Earlier - Power Distribution Room
"Are you sure about splitting up? This feels risky."
Maki frowned at Takakai's plan from her seat on the couch.
"Extremely risky," he admitted. "We're still under-equipped against this dungeon's horrors. One misstep could be fatal."
"Then why?!"
"Because Takakai-kun has no choice," Chika interjected, eyes sparkling. "Multiple fronts mean faster intel gathering—plus it disrupts whatever's manipulating us, right?"
Takakai nodded grimly.
Without knowledge of the research base, an average player would've pulled the switch upon finding this room.
Then came Kaguya's imprisonment and Howard's ravings about "stolen belongings" and "a crevice"—clearly referencing the giant fissure and the white-dress apparition.
But Takakai knew better.
Having died to that entity, he recognized its rage wasn't about reclaiming something—it simply wanted genocide, particularly against the research base staff.
Two isolated incidents might've been coincidence.
But combined with:
Maki/Chika's forced escape
Rixuel's near-activation of the switch
A pattern emerged.
Something was herding them toward specific conclusions:
That the fissure contained an item to pacify the core grudge
That Howard's testimony was trustworthy
The mastermind (likely Fernen) had accounted for their communication methods.
But Takakai had devised a countermeasure—chaos.
Present - Gentle Slope
The rescue member waded deeper, its inhuman form squeezing through impossibly narrow gaps.
Then—contact.
A mummified infant's corpse, wedged in the rocks, swaddled in faded cloth.
Takakai's expression darkened.
Prison Block
With a scalpel that could slice through steel, Kaguya freed herself from Cell D6.
She and Maki moved silently under flickering lights—not toward the exit, but toward other occupied cells.
D5... D4... D3.
Kaguya paused before the reinforced door.
No keyhole—a design choice that normally countered blood keys. But the scalpel rendered that moot.
From the welded-shut confinement chamber at the hallway's center came muffled struggles—like someone trapped in rock, gasping for air.
Then—
Creak.
Cell D4's door swung open on its own.
A black-yellow boulder rolled out, dripping with gore and reeking of thousands of rotting corpses compressed into stone.
The hallway itself began morphing—walls warping into cave formations, then further distorting into vein-like structures.
Maki realized with dawning horror:
They were inside a blood vessel.
Isolation Zone Entrance
Chika sliced through the secured door with her scalpel just as soldiers spotted her.
Bang!
A bullet tore through her shoulder—
—only for the wound to seal instantly after she swallowed a pill from her vial.
Before her, the corridor packed solid with expressionless researchers and armed soldiers.
Behind, more troops poured through the breached door.
Trapped?
Not quite.
Chika lit an explosive and lobbed it down the hallway.
"Gamers don't negotiate—we frag the spawn campers."
Gentle Slope - Meanwhile
Rixuel emerged from the mist, panting.
"Takakai-san! The rules forbid the Gentle Slope! And have you seen Susan? I can't find her anywhere—"
"Impressive play," Takakai interrupted, smiling. "Your goal was maintaining this dungeon's status quo, right? When I split our team to disrupt your plans, you countered by planting traps on all fronts—even coming here to monitor me. Class act."
"W-what are you talking about?" Rixuel blinked innocently.
Blessing detection still showed only genuine concern.
But Takakai had tested this earlier:
When he'd lewdly fantasized about Kaguya via mental link, her blessing didn't trigger—proving indirect malice could bypass detection.
"Two miscalculations," Takakai raised a finger. "First—that wasn't my rescue member."
He flicked his fake badge—just a child's toy resembling the real Rescue Team Pin (now worn by Maki).
In the prison block, the real rescue member detonated its explosives, shielding Maki and Kaguya from the blast while collapsing the transforming corridor.
"Second—this isn't the master key."
Takakai tossed the "blood key"—just the power room key painted red.
At that instant, Chika—cornered in the research base—inserted the true blood key into a staff lounge door.
Click.
The guard post door beside Takakai burst open, unleashing a torrent of floodwater into the base's corridors.
Chika braced against the current as the soldier formation broke—
—then hurled her last explosive into their midst.