"So… right now, we're basically inside a real-life game similar to a battle royale?"
She put on the close-fitting protective suit, which fit her slightly poorly, designed to resist cuts and slipping and protect the wearer from scratches while climbing, and zipped it up.
While speaking softly, Chika placed the helmet with the embedded light onto her head and tied her long hair to avoid hindering her movements.
The supply box nearby had already been opened; the exploration suit the girl was wearing had been taken from inside it. As for other items, such as portable food like energy bars and signal sticks, they were placed inside the large backpack Takumi had set on the ground.
"More or less. But the situation is worse than a battle royale. At least in a battle royale game, you generally still have the possibility of fighting back. But in a rules-type Horror Story game, aside from doing everything possible to escape, we have no other way. And those horror anomalies—the ways they kill us are countless. Sometimes just because you said the wrong sentence, the next second you'll be torn apart and die. Or a group of pretty little children block your way and ask why you aren't going home, and then you're stuffed into a small box and drowned with boiling water."
Expressionless, Takumi spoke while putting on his own protective suit, turning on his headlamp, then shifting his gaze toward the surroundings, looking at the dim cave around them.
This was absolutely not the original Red Nut Grey Cave.
Takumi remembered very clearly: every player who had cleared Red Nut Grey Cave had said that this dungeon had very few branching paths—basically like a straight line. Even those suicidal players who slipped into a dangerous area and survived by luck had said they had not encountered a situation with many branching paths.
Yet right now, just beside the supply box, Takumi could see three cave openings in different directions. Each one was very narrow; with his height of one meter eighty, he could only move forward while bending down slightly. Essentially, he and Chika standing side by side could completely block one of the entrances. It was nothing short of oppressively eerie.
Where exactly was he right now?
Takumi urgently wanted to figure this out.
"I—I understand. Are Kaguya and Shijō-san really here too?"
Chika took a deep breath, trying her best to accept the impact this moment had dealt to her worldview, while Takumi had already decided not to linger any longer and to start taking action.
This damned place gave him a very bad feeling.
Leaving aside that ghostly thing from earlier with its back of the head pierced, even though nothing had appeared around them for the moment, the Blessing Takumi possessed—the one that could judge goodwill and malice, humans and non-humans—was now frantically warning him, and the direction of those warnings… was every direction.
It was as if there were people watching him from front, back, left, right, above, and below, observing his every move, waiting for something to happen.
Takumi did not know why this Blessing was reacting so violently, but he could be certain of one thing: in rules-type Horror Story games, every anomaly had its explanation and its root cause. Therefore, the sense of unease he was feeling right now meant that there truly was something watching him at all times.
'Kaguya and Maki also have this discerning Blessing like I do. I wonder if they're feeling the same thing. I wonder how they are right now—whether they can act smoothly. If the abnormality in this instance really is because of me, then this time… I might have dragged the two of them down with me…'
The feeling of frustration flashed through his heart, then quickly settled.
Knowing that now was not the time to let his thoughts run wild, Takumi stepped forward directly and gestured for the pink-haired girl behind him to follow.
"Don't expect me to protect you, Fujiwara-san. Everyone here can barely protect themselves. Unless you can truly show value worth protecting, if we encounter danger, I will abandon you without hesitation."
Somewhat worried that the girl behind him still did not grasp the situation, Takumi spoke seriously to Chika, his voice carrying a note of warning.
"I know, I know. Um—anyway, right now we have to confirm our current location, right? Since this is a game that operates according to rules, we absolutely have to determine where we are. Big slide, big cliff, blood vessel, turning point, stone pillar plaza, large space, artery, heart. After reading that rules list, I kept thinking—could these locations be connected in exactly this order? The rules require us to go to the deepest part of this cave first, which is the position of the [Heart]. So our first priority right now is to confirm our current location, and then find a route that leads to the [Heart], right?"
Next, what Takumi saw was the spirited girl presenting her analysis to him.
"You've already memorized all nineteen rules and started summarizing them?"
Fujiwara Chika's reaction made Takumi freeze for a moment.
"Well, um, anyway, we can just treat this like a tabletop RPG, right? I've memorized the rulebooks for Call of Cthulhu and D&D from start to finish before, so this is no problem at all. Also, I was thinking about this rules list—it seems to place a huge emphasis on our identity. I get the feeling that the identity of an explorer is even more important to us than our own selves. That terrifying thing earlier was the same. After we explained our identity as explorers, it left very quickly. Could it be that only people who insist on playing their assigned role can survive in this game?"
Taking a deep breath, the girl continued speaking without hesitation, quietly explaining her thoughts to Takumi.
After the initial confusion and fear, this girl named Fujiwara Chika adjusted herself extremely quickly. She even seemed to be brimming with motivation and eagerness to try. To Takumi, it felt as if a flame were burning in her eyes, like an ultimate veteran who was already prepared to clear Elden Ring in one life without sitting at a Site of Grace.
Hopefully, this positivity of hers would increase her chances of survival.
"What you're saying makes a lot of sense. It seems I can raise my evaluation of you a bit. But since you're still a newcomer who hasn't participated in games before, your physical condition and reaction speed are inferior to those of veteran players. So if you encounter any problems, you must not make decisions on your own. Understood? Also, every ten minutes, we'll perform a mutual confirmation. I'll say to you, 'I am an explorer. My name is Takumi. I am going to explore the Heart and then leave Red Nut Grey Cave.' You repeat the same sentence back to me—of course, using your own name. Understood?"
Having revised his impression of the girl slightly, Takumi spoke seriously once again.
"I know, I know. There are things here that can make people lose sanity, right? The kind that unknowingly pollute the mind. So we have to keep confirming the identity we're playing, confirm our names and our purpose, so that we don't lose ourselves. I'll make sure to confirm properly."
Chika nodded vigorously as she spoke, immediately grasping what Takumi was really trying to convey.
Why is this girl so perceptive?
This time, even Takumi was left momentarily stunned by her.
Unlike Kaguya and Maki back then, who would agonize for a long time just to gain someone's trust (mainly Kaguya), Fujiwara Chika moved extremely fast from confusion and blankness to understanding the situation. She almost immediately accepted the worldview setting of a supernatural horror survival game, and could even understand Takumi's line of thinking extremely quickly, making him unable to help feeling as if he were leading a sensible and cute little newbie.
Even so, if they ran into danger that could not be avoided, he would still ditch this girl and run.
The cave ahead wound and stretched onward.
The smell of blood spread through the darkness.
Takumi and Chika carefully passed through a low tunnel, then encountered another supply box under faint light, but this box had already been opened. The rules list had been taken, and the exploration gear and portable food inside had all been taken as well.
"Looks like there should be other players in this area besides us. Maybe they're veteran players—that's why they were able to react and know what they should do."
Takumi spoke in a low voice, quietly raising his guard.
The instance suddenly being locked was an unforeseeable situation. The veteran players who came to participate in this instance were probably all here with the idea of clearing it easily. Now that the situation had suddenly changed, he didn't know what they would do. It would be best to treat them by the standards of Tanaka and the traitor woman first.
There were likewise multiple different cave openings here. Each one was extremely narrow, each one stretched on into the darkness, and no one knew where they led.
Takumi chose a direction where he couldn't smell much blood and moved forward, but before long he still saw a corpse.
It was a young man wearing a casual T-shirt and glasses, still clutching half a keyboard in his hand. Who knew—maybe before entering the instance he had still been in the middle of a flame war with someone.
All the bones in his body had already been twisted and broken, as if he had fallen from a great height, repeatedly smashing into different rocks along the way, until in the end even his hands and feet were contorted beyond recognition. His chest was slightly caved in, and there was a big hole knocked into one side of his head, with a deep red color still seeping out from inside.
Chika, who had just managed to muster up a bit of courage a moment ago, was naturally frightened again. But this time there was no need for Takumi to cover her mouth—she covered her own mouth, not letting the scream actually come out.
"The time of death is very short, like he just fell from somewhere."
As he said this, Takumi lifted his head, and all he saw was the rock wall close enough to touch with an outstretched hand.
Was this the effect of some kind of bizarre force?
That earlier "brains guy" looked like the back of his head had been smashed in. This one looked as if he had fallen off a cliff. Were they people who died here and turned into anomalies, granting their manner of death to the players who entered?
Thinking it over carefully, dying from a fall seemed gentler than being drowned in boiling water. It even gave him the feeling that it was not completely unacceptable.
"Let's go. We're not here to investigate a case."
"Ah, o-okay."
Although all sorts of chaotic thoughts rose and fell in his mind, Takumi did not let them affect his actions. He only said a quiet sentence, then led Chika as they quickly left this area.
This place was like a labyrinth.
Countless rock caves crisscrossed one another, looping over and over as if there were no end in sight.
More supply boxes were found. Most of them had already been opened, while a few showed no signs of being touched. Around some of them were remnants of bloodstains and torn fragments of clothing, as if to indicate that something terrible had happened here not long ago.
Takumi checked these supply crates and found that the rule sheets left behind were all the code of conduct for Explorers, and that the contents of the crates were all exploration equipment and food.
In this area, was the identity of Explorer the mainstream one?
[Drip—]
A faint sound of water droplets falling rang out near his ears.
Although most areas inside the cave remained dry, there were still a few rock chambers where water dripped down, making the air here feel slightly damp.
He remembered seeing some player intel—above the Red Nut Grey Cave, there seemed to be a lake?
Takumi recalled this while continuing forward.
Even though he could not quite figure out what was going on with these winding caves, after the first instance ended Takumi had received Kyosei's blessing of power and had already mastered the ability to distinguish his own direction and position inside caves. Therefore, at this moment, he was able to judge from the faint breeze within the cave that he was gradually approaching a larger cavern area.
If not for the abilities Kyosei had instilled in him as a rescue team leader, I probably would not even be able to walk out of just this opening cave, even if I walked until death.
"Be careful. If the situation is not right, retreat to the tunnel immediately."
Just before stepping into that larger cavern area, Takumi turned back and spoke seriously to Chika.
"Yes. I guarantee I will escape at the fastest speed and absolutely not hold anyone back."
Chika straightened up with a solemn expression and bowed to Takumi as she replied.
Then, in the very next moment, Takumi passed through the tunnel, turned off his headlamp, and cautiously stepped into this suddenly opened-up large space.
And immediately discovered that within this hollow cavern, four light sources were already present, faintly flickering and moving.
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