"Huff…"
The airflow of his breathing stirred up dust, which drifted into his nostrils.
The rock walls were growing narrower and narrower.
There was no way to raise his head.
There was no way to turn his body around.
Each breath was becoming more and more oppressive.
It was as if, at this mont, he was not advancing through a cave ford of rock, but rather being wrapped up by layer upon layer of stone walls—tightly bound, packed in on all sides, unable to move.
"Huff…"
Ahead of him, the passage was still growing even narrower.
At first, Takumi had rely been crawling forward along the ground, slowly inching his way through the low cave.
But gradually, he began to realize that he had no choice but to keep both arms extended straight in front of him. The cave was becoming narrower and narrower, its width already less than fifty centiters. At such a narrow width, Takumi could no longer pull his arms back; he could only keep them stretched forward, using this posture to avoid getting stuck.
"Huff…"
Yet the cave ahead was still growing even narrower.
Little by little, Takumi's body wriggled forward through the pitch-dark cave.
He could hear the sound of his exploration suit rubbing against the rock walls.
Dull sounds, one after another—like sothing being slowly torn apart.
Drip—
A drop of water fell against the side of his face, producing a clear splashing sound.
Takumi's breathing grew even heavier.
Every ti he inhaled and exhaled, his chest cavity was pressed tightly by the rock walls, making it impossible for him to expand it fully at all.
The harsh scraping sounds continued to ring out without pause.
It was obvious that Takumi's helt was gradually becoming unable to adapt to the height of this cave.
He could not hear Fujiwara Chika's voice.
He could not hear the voice of anyone other than himself.
Only this pitch-black cave, seemingly without end, continued to stretch on, and at this mont he was the sole prisoner who wanted to escape from this place.
Click!
After a crisp sound rang out, Takumi was forced to stop moving forward.
His helt was completely jamd and there was no way to continue advancing.
Takumi estimated that at this point the height of the tunnel was already less than forty centiters. He could barely maintain a head-raised posture, and the helt on his head had instead beco a major obstacle. If he wanted to keep moving forward, he would have no choice but to take the helt off.
"Tsk… what a hassle…"
The process of removing the helt was extrely difficult. Takumi had to struggle to retreat a short distance; otherwise, his head would be stuck in place, completely unable to move. Then, maintaining an extrely awkward posture with his upper arms extended forward, he barely managed to draw back his forearms, grab the helt's clasp, undo it, and then tilt his head to one side, removing the helt little by little.
Being unable to draw back his arms caused even more trouble than he had expected. Takumi could hardly even wipe the dust from his face. Panting as he went, he slowly brought the helt to the front and held the flashlight used for illumination in his hand.
Takumi also placed his backpack in front of him. Every ti he shifted forward a certain distance, he would push the backpack forward a short stretch, then slowly inch himself over as well, repeating this cycle as he advanced bit by bit.
That blood-colored puppet capable of sharing senses was now right at the edge of the light source. Takumi did not dare let the doll move beyond the illuminated area, because although this thing could share senses, it did not have night vision. Once it entered complete darkness, it would be unable to provide Takumi with any visual input. If any danger were to appear, not only would it be unable to give Takumi an early warning, it might instead be targeted, causing him to fall into danger.
"Ha…"
As he slowly exhaled once again, Takumi began to feel a bit dizzy.
A faint but piercing buzzing sound reached his ears.
The strength in his body also seed to be weakening sowhat.
Takumi knew this was a sign of oxygen deprivation.
He had stayed in this overly sealed and narrow area for far too long and needed to get out as soon as possible. If this continued, he might very well pass out in this godforsaken place, and if that happened, the next ti he opened his eyes, it would probably be the start of the third run.
"Ha…"
He could only continue crawling forward.
At this point, his body was almost completely unable to exert strength.
The rock walls pressed in from all directions, and he could only grip the protrusions on the rock surfaces with both hands, inching his entire body forward bit by bit.
His legs were likewise almost unable to exert any force, because Takumi was no longer able to bend them.
This kind of experience was truly so awful that it was hard to put into words.
But Takumi quickly realized that when bad things happen, they often do not appear in a single form.
Bzz—bzz—
The lamp embedded in the helt suddenly began to flicker.
'Hey, no way, right? I'm clearly using brand-new batteries. There's no reason they should fail this quickly.'
Realizing sothing was wrong, Takumi struggled to check the condition of the helt, but just as he took action, the light from the helt went completely dark.
Darkness.
Boundless, absolute darkness without the slightest trace of light completely enveloped Takumi's vision.
At this mont, he could not see anything at all and could only continue crawling through this cave in total darkness.
Claustrophobia.
Takumi suddenly thought of this term again.
Before the Red Nut Grey Cave entered its fixed stage, in the Tourist Rules summarized by players, this was sothing that players acting as Tourists absolutely could not say out loud, and could not even allow themselves to think about. In a sense, this rule itself was already hinting at what had happened inside this cave.
However, what Takumi was thinking about now was not the tragedy that had occurred in this cave, but the term itself.
According to dical explanations, so-called claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed or crowded spaces—a fear of what bad things might happen in such environnts, a fear of that uncertainty. Therefore, places such as elevators, train cars, and aircraft cabins can all trigger claustrophobia. By contrast, places like mountain caves are rarely ntioned, perhaps because people with claustrophobia simply would not approach such areas in the first place.
Takumi had always felt that he did not have sothing like claustrophobia. He had always felt that this kind of ntal disorder was very far from him—so far that, no matter what, there was no way it could happen to him—until today, when he had to pass through this narrow hole.
Can you imagine a scene like this?
You are lying prone in a narrow, damp, cold cave. Rock presses down on you from above and below, and from your left and right at the sa ti, as if it is going to crush you flat inside it, clinging tightly to your body—so tightly that you cannot even breathe smoothly, to the point where your entire chest cavity is restrained.
You cannot bend your legs. Even if your legs go numb and you want to stretch them a little, you cannot do it; they will press against the rock walls and be unable to move.
You cannot lower your hands to your sides. You can only maintain a posture with them extended forward, because the heavy rock has already pressed firmly against both sides of your body. As you keep moving forward, as the surroundings beco narrower and narrower, you begin to feel as if your shoulders are almost being crushed, and later you cannot even bend your arms.
And then, at this mont, you lose your light source and fall into absolute darkness.
"Ha…"
Takumi felt that he should count as a very calm person, but even for him, when facing a situation like this, his breathing still quickened for a mont, and his heartbeat also sped up slightly. It took several seconds for him to regain his calm.
There was still a spare flashlight in his backpack that he could use.
But the failure of the headlamp just now was not so coincidence.
He could be sure of that, because he could hear the sound of breathing behind him.
The current Takumi had already reached an area affected by eerie power, and it was obvious that the eerie presence was closely related to darkness. It was precisely because of its existence that Takumi's light could not continue to work.
Even if he took out a flashlight now, it would be impossible to obtain a light source. Before he crawled out of this area, before he moved away from that thing, it would be impossible to leave here.
[Ha…]
That sound was very close.
So close that Takumi could not help thinking that perhaps it only needed to stretch out a hand to directly grab his ankle and drag him into a bottomless abyss.
But in the end, Takumi only continued crawling forward in silence. At the sa ti, he had that doll feel its way back in the dark and run to his side, then took it back into the watch, so that he would not be done for if sothing sudden happened later.
Right now, he could not see anything.
He could only rely on instinct, touching the rock walls with his hands, and in this way he kept going, crawling forward bit by bit.
Just how far had he crawled forward by now? One hundred ters? Two hundred ters? Or longer—or shorter? Takumi had no way to confirm it. He could only keep moving, continuing to inch forward through the darkness.
[Ha…]
That heavy breathing sound seed to rise right beside him.
But clearly there was nothing at his side—rather, in a place like this, did the concept of "beside" even exist anymore?
Within the perception of the blessing, the thing that had been following behind him seed to have vanished, as if it had never existed at all.
Had he already left the range of that thing's influence? If that were the case, perhaps he could turn on the headlamp now.
With that thought, Takumi reached out his hand—only to touch sothing cold, sowhat stiff, yet far less solid than rock.
The texture of a corpse.
The pitch-black cave was still narrow—so narrow that there was no way to raise his head, leaving him able only to wriggle forward while crawling.
But around Takumi, the places that had originally been rock walls had all turned into corpses.
All of a sudden, he realized that he was not inside a rock cave at all, but inside a mass grave ford by countless piled bodies, lying prone within a tunnel enclosed by corpses.
A foul stench slowly began to spread.
Under the shroud of darkness, silence continued to envelop this land.
Realizing sothing was wrong, Takumi tried to retreat, but his feet kicked into corpses—the bodies fallen behind him blocked his way back.
No way back?
In the silence, Takumi hesitated for less than a second before continuing to crawl forward.
Within the narrow tunnel, his hands would from ti to ti brush past soone's face, past limbs and torsos—so intact, so horribly incomplete. He could even clearly sense whether what he touched was intestines, bones, or maggots writhing on rotting flesh.
Amid the stench, the path beca increasingly damp and slick.
It was as if he were slowly sliding forward through the grease of corpses, accompanied by the sticky, viscous sounds produced as those things were squeezed aside, continuing onward like this.
Then, all of a sudden, Takumi realized that he had returned to the cold stone cave.
There were no corpses, and there was none of that revolting, filthy blood.
There was only the road ahead, still shrouded in complete darkness—and a cave that had beco even narrower.
"Ugh…"
At this mont, Takumi's breathing caught slightly.
The posture he had been maintaining—keeping his head slightly raised—could no longer be sustained.
The cave beca even narrower at this point, its height dropping once again by several degrees.
If he wanted to keep moving forward, Takumi had to lower his head, pressing it flat against the ground just like his body, in order to squeeze farther into the depths.
"Ha… ha…"
With the change in posture, breathing beca even more difficult at this mont.
But Takumi had no choice. He could only continue struggling in the darkness, inching himself forward little by little.
Then he discovered that even with his head pressed flat, he still could not continue moving forward.
Little by little, Takumi turned his head to the side, one ear pressed against the ground and the other against the rock wall above, and continued crawling and wriggling forward like this.
At first, Takumi only felt that this posture was almost going to snap his neck.
But as the cave's height continued to decrease, and his ears began to rub against the rock walls until they were torn and bloody, the pain in his neck eased sowhat—after all, by comparison, having his ears ripped apart by the rock walls hurt even more.
Creak—creak—
He could hear the sound of his exploration suit scraping against the rock.
Bloody fluid flowed down his cheeks onto his face, mixing with gravel and dust, bringing a faintly sweet, tallic stench to his lips.
Almost his entire body was completely jamd inside the rock tunnel. Takumi clenched his teeth and once again wriggled forward another short distance.
This ti, the top of the cave he was inching past happened to have a sowhat sharp rock. It hooked his ear in an instant, and then, at the mont Takumi exerted force, it directly tore his ear apart from the middle—half of it was left hanging on the rock wall, while the other half remained on Takumi's body, filthy blood pouring straight into his ear.
The pain at that mont was beyond description.
But as the power of the blessing took effect, Takumi discovered that the pain he felt actually began to decrease. Pain on the level of having half his ear torn off no longer seed that severe.
He still could not stop. He had to keep crawling forward.
He stretched out his hands and forcefully gripped the rock walls on both sides.
It was at this mont that Takumi's right hand grasped nothing.
What was going on?
The rock walls in this area seed to have widened slightly.
Although the height was still suffocating, forcing him to move with his head turned to the side, his right hand could finally move a little. He no longer had to keep it constantly extended forward.
Drip—
A clear sound of dripping water rang out once again in front of him.
Takumi took a breath, enduring the dizziness brought on by mild oxygen deprivation, and moved forward just a little more.
Then, all of a sudden, he froze.
The area on his right had opened up by a section, giving him a bit of space to move his arm.
But what if it was not rely that it had "opened up by a section"?
He stretched out his right hand and felt toward the area on his right, but did not touch a wall.
Takumi then understood—his right side had not beco wider, but rather… an opening had appeared. An extra passage had appeared, a branching path.
If you encountered a branching path inside the [Blood Vessel]…
Realizing this, Takumi struggled, about to retreat backward, about to return to the area he had just been in.
But before he could make any move, a hand had already reached out from the front and tightly grasped Takumi's hand.
[Please…]
He heard the faint voice of that thing.
[Save …]
In the next instant, Takumi's entire body was violently dragged forward by an irresistible force, and his blood-soaked ear was completely torn apart against the rock wall.
It seed as though countless sounds surged into his ears at that mont.
A dull sound of sobbing.
Labored, gasping speech.
And the sound of sothing slowly sliding, like the operation of a chanical structure.
"Mm…"
Takumi opened his eyes.
He slowly sat up from the ground and realized that he was inside a dark, gloomy cave.
'Where was I just now…?'
He reached out and touched his ear, only to feel a blood-soaked ear that had been torn apart, with nearly half of it ripped away.
Takumi took a deep breath, took out bandages and iodine, disinfected the wound, and wrapped it up. Gritting his teeth, he quickly finished bandaging the injured ear.
Right—he had passed through the [Blood Vessel] area. Although the process had been extrely grueling, he had finally managed to get out of that hellish place.
Next, it would be ti to leave this area. He needed to find a way to cross the great cliff, reach the [Big Slide], then head toward the upper regions of this world, figure out the specific situation over there, and then find a way to contact Maki and Kaguya's side so everyone could act together—join forces and completely escape from this hellish place.
It was just that… for so reason, he couldn't quite rember how he had left the [Blood Vessel]. Was it because he was too exhausted and passed out after getting out, causing his mory of that part to beco blurred?
Takumi raised a hand and rubbed his temples, inexplicably feeling a trace of dizziness.
Did sothing happen?
'I really…'
"Wah—f-finally, I made it out."
Chika's wail shifted Takumi's attention at that mont.
He turned his head and looked toward Fujiwara Chika, who was struggling to crawl out from the cave entrance, her face marked with several fresh scratches. Through the power of the blessing, he confird that this girl was indeed Fujiwara Chika herself, so he walked over and watched as she gave him a foolish grin, then struggled forward for a short distance before being unable to crawl any farther.
"Ta-Takumi-kun, I'm stuck again…"
The girl, wearing a pitiful expression, looked at Takumi with pleading eyes.
Takumi, who was no stranger to this kind of situation, twitched the corner of his mouth. Still, he stepped forward, grabbed the hand Chika reached out, and slowly pulled her out of the low cave.
"Wah… wah…"
Amid her cries of pain, the girl's head involuntarily shook and trembled a few tis.
The headlamp she was wearing swayed along with the movent, scattering white light throughout the cave.
Within that light, the shadow of the backpack Takumi had thrown on the ground was stretched long.
And at Takumi's feet, behind him, the white light illuminated the rugged ground and the steep rock walls—yet it failed to cast his shadow.
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