"Thanks, then. It's a pleasure to work with you."
Bai Yuze smiled and extended his hand.
The Front Desk stared at Bai Yuze's hand for a moment, then reacted. He took off his glove and shook Bai Yuze's hand.
At this moment, Bai Yuze also noticed that the Front Desk's hand was full of scars, including cuts and burns, and his palm was quite rough.
"If you're looking for something, you'd best take this with you."
The Front Desk pulled out a flashlight from his pocket. The flashlight looked a bit old, and the light it emitted was a warm glow.
"Is that so? This isn't free, is it?"
Bai Yuze didn't take the flashlight. In the human world, everything was about exchange of interests, and in The Strange World, he needed to be even more vigilant.
"There's something I want in the basement too… I need you to bring it back."
"What is it?"
"My… dog."
"A dog? I understand."
Bai Yuze seemed thoughtful but still agreed.
After getting the key and the flashlight, Bai Yuze didn't forget to ask a question.
"How do I get into the basement?"
"If you want to enter the basement, then that means you know how to get in."
After saying this, the Front Desk went back into the room and closed the door.
Seeing this, Bai Yuze could only give up on trying to get more information. He, of course, knew how to enter the basement, but since he had the key, why couldn't he just open the basement door directly? Why did he have to enter through the strange staircase?
(Could it be that the basement door is only for one-way passage? If someone inside comes out through the door, then the exit remains an exit, but if someone enters through the door from the outside, then the exit forever becomes an entrance and cannot be changed?)
The more Bai Yuze thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed in his mental map.
Entering through the stairs (not the main door) > Exiting through the main door from the inside > The door becomes a one-way escape door (and still has a way to enter).
Entering through the main door (not the stairs) > The main door becomes a one-way entry door (only one way, which is to go through the single-person passage door).
But there was still one question bothering Bai Yuze: was the maximum capacity of the basement two people or two lives?
Bai Yuze leaned towards two lives, because the Front Desk had clearly entered the basement before, and he had brought his dog, but the outcome seemed to indicate that the Front Desk entered through the main door, and thus could only leave through the single-person passage door, so he left the dog there.
"It seems the 'single person' in this single-person passage door only refers to 'people'."
While Bai Yuze was thinking, his body had already reached the stairs. He took a deep breath and walked up the stairs, counting the steps.
The tentacles reappeared. Bai Yuze took a step back at this moment, and just as he thought, he felt his body falling. As his consciousness plunged into darkness, he tightly clutched the flashlight, key, and cleaver to his chest.
When he woke up again, he saw the dark, damp, and moss-covered walls that Yui Yuigahama had described.
He quickly checked his equipment and items. Fortunately, nothing was missing. The room was a bit too dark.
But this had no effect on Bai Yuze. Thanks to Guaidan's ability, he had night vision in the dark, so the phrase "walking at night" didn't exist for him.
Bai Yuze looked at Yui Yuigahama's phone. The battery was only at ten percent. Seeing this, he immediately turned off the screen and left the room.
At the same time, he also followed the method Yui Yuigahama mentioned, hoping to find a safe room.
Sure enough, in his vision, all the rooms appeared in red, yellow, and green.
There was only one green door, fewer red ones, and more yellow ones.
Bai Yuze didn't forget to glance at the room where he woke up — yellow.
"Good thing I didn't stay longer, otherwise I would have been somewhat affected by the cognitive influence."
Bai Yuze smiled and at the same time observed the precarious water droplets on the basement ceiling.
"I remember seeing corrosive scars on Tuanzi's hands. Were they from these water droplets?"
It was impossible to avoid all the water droplets on the ceiling. Bai Yuze looked around, trying to find some tools to block the droplets.
Ultimately, Bai Yuze chose the same tool as the two girls: a bedsheet.
However, searching the entire basement was also unrealistic. While draping a bedsheet over himself, Bai Yuze hoped in his heart that he could find something related to Yukinoshita Yukino.
The result… Bai Yuze froze, his action of draping the bedsheet also paused, until a drop of water landed on his shoulder with a sizzling sound, bringing him back to his senses.
He ignored the burning sensation on his shoulder; at this moment, his eyes were trembling incessantly…
A flash of white suddenly appeared in his vision. Bai Yuze knew that was Yukinoshita Yukino's location, but there wasn't just one white… but a whole patch!
There were at least dozens of them! This meant… Yukinoshita Yukino had become Yukinoshita Yukino (puzzle version).
"Did I… arrive too late?"
Bai Yuze was somewhat dazed. At this moment, he wanted to say something, but he chose to remain silent. At this moment, he wanted to do something, but his right hand, holding the knife, weakly let go of it.
Clang!
The sound of the cleaver falling to the ground echoed through the corridor, reaching the ears of the hunting hunter and also the ears of the fleeing prey…
"Hehehe… Hahahahaha…"
A burst of children's laughter came from a distance, approaching Bai Yuze with increasingly closer footsteps.
Through his night vision, Bai Yuze saw some pale-faced children running towards him. They were laughing and playing, but their eyes looked painted on, not only not blinking but even their eyeballs were off-white.
Bai Yuze picked up the cleaver from the ground and sharpened it against the door a few times. The friction sound between the cleaver and the door made those "children" stop their playful footsteps.
"Children… this isn't funny, and it's not fun." Bai Yuze showed those children a chilling… no, a ghost-chilling smile. "Brother here is a bit angry right now."
Bai Yuze picked up the flashlight with his left hand and shone it towards the children who were standing still.
"Ah ah ah!!!"
The strange children screamed and scattered the moment they saw the light.
The piercing sound made Bai Yuze instinctively tilt his head and scratch his ear. It was this instant of tilting his head that allowed him to dodge an attack.
"This is… a scalpel?!"
Before Bai Yuze could react, a fierce attack came at him.
Bai Yuze defended passively but was still kicked back several meters by the male corpse, only stabilizing himself after retreating more than ten steps.
After pulling out the scalpel stuck in the doorframe, the male corpse attacked Bai Yuze again. Bai Yuze could only continuously parry with his cleaver while retreating.
Fortunately, the scalpel's advantage was far inferior to the cleaver. After a few rounds, Bai Yuze was not injured, while the male corpse had several wounds inflicted by Bai Yuze.
But a corpse feels no pain, so even if Bai Yuze cut off the opponent's arm, it did not affect the male corpse's continued attacks.
"This won't do. My stamina is limited, and the opponent is just a corpse. If this drags on, I'll eventually be finished."
Bai Yuze fought and thought about countermeasures, but the male corpse's fierce attacks made it difficult for Bai Yuze to parry, not to mention the corrosive water droplets adding to the chaos, which was undoubtedly adding insult to injury.
"The key to sealing him is that scalpel, but how do I take it?"
The male corpse's attacks came one after another, maintaining defense during the attacks. Whenever Bai Yuze wanted to attack the hand holding the scalpel, the male corpse's other hand would block the chop.
Bai Yuze also tried to cut off the opponent's other hand first, but the moment the cleaver went to chop, the opponent's attack came again.
Bai Yuze either chose to endure the damage and trade blows with the opponent or retreat.
He didn't know any hundred percent bare-handed disarming techniques, so disarming the corpse was as difficult as snatching food from a tiger's mouth.
Suddenly! Bai Yuze thought of a certain plot in the original work. He looked at the scalpel in the male corpse's hand and felt the burning sensation on his body, and his eyes gradually became firm.
At this moment, Bai Yuze changed his fighting style. He no longer retreated but charged forward.
The male corpse's hand once again raised the scalpel, holding it in a forward grip to increase power and speed when thrusting downwards.
Bai Yuze's left hand met it without hesitation.
Pfft!
The scalpel pierced Bai Yuze's left hand, and at that moment, Bai Yuze chopped off the opponent's arm holding the knife.
The moment he cut off the arm, Bai Yuze kicked the male corpse away.
At this point, the stinging pain of his palm being pierced also came, and the intense pain made Bai Yuze's breathing somewhat ragged.
He endured the pain, pulled out the scalpel, and threw aside the male corpse's half-arm, which was still clutching the scalpel.
At this moment, the male corpse stood up and attacked Bai Yuze again.
Bai Yuze remained calm, throwing the cleaver in his hand. After tracing an arc, the cleaver directly struck the male corpse's head.
The male corpse's other hand tried to pull out the cleaver to use as a weapon, but Bai Yuze did not give the opponent a chance to get a weapon. He seized the opportunity, dashed in front of the male corpse, and plunged the scalpel into its neck.
The moment the scalpel entered the male corpse's neck, the male corpse stopped moving, then like a puppet that had lost its strings, it collapsed weakly to the ground.
In this battle, Bai Yuze won a narrow victory…