Gao Hai walked into the guard post.
It was clean and tidy inside, looking as if someone frequently swept it.
He saw a table, a bed, a tattered-looking security guard uniform tossed on the floor, and a map on the wall.
The moment his gaze briefly fell upon the map, Gao Hai sensed something was wrong and quickly looked away, thus not seeing the map in its entirety.
He strode over to the table. Gao Hai looked down and saw a sheet of printer paper pressed under the table's glass top. It seemed something had been written on it, but the handwriting was blurry and completely illegible.
After a moment of thought, Gao Hai grabbed the edge of the glass plate, easily lifting the heavy object, which weighed at least dozens of pounds, with a single hand. He then picked up the paper and flipped it over.
[I'm in the guard post. The rules say I can't leave the plain. I must check the blockade wall every half hour. I can't go to the gentle slope. I'm the only one here. Everything is new, as if nothing has happened yet…]
The gel pen she found in the guard post was running low on ink. After some consideration, Chika Fujiwara wrote down her situation on the back of the rules sheet she had painstakingly pulled out from under the glass plate, then slid it back in.
Because the ink was scarce, the girl's message was brief, but it essentially summarized the rule sheet she had received and the general situation on her end.
She wondered if he would be able to see it.
Chika felt a little uneasy.
However, that man named Gao Hai was incredibly capable. He had realized the assimilation effect of the explorer suits on his own and proceeded with his investigation and actions without fear of any strange phenomena. Therefore, after they were separated, he would definitely try to find the guard post—the place where a [Security Guard] ought to be.
So, if he came looking while she had to be out on patrol, perhaps the words on the paper could help him. And... if her guess was correct, then the rules she had briefly transcribed might be of use to him.
Chika Fujiwara was a girl with a whimsical and imaginative mind.
Born into a family with an extremely strict upbringing, she was forbidden from playing video games and the like from a young age, her recreational activities severely controlled. But the fun-loving girl was not defeated by this upbringing. Instead, she constantly sought loopholes in the rules in a battle of wits with her family, eventually becoming a master of board games with deep knowledge of various text-based and niche games.
For this very reason, from the moment she encountered the rules-based horror story, the girl had been racking her brain, thinking about what could be analyzed and interpreted from these rules. However, it was difficult to deduce anything truly useful from a single rule sheet, especially since the rules themselves were riddled with cryptic language and intentional omissions, making her thought process even more challenging.
But at this moment, after putting on the security uniform and observing that the [plain] outside was clearly cleaned and maintained by someone, and that the bedding in the guard post was brand new and barely used, Chika Fujiwara immediately made the connection to a split in spacetime.
Perhaps Gao Hai and I are in two different spacetimes now?
With this thought, the girl decided to leave her notes on that rule sheet to see if she could leave a clue.
She guessed that she might have arrived in the past of this cave's timeline, though it was also possible they were simply separated into different spaces while still able to perceive each other and make indirect contact. That would explain why she saw someone who looked very much like Kaguya Shinomiya appear in a yellow-striped outfit.
Next, after searching the room and finding a total of nine flashlights, each with a large-capacity, long-lasting battery, Chika sat on the edge of the bed. She glanced up at the wall clock, confirmed there were still over ten minutes until ten o'clock, and then simply sat on the bed, waiting quietly.
Meanwhile, Gao Hai had already put the paper down.
"So she was in this very place?"
His gaze swept over the wall clock in the room. It was broken, its hands no longer moving.
After a moment of silence, Gao Hai reached up and gently touched the badge on his shoulder, then summoned the Rescue Team Member.
"Put on that torn security uniform. There's a person we need to rescue who might be in another space. This uniform could be the key to finding her."
Without hesitation, Gao Hai gave the command. The summoned Rescue Team Member, an anomaly at its core, acted without question. It picked up the dirty, damaged security uniform, paused for a fraction of a second as if slightly disgusted by it, and then put it on.
The next moment, the Rescue Team Member vanished from Gao Hai's sight.
And Chika Fujiwara, in astonishment, looked up to see the security uniform in the corner inflate out of thin air. Then, a person grew directly out of the uniform—a person wearing a rescue suit, which immediately stretched the already damaged security uniform taut. Their face was a complete blur.
"E-ehhh?!"
Caught off guard by this sudden development, the girl instantly shrank into a corner, staring in terror at the figure approaching step by step.
Were those rules wrong?
Or did my attempt bring some kind of punishment?
Powerless to resist, the girl could only watch as the tall figure walked right up to her, stood straight, and gave her a slight nod.
[Trapped personnel located. Please wait while I formulate a reasonable rescue plan with Captain Gao Hai. We will definitely rescue you from here.]
Huh?
[For now, please act according to the security regulations. The instance's rule sheets have a special significance. Unless a rule is confirmed to be extremely problematic, it is best to follow them to avoid danger.]
Huh huh?
[I will now read the rules, then leave the guard post to explore the cave in this spacetime. If you encounter any anomalies you cannot handle, please call for help immediately. I will arrive at once to rescue you.]
Huh huh huh?
Chika watched as the figure, after delivering this series of messages, walked off on its own. It went to the table, glanced at the rule sheet, then went to the door, opened it, and walked out. Along the way, it grabbed one of the flashlights Chika had found, politely closed the door behind it, and then was gone.
"Good. As long as its actions can be reasonably explained as a 'rescue' operation, I can basically control the entity completely."
Back in the guard post, Gao Hai sat down on the chair, frowning. As he felt the actions of the summoned entity through the power of the Obsession Items, he let out a small sigh of relief.
Wearing different clothes grants a different identity.
He had originally thought this rule might only apply to players, to humans.
But now it seemed that even an anomalous being could use this rule to change its identity. It could even layer them like nesting dolls; as long as the outermost layer of clothing could be used for identity verification, what was underneath didn't matter. This meant the Rescue Team Member controlled by his Obsession Items could now switch between the identities of a security guard and a rescue worker at will, freely moving between the different spacetimes occupied by him and Chika Fujiwara.
So, if an anomalous being could change its identity this way, were there other methods to exploit the rules? For example, could two people hug each other and wear one large piece of clothing to gain the same identity? Or could one repeatedly switch between multiple identities to suppress the assimilation effect?
These maneuvers merely flashed through Gao Hai's mind; he didn't actually attempt to put them into practice.
He turned his head to look at the three new players waiting eagerly outside. After a moment's thought, he stood up. Multitasking, he began directing the Rescue Team Member in the dark cave with one part of his mind while speaking to the three players with the other.
"Mr. Wang, your mind is still relatively stable, so you can stay for now. As for you two, you're already starting to forget your identities. This means you can't keep the rescue team identity, or you'll forget who you are completely and never be able to leave. So I need to 'change your clothes.' But changing clothes means changing identity, and you'll likely be transported to an unfamiliar area. So, think carefully: do you want to risk changing your clothes?"
Gao Hai issued a serious warning to the two players who had already forgotten their own names.
Although they were complete newbies who had never participated in a game before, both of them nodded without hesitation, clearly understanding their current situation.
"Alright then. I hope you survive. After all, I have a lot of ideas that need your help to verify if they can succeed."
As he spoke, Gao Hai silently took out the blood doll from his watch.
After being so cautious for so long, it was about time to start acting more proactively.
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