Howard Smith.
One of the important participants in the Red Nut Grey Cave instance. His experiences ran through multiple stages of the cave's history. It was only after the research base was established that he disappeared after being detained by Vernon, and his final fate remained unknown.
Takumi had once thought that such a special individual would not die so easily, but he truly had not expected to see him at a moment like this.
It seemed that he still possessed the rationality of a human for now, but through the power of his blessing, Takumi could sense that the other party was no longer completely human. Instead, he existed in some kind of state between a human and an aberration.
It was unclear whether this state could be maintained for long. Under Takumi's blessing-based perception, the presence of the aberrant malice belonging to this man was extremely strong, and it even showed faint signs of growth. By contrast, the part of him that still belonged to humanity did not appear powerful at all. The two forces were locked in a delicate balance, one that could tip to either side at any moment. However, at least for now, within Takumi's perception, the man in front of him should still possess a sense of self and rationality.
"You were previously…"
[I was locked inside d4 the whole time. Those black stones that rolled out when you saw that door open should have been transformed from my corpse. As for my current state, to be honest, I'm not sure myself, but I don't think it can last much longer. Don't worry—when I'm about to truly turn into that kind of thing, I'll jump down directly.]
That was impressively straightforward.
Seeing Howard speak such words without the slightest hesitation, Takumi did not know what to say. He fell briefly silent, then decisively made his judgment and chose to trust this former firefighter.
"Do you know how to kill Vernon?"
Takumi looked straight at him and asked.
[I'd like to make a direct guarantee, but I'm not certain about the success rate of the method I've thought of. In any case, I think you'd better find a way to get back to that idiot Gallagher's office. With your current means, you have no way to deal with Vernon, so you can only look for other breakthroughs.]
Howard did not waste many words and very decisively put forward his idea.
"So you mean using the identity of 'General Gallagher' to issue an order to Vernon? But directly ordering him to divide himself probably won't work. However, maybe I can find a way to give Vernon an order that 'Vernon as an aberration would carry out, but Vernon as a human could not accept'. If that works, it might be able to split this guy apart."
Takumi's mind began to turn. Howard had merely stated his idea, yet Takumi quickly grasped what Howard was trying to convey.
Vernon, who was clinging to life and refusing to die, effectively possessed both the identities of [human] and [aberration] at the same time. At present, he was using fusion to make only the [aberration] identity manifest, thereby ensuring that he would never be killed by Hedda. However, this also caused his cognition and actions to be dominated by the aberrant side, making him no different from the aberrant objects inside the instance.
But this state was merely a disguise. It was certain that Vernon had a way to split again at any time, allowing the [human] side of himself to surface once more.
Therefore, a way had to be found to create signs of division within this guy.
Aberrations only follow rules. As long as a situation conforms to the rules, they will do anything. Humans, however, will not. Humans have tendencies of choice, and there are things they cannot tolerate no matter what. So when the behavioral logic of the two sides cannot be reconciled, perhaps it would be possible to force this bastard to reveal a flaw.
[The office is over there. Good luck. I'll take these people out. After all, rescuing people is my specialty. If I'm still conscious by then, I'll come back and see if I can help you.]
After pointing out the location of the office to Takumi, Howard turned and headed toward the direction where those players were.
Takumi simply nodded lightly in response, then used the mental link to explain the situation on this side to Maki.
{So the idea is to find the office and issue an order to that thing? That feels like a very dangerous idea. This place has already become this dangerous—can't we try just throwing that Vernon directly into the void below?}
{That's not a good idea. We have no idea where this darkness leads, and aberrations obviously aren't going to experience something like fall damage or death. If it just ends up falling endlessly for an entire lifetime, then I'll be stuck here for an entire lifetime as well. Alright, be careful and watch your safety. I'm going.}
Maki had already noticed the aberrant creatures moving about on those shattered rock fragments. Thinking about Takumi having to pass through layers upon layers of their encirclement to reach the office, she could not help but voice her concern. However, her idea was clearly unable to deal with the current situation, so Takumi set off directly while continuing to communicate with her.
{…Alright, but Takumi-kun, you must be extremely careful.}
{I will. Don't worry—I've seen all kinds of situations before.}
After leaving behind such a teasing remark, Takumi suddenly leapt forward, landing directly on another rock fragment measuring five or six meters in both length and width. He then accelerated into a sprint, setting off toward Gallagher's office, which by now had largely collapsed but still had lights shining within.
Under the tremendous enhancement of Kyosei's blessing, the dangerous and rugged terrain before him posed no obstacle to Takumi's movement. On the contrary, he ran, jumped, and threaded his way through it with remarkable ease. If not for those wandering aberrant objects, this operation could even have been described as a picnic.
If only those ghostly things were not here…
[Please… take me away…]
A tourist emitting a low, crying call had a body that continued to swell, reaching out a hand toward Takumi.
[The Heart… where is it]
An Explorer with several stalactites embedded in the body murmured softly, charging straight at Takumi at astonishing speed.
[Please present… your ticket…]
A staff member whose entire body was bloated and shriveled howled as it lunged forward, barely grazing past Takumi's side.
"No—what are you guys exactly, aberrations or zombies? You can run and jump like this… have I come to Harran or something?"
Unable to resist complaining, Takumi lowered his head to evade an aberration's pounce, rolled on the spot to slip beneath a railing, then sprang up sharply. He grabbed a protruding rock and hauled himself upward, avoiding an almost completely broken arm that stretched out from the stone. Planting a foot against the rock, he rebounded and leapt back, reaching out to seize a piece of exposed rebar jutting diagonally from the concrete wall embedded in another rock fragment. Using the rebar as leverage, he swung his body, spinning twice in succession, then soared upward as if flying, clearing a height of seven or eight meters. He caught another rock, climbed up onto flat ground, and immediately rolled again to dodge an Explorer lunging straight at him from the front.
Andrés's disappearance caused these subsidiary aberrant existences within the Red Nut Grey Cave to basically lose the power of their killing rules. They were now nothing more than monsters whose strength and speed far exceeded those of humans. However, Takumi felt that their aggressiveness had instead grown even higher, as they chased him in a completely frenzied manner.
At this moment, a whistling sound fell from above. It was a lavishly decorated office building splitting apart from the middle, with half of the building collapsing toward Takumi's side. He could even see past afterimages of Wilbur and Patrick Reed inside the building, talking as they planned the basic infrastructure of the scenic area.
Rumble—!
Amid a deafening blast, massive amounts of shattered building debris came crashing down. Takumi could only accelerate into a headlong sprint, dodging one aberrant object after another that charged out from among the fragments. He had no time to care about the wounds cut into his body by shards of stone and broken glass, and instead pushed his speed even further, sprinting madly ahead.
This was bad.
Amid his heavy breathing, Takumi's gaze fixed on a shattered platform floating ahead.
The distance was too great—he probably couldn't make the jump.
A blood-soaked figure chased up from the side and reached out to seize Takumi. Under that tremendous force, Takumi was violently flung aside and slammed hard into a rock wall to one side, directly denting the stone structure inward.
That thing advanced once again, only to have its arms and abdomen severed by a swing of Takumi's Blood Scissors. It collapsed onto the ground, writhing as it still tried to struggle back to its feet and continue the pursuit.
"Hu—" Taking a deep breath, Takumi suppressed the tightness in his chest brought on by that collision. He accelerated again toward the front, sprinted, then leapt. Relying on physical qualities that surpassed human limits, he directly cleared a distance of more than twelve meters, reaching out to grab the rock wall ahead.
He missed.
Was he really just a little short?
Crack!
The Blood Scissors stabbed forward violently, piercing straight into the rock wall. Takumi leapt again, grabbed hold of the rock face, and climbed upward with force. After scaling this section of rock wall that stretched more than ten meters in length, he reached the top of this fragment of the building.
"Huff… huff…"
He paused to catch his breath and steady his breathing.
Standing up on the rubble-strewn platform, Takumi looked toward the direction where the office still lay some distance away—only to realize that his position had been swallowed by shadow.
Turning his head, he saw the enormous brass statue of Aston, the first head park director, hurtling down at high speed from behind and to the side, smashing one floating shattered platform after another into debris.
"This is a scene I really don't think I've ever seen before…"
He turned and ran.
But it was already too late to evade it.
The massive brass statue swept in from the side at a falling speed of over seventy meters per second, slamming heavily into Takumi and sending his entire body flying. He crashed through a nearby rock fragment, smashed through a section of wall floating in midair, and finally rolled to a stop inside a shattered park reduced to only one-third of its original size.
"Cough—ugh…"
Takumi was still alive, and he even had the strength to struggle up.
Quite a few bones in his body were probably broken, but it seemed he could still continue moving.
Reaching up to wipe away the filthy blood flowing from his nose, Takumi dragged his broken left leg, took a deep breath, and forced himself to his feet. Then he saw, not far away, a group of cheerful tourists chatting and laughing as they walked straight toward him.
[We finally have time today to visit the Red Nut Grey Cave.]
[But it seems we don't have a tour guide. It would be great if we had one.]
[Isn't that one over there? Hello there, handsome—could you be our tour guide?]
One by one, pale-faced tourists smiled as they closed in around Takumi, an intense chill washing over him. There was no doubt that he had run into an extremely dangerous situation that had to be avoided, yet with one leg broken, multiple ribs fractured, and his chest heaving violently as blood surged inside him, Takumi clearly no longer had that option.
Was it time to restart again?
He had already come this far.
[Rescue operation begins!]
A rescue team member descended from above, grabbed Takumi by the shoulder, then sprang upward, pulling Takumi along as they leapt skyward.
Clad in rescue gear, Kaguya hauled hard on the safety rope, forcibly pulling both Takumi and the rescue team member up.
"You really do love pushing yourself."
As she said this, Kaguya walked up to the battered Takumi, removed the badge she was wearing, and pressed it onto his clothes. The rescue team uniform immediately manifested, and Takumi's injuries began to heal at an extremely rapid pace.
"Shinomiya-san, how did you end up here?"
Takumi was somewhat surprised to see Kaguya. Then he noticed that her clothes also had many damaged spots—her journey here likely hadn't been smooth either. It was just that, thanks to the badge, she had no actual wounds.
"I merely guessed what might happen. This place is completely different from when the Shirakawa Apartments collapsed. The number of aberrations here is simply too great, and the surrounding situation keeps changing. Trying to safely reach a specific area is very unrealistic. You need helpers."
There was no particular expression on Kaguya's face, though faint points of light seemed to flicker subtly in her eyes.
"My athletic ability is stronger than both Maki and Chika."
She spoke to Takumi seriously.
"My neural reflexes and physical qualities are already far beyond those of ordinary people. After receiving the Dusk-level enhancement, they've reached the limits of the human body."
"Whether it's Maki or Chika, neither of them can keep up with you at a time like this—but I can. So they'll continue observing and tracking Vernon, while I came here to find you."
"In short, I'm currently the only one who can actually help you, so if the two of us act together, we should be able to reach your destination faster."
Kaguya laid out her reasons seriously, her dark red eyes fixed tightly on Takumi as she waited for his response.
"That really couldn't be better. Let's go, partner—there's no time to waste right now."
Without even a second of hesitation, Takumi got up from the ground, reached out to give Kaguya's shoulder a firm pat, and then immediately sprinted forward.
"Alright!"
Stepping out just as quickly, Kaguya was at Takumi's side in the next instant. One tall and one short, the two of them ran forward together, leapt, and landed on another rock platform. Following Takumi's swing of the Blood Scissors, the head of a fat tourist who lunged straight at them from the front was severed.
Kaguya followed right after. Holding a scalpel, she slashed horizontally, cleaving a tourist coming at her and a security guard charging toward Takumi cleanly in half at the waist, immediately stopping the actions of these two aberrations.
In the next moment, the two continued running forward.
Kaguya leapt first, grabbed a safety rope swaying in midair, and swung herself forward with force, then swung back toward Takumi's side.
Above and below the safety rope, swollen figures surfaced one after another, emitting indistinct low moans as they crawled toward Kaguya. Takumi then jumped up as well and grabbed the rope. Using the momentum of the rope's swing, the two leapt again and landed lightly on another rock platform. Those swollen figures couldn't keep up with the speed of Takumi and Kaguya and instead fell straight off the rope, dropping into the endless dark void below.
Already right ahead of them.
Takumi raised his head and looked toward the office, the distance having already been shortened to about thirty meters, with more than a dozen interlaced platforms still separating them.
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