A man with a ferocious face, a woman gloomy and ghastly pale.
The root of all disasters in the Shirakawa Apartments had appeared at this final moment to stop those present from escaping.
Rumble—
The ruins outside the door of Room 309 were collapsing more and more severely. In the far distance, the ruins could be seen sinking into complete darkness, into a void of nothingness. And the darkness shrouding the entire ruin was also fading, bit by bit. Time was nearly up; the end of the third day was fast approaching. If they delayed any longer, they would surely be trapped.
Therefore, there could be no hesitation.
Every second counted; there was no room for hesitation.
"Kaguya, use the Blood Puppet on that woman!"
Gao Hai shouted abruptly, and as the words left his mouth, he had already turned to face the man.
Hearing his voice, Kaguya threw out the Blood Puppet without a moment's hesitation. Blood-and-flesh automatons materialized from thin air, violently dragging the woman to a halt and rendering her immobile.
At the same time, Gao Hai faced the ferocious-looking man and yelled at him with a powerful voice:
"Li Youcai, pay me back!"
Following those resonant words, the ferocious expression on the man's face wavered for an instant, and he even seemed to shrink back a little.
*I... I have no money. My salary hasn't been paid, I have no money...*
The man muttered these words, frozen in place.
"Maki, get inside, quickly!"
Gao Hai immediately said to the girl beside him.
"I can't, this door won't let me in..."
Maki had wanted to say something like, "You go first," but Gao Hai shot her a glare. The girl bit her lip and tried to walk through the door, only to find herself blocked by an invisible wall.
"You can't get in? No, it's these two. We have to get these two things out of the room, or this door can't be used!"
The unexpected situation stunned Gao Hai for a moment, but he immediately understood the reason. To the little girl, this door was a shield against all harm. Therefore, as long as her parents, whom she saw as a threat, were near the door, it would remain inaccessible.
He had to get these two bastards out of here!
"Knife!"
Gao Hai held out his hand and shouted to Maki.
The sharp scalpel was passed to him. Gao Hai then took a step forward and slashed at the man. Although the Obsession Item knife looked small, the wound it created was much larger than its form. Gao Hai severed the thing's legs in a single strike, causing its upper body to collapse to the ground.
"Li Youcai, pay me back!"
Gao Hai shouted as he tried to kick the thing's leg to push it out. But the moment he touched the man's leg, an intense pain accompanied by the burning sensation of boiling water spread through him, forcing Gao Hai to take a step back. A horror story was still a horror story. Even if it had a human appearance, even if it spoke human words and gave the impression that it could be reasoned with, its fundamental nature remained unchanged.
*I have no money... I... I don't owe you money?*
The man whose legs had been severed was restored to his original state in the next instant.
The confused expression caused by Gao Hai's shout was gradually changing, slowly returning to its original viciousness.
But in the next moment, Gao Hai grabbed it around the waist, held it tight, and rammed it out of the doorway. Both figures tumbled into the ruins outside the door of 309, which had already slanted into a steep slope.
Gao Hai stood up. Boiling water appeared on his Rescue Team uniform, then quickly vanished.
Another thud sounded from behind him. Kaguya, also wearing a Rescue Team uniform, charged out and knocked the woman flying. In mid-air, she twisted and kicked the woman, sending her tumbling into the ruins as well.
"The Blood Puppet is almost at its limit. Any longer and it'll go out of control. I can last 30 seconds with the badge,"
Kaguya landed, taking a deep breath and speaking quickly to Gao Hai, her breathing somewhat labored.
"I can still hold on for over a minute. Knock them far away, don't let them get near this door! Maki, help Sun Dajun and the others!"
Gao Hai said to Kaguya as he started to charge forward. Just then, he saw Mameier approaching, supporting Sun Dajun. He yelled to Maki, who had also run out of the door, then once again went for the man in front of him, landing a fierce punch right on his nose and knocking him to the ground.
Unlike before, wearing the badge and manifesting the Rescue Team uniform made him partially like an anomaly. While he couldn't destroy other anomalies, he could now affect them, unlike before when merely touching one would get him injured instead.
*My... daughter...*
The man's expression was growing more and more violent as he slowly recovered from the frozen state caused by Gao Hai's words.
"My ass! Just die!"
Gao Hai launched a flying kick, knocking the man down again and sending him rolling further down the ruins.
*Rat... Rat...*
On the other side, Kaguya leaped high, clamping her legs around the screaming woman who was trying to charge forward. With a powerful twist of her body in mid-air, she sent the woman flying far away, tumbling a great distance down the ruins, more than three times farther than Gao Hai had knocked back the man.
"Hai-kun, Miss Kaguya, hurry!"
Maki had already led the two inside the room. Without much time for explanation, she ushered Sun Dajun and Mameier through the small bedroom door.
Because the 'parents' were now far from 309, the two entered smoothly, disappearing through the door and escaping the collapsing game.
The girl chose not to follow them in. Instead, she unhesitatingly turned and ran back outside, yelling to Gao Hai and Kaguya.
By now, Gao Hai had punched the man to the ground again. Kaguya, beside him, pulled a pitchfork left by some unknown resident from the rubble and drove it through the man's chest, pinning him to the ground. Only then did the two see Miwa Maeda running towards them, completely out of breath.
"Hurry up!"
Gao Hai shouted at Miwa. Beside him, Kaguya had reached her limit. She had to take off the badge, the Rescue Team uniform disappearing as she gasped for air.
Since he still had about twenty or thirty seconds left, Gao Hai didn't hesitate. He simply scooped up the exhausted, weakened, and mentally drained Kaguya into his arms and charged straight for the door.
"W-wait for me!"
Miwa trailed behind, panting, but how could Gao Hai dare to wait for her? The surrounding ruins were collapsing more and more severely. The completely dark void had already crept to within a few hundred meters, and that distance was still shrinking.
"Hurry, hurry!"
Maki shouted, trying to come down to help, but she stumbled after taking just one step.
Rumble—
The ruins around the door of Room 309 were gradually tilting.
The worsening collapse caused the ruins to fall and dissipate in all directions, making the entire structure begin to sink.
Realizing something was wrong, Maki looked back and saw that the door to 309 was now suspended in mid-air, floating about half a meter above the ground, a height that was continuously increasing.
If this continued, they wouldn't make it out in time!
"Hurry up!"
Shouting once more, Maki jumped onto the threshold of 309. Her eyes scanned the room frantically. She then pushed over a large cabinet, laying it across the doorway to anchor it. Next, she ripped down the curtain from the living room window, tied one end to the cabinet handle, and threw the other end down towards Gao Hai and Kaguya, who were fast approaching.
By now, the distance between the ground and the door of 309 had widened to more than five or six meters, almost two stories high.
The entire ruin was continuously descending.
Falling into the boundless darkness, dissipating, until it returned completely to nothingness.
Only the door of 309 stood high above, still emitting light from within, like the sole salvation in this hell.
Gao Hai finally reached the open ground below 309. He leaped up, grabbed the curtain, and with a powerful thrust from his other arm, used the strength from the Rescue Team badge to throw Kaguya upwards. He tossed her directly to the doorway of 309, where Maki reached out, grabbed her, and pulled her into the room.
Next, Gao Hai, also nearing his limit, removed the badge. He took a few difficult deep breaths to steady himself, then climbed forcefully upwards, quickly reaching the door, where he was pulled up by Maki and Kaguya's outstretched hands.
Only then did Miwa Maeda finally reach the area below 309. She jumped with all her might to grab the curtain but had no strength left to climb.
"Save me, save me!"
Hanging from the curtain, Miwa couldn't help but cry out.
"Fucking hell, still a completely useless burden..."
Gao Hai cursed, with no intention of saving Miwa Maeda. He was about to drag Maki and Kaguya through the door. But before he could act, he noticed that Green's body, which should have been dead, twitched a few times, snapped the threads on it, and stood up.
Damn it!
In the heat of the moment dealing with that bastard couple, the three of them hadn't paid attention to Green's body, forgetting that corpses undergo strange transformations in the Shirakawa Apartments.
*It's so late, why aren't you back in bed? That's not what good children do.*
A bizarre, twisted tone came from Green's mouth.
This man, covered in severe burns and crisscrossed with stitches, was now speaking coyly like a woman, just like the girl's subhuman mother.
Was it a 'Mother' incarnation created by the apartment's twisted rules, or a change in the consciousness of a contaminated resident? At this critical juncture, Gao Hai had no time to ponder its origins. But he was certain of one thing: just like the fake Kaguya from the first loop, this thing must not be dealt a fatal or incapacitating blow, or its combat power would increase drastically.
And this fake Green... his injuries already seemed fatal, didn't they? After all, he seemed to have stopped breathing just a moment ago.
Bang!
Before Gao Hai could react, a gunshot rang out. Maki, who was in charge of Lao Guo's backpack and thus had the gun, fired decisively, shooting through Green's leg and causing him to stumble to one knee.
The next moment, Kaguya reacted. Pivoting on her feet, she twisted at the waist and delivered a powerful kick, sending Green flying and rolling next to the doorway.
Finally, Gao Hai, who had already started moving towards the 309 door, wrapped both arms around the waist of the toppled Green. With a sharp backward arch of his body, he flung Green into the air, executing a perfect German suplex and throwing him right out of 309.
"Hah..."
Her stamina completely depleted, Kaguya knelt on the floor, barely able to stand.
Gao Hai, also exhausted, leaned against the wall by the door, panting heavily. It took him a long moment to recover, and his vision was blurry.
The intense drain from the Rescue Team badge, the climb, and the recent emergency fight—all of it had left him feeling like his lungs were trembling with every breath.
"We can't delay any longer. Let's go."
Maki, who was in the best condition, helped Gao Hai to his feet, then helped Kaguya up. This was a critical moment. She knew there was no time to sympathize with Miwa Maeda below; survival had to be the priority. With a struggle, she suppressed her kindness.
"Yeah, let's go. It's time to go."
Gao Hai leaned on the wall, smiled at Maki, and took a step. The three of them walked towards the door.
Outside, below them, Miwa Maeda suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream, as if she had seen something terrifying.
A sense of foreboding washed over him. Gao Hai turned his head and saw black arms suddenly reach in from outside the door, shooting towards Kaguya at high speed.
Click—
He seemed to hear the sound of a clock's hands being turned.
Those who turn the hands and rewind time will be cursed by the apartment's power, forming a connection with it.
That connection caused the clock-turner to see the clock as a human head, but Gao Hai had never known what other problems it caused.
But now, seeing these black arms, these same black arms that had once seized him and Maki, he suddenly understood.
It was the resentment of the dead who could never leave the apartment, combined with the apartment's rules, that had given rise to this thing.
In the first loop, Maki had a shallow interaction with the dead through the letter, and was thus attacked and taken to the third floor. At that time, he had turned the clock, and turning the clock was something most of the dead in Shirakawa Apartments had done. This made Gao Hai a target as well, so he was dragged to the third floor along with her.
And in this loop, the clock-turners were Miwa Maeda and Kaguya.
These black arms seemed unable to kill directly, but they could move people to extremely dangerous places—like moving him and Maki to the third floor, or, for instance, taking Miwa and Kaguya away from the escape route.
Gao Hai reached out and pushed Maki, sending the unprepared girl through the glowing door of the small bedroom.
The next moment, he grabbed Kaguya's arm, and his other hand swiftly clutched her collar. Then, both he and Kaguya were seized by the black arms, flung out of the doorway, and thrown from 309 towards the ever-shrinking ruins below, which now spanned only about a hundred meters.
"Are you an idiot? You could have just ignored that Miwa woman. Why are you saving me now?!"
This unexpected development caused Kaguya's expression to change drastically, and she couldn't help but rebuke Gao Hai.
"Isn't it simple? She did nothing for me, but you are a comrade who genuinely helped me and fought alongside me. I can be ruthless to a stranger I've only just met, but if I can't even save someone who truly helped me, then what's the point of clearing the game?"
Gao Hai said with a grin. Then, they crashed to the ground, landing squarely on a dusty mattress.
Miwa Maeda, who had also been thrown down, landed on another bed. She was screaming and scrambling off it, trying to run back towards the door of 309, only to realize with despair that she was now more than ten meters below the curtain hanging from the door. It was impossible to get back up.
"Completely incomprehensible... utterly meaningless..."
On the other bed, Kaguya pushed herself up from Gao Hai's arms, taking deep, angry breaths as she watched him and spoke in a low, teeth-grinding voice.
Incomprehensible.
She really couldn't understand this man.
Was there really any point in doing this?
Kaguya, who followed the teachings of the Shinomiya family and had always believed in using others for absolute gain without showing true emotion, simply could not comprehend Gao Hai's choice to die here with her when he could have survived on his own.
Was there truly any meaning to be found in this action?
"Just think of me as an idiot who risks his life to impress girls, though I haven't decided if I want to hang myself on Maki's tree just yet. Anyway, ahem, you're a bit exposed. You should mind your appearance, Miss Shinomiya."
Gao Hai coughed lightly and averted his gaze.
Only then did Kaguya notice that because Gao Hai had grabbed her collar too forcefully, part of it had been torn open, revealing her collarbone, one shoulder, and...
"Shameless!"
Kaguya snapped, pulling her collar closed.
"Hey, hey, what's with the attitude? It's not like I did it on purpose, you know."
Having anticipated this response, Gao Hai retorted with a wry smile before getting off the bed and looking around.
This last patch of ruins was about to completely collapse.
Above, the faintly glowing door of 309 had shrunk to a mere point of light.
So, it was a failure after all.
He had wanted to end everything in the third loop.
But it's okay. The next round will be the time for a perfect clear.
Gao Hai clenched his fist slightly. Looking at the darkness closing in around him and feeling his own heartbeat, he had to admit that he was still afraid, genuinely terrified of the completely unknown death that was about to come.
"Is it going to end in a place like this?"
Kaguya walked up beside him, one hand holding her torn collar, and spoke softly as she faced the darkness ahead.
"Yeah, what a pity. You know, I've grown up and never even been kissed by a girl. Since we're both about to bite the dust, how about we try it out and see what a kiss feels like?"
Gao Hai said, struck by a sudden idea as he turned to Kaguya.
"You already had Maki kiss you in the last loop, and now you're saying this to me. You can start over again, can't you? Your reset is different from the wall clock's, which is why you aren't afraid."
The next moment, Kaguya spoke in a low, knowing voice, causing Gao Hai to freeze.
So Maki told Kaguya even about that.
This girl is really smart, to have figured that out. How should I put it? She's the complete opposite of that love-addled idiot from the anime.
"You found me out. That's right. But, it'll still hurt when it hurts, so I'm actually still very scared right now. I'm serious about that."
Gao Hai nodded lightly, his expression turning solemn.
"...So, in your view, enduring the pain of death once to save me is worth it?"
This question made Kaguya hesitate. After a long silence, she spoke again. This time, however, Kaguya didn't look up to meet Gao Hai's gaze, but her tone remained as calm as ever, sounding no different from usual.
"Yes, it's worth it. You saved my life. When we faced a hopeless situation, you used your last bit of strength to leave us a message to help us escape. To me, that kindness and the bond of fighting side-by-side cannot be betrayed. If I had abandoned you and left, I would never have been able to forgive myself."
Gao Hai nodded again in response to Kaguya's question, answering without hesitation.
"...I see. Then come a little closer. I have something to say."
"Huh?"
Next, Gao Hai lowered his head slightly. Kaguya, looking up, stood on her tiptoes and lightly pressed her lips to his cheek before pulling away.
"A kiss is reserved for lovers. For you, take this as encouragement. A prize for being willing to face the end with *this* me, Gao-kun."
Unlike Maki's enthusiastic cry of "Hai-kun," Kaguya's tone when she said "Gao-kun" remained calm, carrying a hint of polite distance. It felt like they were friends, yet perhaps something slightly more than friends, a sense of misplacement.
*This* me?
Gao Hai realized that the girl before him already understood that when the next loop began, she would not retain her memories and would have to get to know him all over again.
Is it because she knows *this* self will inevitably die that she gave me a kiss? Even so, she was only willing to kiss my cheek. Should I call it the pride of the Ice Kaguya Princess or the last stand of a maiden's heart? Well, this feeling is quite nice too, a completely different path from Maki.
Not far behind them, Miwa Maeda was still sitting on the ground, wailing.
But Gao Hai and Kaguya just stood there, watching the darkness ahead as it gradually collapsed and drew nearer.
And...
Climbing out from the collapsing ruins were the utterly twisted forms of Li Youcai and Xu Jiazhen, their expressions ferocious and terrifying, like two vengeful ghosts.
"Hey, hey, hey, aren't you two a bit too persistent? It's the end of the line, can't you just die already?"
Not expecting to encounter these two at the very end, Gao Hai couldn't hold back his frustration. He pulled Kaguya back with him, putting distance between them and the two things.
However, this time, the situation seemed a bit different.
*I... I... why am I here... I... I have to leave...*
*Leave... why... that brat gets to be free... I... I have to... too...*
Neither Li Youcai nor Xu Jiazhen, this pair of 'parents,' were acting strictly according to the rules of a horror story like before. Instead, they were howling in low, hoarse voices, speaking in broken fragments. It seemed as if... as if they were regaining their senses, becoming lucid.
Could it be that these two... wait, Xusheng had said that this couple had initially retained their sense of self, just like him, but he later lost track of them. Could it be that because the core of the horror story is collapsing, their anomaly side is also starting to disappear, allowing their original, vanished personalities to be restored to some extent, slowly turning them back into people?
*I want... out...*
*I want... to kill her...*
In the next moment, their twisted, hate-filled gazes turned upward, towards the speck of light from 309 shining high in the sky.
Even with only fragmented memories and self-awareness restored, their twisted hatred for their daughter remained incredibly vivid. Their first instinct was to drag the little girl who had escaped the Shirakawa Apartments back down into this hell.
Crack—Crack—
The ruins, which had been constantly falling, actually began to slowly rise.
Under the will of these two figures closest to the core anomaly, the ruins were forcibly brought closer to the position of 309, even though this would further accelerate their collapse.
"I thought we'd just have a pathetic end, disappearing along with these ruins. I didn't expect we'd get one more round. What do you say, Miss Shinomiya, are you interested in a bit of a brawl? I mean the kind of brawl where you get to beat the hell out of two subhuman bastards."
Gao Hai pointed at the two figures standing ahead, staring up at the sky, and then asked in a relaxed tone.
"Personally, I don't actually like violence. I prefer to achieve my goals through words. However, for things like this, worse than those who live on social welfare, more disgusting than non-combustible contaminated waste, I think fists are indeed more useful at this moment."
Kaguya nodded lightly, stretching her sore body, and then stepped towards the two figures.
Thud—
They had no intention of concealing their footsteps.
Gao Hai and Kaguya stepped forward simultaneously, advancing to meet Li Youcai and Xu Jiazhen.
*You... don't interfere... Do you... want to die here?*
The man was the first to realize their intentions, speaking in a hoarse voice, trying to stop Gao Hai and Kaguya.
But the answer he received was Gao Hai's fist, smashing squarely into his face.
"I'm just doing it for fun, get it?"
With a punch that sent three of the man's teeth flying and left his nose crooked and bleeding, Gao Hai replied calmly, then followed up with another vicious blow.
________________________________________
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