The first recording was relatively normal, although there were a few strange descriptions.
For example, Daniel mentioned how there was only one main building on the entire farm, and how everything was handled inside it, from the storage of supplies to the livestock and the workers’ living quarters.
Or how Daniel could not remember what the owner looked like, despite having spoken to him before.
There was also the hallway leading to his room, which he described as being extremely long. It was a rather odd detail, though not necessarily enough to raise any serious concerns on its own.
However, there weren’t any extreme signs of strangeness as of yet.
Everyone remained on guard, constantly looking around the room while the audio played.
Even though the recording itself was rather ordinary, the fact that we were inside a supernatural space meant that none of us could afford to let our guard down.
Marcus looked towards me as though trying to get my opinion on the situation. However, I just stayed quiet.
There wasn’t much I could say at the moment.
The first recording had provided us with a few suspicious details, but nothing that could be used to make a proper judgment.
Besides, I was only here as a supernatural companion. It wasn’t as though I was expected to provide an answer to everything.
"May I go next?"
Clara, who had been unusually quiet ever since the loss of Jonathan, finally spoke up. It seemed she wanted to get her part over with as quickly as possible.
Nobody disagreed with her volunteering.
Walking up to the table, she picked out the second recording and placed it into the cassette player. After confirming the number on its label, she pressed the play button.
...
"I talked to the owner this morning, and he told me that I only had one job for today, which was to clean the hallways."
"Honestly, it’s a little disappointing. I came all the way here hoping to experience actual farm work, so I asked if I could at least help out by feeding the animals."
"I mean, that’s kind of the whole point of staying at a farm, right?"
"He told me there was only a pig on the farm. His English wasn’t that good, so I assume he meant, ’There are only pigs on the farm,’ and not ’There’s only a pig on the farm.’"
"Haha. I mean, why would there be only one pig? Unless it’s some kind of special pig, I guess. Maybe I’m just overthinking what he said."
"Anyway, I spent the entire day cleaning the quarters. It took me way longer than I expected, and by the time I was done, I was completely exhausted."
"Seriously, I didn’t think cleaning a few hallways would take up my entire day. After that, I had quite a bit to eat."
"The owner told me he had somewhere to be tonight, so he said I should just stay in my room and get some rest. Well, I guess that’s all there is to do."
"Farm life really isn’t for me... I thought it would be a little more interesting, but so far, all I’ve been doing is cleaning and sitting around. I’d seriously rather be doing homework."
"At least with homework, I can finish everything and then laze around for the rest of the day, play games on the internet, or do whatever I want."
"Here, I’m stuck with nothing but solitude and loneliness... oh so lonely."
"Haha. I never thought I’d miss doing schoolwork this much. Honestly, if this is what farm life is like, I think I’ll stick to being a student..."
...
That was the end of the second audio tape.
The recording had been fairly casual, with Daniel complaining about his work and the rather dull life he was leading on the farm.
However, everyone who listened could obviously tell which part of the recording was strange.
It was the phrase... "There is only a pig in the farm."
The wording itself was rather simple, but the implications were not.
There was a difference between a farm having only one pig and a farm having no other animals besides pigs.
Yet, the way Daniel described it made the distinction seem even more suspicious.
Of course, we couldn’t be certain that this was the only strange part of the recording.
It was possible that we had simply overlooked something, or that the significance of the phrase would only become clear after listening to the later tapes.
There wasn’t much to analyze about the first two recordings, thus everyone remained quiet for a while.
Vincent, one of D-3’s members, volunteered next.
And thus began the third recording, which was shorter than both of the previous ones.
...
"Strange... I’m in my room right now, and I can’t tell if that’s the owner or not... But outside my window... there’s a man waving at me..."
"It’s a little too dark for me to make out his face, so I can’t really tell who he is. Maybe I’m just hallucinating and imagining things out of boredom, but... that’s still creepy as hell."
"Who the hell stands outside someone’s window and waves at them in the middle of the night?"
"..."
"Huh? What Is he... fuck! He’s running towards my window!"
"Fuck, fuck—"
...
The recording cut short there, as the strangeness within the audio recordings finally began to manifest.
Just as Elias was about to volunteer to play the next audio tape, Marcus suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, look outside..."
At the sound of his voice, everyone, including the D-3 Response Unit members, turned towards the window.
It was faint, but everyone saw it immediately.
From a far distance, the strange silhouette of a man waving towards us could be seen.
The figure was standing rather still, with one of its arms raised as though it was trying to get our attention.
Although the distance made it difficult to make out any of its features, the shape of its body was unmistakably human.
Adrian immediately stood up as he spoke.
"Shucky, stand guard."