He heard the sound of someone knocking on something.
Gao Hai's crawling paused for a moment, then he continued forward.
The sound grew clearer and clearer, like someone was knocking, beating against a wall.
It was incredibly dull, as if the sound was coming from inside his own body.
Faintly, it seemed the sound of someone crying softly echoed along with it, as if buried somewhere very, very deep, yet also as if it were right next to him, just out of sight.
Gao Hai's breathing grew slightly heavier.
The oppressive feeling of the narrow cavern stimulated his nerves every second of every minute.
The rock scraped against his body, bringing a sensation of pain even through the protection of his suit.
Gao Hai was certain this tunnel was over a hundred meters long. Crawling through such a cavern was no easy feat. Even with the knowledge and powerful physique Gao Hai had inherited from Xusheng's memories, crawling in this place for a while left him feeling exhausted. It was truly difficult to imagine how the ordinary people trapped here must have felt.
However, as an explorer, such dangers were inevitable. From the moment he chose this path, he had to be prepared.
After all, I am an explorer.
"..."
Gao Hai stopped once again.
The same strange feeling as before spread through his mind.
He couldn't say what was wrong, but he suddenly felt as if there was a problem with him.
Is there a problem?
My thoughts, my reasoning, is there any problem with them at all?
I am an explorer, I came here to explore, there shouldn't be anything wrong with that...
No, I shouldn't be thinking like this. I need to remember, remember when a similar situation has happened before.
Gao Hai slowly crawled forward. He could no longer see Chika Fujiwara ahead of him. Unwittingly, he was once again alone in this narrow cavern.
Calm down, think carefully.
That's right, this cognitive abnormality, I experienced it once before at the Shirakawa Apartments.
After I put on the Rescue Team Badge, after wearing that Obsession Item for an extended period, I gradually began to forget who I was. I started to believe in my heart that I was a member of the rescue team, accepting from the bottom of my heart that I was a rescue worker.
Just like now, I am equally convinced that I am an explorer, without the slightest doubt about this identity, completely and utterly accepting it.
Therefore, I am not an explorer.
Gao Hai found it difficult to describe his feeling.
His mind seemed to simultaneously present two completely split lines of thought, as if one Gao Hai had become two, both crowded into one person's body, just as he was currently squeezed into this small tunnel.
One Gao Hai had been an explorer since birth. He had explored caverns large and small, accumulating a wealth of experience, a cheerful and optimistic young man. He came to the Red Nut Gray Hole, this very simple, beginner-level cave with no exploration difficulty, to have fun with a few fellow exploration enthusiasts while guiding these young people who shared his hobby.
The other Gao Hai was a player. He was trapped in this place. He wanted to escape this cavern. He... he was a somewhat frivolous man, with his own bottom line, not much of a moral compass but not entirely without one, and also a bit of a lech... He, yes, he had to find Maki and Kaguya. He had to clear this instance that had undergone a massive change, to get out of this damn place alive. He wasn't an explorer at all. He was a player. He was Gao Hai. He was just Gao Hai.
"Hah..."
With a somewhat weary exhale, Gao Hai felt as if he had just woken from a deep sleep, his entire being groggy.
At that moment, he finally realized that the identity he was playing, the suit he was wearing, while granting him the status of an [Explorer] that allowed him to function in the instance, was also transforming his mind and body, assimilating him bit by bit into the identity of an [Explorer].
The memory and identity that were assimilating him, did they belong to some explorer who died in this cavern?
Regardless, he had to take this suit off.
And he couldn't let Chika keep wearing this suit either.
If even he, whose willpower and mental fortitude were greatly enhanced by his blessing, had barely been able to react to this assimilation, then Chika Fujiwara, whose willpower was clearly inferior to his, would probably be completely unaware of the transformation happening to her. She would unwittingly become a part of this fatal cavern.
However, taking off the suit would likely invite other dangers.
Gao Hai knew very well that the reason those long-dead things wandering the cavern didn't attack him and Chika was because of the [Explorer] identity they were playing.
Once they could no longer play this role, what happened next would definitely not be good.
He had to switch to another identity.
Gao Hai thought of the tourist clothes scattered on the ground.
Put on tourist clothes? No, that's not right. Almost all the anomalies he'd seen so far were dressed as tourists. The identity of a [Tourist] in the Red Nut Gray Hole seemed to be synonymous with the existence of anomalies, so he absolutely could not switch to a tourist identity.
What about changing into another explorer's clothes, swapping out the current explorer suit? No good. The first cavern had already disappeared. The fork in the road that was originally in the [Artery] was now gone. Without being able to return to that maze-like area in the fork, there was no way to find new explorer gear. And changing explorer clothes wasn't a sure bet either; since the current abnormal phenomenon was caused by playing an explorer, the root of the problem might not be the clothes themselves.
In that case, there were only two identities left to try.
Gao Hai's gaze swept over his black watch and the backpack in his hands.
The Rescue Team Badge... the security guard uniform...
Even with many unknown dangers, these were the only two choices at the moment.
The exit of the cavern ahead was gradually drawing near.
It seemed he could again hear some chaotic noises echoing in the cavern.
A piercing sound, like a drill boring into the rock wall, and the sound of something being dragged.
The suppressed sobbing never stopped either.
[■st■■g… ■e■re■■co■■ng f■r■■ou…]
Gao Hai couldn't tell how far away that voice was coming from.
He just struggled to crawl out of the cavern, stumbling and falling to the ground, then reached out to pull open the zipper of his suit, intending to take the explorer suit off.
"Ugh!"
The next moment, Gao Hai let out a cry of pain.
The explorer suit, as it was ripped from his body, stuck to his body hair, giving him a rather intense waxing and tearing off a layer of skin along with it.
He looked down at the explorer suit and saw that his undershirt was basically fused with it. Forcibly taking it off had ripped the clothes, and several bloody scratches were torn into his arms. In the places where it wasn't fully removed, he could see sections where his skin was suctioned up, connecting to the explorer suit.
"Disgusting. Can't you do this in a more normal way?"
Complaining thus, Gao Hai took a deep breath and forcibly wrenched both of his hands free from the explorer suit, leaving them instantly dripping with blood.
The temperature inside the cavern seemed to be dropping rapidly.
Compared to when he first arrived here, the temperature had become colder, so cold that Gao Hai could already see faint white mist with each breath.
Rip—
The explorer's pants were next to be pulled off by Gao Hai.
For some reason, the shoes and helmet weren't stuck to his body; it seemed only the clothes had this problem. But Gao Hai couldn't be bothered with that now, because he turned his head and saw Chika Fujiwara crawling out of the cavern—the pink-haired girl who had started out ahead of him but was now behind him.
The blessing's judgment... human, but there seems to be some deviation from a normal human?
She can still be saved, I have to act now!
Reaching out, Gao Hai grabbed Chika's shoulder and pulled her completely out of the cavern.
"Wha— Gao-kun, how did you get ahead of me? Wait, why did you take off your explorer clothes? We're explorers, how can we take off our explorer suits? An explorer who doesn't wear an explorer suit can't be called an explorer, can they?"
The girl, who had just crawled out of the cavern, seemed a bit dazed. Seeing Gao Hai wearing only a thin T-shirt and boxers, she spoke subconsciously.
Then she realized she was being pinned to the ground by Gao Hai.
"Excuse me."
And then Gao Hai's hand grabbed the zipper on her explorer suit.
Rip—
"Eh? Eh, eh, eh?"
The wide-eyed girl immediately began to struggle, only to be easily suppressed by Gao Hai. He grabbed both of Chika's wrists with one hand and pinned her knees with one of his legs, completely immobilizing her.
"Waaah, Gao-kun, what are you, what are you doing? Don't, don't, wuuuwuuuwuuu—"
Terrified to tears by his rough actions, Chika struggled desperately and was about to scream, but Gao Hai, who had been prepared, gagged her with a strip of cloth torn from his T-shirt and then began to forcefully tear at the protective suit on her body.
After a small part of the suit was ripped from her body, Chika's terrified whimpers turned into a low moan of pain.
Dark red blood began to flow.
Unlike Gao Hai, the fusion of her explorer suit with her skin was much more pronounced. Under Gao Hai's forceful tearing, even small pieces of flesh were being ripped off along with it.
Gao Hai immediately realized that even if he managed to get the explorer suit off Chika, she would be so severely injured, equivalent to having a layer of flesh flayed off her body, that she would have basically no chance of survival.
So he took the Rescue Team Badge out of his watch and pressed it against the girl's body.
Along with a faint warmth, Gao Hai saw Chika's injuries immediately begin to heal, but the explorer suit on her body also began to change rapidly, transforming into a rescue team uniform at a visible rate.
Is it because two Obsession Items with the [Assimilation] function are acting at the same time, causing the transformation speed, and thus the rate at which the Obsession Items lose control, to accelerate?
Gao Hai didn't let Chika wear the badge for too long. Seeing that her wounds had mostly healed, he pulled it off, then continued to forcefully strip the clothes infused with anomalous power from her body.
Perhaps due to the effects of the two forces, the assimilation of the already partially transformed explorer suit with Chika Fujiwara's flesh had slowed considerably. Afterward, it only tore off a little bit of her epidermis, leaving only a few scratches on the girl's body.
"This, this suit, why..."
Having come to her senses after taking off the explorer suit, Chika struggled to get up from the ground, undisguised fear in her eyes.
But then she noticed she was now wearing only her underwear. Out of modesty, she covered her chest with her hands, pressed her legs together, and a blush appeared on her cheeks.
Although she knew this man had no malicious intentions in taking off her explorer suit and was, on the contrary, saving her, the feeling of being pinned down so tightly, unable to move, unable to resist, while being forcibly stripped... was actually... a little exciting...
"Put on this security uniform. Hurry."
Gao Hai, on the other hand, paid no attention to Chika Fujiwara's black and gray lace-trimmed underwear or her white panties with a small bow-tie pattern and gray polka dots on the side. Instead, he directly put on the Rescue Team Badge, materializing a rescue team uniform on his body.
This Obsession Item seemed to have undergone some degree of change after Xusheng found peace. When Gao Hai himself wore it, the contamination was reduced to a minimal level. Basically, as long as he wasn't fighting anomalies, he could wear this thing for a whole day and night without any problem. Considering that any injuries he sustained while wearing it would heal rapidly and his physical abilities would be enhanced far beyond human limits, he felt this thing could pass for a superhero transformation device.
But for now, all he needed was the identity of a [Rescue Team Member].
"O-Okay, I understand!"
Taking the security uniform Gao Hai threw to her, Chika, who had already noticed some strange movements starting to appear around the cavern, didn't care about the strange smell on the uniform and quickly put it on.
Then, the girl raised her head in a slight daze and found herself sitting inside a guard post, in front of a desk. In the light, she saw a gloomy cavern outside the window in front of her. Three people in yellow-striped uniforms were not far away. The figure at the very front looked a bit familiar, but she couldn't see clearly from such a distance.
[Confirmation of 'Guard Post' complete. It is not advisable to enter now. C1, return to the entrance with your team.]
[Yes, I will lead the team back immediately.]
Kaguya Shinomiya turned around and started heading back with the other two team members.
And just then, Chika heard the sound of a door opening to her side. She turned her head and saw a figure in a security uniform slowly walk in.
Shwaaaa—
Under the pouring rain, Gao Hai wiped the water from his face and looked at the stern-faced rescue workers and firefighters around him.
"The situation inside the Red Nut Gray Hole is currently completely unknown. We must rescue as many people as possible while ensuring our own safety. Everyone gets a copy of the regulations. You have 3 minutes to read them and memorize them, then we move out!"
A bearded white man in a firefighter's uniform roared at Gao Hai, and copies of the regulations in waterproof bags were placed in his hands.
________________________________________
Get rewarded for helping with our community goals!
🚀 Tier Reward: Help us reach 10 members for +5 chapters on all stories!
👻 Join the crew by searching Ms. Medusa on (P). You know the spot! 😉