Pain.
The intense suffocation brought about by his airway being blocked continued without respite.
But he could not die.
Under this overwhelming pain, Takumi once again summoned the Obsession Item, the surgical scalpel, struggling as he focused his attention once more.
With his bodily injuries affected by the eerie power, even wounds that should have been fatal would not truly cause death. Under such circumstances, the method Takumi could think of to break the situation was to destroy his own brain and completely cut off his own consciousness.
"Uh… ah…"
With extreme difficulty, he aimed the sharp surgical scalpel at his own forehead.
The next moment, Takumi gently released his grip, allowing the sharp blade to fall toward himself.
Pffft—
With the augmentation of the eerie power, the blade easily pierced through Takumi's skull and stabbed into his brain. Moreover, because this Obsession Item itself possessed the characteristic of extending its attack range, although Takumi's forehead only appeared to have been punctured by a small slit from the scalpel, in reality his entire brain had been completely pierced through. A hole was directly opened in the back of his head, and Takumi could even feel some kind of liquid flowing out from the back of his head.
Compared with the pain of suffocation, the pain of having his head pierced was actually much lighter—so light that it could even be said there was almost no sensation at all.
But it seemed that he still could not die.
This eerie power granted Takumi an extraordinary degree of immortality. Even with a huge hole blown open in his head, he remained conscious, continuing to experience the intense agony of suffocation.
Damn it, what the hell is this thing.
Takumi desperately wanted to curse, but at this moment, with his airway blocked by blood, he could not make a sound. Even so, he did not give up. Instead, he took out a second surgical scalpel and aimed it at his own arm.
Since he could not die, he would try using the blade to cut open his own flesh, to see whether he could break free in this way.
However, both of his upper arms were jammed tightly in the extremely narrow rock crevice and could not move at all. The space his forearms could move upward was only about three to four centimeters at most, and even then they could only barely shift left or right horizontally. Takumi tried several times in succession and found that at best he could only slice open the flesh around his elbow. Beyond that, he simply could not reach.
Still, the surgical scalpel was extremely sharp. If he dropped it, perhaps it could just slice off a section of flesh from his upper arm?
It sounded like a possible method, but if this attempt failed as well, then he would probably truly be out of options.
As for using the Blood Scissors… no, that would not work. That thing's attack range was even shorter than the surgical scalpel's, and his objective was either escape or death—one of the two. Even if he used that thing to cut off his arm, he would have no way to escape. On the contrary, missing an arm would only make it even harder for him to act.
Was this his final gamble?
Takumi did not hesitate any longer. He had already taken the surgical scalpel out for some time, and judging by this eerie power, if he spent too long thinking, the power of the scalpel might be suppressed and become unusable.
"Uh… huff…"
Amid the intense suffocation, Takumi adjusted the angle of the surgical scalpel little by little. Although he could not see anything in the darkness, he still roughly found the position. He lightly let go, dropping the surgical scalpel downward, blade-first, into his arm.
Along with the pain that spread throughout his body, a large chunk of flesh from the upper arm on one side of Takumi's body was neatly cut away by the surgical scalpel.
Good. That way, it would not get stuck anymore, and then it should be…
He still could not move.
Takumi froze for a moment, then tried to move the arm that had had part of its flesh cut away, only to find that it still could not move.
Without a sound, the rock walls changed. Without Takumi noticing, they became even narrower, continuing to clamp his arm—now missing part of its flesh—firmly within the rock.
He was still trapped where he was, enduring the searing pain of wounds all over his body and the suffocating sensation of his throat being pasted shut with blood. Like this, he remained conscious, remained alive, remained unable to move, remained… unable to die.
Don't give up, don't give up.
Takumi silently repeated this to himself in his heart.
One hour, five hours, twenty-four hours…
Trapped in a cave of absolute darkness, Takumi had no way of knowing the current time.
To him, these twenty-four hours felt as if an entire year had passed. In this cave where he could not move even a fraction, and under the torment of intense pain, every moment, his mind was being violently ground down and worn away.
Thirty-six hours, forty-eight hours, seventy-two hours…
Hunger and thirst began to bring intense discomfort.
Takumi felt his throat was extremely dry. The blood flowing from his severed tongue had long since dried up, and the blood in his airway had also basically dried, so the suffering of suffocation eased. But in its place came a pain as if his entire throat were about to burn.
Takumi began to feel his body temperature rising little by little. A fierce, scorching heat spread through his entire body. Every patch of skin, every cell, seemed to be screaming, all of them bringing him severe pain.
His heartbeat quickened.
The dizziness grew stronger and stronger, but he found that he could no longer pass out.
It seemed as if his stomach and intestines were constantly contracting, spasming violently from the inability to obtain food.
"Uh… ah…"
Unable to move.
Still unable to move.
In a pitch-black world, he could only lie unable to move, feeling this intense pain.
Drip—
Another drop of viscous liquid fell onto Takumi's head.
This was the only sound he could hear here besides his own.
But now, in the midst of intense pain, Takumi had no way to pay attention to these sounds.
The tenth day, the twelfth day, the fifteenth day…
Out of his mind, Takumi had no way to judge exactly how long he had been here.
His thinking began to slow little by little, gradually making it impossible for him to think normally as he usually did.
Time and time again, he continued trying to break free from his current predicament, trying to commit suicide, trying to escape this endless darkness.
But nothing changed.
He was still trapped here, still imprisoned in this darkness.
"Uh…"
Drip—
The sound of dripping water and the sound of labored breathing intertwined.
What else… could he… do…
With his mind growing ever more chaotic and hazy, Takumi struggled to raise his head and look upward.
He looked toward that corpse, which had remained silent the entire time, completely motionless.
He did not know what this would accomplish, but with the time he could remain conscious growing shorter and shorter, Takumi—having no other options—could only attempt everything he was capable of doing.
He stretched out his hand.
He grabbed the face of the thing above his head, then seized its hair.
After taking a deep breath, he exerted all his strength and tried to drag it down. Surprisingly, he actually managed to pull it a short distance, but it was only a matter of a few centimeters at most. After that, the corpse could no longer be moved at all, becoming just as firmly stuck as Takumi himself.
He touched the other party's hand.
It looked as though it had been extended forward, but the hand that was jammed on the other side of the rock wall had likely shifted because of his dragging.
As he fumbled about blindly, Takumi felt something on the other party's hand. With a slight pull, he tore it off.
It seemed to be… a ring.
In his hazy consciousness, something appeared to surface in Takumi's mind.
Andres.
That was right—this man's name was Andres.
He was a young, cheerful man who had just gotten married. His wife, Hedda, had recently discovered she was pregnant. After the whole family celebrated joyfully, Andres thought of the Red Nut Grey Cave, a somewhat well-known scenic spot.
Andres was an amateur Explorer who had obtained an exploration permit. Moreover, the Red Nut Grey Cave itself was a low-difficulty cave well suited for beginners, and its internal conditions had already been fully surveyed, so there was no need for any particular concern.
Of course, his pregnant wife, Hedda, was certainly unable to accompany him on the exploration. Therefore, Andres found two friends. The three of them entered the Red Nut Grey Cave together, looking out for one another. After submitting their exploration permits, the staff confirmed their equipment and reminded them of the precautions. The three then passed through the Big Slide and began advancing toward the depths of the cave.
From the edge of the great cliff, they took the distinctive pulley elevator all the way down to the bottom level.
What awaited them next was the narrowest and most enclosed area of the Red Nut Grey Cave—the Blood Vessel.
This was a cramped cave passage with an average height and width of less than forty-five centimeters. Explorers could only crawl forward inside it, passing through this long, constricted corridor. For professional explorers, this was nothing special, but for amateurs it was undoubtedly a major challenge—one that brought a strong sense of accomplishment if successfully overcome.
The only problem, however, was that within the Blood Vessel there existed a fork in the path. That fork led to a place known as the Dead End. Before reaching it, Explorers would first pass through a relatively open area. Continuing forward after that, the passage would become extremely narrow and enter a section that was almost vertically downward. That place was simply far too narrow—even a child would be unable to continue deeper—making it a dead end in the absolute sense. One could not afford to take the wrong path.
Andres did not think this was a problem.
Although the area where the Dead End was located lay deep within the cave, Explorers had reached it before and left warning markers behind. Even if he crawled the wrong way, he would be able to tell from the warning signs and simply turn back.
At around two in the afternoon, he and his two friends entered the Red Nut Grey Cave. Then, close to four in the afternoon, they arrived at the entrance to the Blood Vessel.
According to legend, in the beliefs of the Indigenous people, the Red Nut Grey Cave was the body of a god. Newly come-of-age members of the tribe had to pass through the Blood Vessel, enter the Artery, and finally reach the Heart in order to complete their coming-of-age ritual and prove themselves to be warriors of the tribe. And at this very moment, what Andres and his group, now deep within the cave, wanted to do was precisely to reach the Heart and become "warriors." This was the goal they had agreed upon from the start of their journey.
At the beginning, everything went smoothly.
Although the environment inside the Blood Vessel was dark and cramped, the trained Andres and his two friends still advanced smoothly for quite a considerable distance.
And this smooth progress continued right up until they encountered the fork in the path and had to decide which direction to take.
Here, Andres chose the wrong route.
He did not see the distinguishing marks left behind by previous Explorers. Relying on his memory from having looked at the map earlier, he chose the Dead End.
Then, when he and his two companions reached the slightly larger area within the Dead End, Andres thought that this was the Turnback Point—the place described in the park's promotional Indigenous legend where cowards who dared not continue were forced to turn back. Growing even more excited, he began to explore further ahead.
The warning sign that should have existed here was not discovered by anyone.
And so, Andres entered the narrow depths of the Dead End just like this.
The further they advanced, the narrower it became.
Inside the dark passage where there was no way to turn around, Andres gathered his resolve and accelerated forward.
Then, he encountered a section of the path that dropped straight down.
By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
Because Andres had been moving too fast, he slid down along this cavern and ended up getting stuck directly headfirst inside the cave, completely unable to move.
The two friends following behind him heard his sounds of struggle and cries for help and tried to rescue him. However, in an extremely narrow and winding cave, trying to pull up a person who was inverted and hanging straight down was an extremely difficult task. No matter what methods the two friends tried, they still could not pull Andres up.
After that, realizing the situation was dire, one of them retraced the original route to seek rescue, while the other stayed behind with Andres, so that he would not be left alone in the dark cave and suffer any further accident.
At this moment, the time had just reached around four thirty in the afternoon.
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