[Interview Record No. 6073]
[Interviewee: Howard Smith]
[Recorded during the official sealing phase of the Red Nut Gray Hole]
[Interviewer: Hello, Mr. Smith. According to the information we have, you and your team were the last ones to enter and exit that place before it was completely sealed by blowing up the entrance. Am I correct?]
[Smith: Since you know it was me, why ask?]
[Interviewer: Please correct your attitude, Mr. Smith. We brought you here because we need your cooperation with our investigation. I think you should be well aware of what measures we'll take if you refuse to cooperate.]
[Smith: Like how you let that ghost place run wild until things blew up and you couldn't cover it up anymore?]
[Interviewer: Do you need me to remind you of your prison life these past couple of days?]
[Smith: …]
[Interviewer: Good. Then let's get back to the topic. For a long time before that, the Red Nut Gray Hole had... well... some minor issues, and your team was always responsible for handling those problems. What we want to know is, do you know how all this escalated into that incident? Though it was indeed a once-in-a-century massive rainstorm, from what we understand, the Red Nut Gray Hole had been flooded by rainstorms more than once before. It was only after the tourist park was built and the entrance was covered that it didn't flood again.]
[Smith: I don't know the answer to that.]
[Interviewer: Sir, I hope you take our questions seriously.]
[Smith: Do I look like some expert on mysterious phenomena? How would I know why that ghost place inexplicably drags tourists under the Great Slide, or why a wall was built to block it but mysteriously collapses anyway? I was just dragged in to clean up the mess. If I knew what was going on, I wouldn't be sitting here. But if you insist I say something, I'd guess it's because it's 'full.' ]
[Interviewer: Full?]
[Smith: That's right, full. Do you know how many people were trapped down there? I went in three times, and the third time, I entered the [Blood Vessel]. I passed through that area and reached the Large Space, and then I saw countless piles of clothes on the ground.]
[Interviewer: Clothes? You mean you only saw clothes, no people?]
[Smith: Yes, one after another—men's, women's, children's, all kinds of casual clothes like those worn by tourists coming to sightsee, piled everywhere in the entire cave. I can confirm no one else had entered besides me. I could tell from the traces in the [Blood Vessel] that no one had crawled through that cave for years before me, but now it was full of clothes, and the people wearing them were all gone. I don't know where they went, but I always feel they didn't completely disappear. They're still in that cave; I just can't see them.]
[Interviewer: So, you think the cave was full of people, too full to hold more, so that's why the incident happened?]
[Smith: That's the only explanation I can think of. That rainstorm wasn't normal—no weather forecasts detected it, and it covered only this city, only that damned cave's location. Do you believe that's a coincidence? I don't.]
[Interviewer: Very well. Next question: which areas did you enter during the rescue operation? We need to understand your action process.]
[Smith: Entrance, Stone Forest Path, Plains, Large Space—only those four places. We only searched for survivors in those four areas. We brought out everyone who could still remember their names and identities. But in the end, we found only 'explorers' and 'tourists' could be saved—no, actually, basically only 'explorers' could be saved. I don't quite understand how there were explorers trapped inside, but they were indeed people stuck there, people we could rescue. By comparison, most of those tourists couldn't be brought out of the cave anymore.]
[Interviewer: How did you know those people couldn't be saved?]
[Smith: You can find the answer in the rules and action records we summarized. Those people couldn't be taken out. Even if we brought them to the entrance, we'd only have a set of clothes in our hands afterward. They'd already been left behind; they could never come out again. Even if rescued, it'd just be a phantom.]
[Interviewer: You didn't enter the interior of the Great Slide. Why? In previous rescue operations, you went deep inside multiple times and came out unscathed. Why not this time?]
[Smith: …The flood had already submerged the Great Cliff. The Great Slide, being a slope, had extremely turbulent water flow—too dangerous to go down. And the situation inside the cave had clearly changed by then. We had to follow the rules; rash actions would only lead to pointless sacrifices.]
[Interviewer: So you judged that the people under the Great Slide were beyond saving, correct?]
[Smith: Even if there were still living people inside, they were effectively beyond saving. Except for the first two batches that got out, no one after could climb back up.]
[Interviewer: Why?]
[Smith: I cut the safety rope on the Great Slide. Without professional training, no one could climb a 30-degree slope against that water flow.]
[Interviewer: You cut the safety rope? Why? What benefit did that give you?]
[Smith: Because I saw something else climbing up along that rope.]
[Interviewer: Something else?]
[Smith: …]
[Interviewer: Mr. Smith? I hope you can describe what you know in detail and vividly.]
[Smith: …You won't understand unless you see those things with your own eyes.]
[Interviewer: Mr. Smith?]
[Smith: I saw those still-living people grabbing the rope, desperately climbing up. They were the ones who could still be saved—as long as they made it up, we could take them out, get them away from that ghost place. But behind them were those things. They… also wanted out. They followed right behind those people. There were still so many in the Plains and Large Space who hadn't been rescued. If those things came up, maybe the others couldn't be saved. I had to make a choice. I was the captain; I couldn't make my good lads do it. That kind of thing could only be done by me, so I cut the rope, denying those things a way up.]
[Interviewer: So what exactly were those things?]
[Smith: That's all I have to say. I've had enough of all this. That place has nothing to do with us survivors anymore. Whatever you want to find in there is your business, but believe me—you'll find nothing but death and despair. Treating that place with arrogant self-righteousness will end badly.]
[Interviewer: I don't think so, but at least this time you cooperated for a normal interview process. Thank you.]
[Smith: Heh…]
[Interviewer: Finally, one last question. Besides the fire brigade and rescue team, I recall some experienced explorers joined the rescue operation. Do you know what happened to them?]
[Smith: Ask the FBI about that, not someone you've locked up for half a year.]
[Interviewer: Five months and 22 days—not quite half a year, Mr. Smith.]
[Smith: Heh…]
[Record ends]
In the dark bedroom, two of the four beds held figures role-playing as researchers, both motionless as if turned into corpses. No, they were corpses to begin with—this was probably them reverting to their original state.
Maki Shijo was still pondering the interview transcript she'd just read from the archives.
Howard Smith.
This man seemed to be a firefighter who, for quite some time after the anomalies in the Red Nut Gray Hole began, was responsible for handling and covering up the issues, rescuing those trapped inside. It appeared that during the flood disaster that submerged the Red Nut Gray Hole, this man had organized the rescue and was captured by officials afterward.
Combined with the intelligence from Gao Hai, Maki had basically pieced together what had happened in this instance's past and understood the general timeline.
However, some details remained unanswered, and the research base itself held many mysteries. For example... what exactly was the [God] this base was pursuing? In a horror story world, did gods truly exist? If they did, would a god allow horror stories to wreak havoc on the human world?
Countless mysteries swirled in her mind, but there was no one to share answers with. It was now lights-out time; Kaguya lay on another bed, and she didn't have in-team voice chat with Gao Hai like he did. So Maki could only stay quiet, continuing to lie in bed.
Hai-kun still wasn't accepting communications; he must be in a very dangerous situation. He'd mentioned before crossing the [Blood Vessel], likely one of the most perilous areas in the Red Nut Gray Hole—perhaps he still hadn't escaped.
Please be safe...
Deeply uneasy, Maki prayed silently in her heart.
Meanwhile, Gao Hai was slowly collapsing, falling onto... Chika Fujiwara's chest.
"Eh, eh, eh?"
Chika Fujiwara, equally exhausted, widened her eyes, her face instantly flushing. But after a brief hesitation, she didn't remind Gao Hai of his position, letting him lie there on her chest.
Though Chika said nothing, Gao Hai soon realized what he was doing, struggled to prop himself up and sit, then collapsed beside her.
The spot where the two now lay was the sentry box in the Red Nut Gray Hole during the flood era for the rescue team—the only place not flooded, with no dripping water.
Perhaps due to the overlapping rule zones, as long as one didn't enter wearing a security uniform, this place could serve as a temporary safe zone for rest or briefly removing identity-related clothes. But the premise was not opening the door—if the clothes were wrong when opening, problems would arise.
Susan and Lixer sat on the other side of the sentry box. Susan looked equally bad; though Gao Hai had blocked most of the flood, her stamina was still human-level, and she'd barely climbed the Great Slide after exhausting herself in the torrent.
During the ascent, the safety rope had shaken three times. The first two times, eerie phantoms and rope-snapping illusions appeared, but after they ended, the rope reappeared intact. But after the third, the rope vanished entirely. Gao Hai had to inch forward the final dozens of meters to the Plains using a large iron nail.
As for Susan behind, after the rope disappeared, she couldn't advance a step, barely clinging to the rock wall.
If Lixer hadn't appeared in time to toss down a rope, Gao Hai and Chika could have safely reached the Plains, but Susan likely would have perished on the spot. In that state, Gao Hai could barely manage himself, with no way to check on her.
"Hoo… hoo…"
Gao Hai quickly steadied his breathing, recovering his spent stamina.
He'd basically figured it out, confirming the linkage between explorer and rescue team zones, roughly mapping his current area.
If the fire brigade zone hadn't become a closed loop, escaped explorers might actually succeed via this process. Gao Hai suspected Werbo's original intent was that, but unlike Xusheng, who retained self-awareness, Werbo had likely been fully assimilated by the Red Nut Gray Hole into an anomalous entity.
Speaking of which, rescue team firefighters couldn't enter the Great Slide interior—in the previous loop, even a veteran player vanished after entering—but as explorers, they came up from it. Quite the odd contrast.
"Hoo… So, did you two find anything here?"
While Chika Fujiwara was still utterly drained, Gao Hai had mostly regulated his breathing. He turned to Lixer and Susan, asking seriously.
These two were no simpletons.
He and Chika had endured untold hardships to reach here, yet Lixer and Susan arrived first, with Lixer even having energy left to scout. This made Gao Hai very wary. He'd initially eyed Susan for her apparent instance knowledge, but now Lixer seemed more mysterious and concerning.
"Discoveries? I don't know if it counts, but… this place feels familiar. Though it's a mess now, the cave gives me a strong sense of familiarity."
After hesitating, Susan glanced at Lixer, who nodded. She then turned to Gao Hai and Chika, speaking haltingly.
"Familiar? You mean…"
Though he anticipated her words, Gao Hai feigned attentive listening and prompted.
"Yes, I mean… I think I've been here before. Before becoming a player, I'd already come to this place."
After brief hesitation, Susan nodded firmly, speaking earnestly.
"Though I can't recall specifics, every area here—at least the cave parts—feels very familiar."
"I've definitely been here more than once, and that fire station too. I can't remember why, but I know I've been."
"How to put it… these memories… seem to have been forgotten originally, but after returning here, they started resurfacing. I'm slowly remembering again. I remember coming back here, I… I came back for, uh, I think… for some operation, to… rescue people? Something like that… I might need more time; they come back bit by bit."
Susan seemed uncertain herself, her puzzled expression genuine, words laced with hesitation. Even so, it gave Gao Hai much to ponder.
Was she the [Actor for the Curtain Call]?
Gao Hai couldn't help thinking.
The hem of his clothes was lightly tugged.
Turning, he saw Chika Fujiwara's frightened expression.
She said nothing, just gestured with her eyes for him to look beside them. Gao Hai turned to the direction she indicated—the sentry box window.
Outside was pitch-black rock cave, no flood, no floating clothes, no patrolling firefighters or rescue team.
A man in casual clothes stood outside, knocking on the window glass. Until Gao Hai noticed him, no sound came; but upon seeing, the clear knocking rang in his ears.
Knock knock knock—knock knock knock—
And with it, the man's anxious, terrified pleas.
[Help us, please! Come help us quick!]
[One of our friends is stuck in the [Blood Vessel] below! He's trapped and can't get out! Please, come help us quick!]
________________________________________
Get rewarded for helping with our community goals!
🎯 Reward for all: +1 bonus chapter at 50 Powerstones.
🚀 Tier Reward: Help us reach 20 members for +5 chapters on all stories!
👻 Join the crew by searching Ms. Medusa on (P). You know the spot! 😉