Gao Hai found it hard to describe the feeling he was having at this moment.
Before him, water dripped incessantly, already forming a layer on the ground.
Inside the dim cavern, silhouettes could be seen appearing in the darkness, only to quickly vanish beyond the range of the light.
The blood doll tightly bound two deathly pale figures who had been stripped of their clothes. Then, Gao Hai grabbed the shoulders of these two 'people' and tossed them directly into the fissure in the wall by the Great Slide.
The two new players, who had forgotten their own names, had taken off their rescue team uniforms and put on explorer suits. The exchange process was a bit discordant, but with the help of the Obsession Items, it ultimately ended with everyone getting what they wanted.
However, that wasn't what Gao Hai was concerned about. Although the two players had avoided continuous corrosion by switching identities, thus preventing themselves from becoming a part of the [Rescue Team], the [Explorer] identity was also corrosive. In fact, its rate of assimilation was even faster than that of the rescue team identity, which only began its corrosion after a rule violation. Whether they could ultimately survive would depend on their luck, on whether fate was on their side.
What he was focused on was the sensation of his senses being split in two.
"Is this a simple spatial overlap? Or has time been affected as well?"
In the cavern where Chika Fujiwara existed as a security guard, at this very moment, the team member summoned by the Rescue Team Badge was standing right in front of Gao Hai.
Standing before this Gao Hai, who was currently in the midst of a downpour, in a cavern filled with pooled water.
He couldn't see the other being.
To his naked eye, there was only a cavern with turbulent water.
And yet, he could see it.
He could clearly feel something standing before him, aware of its presence right in front of him.
He reached out, trying to touch its body.
He touched nothing.
But at the same time, his senses produced a strange reaction, as if he had truly touched something invisible.
"What do we do now?"
Wang Gui, standing beside him, asked nervously.
Initially, after Gao Hai changed the other two players' clothes and watched them vanish into thin air, Wang Gui thought his own clothes would be changed next. But Gao Hai explained that the two had merely been sent to another dangerous area and decided not to change Wang Gui's clothes. Since he could still maintain his sense of self, changing his identity under these circumstances would do more harm than good.
Although he could understand Gao Hai's reasoning, the fact that he had to remain in this bizarre cavern left Wang Gui feeling deeply unsettled and quite anxious. Seeing Gao Hai standing still, he had subconsciously asked the question.
"Wait a moment, don't be hasty."
Gao Hai signaled for Wang Gui to remain calm. Then, in his mind, he directed the Rescue Team Member to start moving through the pitch-black cavern.
According to the rescue team's regulations, the corrosion for the staff and security guard identities seemed to be extremely fast, assimilating the wearer in half an hour at most. That meant Chika Fujiwara was in a very dangerous situation. He needed to help her find a replacement set of clothes as soon as possible.
The Rescue Team Member in that dark cavern had already strode past the Great Slide.
Through the rescuer's eyes, Gao Hai could see that the Great Slide on that side was completely sealed off with a concrete wall.
Since the Great Slide was still intact in that cavern, could that mean the area Chika Fujiwara was in existed at an earlier time than his own cavern?
The thought flashed through Gao Hai's mind. Meanwhile, the Rescue Team Member on the other side had already taken off the tattered security uniform, vanished from that cavern, and instantaneously appeared before Gao Hai.
Immediately after, Gao Hai tossed one of the rescue uniforms left by the two new players to the Rescue Team Member. Holding the uniform, it put the security uniform back on, returned once more to Chika's side, walked to the guard post door, and knocked a few times. After confirming the girl could hear, it placed the rescue uniform at the door. Unsure what would happen if the rule about keeping the guard post door locked was violated, Gao Hai simply had the Rescue Team Member say to the room, [The rescue team uniform is at the door. Please change into it within half an hour,] before it left again.
The next objective was to have the Rescue Team Member leave the cavern, travel through the Stone Forest Path all the way to the entrance, and reach the surface area of the Red Nut Gray Hole on that side.
"Keep an eye on our surroundings for me. If anything unusual happens, like rescue workers climbing up the Great Slide or the water level rising, alert me immediately."
Gao Hai said this to Wang Gui beside him, then focused more carefully on controlling the Rescue Team Member on the other side. Using the justification of [finding support personnel to begin rescue operations as soon as possible,] he urged it to traverse the Stone Forest Path at top speed.
From that rescuer's perspective, Gao Hai saw a pristine Red Nut Gray Hole.
A Red Nut Gray Hole with no trash, no discarded clothes, with many benches along the path, railings on both sides, and an abundance of lighting fixtures.
As the Rescue Team Member moved along, colorful lights illuminated the path, making it completely unnecessary to use a flashlight or other lighting equipment. Gao Hai could see the scenery inside the cavern with perfect clarity. It seemed only the lights on the plain weren't on? No, it looked like the lights in the direction of the gentle slope were out as well. That sounded ominous, but he had already left the rescue team uniform for Chika. He trusted she would know what to do now, and he couldn't focus all his energy on Chika Fujiwara at the moment.
Closer.
It passed through the Stone Forest Path and arrived at the entrance of the Red Nut Gray Hole.
The mud-and-water-filled entrance he had descended as a Rescue Team Member.
The clean and tidy entrance he was now ascending as a Rescue Team Member.
Gao Hai manipulated the rescuer up the stairs and out of the cavern.
Outside was a dim night sky, sparse starlight, and the Red Nut Gray Hole scenic area, quietly submerged in darkness.
Was this the Red Nut Gray Hole before anything had happened?
Or perhaps, the Red Nut Gray Hole before the anomaly had truly erupted?
Gao Hai couldn't reach an immediate conclusion.
However, he could already see the lights of the scenic area entrance on that side, and the other security guard standing watch there. So he had the rescuer approach the guard post on the surface, wanting to confirm the specific situation over there.
And then, Gao Hai felt malice.
An intense malice, transmitted through his Blessing, originating from some unknown place.
Was it on his side, or on the side where the summoned rescuer now stood?
No, it seemed to be neither.
The intense malice seemed to emanate from within some profound barrier, or perhaps from a great distance.
It was as if the entity didn't exist in any one place.
And yet, it also felt as if it existed everywhere.
Gao Hai shivered.
He felt himself being locked onto by something.
That thing had first seen the Rescue Team Member standing in the Red Nut Gray Hole scenic area under the night sky.
Then, directly through the summoned creature from the Obsession Item, it had instantly locked onto him, the user.
He was being watched.
In an instant, this feeling intensely overwhelmed all of Gao Hai's senses.
He immediately took off the badge.
He hadn't even seen what that thing was.
But a powerful premonition of death had already told Gao Hai that the moment he truly laid eyes on that thing, he would have absolutely no chance of survival.
The summoned rescuer vanished, and Gao Hai's visual link with it was severed.
"Ugh… where is this now? Gao Hai, ah, we finally found each other again."
Chika's cry of distress came from behind him.
The girl, wearing an ill-fitting rescue uniform, had fallen into the muddy water and was struggling to her feet. After a brief complaint, she saw Gao Hai not far away and her face lit up with a delighted expression.
After struggling in this bizarre cavern for so long, the girl had developed a degree of trust and reliance on Gao Hai. Just seeing him allowed her to relax.
But Gao Hai could no longer pay attention to what Chika was saying.
Because that intense feeling of being watched had now completely enveloped him.
"Found it…"
Gao Hai murmured in a low voice.
He had found the exit.
The Red Nut Gray Hole where the security uniform existed, the surface of that cavern—that was definitely the clearance point for this instance.
As long as a player reached that place, they would be able to leave the instance and complete the clearance.
And the reason Gao Hai hadn't been able to clear it just now was because the one who had 'arrived' there was an anomalous being summoned by an Obsession Item, so it didn't count as him clearing it himself.
However, even if he himself had arrived at that place, he still wouldn't have been able to clear the instance.
Because at the exit, at every place one could leave the Red Nut Gray Hole, something was watching.
And that something had now noticed him, the one who wanted to escape.
Splash, splash—
The flowing water at his feet had unknowingly risen past his calves.
Gao Hai raised his head.
He saw that the entire cavern was now almost completely filled with 'people'.
All the floating clothes were gone.
In their place were the deathly pale figures wearing those clothes, things that were long dead but had now appeared once again, and they were watching him.
Not far away, in the direction of the Great Slide, bloated figures of rescue workers and firefighters were slowly climbing out of the collapsed breach in the wall.
Suppressed wails and cries came from the direction of the gentle slope, as if something was struggling there, struggling as it approached him step by step.
All eyes were focused on Gao Hai alone.
Intense malice completely enveloped Gao Hai at this moment.
"This is just completely unreasonable…"
Faced with this instantly deteriorating situation, Gao Hai could only sigh and reveal a helpless expression.
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