Land of Lingering Regrets.
This was actually a name Gao Hai had arbitrarily given to this area.
Fire station, high-end restaurant, office building... various architectural areas were piled up and intertwined here in ways impossible in the real world, with one obsession after another wandering among them, repeating their pre-death behaviors. This peculiar phenomenon had actually occurred in Shirakawa Apartments as well, but the situation there was slightly worse, with scenes always confined to a single apartment building, at most featuring minor changes from different time points, like Room 109 having two different spaces. In contrast, the changes in Red Nut Gray Hole were far more varied.
Gao Hai guessed this might be because the number of deaths in Red Nut Gray Hole far exceeded those in Shirakawa Apartments, and a large number of people involved in the process of obsessions forming anomalies had participated. In any case, not every deceased person could leave behind a lingering regret in Red Nut Gray Hole. From the current situation, it seemed only those with deep connections to the place before it fully erupted into an anomaly could leave corresponding lingering regrets, thus leaving various things in the corresponding areas of the cavern.
The previous fire station was a place frequented by firefighters and rescue team members, the office building was where Red Nut Gray Hole staff worked, and that high-end restaurant seemed related to Antonitovan Bush—this was an area Gao Hai had explored in the previous loop.
This time, Gao Hai entered this place with the purpose of searching for more areas, to see if he could find useful clues in them and further piece together past events. Of course, he also needed to reacquire that key from the second loop that he hadn't had time to use, since he still didn't know exactly where the power relay system it opened was located.
"Are you sure you want to investigate inside with me? This isn't a safe place at all; who knows what might be hiding in there."
Gao Hai looked at Lixer beside him.
"Precisely because it's extremely dangerous, that's why I have to go. I want to figure out what exactly happened here and how to resolve the problems."
Lixer replied very seriously and earnestly, and under the power of his Blessing, Gao Hai could sense only strong goodwill from this person, with no malice whatsoever.
The Blessing's power had never judged Lixer as an enemy.
But Gao Hai still couldn't fully trust him.
Am I overthinking it with a villain's mindset?
Gao Hai had to admit he couldn't help pondering this question.
But in the end, he remained silent, continuing to stay secretly vigilant against the other while maintaining a surface-level friendly attitude, stepping first into the fire station.
Just like last time, it was as cold and阴森 as ever here. The doors and walls on both sides were essentially integrated into one, and at the end of the corridor, those anomalies were still carrying out their pre-death actions, continuing their endless training.
Bang!
Propping up the black umbrella and kicking the door open with his leg, Gao Hai burst directly into the training ground.
All the anomalies turned their heads at that moment, looking toward the roughly kicked-open door.
But after the black umbrella erased his presence, they couldn't confirm Gao Hai's location or see where he was.
So after a brief silence, these anomalies lowered their heads again and resumed their meaningless, endlessly repeating training process.
Lixer hid in the corridor and didn't immediately enter the training area. It seemed he had no means to conceal himself from these anomalies, so he planned to slip in later when the opportunity was right.
Gao Hai didn't care how he planned to proceed, simply holding the umbrella and walking step by step to the edge of the training ground, to another corner he hadn't visited before.
There was also a door here. After opening it and entering, Gao Hai discovered it was a garage, with a fire truck parked inside at the moment.
As expected, for those firefighters who perished deep in the cavern, they certainly wouldn't forget the garage area—after all, every time something happened in the cavern requiring their intervention, they had to drive there.
Thinking this, Gao Hai walked a circle in the garage, and after confirming there were no other passages, he went straight to the fire truck, opened the door, and sat inside.
He adjusted the seat.
Stored the folded black umbrella back into his watch space.
Gao Hai slowly leaned back against the seatback.
Then he turned his head, looking at the man sitting beside him.
["You know I can't let you leave; we need you here now."]
Gao Hai heard the voice of the person sitting in his own seat, maintaining the same posture as him at the moment.
["If this continues, more and more brothers will die, and we can't even tell their families how they died. We can't go on like this; this is all a mistake. Ever since Andres died, everything has spiraled out of control. We shouldn't enter that cavern anymore."]
Howard sitting beside him shook his head dejectedly, his beard unkempt, looking disheveled, his eyes bloodshot.
["So what can we do? With you here, at least we lose fewer people. If you leave, you should understand what will happen next. Mr. Antonitovan's people are watching Red Nut Gray Hole very closely. Even if you give up, someone else will step in. Can they do as well as you?"]
The man in Gao Hai's seat continued, his tone full of helplessness.
["This will just go on endlessly..."]
Howard sighed deeply at the end.
["It won't be too long. Once this year's evaluations are over and the mayor steps down, it should be fine."]
The man shook his head, lit a cigarette, and continued.
["I don't think so."]
But Howard shook his head, his brows furrowed tightly.
["I always feel something's off; this whole thing just doesn't make sense."]
["That damn hole has already killed one person, and then those bizarre things happened afterward. What are they after? Are all those high-and-mighty people idiots? Packaging a problematic attraction like this as a national-level scenic spot—is the benefit really worth the cost?"]
These words were clearly not spur-of-the-moment but had been brewing in his heart for a long time. Howard was very agitated, his voice even going off-pitch.
["Stop with the conspiracy theories; that's the kind of thing those stupid rednecks like to play with. You should know none of the previous policies in this state have succeeded. The fact is, an attraction that failed for thirty years has been successfully promoted. Red Nut Gray Hole just rode the cave attraction trend; it was a rare opportunity. Of course those big shots would seize it, even if it's full of flaws."]
The man took a deep drag of his cigarette, exhaled, and dismissed Howard's ideas.
["Even if you say that, I still think it doesn't make sense; this matter is just too strange..."]
Howard persisted with his own thoughts, murmuring with his head down, his gaze flickering uncertainly.
["Alright, don't overthink it. That damn hole has been quiet lately without incidents, right? Just don't worry about it and stay here properly. Work a few more years, get through the mess here, and your road ahead is still long."]
The man shook his head, opened the door, and got out.
Howard remained in the car, and after a long silence, he opened the small drawer in front of the passenger seat, took out a notebook from inside, wrote a few lines on it, then put the notebook back, shook his head, and also got out.
Gao Hai opened his eyes.
Of course, there was no Howard in the car, nor the man who had been talking to Howard.
He had only seen some past events at that moment, more clearly and vividly than in the second loop.
This seemed related to his direct encounter with the core obsession Andres. Having learned about this core obsession, when approaching related lingering regrets, he could see clearer past phantoms and understand what had happened.
That said, this core obsession was truly quite benign in every sense. Even after he had seen the entire death process of the other party, in the new loop, that thing still hadn't attacked him, not even casting a gaze his way, as if completely unaware of his existence.
A core obsession with almost no information pollution.
Honestly, if it weren't for its power suppressing the Rescue Team Badge and other Obsession Items, and its execution method being so absurdly terrifying, Gao Hai might even doubt if Andres was really a core obsession.
He reached out and opened the small drawer on the passenger side.
Gao Hai took out a notebook from inside.
It belonged to Howard Smith, the firefighter who had witnessed Red Nut Gray Hole transform from a tourist attraction into a land of death.
["Red Nut Gray Hole Related Notes"]
["These are notes I left after multiple entries into the cavern, perhaps able to help people survive."]
["Key Point 1: The surface identity might be more important than the inner one."]
["Two of my friends disappeared in the cave. Yo's clothes were torn by the rock wall, George took off his jacket after it got dirty. Others didn't encounter such situations, so we successfully exited the cave."]
["Perhaps because we wore intact clothes, because we were properly role-playing as 'firefighters'—how could something anomalous happen?"]
["Key Point 2: Try not to take the Gentle Slope."]
["It's getting more and more sinister there; team members keep falling in and getting stuck. On my two round trips leading, someone fell into a crevice each time. When other team members led and took the Gentle Slope, someone always got stuck too."]
["I remember that bastard Pedi said tourists used to frequently climb over railings and fall into the big crevices on the Gentle Slope. What's wrong with that ghost place? Why does this keep happening, as if something there is pulling people down. Clearly Andres got stuck in the 'Blood Vessel'—that's the dangerous area where anomalies frequently occur. Could there actually be something on the Gentle Slope too?"]
["But if there really was something on the Gentle Slope, there's no reason no one ever died there; it's always just people getting stuck. Even the unluckiest security guard among them was only stuck in a Gentle Slope crevice for ten hours—far luckier than those missing behind the Great Slide."]
["Key Point 3: Absolutely do not enter the fork in the 'Blood Vessel'; no one who went in has returned—perhaps Andres kept them there."]
["Not entering the fork is something I emphasize every operation, but people still disappear in the 'Blood Vessel'. Honestly, I don't actually know if they entered the fork area, reached that person's corpse, and encountered something there, leading to this outcome. But at least from my two deep entries into the 'Blood Vessel', the problematic spot should be that fork; the rocks there have many dragging marks. Is that Andres's intent? Or has he been possessed by a devil?"]
["Key Point 4: Ensure the rescued know their identity and name."]
["Anyone who can't remember who they are ends up as just a set of clothes when rescued. The exact mechanism is unknown, but it's worth noting. We must confirm who can be saved and who can't, and not waste time and lives on futile efforts."]
["Key Point 5: Will add more when I think of them. Maybe after leading another team into Red Nut Gray Hole, I'll know what to write—or perhaps this time I'll be the one left inside."]
["I think I should compile these into a rules and regulations sheet."]
["This way, even if others lead teams into Red Nut Gray Hole, at least they'll know what to do instead of dying ignorantly in that ghost place."]
It seemed these were rough rules Howard had summarized through constant observation after multiple team entries into Red Nut Gray Hole. This man was truly exceptional; Gao Hai figured the rules sheet held by the rescue firefighters during the flood era was probably Howard's final compilation.
However, Gao Hai hadn't seen Howard himself in Red Nut Gray Hole during the flood period. Considering Maki had mentioned finding an interview record of Howard in the research base in the previous loop, Gao Hai couldn't help but have a pessimistic view of the man's fate.
He continued flipping backward; it seemed there was nothing more after that, just blank pages remaining.
No more content?
Thinking this, Gao Hai pondered for a moment, then flipped the notebook upside down, reading from the last page forward.
This time, he successfully saw recorded text—only visible when flipping backward—the other record left by Howard.
This record was... an investigation into Antonitovan?!
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