"Go to the basement level."
Gu Yao's steps, which had been heading upward, abruptly stopped. Her body shuddered as she broke free from the command state, regaining her freedom.
Her gaze followed the thick, sticky substance before landing on the headless rat corpse.
"Go to the basement level."
Her body seemed to regain some flexibility, and Gu Yao was now able to slowly control herself, stiffly turning around to head toward the basement.
She had no other options. She had a feeling that she would gain something valuable.
Tap, tap, tap…
Third floor, second floor, first floor…
Basement level.
Gu Yao stood before the tightly closed door of the emergency exit, feeling as though her heart, which hadn't beaten in a long time, was now pounding nervously.
The emergency exit door to the basement level looked completely ordinary. Gu Yao took a deep breath, raised her hand, and then pushed it open.
The door slowly creaked open, revealing a scene inside that resembled a hell on earth.
Something was writhing, like pulsating flesh.
A sea of blood red.
—
"Come on, you bastard."
Chu Muge tightened her grip on the long blade, looking calmly at the monster poised to pounce not far away.
"How annoying."
She thought, glancing at the monster that roared at her, her lips curling in contempt.
She had finally found a chance to get some clothes for her senior, and then this happened.
The monster's tail blade slashed toward her head. Chu Muge's slit pupils trembled slightly as she sidestepped the attack. She then leaped lightly, like a gust of wind, and at the moment the monster charged, she placed her left hand on its head, using the momentum to somersault onto its slender back.
“I look like I am riding a horse.”
Chu Muge raised her long blade and forcefully stabbed it into one of the monster's compound eyes.
Green fluid spurted out like a burst of juice, and the monster let out a painful roar, swinging its tail in agony.
Chu Muge quickly withdrew the blade, now dripping with green liquid, and swung it upward, blocking the descending tail blade.
Clang.
The long blade groaned.
At the same time, two claws unexpectedly reached out toward her body.
The monster's arms were long. Chu Muge's pupils trembled as she instinctively stepped on one claw but still couldn't avoid the other, which grabbed her.
It had been intentional. The monster had waited for Chu Muge to block the tail blade before extending its claws to grab her.
The monster slowly stood upright, its slender claws barely gripping Chu Muge's waist. As it tightened its grip, it opened its gaping maw, aiming for her head.
Chu Muge winced in pain, furrowing her brow slightly. Seizing the moment, just as the monster's mouth lunged toward her head, she tightly gripped the long blade in her right hand, twisted, and stabbed it into the monster's other compound eye.
Amidst its painful roar, Chu Muge dropped from the now slackened claws, wobbling as she tried to steady herself.
But it was too late.
The sharp tail tip, accompanied by a gust of wind, pierced her flesh, sending a spray of blood flying.
"Cough... cough."
Chu Muge lowered her head slightly, looking at the tail blade that had pierced through her abdomen, coughing up a few mouthfuls of blood.
The monster's agonized roar abruptly stopped, turning into a few deep chuckles.
It pulled the long blade from its eye with a claw and tossed it aside, where it landed with a crisp clatter.
Blood spread across the loose black hoodie, though it wasn't all that conspicuous.
"Gu... Gu Yao..."
The monster looked at Chu Muge with a mocking expression, letting out a hoarse, greedy murmur.
Chu Muge paused, placing her hands on its tail. "Cough... you know, I really don't like it when someone uses that greedy tone to say my senior's name..."
Her red pupils seemed to glow even brighter, as if boiling blood was bubbling within them.
Chu Muge gripped the monster's tail, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth as she smiled at it. "So, how about you just die?"
The monster sensed something was wrong, but before it could react, a tremendous force suddenly surged from its tail, as if it were about to be torn off.
Chu Muge swung it like a meteor hammer. No one knew where she got the power from. She grabbed the tail with both hands and threw the monster away like a humanoid Gundam.
The target: the guardrail glass.
Crash.
After the clear sound of shattering glass, the monster let out a whimper. Its movements didn't stop, though. With a flick of its tail, it pierced through Chu Muge's abdomen, wrapping her up as they both plummeted toward the first floor.
—
The floor… was writhing.
Gu Yao stared at the scene before her, her mind blank.
The floor of the entire basement level was covered with something like a fleshy carpet, presenting a bloody red color, as if someone had brutally ground a person into minced meat and spread it all over.
The fleshy carpet was sticky and pulsating slightly, as if it were a living thing.
**[Move forward.]**
It was as if her heart was yearning for something. Gu Yao instinctively stepped forward, treading on the fleshy carpet.
It was sticky and soft, with a bit of elasticity, and her feet sank slightly into it.
**[Continue moving forward.]**
The basement level, which was supposed to be a place for snacks, was now completely covered by this fleshy carpet: the floor, the walls, the ceiling—everywhere.
A large mascot cat had been covered by the carpet, turning into a cat-shaped mass of blood-red flesh, looking extremely eerie.
A monochrome sea of blood red, like the inside of a working stomach.
**[Keep moving forward.]**
Because she was stepping on soft flesh, her footsteps were barely audible. Gu Yao kept walking, heading in the direction her intuition was guiding her.
In the center of the basement level, there was a massive lump of flesh.
It was a pale pink color, with scattered hairs on it, and it pulsed slightly, like a beating heart.
But besides the sparse hairs, there were no other features—no eyes, no mouth, no limbs, just a simple lump of flesh.
Yet somehow, Gu Yao looked at it and understood something:
This was the cause of the basement's bizarre state.
Immediately, she instinctively knew what it was:
An incomplete, unhatched prototype nest.
In the gray-white world, Gu Yao stared blankly at the white threads slowly emerging from the lump of flesh, reaching out to her.
—
Pain.
Chu Muge lay on the ground, coughing. Dust and blood spattered as she turned over, clenched her fists, and tried to get up.
Thanks to her strong physique as an esper and the cushioning effect of the monster's body, Chu Muge had managed to survive a fall from the third floor with the best possible outcome:
A few broken ribs.
She glanced at the struggling monster nearby, gritted her teeth, and painstakingly propped herself up against the counter, clutching her abdomen.
It had already stopped bleeding.
For a normal person, broken ribs would be a fatal injury, potentially piercing vulnerable organs if not careful.
But Chu Muge didn't have the luxury to worry about that now.
As the pain began to subside, Chu Muge reached out with trembling hands, frantically searching her body.
… Medicine.
The monster's roar echoed as it began to rise to its feet.
Chu Muge forced herself to suppress the agitation in her heart, her gaze shifting unconsciously in a certain direction.
"No, you can't go there..."
The terrified voice of a little girl seemed to still echo in her ears:
"There's something... something there..."
At the same time, the monster in the rubble shook its head, sending dust flying, and began to rise.
Chu Muge coughed, raising a middle finger at it.
The escape game had officially begun.
The target: the basement level.
---