"Are these... clothes?"
Chika stared at the clothes scattered around the cavern before her, subconsciously speaking in a low voice.
In the wavering light of their two headlamps, a slightly damp, roughly quadrilateral small cavern was revealed before them.
There was nothing strange here, none of those 'enthusiastic' corpses, just many grimy clothes strewn carelessly on the ground, and it was impossible to tell how long they had been there.
The process of reaching the [Heart] was a bit easier than expected.
Compared to the vast space they had crossed earlier, this one-way passage to the Heart, though still narrow, was passable as long as they got down and crawled.
Gao Hai made a rough measurement of this cavern, called the [Artery]. He estimated that the narrowest section of the cavern had a width and height of about 40 centimeters. For the tall Gao Hai, such dimensions were troublesome, but still traversable. As for Chika, her figure was, after all, much more petite. Although a certain part of her was indeed magnificently developed, there was no way she would get stuck in this cavern.
The entire process was free of any strange phenomena. Nothing spoke from behind them, and there were no corpses lying on the ceiling. Because he was in the rear the whole time, Gao Hai could see Chika crawling slowly ahead of him.
How should I put it... it seems this young lady isn't just magnificently developed in the front; the development in the back is quite nice as well.
Of course, this was just a small detail Gao Hai noticed unintentionally. How could a righteous person like him possibly focus on such meaningless things during the arduous advance through a crawling tunnel? Impossible.
This final leg of the journey didn't even encounter any spatial distortion. Chika Fujiwara, who crawled ahead of Gao Hai from start to finish, remained herself the entire time. His blessing consistently identified her as human and judged her as having benevolent intentions toward Gao Hai. It could be said that unless the anomalies in this instance were terrifying enough to block his blessing, his judgment would certainly not be wrong.
Was it because they had used the mechanics to temporarily evade those four corpses that these abnormal phenomena had also vanished for the time being?
Gao Hai couldn't figure out the right answer.
In any case, the two of them ultimately reached the location of the [Heart] smoothly, confirmed that there was no second entrance, and found the sign for this area. Unlike the sign in the great space, the sign here was marked only with the name [Heart], without any descriptive text.
"Why are there so many people's clothes here..."
Chika Fujiwara cautiously observed the clothes, muttering quietly as she took a step back, having no intention of going any closer.
"Don't worry about it. As [Explorers], we've already completed our objective. We've reached the [Heart]. We'll rest for a bit, and then we'll head back immediately."
Gao Hai said casually from the side, standing in place to rest for a moment, likewise with no intention of approaching the clothes.
Looking around, Gao Hai felt that this so-called Heart was, in the end, just an ordinary-looking cave with no special features. The same various stalagmites and stalactites, the same uneven stone pillars; there was absolutely nothing to suggest any connection between this place and the name "Heart."
Chika, however, was quite sharp and discovered some fossil traces on the rock wall. She even recognized them as fossils of some prehistoric fish. She was a little excited about this and wanted to take a picture as a souvenir or something. Gao Hai quite admired the girl's optimistic spirit, but considering this was no ordinary place, and what if a bunch of people staring at them appeared in the photo, he ultimately stopped Chika's action.
"With so many fish fossils, what do you think this place was like in the past?"
"Who knows? Whatever it was like in the past, it's not a good place now. Alright, it's about time we left."
Gao Hai and Chika didn't linger in the cavern and quickly chose to leave.
The clothes messily thrown on the ground gave Gao Hai a very bad feeling, especially after he observed them closely and realized they were all casual T-shirts, shirts, shorts, jeans, and the like. He increasingly felt as if the cavern was filled with people standing around, silently staring at him.
They couldn't stay long.
A sense of crisis in his heart urged Gao Hai to act quickly.
"Ugh... we have to go again? This is so exhausting..."
Chika let out a low whimper. Crawling through the narrow cavern was an extremely physically demanding activity. And even with the protective suit and helmet, Chika's face had been scraped by the rock wall a few times; there were now several bloody marks on the side of her face.
But despite her complaints, the girl's actions showed no hesitation. She immediately ducked into the tunnel they had come from—the one with the damaged safety rope—and began crawling back into the depths at an accelerated pace.
"As long as we haven't left this place completely, we can't let our guard down. It can't be helped."
Following behind her, Gao Hai said casually, also crouching down to enter the cave.
Tsk, the sweat is making my clothes stick to my body. It feels really uncomfortable.
Thinking this, Gao Hai tugged at his clothes but couldn't move them. He didn't know if it was because of the stickiness from the sweat, but Gao Hai felt that this already form-fitting shirt seemed to be stuck tightly to his body, so tight he could barely take it off.
How did these clothes get so tight?
The feeling of confusion flickered through his mind before he quickly dismissed it.
The more important thing right now was to leave this place quickly. Gao Hai could already faintly sense the sound of someone's footsteps in the cavern.
Getting down on his stomach and clutching his backpack to his chest with one hand, Gao Hai slowly squeezed into the cave, which was only a little over forty centimeters high, and began to crawl toward the darkness ahead.
[Where am I?]
He thought he heard a confused voice from the cavern behind him.
[I was just driving, why did I end up here?]
[What's going on? How did I wake up in this place after a nap?]
[What the hell is happening? Hey, is anyone there? Help!]
More and more people were shouting all sorts of things, every voice filled with confusion, every voice filled with fear.
Gao Hai paid no mind to the voices and just kept crawling forward.
[I guess we have to crawl out of here, right?]
[There's no signal to call for help while we're stuck in here. We can only try to crawl out.]
[Hurry up, I have a weird feeling about this place.]
The voices seemed to be getting closer.
The rustling sound of crawling followed behind him.
Vaguely, Gao Hai sensed that this time, the situation might be different from before.
But he could no longer turn back now. He could only continue crawling forward, quickening his pace as much as possible, moving faster toward the darkness ahead.
And at that same moment, Kaguya was already hiding behind a stone pillar, cautiously observing the structure ahead.
It was a guard post.
It was a guard post located in the [Plains], blocking the way to the [Great Slide]. Right now, through the light from the window, she could see someone sitting inside, and she could vaguely hear music. Next to the guard post, where the entrance to the [Great Slide] should have been, it was now sealed with concrete, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding rock walls.
Grime-covered clothes were scattered on the ground.
From the moment Kaguya stepped into the cavern entrance, passed through the Stone Forest Path, and arrived at this place called the Plains, she had seen many clothes scattered on the ground along the way.
They were all casual wear; some were even pajamas, not at all like what someone exploring a cavern should be wearing.
Among these clothes, she also saw yellow-striped uniforms similar to the one she was wearing, but these were severely damaged, as if they had been torn open by something... no, it looked more like scrapes and scratches?
Had many exploration personnel before her taken off their uniforms here?
[Confirmation of 'Guard Post' complete. It is not advisable to enter now. C1, return to the entrance with your team.]
A new directive had come through the earpiece.
Because this was her first time using the equipment, Kaguya Shinomiya hadn't yet found a suitable opportunity or method to destroy the communication device, so she was still under the Command Room's control.
[Yes, I will lead the team back immediately.]
Kaguya replied as she turned around.
For a moment, she felt as if she heard a knocking sound.
It sounded like something was forcefully knocking and beating against the other side of that sealed concrete wall, the sound faintly reaching her ears.
In response, Kaguya simply turned and left without a word, leading the other two team members back the way they came, step by step.
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