Ever since learning of his rewind ability, Gao Hai had actually considered this problem: for rules-based horror stories that involved memory and cognition—the troublesome kind where 'to know is to be perceived'—his rewind ability might not be able to erase their effects.
Regardless, Gao Hai already knew the 'taboo' of Shirakawa Apartments.
And by knowing the taboo, he had met its trigger conditions and had become a target that 'that thing' could watch.
However, perhaps because of the rewind, in the operational logic of this rules-based horror story, he had gained a memory of the taboo out of thin air. Therefore, for the rule to trigger, it needed a certain amount of time to slowly activate. But now that he could already see that thing, it meant the activation speed wasn't slow. Considering this, maybe... of the seven-day time limit for the 'escape Shirakawa Apartments' mission, he had less than half, or perhaps even less, remaining.
Optimistically, in about three days, he would trigger the curse of Shirakawa Apartments' core taboo, be dragged once again into that twisted and chaotic Room 304, and be tortured to death by having his mouth sewn shut and being scalded with boiling water.
He really didn't want to go through that again.
Experiencing that kind of torturous death once was enough to drive a person to despair. He'd even gone through it twice. If it happened a third time, Gao Hai truly didn't know if he could endure it.
"Mr. Gao Hai, you seem a bit unsettled."
Sitting and resting on one side of the room, Kaguya watched the changes in Gao Hai's expression and spoke slowly.
"I was just thinking about some unsettling things."
Knowing his expression had given him away, Gao Hai let out a long sigh and then looked up to meet Kaguya's gaze.
Red eyes.
Like rubies, they radiated a brilliant light. You probably couldn't find eyes like these in the real world. Should he chalk it up to her being an anime character?
It was a bit of a shame, though, that the gaze emanating from those eyes was as lifeless as a corpse; it was impossible to find a trace of a normal person's emotions in them. The Ice Kaguya Princess, the girl who grew up under the Shinomiya family's twisted 'absolute self-interest' education, a 'girl in a box.' The fact that such a girl was now with him in a bizarre and terrifying horror zone, investigating the situation with their lives on the line, was, admittedly, quite strange.
"Is there something you want to say?"
Meeting Gao Hai's gaze, Kaguya didn't know what he was thinking. She only saw that the man had fallen silent and asked again.
"...Say something? What should I say? Hmm, Miss Shinomiya, do you remember the four hints for this game? 'Messages from predecessors,' 'the happiness of dust,' 'the restarting doorway,' and 'the place you cannot go.' Do you have any thoughts on these?"
Closing his eyes, Gao Hai leaned against the wall and spoke slowly, his voice tinged with a hint of hesitation.
"Thoughts..."
Kaguya wasn't sure why Gao Hai had suddenly asked this question, but she quieted down to think for a moment before speaking slowly.
"The 'messages from predecessors' part is actually quite clear. Whether it's Xusheng's notes, Sanchez's investigation records, or the records left by other survivors who lived here in the past, they all hide various clues. The basis for our exploration so far lies with these predecessors who are now dead. They are the ones who left us a path to survival, guiding us forward."
"As for 'the happiness of dust,' this line of thought might not be entirely accurate, but my guess is that it refers to a toy? Although I may not know much about a normal child's upbringing, don't they say all children like toys? Additionally, for 'the place you cannot go,' I think you also have a good idea of what that is. It's very likely inside one of the walls of Room 304."
"You and Maki brought back a considerable amount of intelligence from the last... hmm, the last loop. It's almost enough for us to piece together what happened in this apartment. The various clues mostly line up, with only some minor details requiring further investigation."
Perhaps in an attempt to reclaim some of her pride, Kaguya spoke at length and in great detail.
Gao Hai had already told Kaguya about the situation with the family in 304 before they went to explore the third floor. He didn't say anything now, just sitting there listening to her analysis. At the same time, he was silently pondering in his own mind, making sure to avoid thinking about the critical taboo. He limited his perspective to that pair of awful parents, using various pronouns for anything related to 'that thing' as a way to delay the curse as much as possible.
The cause of death was a sewn mouth and scalding with boiling water. Before that, it was likely just beatings and the like, since a child's constitution couldn't possibly survive having their mouth sewn and being doused with boiling water. After that, was she sealed inside a wall? But the Rescue Team smelled a strange odor. Perhaps it was a hastily built earthen wall? Or did they just dig a hole in the wall, stuff her in, and patch it up crudely?
The family had a second child, a son. He was sent away before Shirakawa Apartments became an anomaly. Maybe it was after that incident that the parents, knowing they'd be caught if exposed, sent the boy away. Then, according to Sanchez's investigation records, this child who was sent away died mysteriously within a year of the apartment's disappearance, just like the other residents. Was he pulled back into the apartment after death?
Perhaps the turning point was after the second child was born. The man had his wish for a son fulfilled, so the first child became even more neglected, even more of an eyesore. Therefore, when they acted, the parents' moral baseline would have dropped even lower.
A neighbor must have tried to help, but they were surely met with retaliation from the parents. For these two people, who had come to loathe their own child so intensely and had completely lost their human decency, to see someone willing to show her love and offer aid was absolutely unacceptable. Room 309... perhaps it was the resident of 309. The resident of this room had a conflict with 304 and very likely left the apartment after the conflict.
Then, 'the restarting doorway'...
"Perhaps it's 309. If we open 309, we might gain something very important. I think 'the restarting doorway' might be referring to Room 309."
Just as Gao Hai was thinking about these things, Kaguya, sitting opposite him, calmly voiced the exact thoughts in his mind.
"Indeed. The unfortunate thing is that this place is just too chaotic. Other than Room 304, for which we have some clues, finding any other room is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Gao Hai let out a soft sigh and slowly got up from the floor.
For now, he didn't feel the gaze of that thing on him at all times like he did in the previous loop.
But this state of affairs wouldn't last long. As the curse deepened, he would inevitably face death sooner than anyone else.
But it should be enough time.
There should be enough time to verify his idea.
"You have an idea?"
Seeing the change in Gao Hai's expression, Kaguya realized he must have come up with a plan and posed the question.
"I once experienced being slowly transformed into a member of the Rescue Team, the process of my self-awareness being destroyed by that badge."
"That process was worse than death. But after surviving it, I realized some things. I think, to a certain extent, I've figured out the essential nature of some of these anomalies. I just didn't have a clear way to summarize it before."
Gao Hai nodded slightly, cautiously peeking outside through the crack in the door as he answered Kaguya.
"The key to how these inhuman anomalies operate should be 'Obsession,' and the specific way they function is through 'Memory.'"
"The Rescue Team repeats its rescue operations. They will block people trying to return to their rooms from the hallway because 'saving' is their obsession. And the places where the Rescue Team anomaly exists manifest as a flooded scene; this is them replaying their past memories."
"I'm not trying to say they still possess something like emotions. Although I have great respect for those rescue workers, as someone who was almost turned into one of them, I can confirm that after becoming an anomaly, the Rescue Team has no such thing as 'emotions' to speak of. They are merely echoes of the past, endlessly repeating what happened under the influence of 'Obsession' and 'Memory,' unable to move toward the future."
As he finished, Gao Hai noticed a figure flickering in and out of existence in the corridor outside. He withdrew his gaze and spoke slowly to Kaguya.
"But this doesn't mean they are an unsolvable tragedy. Because the foundation of the Rescue Team's existence still lies in 'Obsession.'"
"The Rescue Team, already caught in a death loop, cannot fulfill its own obsession, which is why it remains on the first floor. But if there is a way, when everything replays once more, to allow them to complete their obsession—to succeed in rescuing the people of Shirakawa Apartments—then, freed from the cycle, they can stop this meaningless repetition and find true rest."
"And I believe this same principle is applicable to this apartment's core taboo."
Drawing on his own experience of assimilating with an anomaly, Gao Hai, in that moment, articulated the true method for completely ending a horror anomaly—a method discovered by countless players at the cost of their lives.
The operational foundation of a horror anomaly always lies in two things: 'Memory' and 'Obsession'.
For these beings that are no longer human and possess no emotions or rationality, 'Memory' only becomes more twisted with each repetition, just like the grotesque distortion of Shirakawa Apartments that expanded from Room 304 to encompass the entire third floor.
But 'Obsession' is carved into the very foundation of their creation; it is the most fundamental, primitive rule of their existence. As long as one can find the breakthrough point within the anomaly's constantly repeating and twisting 'Memory' and allow the originally unfulfillable, unrealizable 'Obsession' to be realized, the anomaly can be made to collapse from its very foundation.
This is not the method for clearing the instance.
For players who only need to survive the instance, they just need to find the 'path to life' within the anomaly.
This is, in fact, a method for destroying the instance—for annihilating a fully formed rules-based horror story, one that constantly consumes more lives and creates countless tragedies, and allowing everything to return to silence and find peace.
For Gao Hai, who hadn't had the benefit of reliable veteran players and had to figure everything out on his own, the method he had inadvertently come up with was one that led to a much more difficult path.
But it was precisely because of this ignorance that he could be so full of confidence at this moment.
"With this, the principle for clearing this instance might already be in our hands."
After confirming the figure outside was gone, Gao Hai pushed the door open, glanced back to say this to Kaguya, and then resumed moving forward.
"I hope you're right."
Lacking such memories, Kaguya naturally couldn't understand what Gao Hai was feeling, so she could only nod in agreement, a slight sense of defeat welling up inside her.
Right now, I feel like an apprentice being led by the hand, she thought.
With this thought, Kaguya followed Gao Hai's steps, and the two once again advanced through the twisted and chaotic structure.
And this time, it didn't take long. After crossing a half-collapsed staircase, passing through a dilapidated BBQ stand littered with empty wine bottles, and a mahjong parlor bearing a seizure notice, then traversing a decaying corridor piled with all sorts of trash, the two of them finally saw the end of the path: a large, rust-covered door, illuminated by a dim, crimson light.
The door to Room 304.
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