The blood-red city.
It felt reassuring, like returning home.
Cough, that was a joke. In truth, if possible, Gao Hai never wanted to come back to this damned place. Every time he arrived here, it meant he was one step closer to true death.
But this time was an exception. Only this once, Gao Hai truly felt what it meant to wish for death. The torment of being imprisoned in that dark cavern, tortured half to death by hunger and dehydration, his entire body slowly crushed and twisted—it was utterly terrifying and despairing.
Even after entering this blood-red city, Gao Hai lay on the ground for quite a while before struggling to sit up slowly, bit by bit regaining sensation.
He had been trapped in that hellhole for far too long— so long that Gao Hai felt his sanity on the verge of collapse.
If the Shirakawa Apartments in the first game had made him somewhat averse to knocking sounds, now he truly had developed claustrophobia. Locked in that cramped cavern for a full thirty days... no, during the instance, real-world time didn't flow, so he had actually been trapped for a whole forty-five days...
Imprisoned in the dark cavern for so long, enduring maddening agony and the horror of his body gradually shattering into pieces—it was unbearable, truly unbearable.
"Hoo... Chika Fujiwara, now I owe you a huge debt..."
Thinking of that girl's smile toward him in the final moment, and the heartfelt words she poured out, Gao Hai's heartbeat became irregular.
He couldn't help recalling the moments from the first loop when he acted together with Chika Fujiwara, the times this girl had always stayed by his side.
Unlike Maki Shijo, who had strong opinions and ideas, always carrying herself proudly, Chika's personality was much softer. When facing the unknowns in rules-based horror stories instances, she tended to assist him, helping Gao Hai with various tasks. But when she needed to act alone, the girl could come up with ideas and attempts. For instance, when trapped in the land of lingering regrets, she secretly obtained a promotional flyer, allowing Gao Hai to confirm the identity of that senator—a member of the Bush family, one of Amelian's four great families.
That identity was impressively high-ranking; no wonder even when Pedi later realized something was wrong and wanted to shut down the scenic area, he couldn't follow through. With such a heavyweight backing it, let alone Pedi—even Superman Clark might be helpless, unless switching to an Injustice skin or something.
Of course, in horror story games, such identities meant nothing. From that Bush senator's appearance in the land of lingering regrets, it was clear he had also been pulled into the cavern and suffered the cruel death of drowning alive in the cave. Hmm, for a guy like that, Gao Hai felt it was well-deserved. If he could suck that guy into his watch as fuel, he'd have zero psychological burden.
Buzz—
At that moment, Gao Hai heard a sound.
He looked up and saw several items slowly descending from high above.
A necklace that didn't look particularly remarkable.
A bottle of sleeping pills.
And a silver ring.
A total of three Obsession Items, just like that, landing before Gao Hai.
The first two Obsession Items belonged to that guy named Kawano—probably because during the water fight, Gao Hai's blood had splattered everywhere, staining his Obsession Items.
The necklace's effect was to impose psychological hints, subtly biasing the target's thinking toward the user's expectations. However, this Obsession Item's inducement wasn't strong; it could only work on matters not violating the target's principles. For example, if someone liked both apples and oranges and hesitated between them, you could use this Obsession Item's power, through verbal communication, to make them choose apple or orange. But if it was their preferred orange or a durian they hated, no matter how you activated the Obsession Item or communicated, you could at most make them avoid apple—you absolutely couldn't convince them to choose durian.
The second Obsession Item, the bottle of sleeping pills, had a straightforward and brutal effect: restore stamina. One pill rapidly healed wounds and, for about ten minutes afterward, allowed extremely fast healing from any injury as long as it wasn't instantly fatal. But this Obsession Item was nearly out of control; once the first pill was taken, you basically couldn't take a second in the entire instance, as the second would almost certainly lead to anomalous possession.
That Kawano had probably encountered something while crawling through the [Blood Vessel] too. Unlike Gao Hai, who was directly locked by the core Obsession Item for VIP treatment at a premium restaurant, Kawano might have met something else, gotten injured, and failed to pass the [Blood Vessel] within 10 minutes, forcing him to risk the second pill. He GG'd successfully, got possessed by the anomaly, and caused massive trouble for Gao Hai and Chika.
Should he loot this guy's Obsession Items? Thinking it over, though he attacked me, it wasn't his intent—so about conscience... no such thing. Gao Hai clearly remembered that during the fight, Kawano's residual consciousness also wanted to attack him. The guy was self-destructively trying to drag others down with him, which pissed Gao Hai off. Taking his Obsession Items gave him zero qualms.
Then, there was that ring.
Gao Hai looked at the final Obsession Item, one of Red Nut Gray Hole's two major core Obsession Items, Andres's own wedding ring.
This ring's function was simple: two words, [Immortality].
As long as the Obsession Item's power was activated, the user gained immortality during its duration.
No matter if their head was chopped off or body sliced to pieces, as long as the Obsession Item's power persisted, the player was immortal.
Such a brutally simple and overwhelmingly powerful function left Gao Hai at a loss for words. If he'd had this Obsession Item in Shirakawa Apartments, he could've casually faced boiling water and needle-and-thread, even treating the core Obsession Item's execution like drinking water or a massage. Indeed, higher-level instances produced stronger items; Gao Hai didn't dare imagine what a Red Moon-level instance's core Obsession Item could do.
Unfortunately, Gao Hai couldn't take this Obsession Item out of the instance; he could only use it in subsequent loops.
Why? Because he had realized what this watch demanded of him, what he had no choice but to do.
Ding!
The first bell tolled.
Gao Hai learned the watch's sixth function—or rather, its first punishment measure.
He must achieve perfect clearance.
Breaking the obsession and destroying the instance was the only way Gao Hai could clear the game.
Any other method of passing was forbidden. If he succeeded that way, the watch would take his life, then rewind from the start.
This was the first time Gao Hai sensed that the [watch] itself harbored some tendency, some demand, some desire.
It wanted to devour the obsessions in these instances.
It wanted to destroy instances and consume the lingering obsessions within.
It granted Gao Hai the power to start over, so Gao Hai must fulfill its wish.
Otherwise, death.
At the moment of escape in the second loop's end, if Gao Hai hadn't been pulled into the fork by core obsession Andres, if he'd escaped with his true body, this black watch that had always helped him would have killed him on the spot, rewinding time to the second instance's start.
Evading challenges was absolutely not allowed.
Gao Hai understood this in that moment.
"...As expected, its help isn't free, huh?"
Gao Hai sighed softly, genuinely feeling a trace of trouble and fatigue.
Though the watch gave no info on other things, he could roughly guess that the massive changes in the second game were likely related to this watch. Meaning every subsequent game would have insanely ramped-up difficulty.
Assuming destroying instances for S-rank ratings led to difficulty upgrades after two, Gao Hai suspected his third and fourth games would be stuffed with pseudo-Red Moon-level instances by this watch. If he survived those, the fifth and sixth would be true Red Moon-level ones. Just thinking of what tier of Red Moon instance this broken watch would pick sent shivers down his spine.
"Thanks a lot."
Gao Hai's mouth twitched for a while, finally managing only those words.
Ding!!
The second bell rang immediately after.
Gao Hai turned, looked at Li Youcai and Xu Jiazhen still tormented in the flames, shook his head, and turned away.
The watch had unlocked its seventh function.
This one equally simple and brutal: suicide.
Activation required Gao Hai to fully concentrate, request the watch, then about a minute of wind-up. If he didn't change his mind after, his body would explode on the spot, freeing him from any obsession bindings instantly, then start a new loop.
Notably, this death caused no pain; Gao Hai would feel nothing, like falling asleep for a new beginning—quite humane.
No consumption for use; clearly, this stemmed from his intense wish while trapped in the rock walls, answered by the watch as a [simple wish not requiring rewind uses].
First a punishment warning, then a new function.
Was this watch PUA-ing him? Carrot and stick—why did it suddenly feel that way?
Ding!!!
While thinking, the third bell rang.
In Gao Hai's perception, he saw the girl standing with her back to him, chest proudly out, head held high, and her stubbornly extended little hand waiting for him to grasp.
"..."
After brief silence, Gao Hai turned.
He saw the second girl.
Facing him, shyly blushing yet showing a cute smile, extending her hand toward him—the pink-haired girl.
Before death, her heartfelt confession while hugging him, words overflowing with sincere emotion, and her final smile vanishing in the firelight. Even now, Gao Hai couldn't forget.
He had truly stolen this girl's heart...
Felt like a scumbag, but... scumbag it was. Saying [this girl who likes you will disappear]—dream on. You think you're Miyazono Kaori? Dead white moonlight stories don't work on me; I'll keep you right here!
Stepping forward.
Gao Hai tightly grasped the pink-haired girl's little hand in the next moment.
Click!
With the crisp sound, the watch hands moved from the 5 mark to the 6, completing half the watch's scale.
And the next moment, as the world plunged back into darkness, memories that should have dissipated awoke alongside a certain girl.
Gao Hai had opened his eyes.
Drip—
Amid the clear dripping sound, he slowly stood from the ground.
Still that chaotic cavern.
The starting place he had seen three times now.
But this time, it would definitely differ from the last.
"Time to set off."
Murmuring this to himself, Gao Hai stepped toward the light.
There, he already saw the girl in her exploration suit, waiting for his arrival.
Their gazes met, followed by the same smiles spreading across his and her faces.
________________________________________
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