[Red Nut Grey Cave Rescue Personnel Action Rules:]
[As rescue personnel participating in this rescue operation, you have been warned in advance of the danger and unpredictability of this operation. These action rules were summarized from recent rescue operations and can ensure your safe action. Please be sure to act in strict accordance with these rules.]
[1. Ensure that you carry a full set of rescue personnel equipment or firefighter equipment when entering Red Nut Grey Cave. You must ensure that you maintain the identity symbols of being 'rescue personnel' or 'firefighters.' What matters is not whether you are, but whether you look like it.]
[2. Every 15 minutes, recall your identity and name once. If you discover that you can only recall your identity as rescue personnel, but cannot clearly recall your own name, then at all costs leave the cave as soon as possible. At that time, you are no longer able to take on the work of being a rescuer.]
[3. Do not enter the "Gentle Slope" area, especially near the large crack. No matter what you hear, see, or feel, the "Gentle Slope" no longer has any personnel in need of rescue.]
[4. Ensure that the people you are rescuing can clearly state their identity and name. Anyone claiming to be an "Explorer" must be taken out of the cave as soon as possible. "Tourists" must be able to clearly recall their name and have the intent to escape the cave in order to be rescued. You can seek help from "Staff" and "Security" but do not attempt to rescue them. Those who cannot explain their identity are not trustworthy. Do not listen to or remember the names they give you.]
[5. Survivors coming from the "Big Slide" can be rescued, but their identity must be confirmed as "Explorer." Anyone coming from the "Big Slide" with a different identity is not trustworthy. Also, do not enter the "Big Slide" area; rescue personnel can no longer enter that area.]
[6. Any rescue personnel coming from the "Big Slide" are extremely dangerous. Absolutely do not make contact with them. If unavoidable, use any means of force necessary to push them back. The fire axe and 9mm handgun you've been given are prepared for this moment. Do not hesitate.]
[7. If you find the water level inside the cave rising, immediately abandon the rescue mission and proceed to the cave exit at all costs. Do not pay attention to anything in the water, nor respond to any sounds that may arise at this time. At this point, you must and can only focus on self-rescue.]
[8. If you realize you cannot leave the cave and have become lost, remove your rescue team uniform, find something else to change into—preferably "Tourist" or "Explorer" clothing. If absolutely necessary, you can change into "Staff" or "Security" clothing, but it should not exceed half an hour. Under no circumstances maintain your identity as a "rescuer," and do not trust any rescue personnel you meet at this time. Look for a passage where a safety rope has been fixed; only there will you have the possibility of leaving the cave.]
[9. No matter what principles you held in your past career, your life must be your number one priority now. The situation here is not worth sacrificing your life for. Your self-sacrifice will bring no value and will only make the rescue efforts for others more difficult.]
Amid the torrential rain, Takumi finished reading the set of rules in his hands at the fastest speed possible.
This was the second set of rules he had obtained in this instance. Unlike the rules for the "Explorer," this set for the "rescue team member" differed in many ways, and it was obvious that there were many points worthy of careful consideration. But now he no longer had the time. Under the gaze of those things around him, he had to act immediately and enter the cave entrance before him in the manner expected of a "rescue personnel."
The rescue team he was part of consisted of ten people.
Through the blessing, Takumi could confirm that four of them were players, while the other five were, in essence, already anomalous existences.
Under the curtain of rain, Takumi looked around and could see that a simple park had been built outside the cave entrance, along with a sign reading "Welcome to Red Nut Grey Cave Scenic Area."
At this moment, aside from these rescue personnel, there was no one else left in the park. But looking farther away, Takumi could see many people gathered near the park's main gate, with tents of various sizes set up there.
It seemed that many people were paying attention to these rescue personnel.
Even so, under the power of the blessing, Takumi could clearly confirm that those people outside were merely residual images of some kind—phantoms left behind by past history.
If he wanted to escape Red Nut Grey Cave, now seemed to be the best opportunity.
However, Takumi remembered very clearly that to complete the instance, what he needed to do was to "reach the real ground." The scene that appeared after putting on the rescue team uniform was still filled with an unsettling sense of anomaly and was probably not any kind of "real ground." After all, he was currently standing right at the cave entrance. By all logic, the task should have been completed long ago.
"Time to move!"
The man at the front shouted as he was the first to step into the cave entrance.
At that moment, everyone around moved together. Including Takumi, all of their actions were forcibly unified at this instant. Following the man's steps, they advanced forward, entering the cave little by little.
Rescue personnel must enter Red Nut Grey Cave—was this the action that this identity was required to complete?
Thinking this, Takumi used the eyes he could still control to observe his surroundings. He did not pay much attention to those rescue personnel being played by anomalies, but instead observed the players. The four players appeared to come from different parts of the world. Two of them looked full of fear. Among the other two, one appeared somewhat tense, while the last one was expressionless, as if he had already completely adapted to the identity of a rescue personnel.
Splash—splash—
Under the torrential rain, Takumi saw large amounts of water flowing down the stairs leading into Red Nut Grey Cave, pouring into the depths of the cave.
"Before us, thirteen batches of rescue teams have already entered the cave, but to this day a large number of people are still trapped inside."
The captain walking at the very front turned back at this moment and shouted loudly to Takumi and the others.
"You already knew what kind of hell this place is before coming here, so follow the rules. They were summarized at the cost of many lives."
"It's impossible for us to rescue everyone inside the cave. Do what you can, and don't force yourselves."
"You understand what these words mean. Don't die in there—doing so would only put more people in danger. Alright, move!"
Because the sound of the rain was so loud, the man was practically roaring at Takumi and the others so his words could be heard more clearly.
As they stepped into the entrance of Red Nut Grey Cave, the water had already flowed over the tops of their feet, submerging their ankles.
Takumi could see the lighting fixtures installed inside the cave. Most of them had already gone out, but a few were still flickering with faint light.
There were many clothes.
Takumi saw many pieces of clothing floating in the water.
In the filthy, mud-filled water, articles of clothing drifted one after another, like human figures floating on the surface.
The man who had led them into the cave was nowhere to be seen.
The other five rescue personnel played by anomalies had also disappeared at some point.
Takumi felt that he had regained control over his body.
At this moment, the two players who had already been terrified sat down directly on the ground, looking as if they were on the verge of collapse. The very tense player took a deep breath, then turned toward Takumi and hurried over.
"Y-you—hello, my name is Sato Takao. You're a player too, right? How did you suddenly appear here? Are you an experienced player? Do you know how to get out of here? W-we've already repeated this six times. Whether we try to run out or rescue people, everyone ends up coming back to the moment when we were just reading the rules…"
It was clear that the man called Sato Takao was extremely anxious.
As for the last player, whose expression was numb, he had already started walking deeper into the cave. His stiff steps did not look like he was moving of his own will, but rather as if something else had taken control of his body, manipulating a corpse forward step by step.
"Calm down. Calm down. Tell me your specific situation. Don't panic."
Takumi observed the surroundings for a moment. Only after confirming that there were no abnormalities here for the time being did he turn to Sato Takao and speak to him.
This middle-aged man, who looked to be around forty years old, took a few breaths before calming down slightly and then roughly explained the situation to Takumi. It turned out that he and the two players sitting on the ground were all newcomer players entering an instance for the first time. The three of them understood nothing at all and suddenly found themselves turned into rescue personnel. While they were still bewildered, the person who had just left gathered the three of them together, explained some basic rules about players and instances to them, and then led the three in an effort to find a way to escape this place.
They had tried running straight out of the cave at the very beginning, or finding a survivor inside the cave who met the requirements of the rules list and escorting them out. But the result of doing so was that everything reverted to the very beginning—reading the rules again and being brought back into the cave again, repeating the same process.
So, on the fourth cycle, that experienced player tried entering the Big Slide area. As a result, when the fifth repetition came around, that experienced player no longer communicated with them, becoming silent like a corpse and only knowing how to act according to the rules, searching for rescue personnel.
The three panicked newcomer players also tried to save themselves, but the outcome was that by the seventh repetition—when it was Takumi's turn to appear here—aside from Sato Takao, who had been relatively cautious and had not triggered anything, the other two newcomers could no longer recall their own names, and their past memories were becoming increasingly blurred.
"Please… save us. Save me…"
Sato Takao clutched Takumi's sleeve tightly, his voice filled with fear and despair that he could not conceal.
After listening to this man's words, Takumi lowered his head and thought for a brief moment, then realized a fact.
The rescue team identity in this instance was probably just like the rescue team in Shirakawa Apartments—an identity that was "unable to clear the game."
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