What is that thing?
Maki Shijo's eyes widened.
The rule sheet hadn't mentioned this kind of existence at all. Why would she encounter such a guy, and... was its target her?
She felt the intuition of being locked onto by something extremely terrifying. That incomparably strong malice, that suffocating sensation no human could possess, was rushing toward her right now.
Step—
The thing stepped forward.
In the blink of an eye, it appeared directly in front of her.
A blood-colored light bloomed in the next moment.
Corpses with their joints hollowed out and replaced by wooden structures appeared out of thin air, grabbing hold of that thing.
Maki Shijo abruptly leaped from the bed in the next instant. Having not undressed even while sleeping, she landed instantly on the table in the middle of the dormitory, then jumped a second time. Before that thing's hand could extend and grab her, she landed straight at the doorway.
The lights outside had already turned a complete blood red.
At this moment, Maki could see the shape of the corridor twisting strangely, changing from a straight hallway into an extremely chaotic and distorted form.
What exactly was happening?
"Clothes!"
Chika Fujiwara's voice rang out from the other bed at this moment.
Maki turned her head and saw an explorer suit being thrown forcefully by the other girl. Under Chika's own white coat, an incompletely worn explorer suit was also revealed. Chika had been prudent when deciding to move here; she hadn't fully taken off her explorer outfit. This move now came in handy, giving her a way to quickly escape this area.
The thing grabbed by the cloth dolls was breaking free from its restraints bit by bit. By the red light shining in from the corridor, Maki and Chika could roughly make out its silhouette—it was clearly no different from Professor Fulen.
How could it be him?
Regarding this professor who harbored many suspicious points, both Maki and Gao Hai had guessed at many possibilities. They had considered whether this man might not be a complete anomaly, but a special existence retaining a certain degree of self-awareness.
But the thing before them now radiated a bone-chilling aura, showing no human side whatsoever. It was a complete anomaly, currently targeting Maki and preparing to come forward and attack her.
Did she violate a rule?
Blowing up the surveillance room might not have been good behavior, but unfortunately, the researcher rules didn't actually forbid it.
Auntie Kaguya hadn't seen any suspicious personnel before entering the Power Zone, yet she was discovered immediately after entering. Considering the surveillance room was already destroyed, unless these anomalies all had brains with one-click connections to the cameras, perhaps... there was another monitoring route? For example, checking surveillance through the computer in someone's office, thereby discovering Auntie Kaguya?
In an instant, Maki had figured out many issues.
"Phew..."
So, in the next moment, with a deep sound of inhalation, the girl made her choice.
Whoosh—
A strong wind blew past.
Holding the scalpel, Maki did not retreat but advanced, slashing directly at the hand the anomaly extended toward her.
The pale hand fell to the ground, seemingly still squirming.
No blood flowed from the wound.
Just like a full-form anomaly, this thing continued to break free from the cloth doll's restraints, intending to launch an attack on Maki.
So in the next moment, Maki slashed continuously, chopping off its hands, feet, and head, and splitting the torso into four pieces. Only then did she turn and flee the dormitory with Chika, running into the corridor.
"I'll go to the Power Zone. You go to Fulen's office."
While running, Maki handed a scalpel to Chika and spoke to her seriously.
"Do we still have to stay here?"
Chika hesitated somewhat. She felt that changing clothes to temporarily leave this scene and coming back later would be the safest option.
"Hurry."
Maki had no time to explain her thoughts; she simply said this to Chika and then sped up, running forward.
The sound of something squirming and crawling came from behind. The cloth dolls hadn't been able to trap the opponent for too long. That thing had already begun to gradually restore its human form and was about to chase in the direction the two girls were fleeing.
The corridor under the dark red light was extended much longer than in its normal state—so long that Maki and Chika ran for two or three minutes without being able to run out of it.
Suppressed screams rang out from under the floor, accompanied by the sound of some machinery operating. It was a strange terror, like some instrument grinding people into pieces bit by bit.
A cold, gloomy aura approached rapidly from behind.
Accompanying that sound as it drew near were sharp, ear-piercing noises and blurred images like hallucinations.
What was that...
She seemed to see the pitch-black corridor of the base after a power outage.
A blood-red dress.
A dress that should have been white, now dyed in blood-red colors.
Standing among piles of corpses, seemingly staring at something, was the anomalous entity wearing the blood-red dress.
What it was staring at... was Fulen, paralyzed on the ground, retreating in fear...
Did it turn Fulen into this state?
Why didn't it kill Fulen immediately? What exactly did it want to do?
[Give it back... to me...]
She seemed to hear a suppressed, sobbing woman's voice, and trembling words.
Maki's eyes widened.
The hallucination ended in an instant. She and Chika had already run out of the dormitory area's corridor and were dashing toward the stairs.
That thing was still constantly closing in.
Judging by the distance shortening between both parties, they would likely be caught on the spot before the two girls could run to the office's location.
That should have been the case.
But before that, in this corridor, an anomaly wearing tourist clothes—forcibly stuffed into a white coat—suddenly fell into the corridor.
The red lights turned to white lights in an instant.
The anomaly that fell to the ground let out an incoherent low groan, then vanished out of thin air, leaving only a white coat behind.
Maki and Chika heard the chasing footsteps stop. Turning their heads, they saw Professor Fulen standing in the corridor, staring at them expressionlessly.
[The experiment is about to begin. It is time to go to the Research Zone.]
Leaving such a sentence, Fulen walked past Maki and Chika with a dull expression, descending the stairs as if nothing had happened.
{Thanks for that just now,}
Maki, panting to calm her breathing, said to Gao Hai through the mental link.
{You're welcome. What's the situation now?}
Gao Hai's voice replied immediately.
{The lights returned to normal. The anomaly you threw over disappeared. By the way, are you okay? Coming into close contact with that kind of thing?}
Maki answered, then asked with some worry.
{Completely fine. Actually, it's pretty good.}
Saying this, Gao Hai lowered his head, crawling carefully behind the counter of the Ticket Hall. Outside the counter, over ten anomalies wearing tourist clothes were expressionlessly searching everywhere for Gao Hai—searching for the guy who, a few minutes ago, had rushed right at them, snipped off a [tourist]'s limbs with the Blood Scissors, forced a researcher's coat onto that tourist, and then turned and fled.
Wearing the silver ring, Gao Hai forcibly ignored the killing rules of these anomalies and engaged a large group of [tourists] head-on. Even though he was currently in a Land of Lingering Regrets rather than the cavern environment, Gao Hai's entire body had been pierced with countless holes, and even his head had a hole punched through it. Yet, these inevitably fatal injuries did not affect his movement at all under the power of Andres's ring. Even after one of Gao Hai's hands was torn off, that hand could still hover in the air beside his shoulder, exerting force normally as if connected by something invisible.
Of course, considering the ring could only ensure Gao Hai didn't die while it was active, once used for too long and approaching the loss-of-control phase, Gao Hai would still die. So Gao Hai also wore the Rescue Team Badge. By utilizing the badge's power to a limited extent—recovering his injuries without fully releasing the Rescue Team form—he used the two Obsession Items in coordination to let the fatal wounds on his body recover bit by bit.
Used individually, although the ring's function was terrifying, its restrictions were actually quite significant. But as long as there was a restorative Obsession Item to use in coordination, the combined power was trivial. This might be a line of thought worth deeper consideration.
After confirming that the bones and flesh between his severed arm and body had reconnected and the large hole in his head had mostly healed, Gao Hai took off the ring and threw it back into his watch space. Then, finding a door, he inserted the Blood Key.
The method to save Maki and Chika just now was simple. Through mental communication, Gao Hai already knew about the notice Kaguya had seen in the Power Zone. Considering the rules described in the notice, and the message he found in this power distribution room on his side, it was easy for Gao Hai to deduce that [The Research Base will not be invaded by external anomalous forces while it has power; therefore, external anomalies invading will activate the Research Base's power].
Thus, he directly found an anomaly, forcibly put a researcher's clothes on it, and teleported it to Maki's side. Then, unsurprisingly, due to the rule conflict, the Research Base instantly returned to its normal state, and that anomaly was forcibly repelled by some power existing within the Research Base.
That base is really impressive. Was this method of isolating anomalous forces created before the Research Base fell, or did it appear after the fall?
Thinking this, Gao Hai opened the door with the Blood Key and returned to the power distribution room where Werbo had last hidden.
And immediately, he saw Lixer standing in front of the power switch, reaching out, intending to pull the switch down.
The other party didn't seem to notice Gao Hai's entry, simply extending his hand on his own, grabbing the switch, and preparing to pull it directly down.
Slap!
Before the other party could do so, Gao Hai's hand shot out, gripping Lixer's arm tightly, making it impossible for him to pull the switch down even a fraction of an inch.
"Don't. Touch. Randomly."
In this moment, Gao Hai's voice was overflowing with icy emotion.
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