"Oh wow. Another book is trending because of the wiki..."
"Is it the one with the tall white-haired guy as the main character? Ah, it was quite interesting... plus, the main character was really smart, I heard."
"Yeah. Apparently it’s called [Pale Sickness]. Well, I still prefer [Death of the Universe] over this one though, hehe."
"I’m pretty sure you’re just saying that because the main character was a woman... you dang bastard."
"Tsk. You don’t understand. Horror and women go well together, alright?! Don’t you know the theory that femininity and horror are things that always come hand in hand?"
"Don’t get all philosophical on me. I’ve seen your perverted tweets...."
Walking along with two of my friends, I didn’t say much as I walked behind them.
The three of us were currently dressed in cosplay.
It wasn’t cosplay of any specific character from [Arcana], though. We had simply decided to dress according to the horror theme of the wiki.
I was wearing a suit, with my hair combed neatly to the side. I had even put some makeup around my right eye to make it look like I had a scar, while a white contact lens made the same eye appear blind.
It was a bit embarrassing to walk around like this in public, but it was also part of the fun.
My two friends had also dressed up in their own horror-themed outfits, although neither of them were based on any particular character either.
I didn’t talk much as I walked behind the two of them.
Not that I wasn’t close to them. I was just the type of person who liked to stay quiet a lot.
Besides, they were perfectly capable of carrying a conversation without me.
For context, what they were talking about were popular books centered around a certain wiki universe called [Arcana].
[Arcana] was basically a horror wiki built around the concept of the Major Arcanas in tarot.
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess...
And the rest of the cards that belonged to the twenty-two Major Arcana.
Except, instead of simply being cards, the wiki portrayed them as strange, god-like horror entities.
Each Arcana had its own mythology, characteristics, rules, and stories written around them.
Some were said to be beings that existed before humanity, others were simply concepts given a form.
Of course, [Arcana] wasn’t some official novel or franchise.
It was a fan-driven wiki.
People from all over the internet could create their own horror entities, write stories about them, connect them to other entities, or even create entire organizations and religions surrounding them.
It had started off as nothing more than a small horror community.
But it eventually became much, much bigger than that.
Eventually, people began writing actual books based around the world of [Arcana].
These books presented their own main characters and stories while using the wiki’s entities and lore as the foundation.
They showed what it was actually like to live in a world where these horrors existed.
A few of the books felt very action driven, while the others focused on cults, religions, or organizations that tried to understand these entities.
And some were simply about ordinary people who happened to encounter something they were never supposed to see.
There were countless books at this point.
The newest one was [Pale Sickness].
The most popular ones were [Death of the Universe] and [As Above, So Below].
And, of course...
My personal favorite was [Cult of the Moon].
As for the reason why...
"Ah, Moon, where did you say the shop was again?"
I paused for a second, a bit surprised by the sudden question, before pointing towards the far edge of the road.
"It should be a bit over there."
I said briefly.
That’s right...
The reason why my favorite was [Cult of the Moon] was mostly because my name was also Moon.
Well, to be fair, my full given name was Elaric Moon Orlov. However, most people preferred to call me Moon.
It was an odd name given to me by my grandfather.
I was originally supposed to be called Rael, but my grandfather argued that names borrowed from popular and well-known things, such as the "moon," would grant the person long-lasting safety and good luck.
It was quite hard to tell where that superstition of his came from.
He had a lot of them.
Don’t cut your nails at night! Don’t whistle inside the house! Or... Don’t sleep with your head facing the door!
And apparently, naming your child after something that had existed for a long time would somehow protect them from bad luck.
I never really believed any of it, but I kept the name anyway.
In any case, there weren’t any particular things about [Cult of the Moon] that were connected to me.
It was mostly just about a guy who started a cult in order to praise the Moon, believing that it would grant them salvation from the horrors surrounding them.
The entity called [Moon] was rarely ever shown.
In fact, the author almost seemed to intentionally avoid showing what it actually looked like.
Readers would only ever get tiny glimpses of it.
Sometimes, even just a sentence that made you wonder whether the Moon had actually appeared at all.
That was probably what made it so interesting.
The less you knew about it, the more you wanted to know!
And as an avid fan of the book, as well as someone literally named "Moon"...
I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of anticipation whenever the entity appeared.
Almost as though I was the one playing its role.
Haha.
It was quite ridiculous and chuuni-like, but it had become a joke between me and my friends.
Whenever the Moon appeared in the book, they would always turn towards me and say something stupid like,
"Yo, Moon, can you curse that jerk from school earlier for me?"
Or...
"Moon, your cult needs you."
Sometimes they’d even bow dramatically whenever they saw me.
It was embarrassing, but I couldn’t exactly say I hated it. I found it quite interesting and funny.
After all, I was the one who kept bringing up the book in the first place, and we were just a bunch of friends brought together by our avid interest in the wiki and books centered around [Arcana].
"Oh! There really is a small shop here!"
Pointing towards the shop, one of my friends immediately ran towards it, with me and the other following behind to catch up to him.
After arriving, I finally got a proper look at the place.
It was a small, one-story shop that looked almost like it had been squeezed between the buildings beside it.
The exterior was mostly made of dark wooden panels, with large glass windows displaying various merchandise inside. Above the entrance was a simple sign with the [Arcana] logo engraved onto it, while smaller posters of popular books were plastered across the walls.
Some of them showed the familiar covers of [Death of the Universe] and [As Above, So Below], while others advertised merchandise from the newer books.
Even from outside, I could already see shelves filled with strange accessories and collectibles.
It honestly looked more like a fan-made store than an official merchandise shop.
Which, considering the origins of [Arcana], made sense.
Walking inside, a small bell rang above the door.
The interior was surprisingly packed.
There were shelves and displays almost everywhere, with different sections dedicated to different books and entities from the wiki.
There were accessories, posters, figurines, books, costumes...
Even large replicas of weapons that were popular in some of the books were displayed along the walls.
Having looked around, I even saw a massive replica of a weapon from [Death of the Universe] hanging above one of the shelves.
"Whoa..."
My friend immediately ran towards it.
I ignored him as I tapped my pockets.
My credit card didn’t have much on it, and my cash wasn’t exactly high either.
I was just a broke high school student who relied on part-time jobs and money from my parents, after all.
So I had to carefully select what exactly I wanted to buy.
I already had something in mind, I just had to see if they actually had it.
And, more importantly... I had to see the price.
"Let’s split up. I wanna check the costume aisle..."
"Alright."
After my friends and I went our separate ways, I headed towards the accessory aisle while the other two went to their respective interests.
’Gabrielle probably went to the [Death of the Universe] aisle to get portraits of Lilith.’
I secretly joked to myself.
I knew about Gabrielle’s fanboying obsession over the main character of [Death of the Universe], Lilith.
He had probably spent more money on Lilith merchandise than he had on actual food.
Not that I could judge him, I was here for the same reason.
After walking around for a while, I finally found a small accessory stand tucked away between two shelves.
And there it was.
A ring.