[Public Notice: Evacuation of Residents from Old Suburban Apartments Affected by the XX Superflood]
[Recently ■■■■■ (illegible handwriting) flood control press■re extrem■ly high■■■■■■■■ notice related■■]
[■■■■■ old suburban apartment complexes, including Qingquan Apartments, Dongshan Apartments, Shirakawa Apartments, and 7 other complexes■■■■ evacuate■■■■■■ personnel safe■■■■■■]
[Will organize the evac■ation of all residents within the area on the ■th ■■■■■■■ strictly forbidden to return priv■tely■■■■■]
[Year X, Month X, Day X]
The damp environment had made the words on the newspaper blurry and difficult to read.
Even so, after a careful investigation, Gao Hai and Maki were able to roughly confirm that this was an evacuation notice from the time of a flood.
Shirakawa Apartments.
This dilapidated apartment, now a place of bizarre horror, revealed a much older piece of its history at this moment.
"A notice like this... means this apartment must have existed in at least three different periods. The first was the earliest, before any anomalies occurred. Back then, the apartment could interact normally with the outside world, and during disasters like floods, the local government would even come here to organize evacuations. The second period was one where anomalies existed but were relatively stable. Xusheng's team of survivors developed and stabilized during this time, until that man named Sanchez and a group of survivors collaborated to cause destruction..."
Staring at the stack of damp, old newspapers, Maki spoke in a low voice, her expression grim.
"And the final period is the one we're in now—this extremely dangerous era, filled with all sorts of strange and terrifying things."
Standing to the side, Gao Hai spoke up last, finishing what Maki hadn't managed to say.
"Are there any other clues in that newspaper?"
Kaguya, who was sitting beside the hole in the ceiling, asked at this moment.
"Most of the words are smudged. Gao Hai and I barely managed to find some useful information. Besides, we've both already read a lot of the content on this paper. If there's information contamination, reading any more could be risky for us. Great-aunt, you should take a look."
With that, Maki tossed the stack of old newspapers upward. Kaguya reached out and caught it, placing it beside her.
More clues?
She carefully opened the old newspaper, whose pages were almost stuck together and impossible to turn.
Down below, Gao Hai and Maki hadn't dared to flip through the paper. The light was too dim, and operating while standing in a puddle was difficult, so they were afraid of tearing it. Thus, one had read the front page and the other had read the back.
Sun Dajun, in the living room, had stood up after a period of silence, though it was unclear what he was doing. However, Green, who was guarding the kitchen entrance and monitoring the living room, signaled to her that there was no problem, so Kaguya temporarily ignored whatever Sun Dajun was up to.
This newspaper... Hmm, it's true, the water damage is too severe. The outermost layer is barely legible, but the inner layers are completely stuck together and unreadable.
Despite being as careful as possible, Kaguya still tore the newspaper; she couldn't open it smoothly without damaging the stuck pages.
However, in the process, she quickly noticed that something was wrapped in the middle of the newspaper—a small plastic shell. Opening this small plastic shell revealed a sheet of white printer paper.
It was the same kind of printer paper as the list of rules left by Xusheng at the very beginning.
She unfolded the paper, which had been deliberately wrapped, essentially waterproofed.
The first thing Kaguya saw was a line of text at the very top:
[Shirakawa Apartments 1st Floor Temporary Survival Rules]
A new list of rules.
"Green, bring Mr. Sun over."
Gao Hai and Maki downstairs had already seen the information on the newspaper. For safety's sake, they couldn't be allowed to read more text for a while. Although she could read a portion herself, this sheet was filled with content, and it could easily cause problems. After some thought, Kaguya decided to have the relatively honest-looking Sun Dajun participate in reading the rules.
As Sun Dajun cautiously entered the room, Kaguya noticed that this middle-aged man, nearly fifty, had found a small toolbox from somewhere and had hung a few small tools like screwdrivers and pliers on his body.
"My health isn't great, and I can't run around like you young people. But I used to do some technical work and know a bit about repairs. I can fix broken circuits and some simple mechanical structures. When those two youngsters come up later, I can help you check the door to 204. Didn't you say the lock was broken and the cylinder wouldn't pop out? I can go take a look later, maybe I can fix it."
After fully realizing the situation he was in and coming to his senses, the man had now undergone a complete transformation.
Kaguya didn't say much about this. She simply handed the rule sheet to him, having Sun Dajun read the top half while she took responsibility for the bottom half. Then, they would discuss what they had read with each other to confirm the full content. Finally, Kaguya would verbally relay the rules to Gao Hai and Maki Shijo, who were waiting below.
Sun Dajun completed this process with some difficulty. His memory and reading speed were not as good as a young person's, and he was quite nervous, so he had to read his half of the rules several times before he properly finished. This made Kaguya a little anxious, worried that his repeated reading might trigger some sort of contamination. Fortunately, nothing happened in the end. Perhaps it was because the documents left by Xusheng didn't trigger contamination, or perhaps it was because problems only arose after reading an entire document.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Sun. You can go back to the living room and rest for now. We can handle the exploration here. Also, Mr. Green, your focus shouldn't be on us. Confirming Miss Maeda's condition is what you should be doing right now."
Because he was indeed an elder and had demonstrated a valuable skill for cooperation, Kaguya's attitude towards Sun Dajun softened considerably, adopting the polite posture of a junior addressing an elder, typical in Japan. However, Green, who was standing nearby, somewhat distracted and not keeping a close watch on Miwa Maeda, did not receive the same treatment. She mercilessly reprimanded him, causing the man to hastily bow his head in apology before continuing to stare at Miwa Maeda, who was huddled in a corner of the room.
[Damn it, are these yellow-skinned monkeys going to form a color alliance, using racial discrimination to exclude me, the white guy?]
Secretly, Green couldn't help but curse under his breath.
As a low-life hoodlum from the dregs of America, Green had committed numerous thefts, been to jail many times, and done countless bad things. Only due to his relatively timid and cautious nature had he never killed anyone, though he had cut a person's hamstring once at most.
In the past, Green loved stealing from East Asian immigrants because they rarely had the guts to fight back. Even if caught, he could swagger away, sometimes even snatching their valuables right in front of them before running off. The exception was the Universe Country, of course; those guys were united and crazy, a different breed altogether. Because of this, he once looked down on these people, sneeringly calling them Qing vermin (a racial slur) who were just there to send money to America. But after entering the death stage of the Sacrificial Game, he had to rely on clinging to and flattering several Huaxia players who were investigating a Twilight-level game. He survived by groveling as a lackey, a dog, completely reversing the situation.
Now, in the second game, he had to do it all over again. Green couldn't help but feel frustrated by this. However, he was the type of person who wouldn't even frown at licking a latrine as long as it meant survival, so he wasn't about to let his emotions and thoughts show.
But unlike the first loop with Gao Hai, this time, due to Sun Dajun's cooperation, Green was no longer responsible for suppression as a sort of enforcer. Instead, he was mostly just a guard for the seemingly mentally unstable Miwa Maeda, so the level of importance Gao Hai's group placed on him naturally dropped. Coupled with his tattoos, his hoodlum air that screamed 'bad guy', and the impression that he'd barely attended school and had poor reading and expression skills, he looked even worse when compared to Sun Dajun. That was why Kaguya had asked Sun Dajun to read the rules instead of him. Green was able to sense this differential treatment.
Of course, even so, as a lackey who knew how to read the room and had a useful skill (lockpicking), as long as Green didn't do anything stupid, neither Gao Hai, Maki, nor Kaguya would treat him as an enemy or a disposable pawn. But feeling that he wasn't valued made Green somewhat uneasy. Judging others by his own standards, he couldn't help but wonder if Gao Hai, Kaguya, and the others, now that they were united, would discriminate against him the way he discriminated against Black and Asian people. This thought made the anxiety in his heart grow ever stronger.
And Green carefully concealed all these inner thoughts, not letting anyone notice a thing.
"I see. So this set of rules was from after Sanchez's actions..."
Kaguya, at only 17 years old, was ultimately unable to see through the thoughts of a hoodlum like Green, who had been hustling in the underbelly of society for years. Her focus was still on the rule sheet she had just obtained. She began to relay the information she had gathered to Gao Hai and Maki, who were waiting in the kitchen downstairs.
[Shirakawa Apartments 1st Floor Temporary Survival Rules]
[All 1st-floor residents who receive this form, please do not panic. Things have not yet reached the worst-case scenario.]
[I am Xusheng. Although I am still trapped in 309 and unable to leave, the 3rd and 2nd floors have now restabilized. For those of you on the 1st floor who have received this form, what you need to do is follow its instructions, avoid danger as much as possible, and find a way out. The exit on the 1st floor should not be completely sealed yet. You still have hope. Do not give up.]
[Below is the situation on the 1st floor as I have confirmed it. Due to the urgency, I have not been able to verify many things repeatedly, but I can at least confirm that the vast majority of these rules are effective. Please act quickly after reading. The rules within Shirakawa Apartments are currently changing drastically, and none of us can be sure when the content of this sheet will become invalid.]
[1. Do not use any lights. Please operate in a dark environment.]
[Based on the current changes on the 1st floor, it can be determined that it seems to have experienced a temporal distortion, reverting the entire first floor of Shirakawa Apartments to its state during a flood decades ago. Why this change occurred is still unknown, but along with the floodwaters came some things hidden in the water. They are very sensitive to light, so when you decide to leave your room to explore, do not use any lights. Move in the dark. I know this is difficult, but you must not use any lighting equipment. You must not!]
[2. Ignore everything unusual you see. Do not touch, do not talk, and do not show any inclination to interact.]
[The changes on the 1st floor are not as simple as just being flooded. Some... I'm not sure if they are illusions or something else, have appeared on the 1st floor. I think you've seen those things, right? The second person who appears in the room, things floating up from the water, the voice speaking next to you. Most of these things are harmless, just images and sounds. But this change is highly abnormal. I cannot predict the next change, but I feel that the very appearance of this situation is dangerous. Do not interact with these things. Do not listen, do not look, do not acknowledge.]
[3. Do not trust any survivor other than yourself. Operate alone. If you encounter someone overly enthusiastic who wants to travel with you, return to your room.]
[A strange change is spreading among the survivors. Some people are becoming more enthusiastic, more hospitable, as if they are playing the role of a good neighbor. They are starting to believe they are truly members of the Shirakawa Apartments, that they don't want to leave, and they don't want anyone else to leave. Whether this change is consistent with the corpses in 304 is still unknown, but for now, it seems that as long as you return to your room, these changed survivors will not follow you inside.]
[4. When loud noises, roaring, a woman's scream, the sound of breaking glass, and the chaotic sounds of many people shoving each other erupt in the hallway, find any room you can enter and hide inside. You must not remain in the hallway at this time.]
[This flooded hallway is replaying something that happened at a certain moment. Do not engage with it. That is the moment the greatest secret was revealed. It is impossible for a living person to survive after coming into contact with these things. You must avoid it at all costs. Fortunately, when this scene occurs, the danger is confined to the hallway. As long as you are anywhere outside the hallway, you are safe. But, do not listen, do not look, do not acknowledge. You must not attempt to collect this information.]
[5. When a child's crying is heard and grows louder and louder, pierce your eardrums with all your speed to prevent the sound from reaching your ears. If you cannot, please kill yourself. It would be better to die now.]
[Better to be dead, you wouldn't want to know, better to be dead, better to be dead.]
[6. For anyone who asks you where a certain Mr. Li lives, uniformly tell them he lives in 304.]
[If they can't find the place, just take them there. They'll just bang on the door at most, they won't dare do anything too outrageous. Remember to stay far away. Maybe the door to 304 will open, and then inside there will be, danger?]
[6. Ignore all children who knock on your door. Do not open the door for her.]
[No one will open the door for her. Everyone who lives here knows, everyone knows, don't cause trouble, no good deed goes unpunished, don't cause trouble.]
[7. Don't blame Sanchez. Don't go to 109. We all knew this day would come sooner or later.]
[Maybe I'm about to die. There are parts of what I've written that I don't recognize, but I still remember the process of all of us uniting to survive. We found a way to live here, we adapted to this place. We were once full of enthusiasm, believing we would one day be victorious, but gradually more and more people became radical. We all understood that in this high-pressure environment where you could die at any moment, or couldn't even die, no one could hold on forever, no one could remain sane. Even if Sanchez and his supporters hadn't acted this time, something similar would have happened next time. Even if it wasn't him, someone else would have surely stepped up.]
[Don't blame him anymore, it's meaningless. Don't go to 109. There's a lot of information there, a lot of words. The words are becoming abnormal. Words, along with sounds and images, will become a medium of transmission. Escape, you must escape quickly. The apartment should have lost the power that once imprisoned us. As long as you can leave the apartment's range, you won't be teleported back. Escape, you must escape, or else just die. Die in your room. That way, you can at least protect the future victims. Who are they?]
[10. Do not go out when the main gate is open. You can't get out. I can't see clearly.]
[I can't leave 309. They keep knocking on my door, keep knocking on my door. Could it be that place isn't the important one? My mind, my body, are approaching their limits. But I must fulfill my final responsibility. Did you receive this? I hope these rules can help you. Did you receive this? Please, you must survive, you must escape. Did you receive this? Did you receive this?]
[Did you receive it did you receive it did you receive it did you receive it did you receive it did you receive it did you receive it did you receive it did you receive did you receive it it did you re did you receive it it did you receive it did it mama you it did receive it]
Further down, the content of the rules devolved into meaningless gibberish.
This list of rules, also signed with the name "Xusheng" like the [Shirakawa Apartments Living Manual], contained just this much content.
Whether it successfully reached the hands of the survivors on the first floor back then is now impossible to know.
But now, it has seen the light of day once more, falling into the hands of Gao Hai's group—people trapped in the apartment, struggling to survive and escape.
________________________________________
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