Rhodes Island does not exist.

"hiss."

A bitter, salty smell surged up.

The seawater in the glass bottle was only a few milliliters, but its intensity was enough to completely destroy the doctor's sense of taste and even make the air he inhaled taste salty.

Seawater enters the throat.

Intense sensory stimulation surged within me as the seawater rushed through my body.

The world began to distort before the doctor's eyes.

He saw that all the white hospital beds in front of him were twisting and contorting.

Countless red and black creatures were sprouting from every corner of the hospital bed, baring their fangs and claws in the air.

He saw the lights in the entire hall begin to flicker erratically, creating a neon-like display across the vast space.

The world is getting worse.

It has become very bad.

This was the first thought that popped into the doctor's mind.

Incredibly, he felt absolutely no fear of these strange things.

The madness brought on by the seawater was gradually taking over his mind.

He was as terrified as he was before, and now he's as insane as he was before.

But madmen never stop.

The doctor started running.

He shed everything that had bound him, and no longer paid attention to the creeping shadows that continued to spread behind him as he moved forward, focusing solely on charging forward.

His right hand gripped the wooden handle of the pickaxe tightly, and a violent impulse, accompanied by madness, surged within him.

His eyes were bloodshot, and the world appeared red before his eyes.

But what changed drastically was only his own worldview.

As he charged forward, the mutated monsters behind him, along with his trajectory, drew out a thick curtain of flesh and blood.

All the hospital beds he left behind became dens of those mutated beings.

Or rather, they all exposed the true nature of those mutated nests.

Perhaps this vast, flat floor was originally the dwelling place of these strange creatures. When no one was around, they would lie in wait, disguised as a pristine bed, awaiting the arrival of their next prey. When prey stepped into the room's territory, they would become alert, waking up repeatedly as they entered the prey's blind spot, until the prey became aware of their presence or had nowhere left to retreat.

The high wall of flesh and blood piled up like discarded lymphatic tissue from a slaughterhouse, and as the doctor charged forward with madness, the speed at which it spread was like a filthy wave, visually surging toward the doctor.

Although the waves would stop as soon as the doctor stopped walking, at least for now, the waves are still in relative motion.

As for the insane doctor, he had already seen through his bloodshot eyes the filth hidden beneath the white sheets.

Just as mentioned earlier, in his eyes, the world has changed.

To him, what was spreading behind him and what was lurking in front of him had long been conflated and indistinguishable.

The only difference is that if he actually turned around and looked at the filth behind him, he would be swallowed whole.

But he didn't know, and he didn't care.

Now, all he could see was the square pillar standing in the center of the room.

Because there is a small door at the bottom of that pillar.

That door is very likely the only exit on this floor.

Therefore, no matter what, he must get to the location of that door.

This was the only rational thought he could make while being consumed by madness.

Or perhaps it's out of a survival instinct.

"Hs...hs..."

The doctor clenched his teeth, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his teeth.

Because this space had become so alienated in his eyes that he could no longer look at it directly.

Objects resembling connective tissue hung down in strips from the ceiling along the walls, forming a dense jungle with the dancing monsters, obscuring his vision as he moved forward.

If he had witnessed this scene while in a fully rational state, he would probably be on the verge of a breakdown right now.

Although the world he sees in his rational state is not like this at all, as long as he turns his head, he can clearly see the face of the truth.

The madness merely showed him what the area would look like in the future, allowing him to accept it all without fear.

After all, madness is essentially a buffer against all fear.

As long as he can maintain this level of madness, he won't fall on this floor.

So all he needed to do was hold on until he reached the door that symbolized the exit.

As long as we can get through that door, there won't be any problems.

Because no matter how much he went mad, no matter how much filth covered the world in his madness, that door remained unchanged.

This almost certainly confirms that it is the real exit.

But in the next moment, something happened that even the doctor, who was in a state of madness, could not have imagined.

The door located in the center of the pillar suddenly opened to both sides.

"Ok?"

He could even clearly see a figure inside the open door.

The figure was wearing a wide-brimmed hat like a cowboy's, with the brim pulled low, but the doctor couldn't make out any other details, not even the gender or body type.

However, there is no doubt that the person saw the doctor.

Moreover, in his eyes, the doctor's image was clearly not friendly.

Ask yourself, who would think that a man wielding a bloodstained pickaxe and with bloodshot eyes running towards you would be friendly?

Only a psychopathic killer would look like this.

Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of awakened flesh-and-blood monsters behind the doctor.

The person immediately and hurriedly closed the door, and the doctor couldn't even manage to say "Wait for me."

He couldn't even shout it out.

He's so insane he probably can't even string together a single complete word, let alone a phrase.

But in reality, his appearance was a far more serious matter for the doctor than the stranger's departure.

Do you remember what I mentioned before about the awakening mechanism of those hidden things in this room?

That's right, behind.

The appearance of a stranger in the center of the room signifies that the half of the room behind him has become his back.

-

【seawater】

The liquid, from Agor's true homeland, is murky, reflecting the essence of the deep sea.

Simply drink it, and the drinker will be driven mad and will see things that ordinary people cannot see.

The deep sea was originally the home of ancient life, but it was distorted by an unknown entity and transformed into a breeding ground for madness.

Most Agorians spend their entire lives trying to escape their homeland, but none of them ever truly succeed.

-

updated.

Thank you segment.

Thank you Lelouch... and thank you for the monthly pass from Foghorn.

Chapter 6, Part 6: Malice Deep in the Bone

The door is closed.

A grotesque and indistinct monster, like squeezed toothpaste, burst forth from every bed behind the pillar.

The sudden appearance of that stranger in the room triggered all the evil things that had existed behind him.

They have awakened, they are poised to strike, they stare at the doctor and his kin behind him, making a slippery sound as slime oozes out.

Is this a form of communication? Or is it a fight between them?

However, this is something that current PhDs cannot comprehend.

Madness robbed him of his ability to feel fear and also took away his right to think.

Moreover, in his eyes, the monsters lurking under the hospital beds were all the same, whether they revealed their forms or not.

After all, under the influence of his intense visual senses, he had already seen through the true nature of the room.

So he wasn't afraid of the evil that was sprouting up like mushrooms after rain, but continued to run at the speed he had used to chase the stranger, holding a pickaxe, towards the central pillar of the hall.

The wall of flesh behind him continued to grow wildly, following his every step, piling up in every inch of space between the beds, as if it were about to devour him completely at any moment.

Fifty meters.

Thirty meters.

Fifteen meters.

The image of the pillar became increasingly clear in the doctor's vision.

As a pure corner standing alone in the Flesh Nest, it is the only thing that can serve as a guiding light for the Doctor in his madness, helping him find his way forward.

But madness cannot last forever.

The doctor's madness relied on the help of the seawater, but the help was ultimately limited.

"Whoo-"

My vision began to flicker like radio waves.

As the brief effects of the seawater gradually wore off, the doctor felt as if he were standing on the edge of madness and sanity, sometimes seeing the normal view of the room, and sometimes seeing the real view.

The tangled connective tissue hanging on the wall appeared and disappeared before his eyes, and the beds on both sides of the road kept switching between red and white.

But the world behind the pillars remains unchanged in color.

After all, that area had already been triggered by the stranger from before, regardless of his state.

Just like the scenery behind him and in his peripheral vision.

But for him right now, none of these things are as important as the fact that the medicine's effects are about to wear off.

Once he loses his current madness, the fear that has accumulated in the room will inevitably devour him whole.

Because fear is not influenced by a person's subjective thoughts.

Even if you claim you're not afraid, or force yourself to confront those fears, it won't help.

Fear strikes at the heart of instinct.

Just as a finger instinctively recoils when it touches a flame, pure fear reacts before you can even think.

The same applies to doctoral students.

Even things that seem commonplace in a state of madness become utterly abhorrent under the gaze of reason.

This is the negative impact of rationality.

"I really regret not asking Specter for another bottle."

Having regained half of his usual rationality, the doctor uttered a heartfelt sigh.

When he was back in the embrace of fear, the doctor realized that Ghost Shark had indeed been helping him.

However, simply lamenting is ultimately useless.

He is now less than ten meters away from the door on the pillar, and he only needs to use his legs to make up that distance.

"call--"

The Doctor took a deep breath as he gazed at the grotesque, fleshy creatures that thrashed about behind the pillars.