To be honest, even though Takumi had already deeply experienced several times the fact that the anomalies would use deceptive methods to lure players into killing them, he still felt from the bottom of his heart that this kind of thing—something that played tricks like this—was truly disgusting.
Bang—
The pitch-black umbrella snapped open.
Relying on reaction speed and explosive power that exceeded human limits, Takumi evaded them a step ahead—before those things could open the door and reach out—and concealed his own presence.
"Eh—eh?!"
The pitch-black umbrella "gifted" out of friendship by the Women-Face Gang was not only able to help Takumi become invisible before the anomalies; for ordinary people, its effect was even stronger. As a result, Fujiwara Chika, who had been paying close attention to Takumi the entire time, immediately noticed that Takumi had disappeared and could not help but let out a startled cry.
Of course, the girl's startled cry vanished almost immediately afterward, because Takumi had already run up in front of her with the umbrella held open, pulled the girl beneath it, and—his movements somewhat rough—wrapped Chika into his arms, causing Chika's breathing to catch.
"Don't move around. The coverage of this umbrella is limited. Once any part of your body moves outside the umbrella, there's a good chance you'll be seen by those things."
Before Chika could start struggling, Takumi had already warned her in a solemn tone. This made the flushed Chika involuntarily stop moving, obediently letting Takumi hold her with one arm against his chest, allowing him to maneuver her as if he were holding a large doll.
Her heartbeat quickened.
Even though she knew the situation was extremely dangerous, at this moment Fujiwara Chika still could not avoid her heart racing.
Takumi, however, did not notice any of this. His attention was already drawn to the slowly opening door of the training area, to the sight of those people wearing firefighter uniforms or rescue gear walking out one after another—expressionless, their eyes vacant—stepping into the corridor just like that, advancing toward the front of the corridor, toward the approaching Tourists.
Seeing Takumi and Fujiwara Chika vanish in an instant, Rex's brow twitched slightly. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he took off his backpack, pulled out a security guard uniform from inside, and tossed it to Susan on the other side.
"Put it on directly. Move faster."
As he spoke, Rex took out a second security uniform and quickly put it on himself. The two of them then disappeared straight away into the corridor.
They put on the security uniforms?
It seemed that this veteran player called Rex was quite decisive. It was just that, although the world associated with the security uniforms could lead directly to the exit, the hidden dangers there were extremely high. To be honest, Takumi was not very optimistic about these two players.
A bit of a pity—he had not managed to get more information out of Susan.
When the instance was not yet fixed, the game prompt for this dungeon had mentioned that the "Actors of the Final Curtain" had not all arrived. From that point on, Takumi began to suspect that, in the Red Nut Grey Cave dungeon, there might exist someone directly connected to it—someone who had not died inside the dungeon and had successfully evaded the tracking of Horror Story power by some means.
Someone directly linked to this dungeon, someone with a major connection to the dungeon's core, who, even after the Horror Story took shape, was still living somewhere in the world. It was precisely because of that person's absence that the Red Nut Grey Cave dungeon had remained in an unfixed state, preventing all secrets from being revealed and keeping the core Obsession in a dormant state.
And now, after Takumi and his group had participated in this instance, the person who should have appeared here—the actor involved with "Final Curtain"—had also entered the instance along with them.
Maybe it was one of the players.
Takumi felt this conjecture should be very close to the truth, which was why what that player called Susan had just said had made him pay very close attention. Unfortunately, that moment had been far too urgent just now, and his umbrella also had no way to ensure they would not be discovered after accommodating three people.
However, there should be other methods.
Takumi thought of the Blood Key he had obtained from Tanaka.
In the first run, because he was purely exploring in the dark to gather information, and because the vast majority of the scenes he experienced were caves, Takumi had never found a place where that Blood Key could be used. But now, under the premise that he already knew a great deal of information in the second run, this key might be able to produce an unexpected effect. For example, connecting a certain door to the guard post door in the Security Guard World, or directly connecting to a door in the research base… all right, that would not work, at least it could not be Takumi doing it. That would only cause the ghost thing that was watching him to go berserk early, and then everyone would happily get wiped and start the next round.
If there were some way to block the core Obsession's watching effect… no, forget it. I absolutely cannot bear the price of that kind of wish.
As he was thinking, Takumi had already moved to the wall, pressing his body tightly against it.
And when Fujiwara Chika saw those rescue team members approaching step by step, she could not help but press even closer to Takumi, almost sinking her entire body into him.
Although even if she did not do that, it would not make much difference. After all, at this moment, Chika—who was only about 1.5 meters tall—had already been lifted up by Takumi with one hand, both feet already off the ground. With Takumi's current physical fitness, lifting Chika up with one hand like this could be said to be effortless, to the point that he himself did not even notice Chika's posture at this time.
Drip—
From far away, it seemed that the sound of dripping water could be heard again.
This time, Takumi noticed that strange sound, but the anomalies drawing closer and closer forced him to keep his attention on what was in front of him, leaving him with no way to focus on that sound.
[Huff…]
The sound of those things breathing could be heard.
The expressionless people passed by at his side, bringing wave after wave of chill.
Holding Chika, Takumi carefully threaded his way through these things, without bumping into any of them.
The Tourists behind them were still advancing step by step amid laughter.
And the rescuers walking at the very front had already come into contact with those Tourists.
Drip—drip—
The sound of dripping water became clear.
[Huff…]
The sound of breathing also grew heavier at this moment.
Takumi turned his head back and saw one bloated rescuer after another.
Their entire bodies were wrapped in rescue suits, swollen as if inflated, presenting grotesquely deformed shapes.
Water kept dripping from these rescuers, the flow spreading continuously along the entire corridor. And the Tourists had already disappeared—there were no Tourists anymore. All that remained were clothes floating on the surface of the water, and those bodies drifting within the water.
No—no, that was not right…
There were no bodies. There were no—
Takumi slowly retreated backward, distancing himself from the corridor that was growing increasingly bizarre.
The walls were becoming more and more like the rough rock structure of a cave.
The lighting grew ever dimmer, as if the light were about to vanish from this place entirely.
Those swollen firefighters and rescuers were stepping into the water one by one, slowly disappearing from Takumi's sight just like that.
He turned his head and looked to the side.
The tiled wall and the rocky cave structure were interweaving with each other, the latter on the verge of completely replacing the former.
Before the tiled wall vanished entirely, Takumi saw a line of writing left upon it, as if someone, struck by a sudden whim, had picked up a pen and written it there.
The content of that line read:
[What have we done?]
The next moment, Takumi had already stepped into the training area. He tilted his head, clamped the umbrella handle between his teeth to maintain balance, then reached out to grasp the door handle and slowly closed the door.
The corridor behind the door had disappeared, leaving only a cave covered in water.
And floating within the cave—floating within the waters that had submerged it—were those people wearing rescue suits.
[What have we done?]
It was as if he could hear someone sighing softly by his ear.
That was right. None of this should have happened.
These fine young men should not have left like this, silently and without a trace.
These innocent people who had merely wanted to come here for a visit should not have vanished like this either.
It should not have been like this. Things like this should not have happened.
What have we done?
What exactly have we done?
If things continue like this, what meaning is there, really?
Click—
Amid the faint sound of the lock, Takumi closed the door and locked it.
When he turned around again, what lay before him was an empty training area. From the ceiling fitted with windows, sunlight was streaming down, illuminating the various pieces of equipment scattered throughout this vast training area. It was as if nothing had happened at all, revealing a trace of quiet beauty.
Releasing his grip, Takumi set Chika down and put away the umbrella.
Fujiwara Chika stepped back slightly and let out a long breath. It was unclear whether this posture of relief was because of the anomalies they had just encountered, or because of something else entirely.
Meanwhile, Takumi had already stored the umbrella—which had begun to seep blood and was clearly showing signs of losing control—into the space within his watch. He then quickly swept his gaze across the entire training area, lightly moved his limbs, and prepared himself for action.
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