased by 5!]
[Current Favorability: 10]
Atlas froze.
He slowly looked from the system notification to the cup in Sadako’s hands.
Five points?
He had spent weeks treating her carefully, protecting her identity, feeding her, drying her hair, buying clothes, and trying not to abuse the contract, yet one cup of milk tea had somehow produced an enormous favorability increase.
Atlas suddenly felt enlightened.
He turned around and marched straight back to the counter.
The employee looked at him curiously.
Atlas pointed at the menu.
“One of every flavor.”
Sadako glanced over.
A few minutes later, Atlas returned carrying a ridiculous number of drinks.
[Ding!
Sadako Yamamura’s favorability increased by 5!]
Sadako opened another cup.
[Ding!
Sadako Yamamura’s favorability increased by 5!]
Then another.
[Ding!
Sadako Yamamura’s favorability increased by 5!]
Atlas’s expression grew increasingly delighted.
By the time they began walking back toward the haunted attraction, he was carrying five cups in each hand with several more awkwardly tucked against his arms.
Sadako followed beside him happily switching between flavors as though she had discovered the greatest invention humanity had ever produced.
Eventually, however, the favorability notifications stopped.
Atlas checked the system.
[Sadako Yamamura Favorability: 25]
[Emotional State Toward Host: Familiar]
No matter how many additional drinks he offered, the number refused to increase any further.
Apparently, milk tea had limits.
Still, going from 5 to 25 in such a short period was an incredible discovery.
Atlas looked sideways at Sadako as she drank another cup with obvious satisfaction.
For a moment, she didn’t resemble a ghost who wanted to curse humanity or crawl through televisions at all.
She simply looked like an attractive young woman enjoying a drink while walking through an amusement park.
Atlas suddenly wondered something.
Was Sadako technically still dead?
She could eat, drink, taste food, enjoy things, complain, become annoyed, and form new relationships.
Apart from her supernatural powers, unusual behavior, and occasional desire to terrify people to death, she was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from an ordinary living person.
Atlas couldn’t understand what exactly had happened to her after she entered this parallel world.
Perhaps the system had changed something.
Maybe Sadako’s existence had been altered when she crossed worlds, just as Atlas himself had transmigrated into a new reality.
It might be like moving a piece of code into an environment where the original rules no longer applied perfectly, producing an unexpected bug.
If that was true, then perhaps Sadako wasn’t permanently limited to being a ghost.
Maybe one day she could truly become human again.
Atlas glanced toward her.
Sadako was currently trying two different milk teas at the same time.
He decided this probably wasn’t the moment for a philosophical discussion about life and death.
When Atlas and Sadako finally returned to the entrance of the haunted attraction, Daniel’s jaw almost dropped.
He stared at the mountain of drinks in Atlas’s arms and asked, “Did you two go buy refreshments or raid the entire store?”
Atlas distributed two cups to Daniel and Emily before pointing toward Sadako.
“She likes milk tea, so I bought every flavor.”
Emily looked at Atlas with sparkling eyes.
In her mind, Atlas had apparently transformed from a strange young director into an incredibly caring older brother.
Someone willing to buy an absurd number of drinks simply because his younger sister liked them couldn’t possibly be that bad.
Atlas had no idea what she was imagining.
The four waited in line for roughly another half hour before finally reaching the front.
Sadako finished the last remaining cup, lowered it from her lips, and suddenly let out a small but extremely satisfied burp.
Daniel stared at her.
Emily stared at her.
They had watched Sadako consume an amount of liquid that seemed physically impossible for someone her size.
Atlas felt both of their gazes and immediately became nervous.
“My sister has a…
very large stomach.”
Neither looked convinced.
Atlas coughed.
“And apparently a very large bladder too.”
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