The first-floor anomalies involved the key stage of the entire apartment's shift from normal to abnormal—it was one of the origins for understanding the inner truth of the building. To find the correct method of escaping the apartment, a deep exploration of the first floor was absolutely necessary. Whether it was Room 109, once occupied by Sanchez, or the possible scene that might appear in the corridor, Takumi had decided to investigate everything to the end.
When the time came, if he could still remain conscious, he would pull on the rope to signal for a rewind in time—rewind if possible; if the enemy was too fierce and rewind failed, then reload the save.
He was ready to risk his own life for this expedition.
[Splash——]
Amid the sound of running water, Takumi had already walked through the corridor and arrived at the area where the main entrance was located.
However, there were still certain conclusions that all three of them had reached when analyzing the situation back then.
Room 109 and Room 304—investigating these two places would involve uncovering the secret of how the entire Shirakawa Apartments had turned into a bizarre death trap.
But, for the purpose of finding an escape route, perhaps... they shouldn't be exploring along the path from 109 to 304.
Perhaps even after learning the truth, they still wouldn't be able to find a way to escape.
What they needed to know, after all, was the way to leave the Shirakawa Apartments alive.
That path might not be the correct one.
As Takumi slowly stepped into the corridor, he continued to think.
'The messages left by those before us hide the path to life; the doors that restart lead to hope; precious things buried in dust bring happiness; and the secret lies in the place that must never be entered...'
He suddenly recalled these four sentences—those incomprehensible words uttered by that unknown thing inside his head at the very start of this cycle.
The messages left by those before... such as the rule sheets and supply boxes, had indeed helped them a great deal. Kyosei's message after striking the clock had as well—without that information, they would never have known that Room 206 was the correct passage to the first floor, and would have wasted tremendous time and effort.
As for "the doors that restart," he couldn't figure it out. So far, they hadn't found any clue related to it.
And "the precious things buried in dust"—although there were various speculations about what that precious thing might be, no real leads had surfaced yet, and Takumi didn't dare make reckless guesses.
As for the place that must never be entered... the only thing he could think of was Room 304. That was the forbidden zone of the Shirakawa Apartments. Yet from the clues obtained earlier, Sanchez seemed to have opened the door to 304 twice—the first time, nothing had happened; it was only the second time that led to the deterioration of the entire building.
Perhaps the door to 304 itself was not the gravest taboo. Even entering 304 might not necessarily bring about the worst outcome.
It could be that somewhere inside 304, there existed a certain place, a certain secret—one that must absolutely never be entered or revealed—and that was where the true key lay.
Tch... the clues on the third floor were still far too few. That damned place was now a total mess, like a scene from The Evil Within, and searching each room for valuable clues was far too difficult. Was there really no way to improve this situation?
And besides, come to think of it—just as Kyosei's rule sheet had serious delay issues, could they really be sure that the hints given by that unknown voice were all correct?
After all, the name of this game was The Sacrifice Game. Takumi didn't believe any ordinary infinite-loop horror scenario would be titled something like that.
[Splash——]
Amid the sound of flowing water, Takumi had already stepped into the stairwell and felt along the wall directly opposite the door of Room 106.
He walked steadily.
Even though he couldn't see a thing, even though the water reached up past his calves, he still walked with a steady pace.
Because someone was holding his shoulder—guiding him forward.
Although Takumi couldn't see anything in the pitch-black darkness, he could clearly sense that someone was supporting him, walking alongside him.
Not just beside him—there were people in front and behind as well. He was already surrounded on all sides by a crowd of people, enclosed within them.
These people followed silently at his side, moving forward with him, advancing together through this darkness.
As long as his footsteps did not stop, theirs seemed not to stop either.
But once he began to act differently—say, if he tried to enter Room 109 instead of heading toward the front door to evacuate the Shirakawa Apartments—Takumi suspected that the behavior patterns of these things might turn out to be completely different.
So, might as well gamble a little.
Takumi reached into his pocket and took out the badge he had torn off earlier.
Before setting out, he had asked Yamamoto Hiroshi to pierce the badge with a fine nail and rig it into something roughly resembling a pin. Now, he pinned the rescue team's badge onto his own clothing.
The footsteps around him abruptly vanished.
The hand that had been supporting him forward also disappeared without a trace.
Had the presence of the badge managed to fool these things, at least for the time being?
Takumi quickened his pace slightly. He reached out and touched the wall beside him, his fingertips gliding along until he soon felt a distinct change in texture.
Continuing forward and probing with his hand, he quickly found what he had been looking for.
The doorplate... yes, it was Room 109.
He reached out and grasped the doorknob.
[Click——]
He twisted—it didn't budge.
Takumi's expression turned awkward in that instant.
The door to Room 109 was locked.
Although Takumi, as a web novelist, had learned all sorts of strange and useless skills for the sake of his writing, lockpicking was one he truly hadn't mastered. And of the only two people in their group who possessed that skill, Yamamoto Hiroshi lacked both the stamina and courage to take on the first-floor exploration, while Green—needless to say—would probably wet himself the moment he was thrown down here.
What now?
Takumi could feel his heart gradually quickening.
The damp air seemed to be growing colder, as if those figures watching him were slowly seeing through his not-very-clever disguise and were about to act again.
"Huu—"
He could even feel a cold breath touching the nape of his neck.
What should he do?
What came next?
Takumi drew a deep breath.
He knew that if he tugged the rope to give the signal now, Kaguya would immediately start pulling the clock to rewind.
And even if the rewind failed, he still had the reload-the-save cheat to use; although only 11 uses remained now, using one at this point would still be acceptable—after all, there were still many chances to trial-and-error.
In any case, now was not the time to hesitate; continuing to dawdle would change nothing.
Takumi slowly exhaled the breath he had just taken.
The reason he could not interact with the anomalies was that interaction itself in this apartment was the medium through which anomalies exerted their effects.
But was it really impossible to interact at all?
His willpower seemed stronger than the others', and he had a higher resistance to the mental contamination of the anomalies. And these anomalies themselves possessed certain behavioral logics—for example, the door-knocking Horror Story would do everything to persuade those inside to open the door; the anomaly that stole Kaguya and the others' identities would treat itself as part of the apartment; the corpses in the rooms would act in the role of protectors, and so on.
So what was the behavioral logic of those rescuers who had failed to leave the apartment?
They did not obstruct him at all while he explored outward from the room; one could even say they assisted him to some degree, so...
"Huu—"
Takumi inhaled again, his fingers curling into a fist as he readied himself in that moment.
[Bang!]
The raised fist came down hard.
A loud pounding on the door echoed through the dark corridor the next moment.
"Resident of Room 109, please open the door! Flooding is coming—please open the door and evacuate with us!"
Takumi shouted with all his might, then struck the door of 109 with his fist once more.
"Please open quickly—the water has already flooded into the apartment!"
"If we leave it like this it will be dangerous; please open the door and evacuate with us!"
Blow after blow, the pounding resounded through the dark corridor.
Takumi forced his voice as loud as he could, striving to put himself into the role of a rescuer—imagining he was a rescue worker racing into an old apartment under flood, desperately knocking on doors and urging the residents to leave.
Of course, Takumi's acting was poor; he had never studied performance, and his on-the-spot theatrics were hardly convincing.
But it did not need to be very convincing.
Because after his first shouted sentence, various voices began to appear around him.
[The door is locked; the resident of 109 is not responding! Please open the door—the next surge is coming! We must evacuate immediately!]
[Wasn't the first floor already evacuated? Is someone still not out? Regardless, we must get them out!]
[Requesting breach—no communication reply? Never mind, saving people is more important; we'll accept the punishment later! Team 1 prepare to breach!]
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