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

The front of the bus was being squeezed and gradually deformed, while it kept moving backward, showing signs of losing its balance.

Even though Xiao Hua had pushed the engine to its maximum and was charging forward with all his might, the bus, burning with golden-red flames, was still pushed backward little by little due to the absolute difference in strength, gradually leaving long tracks on the ground in the broken ruins and pits.

boom!

A gunshot was heard.

It seems to have come from the ghost train. I wonder who fired the bullet. But bullets don't seem to have any effect on this thing.

As Xiaohua was thinking this, she was somewhat surprised to find that the speed and power of the strange train suddenly decreased. Its momentum, which had been pushing against the bus, was instantly lost. Xiaohua even noticed some faint dents and cracks on the front of the train. For the first time, this massive train, which had been recklessly charging forward without suffering any damage, had finally broken down and seemed to be in danger of real harm.

boom!

As I pondered, another gunshot rang out, the same sound as before, the same chilling premonition.

What Xiao Hua didn't notice during this gunshot was that the strong, eerie aura emanating from the driver's cab had changed from an active state back to a sealed state, and the invisible suction force that controlled the players had also disappeared.

"Cough! Cough cough cough cough—"

Once again freed, Akira Toyama coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, and his overall condition did not look very good.

The collision between the ghost train and the flame car was far more terrifying than it appeared. Unlike Yuri Kawaka, the Red Moon level players stuck on the cars didn't have customized protective measures, so they had to rely on their bodies to withstand the impact, resulting in injuries to all of them. Of course, being Red Moon level players, although they suffered greatly during the attack, they ultimately survived, and no one died or was near death.

"Ugh... ugh..."

Masaaki Ishido, who was lying on the roof of the carriage, vomited, looking like he had been hit quite hard.

"..."

On the bus, still pinned down by the monstrous train, Hu Baoxiong was lying on the roof, looking unwell. Not long ago, this player had tried to protect the people inside when the shockwave hit, but the result was that he, unprotected, absorbed the entire impact and was so badly injured that he couldn't stand up.

I'm a little dizzy...

Hu Baoxiong, who was lying on the roof of the car, blinked in a daze.

I feel like my head is about to be smashed...

Like coming out of a cage... inside a cage? No... no, I'm not. Hmm, this strange feeling... did I ever think I was a dog?

"No, I'm a human being, how could I be a dog?!"

With wide eyes, Hu Baoxiong propped himself up on the roof of the car and managed to sit up.

Seemingly due to the severe concussion, he temporarily forgot about his dog addiction and, in a completely normal manner, took out several items that were part of his obsession to reactivate them, attempting to take further protective measures.

hum-

The train slowed down even further.

After being hit by another suppressive round from the police, the once ferocious train gradually became like a crawling snail, increasingly unable to move normally. Conversely, the bus, which had been constantly pushed backward by this thing, was finally able to put up a slight counterattack, managing to push itself a little further in the direction of the train.

Can we resolve this all at once?

We must completely suppress this thing now and stop it from running rampant.

Many monsters have already escaped, and I wonder if the pressure on the front lines has increased significantly. But letting these creatures run wild and reach the front lines will definitely cause serious problems. The battle has raged on for a while now, and many players on the front lines are nearing their limits. If a powerful monster that has been tampered with by the [Hospital] were to escape under these circumstances, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The lawyer, who had also escaped, stood in the carriage near the front of the train, holding a heavy book in his hand. After a moment's thought, he decided to make some small movements to the key parts of the carriage.

"Ok?"

It was at this moment that the lawyer suddenly felt that familiar, distorted aura once again, which began to further envelop the enemy.

What are we going to do now?

Chapter 110 The Things That Gradually Collapse and the Things That Reveal in the Darkness.

The lawyer could sense that this enormous train was gradually losing its shape and was about to completely collapse.

Even though it doesn't seem to have changed much yet, merely slowing down and gradually losing its previous supersonic speed and agile turning ability, the lawyer, with his exceptional observational skills and the aid of his obsessive object, could clearly sense every wail beneath the train's outward strength, and feel the sounds of tearing and shattering gradually emanating from the depths of its shell.

While the superior power originating from the [Hospital] granted this train power far exceeding that of the Red Moon Core, it also caused severe distortion and damage to the thing itself. After all, it was power forcibly injected from the outside, and it was not entirely compatible with this strange entity to begin with.

At the same time, the difference between Gao Hai and [Hospital] is that Gao Hai carefully considers the player's tolerance limit when injecting power into the player and tries his best to ensure that his actions will not harm the player who is receiving the power. However, when injecting power into the monster, [Hospital] basically does it recklessly and without any consideration, injecting power beyond the tolerance limit. What kind of results will such behavior bring, and what kind of ending will it lead to? It can be said that it is completely unpredictable.

However, without the Sunflower Squad's decisive intervention, the lawyer honestly wasn't sure how long it would have taken to achieve the current result. After all, the vitality of these strange creatures is extremely strong, and the lawyer had no confidence that such near-immortal beings could be forcibly destroyed by a higher-level power.

That's probably why the hospital, knowing full well the consequences of its actions, poured excessive power into the ghost train.

Two suppression rounds fired from the police officers, one after the other, combined with the impact and corrosive effect of the golden-red flames brought by Xiao Hua, and the continuous injection of power from the [hospital] to maintain control, all these factors combined to worsen the condition of the massive train. It was uncertain whether it would become the first monster in history to die completely without resolving its obsession. The lawyer could feel a lingering curiosity within him, so he didn't hesitate to escalate the situation, adding several more devastating blows to the creature.

boom!

The explosion reverberated across the giant train.

The lawyer's precise detonation, directly targeting the increasingly fragile structure of the train, caused the already slowing train to tremble violently, and large cracks quickly spread across its body.

"Hold on!"

At the front of the train, Yuanshan Ming and Hu Baoxiong, who had met up, shouted to Xiao Hua, who was still struggling to drive the vehicle against the train inside the ghost bus. Then, they each used their methods to seal and suppress the ghost train with all their might. As the two Red Moon-level players exerted their full efforts, the huge train visibly shrank, and its originally normal appearance became covered with rust, as if it had been abandoned and exposed to the wind and sun for a long time.

click-

A gradually distorted and broken sound began to echo inside the train.

Masaaki Ishido, who took over from Akira Toyama and went inside the train to try to break into the driver's cab, looked up, frowned, and looked at the gradually spreading iron-red rust around him. As he smelled an increasingly obvious stench, he realized that something seemed to be becoming more and more prominent.

Is this... the aura of the core obsession?

I could sense that it was hidden somewhere in the front of the ghost train, inside the body of this thing.

Although the exact location is still uncertain, it is certain that it is deeply hidden within the vehicle body, concealed beneath these heavy mechanical structures. However, the question of what kind of obsessive object would be hidden in such a place, and what kind of strange creature this train truly is, remains a mystery to Ishido Masaaki, who suspects there may be some unresolved issues they haven't yet identified.

After all, the strange creatures are essentially twisted and alienated humans, and he has never seen any exceptions in this regard so far. Even if there are things like [Alice] that don't seem to be human, tracing their origins reveals that they are a collection of the flesh and blood and will of the victims and perpetrators.

Within this core obsession of two entities, one of the "writers" has been thoroughly deciphered by the lawyer, whose origins and experiences have been confirmed. Whether it's tragic or not is debatable at the moment, but at least this thing does fit the characteristics of an obsession itself, and there's nothing wrong with it.

However, this strange train was quite problematic. Despite the players having been fighting against it for so long, it showed absolutely no human characteristics, feeling like a completely out-of-control train. Ishido Masaaki harbored doubts about this. He felt that in such intense combat, the strange train should at least exhibit some degree of human characteristics, and the source of its obsession should be discernible.

It seems we weren't ruthless enough; we hadn't fully exposed the true nature of this thing. Only after fighting to this extent could we finally sense the presence of death. So, where exactly in the front of the vehicle were the bodies buried? Were those buried corpses the core obsession objects?

While pondering, Masaaki Ishido decided to try again to crack the door that had been reinforced by the [Hospital] and was difficult to open.

Ring—ring—

It sounded like a wind chime being rang.

Masaaki Ishido paused slightly, then abruptly took a step back, looking at the dark red branches and leaves that were gradually growing from the car door, the walls, the ceiling, and the ground, as well as the wind chimes that had become filthy.

Jingle Bell--

All I could hear was the clear sound of wind chimes.

It seems that from the moment these things appeared, no one could hear the sounds of the strange trains and buses colliding outside, the sounds of players searching for flaws and destroying the trains on the vehicles, or the tearing wind at high speeds.

Jingle bell—jingle bell—

Only the sound of the bell ringing continued.

At that moment, it seemed that only the crisp sound of the bell was allowed to exist in Ishido Masaaki's hearing; all other sounds were completely drowned out.

No, this is not a wind chime.

Ishido Masaaki, who had some knowledge of folklore, quickly recognized that these densely packed, somewhat oddly shaped leaders, almost filling the entire carriage, were actually ritual objects used by a rural shrine in a remote part of Japan—objects now lost and only a few remaining as artifacts—called "Jōrei" (净铃).

Modern Japanese folklorists are not entirely certain about the specific uses and functions of this object, because the village that once practiced the related rituals was buried by a mudslide after a torrential rain a century ago, and the entire village perished without a single survivor. Therefore, current research on the folklore of this place is entirely based on excavating past relics and piecing together fragments from the remaining ancient texts and artifacts.

To broaden his knowledge, Ishido Masaaki learned a lot of these obscure facts. Back then, he wondered if this village, which had been mysteriously submerged and wiped out of everyone, might be an undiscovered instance. Now it seems that's indeed the case. However, it appears that the village itself wasn't actually an instance, but rather that something within it had been incorporated into the instance.

Yes, if I remember correctly, this "purification bell" usually has two uses. One is to tie it beside the wronged who died unjustly or to bury it with the resentful dead. It seems that local tradition believes the resentment of these restless dead will transfer to the bell, forcing the deceased to express their resentment only by ringing the bell, thus preventing them from telling others about their obsessions and grievances to seek help. Another study suggests that the "purification bell" is used extensively in a special ritual. When a large number of bells begin to ring, the sounds of those wronged ghosts are drowned out, and no one will pay attention to or understand the suffering of the unjustly killed.

To be honest, it sounds really strange. What kind of village would pass down such a bizarre ritual that has no sense of propriety at all?

However, at present, Masaaki Ishido has no intention of delving into the secrets behind the [Pure Bell]. After recalling the relevant background of this thing, he quickly understood what he should do now.

Ring ring— Ring ring—

Apart from the sound of the bell, no other sound could be heard.

Thinking about it carefully, this thing is indeed quite annoying.

"To clear one's name, one must speak out; to put an end to one's obsession, the victim must speak out. This kind of thing used to cover one's mouth is hardly a tool of a righteous deity. No wonder the shrine was eventually submerged by a mudslide."

With a casual remark, Masaaki Ishido took out a lighter, tossed it in his hand, then brought it to his mouth and took a bite without hesitation.

Boom! ! !

A violent explosion instantly filled the entire carriage, and burning flames shattered the windows, spraying out in all directions.

Amidst the raging flames, the newly grown Pure Bells were destroyed, their crimson branches and leaves burned to ashes. The clear, tinkling sound of the bells gradually faded until it disappeared completely.

I can hear other sounds now.

The lawyer kept moving around on the roof of the train car, continuously damaging the train itself in various ways.

Yuanshan Ming and Hu Baoxiong were positioned at the front of the train, cooperating with the police officers to attack and hinder its movement, while also communicating with the players inside the bus that was being pushed along by the front of the train. At this moment, Yu Qingshan and the others were also cooperating from inside the bus to attack the front of the train. Although the Dark Night-level artifacts and blessings were practically useless against this strange train, even these seemingly meaningless attacks were necessary. After all, no one could be sure how much longer it would take to truly defeat this strange train that was already nearing its limit; perhaps it was just a matter of time before it was truly defeated.

Other sounds reached Ishido Masaaki's ears.

Those were the sounds of people wailing in pain.

There were young children, adults, and the elderly, all wailing and crying together.

The blade pierced through their flesh, cutting as the chanting, the dancing, and the tearful praises of gratitude echoed.

Close your eyes.

More things are beginning to emerge clearly.

That was a hundred years ago, after the village's coal mines were developed, railway tracks were laid into the village, and wealth began to flow into the village.

The villagers, who had once lived in poverty, gradually came to live a prosperous life and began to regard the railway tracks and the arriving trains as miracles and some kind of divine treasure.

However, that was a century ago, and many safety regulations were inadequate, leading to frequent accidents. No one had a good solution, and the villagers were often affected.

Then, the villagers seemed to come up with some solution, some solution that they believed would solve the problem.

Thus, the ritual, which had not been performed for some time, was carried out once more. Animals were killed and offered as sacrifices to the shrine, as were elderly villagers and children. Finally, a small family who had come to the village from out of town on the train, and an elderly man guarding the station, were chosen as sacrifices representing the "trophies" and "captives." They were tortured and killed, and some of their bones were disposed of and hidden somewhere in the engine compartment of the train.

The villagers believed that doing so would bring divine protection and prevent the train from having any further problems.

As for the innocent people who were killed, their cries were silenced by the [Pure Bell], and no one would hear their grievances.

Regardless of what happened afterward, at least at the time these events occurred, the villagers believed this.

"Stories about ghosts are always like this."