Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

Muttering to herself, Xingge looked at the strange creatures that were coming towards her.

Unsurprisingly, they all came for him; not a single one of the monsters glanced back at Hongxia, who had already run far away. And among them, running at the very front was Funato Yasuo, the old man in the hospital gown. This old man stared intently at Xingge, his mouth gaping open to reveal a rotting, maggot-infested oral cavity, as if he were laughing as he charged forward.

There was a very bad feeling about this place. Just looking at the old man approaching sent chills down my spine. I had a feeling that if I were to get caught by this thing, it would be better to just die now than to end up like this.

But then again, this thing...

"Are you the one who locked onto me?"

Xingge narrowed her eyes slightly. She would never forget the first time she experienced abnormal sensations, which was when she encountered this boatman, Bao Xiong.

At the time, I didn't understand what was going on, but now it seems that the power of this strange creature acted on me, causing me to inexplicably gain that strange sensory ability. I don't know why this thing prioritized locking onto me. Is there some condition I possess that the other two don't have?

Hmm, it seems there really is. Hongxia and Liang are still delicate seventeen-year-old girls, while I am already a twenty-nine-year-old adult. In another year, I will be a thirty-year-old auntie, and officially step into the pitiful category of middle-aged people.

Could it be because I'm too old that they've made me their priority target?

Thinking about this, Xingge felt quite annoyed, but the enemy was already close at hand, and there was not much time to waste. Xingge looked around, moved her hands and feet slightly in a moment of hesitation, took a deep breath, and then jumped directly into the collapsed area of ​​the floor next to her.

whoosh-

The cold wind rushed past my ears.

In the darkness, Xingge plummeted downwards, and the strange creatures that had locked onto her jumped down one after another, swarming densely in the air, each trying to get closer to Xingge and grab her.

Several seconds have passed and I still haven't landed. Will I just fall to my death like this?

Such a thought crossed Xingge's mind.

I wonder if Hongxia, who escaped, will encounter any other dangers. Hmm... but with her reaction speed and thinking ability, even if she encounters danger, she'll definitely handle it better than I can, since she's more capable than me.

How embarrassing! I once swore in my heart that I would protect Hongxia forever, but now things have come to this.

However, at least I didn't hold her back in the end, and that's enough.

In the darkness, Xingge, falling downwards, closed her eyes, prepared to die from the impact.

But with a faint flash of light and the smell of blood, she opened her eyes and looked down at the falling ground with some confusion.

Rumbling--

The loud explosions continued.

After finally reaching the location of the exit.

After finally escaping that subway station, which is now a bombed-out ruin.

Hongxia breathed a long sigh of relief as she clearly sensed something cold and sinister leaving her. Then she heard a violent explosion in the distance, followed by continuous sonic booms and the terrifying roar of some kind of monster.

Looking up at the source of the sound, Hongxia saw Kaguya Shinomiya's long black hair completely disheveled, and the scene of the girl crashing through several buildings and flying out of the ruins, constantly fighting against the monster shrouded in blood-red mist, and repeatedly narrowly escaping the enemy's attacks.

Rumble—rumble rumble—

Explosions rang out one after another, but Kaguya's figure moved through the burning flames, never being truly attacked by the monster even once.

Amazing……

Nijika tried her best to keep up with Kaguya's movements with her eyes, but found that she couldn't clearly capture her actions at all. Many times, Kaguya would disappear into the edge of her sight in the blink of an eye, and Nijika could only barely see Kaguya dodging the attack when the blood-red monster launched its attack.

There seemed to be other people around.

Although she couldn't see clearly, after careful observation, Hongxia confirmed that near the area where Kaguya and the blood-red monster were fighting, on the roof of a half-collapsed building, there were indeed two figures standing there, silently observing the battle below.

Could it be Pochi and Kita?

Now that her former bandmates have become superhero-like figures, Hongxia finds it hard to believe, but she has tentatively accepted the situation. However, after careful consideration, she realized that the area where the two sides were fiercely clashing was the most unstable place in space. If she went there, she definitely wouldn't be able to send out information. Therefore, after a brief moment of thought, Hongxia turned around and headed away from the battlefield.

Is this really the same street as before?

Looking around, there were no intact buildings to be seen. Even the ground had been eroded into many large and small pits, some of which were more than ten meters or even dozens of meters deep. These pits quickly filled with water during the heavy rain, and if you accidentally stepped into one, you would fall into very deep water and have to exert a lot of effort to swim out.

Unaware of her own skill, Hongxia fell into the water four or five times, quickly becoming soaked. However, considering she was now completely drenched in the downpour back on the street, Hongxia didn't care about her wet clothes. After all, she wasn't wearing anything see-through, so there was no need to worry about being exposed. The most important thing now was to send out the intelligence. In Hongxia's eyes, nothing was more important than that, not even her own life.

But where exactly can the intelligence be sent out? Although I can sense that Mr. Gao's mental link is broken, figuring out where to reconnect it is something I'm completely out of the loop.

"Which way should we go? Which way should we go now?"

The girl muttered to herself, patting her chest and head, telling herself "calm down" several times before carefully observing her surroundings as she moved forward.

In any case, staying away from this firefight zone is definitely the right thing to do.

Next, let's try to move towards those areas that don't seem too damaged and are relatively easy to travel through. Those places that are clearly far from the combat zone and haven't been damaged much should be able to maintain communication. Once we get there, the information that Ryo and her sister risked their lives to send out will definitely reach Mr. Taka.

Beep—beep—

Thinking this, Hongxia had only taken a few steps forward when she heard a strange sound coming from behind her, which sounded like the horn of a bus.

Somewhat puzzled, she turned around and saw a dilapidated bus that looked like it had been scrapped long ago slowly approaching from a distance, along with several figures waving at her from the bus.

Chapter Ninety-Three: The Sunflower Squad's Unlucky and Coincidental Times.

For the members of the Sunflower Squad, the current situation could be considered an unexpected disaster, or at least the kind of terrible situation that is hard to come by under normal circumstances, and only the most unlucky people would happen to encounter it.

Not long ago, after receiving the news and coming to provide support, the members of the Sunflower Squad drove over here to join the battle. Among them, Yurikawa Hana and her temporary teammate Fumiya Otoha, who were on the road, were also brought over.

Back then, everyone was in high spirits, and everyone knew that the battle had entered its final stage, and that the hospital was now just struggling to survive.

Even Li Ling, the vice-captain who valued rationality and was accustomed to seeing things from a negative perspective, was convinced at that moment that this was the final darkness before dawn. Gao Hai and the strong individuals around him would eliminate the last [Surgeon], crushing all the [Hospital's] remaining henchmen in the real world. They, along with many other lower- and mid-level players, would be led by Red Moon-level players to defend against enemies attempting to disrupt the hunt. This process might require considerable sacrifice, but victory would undoubtedly belong to humanity.

Well, by the way, at first, Fumiya Otoha didn't know what kind of battle she was about to join, so she didn't react much and was able to view the war with the same optimism as everyone else. However, as she approached the battlefield, she witnessed all sorts of devastating scenes. Realizing where she was, Fumiya Otoha's legs began to tremble, and she wanted to get out of the car and run away. But by then, the car had already entered the outer firefight zone, filled with those fleshy monsters. Knowing that getting out would mean certain death, Fumiya Otoha could only stay in the car with a mournful face and continue forward with the group. She even wrote her will on her phone at the end.

However, before Otoha Fumiya could even figure out how she was going to die, the team was attacked by the enemy. Several clearly fused flesh and blood monsters suddenly appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the bus. At the same time, a violent spatial fluctuation caused the bus to lose its balance, and as a result, the bus was thrown into the air and flew several kilometers away.

That would have been fine, but then the car was hit by unidentified fire in mid-air, causing it to fly wildly. By the time it finally landed, nobody knew where they were. And frankly, if it weren't for the car's extremely powerful shock absorption system, which would have provided no impact even from falling from several thousand meters, that single impact would have been enough to kill most of the players inside.

Once Yu Qingshan finally regained control of the car, Li Ling led Angel and Sai Saki to explore the surrounding environment. They then discovered that they had landed near the inner zone of the battlefield and were already in the VIP seats to watch Kaguya and the others duel with the "Surgeon".

"How did we end up here? We'd all be dead if we got caught in the crossfire!"

Watching the gods fighting not far ahead, Wen Gu Yin Yu grinned and began to struggle with the question of whether or not to commit suicide right now.

"So we've ended up here. Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's figure out how to get out of here first. We absolutely can't get involved in a battle of this level. We can't cause trouble for those strong people and distract them."

Yu Qingshan remained calm and immediately drove away, attempting to return to the outer area of ​​the battlefield.

Although his idea was good, he had already fallen into such a dangerous situation, so things were naturally unlikely to go as planned.

The bus had barely traveled a kilometer when a sonic boom from Goto Ichiri, who was flying past, shattered the street beneath it, sending the bus tumbling into the sewers. Before it could even climb back up, a passing "surgeon" launched a casual attack, sending the battered bus flying through the air and crashing into a shattered building. It took quite a while for it to emerge again.

As they continued their journey, explosions and shockwaves struck repeatedly. Often, neither the girls engaged in combat nor the "surgeon" could even get close. The aftershocks of their battles from a distance were often enough to make everyone suffer. It was only at this point that the Sunflower Squad realized that Yotsuya Miko, whom they had encountered earlier, was actually one of the less capable fighters among the girls around Takami, and Kita Ikuyo had not properly demonstrated her strength to them.

Come to think of it, given the difference in strength between them, if the other side really went all out, they would probably be killed on the spot by the shockwave.

Only Angel, who had faced the "psychologist," knew to some extent how outrageous these girls surrounding Gao Hai were. Even when she witnessed this super battle firsthand, she couldn't help but sigh inwardly and wonder whether these players who had gone too far on the path of the extraordinary could still be considered human.

"That's really amazing! I could never reach that level."

Yurikawa Hana, who had also observed the battle, sighed deeply, though she hadn't thought too much about it. This simple-minded girl was simply shocked by Kaguya and the others' strength, and also delighted by it, feeling that it was a great thing that the human side had so many powerful individuals. Obviously, given Hana's social standing, she couldn't possibly understand how painful it was for Gao Hai to provide support from multiple directions when top-level combat forces were insufficient, and she assumed that the human side had so many strong individuals that they were completely unaffected by the attrition of the [hospital].

Of course, these things aren't what everyone needs to worry about right now. The most important thing is how to escape this dangerous place. After all, no one can contact Gao Hai here, and even Xiao Hua can feel his strength weakening, unable to get replenishment from Gao Hai for the time being.

"On the bright side, at least there are no monsters here. After all, with those powerful beings over there, low-level monsters simply can't stay here."

Kazama Ren gave a thumbs up, trying to find some good news for everyone.

"Shut up, what if something really comes out later? Even a Red Moon-level monster is not difficult for those people to deal with, but if it were us, we might be wiped out. Getting out of here is the most important thing right now."

At this moment, another member of the Sunflower Squad, formerly known as "Seventeen," sighed and retorted to Kazama Ren in a very impolite tone.

Clearly, the two disliked each other to some extent, and they started hurling insults at each other right there on the bus. Baihe Chuanhua, who had never witnessed such a scene of Chinese people arguing, watched the spectacle with amusement. Wang Gui, sitting at the back of the bus, wanted to go and try to calm them down, but then another passenger was found dead on the bus. To ensure the bus didn't lose control, he had to deal with the body first. As for the others, their attention was mainly focused on their surroundings; after all, danger still lingered, and not everyone could maintain a relaxed attitude in such a situation.

"Something's not right..."

"Li Ling said in a low voice from the passenger seat."

"Indeed, or rather, the anomaly is far too obvious. What's going on here?"

Yu Qingshan also frowned. His instincts as a veteran player made his body go numb. His gaze remained fixed on the outside of the car window, on the things that didn't look right.

The anomaly he noticed came from some building fragments scattered among the surrounding ruins.

If you only glance at it briefly, you probably wouldn't notice anything wrong. After all, the place is full of burning ruins, and all sorts of broken building fragments block the view in every direction, making it difficult to find anything amiss.

However, this kind of problem only applies to ordinary people. As a player who already possessed the skill level of a Dark Night-level player and was resurrected and enhanced to the physical level of a Red Moon-level player by Gao Hai, Yu Qingshan could easily identify the abnormal parts in those building ruins and find things that shouldn't be there. Li Ling in the passenger seat could also notice those problems, or rather, everyone in the car except for Baihe Chuanhua, Wang Gui who lacked hard power, and Wen Gu Yinyu who was just going through the motions could see these issues.

"What do you think?"

Li Ling asked Yu Qingshan, who currently had the best observation skills in the team.

"About 10% of the building remains differ from the others by at least 50 years. The area we're in is marked as a relatively new area on the map of Tokyo, where the buildings should be of a more uniform age, with not many old houses remaining. These obviously aged building remains are suspicious, especially since they mostly resemble basements. Where did so many basements from decades or even centuries ago come from? In addition, I sensed a subtle eerie atmosphere, and I suspect that these building remains themselves represent some kind of anomaly."

Yu Qingshan spoke calmly, and the direction the car was traveling was changed without him even realizing it.

"Are you heading in the direction where there are more of those strange building ruins, preparing to go and take a look?"

Li Ling immediately discovered Yu Qingshan's plan.

"With such an obvious problem right in front of us, it would be a huge disgrace to ignore it. Since we're already in this place, there might be something that needs our attention. Let's head over here and take a look. Anyway, this isn't the direction to rush into the inner battlefield."

Yu Qingshan was very calm. Having experienced life and death many times, and even having a real experience of death not long ago, he can now deal with anything calmly, no matter what he encounters. Even if he knows in his heart how risky he is doing, he does not have much emotional fluctuation.

Unbeknownst to the people on the bus, the anomaly they were discovering had already been clearly seen by Gao Hai.

"They've already brought all this over; it seems they've really run out of options and have no choice but to lay all their cards on the table."

Gao Hai said this with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

He could see the shadows near the war zone, and the areas that were originally sealed off by the distorted space, but were now being actively torn apart by the [Hospital] and forcibly spliced ​​together with the real world by its power, connecting the battlefield areas that had already suffered severe spatial distortion, in order to release the power of the strange creatures located within them.

Gao Hai has lost contact with Cat Brother, who is still trapped there, and the other trapped survivors. Although he can see the changes in that spatial region, it's difficult for Gao Hai to observe any specific person within it. The only thing he's certain of is that Cat Brother won't sit idly by in the face of such obvious changes. He believes that Cat Brother will soon take action and try to break through that abnormal space, giving Gao Hai a real opportunity to resolve the problem.

【Teacher, that area is getting increasingly crowded. This is no small matter. Even the slackers who are still in the instance space are moving closer to the hospital as their location changes. Do you understand what that means, Teacher?】

Alice's voice rang in my ears once again.

But unlike before, this time Alice's voice contained no mockery, only a sense of relief, almost a sense of liberation, and a barely perceptible warning.

Of course I understand what that means. It's just a final battle, so let it come.

Gao Hai's answer carried a hint of disdainful laughter.

He knew that, apart from the seriously injured psychologist, the hospital had used every means at its disposal.

To ensure victory, he's also committed all his resources, with most of the mid-to-lower-level players and his girlfriends already concentrated in this area. The rest who haven't arrived yet will likely be here at any time.

The delaying tactics employed against the "surgeon" have now effectively turned that area into the final battleground where Gao Hai and the "hospital" are committing all their resources to a decisive battle. Once this battle is won, Gao Hai can be certain that this war can be truly brought to a close.