15 Changing the Future

"Delicious... filthy... I love it... Give it to me... I want it..." The Filth-Taster stretched out its long tongue, the surface utterly filthy and dripping with foul-smelling slime. The tongue flicked up and down, the mouth opened and closed as it mumbled incoherently, its gaze toward Qi Xi brimming with hunger.

"Give it to your sister!" Qi Xi erupted on the spot.

Thunderblade Technique!

Although this was a steel pipe rather than a blade, both were close-combat weapons—there was no need to dwell on such details.

Bang! With a single swing, Qi Xi smashed the Filth-Taster's huge tongue to the ground, knocking the whole creature down as well. Instead of retreating, he pressed forward, kicking out, then swung the steel pipe down on the monster's skull again and again, shattering it in just a few strikes.

"Screw you! Screaming like some lust-crazed maniac! Are you trying to defy the heavens? You can't just spew lines like that, you know! How can you say such things out loud?!"

Qi Xi swung the pipe furiously, finishing off the creature in a matter of moments.

In truth, however, it was only paralyzed, not truly dead. Physical attacks alone could not fundamentally destroy such a monster.

After rendering the thing helpless, Qi Xi found a glove from somewhere, slipped it on, and began digging through the monster’s belly and skull...

Seeing this, Watermelon was visibly startled, covering his mouth in disbelief. Qi Xi, unnerved by the look, complained, "Why are you looking at me like that? You brought those girls here as scapegoats, didn’t you? Clearly, you’re more ruthless than I am, yet now you look at me with fear in your eyes? That’s really hurtful!"

"I'm sorry, senpai..."

"Nothing to be sorry for."

At last, Qi Xi found what he was searching for—a shard near the creature’s heart, inside its belly.

It looked like a fragment of a pearl, shimmering with crystalline colors. The moment he extracted it, the Filth-Taster began to fade away, slowly turning insubstantial until it vanished completely.

"Just as I thought. Controlling this Filth-Taster requires a specific medium. I didn’t expect such knowledge to apply in this world as well," Qi Xi muttered to himself.

Qi Xi’s words were overheard by Watermelon, who came closer and asked, "What’s going on?"

"Long story short. This Wuyunlou Hotel has probably become a whole ghost domain, utterly vanished from its original place. In other words, we’re inside a dimensional pocket now, not the real world." As Qi Xi spoke, he stepped outside, swept aside the curtain, and saw that the little ghost domain had already disappeared.

Just as I thought...

Watermelon said nothing, quietly listening to his senior’s explanation.

"But now that things are like this, it means the massacre feast has truly begun. The pace is much faster than I anticipated. If you open your Future Diary, you should be able to see the coming events," Qi Xi continued.

Because Qi Xi had read the contents of the Future Diary and knew that tonight the Wuyunlou Hotel would encounter a Filth-Taster, he deduced that the world outside this door might also become sealed off by nightfall.

His investigation had confirmed his suspicions completely.

So far, only one controlled Filth-Taster had appeared in the hotel.

That was why Qi Xi had returned to search for clues.

There were simply too few leads about supernatural phenomena in this world. Qi Xi needed to find more occurrences, more fragments—collect them, piece them together, and reconstruct the picture as it truly was.

Then, he believed, the method to control the world’s very foundation would reveal itself.

"The origin of the Wuyunlou Hotel... that’s one lead worth following. The second is this Filth-Taster control shard," Qi Xi murmured softly. By then, Watermelon had already turned on his phone.

As the phone lit up, the screen crackled with static, then returned to normal.

Sure enough, the entries about the future in the diary had all changed because of Qi Xi’s intervention.

September 14, 2013, 18:21:50—I still left my phone in the bathroom. I went with a few girls to retrieve it, and that’s when we encountered senpai.

September 14, 2013, 18:32:40—The monster appeared. Senpai killed it and retrieved a small shard. Senpai just said this hotel has become an alternate dimension—how do we find the source?

September 14, 2013, 18:43:25—Senpai’s words proved true. No one could find the hotel entrance—doors and windows wouldn’t open, no matter what. Panic broke out. Senpai changed the future!

September 14, 2013, 18:56:45—Three girls disappeared. They were Mamu Hui, Ling, and Ma Youxi. How could people go missing so quickly? The Future Diary never mentioned this before, but now it’s happened. Is it because senpai changed the future?

September 14, 2013, 19:07:34—The teacher told everyone to calm down. Miyakouji, whose father is a monk, stepped forward to perform a ritual—it was almost comical. But it did help reduce everyone’s fear.

September 14, 2013, 19:17:34—The teacher told us to return to our rooms and promised we’d be back to normal by tomorrow. Miyakouji also swore this was just a brief supernatural incident, nothing to worry about. Once the sun rises, all will be well.

September 14, 2013, 19:27:12—After all that, there’s no way I can sleep. So, I went with senpai to search for the secret behind this supernatural world. Senpai didn’t make much progress; using the shard led nowhere. The only breakthrough was finding a clue about the Wuyunlou Hotel.

September 14, 2013, 19:37:41—Usui Haruka turned out to be related to the hotel owner. But once her identity was revealed, the agitated students tied her up, cursing her as a jinx and wanting to burn her to restore the hotel.

September 14, 2013, 19:46:55—These classmates are terrifying. Normally so gentle, but now their true natures are exposed—so frightening. Is this the Japanese way, two-faced by nature? Hard to believe... Thank goodness the teacher arrived in time, or Usui Haruka would have been killed.

September 14, 2013, 19:58:41—Senpai and I tried to question Usui Haruka, but she was too agitated, and her childhood friend Kobayashi Futa wouldn’t let us near her. Damn it. Is this our only lead, lost again? So frustrating!

September 14, 2013, 20:19:31—No progress at all, and no more supernatural events have occurred. Senpai and I had no choice but to return to our rooms, rest, and conserve our strength. Hope tomorrow brings something new.

September 14, 2013, 20:28:22—Going to sleep...

——So few recommendation votes. Please, support the story—without your votes, I’ve no strength left to keep writing...