Part 37: A Monster Awakens

I woke up early to check my watch.

4:38 AM

Turning it off, I sat up on Wata’s bed and saw the white maid dress that Peppie had talked about being laid atop the dresser. Wata had left me inside the room alone. I was a bit confused as to why but decided not to harp on it. After taking a shower and getting into these new clothes, it started to remind me of how the avatar looked in-game. My avatar specifically…

If this very same avatar was used in every single game release, then that meant everyone was using that sprite to traverse through the world under different scenarios. Unfortunately, the name of the character is just Player so there was nothing to assume that it was directly linked to me whatsoever. The Traveller either chose that look based on coincidence or The Books Of Fate.

Grabbing the book that had records of what occurred past the boarded door, I began to wonder if The Traveller would line up with the information regarding the developer in Animearth. 32 years ago, they said he died. 16 years after that, the game was released with suspicious intent.

I became pretty aware of the fact that the stories of William Peterson almost felt like a sign. I had caught onto a pattern with the number 45 as it seemed to keep meaning something. When you pass all 45 days at the job with Candiere, you finish the game. Using a mechanical pencil to spin the center of the maps of Dream Academy and Candiere’s Cafe, I found out tilting it 45 degrees lined up two locations. The kitchen and the boarded up door. In every single instance, the comparisons had to hit close to home. Was there something personal that caused The Traveller to intricately align everything related to a way out to the number 45?

Reading the contents of the book, I delved further into what William wrote. Two pages seemed to have been ripped straight out before he started writing down his thoughts:

My name is William Peterson. I am now 45 years old, born in 1978, and was a psychiatrist on an investigation. My watch reads October 4th, and I found myself here after trying to solve a murder of a man who I underestimated. He is not what I thought he was.

I found myself in a strange room. Very uncomfortable I might add. I barely got two chapters in on the draft of my book to solve a murder before sleeping it off and then I end up here, so I decided to continue writing when I realized that the same book and pen was beside me.

Before all this, I had discovered a strange case. A pilot of the Navy that was thought to have died at the age of 32 after being called into war. His parents were claimed to have been shot by a robber which led to him being raised in a foster home. The robber was never caught.

Many people come from different backgrounds so seeing this isn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary. That is until you start connecting the dots. Apparently, I got sent messages of two strange website links before this happened. How has no one noticed this? I am completely confused. Even now, I can’t really understand.

I have reason to suspect that the man I was talking about actually killed their parents at the young age of eight. Maybe it was inspired off of one of those goddamn creepy pastas that I’ve heard about but this is beyond ridiculous. He’s been possibly running around on silent murder sprees until he disappeared the moment I was sent the links. Coincidence? I cannot be sure. I am even less sure since this is only hearsay. He is assumed dead after all. What justice is there to be found when someone that plays dead killed multiple people in the process?”

I believe his history stems from a mental illness relative to influence of media pertinent to bloodshed and war. I found that much evidence when the detectives and I searched his room. He is planning something devious…

The moment I got to this point in the book I heard a rustling outside as Wata opened the door and startled me. His eyes enlarged when he saw me reading the book.

“Ararima, make sure to put that book down by 6 AM. If The Traveller catches you reading that, you know what will happen.”

“Oh, okay… So that means I can turn my watch back on?”

“Yes. The watches are set to ring at 5:45 AM so you may want to come downstairs and meet us by that time.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

The book was so interesting. Was this who The Traveller was? My mind was boggled. This was loads of information to take in. Even worse than that after reading the entire book before 5:30 AM, I found out that the name of the killer was unreadable as it was scribbled over with the same pen.

William likely wouldn't do that, which suggested that The Traveller actually scribbled it out. That was obvious. He didn’t want to be caught. The question was, how did he end up becoming the way he did? It was perplexing to solve as I had very limited time to solve it.

Stuck in a loop for the rest of that time, I decided to close the book and make my way there early. Regardless of what I had just read, I wasn’t backing down that easily.

The waiters and waitresses of the cafe had to have arrived early for work. If that was true I could talk to them before The Traveller came back to Tartropolatté. I was really worried that what I had said earlier concerning the word “murder” could have put everyone here at risk.

I took in a deep breath before heading downstairs.