At this moment, the number of people already gathered in this open area totaled four.
That was a very unlucky number.
The good news was that, through his blessed identification, all four of them were human.
The news that was harder to judge as good or bad was that these four did not look like novice players at all. He could not sense clear goodwill or malice from them, and it was also very obvious that he had already been discovered—the four searchlights were all shining toward his direction.
"Hey, sir over there, are you an Explorer? An Explorer player here to sightsee?"
One of the four people took two steps forward and spoke. From his voice, he sounded like someone from Japan.
"We're all human, all humans—please rest assured we're not monsters. I'm Dennis, an outdoor streamer, an Explorer."
Another man followed up, waving his hand, then grinned at Takumi. Judging from the way this person looked, he did not seem like an experienced player; he seemed to be a newcomer who had wandered in by mistake.
Aside from these two who took the initiative to greet him, there was also a man and a woman who did not speak. They only stood at a slightly farther distance, observing Takumi.
From the movements of these two, they seemed to have already prepared to use an Obsession Item at any time, and they looked quite vigilant.
"I'm an Explorer."
Knowing he had been exposed, Takumi did not hide anymore. He stood up and spoke calmly.
"I'm a player Explorer, here to sightsee. I haven't been to the heart yet. What about you?"
He did not let Fujiwara Chika behind him come out immediately, but instead had her wait a little, and then asked the four people over there.
"We haven't either. This is a large space, and we still haven't confirmed which direction can reach the artery. You don't need to be so vigilant—just call your companion out. There's nothing dangerous here, so there's no need to worry."
That Japan man then spoke again. He seemed to have some way to detect the situation over here, and he seemed very concerned about the hidden Chika.
"Really. The three of them are pretty good. If they hadn't looked after me, there's no way I could have reached here."
Dennis continued right after that, with a very enthusiastic attitude.
"No need. It's fine right here. Where did you all come from? Haven't you seen anyone else?"
But Takumi was unwilling to go over. On his side, of the two people, in reality only he was an experienced player who possessed an Obsession Item. Chika was a pure newcomer, and she also did not have a physique as formidable as Kaguya and Maki's. On the other side, there were at least three experienced players. If a civil war broke out, the pressure on him would be very great, so no matter what, he had to maintain a safe distance.
"All around are cave openings, just like you can see. This place is already completely different from what the intel says. The only thing we can confirm is that the way over there leads to the turnaround point. But we're Explorers, aren't we? We have to find a way to locate the heart. Otherwise, if we just go back like this, it wouldn't count as being an Explorer. Want to travel together? I think if everyone acts together, maybe it'll be much better."
The Japan man took a step closer and spoke with a cheerful grin.
"Then let's forget it. The two people on my side are good enough. I wish you all a smooth arrival at the heart."
After this round of conversation brought no gains, Takumi frowned and decided to retreat back into the initial cave.
From his experience so far, dangerous corpses did exist inside the cave, but as long as one could stick to the identity of an [Explorer], and wear the full set of Explorer clothing, one could still safely avoid those things' attack rules and be fine.
But the three people here had far too many uncertainties. Leaving aside the two players who never stated their stance, this Japan man looked like he had been constantly releasing goodwill, yet Takumi's Blessing showed no goodwill reaction toward him at all. It even started, more or less, to sense faint, unclear malice because he was not cooperating much with the other side.
Although it was not yet the kind of malice that would produce an intention to attack him, in Takumi's view, the attitudes of these three people were already clearly not the type that could cooperate properly.
Since that was the case, giving up on contacting and cooperating with them, and continuing to move together with Chika—someone whose background he at least knew—meant that at the critical moment, he would not have to worry that someone behind him would suddenly stab him in the back.
Having made up his mind like this, Takumi took a step back, and then suddenly felt a bit puzzled. He vaguely felt that he had ignored something just now.
"At least consider your companion's opinion. Don't make decisions arbitrarily on your own, okay? Only cooperation lets you survive better, doesn't it?"
But the Japan man still refused to give up. He stepped forward another step and spoke seriously to Takumi.
This guy just won't stop, will he…
Takumi was about to recall what he had overlooked when the other side's sentence cut him off, and he felt somewhat unhappy and wanted to snap back at him. But right after that, he realized something from the other side's words.
Just now, he said, his companion's opinion?
Realizing something, Takumi turned his head, and saw that Fujiwara Chika, at some point, had already slipped to his side. She was squatting down behind him, quietly sneaking along.
How did this idiot run out?
Takumi frowned, not expecting her to act on her own, and was just about to say something, but Chika stared at him and opened her mouth silently, then turned her head to look in the direction of that Japan man, and then took out her phone and typed something to show Takumi.
[I was just hearing you talk to two people, but as you kept talking, one person's voice disappeared. You didn't trigger some kind of death scenario, did you?]
This line of text made Takumi abruptly turn his head and look toward the side of the Japan man—toward the direction of the man who had greeted them enthusiastically at the beginning and had introduced himself as Dennis.
He was not there.
That man was no longer in his original position.
Had he been attacked by some bizarre force?
Had he disappeared directly?
But earlier in the cave, he and Chika had already seen corpses. Generally speaking, the bizarre entities in this instance should leave behind bodies.
Or was it that…
Takumi raised his head.
His gaze shifted upward, toward the ceiling of the cave.
He found him very quickly.
Mouth wide open, sprawled against the rock wall, lodged at the angle between two rock faces in defiance of gravity, the man was staring straight at him.
Under the dim light, that face was deathly pale, without the slightest trace of blood color.
The man's eyes had already rolled upward, leaving only bloodshot whites facing Takumi.
The Explorer clothing he was wearing had become tattered—no, rather than tattered, it should be said that it was slowly dissolving, as if an item that had lost some kind of effect could no longer maintain its own existence and was therefore collapsing and vanishing bit by bit.
Takumi's gaze met the man's face, and he felt as if he could see the other party letting out a soundless roar at him.
For a brief moment, he even thought that he was already done for, and had already prepared to use an Obsession Item to struggle one last time.
But after calming down slightly, he confirmed that this was merely a corpse—just like the one he had seen lying on the ground earlier, the keyboard warrior on whom he had sprinkled a bit of bone ash before leaving—still an ordinary corpse that had not yet been contaminated or transformed by bizarre power.
The question was: why had he silently turned into a corpse?
Where was the thing that attacked him?
Takumi's gaze shifted slightly once more, sweeping across the entire ceiling of the cave.
[Drip—]
A corpse, pierced through by a hanging stalactite and suspended from the ceiling of the cave, entered Takumi's field of vision.
Another corpse, its abdomen pierced through by a stalactite, hung overhead in defiance of gravity.
One corpse after another—bodies dead in all kinds of different postures, embedded among the dense forest of stalactites on the ceiling—were silently hanging there. Until Takumi raised his head to look at them, he had not sensed them in the slightest.
[Welcome to the Red Nut Grey Cave]
[We hope we can spend a pleasant time here]
Noisy sounds began to ring out beside his ears.
The corpses seemed to move.
But it was not the individual bodies hanging from the ceiling.
Rather, it was a group of tourists, led by a tour guide, visiting this cave.
Tourists…
They were [Tourists]?
At this moment, Takumi felt the sounds beside his ears become even more piercing, even more blurred, and increasingly difficult to distinguish.
That Japan man seemed to still be saying something.
He stepped a little closer, as if trying to observe and confirm Chika's situation beside Takumi. But because the girl was squatting down, and there was also a stone pillar blocking the view, he had no way to see her at all.
Takumi only tilted his head slightly, doing his best to listen carefully to that voice.
That voice was saying…
They were saying…
[Everyone, please look up now. Look—aren't the stalactite formations here very unique?]
In the very next instant, Takumi rolled on the spot, grabbed Chika, and the two of them rolled together, directly tumbling back through the cave opening they had just come out of.
Piercing screams, painful wails, chaotic footsteps…
All kinds of sounds were mixed together, interwoven with the voices of those three players, as well as other hard-to-identify sounds that carried a bone-chilling sense of the bizarre.
From the sound of it, those three players did not seem to have been overwhelmed by this sudden round of attacks.
However, Takumi had no interest in confirming the situation. Instead, he decisively left, choosing to head off in another direction.
"Just now… the sounds from that place…"
Frightened by the bizarre, clamorous noises, Fujiwara Chika followed closely behind Takumi, cautiously looking at him, unable to hide her curiosity as she wanted to ask something.
"It has nothing to do with us. We're just Explorers. I am Explorer Takumi. I'm going to the heart, and then I'll leave this place. And you?"
Takumi turned his head and spoke quickly to Chika.
"I am Explorer Fujiwara Chika. I'm also going to the heart, and then I'll leave this place. Um… I didn't do anything wrong just now, right?"
The girl replied at once, then cautiously asked another question.
"Notifying me after discovering an anomaly was the correct move. But don't go too far with sneaking around—if you're even a step late, there's no remedy for regret. When you encounter a situation, you must report it immediately, unless it's under some kind of special restrictive condition."
As he said this, Takumi paid no attention to Chika nodding her head rapidly like a pecking chick. Instead, he had already begun to recall the entire sequence of events surrounding the earlier anomaly.
That man named Dennis—he had become some kind of medium through which the Horror Story power was activated. The things on the ceiling were probably manifested through his corpse as well. The problem was: how had he died without a sound? Was it because he said something he should not have said?
If that was the case, then what he had said at the time was…
[We are all human, all humans]
Was it because his description of his own identity was incorrect?
Realizing this, at that moment Takumi finally gained a more concrete understanding of the repeatedly emphasized [personal identity] in the rules.
The clothing at his side was tugged lightly.
Takumi turned his head and saw Chika extending her hand, pointing in a certain direction.
He followed her gaze and turned as well, and saw, deep within the cave she was pointing toward, a faint pale-yellow light leaking out—different from the searchlights of the supply crates from before.
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