By the time Liz got home, Belle had already set up and looked into the side mission he wanted to do. It was called [The Red Room Curse].
[There was once a young boy who was obsessed with the color red. His bed was red his desk was red his computer was red and his walls were red. It reached the point where the boy wouldn't go near it if it wasn't covered in red. His parents contacted psychologists but nobody could figure out what was wrong. The boy spent all day in his room on his computer, never stepping outside. The obsession got worse and worse, the boy would cut himself just to see the 'pure' red of his blood. One night, while his parents were sleeping, the boy snuck into their room and brutally murdered them. He then went to his room and killed himself. The only thing found at the crime scene was a red computer screen with the words 'Do you like the red room?' plastered across the screen. Do you accept this mission?]
[Yes] [No]
Belle decided to wait for Liz to get home before saying yes to the mission, in case it started immediately and she wasn't there.
"I'm back!" Liz calls out as she walks through the front door. Belle runs up and hugs her.
"So when are we doing this thing?" She questions after putting her stuff down.
"A bit later, it's better when it's dark out." Belle declares.
"Right, you said you do haunted house stuff, are we going to a haunted house?" She asks.
"No, I'm pretty sure we can do this one at home." He states.
"And it's like ghosts and stuff, is it real?" She questions.
"As real as you and me." He chirps.
"Okay." She says, going a bit pale.
"Don't worry, I can protect you if there's any danger, I promise." Belle comforts, holding out his pinky. Liz extends hers with a soft smile on her face. They watch a few dramas until it gets noticeably dark out, and then Belle accepts the mission.
[Type in your browser RedRoomCurse.com and find a way to escape the red room and defeat the spirit.]
"Follow me," Belle says, grabbing Liz's hand and dragging her to his room. He sits down in front of his laptop and opens up a browser. He grabs the camera and starts the stream. 'Looks like this is the moment of truth, let's see if Liz can see it' The camera rises and Belle turns to find Liz staring at it with shocked eyes.
"T-that, what?" She gasps. Belle stands up in front of the camera and brings his arm around Liz, pulling her into the frame.
"Hello everyone! Today we will be investigating the Red Room Curse. This curse is very popular on the internet and can happen in one of two ways. You can type it into the browser, or it can randomly show up on someone's computer. The victims of this curse usually die and are later found with red blood covering the walls. Today I have my friend Liz with me, she does photography for ButterflyKiss Studios, so be sure to check that out. Without further ado, let's get started." Belle says. He sits back down at his desk and types in the URL, upon clicking enter the computer screen changes. It turns a bright red and some text appears on the screen reading 'Do you like the red room?' Miasma suddenly pours out of the screen and Belle finds himself getting dizzy and blacking out for a moment before his perception shifts and he finds himself standing in a disorienting red room.
"What is this!?" Liz cries out. Looking around her in wonder. Belle cracks a smile at his best friend's eager appearance.
"I'm not sure, I don't know if this is an ability or something else, but we should probably find a way out of here soon," Belle states. In this red room is a bed in the corner, a closet, a desk with a computer, and a shelf full of books. Everything is red, some things are bright red while others are a darker red.
"This is so cool!" Liz exclaims, her eyes shining. She immediately starts exploring the room while Belle tries the door. The door handle doesn't budge so he's forced to look elsewhere.
"Over here! I found something!" Liz exclaims. She's holding one of the books from the bookshelf. Belle glances over her shoulder at the book and finds a photograph of a boy and his parents standing in front of a park. The boy is holding a red ball in his hands, the rest of the picture, surprisingly, has color.
"This is definitely an important item," Belle murmurs, grabbing the photo to take a better look at it.
"It seems to be an ordinary photograph, but look, the background is slightly blurry, and the ball is lighter than everything else. If there's anything important here it has to be that ball." Liz explains.
"This is why you're the best." Belle chuckles, sticking the photo back in the book.
"I guess we need to look for a red ball then," Liz states. Belle is about to agree with her when he has the strange sensation of someone being behind him. He doesn't think before grabbing out the axe and swinging backward, only turning around to verify at the last second and spotting a bunch of blood-red hands rising from the ground, reaching out to strangle him. The axe swing cuts the hands off, but more of them appear in every corner of the room.
"Haa, this is super unfair." Belle groans. He heads to the [Shop] and buys five talismans again, depleting his Ghost Points to 9, and hands them to Liz.
"If any get too close, use this, I'll look for the red ball," Belle says.
"Be careful!" Liz shouts. Belle glances around the room as he chops up waves of red hands that come flying at him. The only places the red ball could be are in the closet, in a desk drawer, or under the bed. He looks in the closet first, battling the hands until he reaches it and flings the doors open. Nothing is in there but clothes and shoes. He can see Liz running around and avoiding hands in the corner of his eye as he moves to the bed. Ducking down to check underneath it, but nothing there either. He eventually arrives upon the desk, opening the drawers to find, nothing.
"What? But where else could it…" He trails off as his eyes go upward, toward the computer screen. He suddenly grabs the computer and checks the back of it, the logo is a red circle and the company the computer is manufactured by is…RedBall Company.
"Did you find something!?" Liz shouts as she sticks a talisman on a clump of hands reaching for her.
"Yeah! The red ball in the photo wasn't an actual red ball, but a metaphor for the computer!" Belle exclaims. The computer vibrates in his hands as he says that, Belle almost drops it with how violently it's shaking. A symbol appears on the screen, with the word 'Red' underneath it. The longer Belle stares at it, the more the edges of his mind go fuzzy, being replaced with the word red over and over again.
"Hey! Snap out of it!" Liz yells, the hands in the room have increased and a few have snuck up on Belle. He shakes his head to clear it and uses the axe to slice up the hands before placing the computer back on the desk and bringing the axe down upon it, slicing it in half. Belle blinks and the world shifts, he's standing back in his room with Liz, the axe in his hands. The computer is still red in front of him, but there's the feeling of an extra presence in the room and Belle turns around to find a young boy standing behind him, covered in blood.
"Red, red, red, I have to make everything red, it's not red enough, it needs more RED!" The boy shrieks, and he charges at Belle in a crazed rush, Belle simply lifts the axe, and swings down, cutting the boy in half.
"Is that a ghost?" Liz asks, bending down to look at the boy who is wriggling on the ground, not able to move due to his body being split down the middle.
"Yep, in the flesh, or I guess, lack of flesh," Belle says. He walks up to the boy and puts his hand on half the boy's head, choosing to exorcize the spirit. He burns away as Liz watches in awe.
[Congratulations on completing the side mission: The Red Room Curse. You have earned the ability 'Ghost Walk'.]
"That's all for today, everybody, I hope you enjoyed today's stream, see you in the next one," Belle says cheerfully, turning to the camera. He ends the stream and collects the earnings of 83 Ghost Points.
"That was certainly, an experience, so ghosts are real," Liz repeats.
"I know, it was awesome when I found out!" Belle chirps.
"I think, I'm just going to lay down for a bit," Liz responds, she walks out of the room and collapses on the couch.
"That was interesting, I wonder what the next mission will be like." Belle muses.
[Ghost Index]
[Name: Akio. Spirit Type: Third-Level. A young boy who bought a discounted computer from a suspicious vendor, the computer turned out to be cursed sending the user into a mad spiral based on the word red. This caused the boy to kill his parents and himself. Ability: Welcome to the Red Room.]