The contents of the diary indeed surprised Yun You and the others.

Aurora, the sick little girl, actually had such strong mobility and even handled a "wraith corpse" that even Yun You found troublesome.

It's truly somewhat unbelievable.

But upon careful thought, it might really be possible, after all, these blue-clad workers, although powerful, adhere to the game rules.

With a bit of luck, winning the game of Truth or Dare and causing the opponent to lose isn't impossible.

Besides, the "Ammoxine" incident she mentioned could also be very important information.

Why were the workers, who should have left the mine thirty years ago, abandoned here to die and eventually turned into wraith corpses?

Is there a connection between their plight and the mutations in the mine? Could the "Kamosi Command" on their bodies be the material that causes bodies to dissolve?

Since both have mechanisms that cause human mutation, Yun You instinctively considered this possibility.

Thus, out of curiosity, the three of them put away the diary pages and continued to descend.

...

After about fifteen minutes of walking, the three once again discovered a blue-clad worker in a dark corner.

It was also a wraith corpse, its body similarly deformed, with a gray complexion and distorted features resembling those of abstract art.

Yet, as described in the diary, it didn't attack Yun You and the others.

In fact, it seemed as if it didn't see them at all. Even when Yun You walked up to it and waved a hand right in front of its eyes, the girl was ignored completely as it muttered to itself in some ancient dialect.

"Gibberish muttering..."

The dialect was rare and difficult to understand, and even the analysis chips of Yun You and Frost Moon failed to provide a reasonable answer.

However, Jack seemed to grasp something.

"Step back a bit, I think I understand it..."

He gestured for silence, crouched down beside the blue-clad worker, listened to it, and attempted to translate.

"I'm sorry, I... I... had no choice..."

"I want to survive... so we had to step into Hell ourselves, committing monstrous sins..."

"But why? We clearly have the right to live too! But... but 'they' took it away..."

"Indeed! We're all humans, so why can 'they' live so long... with gene engineering and chemical agents prolonging their lives... while we... we have to pay for 'their' mistakes!"

"We are unwilling... this is all we can do..."

"Oh Lord—"

"Please... return those things that should have been ours, our healthy lifespan, and lives of bliss, back to us..."

The translation ended.

But Yun You knitted her brows tightly.

[God]

She heard this word again.

Previously, in that diary information, the old worker Miles mentioned that after they had mental problems, they gradually mentioned words like "God", "devotion", and "offering".

"Could this God be related to the 'God' these blue-clad workers spoke of?"

"And if so, why do they believe this so-called God could help them reclaim their lives and longevity?"

A faint guess gradually formed in Yun You's heart.

She looked at Jack and Frost Moon, and they returned her gaze with similar eyes, obviously having the same thought.

That is...

Sacrifice.

The three of them did not dwell too much on the topic and continued to descend.

This time, they hadn't walked far when they encountered more wraith corpses, a group of them clustered together.

These blue-clad workers uniformly faced the wall, half-kneeling on the ground, crying while muttering softly.

"Oh God... why?"

"Why do this... haven't we met the conditions, haven't we already offered enough to you? Why seal this place..."

"We're trapped... completely trapped...! All paths have been interconnected with no exit to the surface..."

"Does it mean... could it mean... we're actually..."

"No."

"We cannot fall here; we must think of something..."

"We are coal miners, the strongest people in this city, we shall not degenerate..."

"But... I'm so hungry..."

"I want to eat something. The thought of eating springs into my mind wildly, for a moment, even treating a companion as food..."

"No, this must not continue..."

"But what can we do? At most, we're just a group of people whose lives should have long since ended."

"..."

After hearing the blue-clad workers' words, Yun You's conjecture became increasingly clear.

At the same time, Jack pulled out a note left by Aurora from a worker's pocket.

[Exploration Diary · Excerpt II]

[Recorder: Aurora Miles]

[Date: August 12, 2077]

[Although I still don't understand the workers' dialect, I found a tattered piece of paper in a worker's pocket]

[The paper is severely weathered due to its age, with blurred content, and it quickly crumbled to dust upon removal, so I can only handwrite a copy for any successors to make do with]

[...]

[To Whom It May Concern]

[This is Team 117 of Mine 23, and I am the Team Leader]

[We have committed a grave mistake here]

[In our hubris, we thought we could control that unknown force, manipulate XX (at this point, there is a large stain, making it illegible). Yet in the end, we wretched frogs received our due punishment, trapped here, only surviving by consuming the corpses and innards of companions]

[But even then, our "food" won't last much longer]

[Perhaps dying here is our fate]

[But before we die, we want to leave something behind as atonement]

[Because of XX (stain obscures it), we cannot write down anything related to that thing, and use a code name instead]

[The mine was sealed, and there is the strange existence of fungal mats because of us, but the catalyst is "that thing"]

[It was "it" that tempted us, leading us here with Ammoxine uniforms to hold an unprecedented ritual]

[We agreed, but after completing the ritual, "it" reneged and viewed us as part of the "materials"]

[Fortunately, we woke up and used special means to halt the process, hence "it" could no longer grow and was indirectly trapped]

[But we all know that this is not a permanent "trap," and in the future, it will still reappear to entice others]

[Humans will surely be seduced by it, for greed is our nature, and few can overcome their own instincts]

[We are powerless to prevent what follows, nor are we its match]

[But fortunately... we possess wisdom that it can't comprehend]

[Therefore, we leave behind this admonition, hoping the successors will grasp the way to break free from this entanglement—]

[I have wrapped the whole world around, except for my viscera]

[Organs are the cradle of the world, and the bell that tolls its destruction; hold it, control it, don't lose it...]

[The paper ends here]

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