The helicopter landed smoothly in the suburbs of Los Angeles—what a pity it had to end there.
After disembarking, Henry and Claire switched to a stretch Cadillac and headed toward the Rocky Mountains.
On the way, Claire suddenly frowned at her laptop.
Henry noticed his daughter's expression and asked, "What's going on?"
"There's a malfunction in the third stage of the game's mechanism," she replied.
"Oh? Should we send the Cleaner to check it out?"
"The problem is, we can't even contact the Cleaner!"
"Is that so? Looks like Roy Black has found the game's location. Good thing we moved ahead of time!"
Henry's gaze deepened as he looked toward the abandoned subway station.
"How the hell did that guy find the game's location? We didn't give him a single clue!" Claire asked, curiosity piqued, only to see a bitter smile spread across her father's face.
"Those people with extraordinary powers always manage to bypass certain conditions and do things us ordinary folks could never pull off. Claire, the game mechanisms you designed are nothing to them."
Claire fell silent at his words.
To hear her meticulously crafted puzzles and mechanisms dismissed as insignificant was undoubtedly a blow to her confidence.
But this quirky father-daughter duo didn't stop to consider that the countless people brutally killed by the dark web were just as powerless against its forces.
Those who kill will eventually be killed.
Having chosen this path, Henry and Claire were bound to face consequences.
"Alright, let's just sit back and enjoy the show as spectators," Henry said, looking toward downtown Los Angeles. The city seemed especially lively tonight.
---
The scene shifted back to the underground beach, where the group was rummaging through a pile of debris and successfully found a metal detector.
"Whoa! A metal detector! I used to play with one of these as a kid!" the oldest member of the group, the priest, exclaimed with excitement.
Niddy, resting her chin in her hand, quickly made a judgment. "I think the metal detector is for finding the anchor. It's gotta be buried under the sand!"
"Obvious enough. Let me handle it—I haven't used one of these in ages!" The priest eagerly snatched the metal detector from Baldy's hands. It wasn't light; it took some arm strength to wield.
Round-Face, standing nearby, rolled her eyes. "If you saw a metal detector on a battlefield, you wouldn't be so thrilled."
Yeah, on a battlefield, a metal detector usually meant one thing: a bomb disposal team searching for landmines. Round-Face shuddered at the thought.
But the priest didn't care, enthusiastically operating the metal detector to locate the anchor.
During the search, they came across a creepy mannequin display on the beach—a mother and daughter. The daughter was kneeling, and the mother's eyes were covered with seashells, giving it an eerie vibe.
Niddy stared at the models, momentarily forgetting to keep up with the others.
Ashley, noticing Niddy's expression, sensed she'd had an epiphany. Sometimes Niddy got lost in thought and needed prompting to share her ideas.
"Niddy, did you figure something out?" Ashley asked.
The priest, who was ahead with the metal detector, paused.
"I'm just thinking about something, but I'm not sure," Niddy replied. Due to her social anxiety, she hesitated to share unconfirmed theories.
Round-Face walked over and patted Niddy's shoulder. "Niddy, just say it. We can all figure it out together!"
"The number 0526 from the first stage, Sonya from the second, the 'Blind Love' written on the ship in this stage, and these weird mannequins—there seems to be some kind of connection."
Black Sister nodded thoughtfully. "You think there's a hidden storyline woven into the game's stages?"
Niddy nodded. "If we can figure out that storyline, solving the puzzles will be a lot easier."
"Have you pieced it together yet?" Black Sister asked.
Niddy pointed at the mannequin. "Look at the mother's model. Don't the seashells over her eyes remind you of anything?"
Baldy scratched his head, answering uncertainly, "Blind Love?"
"I think so—hey, what are you doing?!" Niddy's words were cut off as Baldy impulsively started prying the seashells off the mother mannequin's eyes. By the time she tried to stop him, he'd already removed them, revealing a plug underneath.
"You didn't want me to open it?" Baldy asked, confused.
"Don't you remember the first stage? Pulling the ring increased the voltage!" Niddy pressed a hand to her forehead. She'd hesitated to act because she feared triggering a trap, but Baldy's quick hands had beaten her to it.
Baldy gave an awkward chuckle. "Sorry, I forgot."
As soon as he spoke, something clicked, and the mannequin pair began sinking rapidly into the sand, startling everyone.
"Quicksand! It's really quicksand!" Round-Face and the priest stared at Niddy in shock. This blonde girl with black-rimmed glasses had already surprised them too many times.
Niddy noticed several areas of the beach starting to flow like liquid. They'd barely explored half the area.
"No time to stand around! We have to find the anchor before the quicksand swallows it, or we're done for!"
Her words snapped everyone into action.
The priest tossed a rope and a life preserver to the group. "Quick, tie everyone together with the rope. If someone gets stuck in the quicksand, the others can pull them out!"
Round-Face, Baldy, and Ashley, the most decisive of the group, quickly tied the rope around everyone. The rope's length was limited, so they had to stay within a meter of each other—an unsafe distance, but they pressed on.
Finally, on a patch of sand not yet consumed by quicksand, the metal detector beeped.
"We found it!"
The group gathered, some digging with their hands, others using a wooden board they found nearby. Soon, they unearthed the anchor.
But when the priest lifted it, he noticed a rope tied to it.
His action seemed to trigger something. The rope tightened, clearly being pulled by a winch buried beneath the sand.
Caught off guard, the priest was yanked forward by the anchor. If not for the rope tying everyone together, he'd have been dragged into the sand.
"Quick, find something to cut the rope!" someone shouted.
Working together, they barely managed to hold the anchor steady, but the sand's lack of traction meant it was still being slowly pulled downward.
Round-Face and Baldy were fully occupied holding the priest back, leaving no one free to search for a cutting tool.
The task fell to the three in the back—Niddy, Ashley, and Black Sister. Restricted by the rope, their movement was limited. With no other choice, they untied themselves, risking everything to search the surroundings.
Luckily, Ashley remembered the ship-in-a-bottle they'd found earlier—a glass bottle.
"The ship-in-a-bottle!" she called to Black Sister.
Black Sister pulled it from her pocket, but the soft sand made it impossible to smash the bottle on the ground.
Ashley grabbed it and rushed to a nearby wooden fence, smashing the bottle after a few hits.
"Here!" She tossed the largest glass shard to the priest.
Ignoring the cuts on his hand, the priest grabbed the shard and sawed through the rope. It finally snapped, but by then, half his body was submerged in quicksand. The other five worked together to pull him out.
"Pfft, pfft! I'm never going to a beach again!" the priest spat out sand, clearly traumatized.
"On the contrary, I could go for a nap on Santa Monica Beach right now," Round-Face quipped.
After catching their breath, the group took the anchor to unlock the door of a small wooden cabin.
Oddly, the quicksand stopped flowing at that moment.
Though puzzled, they didn't stop. They placed the anchor on the cabin door, which opened smoothly, revealing a simple diner inside.
(Inside the Cabin)
The group spread out to search the cabin.
Round-Face found a relatively clean towel and used it to bandage the priest's wounded hand.
Black Sister noticed a conspicuous blue fridge with a lighthouse photo stuck to it, reading "Bon Voyage."
She tugged at the fridge door, but it wouldn't budge. "Guys, look! The fridge door won't open. I think this is the exit for this stage!"
Ashley checked behind the fridge and found a power cord without a plug. "We need a plug here!"
Baldy, holding the plug they'd found earlier, hurried over. He connected the cord and plugged it into an outlet, but the fridge still wouldn't open.
"Damn it! Of course it's not that simple!" he cursed.
So far, the group hadn't faced any major dangers in this stage—aside from the priest nearly being swallowed by quicksand—so it made sense that things wouldn't be so easy.
"Could it have something to do with the lighthouse?" Black Sister wondered, recalling the photo.
Niddy gazed out the window toward the lighthouse. "But there's nothing around it, and no way to climb up!"
The priest, now bandaged, noticed a lighthouse-shaped decoration on a pillar with a switch on it. "Look at this! There's a switch here!"
Baldy stepped forward to press it but was stopped by Niddy. "Wait!"
"What's wrong?" Baldy asked, scratching his head.
"I think pressing that switch will start the final test of this stage. We need to be ready first!"
Black Sister nodded in agreement. "Niddy's right. Please, stop being so trigger-happy!"
Baldy grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry! It's my professional habit!"
"Let's check the area for anything useful we can take with us. It'll help us prepare for the next stage," Niddy suggested.
Following her lead, the group searched the cabin.
Baldy grabbed a mop, broke off the head, and kept the wooden handle.
The priest, recalling the glass bottle, smashed another one and wrapped the shards in the remaining towel to make a glass dagger.
Black Sister tore down a curtain, which could serve as a rope or makeshift bandage.
Round-Face found a brick under the boiler—a classic street weapon.
Ashley, with little else to choose from, picked up a pot.
Niddy grabbed a collapsible fishing rod—portable and versatile.
"Alright, I'll count down from three. Get ready!" Niddy said.
The group nodded nervously.
"Three, two, one!"
Niddy flipped the switch. The cabin shook violently.
Good news: the cabin was powered up.
Bad news: it was clearly sinking, and the outside light shifted from dusk to pitch-black night. The switch had triggered the stage's final test.
Round-Face, standing by the fridge, quickly opened the door. To everyone's shock, a human-sized, dog-like creature burst out, tackling her to the ground.
If Roy were here, he'd recognize it as a ghoul.
"What the hell is that?!" The second-loop players, unfamiliar with such horrors, froze in shock, forgetting to help Round-Face.
Luckily, Ashley and Niddy had dealt with supernatural entities before. Ashley swiftly slammed the pot over the ghoul's head, preventing it from biting Round-Face.
Niddy noticed more ghouls trying to escape the fridge and slammed the door shut.
The ghoul kept ramming the fridge door. Niddy shouted to the stunned second-loop players, "Don't just stand there—help!"
The three snapped out of it.
Baldy used his wooden stick to knock the ghoul over. Ashley and Black Sister held the pot down, keeping the ghoul pinned.
The priest, wielding the glass dagger, slit the ghoul's throat.
Frantically, the group piled furniture against the fridge door to keep it shut, giving Niddy a moment to breathe.
"What kind of blasphemous thing is this?!" The priest's worldview took another hit, but there was no time to process—the cabin was sinking and showing signs of collapse.
"Get out of the cabin!" someone yelled.
The six rushed outside and saw the lighthouse light up, with a ladder now leading to its top.
"To the lighthouse!" Niddy shouted.
The fridge, their intended exit, was blocked by ghouls, and the cabin was no longer an option. The lighthouse was their only way out.
They climbed up one by one. Niddy glanced at a telescope she'd been curious about earlier. Through it, she saw the words "I cannot see you," but the word "see" was spelled S-E-A, like the ocean.
It clicked. "Damn it! The lighthouse was meant to solve the plug puzzle, which we already cracked!"
"So what now?" the group asked, panic rising.
The cabin was inaccessible, the fridge exit was blocked by monsters, and the six were now trapped in a dead end.
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