Twisted paths and all sorts of grotesque furniture that couldn't possibly exist in reality overlapped one another, covering the line of sight and making it nearly impossible to discern the way forward.
The sound of invisible footsteps passed through the corridor, one after another.
Children like porcelain dolls laughed and played, constantly appearing and disappearing from various places.
And those open windows, with the stars and moon visible through them... or were they bloated corpses floating in water?
The situation here was far more dangerous than anticipated.
Even though Gao Hai and Kaguya had been extremely careful about hiding their tracks, they had still narrowly avoided being discovered several times. This was especially true of those seemingly cute children, who appeared to be made of porcelain or cloth. If these things didn't make a sound, Gao Hai and Kaguya had no way of detecting their approach. And once they got within a certain distance, one would quickly fall into a trance-like state, making escape extremely difficult.
Fortunately, however, having already had the experience of being caught by these dolls and boiled to death, Gao Hai now possessed a certain degree of resistance to them. Thus, after every encounter, he was able to break free, lead Kaguya away from their encirclement, and promptly find a high cabinet they couldn't reach to hide on top of.
Kaguya Shinomiya's calm expression from the beginning of their exploration quickly began to crumble after repeated encounters with all sorts of strange entities.
After escaping from five or six of 'the children' yet again, she turned her head while huddled with Gao Hai atop a tall cabinet, her face pale as she asked:
"Don't you feel any psychological pressure at all, dealing with things like this?"
These things were so bizarre, so terrifying they defied description.
Their eerie laughter, in particular, seemed to contaminate one's consciousness, inducing a state of mental confusion every time it was heard.
Yet, this man somehow managed to react in time on every occasion, breaking free and leading her to a swift escape.
In that moment, Kaguya Shinomiya felt an indescribable sense of defeat.
She seemed to be starting to understand why Maki had such strong confidence in this man, and why, when it was decided that she and Gao Hai would be the ones to act, Maki had worn an expression that said, 'With Gao Hai leading, there'll be no problem.' When faced with bizarre existences beyond the realm of human cognition, the abilities this man displayed were a world apart from her own inexperienced self.
"Pressure? Of course I feel pressure. How could I not? But no matter how much pressure there is, we still have to keep moving, right?"
Gao Hai smiled at Kaguya, putting on a relaxed expression before continuing forward.
At this moment, he wasn't thinking about all that. He was simply contemplating the differences he'd felt after arriving on the third floor this time compared to the previous two times.
To put it most directly, the number of anomalies had clearly increased.
During the first loop, when he and Maki entered the third floor, they were first trapped in a room, then subjected to information contamination from the fake Kaguya and her group, and finally, there was the massive explosion set off by Lao Guo. Although Gao Hai had noticed a large number of anomalies throughout the third floor at that time, he hadn't actually encountered many. And during the second loop when he entered, he was directly contaminated by the apartment's core taboo. By the time he got out, he had almost been completely transformed into a part of the Rescue Team anomaly. Perhaps because he was no longer fully human at that point, those things hadn't come after him.
But this time, he had arrived at the apartment without being contaminated or transformed by anything, and with nothing to help divert attention. He had stepped onto this floor as a normal person. The biggest difference he felt compared to the previous two times was the fact that he was now running into anomalies every few steps.
Hee hee hee hee—
Those children were running around again.
They were always laughing, laughing wantonly and loudly.
They had new clothes to wear, toys to play with, their faces were clean, and their bodies were free of wounds.
Hahaha—
Those children were laughing with abandon.
They were laughing at a certain child.
A child who was different from them, always dirty, her face and body covered in bruises.
No, why am I seeing this?
Gao Hai frowned, trying his best not to listen to these sounds, trying his best to imagine other things to distract himself. He held on like this until the sounds finally faded into the distance again, at which point he could finally let out a sigh of relief.
Thirteen minutes had passed since they entered the third floor.
In that time, he and Kaguya had already encountered 'the children' four times and 'the footsteps' three times.
Avoiding the footsteps wasn't difficult. Although their physical forms were invisible, the sound was distinct and could be heard from a distance, allowing for time to hide. The problem was the children. Their sense of sight seemed to be incredibly sharp. Basically, by the time Gao Hai and Kaguya spotted them, they would inevitably have been spotted in return. The result was a chase, forcing them to retreat to high places like cabinets that the children couldn't reach.
Just like how she was in the apartment, as soon as those children spotted her, she would become their plaything. It didn't matter where she hid; the only way to stop the bullying was to climb a tree or another high cabinet they couldn't get up to.
Gao Hai frowned and rubbed his temples.
"Is something wrong?"
Noticing something seemed off with Gao Hai, Kaguya stopped and asked with a frown.
"It's like some kind of hallucination, and one that makes you unconsciously project your own emotions into it. For now, it's not enough to affect my actions. Let's just be careful. If I start acting clearly abnormal, we might need to rewind time early."
Saying this, Gao Hai shook his head and then continued walking forward.
The paths ahead intersected with each other. A refrigerator, bizarrely twisted one hundred and eighty degrees at its center, stood with its door wide open, revealing rotting, maggot-infested food inside.
Clothes belonging to adults and children of all kinds were hung on human hands sticking out from the walls. In some of the cracks in the walls, things that looked like eyes could be seen blinking.
The sound of footsteps rang out once more.
Footsteps heading towards Room 304.
Gao Hai and Kaguya hid in a corner, holding their breath in silence, pretending not to hear the footsteps.
Just like the other people living in this apartment, they feigned ignorance of the footsteps' existence, filled with disgust.
That damned gambler.
It's because of him that these debt collectors keep coming to the apartment, knocking and pounding on the door day and night, disrupting the entire building's peace.
His wife is annoying too, always going on about this rule and that rule. Isn't she just looking for an excuse to control people? The problem is, she can't control anyone. Her husband beats her like a dog. Only her fool of a daughter listens to her and lets herself be controlled. She doesn't even dare to discipline her son. Just because her husband treasures that two-year-old boy, she doesn't dare touch him.
That daughter is a nuisance as well. I don't know if it's because of the beatings, but she wets herself all the time. And she's always just standing there in a daze. If you ask her anything, she starts hiding.
Does she ever bathe? She stinks, and she has fleas in her hair.
So disgusting.
Truly disgusting.
If it weren't for this family, why would everyone have to put up with all this trouble? A lot of kids have been scared to tears by those fierce-looking debt collectors. They only know how to cause trouble, causing trouble all day long. That family should just die off already.
"..."
Gao Hai opened his eyes and looked to his side.
On the wall beside him hung a family portrait. It looked like a relatively happy family of five.
Except in the photo, all five of them wore expressions of disgust, all looking in a certain direction with profound revulsion.
That direction was where the footsteps were headed.
That direction was where Room 304 was located.
"...Ugh."
Having heard the footsteps and children's laughter too many times, Kaguya, whose mental state was also poor, clutched her forehead and let out a low gasp.
Gao Hai remained silent, making no sound, just quietly enduring the discomfort.
Up to now, they had spent half an hour.
One-sixth of the agreed-upon exploration time had passed, and in that one-sixth, Gao Hai and Kaguya had only been walking through the disorienting corridors, still unable to actually find Room 304.
"There seems to be a relatively intact room over here."
Just then, Kaguya, who had better eyesight, found a room where the distortion seemed less severe.
The two walked up to the room and saw the number 305 on the door. They decided to go inside to hide and rest for a while.
Creeak—
As the door opened, a dark corridor was revealed.
[Looks like those debt collectors came again last night?]
[They threw paint on 304's door. Tsk, it got on our door too. Those bastards. It's not like we're the ones who owe money.]
[What can you do? You dare go talk to Li Youcai? That bastard would love an excuse to beat someone up and spend a few days in the detention center. It's a perfect way for him to dodge the debt collectors.]
[That bastard is so disgusting. Oh right, have you heard? That young guy who just moved into 309 seems to have left.]
[Ah, that. All I can say is the kid was too young. Actually trying to get involved in that mess of a family's business. Don't worry about it, it has nothing to do with us.]
The auditory hallucinations were clearer than before, as if someone were speaking right next to his ear.
Gao Hai could almost see people gathered in the room, chatting around the dining table as they ate.
But when Kaguya opened the door completely and he looked again, all he saw was an empty, abandoned room with no one in sight.
"The layout of this room is different from the second floor. Could this be the original, normal structure of Shirakawa Apartments?"
Recognizing the slight abnormality, Kaguya frowned and spoke in a low voice.
Behind her, Gao Hai had already pressed a hand to his forehead again.
Strange.
Why was he seeing more and more of these things after coming up to the third floor?
It was as if his vision no longer existed solely in the present-day Shirakawa Apartments but was connected to another place.
Why was this change happening?
Lost in thought, Gao Hai reached out to grab the doorframe, intending to close the door.
In the process, he subconsciously lifted his head and looked outside.
And then he saw her—the dirty little child, dressed in tattered clothes, appearing and disappearing amidst the chaotic architecture, her destination unknown.
"..."
And then, Gao Hai understood.
He had been discovered by that thing, and the connection with it was being re-established.
________________________________________
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