"A painting, huh..."
Bai Zhi glanced at the "window", then at the handrails along the stairway, which was illuminated by light that seemed to come from said "window".
Not only that, when he extended his hand into the path of the beam, he could even feel the gentle warmth of sunlight on it.
"It's not that the window is painted, but this whole place is being transformed into a painting..." Bai Zhi's mind whirled with a million ideas. "Or could it be that we're inside a painting?"
Turning to Temperance, he said, "Anyway, you can come down now..."
His voice trailed off as he began to notice something odd.
Before him was the raven-haired young woman, who had placed her hand on the windowsill while she looked out the window supported by a stool beneath her feet...
At least, that's what he saw if he looked directly ahead. As soon as he shifted to one side and looked again, the three-dimensional scene was revealed to be a flat image. From her head to toe, the girl and even the stool she was standing on had been turned into a trompe l'oeil* that stretched from the wall to the floor.
"I only turned away for a few seconds... Well, supposing that the 'painting' is a medium, then touching the 'frame' must be the most direct interface..."
Bai Zhi sighed and quickly retreated to the upper steps, but not all the way—enough to put some distance between himself and the bizarre mural, while still keeping it in sight.
"Heh... You see! A Player's level doesn't always reflect their abilities. Experience earned by picking off a couple of neutral creeps isn't any real experience at all, the poor devil."
Bai Zhi, who had basically figured out the key to the bizarre stairwell, smirked as he gazed at the painting of Temperance Gentleheart on the wall.
"During the Newbie Run, you were running headlong into one pitfall after another, and now you're still touching things willy-nilly even though they're clearly suspicious... I, Bai Zhi, hereby recognize you as the champion of asking for it, I'll give you that much."
Shaking his head, Bai Zhi sighed as he retrieved the walkie-talking from his pocket.
Meanwhile, in the big hall on the first floor.
The team in charge of searching the first and second floors had, as its members, Iron Blood, who had a military background and was their de facto representative, the high schooler "Douchey, SoWhat", and the girl with the bob cut, Daoloth.
Since the first floor was an open space with no intervening walls, there was no risk of losing sight of each other, so the three members went off in separate directions to cover different areas.
While the total floor space wasn't massive, the first floor was still large enough to be separated into distinct areas. Iron Blood, being one of few words but firm actions, immediately claimed responsibility for the dimmest, and thus apparently the riskiest one, leaving the safer, brighter-lit areas to his teammates.
This could be chalked up to a certain subconscious impulse that was only human. After all, it was creatures of the night, like vampires, who abhorred the light, while most living things tended to feel much safer in a well-lit environment.
The fact that the quest was taking place in daylight hours had emboldened the Players. If it had been nighttime, their surroundings so dark they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces, and considering the orphanage was in such an isolated, rural area, they might not have opted to split up at all.
Meanwhile, Daoloth was doing a more thorough job of searching her corner of the hall than Douchey. She was especially conscientious in that way that some girls were, even making sure to turn out any drawers and cabinets she came across. One seemed briefly stuck, but with a strong tug, a thick sheaf of papers came spilling out.
"This is... art homework?"
She leaped backward to a safe distance and waited with bated breath. After making sure she hadn't triggered any unusual activity, she finally exhaled and moved closer. Gingerly, she reached a hand out to pick up a piece of paper from the pile.
On this otherwise unremarkable piece of white paper was a pencil sketch of a stairwell with light streaming into it, and at the bottom, a score written in red pen, along with some words of encouragement. After carefully inspecting a few more, Daoloth finally relaxed.
After all, no matter how she looked at it, the scene rendered on the paper was nothing more than a run-of-the-mill, unremarkable drawing in pencil.
Just as she got up to continue her search, her walkie-talkie crackled to life, followed by the sound of a calm, casual voice.
"Hey... can anyone hear me?"
Daoloth paused as she tried to place the voice.
...Is that the guy with the lowest level out of us all? she wondered as she brought out the device.
After a brief silence, Traveler's voice came from the walkie-talkie. "Loud and clear. Did you discover something unusual? Over."
Another silence, followed by Bai Zhi saying, "Ah... From the looks of it, yeah, I guess it's an unusual spot, but not the source, I don't think.
"Anyway, if I recall correctly, the first floor should have an arts and crafts area. Could I trouble the team there to find some kind of drawings or sketchbooks? There should be a drawing of a stairwell—it's too troublesome right now for me to go down, get it, and come back up, see. Huge waste of time and all that..."
Stairwell...?
Daoloth glanced at the pile of paper on the ground, and after some hesitation, she spoke up.
"I found something... Is there something wrong with these drawings?" she said as she inched further away from the pile of paper.
"Oh? That saved me quite some time. Could you rummage through the pile? You should find one that stands out from the crowd," came the response from the walkie-talkie.
...Stands out from the crowd? Daoloth turned a bewildered gaze toward the drawings on the ground, but made no comment.
Squatting, she began to sift through the pile. The walkie-talkie was set to a global channel, so Iron Blood and "Douchey, SoWhat" had heard the conversation and were now walking over.
With three pairs of hands, it took them no more than a minute to find the artwork that "stood out from the crowd"—this one also depicted a stairwell, but on the wall, made in rough lines, was what looked like a human figure.
*French for 'deceive the eye'. An artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a flat surface.
