Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Basement

Shimada-kun, his father, and reporter Kurokawa read the horrific information on the note, their faces turned pale, and they stared at each other.It was already dark, and the room was so dark that they even forgot to turn on the lights. "Ah!" Shimada-kun suddenly grabbed his father's arm tightly, his eyes widened, and the eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.Seeing him staring at one part of the room, the two adults were startled and looked there too. What Shimada-kun was looking at was the closed glass window.The glass window was a Western-style top-hung window with frosted glass.I saw a blurry figure reflected on the frosted glass of the window—it was a side face, twice the size of a real person, with a big mouth in the shape of a crescent moon.

"Uh heh heh..." A hoarse and deep laughter came, making the hair stand on end.Every time it laughed, its lips quivered.One can tell at a glance that this is not an ordinary figure, it is hazy like a ghost, and it is a unique shadow of transparent monsters. Reporter Kurokawa is really courageous.With a "hum", he rushed to the window like a gust of wind, and pushed the window open.Strange, there is no one outside the window.It's no wonder that he can't see transparent people. "Uh heh heh..." This creepy laughter came from a corner of the yard.After a while, the laughter stopped, and there was a dead silence around. Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from the sky—"Tomorrow night, at nine o'clock, don't forget!" The transparent monster spoke for the first time. The foreigner's accent in Japanese, which was slow and stumbling, coupled with the piercing broken gong voice, completely stunned the two adults and one child present, unable to move at all, as if they had been immobilized.

"Uncle, uncle, close the window!" Shimada-kun was worried that the transparent weirdo would come in through the window, so he whispered to reporter Kurokawa.He was right, Kurokawa hurriedly closed the window.At this time, there was another chattering sound outside the window, the sound became smaller and smaller until it disappeared, and the strange man seemed to have gone away. "Does that guy know the secret entrance to the basement?" Shimada-kun's father looked pale, worried to the extreme. "You said the entrance is under the carpet in your study, right? Have you opened it recently?" Kurokawa asked.

"I went there four or five days ago to see if the Pearl Tower is in good condition. I have to open the safe to check it almost every month." "Oh...it's not my crow's mouth, in case he followed you into the basement four or five days ago..." "Oh no." Shimada-san shivered and looked at Kurokawa.After all, thieves are invisible, so what the reporter said is very likely to happen.Could it be that it wasn't "nine o'clock tomorrow night", but that it had already been done four or five days ago?The more Mr. Shimada thought about it, the more frightened he became, so he proposed:

"Let's go down and have a look. Reporter Kurokawa, please come along with Ichiro. The three of us go down together. Even if that guy sneaks into the room, it's not difficult to stop him." "You're right, it's better to go and have a look." Just like that, the three of them entered the study together.First lock the door, and then lock the windows, so that the transparent monster can't get in.But there is another possibility: when the three entered the study, the weirdo had already been lurking in the room.In this regard, Mr. Shimada came up with a trick.He moved the chair, lifted the rug, and lifted the floor below with both hands.A square floor is uncovered, which is the entrance to the basement.

Mr. Shimada opened the opening that only allowed one person to pass through, and said: "You two go in first, and I close the floor last. That way, we won't be afraid even if he is next to us. If he wants to come in, he has to be next to us." According to Mr. Shimada's instructions, the three of them went under the floor.After closing the floor, it was dark below, and Mr. Shimada immediately turned on the light.This is a square space made of cement, about one meter in length, width and height, like a box.At the corner of the concrete floor under your feet, there is a square iron plate with a side length of 60 centimeters. This is the entrance to the basement.

The three of them squeezed into this "box", and had to bow their necks and bow their heads, feeling extremely aggrieved.Mr. Shimada said triumphantly as he closed the floor: "How about it? This trick will work. There are three people crowded here, and there is no room for him. I will close the floor first, and then open the iron plate under my feet." After he finished speaking, he lifted the iron plate, waited for all three people to pass, and locked the iron plate again.In front of it is a section of narrow stairs that can only be passed by one person. Go down six steps and you will arrive at the safe.This is a basement made of thick concrete, seven square meters in size, with electric lights on the ceiling.

"Reporter Kurokawa, please look, this is here. We are so careful, do you still think he will follow?" Said, Mr. Shimada took out the key of the safe. "You are really impeccable in your work. The transparent monster has a body, so he will definitely not be able to get in, so you can rest assured." Kurokawa also smiled. Mr. Shimada turned the code dial on the safe, matched the code, and opened the safe with the key. "The baby is still here, safe and sound! Look, this is the Pearl Tower." Mr. Shimada beamed with joy.I saw a slender glass box in the middle of the safe, and inside the box, a five-fold pagoda made of beautiful pearls shone, which was very lovable.

"Hey! What a Pearl Tower. I've never seen such a beautiful thing before." Reporter Kurokawa sighed, "No wonder that guy is eyeing it. But now it's all right, let's call the police immediately and do everything we can to protect it .” "You're right, you have to notify the police as soon as possible. I'm relieved." Mr. Shimada said, closing the door of the safe, locking it, and messing up the numbers on the combination disk.Then the three returned to the study.Needless to say, they left the basement with the same care they entered.