Quietly, Gao Hai stood motionless beside the desk, listening to the sound of heavy breathing passing right by him.
The footsteps of that thing slowly passed his side; every step was exceptionally heavy, stomping forcefully onto the ground.
A sighing sound rang in his ears, followed by the sound of a fist smashing heavily onto the table.
It was as if someone was pacing back and forth in this room, muttering something in a low voice, radiating an unpleasant emotion that anyone could detect.
"..."
Gao Hai simply maintained his silence.
After a while, the footsteps moved to the doorway. With a creak, the office door opened, and then with a bang, the door was slammed shut. Everything sank into silence, soundless and still.
"..."
But Gao Hai still made no sound and made no movement. He continued to maintain the same posture, standing on the spot, motionless as a statue; even his breathing had almost completely stopped.
A few minutes later, Gao Hai heard a second sound of the door opening, followed by the sound of footsteps stepping out of the room, and then the noise of the door being gently closed.
Only then did Gao Hai turn his head to look around.
The floor was covered in filth and blood.
Bloody footprints circled him several times. The walls were covered in dark red handprints and bloody streaks that looked like they had been gouged out by fingernails. The office door, in particular, looked as if a bucket of red paint had been overturned; almost the entire wall was soaked in a ferocious bloody color.
Gao Hai retreated a few steps without a word, then bent down in front of the desk. After a few attempts, he quickly opened the only drawer that wasn't locked.
Inside the drawer was a key. Attached to this key was a brief document explaining that it was for the area housing the power relay system within the Red Nut Gray Hole. This key could open the gate to the Relay Zone, thereby controlling the power supply inside the Red Nut Gray Hole.
Does this key have any special function?
Gao Hai picked up the unremarkable little key, twirled it in his hand a couple of times, and then stowed it in his pocket, zipping it up to avoid the bizarre plot twist of "accidentally dropping an important item."
Following that, Gao Hai searched the room again, but this time he didn't find anything of value.
Is that really all?
An office specifically emphasized in the rules—and the result is just two documents concerning the truth of the accident back then and a key with no immediate use? Is there nothing else?
It shouldn't be this simple.
Standing where he was, Gao Hai wore a thoughtful expression.
Come to think of it, this Werbo person was the safety supervisor. He was responsible for the infrastructure construction of the entire Red Nut Gray Hole. In a sense, can't this guy be considered a skilled technician? Would he have left any mechanisms in this room?
Thinking this, Gao Hai walked to the desk and tried to lift it. Finding nothing abnormal, he set the table back down.
After a moment's thought, he walked over to the large bookcase filled with files. He tried to move it. This process took a bit of effort; after all, this thing was clearly not something one or two people could move. But in the end, relying on his physically enhanced constitution, Gao Hai forcibly shifted the solid wood structure—two meters high, one and a half meters wide, and packed with a full six layers of files and books—away from its spot. Then, he looked behind the shelf.
Hmm, just a wall. It doesn't look like there's anything hidden here.
Feeling somewhat disappointed, Gao Hai walked in and patted the wall, refusing to give up, but he could only regretfully confirm that there really wasn't any secret door hidden here.
There should be a place like that.
Although he had no evidence, Gao Hai instinctively felt that there must be something else hidden here.
He tried opening the window in the room, only to discover that outside wasn't the ground-level park of the Red Nut Gray Hole, but a place that looked like some kind of storage room. Although this looked like a destination, Gao Hai felt this place was likely a scene formed by the residual echoes of other obsessive monstrosities, not a place where an exit existed.
Finally, only a small cabinet by the wall remained untouched. Originally, because that cabinet was too small and didn't look like a place that could serve as a secret passage, Gao Hai hadn't considered it. But now that he had tried everywhere else, he could only turn back and try here. Of course, the result was unsurprising: behind the small cabinet was empty space, just a solid, hard wall.
"Did I misunderstand something?"
Brows furrowed tight, Gao Hai raised his head and looked at the large chandelier hanging right in the center of the ceiling.
Up above?
At this moment, Gao Hai suddenly recalled the corpses lying on the ceiling of the cavern that he had seen along the way earlier.
Climbing onto the desk, Gao Hai observed the chandelier from the side and discovered some strange, indistinct marks on its edge.
Then, wearing his explorer's cut-resistant gloves, Gao Hai leapt up abruptly. One hand grabbed the chandelier, while the other, gripping the sharp surgical scalpel obsession item, made a sudden cut. In the next instant, holding the chandelier, Gao Hai landed soundlessly on the floor.
Immediately following that, Gao Hai jumped again. This time, he removed a round wooden board that had been painted for camouflage.
Looking up again, there was a pitch-black void above. Through the light of the flashlight on his helmet, Gao Hai could see it was an extremely narrow rock cavern—so narrow that with Gao Hai's build, he could only pass through alone. The cavern quickly curved, shifting from a vertical drop to a direction heading somewhere else, but specifically where it led was not something Gao Hai could easily verify at the moment.
Could this be it? The entrance to the next area? One of the areas an "Explorer" must pass through to escape the Red Nut Gray Hole? The most narrow place in the entire cavern—aside from areas like the Great Rift that humans cannot pass—a dark place that brings immense pressure and terror to explorers... the "Blood Vessel"? Is this its entrance?
While thinking, Gao Hai was already preparing to leap up and crawl into the cavern.
But soon, he turned his head to look at the office door, which had turned a bloody red, and the storage room connected by the open window on the other side.
Chika Fujiwara was likely still trapped somewhere in this land of lingering regrets.
If he left now, that girl would probably really be trapped to death here. No matter what, she was Kaguya's good friend. If the difficulty wasn't too high, he could still help her out.
"Really gives me a headache. Even though I said before that I'd abandon her if she dragged me down, it looks like I have that compulsion for a Happy Ending."
Gao Hai shook his head gently and sighed, then climbed out the window and arrived in the storage room opposite the office.
The temperature here had dropped significantly compared to the office before, plunging directly to sub-zero levels, so much so that Gao Hai breathed out white mist.
The shelves in the storage room were stocked with many frozen slabs of meat and animal body parts. Gao Hai could recognize pork, pig legs, beef, lamb legs, whole chickens, and other things, though there were some meats he couldn't quite identify.
This storage room was large—very large—covering an area even bigger than the first floor of Gao Hai's house. Gao Hai circled the place before finding the exit. In less than a few minutes, his body was coated in a layer of white frost, and he was shivering from the cold.
Is this the storage room of some food factory?
Thinking this, Gao Hai tried to open the storage room door, but found it was locked; it couldn't be opened without a key.
So Gao Hai took out the blood key, inserted it into the lock, twisted gently, and successfully opened the door.
Then, a bloody, blurry hell-thing wearing a waiter's uniform poked its head in, staring into the chillingly cold storage room.
There was nothing there.
After a while, the thing retracted its head. The heavy door slowly began to close, but before it could shut completely, a surgical scalpel jammed into the crack. Then Gao Hai, who had jumped up at some point and was bracing his feet against the walls to force himself to stay fixed against the ceiling, dropped down and gently pulled the door open.
Outside the door was a corridor paved with expensive carpets. The walls were decorated with various hanging paintings, and the sound of music drifted from afar. Bathed in warm light, the corridor overflowed with the elegant temperament of the aristocracy.
Gao Hai knew saying this sounded weird, but when he saw this corridor, he genuinely got the feeling that "this is the villa or mansion of some elegant noble," as if the architectural area itself was revealing this disposition.
When he used that blood key just now, Gao Hai's thought was "Go to a place near Chika Fujiwara." In other words, was that girl somewhere in here?
He walked out of the storage room.
Gao Hai moved cautiously along the corridor.
The paintings hanging on the walls on both sides depicted figures dressed in formal wear, both men and women. Each one wore a smiling expression, as if displaying their elegance to guests.
But to Gao Hai, walking through this empty corridor at this moment, he only felt that the people in these paintings seemed to be alive. Each one seemed to turn its head after he passed, staring indifferently at him.
Gao Hai was inching closer to the source of that melodious music.
Gently opening a wooden door, Gao Hai—who had tucked away the tools taken from the office—sized up the door, then stepped inside.
Passing through a somewhat dim area, he gradually began to hear voices conversing, the sound of footsteps walking about, and the clinking of wine glasses.
Warm candlelight spread out into the surroundings.
Tables were filled with luxurious gourmet meals, emitting tantalizing aromas.
Hiding behind a pillar, Gao Hai saw figures sitting in their seats. He saw them whispering to each other, cutting steaks with elegant postures, drinking red wine, and appreciating the piano performance on the raised platform not far away.
No, there was no one in the seats.
They were just empty chairs, yet voices emerged from them from time to time.
The entire dining hall was almost completely empty; no diners existed. Except for the young girl on the high platform silently playing piano music, everything was in a deathly silence.
The young girl was still alive.
Although her condition was terrible—one could clearly sense her mental state was deteriorating, to the point where she was teetering and could only desperately force herself to hold on and continue playing—at least for now, she was still in a saveable state. She hadn't yet reached the point of completely losing her own existence.
A swollen thing, like an inflated balloon, was slowly walking out, appearing on one side of the high platform. Holding a microphone in its hand, it seemed to want to say something.
Meanwhile, Gao Hai had already utilized the fact that the venue was only lit by candlelight and contained many shadowy areas to slip into the zone, slowly approaching the area where the platform was located.
The phantoms around the dining tables were merely traces remaining from the past; they had no way to detect Gao Hai's presence.
But this massive, rotting figure was clearly different. It was the owner of this memory, a grotesque entity radiating intense malice.
Gao Hai dared not act rashly; he simply hid carefully to the side of the platform.
And right at this moment, he heard the slurping, indistinct voice coming from that thing, mixed with the sound of flowing liquid.
"Thank... everyone for com... this banquet. Later... I will lead everyone to... Red Nut Gray Hole to participate in... ceremony..."
Amidst the blurry, indistinct voice, that thing slowly raised a bloated arm covered in lacerations. Dark yellow pus and bloody water immediately seeped out and dripped onto the floor.
From the empty dining tables, the sound of applause rang out.
The floor, originally covered in carpet, began to gradually transform at this moment. Bit by bit, it started to convert into the appearance of a cavern.
Gao Hai noticed some clothes that looked like tourist attire appearing faintly within the manifesting rocks.
This place was becoming dangerous.
Therefore, Gao Hai did not hesitate. He rushed forward directly and swiftly, leaping to Chika Fujiwara's side in a flash.
The girl, clearly on the verge of despair, paused slightly the moment she saw Gao Hai appear, and her movement of playing the piano slowed down accordingly.
That deformed thing immediately turned around, and the entire dining hall became even colder and gloomier in that instant.
Then, Gao Hai and Chika Fujiwara fell into a door.
The door Gao Hai had conveniently taken down upon entering, the one opened with the blood key that opened a passage to Werbo's office, was at this moment lying beside the piano, in an open state.
Bone ash danced in the air, landing on that thing's body and slowing its movements for a split second. And Gao Hai used that split second to successfully pull Chika Fujiwara into his arms, then tumbled into the door with the momentum. The moment they fell into the office, he hooked the door handle with his foot and slammed it shut, thus successfully completing the rescue operation.
"Phew, that was actually quite difficult."
Sighing with emotion, Gao Hai propped himself up with one hand against the ground, wanting to stand up and check the condition of Chika in his arms.
He couldn't stand up immediately.
Because the young girl in his arms stretched out her hands and hugged Gao Hai tightly—hugging him with almost all the strength in her body—leaving Gao Hai, who dared not use too much force, unable to move.
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