"Oh, Mr. Gao? You're alright? That is truly wonderful."
Lixer, who hadn't anticipated Gao Hai's sudden appearance, froze for a moment. He whipped his head around, and upon seeing it was Gao Hai, he sighed in relief, smiling at him as he spoke.
"What are you touching that for?"
Gao Hai, however, did not stand on ceremony with him. He simply stared at the other party and asked.
"As long as I pull this switch, there will be a chance to escape this place, right? Since that's the case, of course, we must try. Mr. Gao, there are still many players trapped in this place unable to leave; we must do our best to help them."
Lixer seemed unable to understand Gao Hai's reason for stopping him, explaining earnestly with a hint of anxiety.
"If you want to leave here, you can do so without activating this switch. Don't touch that thing. If you touch it, a lot of players will have a chance to live, but another group of players will die by your hands."
Gao Hai grabbed Lixer's fingers and pried them open one by one.
Possessing strength far superior to the other, Gao Hai spoke methodically while pulling Lixer's hand away from the switch just like that.
"There's another group of players? Are they in 'that place' mentioned in the notice? Then what must we do to help these people? We can't just watch them suffer. Mr. Gao, is there anything I can do to help?"
Hearing this, Lixer was slightly stunned, then quickly revealed an expression of sudden realization.
Gao Hai could feel the intense goodwill radiating from the other party—goodwill that came from the bottom of his heart.
No matter how many times he judged it with the power of the Blessing, it was the same. What existed within Lixer was only a mindset of truth, goodness, and beauty, without any anomaly whatsoever.
It was as if this person didn't harbor a single selfish thought.
"I do indeed have a way to help the players leave. In fact, I only thought of this method after seeing that document."
Gao Hai maintained a calm expression, communicating with Lixer without revealing any abnormalities.
Kaguya Shinomiya had been imprisoned in a hidden area of the Research Base, and then that very night, an anomaly with the appearance of Fulen had directly attacked Maki and Chika. Meanwhile, Gao Hai had stayed in this shelter for over ten hours without seeing a single person. Yet, in the less than ten minutes it took for him to go out, help Maki and Chika out of their predicament, and return, Lixer had popped up, and his hand was already on the power switch. If Gao Hai hadn't been fast enough, this guy would definitely have pulled the switch down.
It really was quite a coincidence.
"I know what that terrifying thing mentioned in the message is, and I am confident I can divert its attention. Since you want to help so much, you can act as my assistant to lead those trapped players away from here."
While speaking to Lixer like this, Gao Hai did not forget to communicate with Maki in his mind.
{Gao Hai: What is your situation right now?}
{Maki Shijo: We are just about to enter the [Research Zone]. Hmm, we've already entered. It's much larger than the analysis area, and here... hmm, I'm not quite sure what the use of these machines is, but Fujiwara-san says she might know what this place is for. She says this is a place for researching bullets?}
{Gao Hai: Researching bullets?}
{Maki Shijo: Fujiwara-san said it might be that kind of bullet you know. Wait, why does that sound like a secret between you and her?}
{Gao Hai: What time is it, and you're still dwelling on that? Ask her, is she truly sure this is a place for making bullets? Also, what about Shinomiya's situation?}
{Maki Shijo: I-I was just asking casually. Auntie's situation is fine, it's just that the person locked next to her seems to be talking to themselves again. Auntie is a bit worried about whether that thing is human or an anomaly, and if it will do anything to her, so she didn't sleep well all night.}
{Gao Hai: I see. Alright, I have a rough idea of the situation. Be extra careful.}
The communication between the two sides did not take too long.
On the first floor of the Research Base, Maki and Chika had already stepped into the range of the Research Zone.
The heavy protective door behind them slowly closed.
Maki's gaze had already swept over the Research Zone rules, of which everyone had a copy.
It was the simplest set of rules she had seen so far.
**[Research Zone Attention Rules]
[1. This area is under the charge of Professor Fulen. Professor Fulen is the general person in charge of affairs in this area. Research personnel must comply with Professor Fulen's directives.]
[2. All research work is arranged by Professor Fulen. Research personnel must obey Professor Fulen's directives.]
[3. When research personnel have difficulty completing their assigned work tasks, they may submit an application to Professor Fulen.]
[4. Research personnel must complete their assigned work well; otherwise, Professor Fulen has the right to punish them.]
[5. Professor Fulen must not be disturbed during work phases. Research personnel need to focus entirely on their own work; otherwise, they will receive a severe warning and punishment.]
[6. Unless authorized by Professor Fulen, research personnel must not enter the Freezing Zone. Only holders of Level 4 clearance or higher may apply to enter that area.]
It felt like "Professor Fulen is God" had been written into the rules; it was truly quite uncomfortable.
And were these things really rules? It felt like something rushed out temporarily to deal with things casually, giving off an extremely perfunctory vibe of "Ah yes, yes, yes, the boss is right, the superior is right, yes, yes, yes" throughout.
Although she really wanted to retort like that, on the surface, Maki continued to advance without saying a word.
The Research Zone was distributed with even more complex instruments whose uses Maki couldn't understand at all.
But what she could see were stones packed inside individual transparent glass containers.
Broken stones that constantly oozed a black-red liquid, emitting waves of a bloody smell even though they were completely sealed.
The instruments here were analyzing these stones, observing them, and then classifying them. Some stones were discarded, while others were transported away to unknown locations. But even more stones were directly processed here, ground into powder, and then mixed with various other things to produce all sorts of special reactions. Finally, these mixed powders were injected into smaller containers—bullet-shaped containers.
Maki Shijo didn't know what was up with these bullets, but Chika Fujiwara had already recognized them.
[Black Blood Bullets]**.
During the second loop, this was an item used by Susan, which had come from Lixer himself.
A special bullet that could temporarily force back an anomaly as long as it hit. A rare consumable item circulating only within the scope of the United States, with very few flowing into the hands of players in other regions.
There was no mistake.
What was being manufactured in this Research Zone was precisely this kind of bullet.
However, compared to the bullets Susan used, the structure of these bullets looked much rougher. It seemed... they looked more like experimental products?
"Welcome to the ladder of human progress. Here, we will lead our civilization toward greatness and glory."
Standing in the middle of the Research Zone, Professor Fulen spread his arms. His gaze swept over the silent researchers in the zone one by one as he spoke in a cold, indifferent voice.
Next, the man signaled for Maki and Chika to proceed to an area to work. He himself turned and walked toward another section of the Research Zone, a place labeled [Freezing Zone]. He quickly entered and disappeared inside, and it was unknown what he was going in there to do.
Unlike the simple work in the Analysis Workshop where one could get by just pressing buttons, the various instruments in the Research Zone had extremely complex operation methods and required researchers to constantly record various data changes. It was simply not something non-professionals could handle. Although both Maki and Chika were top students who had received high-quality educations, it was obviously impossible for them to immediately master a completely unfamiliar field after being thrown directly into the laboratory. And clearly, this would cause Maki and Chika to become increasingly conspicuous among the group of silently working researchers.
These things seem to be staring at me and Fujiwara-san...
Standing before the panel of a large instrument she had no idea how to operate, Maki hesitated for quite a while, not daring to press a button to attempt operating it. This caused the researcher next to Maki—who seemed to be coordinating research with her—to turn its head and look at her, seemingly finding it strange that Maki was motionless.
Chika, on the other side, obviously encountered the same situation. However, that girl was bolder, so she actually tried operating it a bit. Unsurprisingly, accompanied by a sharp alarm sound, the instrument panel in front of her turned directly red.
This is really...
Maki stole a glance in the direction of the Freezing Zone.
That professor was standing in front of the Freezing Zone's main gate, casting his gaze toward them from afar.
More and more researchers around them raised their heads, looking at the extremely out-of-place Maki and Chika. Every "person" wore the same expressionless face.
Thus, in the next instant, Maki and Chika vanished directly from where they stood.
Within the pitch-black cavern, two young girls abruptly appeared. At this moment, they held the researcher white coats in their hands. They then properly put on the explorer suits they were wearing underneath and quickly began to move toward one side of the cavern.
Passing through the wide and narrow cavern passages, they arrived at the entrance to the Land of Lingering Regrets, which was also the main gate of the fire station.
Maki and Chika stopped here to catch their breath slightly. Then, that door opened automatically. However, behind the transparent glass door was not the corridor it should have displayed, but rather a somewhat dim room with various electrical wires scattered about.
It was Gao Hai who had opened the door for the two from inside the room using the Blood Key.
"Yo."
Extending his hand, Gao Hai smiled and waved at Maki.
"What do you mean 'Yo'? We almost couldn't get out of that place just now."
Walking into the room, Maki let out a long breath. Clearly, after experiencing the scene just now, her mood was not relaxed.
"Yo Da"
Chika Fujiwara, following her into the room, blinked and responded to Gao Hai's greeting with great energy.
The door was closed, and the Blood Key was removed.
Then, this door was no longer connected to the fire station's main gate, restoring its original spatial structure.
Gao Hai's gaze lingered on the door, looking as if he wanted to penetrate the door itself to see the scene outside.
The timing of Maki and Chika being forced to teleport was just right—exactly when Lixer left. Or rather, after Lixer was forced and shoved out of this room by Gao Hai, and followed by Gao Hai locking the door, Maki and Chika on the other side were compelled by the situation to change clothes and teleport over. It was fortunate they had worn the clothes underneath the researcher outfits in advance. As long as they took off the outer clothes and properly wore the other set, they could achieve instant detachment, thus avoiding being besieged by those anomalies.
It was just that Gao Hai couldn't help but think about Lixer's actions just now—how he refused to leave directly no matter what, insisting on stalling for time by talking to Gao Hai about this and that.
If Gao Hai hadn't physically forced him out the door, Lixer would likely have been able to see Maki and Chika returning here, as if... it was timed perfectly.
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