[Andres… Andres…]
[Don't worry… I'm here… We will definitely rescue you and get you out…]
[Rest assured… You will definitely leave here safely…]
Those voices sounded by Takumi's ears, and then faded away.
Inside the narrow cave where movement was impossible, from time to time there echoed the voice of that person, filled with anxiety and unease.
He was Andres's friend. Encountering such a dangerous situation, he naturally did his utmost to try to calm Andres down. However, in this dark and eerie environment, that friend's own emotional state was clearly not good either, and the sound of his voice unconsciously carried a hint of trembling.
[It's fine.]
Takumi heard Andres's voice.
[It's fine, don't worry. I'm okay. I'm not a problem. I've undergone training—this kind of inversion is nothing to me.]
Although he was already firmly wedged inside the cave, Andres was still trying to comfort his friend.
Just as he usually was, Andres had always been an open-hearted and kind person. He understood very clearly the psychological pressure a person would endure when trapped in such a dark and narrow environment, and so he kept talking to his friend to help the other calm down.
However, in reality, his condition was not as good as he claimed. Prolonged inversion had caused poor blood circulation. At this moment, Andres felt as if his head were constantly swelling, making him extremely uncomfortable. Moreover, if this inverted position continued, it would undoubtedly endanger his life. Although the discomfort could still be barely resisted through sheer willpower for the time being, if it continued, Andres's condition would only grow worse and worse.
At the same time, the friend who had gone to seek help had already run up via the pulley elevator of the Big Slide. Exhausted, he cried out for help to the staff, to the guides and tourists, and desperately sought help from everyone he could see, telling them that someone was trapped inside the Blood Vessel and pleading for rescue.
The staff immediately evacuated the area and made an emergency call. The scenic area was temporarily closed, and then, at around seven o'clock in the evening, the first rescuer arrived at Andres's side.
This was an explorer and also a volunteer, someone who often went to various fire departments to give talks and participate in discussion forums.
Her name was Susan. Takumi had heard this person's voice before, and therefore recognized her immediately.
[Hello, Mr. Andres. My name is Susan. How are you feeling right now?]
Within this lingering remnant of the past, Susan's voice sounded very calm, just like the Susan Takumi had encountered inside the game instance. She did not seem to have changed much at all.
[Hello, Miss Susan. Thank you for coming. Please help me get out of here…]
Andres replied from where he was stuck headfirst inside the cave, doing his best to make his tone sound relaxed.
Inside the cave, Susan and the friend who had stayed behind to accompany Andres began the rescue. She tried cutting open Andres's jeans and tying a safety rope to his legs. Then, together with that friend, the two of them worked in tandem to pull Andres up. In the end, however, they still failed and were unable to rescue Andres.
When the time reached nine o'clock in the evening, Susan still had not managed to rescue Andres. Instead, she herself had become extremely exhausted.
With her current condition no longer able to sustain the rescue operation, Susan had no choice but to withdraw from the cave.
At this moment, a large number of rescue personnel had already gathered outside the cave. More professionals discussed rescue plans. Some proposed applying oil to the rock walls; others suggested using explosives to blast the cave open directly; still others attempted to bring small chisels and drilling machines into the position where Andres was trapped, trying to create enough space. However, these plans were either completely unrealistic, or too dangerous to be carried out, or simply had no effect at all. In the end, all of them met with failure.
Takumi heard the sound of Andres crying.
By this time, the hour had already passed midnight. Andres had spent a full ten hours trapped headfirst inside the cave.
He sobbed quietly, his fingers gently rubbing against his wedding ring.
His wife, Hedda, had already arrived outside the cave, anxiously waiting for her husband to return.
After repeated failures, the rescue personnel thought of a new method: building a pulley system inside the cave, tying ropes to Andres's legs, and gradually pulling him out of the cave little by little.
Would it succeed?
Many people harbored doubts about this plan deep in their hearts, but it was already the best option available at the moment.
The rescue personnel staying beside Andres continued to comfort him without pause.
[Don't give up.]
Takumi could hear that it was the voice of a young man.
[Don't give up, Andres. We will rescue you and get you out. Hold on. Your wife is waiting for you outside. You have to make it back alive, understand? You must make it back alive.]
That person gently patted Andres's legs and spoke to him in a serious tone.
A buzzing sound gradually rose within the cave.
It was the small drilling equipment preparing for the construction of the pulley system.
Wilbur discussed with the rescue personnel how to better set up the pulley, his expression filled with worry. Meanwhile, Patrick, who had been called over in the middle of the night, yawned as he paced back and forth somewhat impatiently, feeling quite helpless and irritated that such an incident had occurred at the scenic area, and subconsciously began calculating the losses in operating revenue and the like.
When the time reached four o'clock in the morning, the equipment was finally set up, and people began pulling on Andres, lifting him little by little from the cave entrance through the ropes tied to his legs.
Hope seemed to have appeared.
But very quickly, the curved cave trapped Andres's legs. Intense pain made Andres cry out in agony. He had been trapped headfirst inside the cave for as long as fourteen hours. His legs had no strength to bend due to lack of blood flow, yet his nerves were still able to transmit intense pain.
[Perhaps we should just cut off his legs. Even tearing them off like this wouldn't matter.]
Someone spoke in the darkness.
[No. Mr. Andres is already extremely weak. If a leg were severed in his current condition, there is a very high probability that he would go into shock and lose consciousness, and he might very well die as a result.]
Another voice immediately refuted it.
[Then what should we do? This can't go on. He's already been hanging upside down there for more than ten hours.]
Someone said anxiously, the emotion in the voice clearly growing agitated.
[Rebuild the pulley system. We'll try again.]
The final person made the decision, and the rescue team began moving once more.
Andres's condition continued to worsen.
More than ten hours of inversion caused his consciousness to gradually blur. Pain swept through his body, and in this inescapable darkness, his mind began to collapse bit by bit.
[Hey, hello. I'm Howard Smith. You can just call me Howard.]
Then, another voice sounded from behind at this moment.
[Hello…]
Andres's voice had already grown somewhat weak.
[We're preparing a new rescue plan. How are you feeling right now? Are you okay?]
Howard's voice came down from above.
[To be honest, not very good…]
After a brief hesitation, this time Andres could no longer maintain an optimistic attitude.
[Talk with me. Tell me about your situation, your family—anything is fine. I'll stay right here with you.]
Howard's voice was much closer now. He seemed to have crawled into this narrow cave and was right behind him.
[Family…]
[Yes, that's right. Your wife—her name is Hedda, isn't it? She's waiting for you outside. Would you like to say something to her?]
[She… she's here too?]
[Yes. I have a walkie-talkie here. Uh… you can't hear it from where you are, so I'll relay it to you. Your wife says: "Please keep fighting. I love you." Did you hear that? Those are your wife's words to you.]
[Mm… I heard it. Please tell her that I will definitely get out. Wait for me…]
In the darkness, Takumi could hear Andres's voice, doing his utmost to suppress sobbing.
Before this moment, he did not know what kind of person this was. He did not know what kind of childhood he had, what kind of experiences he had gone through, how he met the person he loved, how they came together, until they had a child—until this very moment, when this man was imprisoned here.
He only heard this man murmuring to himself, saying things like "I will definitely get out," even though his voice trembled uncontrollably, and perhaps even he himself could not fully believe it.
At the nineteenth hour, around seven o'clock in the morning of the second day, the new pulley system was completed.
Howard's voice was somewhat uneasy. In order to build the new pulley system as quickly as possible, some of the pulley anchoring and position choices did not particularly conform to the rules and standards. But Andres's condition was worsening, and he did not have much time left to wait. Therefore, in the end, people still began the rescue, using the new pulley system to pull Andres up little by little.
[Hold on!]
The severe pain in his legs made Andres scream again.
[We're almost there!]
Light seeped down little by little from above.
[Come on, endure it!]
When he looked up, he could already see Howard watching him.
The walkie-talkie sounded with his wife's voice—clearly audible to him—her voice pleading for him to come back safely.
The rescue team and the firefighters gripped the rope, shouting as they mustered their strength and pulled hard.
A little higher.
A little bit more.
Andres seemed to be able to breathe air that was relatively fresher.
He could see Howard's encouraging smile, his head drenched in sweat.
And behind Howard, the rock wall where the fissure was widening little by little.
Rumble—
The sound of something breaking rang out along with the fall of a body.
Andres fell heavily, wedged tightly into the rock fissure—stuck deeper and tighter than before.
Howard, struck by the rocks, fainted. After a long time he struggled to wake up, and then, because his injuries were severe, he had to be taken away by other rescue team members for treatment.
The light disappeared once again.
Andres let out a painful, low groan.
Drip—
Blood dripped from the wound on his head and fell onto Takumi's forehead.
Drip—drip—
One drop after another, slowly falling like Andres's fate, dropping downward until it fell into the dust.
[I'm going to die here. I can't get out anymore, right?]
It seemed as if his voice could be heard ringing by Takumi's ear.
All things began to gradually fade away, gradually sinking into darkness.
Takumi no longer saw the figures of those rescue teams, no longer saw the people arguing about how to rescue him, no longer saw everything inside the cave.
It was as if he had already become Andres himself—sinking into boundless darkness, unable to break free, falling into it.
In the end, Andres stopped breathing.
He was unable to leave this cave again. He could not even be taken out after his death. With the body stiffened, the rescue team instead had even less ability to bring him out of the cave.
He could only be left here forever, until he rotted, until he dissolved and scattered within this cave.
The shattered images had already vanished completely from before his eyes.
Takumi could only feel the residual warmth on the wedding ring pulled from the corpse's finger, and feel what remained upon it—the warmth of some afternoon within that memory.
The groom nervously adjusted his suit, while the bride, in a long white dress, raised her head and looked at him.
[Will you marry me?]
He smiled at her somewhat stiffly.
[So cliché. Aren't you supposed to be good with words?]
She blinked, then let out a low laugh toward him.
[Ah-ha, sorry—looks like my sense of humor failed.]
He reached up a little awkwardly and scratched his cheek. Just as he lowered his hand, she took hold of it.
[It's fine. I like it, so I'm willing.]
Amid their smiles, the two exchanged rings and placed them on each other's fingers.
Sunlight streamed through the church windows, illuminating them both.
That day had been so warm, yet now only cold darkness remained.
There was no feeling anymore.
Aside from the pain that came day after day, there was nothing left to feel.
Had I already died?
Then why am I still in this place?
I want to leave.
I don't want to keep enduring this kind of pain.
But I can't move…
Every day is the same as yesterday, continuing to maintain these immobile days, hanging upside down in the rock cavern.
Drip—
Someone, please save me. I don't want to die here.
Drip—
It hurts… it hurts so much… I don't want to… like this…
Drip—
Hedda… I'm sorry…
Drip—
Drip—
Drip—
In the end, only the sound of dripping water remained, one drop after another echoing in the darkness.
Takumi's consciousness gradually awakened from the chaos.
He heard countless screams and wails, heard the sounds of people struggling and crawling within the cavern.
People were constantly being dragged into this dark hell.
Even after the Big Slide was sealed off and a thick wall was built over it, people still continued to be trapped in this pitch-black cave.
In terror, people desperately tried to flee.
Then, trapped within these dark caverns, they vanished without a sound—yet under a mysterious force, they continued to exist, still unable to die, only able to keep wandering in the darkness.
Is this Andres's power?
He could feel the pain and despair that belonged to this man.
The agonizing, maddening pain of one buried deep underground until death, yet still unable to find rest.
That power kept pulling more people into this hell, turning those who strayed into it into the same as him—so that even as their bodies rotted, even as everything was reduced to nothing, they still could not die, only continue to wander here, or, like him, become corpses trapped to death within these branching paths.
Drip—
But who was it that did this, exactly?
Why did that sign disappear?
So perfectly, a wrong turn was taken, getting stuck in a narrow cavern from which there was no escape, and the rescue operation that was on the verge of success ended in failure.
Then, after he died, a strange power gradually took shape from his experiences, altering the entire cavern environment and continuously burying more lives.
It was as if someone had planned all of this in secret, manipulating the matter step by step until it reached its current state.
Drip—
Takumi's mind grew dizzy once again.
His breathing became increasingly labored and harsh. Along with the intense physical pain brought on by hunger and thirst, the residual obsession attached to the ring, after being read and dissipated, came surging back again.
This ring… is a core Obsession Item. Its effect is… immortality…
With no way to resolve the immediate predicament, Takumi rubbed the ring against the wound on one side of his arm, making sure the ring was smeared with his own blood, and then tried once again to struggle.
I can't give up.
I absolutely cannot give up right now.
Takumi said this seriously to himself in his heart.
I must succeed in getting out of here…
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