The human named Fulen finally died at this moment.
Although the anomaly that was Fulen would not die from such an attack, his human side—his own destiny—had successfully drawn its final period here. There would be no possibility of writing any further.
Hedal, wearing a blood-red long dress, slowly sat down on the ground. Her expression became dull, and then her body began to turn illusory, eventually vanishing.
At the moment she thoroughly dissipated, Maki felt as if she saw a great number of figures—old and young, men and women. The expression on every single face, once so full of venomous madness, returned to peace at this moment. They closed their eyes and finally went to sleep peacefully.
It was over.
Maki finally felt the reality of this fact at this moment.
The two core obsessions of Red Nut Gray Hole had both obtained rest at this moment.
Andres, who longed to return to his lover's side, had fulfilled his long-cherished wish. Hedal, fused with countless victims of tragic deaths, had achieved perfect vengeance. Now, they were finally at rest, and the culprit who caused all these sins, Fulen, had finally received his due punishment.
Come to think of it, why did Hedal shift her target and chase over here before Hai-kun had even issued the order?
Wait, could it be that Fujiwara-san, who stayed back there, did something?!
Realizing the problem, Maki hurriedly ran back. At the same time, the instance, which was already collapsing due to the loss of Andres's core obsession, was emitting a rumbling sound that gradually increased in intensity. It was clear that after the complete disintegration of its core obsessions, this instance was finally about to welcome total destruction.
Those building fragments that originally showed signs of slowly re-aggregating now began to split apart again, with more and more cracks spreading continuously.
Spending some time, Maki ran back to the starting place and immediately saw Chika lying on the ground, wearing only safety shorts and a binding cloth.
The girl's face was completely pale, and her body was covered in dripping bloody wounds everywhere; her condition looked quite terrible.
Gao Hai and Kaguya also rushed back from the other side at this time. Seeing Chika in this state, Gao Hai couldn't care about much else for the moment. He hurriedly ran to Chika and supported her up, his speed even faster than Maki who had rushed back from the other side.
"Ehehe, Ah Hai, I seem to have played a bit too hard."
With a weary expression, Chika opened her eyes and smiled somewhat weakly at Gao Hai.
"How did she get hurt so badly? Gao-kun, quickly use the badge on her!"
Although Kaguya Shinomiya was usually lukewarm toward Chika, seeing her best friend injured so severely now, she immediately revealed an anxious expression, grabbing Gao Hai's clothes and shouting hurriedly.
"I know, I know, right away... hmm?"
Gao Hai, who had already taken the Rescue Team Badge off himself and was planning to put it on Chika, had his wrist grabbed by the girl.
"Um... actually, no need for that thing. I just, um, have a little trouble breathing."
Chika's expression was somewhat awkward. Although she had many injuries on her body, they were all superficial wounds and not serious. The biggest problem was still the respiratory obstruction caused by the erosion of the anomaly's power. Coupled with the existence of the binding cloth, it made it even more difficult for the girl to breathe, which was why she had collapsed from hypoxia and couldn't stand up.
"Is it really okay? You're covered in wounds."
Maki, who had been stunned for a moment by the actions of Gao Hai and Kaguya, finally caught up and spoke to Chika as well.
Then, in the next moment, Maki's pupils constricted.
Snip!
After hearing Chika say she had trouble breathing, Gao Hai understood what she meant. Without the slightest hesitation, he took out the Blood Scissors and, with a snip, cut Chika's binding cloth right there on the spot.
The gray-white bandages snapped and flew apart.
Although Gao Hai himself quickly turned his head away, not looking at the girl's flying youthful elegance in that moment, it must be admitted that he indeed saw a glimpse of that charming scenery.
This physics engine is amazing!
Gao Hai praised it from the bottom of his heart.
Maki, who witnessed this scene from the side, was completely petrified at this moment.
What is this?
That heavy 'human heart' was still trembling, still cheering for the arrival of freedom.
And Maki's purple eyes were completely completely covered by this heavy vastness, almost crushed and overwhelmed on the spot.
What is this?
What on earth is this?
Such an astonishing, such an obscene, such a terrifying scale.
She had never seen such a figure. And clearly, it wasn't visible at all before. Ah, that's right, it was the binding cloth. She had ignored this point the whole time, even thinking this girl actually had no competitiveness and she didn't need to worry about anything at all.
But now, what counts as this?
Maki turned her head to look at Gao Hai, discovering that Gao Hai had already turned his head away and wasn't staring at Chika.
Hai-kun shouldn't be interested in this type, right?
Maki's mind was in turmoil at this moment.
"Alright, time to go, move fast!"
Taking off the T-shirt he was wearing and throwing it to Chika, Gao Hai looked at the building fragments and cavern wreckage crumbling and trembling around them piece by piece, knowing that they had truly arrived at the final moment.
If they didn't leave now, it would really be too late.
"Right, time to go. Fujiwara-san, put on the badge. We must advance at full speed next; absolutely do not fall behind."
After Chika put on the T-shirt, Kaguya pinned that badge onto her body. The power of the Rescue Team Badge rapidly healed the injuries on Chika's body and provided her with a powerful physical constitution unattainable by humans, lest Chika lack the stamina to keep up with the people in front during Gao Hai and the others' escape.
Rumble—
Another platform collapsed at this moment, turning into pieces of rubble falling into the dark abyss below.
Gao Hai leaped forward violently, covering a distance of ten meters. He rolled upon landing, then continued to run forward.
The three girls followed closely behind. The four of them climbed and jumped upwards just like that, while the remaining anomalies around them began to gather. One by one, they moved along with Gao Hai and the others, wanting to catch these few people and keep them here to be buried together.
"Fast! Move faster!"
Gao Hai shouted from the very front.
Just by looking back slightly, one could see the nearly endless 'people,' at least several thousand or even ten thousand, following behind.
Tourists, explorers, security guards, staff members, Rescue Team members, soldiers, researchers, exploration personnel...
All the existences that had died in this cavern and transformed into anomalies entered the final runaway stage before their destruction at this moment. They madly chased the last few living humans remaining in the instance, wanting to keep them here forever.
Gao Hai jumped forward once again, landing on a new platform.
A tourist pounced fiercely from the front, only to be split in half vertically by a slash from Kaguya, who arrived from Gao Hai's side.
The attack range of that scalpel had expanded even further; it could almost be used as a Jedi lightsaber. But with continuous use, the scalpel was also becoming stained with blood, while Kaguya, who was using the scalpel, gradually began to show uncontrollable irritable emotions on her face.
"Don't use this Obsession Item anymore; this thing is about to lose control."
Reaching out to grab the scalpel, Gao Hai snatched it from Kaguya's hand. Immediately, he felt an incomparably intense desire to slaughter. If not for his strong willpower, Gao Hai suspected he might have immediately started hacking and killing everywhere after taking the knife.
The resentment carried by this scalpel Obsession Item was very strong. Just what kind of instance did this thing come from?
More anomalies were rushing over from all directions.
Gao Hai even saw Werbo, saw that fleshy wreck that had become fragmented because of attempting to explore the 'Gentle Slope' in the end. However, somewhat surprisingly, this anomaly did not attack Gao Hai and the others. Instead, it dragged a man wearing a suit who looked no different from the other anomalies around him. The two anomalies fell into the abyss together just like that, falling into the endless darkness below.
Rumble—
More platforms were still collapsing; this place would soon cease to exist.
Gao Hai and the others struggled to jump forward across a few more platforms, moving at accelerated speed among these collapsing and shattered ruins.
And it was just at this time that Gao Hai saw, not far ahead, a considerably large safety rope suddenly fall from above.
Raising his head, he saw Howard standing at the exit platform at the highest point.
"Quick, grab the rope."
Reaching out, he grabbed this thick safety rope.
The three girls arriving from behind grabbed the rope together with him.
Howard, up above, pulled the rope violently. With strength impossible for a human to possess, he forcefully hauled up the safety rope bearing the weight of four people, pulling the four up at an extremely fast speed.
Only at this time did Gao Hai have time to notice this rope. He discovered that this safety rope was actually made of several safety ropes interlaced and tied together, which was why this thing could hoist a full four people.
Howard above had tied the other end of the safety rope to a stone pillar at the exit of Red Nut Gray Hole, utilizing the pillar itself to create a structure approximating a manual pulley. Relying on his characteristics as half-human, half-anomaly, he forcibly pulled these four people up rapidly over a height of dozens of meters, pulling them onto the ladder at the exit of Red Nut Gray Hole.
[Go quickly, this place is about to be completely destroyed.]
Howard said seriously to the four people, including Gao Hai, who came forward.
His condition was not considered good. having been imprisoned in the Prison Area previously seemed to have formed a seal of some sort for Howard. But now that he had broken free, his side as an anomaly was constantly expanding and was about to completely swallow up his own consciousness.
"What about you?"
Gao Hai, who had parkoured all the way here, panted for breath, then spoke up to ask.
[People who are already dead naturally cannot live on. You should go. I have already rescued all the others. You are the last batch of people needing rescue, and this is also the final mission I need to complete.]
Howard smiled at Gao Hai, his expression appearing very calm.
He knew he had no way to live on, so Howard had already prepared himself for the fate of disappearance that would welcome him next.
"You guys go first."
Gao Hai spoke to Kaguya and the other two.
"Why, Hai-kun, we— Wuehh?"
"Be obedient. I have something to say. You go first."
Maki was startled by Gao Hai's action, thinking he was going to do something foolish again. Then her head was rubbed by Gao Hai's reaching hand, causing her to subconsciously let out a very cute sound.
Gao Hai glanced at Kaguya again. The latter nodded gently, reached out to pull Maki, and directly turned to leave.
"Ah Hai, then I also..."
"Yeah, go quickly. I'll be done after handling the final wrap-up here."
"Okay, then I'll wait for you up there~"
Reaching out to take off the Rescue Team Badge Chika was wearing, he watched her smile at him. After she turned and left, only then did Gao Hai look back at Howard beside him.
[What are you still doing here?]
Howard could not understand Gao Hai's actions at this moment.
"Giving you a chance to continue living. Of course, actually, I'm just trying it out too. I'm not sure if it can succeed either."
Gao Hai waved his hand as he spoke, then put that Rescue Team Badge on himself.
A water-soaked rescue suit rapidly formed on Gao Hai's body.
"That you can live until now, persist until now, implies that you have an obsession existing. You still don't want to die; you still have things you want to accomplish, don't you?"
"This Obsession Item comes from a noble person. He gave me huge help in my last mission, and this is what he left to me."
"He was a member of a Rescue Team just like you, a firefighter. So, give it a try. Put your obsession into this badge and leave here with me. A person like you shouldn't be forgotten in the darkness like this."
Gao Hai gazed at the man before him and said with an incomparably serious tone.
[...]
Briefly, Howard fell silent. The expression on his face appeared very complex, wondering what he was thinking.
[I do indeed have regrets, wishes I wanted to fulfill but couldn't.]
He began to speak slowly to Gao Hai.
[Why exactly do so-called anomalies and horror stories appear in this world?]
[It is these things that killed countless people and caused tragedy after tragedy to appear.]
[It's just that I have ultimately been bound together with this hell. I no longer have a way to leave this place. However, Mr. Gao, I can indeed leave something inside this badge. I hope it can be of help to you.]
Stretching out his hand, the man tapped on the badge Gao Hai was wearing.
It seemed some power surged into the badge. Gao Hai was slightly stunned, then he was surprised to discover that from now on, the number of Rescue Team members his badge could summon had risen from one to two.
It was just that this newly added Rescue Team member was essentially just an existence without emotions or feelings, driven purely by the obsession of 'Rescue,' no different in essence from the Rescue Team member that Lao Guo had turned into.
This man ultimately still couldn't leave this place. Even in the final moments, continuing to fulfill his duty as a firefighter by saving all the living Players in this instance, he couldn't change the destiny that he could only stay here and die.
"..."
Gao Hai couldn't help but fall silent. He didn't know what else he could say at this time.
[End these tragedies, Mr. Gao. If you can do it, I beg you, bring these tragedies to a close. Make the people who manufactured these tragedies pay the due price, and... if one day you can meet the mastermind behind all this, please, for me, for all the people who lost their lives in these horror stories, give that bastard a fierce punch.]
Reaching out his hand, he gently patted Gao Hai's shoulder.
Howard took a step forward, falling into the endless darkness just like that.
The figures of those wailing, laughing, and clamoring anomalies swarmed over at this moment, arriving in front of Gao Hai.
And Gao Hai himself, after taking a deep breath, slowly raised the hand wearing the black watch.
"Come on—"
He once again felt that intense discomfort.
It was as if his body was no longer fully controlled by him at this moment, but temporarily substituted by some eerie and terrible existence, driven by that party.
[The guilty shall suffer the burning of flames, the innocent shall rest, and the dregs shall belong to me.]
Everything changed at this moment.
It was as if a massive vortex had formed on the watch. Everything in these shattered ruins was sucked into Gao Hai's watch at this time, becoming nutrients and nourishment for this watch.
Taking steps backward, toward the stairs leaving Red Nut Gray Hole.
Gao Hai moved backward like this while raising his hand, allowing these residual obsessions and anomalies one by one to fall into the watch.
Click—
The scale on the watch returned to the mark of 5 after a crisp sound.
Click— Click—
The quantity of anomalies, far exceeding Shirakawa Apartments, brought extraordinary nutrition, causing the position of the watch's needle to change successively, jumping all the way to the position of 3.
[Aaaaaahhhhh—]
Shrill, miserable howls rang out among those anomalies.
Gao Hai saw Fulen, saw those researchers devoid of humanity, and the group including Senator Antonitovan who pushed Red Nut Gray Hole to become a hell.
These people struggled, wailed, yet unable to resist, were sucked into the watch just like that, unable to leave forever.
Gao Hai's footsteps had arrived at the exit. Just one step short, and he could thoroughly leave this place.
And in the end, the needle of this black watch returned directly to the mark of 1, recovering a full 5 marks.
And this clearly illustrated how many lives this land of sin had swallowed, and how much twisted obsession and hatred it had bred.
Time to go.
Gao Hai's footsteps moved slowly backward. At this very moment, this instance only had this last remaining section of stairs left; nothing else remained.
Nothing else remained...
Gao Hai's gaze looked forward, seeing Susan suspended in the darkness.
She was applauding Gao Hai, smiling at him.
Why are you...
Shh~
It was as if he could hear the other party saying this.
Susan... no, that was definitely not Susan, but 'something' gazing at him while borrowing Susan's body.
It placed a finger on its mouth, making a shushing gesture at Gao Hai. Then, it seemed to speak a sentence—a sentence without a shred of human emotion that rang in Gao Hai's ear.
[After the actor finishes the curtain call performance, they should leave the closing stage. Be good, run along now~]
The next moment, Gao Hai's vision was submerged by darkness, followed by boundless light covering everything. The scene just now vanished like smoke, as if it had never existed.
In the world covered by soft light, Gao Hai saw those people who had detached from the instance and obtained rest.
Andres and Hedal held hands, smiling at Gao Hai, then turned to leave. Their child followed beside the two, and the family stepped forward onto the road ahead together just like that.
The firefighters walked away shoulder to shoulder, talking and laughing, but Howard's figure was not among them.
The tourists and explorers walked out of the cavern. The staff members and security guards turned to leave together, and Werbo's figure was also among them. He looked back with a complex expression one last time at the phantom of Red Nut Gray Hole that was about to dissipate, then looked ahead, no longer looking at that place which had brought him endless pain.
Pedi was not among the leaving people; the park director had likewise been sucked into the watch.
Do the innocent rest?
Gao Hai lowered his head, looking at the only dark color within this light, looking at the watch worn on his hand.
It was simply like a cold yet impartial Judge of Hell, pronouncing the fate of every person sinking into the world of horror stories.
Two points of light fell onto Gao Hai's body, granting him a new Blessing at this moment.
And the world covered by this light dissipated herewith. Pitch-black color covered his vision once again, and that eerie voice that could be heard every time the game started rang out beside Gao Hai's ear just like that.
[Congratulations on successfully clearing the Twilight-level instance: Red Nut Gray Hole]
[Congratulations on dismantling the Twilight-level instance: Red Nut Gray Hole. You have approached the location of that road of truth. Wishing you can truly arrive at the location of that road]
[Player: Gao Hai]
[Now conducting summary evaluation of Player's personal performance]
[Your evaluation for this time is: S]
[Congratulations on obtaining the highest level evaluation for a Twilight-level instance. You have completed two Twilight-level instance evaluations of Excellent or above. The door to Dim Night shall open for you from this moment on]
[Wishing you... bzz... bzz bzz...]
Why couldn't this thing finish its sentence again?
Gao Hai, who really wanted to retort, saw an illusory scene again in the next moment, seeing something that had happened at a certain moment in the past.
That was in the prison of the Research Base. Fulen, looking at the tortured prisoner, was bowing his head and frowning in thought.
He paced slowly, his expression becoming increasingly anxious and uneasy.
And a figure wearing a white coat, whose identity couldn't be seen clearly, walked behind Fulen at this time.
[Sir, perhaps we can try a different line of thought?]
That figure spoke, the voice filled with static noise as if interfered with by something, making Gao Hai unable to distinguish if the voice was male or female, or what kind of person it was.
[Line of thought? What line of thought do you have?]
Fulen turned his head, speaking very unhappily.
[The situation of the Great Rift is so special. Perhaps, we can try sacrificing to the rift? I don't mean sacrificing animals, but sacrificing people. What if this can have some effect?]
The little researcher whose appearance couldn't be seen clearly shrank back, seemingly continuing to speak somewhat shyly and cautiously.
[Sacrificing people? What kind of line of thought is this... Wait, this line of thought perhaps... Fine, interesting. Your idea indeed has merit. So, what is your name? You look like you're new here; I thought newcomers needed some time to adapt to this place.]
Fulen initially had a dismissive expression, but just as he started speaking, he realized something. He turned violently to look at this researcher, a smile uncontrollably appearing at the corners of his mouth, then asked looking at the other party with some curiosity.
[Ahaha, Sir, you must be joking. I am just an insignificant person, that's all.]
[However, I am indeed new here, and I quite like the atmosphere of this place. To me, a place like this is simply too wonderful. I really like it here.]
[As for my name, Sir, just call me KP. That is my name.]
.
.
.
Volume 2: Claustrophobia
End
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