What was that thing?
Maki widened her eyes.
The rules panel had never mentioned the existence of something like this at all. Why would she encounter such a thing—and moreover… was its target her?
She felt the instinctive sensation of being locked onto by something extremely terrifying. That overwhelming malice, that suffocating presence absolutely beyond what any human could possess, was now rushing straight toward her.
Step—
The thing's footsteps moved forward.
In the blink of an eye, it had already appeared directly in front of her.
In the next instant, blood-colored light burst forth.
One corpse after another—its joints hollowed out and replaced with wooden structures—appeared out of thin air and seized that thing.
In the next moment, Maki sprang violently up from the bed. Even while sleeping she had not taken off her clothes. She landed instantly atop the table in the center of the dormitory, then jumped a second time, and before that thing's hand could stretch out and grab her, she dropped straight down at the doorway.
Outside, the lighting had already turned completely blood-red.
At this very moment, Maki could see the shape of the corridor undergo a bizarre distortion, changing from what had originally been a straight hallway into something extremely chaotic and warped.
What on earth was going on?
"Clothes!"
Chika's voice sounded at that moment from the other bed.
Maki turned her head and saw the other party suddenly throw over a set of explorer clothing. Beneath Chika's white lab coat, a set of explorer attire that had not been fully put on was also revealed. At the moment she decided to transfer here, Chika had kept a precaution in mind and had not completely taken off her explorer outfit. That decision now proved useful, giving her a way to quickly leave this area.
The thing that had been seized by the Blood Puppet was slowly breaking free of its restraints. At this time, illuminated by the red light shining in from the corridor, Maki and Chika could roughly make out the outline of its figure—it was clearly no different from Professor Vernon.
How could it be him?
As for this professor who was riddled with many doubts, both Maki and Takumi had considered many possibilities. They had both thought about whether this man might not be entirely a bizarre entity, but rather a special existence that still retained a certain degree of self-awareness.
But the thing before them now radiated a bone-chilling presence, with no trace of humanity visible at all. It was utterly and completely a bizarre existence, treating Maki as its target and preparing to move forward to launch an attack on her.
Had she violated some rule?
Blowing up the surveillance room might indeed be considered a rather improper act—but inconveniently, there really was no such rule written in the researcher guidelines.
Before Kaguya entered the Power Zone, she had clearly not seen any suspicious personnel at all, yet after entering, she was immediately discovered. Considering that the surveillance room had already been destroyed, if it was not the case that all those bizarre entities could directly link their brains to the surveillance system, then perhaps… there were other surveillance routes—for example, viewing the cameras through the computer in someone's office, and thus discovering Kaguya?
In that instant, Maki had already figured out many things.
"Huh…"
And so, in the next moment, accompanied by a deep breath, the girl made her choice.
Whoosh—
A fierce gust of wind swept through.
Holding a scalpel, Maki did not retreat but instead advanced, stepping forward and slashing straight down, cleaving apart the hand that the bizarre entity had stretched toward her.
The ghastly pale hand fell to the ground, seeming to still writhe slightly.
No blood flowed from the wound at all.
No different from a bizarre entity in its complete form, this thing continued struggling to break free from the Blood Puppet's restraints, still attempting to launch an attack on Maki.
Thus, in the next moment, Maki swung her blade repeatedly, severing the thing's limbs and head, splitting its torso into four pieces as well. Only then did she turn together with Chika and flee out of the dormitory, rushing into the corridor.
"I'm going to the Power Zone. You go to Vernon's office."
While running, Maki handed a scalpel to Chika and said to her seriously.
"Are we still going to stay here?"
Chika hesitated somewhat. She felt that changing clothes, temporarily leaving this scenario, and then returning after some time would be the safest option.
"Move quickly."
Maki had no time to explain her thoughts. She only said this to Chika, then accelerated and sprinted forward.
From behind came the sound of something writhing and crawling. The Blood Puppet had not been able to restrain the other party for very long. That thing was already beginning to gradually restore a complete human form and was chasing after the direction in which the two girls were fleeing.
The corridor under the dark-red lighting was far longer than in its normal state—so long that even after running for two or three minutes, Maki and Chika still had not been able to get out.
Oppressive screams rose up from beneath the floor, accompanied by the sound of some kind of machinery operating, eerily terrifying, as if a device were slowly grinding people to pieces.
A chilling presence rapidly approached from behind.
Along with that presence closing in came sharp, piercing noises, as well as blurred, indistinct images like hallucinations.
What was that…
It seemed like a glimpse of the pitch-black corridors of the base after a power outage.
A blood-red dress.
A dress that should originally have been white, now stained a vivid blood-red.
An eerie existence wearing a blood-red dress, standing among one corpse after another, seemingly watching something.
What it was watching… was Vernon, collapsed on the ground, retreating backward in terror…
Was it this thing that had turned Vernon into this state?
Why had it not killed Vernon immediately? What exactly did it want to do?
[Give it back… to me…]
She seemed to hear a suppressed, sobbing woman's voice, along with trembling words.
Maki's eyes widened.
The hallucination ended in an instant. She and Chika had already run out of the dormitory corridor and were sprinting toward the stairwell.
That thing was still continuing to close in.
Judging from the rapidly shrinking distance between them, it was likely that before the two girls could reach the location of the offices, they would be caught on the spot by their pursuer.
That was how it should have been.
But before that could happen, in this corridor, a bizarre entity that had been forcibly dressed in a white lab coat—one that originally seemed to be wearing visitor clothing—suddenly dropped into the hallway.
In an instant, the red lighting shifted to white.
The bizarre entity lying on the ground let out a vague, indistinct groan, then vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a white lab coat.
Maki and Chika heard the sound of pursuing footsteps come to a halt. They turned around, and what they saw was Professor Vernon standing in the corridor, staring at them expressionlessly.
[The experiment is about to begin. It's time to go to the research area.]
Leaving behind these words, Vernon, his expression vacant, walked past Maki and Chika and went down the stairs as if nothing at all had happened.
{Thanks for earlier.}
Panting as she steadied her breathing, Maki spoke to Takumi through the mental link.
{No problem. How's the situation now?}
Takumi's voice replied immediately.
{The lighting has returned to normal. The bizarre thing you threw over here has disappeared. By the way, are you all right? Getting that close to something like that.}
Maki replied, then asked with a hint of concern.
{Completely fine—if anything, I'm actually feeling pretty good.}
Thus speaking, Takumi lowered his head and carefully crawled forward from behind the counter in the ticket hall. Outside the counter, more than a dozen eerie figures dressed in tourist clothing were expressionlessly searching around for Takumi—searching for the guy who, just a few minutes earlier, had charged straight at them, snip-snip severed the limbs of a [Tourist] with the Blood Scissors, then forcibly dressed that tourist in a set of Researcher clothing before turning around and slipping away.
Wearing the silver ring, Takumi forcibly ignored the killing rules of these eerie beings and made direct contact head-on with a large group of [Tourists]. Even though he was currently in the Land of Regret rather than within a cave environment, Takumi's entire body was still riddled with countless puncture wounds—there was even a hole blasted straight through his head. Yet these inevitably fatal injuries did not affect his movement at all under the power of Andres's ring. Even after one of Takumi's hands was torn off, that hand could still float in midair beside his shoulder, as if connected by something invisible, and continue to exert force normally.
Of course, considering that the ring could only guarantee that Takumi would not die while it was active, if it were used for too long and approached the out-of-control stage, Takumi would still die in the end. Therefore, Takumi also wore the Rescue Team Badge. By using the badge's power within limits—without fully releasing the Rescue Team form—he restored his own injuries. In this way, by coordinating the use of two Obsession Items, he allowed the fatal wounds on his body to gradually recover.
When used alone, the function of this ring, though terrifying, is in fact quite restrictive. However, as long as it is used in coordination with a restorative Obsession Item, the combined power becomes anything but trivial—this may well be a line of thought worth serious consideration.
After confirming that the bones and flesh between his severed arm and his body had reconnected, and that the large hole in his head had almost completely healed, Takumi removed the ring and tossed it back into the space within his wristwatch. He then found a door and inserted the Blood Key.
The method he had just used to step in and save Maki and Chika was actually very simple. Through mental communication, Takumi had already learned from Maki about the notice Kaguya had seen in the power supply area. Taking into account the rules described in that notice, together with the message he had found here in this power distribution room, it was easy for Takumi to deduce the following point: when the research base has power, it will not be invaded by external eerie forces; therefore, eerie beings attempting external intrusion will trigger the power of the research base]. Accordingly, he directly found an eerie being, forcibly put it into Researcher clothing, and transmitted it to Maki's location. As expected, due to the conflict between rules, the research base instantly returned to a normal state, and that eerie being was forcibly repelled by some kind of power existing within the research base.
That base was truly formidable. This method of isolating eerie forces—was it something that appeared before the research base fell, or only after its fall?
Thinking this way, Takumi used the Blood Key to open the door, then returned to the power distribution room where Wilbur had last hidden himself.
He immediately saw Rex standing in front of the circuit breaker, reaching out and clearly intending to pull it down.
The other party seemed not to have noticed Takumi's entry at all, merely extending his hand on his own, gripping the breaker, and preparing to pull it straight down.
Snap!
Before he could do so, Takumi's hand shot out and tightly seized Rex's arm, making it impossible for him to pull the breaker down even a fraction further.
"Don't. Touch. It."
At this moment, Takumi's voice was filled to the brim with icy emotion.
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