Embrace.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chika Fujiwara stepped forward and directly opened her arms, hugging Gao Hai.
Such a tight embrace, filled with the girl's fresh fragrance and soft touch.
It was to the point that the guy who always came every loop to chat—the one who got his head split open—didn't approach this time. He just glanced at Gao Hai and Chika Fujiwara from afar, muttered, "A couple, huh? I won't be the third wheel," and then proactively left the area.
Speaking of which, this anomaly that requires [role-playing as humans] is really quite peculiar. That security guard too—facing a group of players in security uniforms who blocked him saying they accidentally arrived early for the shift change—he even spoke in a tone that made Gao Hai sense a faint trace of grievance. Who knows if Maki and Kaguya in the research base can exploit this to gain a bigger advantage from the start, so they don't always feel restrained in their actions.
In any case, no matter what, it was time to end this now.
For this damned cavern, Gao Hai had already died twice. The first time, being squeezed like toothpaste by that young lady was barely acceptable—at least it was a quick death. But the second time was pure torment, the ultimate agony that truly made Gao Hai feel like he had developed claustrophobia. No matter what, he never wanted to experience it again.
And before that.
"Can I call you A-Hai directly? You can call me Chika too, Hai-kun."
The girl's face flushed red as she didn't dare lift her head to meet Gao Hai's eyes, yet she tightly gripped his collar, her entire body almost completely leaning into his embrace.
Clearly, after exiting the instance, Chika Fujiwara had learned the full functions of Gao Hai's watch from Kaguya and Maki. Thus, she knew exactly why she could retain her memories now, understanding it wasn't just her fondness for Gao Hai.
At first, in the joy of reuniting, Chika hadn't paid much attention to these details. But now that she had calmed down, she immediately blushed, her little face turning into a red apple, looking pink and tender, irresistibly cute, making one want to take a bite.
"A-Hai? No problem. Then I'll call you Chika too?"
Gao Hai nodded naturally. He felt such nicknames were completely fine—or rather, as long as it wasn't something like Gao Nut, he was okay with anything.
"Ehehe, A-Hai, A-Hai dong da yo~ Feels pretty natural. So, next, we still have to head to the [Heart], right? After all, that's something we explorers must do."
After a brief moment of playfulness, Chika Fujiwara took a light breath, her expression quickly turning serious.
At this moment, the girl still looked like a newbie who had just entered the game, but in reality, she was already a veteran player with an entire extra month of investigating the Sacrificial Game through various channels, possessing deep memories of the Red Nut Gray Hole instance.
Now that everything was starting over, they naturally had to do it perfectly, leaving no regrets. Chika Fujiwara was extremely resolute on this point. Staking her gamer pride, she absolutely wouldn't let Gao Hai disappear from her sight this time.
"Yeah, that's indeed our top priority. But before that, I need to confirm something, Chika. You've investigated quite a bit, right? Is there any intel I don't know about? I really need it now."
"Of course. In that one month, I followed Fujiwara-san and Shijo-san to find many players and asked a lot of people for help. Luckily, this is a top-tier Dim Night-level instance, so everyone avoids it like the plague, making intel collection relatively easier."
As she spoke, Gao Hai took the lead and started moving toward one side of the cavern, with Chika Fujiwara walking beside him, quickly explaining the situation.
Of course, while communicating here, Gao Hai didn't forget to exchange information with Maki through their link, dumping all the intel from the second loop on her at once. And, well, Gao Hai didn't mention Chika Fujiwara saving him. Although he was prepared to have them all, he hadn't found the right timing yet. It was better to keep this matter under wraps for now.
This was probably what they called a guilty conscience, though Gao Hai had no regrets.
The first thing Chika Fujiwara told Gao Hai was confirmation that the Red Nut Gray Hole truly existed in the real world. Although the three girls discovered after flying there that the cavern had vanished, checking records from the last century confirmed its existence. Additionally, Kaguya incidentally verified Shirakawa Apartments, which also existed in reality.
During the investigation, Kaguya found that the Shinomiya Group had even invested in this scenic area, donating equipment and a large sum of money. As for why that donation seemed completely unused in the instance—cough, well, that probably came down to Antonitovan Bush and his crew.
Howard Smith, Susan, Pedi, Werbo... the three girls had dug up records on all these people, confirming their existence. Though many records were missing, it was certain that Pedi disappeared during the flood that submerged the Red Nut Gray Hole. Antonitovan, the mayor he promoted, and many journalists vanished around then—likely during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Werbo had life records for at least two years after the flood incident. He first fled to Europe, then to Mao Xiong territory, but after hiding for nearly two years, he returned to the Red Nut Gray Hole and vanished without a trace. Howard was issued a death certificate during the flood, though his grave was empty. Gao Hai was certain he was detained by the research base afterward, and his final outcome was probably not good.
As for Susan, this player didn't make it out of the instance. Kaguya and the others spent a lot of time searching for her but only found traces of her existence. Notably, according to their investigation, Susan was actually a 60- or 70-year-old woman, yet Gao Hai and Chika saw a fit young woman in the instance—this discrepancy was jarring, making Gao Hai wonder if she was the [Actor for the Curtain Call].
Finally, the investigation into Professor Fulen and General Shegera yielded nothing.
Kaguya had just begun probing these two when she received a family warning. Maki made no effective progress either, but Chika Fujiwara, leveraging her political family connections, learned something. These two seemed tied to some ultra-secret Amelian project from back then, with their info still under highest confidentiality. Professor Fulen even reached top clearance level. Chika guessed this meant he was probably still alive—dead people's secrets don't need such high classification.
More details on the Red Nut Gray Hole were harder to uncover. After it became an instance, the entire site seemed detached from reality, with all related info carrying a reverse-meme effect. Unless players actively investigated, others would forget after a few hours what they were doing—even showing prior records left them baffled. Beyond those names, other info was extremely scattered, greatly increasing investigation difficulty, especially for the research base phase.
However, when normal channels failed, directly asking surviving players was an option, so the three girls gathered much intel.
"We have many theories, but lots still need verification. A-Hai, Kaguya-san and Shijo-san might need some Obsession Items to act better. Have you thought about how to allocate them?"
After roughly explaining, Chika looked at Gao Hai seriously and asked.
"Yeah, let me think. We need to confirm Maki and their needs first, but for now, hold off—other explorers are coming."
Gao Hai was about to say something when he frowned, looking ahead, and instinctively stepped in front of Chika.
In the dim cavern ahead, with headlamp flickers, two people appeared before Gao Hai—a man and a woman, the two players from the previous two loops influenced by Kawano's Obsession Item, preventing normal communication with Gao Hai.
"Hello, looks like besides us, other unlucky folks are trapped in this fixing hellhole. Maybe that's what they call luck, right?"
The woman approached warily to Gao Hai and Chika, both sides about ten meters apart, hands on waist holsters.
"Whether luck's good depends on if we return loaded or empty-handed."
Facing the woman's teasing tone, Gao Hai replied calmly, voice steady.
"Ha, is that so? I'm explorer Zero Shelby."
The woman nodded, tone flattening.
"Ed Yang, explorer, uh, part-time doctor. Nice to meet you."
The male player behind her smiled shyly at Gao Hai and Chika.
Clearly, away from Kawano, these two were much more normal.
Speaking of which, the first game had that black guy tricked away by Lao Guo, and now this—were player-pitting jerks a fixed segment in every instance?
"Explorer Gao Hai, and this is explorer Chika. As you see, couple explorer duo—or player duo."
Extending his hand to pat Chika's soft little head, then under her slightly unhappy gaze, Gao Hai continued unfazed, introducing crisply to the two, even seeming practiced.
Meanwhile, on Kawano's side.
"Wh-why? Where's my Obsession Item? Damn it, how am I supposed to find cannon fodder now?!"
Kawano spun in circles furiously, while Dennis, snapping selfies nonstop, whistled into his area.
Seeing Kawano's rage, Dennis immediately started recording, aimed at him, and spoke up.
"Hey, buddy, what's up? Don't forget rationality is humanity's greatest treasure. By the way, what's the situation here? Some reality show prank?"
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