In the original game's setting, this was a magic conduit with a unique operating principle.
Instead of releasing offensive energy to eliminate monsters, it consumed mana to continuously produce a special high-frequency audio that only monsters could hear.
This audio was designed to mimic the deterrent signal of a powerful monster claiming its territory and driving away weaker ones, thereby achieving the effect of dispersing lower-level monsters within a certain range.
It was typically used when one needed to pass through dangerous areas quickly or clear a specific site.
The reason he hadn't connected this item to the current situation earlier was that Screech wasn't an item supposed to appear in Chapter One. Furthermore, it was closely related to the storyline of the fourth heroine, Catherine Roman.
In the beginning of Chapter Two of the game, Victoria would receive an anonymous commission from Catherine to head into the dungeon and test a new type of dispersal magic conduit.
Victoria would take the device deep into the dungeon. After activating it in the middle layers, it would indeed successfully disperse monsters across a large area.
However, as she entered the deep area, she would discover that while this magic conduit dispersed the weak, the special energy fluctuations it emitted would abnormally attract higher-level, more dangerous monsters.
The result was Victoria getting trapped in a desperate situation in the deep area, hunted by high-tier monsters. She barely managed to escape back to the surface by the skin of her teeth and delivered the crucial test data to her client.
It was this risk-filled and unexpected commission that caused Catherine, the mastermind behind the scenes, to truly notice the amazing potential and resilience displayed by the commoner genius Victoria for the first time. She then began to calculate how much profit she could gain by bringing such a talent under her wing.
Thus, Catherine's romance route would begin.
But right now, Victoria was still recovering in the hospital, and the timeline was far from the game's second chapter.
Yet the abnormal silence in the middle layers before him was clearly identical to Victoria's situation in Chapter Two.
Greg's mind raced as a startling hypothesis gradually took shape, causing his heart to sink.
Could it be that before Victoria, Catherine had already commissioned someone else to enter the dungeon and test the magic conduit, but those people simply hadn't been able to escape successfully?
With this, the puzzle pieces behind the dungeon's anomaly finally snapped together perfectly in Greg's mind.
It seemed those three missing upperclassmen were the unlucky test subjects for Catherine's private magic conduit test. No wonder even the Goblins were scared enough to flee to the shallow layers.
If he could, Greg truly wanted to turn around right now and charge back to the shallow layers without looking back, leaving this place of trouble behind.
If for no other reason than the fact that aside from Silvia, who was a good girl, the other heroines in the original work were each more troublesome and dangerous than the last.
Even in the ending of Catherine's route, she never actually fell in love with Victoria; she only chose to be with her because Victoria could bring her more profit.
This made Greg instinctively want to avoid getting too entangled with these overly complicated heroines.
However, reality gave him no option to flee.
The death countdown was still ticking. If he couldn't clear the first layer before the Chapter One plot concluded, a death CG was all that awaited him.
So now, regardless of whether there were conspiracies, traps, or even worse situations ahead, he could only grit his teeth and push forward.
To adjust his mindset, Greg had a second thought.
Wait... the situation might not be that bad, right?
The effect of Screech is still active, so the middle layers have been cleared. It's dead silent.
This means Silvia and I can pass through this normally dangerous middle layer almost unscathed and at high speed, heading straight for the entrance to the deep area.
Once we enter the deep area, we just need to carefully avoid any suspicious movements, refrain from proactive investigation, and avoid looking for trouble. If we head straight for the core area of the first layer—the Boss room—with a clear goal, we can complete the clearing mission.
That way, we won't run into those three test subjects whose fates are unknown, and we won't have any direct or indirect contact with Catherine, the one orchestrating this from behind the scenes.
It's perfect!
Just as Greg was feeling a twisted sense of pleasure at his genius adaptation strategy and was about to put this safe and efficient plan into action—
Silvia, who had been curiously observing the luminescent plants, suddenly straightened up and shook her head vigorously, as if to toss some stray thoughts out of her mind.
"No, that's not right..."
She whispered to herself, her pink eyes refocusing as she stared into the darkness deeper in the passage, a look of determination appearing on her face.
"Now is not the time to let my guard down. There are still three people... who might be trapped in a deeper, more dangerous place, waiting for rescue."
"Senior Greg has clearly been concerned about their safety all along, which is why he was so anxious to bring me down here... yet I was thinking about trivial things..."
She turned around, faced Greg, and gave a solemn bow.
"I'm sorry, Senior Greg! I got distracted. I've composed myself now! Let's hurry and continue forward to the deep area to find them! Saving lives is the priority!"
The girl's voice was clear and filled with a sense of mission, ringing out exceptionally sharp in the silent passage.
That beautiful face was written with the urgency and sincerity of someone desperate to make up for her mistake by throwing herself into a noble rescue mission.
Greg: "..."
After a long silence, he could only silently direct a single sentence toward this pure and innocent pink-haired girl in his heart:
I take back what I said earlier...
Turns out you're a bad girl too!
Rate on N.U.
