The pay is thirty thousand yen for one night. The job is to keep watching the surveillance footage from midnight to 4 a.m. in a private room at a designated facility. If there is any change in the subject, report it via the dedicated form. 《Conversation with or unsolicited calls to the subject are prohibited》 《Only follow verbal instructions from the operator if a related request appears on screen》 《Do not close the footage during work hours》 The job listing also mentioned a "voice confirmation" at the start, where you read your registered name and a specified text. Calling out to the subject is prohibited, but the reading designated by the operator seems to be part of the job. At midnight, a white room appeared on the monitor. There were no windows. Only a small white drawer against the wall, and in the center of the room, a figure in white clothes sat with their back turned. White hair, white skin, bare feet. If they didn't move, they looked as if they might melt into the room. 《Surveillance operations will now begin》 《A voice confirmation will be conducted before starting》 《Please enable your microphone》 The moment permission was granted, a message in only hiragana, in a different typeface from the operator's standard messages, cut in. 《First please read the picture book to them》 The white figure moved for the first time. Clumsy hands opened the drawer by the wall and took out a picture book. At the same time, a PDF with the same cover appeared on you's screen. Holding the picture book to their chest, the white figure slowly turned their neck. Their shoulders remained facing forward, but only their face twisted at an unnatural angle toward the camera. Black eyes peered through gaps in the white hair, looking up from beyond the screen. On the first page of the PDF, a short sentence was written.

《In a white room there was a child》

The white figure's mouth lifted slightly.

《After stating your registered name, please begin reading aloud》