Rhodes Island does not exist.

He himself came from the fourth floor.

During his upward exploration, he passed three floors: the fifth, sixth, and seventh. However, he could not enter any of these floors, as only a silent, thick wall blocked his path.

So, driven by a thirst for knowledge, he told Skadi about the fact that the sixth floor was inaccessible.

Skadi shook her head.

"This means you don't yet have a comprehensive understanding of this place."

“The connections within this building are not as convenient as they are in everyday life,” Skadi said in a cold tone. “You might think that the third and second floors are only separated by a floor and that you can easily get there by just walking down a few stairs, but here, it takes more effort than you can imagine to get from the third floor to the second floor.”

"For example, of course, just an example."

She stopped and turned to look at the doctor.

"You need to take the elevator from the third floor to the ninth floor, then walk down the stairs from the ninth floor to the eighth floor, take the elevator from the eighth floor to the fifteenth floor, walk all the way from the fifteenth floor to the tenth floor, and finally take the elevator from the tenth floor down to the second floor."

"In other words, there is no real connection between the numbers at different levels."

Skadi summarized her remarks.

The doctor understood something from what she had just said.

The entrance to the sixth floor is in another location.

“But all things considered,” Skadi took another step, “since we’ve met here, let’s travel together for a while, even though our relationship is limited to just knowing each other’s names.”

After she finished speaking, she stopped in front of the door of room [1002].

The Doctor shared the same thought as Skadi, but before he could respond to Skadi's statement, his gaze was drawn to what was in front of him.

His gaze fell on the area below the door of room [1002].

From the tiny crack in the door, a deep red liquid was slowly seeping out.

However, perhaps because the amount was not sufficient, the liquid only accumulated in a small puddle at the door of the room and did not spread outwards.

However, the fact that it could overflow from inside the room is enough to prove what it looks like inside, rather than the extent of its diffusion.

“It’s blood no matter how you look at it.” Skadi stared straight ahead, placing her hand on the doorknob. “And it smells fresh, so its owner probably hasn’t been dead for long, or rather…”

"He's not dead at all, is he?"

The doctor bent down slightly, put the blood-stained finger into his mouth and tasted it, then looked up at Skadi and said.

"you……"

Staring at the Doctor tasting blood, Skadi was momentarily at a loss for words.

The doctor seemed to realize that his actions were wrong, and hurriedly stood up while wiping his fingers on his body.

Strange feeling.

The doctor's neck and face felt slightly warm.

The action he just made was not of his own volition, but for some reason he suddenly made such an action, as if some voice was telling him to do so.

In fact, he could indeed tell his owner's current state from the taste of the blood.

The doctor was quite clear that he certainly did not possess this skill.

Could it be a remnant of my past memories?

The doctor became increasingly curious about his past identity and actions.

What kind of person could master such abnormal investigative techniques?

But it's better to focus on the present moment rather than these problems.

Skadi pulled her gaze away from the Doctor's actions and gently pressed her hand down from the doorknob.

"Click."

The door didn't move.

It cannot be opened from this side.

The door seemed to be fixed to the space, not moving at all.

You can use any of the sentences above to describe it, since the meaning they express is the same.

That means the door is locked.

"Doctor, please move aside a bit."

Skadi took the greatsword off her back.

When faced with a door that cannot be opened by conventional means, breaking it open by brute force is probably the most basic trope in the entire plot.

But for Skadi, this might be the standard approach.

"you please."

The doctor knew very well that if he were caught in the blast of that greatsword, it would likely send him straight to meet Specter, so he immediately took a few steps back and used his keen eyes to monitor any scene that might appear behind the door.

Skadi, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned about whether the Doctor beside her had actually left her killing range.

Even before she finished speaking, she had already gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands. Then, she naturally lowered the sword using gravity, slowly gathering strength from bottom to top, and then swung it towards the door lock in a bright arc like a killer whale emerging from the water.

"Ding!"

The sound made the doctor feel as if he were being hammered.

The security lock, which had been perfectly fitted to the door, detached from its original component in that instant. It spun and flew through the air, along with the broken door handle, before finally crashing into the wall on the other side and landing battered and bruised on the ground.

The loud crash of the gate shook the crimson ground, creating ripples.

"Get ready to go in."

Skadi placed the greatsword in her right hand, gently extended it forward, and hooked the tip of the sword against the edge of the door crack.

"squeak--"

The hinge's pitiful cries grew louder with the slight force applied by the greatsword.

As he gazed at the widening gap in the doorway, the doctor felt a sudden surge of familiarity he had never experienced before.

It seems he's been here before.

Chapter 10, The Collector in the Sewers

The smell was pungent and strong.

Clearly, it wasn't just the smell of blood.

The door swung open as Skadi's sword swiped at it, revealing the entire interior.

The two stood at the doorway, hesitant to step inside. Even so, they could still get a glimpse of what the room looked like.

"Good guy."

The doctor was the first to utter an intuitive exclamation.

He saw a bright white light bulb hanging in the center of the box-like room, surrounded by biological organs sealed in glass containers.

No, it's probably not as simple as just glassware.

Perhaps a life support system would be a more accurate description.

Otherwise, the doctor wouldn't have been able to taste the flavor of a living person in that pool of blood.

After all, the blood he tasted had leaked from a glass box near the door.

It was probably just a leak in the container, while the maintenance system was still intact, which is why he didn't think the blood belonged to a dead person.

But more important than such trivial matters is the purpose of this room.

"Skadi, have you seen a place like this in the past month?" The doctor first thought to ask the female hunter beside him.

The answer is of course no.

Skadi shook her head slightly.

"Fortunately, no one is in the room." The doctor glanced around before stepping inside.

But Skadi reacted quickly, instantly placing her sword in front of the Doctor, blocking his path.

“In this place, an empty room is more dangerous than a room with people.”

This must be based on Skadi's experience.

After all, rapid conditioned reflexes are only formed after experiencing countless repetitions of events.

However, the doctor also had his own reasons.

"Since the blood can seep over the threshold, there must be no traps or mechanisms."

In response to this statement, Skadi moved her sword away, but also shook her head.

"Hopefully this is the truth, and not just an excuse you made up on the spot. After all, there won't always be someone there to stop you from doing something foolish."

“Then I should say… thank you for your concern, right?” the Doctor said, looking at Skadi, before entering the room.

"It's good that you understand." Seeing that the Doctor had entered the room unharmed, Skadi stopped discussing this small matter.

So, the two of them stepped into the room.

For safety reasons, the door was not closed.

Under normal circumstances, closing the door behind you is a virtue, but in this kind of place, it's probably the other way around.

"The owner of this room looks like a collector."

The doctor, who was the first to step into the room, began to look around and make comments.

The interior of the room was no different from what I had seen at the door, except for a light bulb hanging upside down in the center and various aquariums that filled the four walls.

"The liver of a camel, the brain of an armored beast, the tailbone of a Sarkaz, the gizzard of a Liberi, the horns of a Drak, the stomach of a Minotaur, and this is... Rupert's heart and Pero's lungs??"

The doctor examined the biological tanks in sequence, identifying various biological components preserved within them as he observed them.

Skadi's expression instantly shifted from indifference to astonishment.

Although she didn't know what race those organs belonged to, even if the doctor was exaggerating, the technique of exaggeration was quite sophisticated.

Moreover, he was right about the two special organs, the gizzard and the rumen.

“Why do you know so much about the organs of these races?” Skadi couldn’t help but ask. “That doesn’t seem like something someone with amnesia could do.”

"Hmm?" Hearing Skadi's question behind him, the Doctor realized that he seemed to have done something inexplicable based on his intuition.

“No, to be honest, I don’t know what’s going on.” But the doctor still tried to explain, “Although I do have amnesia, sometimes I can still recall some vague details that are like fragments of memory. Those things are like intuition or subconsciousness, and they always appear unintentionally.”

"oh……?"

Skadi's tone revealed a clear degree of doubt.

This is normal.

After all, the doctor's words are hardly an effective explanation, and in fact, probably no one would use such a clumsy way to explain it.

However, this is not an explanation, it is a fact.

But Skadi seemed to accept the doctor's words at this moment.

“That makes sense. Since you call yourself a doctor, you must still have some professional knowledge left in your mind. After all, even if you have amnesia, it's impossible for someone to lose all the knowledge they've ever learned.”

she says.

The doctor silently thanked her for defending him.

"However, why would the owner of this room collect organs from different races?" Skipping over her suspicions about the doctor, Skadi turned her attention back to the room itself.

"Perhaps this thing can answer your question."

While Skadi was pondering this question, the professor found a notebook tucked between the two bio-tanks.

Then, he waved the notebook in his hand at Skadi and glanced at it.

Skadi stood beside the Doctor, observing with curiosity and questions in her eyes.

The notebook looks extremely ordinary, no different from the student diaries sold in small stationery shops on the street, highlighting its simplicity.

However, the contents recorded in this notebook are far removed from the concept of a student.

"Collection Log".

The professor closed the book and read the four words on the cover.