Returning to the stone pillar square, and then going back to the path ahead.
It was still the main gate of that fire station.
Retreating again, returning again.
The scene before their eyes still did not change.
After going back and forth like this five times, what appeared before Gao Hai and Chika Fujiwara's eyes was still that same main gate.
"It looks like... this really is the only way."
Gao Hai sighed, looking at the entrance of the fire station which felt incredibly incongruous—completely out of tune with this cavern no matter how one thought about it—and sincerely felt a sense of helplessness as trouble came knocking.
"So, are we going in?"
Chika Fujiwara asked cautiously from the side; judging by her appearance, she didn't seem all that afraid of this cave, but rather seemed to have a bit of an urge to give it a try.
Gao Hai knew clearly that this was Chika, after passing the initial phase of horror, starting to insert herself into the role of a CoC investigator, using this method to lower her own fear. It was just that her relative excitement had risen a little, though not enough to make her attempt anything suicidal.
However, under the current circumstances, I'm afraid we really have to go in and investigate to find out. For this reason, after hesitating for a while, Gao Hai turned back to find the two people resting in the stone pillar square. He asked the two who called themselves Susan and Lixer, and as a result, received the expected answer: these two had also seen the entrance to the fire station during their several actions.
"It looks like we really have no choice but to go in and find out."
Finally, after some thought, Gao Hai chose to move forward.
Although he now knew a lot of intelligence, there were still many gaps in the information from various aspects. This abrupt fire station might hide certain clues worth his serious search. It was just that getting the clues would certainly involve taking some risks, and in the worst-case scenario, something major might even go wrong.
"I'll walk in front and go in first to check the situation. You guard the door, don't close it. Once you encounter a situation you feel is abnormal, squeeze this doll; that way I will know something might have happened, understand?"
When walking up to the main gate of this fire station, Gao Hai thought for a moment, took out that blood-colored cloth doll from his watch, and stuffed it into Chika's hand. After giving her serious instructions, he carefully leaned close to the doorway, peered inside through the transparent glass gate, and only after confirming there were no strange things inside did he reach out and gently push the door open.
"Mn, I will guard the main gate properly."
Chika Fujiwara nodded very seriously, then hugged that cloth doll in her arms, letting the doll's back and buttocks press against her chest.
Gao Hai was just planning to say something like "Be careful not to break the doll," when he felt a wonderfully soft sensation transmitted to his own body. Immediately, he didn't quite know what to say, so after a brief silence, he chose to shut his mouth, simply nodded at Chika, and set off.
On the other side, Maki was still guarding the command room, observing Kaguya's actions, so she did not communicate with Gao Hai again.
Thinking about how he fought side-by-side with Maki in the apartment building during the last mission, while this time he was cooperating with Chika, Gao Hai had a slightly subtle feeling. However, he quickly gathered his thoughts and carefully stepped into this building.
The indoor temperature seemed lower than outside.
The white floor appeared deathly pale under the white lights, making Gao Hai involuntarily associate it with the thing that had dragged him into the rift and killed him.
Along the two sides of the long, narrow corridor were individual rooms. Judging by the signs above, they should be different offices, but for some reason, the text on these signs appeared blurred and unclear. Gao Hai could barely make out the handwriting for "Office," but had no way to clearly judge the specific ownership and purpose of these rooms.
It was as if the people who had once been here could no longer remember these details clearly, so that the things reproduced here had gradually become distorted.
Gao Hai tried opening one of the doors, but it was useless. It wasn't that the door was locked and couldn't be opened, but that this door was merely a decoration. Only after trying to move it did Gao Hai realize that this door and the wall were essentially one body—a fake door that could not be used.
Because of these doors, because this place was a memory reenactment of the obsession existing here, did that mean for them, the places where the specific content was no longer remembered essentially did not exist?
Chika Fujiwara, guarding the entrance, was still peering around cautiously from behind.
And Gao Hai had already followed this corridor all the way forward, quickly arriving at the end of the corridor—a door that was obviously different from the other rooms, also standing ajar.
He heard sounds ringing out from this door: whistling sounds, breathing sounds, and the sound of uniform exercise.
Thinking for a moment, Gao Hai took out the black umbrella and opened it, ensuring he was covered under the umbrella, then quietly approached that door and looked inside through the crack.
It looked like it was a training ground.
Gao Hai saw a track—a track distributed with various obstacles that looked very messy—and a wall mimicking a three-story building with windows, which appeared to be a place used for climbing training. Apart from that, he could also faintly see the corner of a swimming pool, which seemed to be much deeper than a normal pool.
There were over a dozen firefighters currently training here; under the leadership of a firefighter standing to the side, they were doing push-ups to the sound of a whistle.
Within Gao Hai's perception blessing, not a single one of them was human.
In other words, was this a venue formed by the memories of the rescue team that lost their lives here?
Gao Hai's brows furrowed tightly.
A rescue team had similarly existed within the Shirakawa Apartments, but the obsession of those rescue team members only caused a floor to appear in a submerged state, completely different from the obsession of the firefighters before his eyes which had created an entire area out of thin air. Admittedly, this was because Xusheng, the key core of the Shirakawa Apartments' rescue team obsession, had maintained self-awareness and was able to exercise restraint. But this also meant that the danger level of these rescue team members existing in the Red Nut Gray Hole instance was likely higher than that of the Shirakawa Apartments.
Should he try going in to take a look?
Gao Hai weighed his thoughts.
It looked like these firefighters were repeating things they had done in the past, and adding the fact that he had the black umbrella for cover, it shouldn't be a big problem; he could temporarily blend in for a period of time.
But under the circumstances where Obsession Items and anomalous powers influenced each other, the rate at which Obsession Items went out of control would become much faster. To be honest, he wasn't sure if he could hold out until he found the next path inside the training base.
Perhaps it would be better to think of a way to lure these things out first?
If he could lure these firefighters away from this building, then he wouldn't need to rely on Obsession Items and could directly investigate and explore inside.
Just as Gao Hai was thinking this, he suddenly felt waves of throbbing pain from his shoulder. Immediately realizing that something had happened with the cloth doll, he hurriedly switched his perspective over, and then saw that opposite the building entrance, a group of tourists was walking along the top of the cavern, approaching one after another in the direction of the fire station.
At the very front of these tourists was Dennis, holding up his phone and talking while moving the phone screen around, just like he was livestreaming.
Had that death-seeking rookie turned into an elite monster so quickly that he could lead a group of monsters out for a team battle?
Gao Hai quickly retreated, falling back to a distance where Chika could see him clearly, then reached out and signaled her to run over quickly and not to continue staying at the entrance.
At this moment, the two players who had originally been staying in the stone pillar square had already run up to the front; obviously, they were also forced to act by this group of tourists. Seeing Chika preparing to enter the fire station, they hurriedly waved at her, presumably afraid the girl would lock the door and cause them to be trapped. Although Chika didn't do that, instead running directly and quickly in Gao Hai's direction, carefully controlling the sound of her running footsteps so as not to cause too much commotion.
Running in behind Chika was the player named Susan. When she entered, her gaze obscurely looked around, and then she revealed a somewhat surprised expression. Lixer, who ran in even further behind, didn't have any abnormal reaction; he simply locked the door without hesitation, then carefully backed away from the door.
"Do you know this place?"
Gao Hai, who was now far away from the entrance to the training area, whispered his question to Susan after carefully confirming there were no things eavesdropping here, while ensuring the corner of his eye remained fixed on that ajar door to the training zone, making sure that once a situation occurred, he could discover it immediately and open the black umbrella to hide himself.
"This is the City Fire Station of Y City in Y State. The renovations there haven't changed much in decades. I've been there a few times, so I remember."
Susan nodded to Gao Hai and spoke with great certainty.
This player had been to the fire station?
Gao Hai couldn't help but start thinking about the other party's profession in real life, but before he could ask, this player spoke it out herself.
"I am an explorer—I mean, I'm an explorer in the real world. I've been to many places to explore and encountered all kinds of accidents. Because of my extensive experience, I have collaborations with some fire stations and attend some meetings, for example, exchanging case studies with firefighters on rescue operations in extreme situations like mountain rescue, cave rescue, and underwater rescue. I've been to this fire station, and at least 3 times, because they have a lot of caves there, and my experience is very useful for the rookies over there. I just didn't expect that I would see this fire station again in this kind of place, or at least a part of this fire station..."
As Susan said this, a somewhat confused expression appeared on her face.
She seemed to have developed a slight sense of familiarity—not just with this fire station, but also a strange wisp of familiarity with the stone pillar square she stayed in before, and with the Heart, Artery, and Large Space she had walked through.
However, she did not voice this matter. For Susan, who had fallen into the Sacrificial Game for the first time, the stimulation she received today was truly a bit much. Although she had the guidance of Lixer, a veteran player, calming down right now to explain her familiarity with this place was about the limit of what she could conceive.
"Save the other words for later. We have to go now. You'd better have a few life-saving Obsession Items; I don't have the ability to protect you."
Gao Hai actually wanted to ask more questions to see if he could get any valuable clues. But those tourists not far away had already crossed the door and stepped into the corridor, approaching while talking and laughing on the ceiling. The act of closing the door didn't seem to be able to stop them, and Gao Hai noticed that among these seemingly normal tourists, the gazes of some had already locked onto their group; it looked like they had already discovered them, but just couldn't come over immediately because they were crowded within the throng.
We have to move.
Drip—
The sound of a water drop, undetectable if one wasn't listening closely, rang out by his ear. Gao Hai, however, didn't have time to confirm the source of this sound and could only speed up, running toward the entrance of the training area.
The tourists were still approaching unhurriedly; every step forward seemed to make the temperature of the entire corridor drop a degree.
And Gao Hai had already taken the lead in running to the entrance of that ajar training area. Leaning in, he first confirmed that the whistling and exercise sounds inside hadn't stopped, then carefully leaned close to the doorway and looked inside.
The next moment, he saw over a dozen expressionless faces, indifferent eyes gazing at him through the crack in the door.
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