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"Don't, don't take them off!"
Ijichi Nijika's pretty face flushed slightly, and she quickly shouted to stop him: "With the answer book, there's no need for that kind of folk remedy, right?"
Yamada Ryo was expressionless: "Ah, what a pity..."
"What are you regretting!"
Ijichi Nijika couldn't help but shout in embarrassment.
Having rejected Kita's troublesome suggestion and suppressed Ryo's antics, Ijichi Nijika took a deep breath and looked up at Kitahara Makoto:
"Kitahara-kun, take out the answer book and ask about the situation... If we have to ask sooner or later, we might as well use one opportunity now and save a lot of stamina."
Kitahara Makoto nodded slightly, opened his backpack, and took out the answer book:
"Nijika-senpai is right."
It must be said that Nijika was quite decisive at critical moments.
For example, when many people play games, if they have consumable weapons, they are reluctant to use them, only wanting to store them in the warehouse. Now, it was only the first time they encountered an anomaly, and Ijichi Nijika decided to use one question opportunity from the answer book. She was indeed very decisive.
"I'll ask..." Ijichi Nijika took a deep breath, placed her hand on the cover of the answer book, and asked softly, "How can we leave the subway passage?"
Whoosh.
The answer book flipped through its pages rapidly without any wind.
This time, the content that appeared in the book was quite extensive.
[Find Exit 8. You can leave the infinitely looping subway passage through Exit 8. Retreat when you encounter an anomaly, and only proceed when there is no anomaly. During this time, you need to maintain your sanity. As your sanity value decreases, the subway passage will become increasingly strange and dangerous]
"Exit 8, huh..." Ijichi Nijika closed the answer book. "It seems it's not a ghost wall, but an infinitely looping subway passage."
Kitahara Makoto looked up at the top, where there was a notice board: "Our current location is Exit 0... Let's rest for a bit, then look for Exit 8."
...
After a short rest, the five continued forward.
It was still Kitahara Makoto walking in front, with the four girls following behind.
Thump, thump, thump.
The footsteps of the five echoed in the empty passage.
After turning a few corners, Kitahara Makoto suddenly stopped.
"Kitahara-kun, what's wrong?"
The girls immediately became nervous.
Once Kitahara Makoto stopped, it definitely meant something abnormal had occurred.
Kitahara Makoto narrowed his eyes slightly: "There seems to be a person on the wall ahead."
"Eh?" Ijichi Nijika looked up and glanced over. "Why don't I see anything?"
Kita widened her eyes, looking around curiously: "I don't see anything either."
"It might be a problem with the light and angle." Kitahara Makoto said in a deep voice, "Let's try walking a few more steps forward."
"Okay."
The group continued forward.
Just as they reached the middle of the passage, a clicking sound suddenly echoed through it.
The tiles on the wall suddenly 'came alive', and then a humanoid monster made of tiles charged towards them.
"Tile anomaly?"
Kitahara Makoto glanced at the katana in his hand and decisively gave up the idea of cutting tiles with it.
"Run!"
The girls heard the command and quickly turned and ran.
After a breathless escape, Kitahara Makoto heard the footsteps behind him disappear, and only then did he call a halt.
"First it was the faceless middle-aged uncle, and now there's a tile man. This subway passage is too creepy." Kita leaned on her knees, breathing and complaining, "I suddenly feel that the grassland and Flower Sea are better."
Kitahara Makoto looked at Kita: "That boomerang is a bit fast."
Kita: "..."
After a short rest.
The group continued forward.
This time, after turning the corner, they didn't encounter any anomalies and successfully reached Exit 2. However, not long after, Yamada Ryo suddenly spoke:
"Something's wrong."
"Eh?" Kita looked over in confusion. "What's wrong, Yamada Ryo?"
Yamada Ryo looked up at the ceiling: "After Exit 2 should be Exit 3, but now..."
Everyone looked up upon hearing this, only to see that the notice board above the passage had actually changed to Exit 0.
"Wh-what's going on?" Kita immediately became nervous. "How did we get back to Exit 0 again?"
"Steady."
"Don't panic."
Kitahara Makoto's voice was calm as he looked around: "The answer book showed that if you encounter an anomaly, you need to retreat. So... what happens if you don't find an anomaly, or don't retreat?"
Kita Ikuyo blinked: "Will... will we return to Exit 0? And then loop again?"
"Most likely." Yamada Ryo said expressionlessly, "There was probably an anomaly in the passage just now, we just didn't notice it."
"Um, um..." Gotō Hitori hesitantly raised her small hand.
Ijichi Nijika asked softly:
"Bocchi-chan, what's wrong?"
"When we walked through the passage just now, I saw the eyes on the warning sign on the wall, they seemed to be moving..." Gotō Hitori stammered softly, "I didn't know if it was an illusion, so I didn't say anything..."
"It's not too late to say it now." Kitahara Makoto said softly, "It seems that the anomalies in the subway passage are not just humanoid monsters, but anything is possible... From now on, if you find anything unusual, you must say it immediately."
"Understood."
The girls all nodded.
The action continued.
This time, they hadn't walked long when a frantic slapping sound suddenly echoed in the subway passage. One red handprint after another appeared out of thin air on the walls, quickly covering the entire passage.
"Anomaly!"
Kitahara Makoto and the girls turned and ran without a word.
In the time that followed, the group encountered various other anomalies, such as passages full of plastic mannequins, a little girl in red facing away from them, eyes that moved on the walls, bizarrely distorted humanoid creatures like mosaics, and so on.
After walking for half a day, the group returned to the Exit 0 sign again.
Except for the Beast Eared Girl, who, as a ghost story, was still carefree eating her small cake, everyone else's sanity value had clearly decreased, even Kitahara Makoto's.
"The answer book previously showed that as sanity decreases, the subway passage will become increasingly strange and dangerous." Yamada Ryo frowned slightly, "The sea of blood that just appeared, and the dimming lights in the passage, should be related to our decreasing sanity."
Kita sat on the ground, leaning against the wall to rest, hugging her knees. She was clearly a bit disheartened: "It's normal for sanity to decrease after encountering so many anomalous existences."
Ijichi Nijika bit her lower lip: "But... how can we increase our sanity?"
Resting could only relieve physical fatigue, with minimal effect on sanity recovery.
Kitahara Makoto's heart stirred slightly, and he suddenly thought of an optimized item.
"I might have a way to restore everyone's sanity..."
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