Heading to the Basement

"Thanks, then let's have a pleasant cooperation."

Bai Yuze smiled and extended his hand.

The receptionist stared at Bai Yuze's hand, stunned for a moment, before reacting. He took off his glove and shook Bai Yuze's hand.

At this moment, Bai Yuze noticed that the receptionist's hand was covered in scars—cuts, burn marks—and the palm was quite rough.

"If you're looking for something, you'd better take this."

The receptionist pulled a flashlight from his pocket. It looked quite old, and the light it emitted was warm.

"Is that so? This thing isn't free, is it?"

Bai Yuze didn't take the flashlight. In the human world, everything was full of transactional interests; in the world of the supernatural, he had to be even more vigilant.

"There is something I want in the basement... I need you to bring it back."

"What is it?"

"My... dog."

"A dog? I understand."

Bai Yuze was thoughtful, but he agreed nonetheless.

After obtaining the key and the flashlight, Bai Yuze didn't forget to ask one more thing.

"How do I enter the basement?"

"Since you want to enter the basement, it means you already know the way."

After saying this, the receptionist returned to his room and closed the door.

Seeing this, Bai Yuze had to abandon the idea of fishing for more information. Of course he knew how to enter the basement, but since he had a key, why couldn't he just open the basement door directly? Why did he have to enter through the supernatural staircase?

(Could it be that the basement door is one-way only? If someone inside comes out through the door, the exit remains an exit, but if someone enters from the outside, the exit permanently becomes an entrance and cannot be changed?)

The more Bai Yuze thought about it, the more it made sense within his mental map.

Enter via the stairs (avoiding the front door) > Exit from the inside via the front door > The door becomes a one-way escape door (and still retains the method of entry).

Enter via the front door (avoiding the stairs) > The front door becomes a one-way entrance door (with only one way out: the single-person passage door).

But there was still one problem bothering Bai Yuze: was the basement's maximum capacity two people, or two living beings?

Bai Yuze leaned toward two living beings, because the receptionist had clearly entered the basement and brought his dog, but the outcome seemed to indicate that the receptionist had entered through the front door and could only leave via the single-person passage, which was why he had left the dog behind.

"It seems the word 'single' in this single-person passage door is strictly limited to 'people'."

While Bai Yuze was thinking, his body had already reached the staircase. He took a deep breath and counted the steps as he walked.

Those tentacles appeared again. Bai Yuze stepped back, and just as he had expected, he felt his body falling. As his consciousness sank into darkness, he clutched the flashlight, the key, and the kitchen knife tightly to his chest.

When he woke up again, he saw the dark, damp, moss-covered walls that Yuigahama Yui had described.

He hurriedly checked his gear; fortunately, nothing was missing. The room was a bit too dark.

But this had no effect on Bai Yuze. Thanks to the ability of Gui Dan, he possessed night vision in the dark, so the concept of "walking in the dark" didn't exist for him.

Bai Yuze checked Yuigahama Yui's phone; the battery was at only ten percent. Seeing this, he immediately turned off the screen and walked out of the room.

At the same time, following the method Yuigahama Yui had mentioned, he hoped in his heart that he would find a safe room.

Sure enough, in his field of vision, all the rooms appeared in one of three colors: red, yellow, or green.

Among them, there was only one green room, few red ones, and many yellow ones.

Bai Yuze didn't forget to glance at the room he had woken up in—it was yellow.

"Good thing I didn't linger, otherwise I would have suffered some cognitive influence."

Bai Yuze smiled, while observing the precarious water droplets on the basement ceiling.

"I remember seeing corrosive scars on Tuanzi's hands. Was it these droplets?"

It was impossible to avoid all the water droplets on the ceiling. Bai Yuze looked around, wanting to find some tools to block them.

In the end, Bai Yuze chose the same tool as the two girls: a bedsheet.

However, searching this entire basement was unrealistic. As Bai Yuze draped the sheet over himself, he hoped in his heart that he would find something related to Yukinoshita Yukino.

As a result... Bai Yuze froze. His action of draping the sheet paused, and he only snapped back to reality when a droplet landed on his shoulder with a sizzling sound.

He didn't care about the burning sensation on his shoulder; at this moment, his eyes were trembling uncontrollably...

A flash of white suddenly appeared in his field of vision. Bai Yuze knew that was the location of Yukinoshita Yukino, but there wasn't just one white spot... there was a whole patch!

There were at least dozens of them! This meant... Yukinoshita Yukino had become Yukinoshita Yukino (Jigsaw Puzzle Edition).

"Am I... too late?"

Bai Yuze was somewhat dazed. At this moment, he wanted to say something, but he chose silence. At this moment, he wanted to do something, but his right hand holding the knife weakly let go.

Clang!

The sound of the kitchen knife hitting the ground echoed through the corridor, reaching the ears of the hunter currently on the prowl, and also reaching the ears of the prey currently in flight...

"Hehehe... teeheehee..."

A burst of children's laughter drifted from afar, accompanied by footsteps that were rapidly approaching Bai Yuze.

Using his night vision, Bai Yuze saw several pale-faced children running toward him. They were giggling and playing, but their eyes looked as if they had been painted on; they didn't blink, and their eyeballs were a dull, fish-belly white.

Bai Yuze picked up the kitchen knife from the ground and scraped it against the door a few times. The friction between the blade and the door caused those "children" to stop their giggling.

"Kids... this isn't funny, and it isn't fun at all." Bai Yuze flashed a chilling—no, a ghost-chilling—smile at the children. "Your big brother is feeling a bit hot-headed right now."

Bai Yuze picked up his flashlight with his left hand and shone it directly at the children standing in place.

"Ahhh!!!"

The moment the eerie children saw the light, they shrieked and scattered in every direction.

The piercing sound made Bai Yuze tilt his head and scratch his ear, and it was precisely this moment of tilting his head that allowed him to narrowly dodge an incoming strike.

"This is... a Scalpel?!"

Before Bai Yuze could react, a fierce attack came lunging at him.

Bai Yuze defended passively, but he was still kicked back several meters by the Male Corpse, stumbling back over a dozen steps before he could steady his stance.

After pulling the Scalpel out of the door frame, the Male Corpse launched another attack at Bai Yuze, who could only parry with his kitchen knife while retreating.

Fortunately, the Scalpel had far less reach than the kitchen knife. After a few exchanges, Bai Yuze remained uninjured, while the Male Corpse had already sustained several slashes.

However, a corpse feels no pain, so even if Bai Yuze were to hack off the opponent's arm, it would not stop the Male Corpse from continuing its assault.

This can't go on. My stamina is limited, and the opponent is just a corpse. If I keep dragging this out, I'm bound to end up finished.

Bai Yuze tried to think of a countermeasure while fighting, but the Male Corpse's relentless attacks made it difficult for him to parry, and the corrosive water droplets added to the chaos, making a bad situation even worse.

The key to sealing him is that Scalpel, but how do I take it away?

The Male Corpse's attacks came one after another, seamlessly blending offense with defense. Every time Bai Yuze tried to strike the hand holding the Scalpel, the Male Corpse would use its other hand to block the blow.

Bai Yuze had considered trying to hack off the other hand first, but the moment his kitchen knife landed, the opponent's attack would strike again.

Bai Yuze either had to choose to take the damage in a trade or retreat.

He didn't know any "bare-handed blade-catching" techniques, so snatching the knife from the corpse's hand was as difficult as taking food from a tiger's mouth.

Suddenly! Bai Yuze recalled a plot point from the original story. After looking at the Scalpel in the Male Corpse's hand and feeling the burning sensation on his own body, his gaze gradually grew firm.

At this moment, Bai Yuze changed his fighting style; he stopped retreating and charged forward instead.

The Male Corpse raised the Scalpel once more, gripping it in a forward hold to increase the force and speed of its downward stab.

Bai Yuze didn't hesitate to meet it with his left hand.

Squelch!

The Scalpel pierced through Bai Yuze's left hand, but in that same instant, Bai Yuze hacked off the arm holding the blade.

The moment the arm was severed, Bai Yuze lifted his foot and kicked the Male Corpse away.

At this point, the stinging pain of his palm being impaled hit him, and the intense agony made Bai Yuze's breathing ragged.

He endured the pain to pull out the Scalpel, tossing the severed arm that was still clutching the blade to the side.

The Male Corpse stood up and lunged at Bai Yuze once more.

Bai Yuze remained calm; he threw the kitchen knife in his hand, and after tracing an arc through the air, it struck the Male Corpse directly in the head.

The Male Corpse's other hand tried to pull the kitchen knife out to use as a weapon, but Bai Yuze didn't give it the chance. He seized the opportunity, lunged forward in a flash, and drove the Scalpel into the creature's neck.

The moment the Scalpel entered the Male Corpse's neck, the creature stopped moving, then collapsed limply to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

In this battle, Bai Yuze had won a pyrrhic victory...