Stone pillars stood within the rocky cavern, looming silently in the darkness like silent giants.
Gao Hai and Chika spent some time before they found an iron signpost standing in the cavern and read the words and brief introduction written on it.
[Great Space]
[This is Area No. 12 of the Red Nut Gray Hole, a large, natural region second in size only to 'the Plains.' After passing through here, you will reach the 'Artery' region and proceed toward the deepest part of the cavern, the 'Heart.']
[Please note that the temperature in this area is low. Do not linger for extended periods, especially after strenuous activity.]
The content was sparse, leaving little to analyze.
But at least they could now roughly confirm their location.
"If this is the Great Space, then where was the place where we saw those other people?"
Chika touched a finger to her lips, speaking with a puzzled expression.
"Who knows? The terrain in this place can change on its own. It's best not to measure it with common sense."
Gao Hai said, glancing back at the path they'd come from. At this very moment, the cave mouth was still there, perfectly fine. He could still see the safety rope, and the corpses squatting upside down, grasping the rope as they lay on the cavern ceiling.
He blinked.
There were no corpses. It was just a very short, narrow cavern.
"First, let's confirm if there are any forks in the path here. Don't split up. We'll circle the cavern together. The moment we find a second cave entrance besides the one we came through, we must immediately retreat to where we entered."
As he spoke, Gao Hai gestured for Chika to follow him, his gaze unintentionally drifting to the girl's chest.
Earlier in the passage, that ghostly thing behind him had mimicked Chika's voice, trying to trick him into a conversation.
Thanks to his Blessing, Gao Hai could immediately tell that the thing behind him harbored malice and was not human. Of course, even without the Blessing, he wouldn't have been fooled. The rules had been stated in black and white—things that absolutely could not be violated. Besides, he had already fallen for a similar trap on the first floor of the Shirakawa Apartments; there was no way he'd make the same mistake again.
However, when that thing was imitating Chika Fujiwara, it specifically used the excuse of being 'stuck.' That detail was worth noting.
Although the protective suit was a relatively tight, form-fitting garment, a quick comparison was all Gao Hai needed to confirm that while the well-developed girl's shoulders were narrower than his, her magnificent scale was still quite astonishing.
The narrowest part of the last passage had only required them to crouch. If they encountered a place so tight they had to crawl on their bellies, would she really not get stuck?
He would have to seriously consider that possibility.
"Report. New entrance discovered."
Chika stretched out her hand, pointing to a cave mouth located behind several stone pillars.
This opening was fairly large; even someone of Gao Hai's height could walk through without ducking.
Leaving Chika Fujiwara to stand guard, Gao Hai walked up to the entrance. He found that it slanted slightly upward and could feel a very faint breeze. Perhaps this was the direction leading to the exit, a path out of the Red Nut Gray Hole.
"Keep looking. We have to confirm there isn't a third opening here."
After a quick inspection of the entrance, Gao Hai turned back and said this. He remembered clearly: the rules had emphasized that there were no forks in the 'correct' passages of the Red Nut Gray Hole. If they encountered a fork, they had to return the way they came.
Before, the two of them had been in some unknown, disordered area, so this rule couldn't be applied. But now that they had arrived in what seemed to be a correct area, they had to verify this rule carefully.
This time, the two of them searched for quite a while but couldn't find a third passage. They checked the cavern ceiling and all the edges and corners, but still came up empty-handed.
Click—
Slightly relieved, Gao Hai took a bottle of water from his backpack, twisted the cap off, took a sip, then handed the bottle to Chika along with two energy bars.
"There are definitely more forks waiting for us up ahead. Rehydrate, eat something, and don't let yourself get too tired. We can rest here for... five minutes at most, then we have to go back to where we were before."
As he spoke, Gao Hai once again looked up at the ceiling of the hollow cavern, at the rows of stalactites.
This time, he didn't see any corpses impaled on them.
Speaking of which, when he encountered those four people earlier, he'd heard a corpse speak. The tour guide had been telling the tourists to raise their heads and look at the stalagmites above. But stalagmites are things that sprout from the ground, standing upright like bamboo shoots. Stalactites are the spikes that grow down from a cavern's ceiling. And when a stalagmite and a stalactite grow longer and longer until they touch and fuse, they become a stone pillar.
Could it be that the tour guide just wasn't very knowledgeable?
Or perhaps...
Gao Hai thought of the corpses lying on the cavern ceiling, and the things that had been lying above him as he passed through the tunnel.
Inversion?
For those dead tourists and the guide, was their perception of everything here inverted?
If that's the case, why didn't this happen to the first corpse they found, the one whose back of the head had been blown out? Generally speaking, the anomalies in the same instance should share some common traits, right? Could it be because of their different identities?
And... Maki and Kaguya. Even now, there was absolutely no trace of them. Where could they be...?
The various questions and pressures weighed heavily on Gao Hai's mind.
He took out a vanilla-flavored energy bar, unwrapped it, and ate it, then crumpled the wrapper into a ball and stuffed it into a small side pocket of his backpack.
"Um, thank you for the food and water, Gao-kun."
By this time, Chika had already had some water and eaten an energy bar. She handed the bottle, still more than half full, back to Gao Hai. She carefully folded the empty energy bar wrapper and put it in her own pocket.
"It feels like it's getting colder. We'll rest for another three minutes, then head back. By following that safety rope, we should be able to reach the 'Heart's' location."
As he spoke, Gao Hai, who was gradually starting to feel the temperature in the area drop, scanned his surroundings again.
This time, he saw a blurry figure flash by in the distance, as if someone was taking a stroll through the cavern.
Chika Fujiwara didn't seem to have seen many strange things along the way, but he himself could sense many abnormal entities. Could it be that the reaction triggered by that guy named Dennis had affected him?
As Gao Hai was thinking this, he felt Chika's gaze on him intensify.
So he turned his head and met the girl's eyes directly. Seeing that he had noticed her, Chika hesitated for a moment before finally asking her question.
"That rule sheet... there are some things about it that bother me. Some of the rules actually contradict each other, don't they? But you seem to trust what's on it, Gao-kun. Is there a reason for that?"
Is she talking about the conflicting rules that emphasize identity and the ones that describe the cave's interior?
It seemed the girl had been thinking about those rules the entire time. She probably couldn't figure out why such blatant contradictions would exist and was hoping he could explain.
"It's perfectly normal for a rule sheet to have contradictions. The way this place operates is determined by inhuman anomalies, by twisted obsessions. Therefore, it's possible that some rules are outdated and following them to the letter will get you killed. It's also possible that true and false rules are mixed together, with multiple different forces influencing the contents of the rule sheet. However, for this particular sheet, I'm more inclined to believe that every single rule is true."
Gao Hai said with a very serious expression.
"Every single one is true?"
Chika blinked, not quite understanding what Gao Hai meant.
"No matter what kind of rule sheet it is, the very first one a player receives is always meaningful. It can provide all sorts of clues to help analyze and deal with the situation at hand. Even an outdated, inaccurate rule sheet will have something extremely critical hidden within it, something that determines your probability of survival."
"And this rule sheet, if you look past the surface-level regulations, its fundamental core is really all about the issue of identity. We are 'Explorers.' That's our identity right now, and so far, sticking to it has caused no harm. It's through this identity that we can increase our chances of survival. Starting from that point, I'm more willing to believe this rule sheet is true, and that we need to act according to its rules."
Gao Hai pondered for a moment, then began to explain his viewpoint to Chika.
"But, if we go by that, there's one rule that conflicts with this identity principle."
Although Chika didn't specify which rule she was talking about, Gao Hai knew she was puzzled by the strange conflict point where, when facing a rescue or fire team, the 'Explorer' identity cannot be used, and they must instead claim to be 'Tourists.'
"While this is just speculation, I think it might be because as 'Explorers,' we have no way to avoid them using that identity. In other words, the essence of the conflicting rule is that it's a 'condition that only takes effect under specific circumstances, and is invalidated after those circumstances.' But as for how it really works, we'll only know when we actually face that situation. So, we should probably just pray we don't get the chance to verify whether the rule is true or not. Sigh..."
Gao Hai explained patiently, but as he did, he suddenly raised a hand to cover his face, his mood sinking.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong? What happened?"
Not understanding why Gao Hai had suddenly become dejected, Chika panicked for a moment.
"It's nothing... It's just, back on my novice mission, if only I could have met a veteran player willing to patiently explain the setup and intel to me like this, how great would that have been..."
The thought that all these lessons and experiences he was now explaining to Chika Fujiwara were things he'd had to figure out on his own after completing his novice mission, while all she had to do was sit here and listen, filled Gao Hai with a sense of profound sorrow.
But he quickly stopped dwelling on these minor feelings.
Because he heard footsteps. He heard the sound of people talking to each other.
The sounds echoed from the wide passage of the 'Great Space,' as if someone was approaching.
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