[Cave Base Security Personnel Code of Conduct]
[This code applies to the security soldiers of this base. Please strictly comply with its contents.]
[1. As security personnel, you will be assigned each week to different areas for guard duty or patrols. During work, you must not whisper among yourselves, must not engage in communication with explorers outside of mission-related matters, must not disturb researchers' work, and must not assist researchers unless they proactively submit a request.]
[2. All security duties are cooperative tasks involving at least two people. There will be no work assignments involving solo action. If you discover an error in a work assignment, do not carry it out. Report it to your superior and proceed only after confirmation.]
[3. If your partner exhibits symptoms such as mental confusion, muttering to themselves, inability to identify directions, or a strong tendency to urge you to go to a certain place, immediately distance yourself from your partner and seek help from other partners who have not shown these symptoms. Subdue the partner exhibiting these symptoms and wait for researchers to transfer them for treatment. If you encounter a special situation in which the person is difficult to subdue, you may apply for the removal of firing restrictions and shoot them dead.]
[4. Security soldiers assigned to the Quarantine Zone must, after completing their duties, spend one hour recuperating in the personnel preparation room. After recuperation, only those who can correctly recite their identity, duties, name, and identity code may conclude the mission. Those who fail to fully recite them must return to the Quarantine Zone for further inspection.]
[5. Each security personnel member's work assignments for the week will be scheduled at least one week in advance. Once arranged, they will generally not be changed. Any requests for temporary changes to task content must receive approval from General Gallagher; otherwise, they are not to be carried out.]
[6. Unless permission is granted by Professor Vernon and General Gallagher, security personnel are not permitted to enter the Analysis Workroom or the research areas.]
[7. Any crying, calls for help, knocking sounds, or other noises coming from the direction of the Quarantine Zone are all hallucinations. The air environment here contains a special biological toxin that has not yet been identified and can induce a certain degree of hallucinations. Do not pay excessive attention to these hallucinations. If you believe that these hallucinations have already affected your normal duties, report the situation to your superiors.]
[8. Each soldier must take a designated type of psychiatric medication. This medication ensures that you are not affected by the hallucinogenic microorganisms present in this area. Be sure to take it daily at the prescribed times and dosages. Each soldier's medication supply is strictly rationed and must not be transferred to others.]
[9. Any explorers who do not act in accordance with orders and regulations may be shot on sight. No application is required.]
[10. Any researchers who do not possess the appropriate access card, or who appear at times when they should not be present, must be immediately restrained. If necessary, an application may be made to lift firing restrictions, but efforts should be made to ensure the person's survival.]
[11. Security personnel will not enter the area behind the Quarantine Zone inspection room. You will not receive such orders. That area is unrelated to your duties.]
[12. General Gallagher is the supreme commander of the security personnel. Professor Vernon holds secondary command authority. When the orders of the two conflict, follow General Gallagher's orders.]
[13. The recreation area is a venue specifically provided for security soldiers and researchers to relax. You may change out of your uniform here. In all other locations—except restrooms, bathrooms, and dormitories—formal attire must be worn. Clothing with personal stylistic elements must not be worn outside the recreation area.]
[14. When you are designated as Quarantine Zone security personnel, proceed to General Gallagher's office to confirm the appointment. Security personnel for that area may only be appointed directly by General Gallagher himself.]
[The right to interpret this code rests with Professor Vernon and General Gallagher.]
After carefully reading through this set of rules—which had been folded and placed in the pocket of a black soldier's protective uniform—Kaguya raised her head and walked forward.
Pushing the door open, what lay before her was a fairly large bar, where many soldiers and researchers were drinking.
They took off their jackets and removed their helmets, revealing bodies that had been crushed and deformed. Each of them looked ferocious and terrifying, yet they drank small glasses of alcohol like ordinary people—either shouting idly at one another out of boredom, or simply drinking in silence, humming little tunes, putting on an air of carefree ease.
There was not a single "person" who paid any attention to Kaguya's appearance.
This was the third floor of the research base, an area specifically set aside for rest and relaxation. It had to be said that although the research base looked rather small, it was actually quite fully equipped in terms of functions. It was just that Kaguya found it a bit strange that she had not found anything like an armory—otherwise, if they had planted explosives there, the effect would definitely have been far stronger than merely blowing up the surveillance area earlier.
In any case, the next step was to look for the security personnel of the power sector.
Kaguya's gaze swept over the "people" present. Without making a sound, she began to move forward.
On one side of the room, a camera was flickering with a faint light. Even though the monitoring room had already been blown up, these things were still continuing to operate. The anomalies playing the roles of base personnel were completely indifferent to this. Aside from Professor Vernon—who had slowed his movements slightly when the explosion had just occurred, only to quickly return to his usual state and sluggishly head back to his office, with no intention of intervening at all—none of them showed any reaction.
These things were remarkably slow to respond to changes happening within the base. Was it because they were, after all, anomalies playing roles? But according to what Fujiwara had said before, she and Takumi had encountered some anomalies in the cave that played their roles very "vividly." Was there some kind of difference between these two?
While thinking about this, Kaguya walked through the bar, opened a door, and arrived at a smoke-filled place.
This was a large cafeteria. Normally, it provided the three regular meals, and outside of mealtimes it would serve things like barbecue. Just like now—Kaguya could see all kinds of large cuts of meat and fish on the grills. It had to be said that it was extremely greasy, making Kaguya, who was accustomed to refined and high-end cuisine, quite uncomfortable.
This place was likewise crowded with many researchers and security personnel.
Beyond this, there was also an entertainment area filled with various arcade machines, and a sports area equipped with things like basketball shooting machines and other athletic amusements.
Each area was populated by different "people," as if they were truly still alive, still needing various forms of entertainment to relax and reward themselves, enjoying themselves in different corners of this floor.
Creak—
Stepping out through a door from the sports area, Kaguya arrived in a corridor. At this moment, on one side of the corridor was a restroom, from which suppressed low moans could be heard, as if two people were entangled with one another in some way.
The soldier's uniform Kaguya was wearing had been obtained here earlier. It had to be said that the sight of those two masses of crushed, mangled flesh embracing each other had been extremely disgusting—so disgusting that Kaguya felt she would absolutely have to wash her eyes thoroughly afterward.
However, she had no time to worry about that now, because she had already spotted a security guard with a bunch of keys hanging from his body and quietly removed the keys from him.
Stealing things from anomalies really was quite thrilling.
Thinking this, Kaguya returned to the bar and then quickly headed toward the stairwell.
At the same time, on the second floor, Maki and Chika had already slipped into the archive area. Pretending that they were retrieving a particular document, they were actually selecting files at random that looked as though they might be useful, planning to take them back to the dormitory area to study them carefully later.
"Remember, don't take Exploration Record No. 01. Takumi—kun said that it was already read in the previous run. He knows the contents and has already told me, so once we're back, I can just tell you and Kaguya."
Chika reminded Maki in a low voice.
Of course, this was actually a lie. In the second run, Maki had not had time to tell Takumi about that exploration record. However, during the one month in the real world, Maki and Chika had discussed this record, which was why she dared to say this here.
Still… what a terrifying ability it was—to rewind both one month of the real world and fifteen days of the instance. Just how many secrets did Takumi still have?
A powerful man with secrets like that—hm, it somehow made things feel a bit exciting.
"Takumi really entrusted you with quite a lot of things, didn't he?"
Maki, having casually put down that record, turned her head to look at Chika, a faint, barely perceptible scrutiny flickering in her gaze.
"Of course! I'm amazing, you know. Even a horror game is something I can clear with ease."
With a smug expression, Chika lightly brushed the matter off. Although Maki still felt that something was off, without any solid evidence she could only give a slight nod. Then she and Chika each took one set of materials and left the archive area, quietly leaving behind that invisible doll.
'I wonder how Takumi is doing right now.'
The moment she thought of Takumi fighting alone over there, Maki found it hard to calm the worry in her heart. She really wanted to put on an Explorer's outfit and go over to help.
But if she did that, then the research base—where, across three runs so far, they still had not completed an in-depth investigation—would lose one investigator, and the difficulty and time cost of their operations would increase a great deal. By comparison, Takumi had already investigated most of what was going on over there. If she went now, it would be meaningless beyond causing trouble.
But she just could not set her mind at ease. That idiot was the kind of person who would force himself to act tough in the first place—what exactly was his situation right now? Maki really, really wanted to know, but she was also afraid of disrupting him at a critical moment, so she did not dare to ask through the mental link.
Opening the dormitory door and walking inside, after confirming that no one was here, Maki finally placed the documents she had obtained on the table.
Chika walked behind Maki, hugging another set of materials. After closing the door with her foot, she walked over to Maki's side and placed the materials in her arms on the table as well. Then she let out a small sigh, lifted a hand, and made a wiping-sweat gesture, as if what she had just been carrying had not been a stack of paper documents, but something extremely heavy.
"Shijō-san, can I ask a question?"
Then, the pink-haired girl turned her head and suddenly spoke softly.
"Mm, what question?"
Maki, who was planning to wait until Kaguya came back and then look through these materials together, replied casually.
"Are you Takumi-kun's girlfriend?"
And in the next moment, her body froze at Chika's voice.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---