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

Unfortunately, the more detailed records left by this tribe are no longer available. Well, all we know now are three places: "blood vessels," "heart," and "dead end." It seems I'll have to figure out how to rename the others myself, which isn't exactly my forte.

Alright, now let's see how we can transform this place.

The handwriting on the notebook, overflowing with joy, was even quite messy due to excessive excitement.

The origin of the Red Nut Gray Hole was clarified at this moment.

Through the perspective of the doll perched on Maki's shoulders, Gao Hai could clearly see the words on the page. As he read them, the lingering illusion returned. This time, Gao Hai saw the aged figure clearly—the first director of the Red Nut Gray Cave, leaning on a cane, a man with hidden injuries from his youthful adventures who now had to rely on a cane to move around in his old age. At that moment, the figure clearly appeared in Gao Hai's memory.

At that time, the Red Nut Gray Hole showed no abnormalities.

Despite the various legends and stories, and the fragmented and bizarre accounts, the fact is that from the discovery of this cave in Austin to its establishment as a well-known tourist attraction throughout the state, no paranormal events have occurred; everything has been perfectly normal.

Therefore, the problem arose during the term of the second director.

What happened to the man named Pei Di after he took over the park and developed it into a well-known tourist attraction?

Following the incident, the giant slide was closed, guard posts were built inside the cave, and the park maintains continuous 24-hour surveillance to prevent anyone from entering the slide. Even so, unusual incidents continue to occur, with security guards and staff becoming trapped or even disappearing.

what's going on?

What exactly caused all these changes?

Was it an accident? A sudden disaster? Or something else entirely? Whatever the reason, someone must have died in this cave; that's the only certainty. Based on the consensus reached by countless players over the past two years, all paranormal events in dungeons are caused by the dead; the lingering resentment of the deceased forms the basis of these strange tales. Therefore, something must have happened that led to someone's death in the Red Nut Gray Cave.

Are they tourists? Explorers? Or someone else entirely?

But if that's the case, what kind of situation is this research base?

If the key to the obsession lies in a certain deceased person within the cave, why did this research base appear? What role did this base play in the transformation of the Red Nut Grotto into a land of strange tales?

Princess Zhenfei turned to the next page of the notebook.

This page had no record, or rather, the record on this page no longer existed. A large number of pages had been roughly torn off, leaving only a few blank pages. On the page that Maki happened to turn to, there was a sentence belonging to someone else, whose handwriting was completely different from Austin's.

Does God really exist?

A nonsensical question with no beginning or end.

At this moment, what made Zhenfei fall into deep thought, and what made Gao Hai unable to take his attention away, were the words.

However, Gao Hai simply couldn't think about the contents of the notebook at that moment.

Because the team leader, the strangely disguised explorer numbered C1, had turned around and was heading towards the big slide... no, its direction of travel had slightly changed; at this moment, it was heading towards the [gentle slope].

"The new order from the command center is to proceed to the gentle slope."

Fujiwara Chika was slightly taken aback at this moment, puzzled by this inexplicable order.

Gao Hai had already reached out and removed the girl's headphones without hesitation, smashed them on the ground, and then discarded his equipment to lighten his load.

"Let's go, let's go back, we can't stay here any longer."

With that, Gao Hai grabbed Qian Hua and started running quickly toward Shilin Road.

He felt a gaze that was stronger than ever before.

The gaze was unsettling, carrying a chilling intensity, as if saying, "Gotcha."

The doll has begun to signal to Zhenfei, using pre-arranged coded messages to let her know that something extremely wrong has happened and that she needs to go downstairs immediately.

Kaguya, who was in the command center, was unable to make contact. The area was heavily blocked by signal jamming, and even though the three of them had brought communication headsets and walkie-talkies in their backpacks, they couldn't transmit information. Or rather, in this bizarre instance that had split into different worlds, none of the three's planned methods of communication worked. Only the blood-red rag doll and the rescue team badges, which were objects of their obsession, were still usable.

Gao Hai had a very bad feeling.

Today's exploration operation has been very strange from the beginning. First, the number of people was misconceptions during the operation. Then, Gao Hai's "hallucinations" started from the moment they entered the cave. And now, the orders from the command center are becoming increasingly strange.

"Gao Jun, I... I can still hear the commands from the command center."

Fujiwara Chika, whose hand was being held by Takahashi, hesitated before speaking.

"The command center said...we need to hurry down to the bottom of the big slide and go to the blood vessel to participate in the rescue operation."

"Wait, no, no, the command center's order is... go to the gentle slope, I need to go inside the gentle slope."

Chika frowned, her expression full of confusion.

She couldn't understand why she could continue to hear commands from the command center after losing her headset.

She also couldn't understand why, upon hearing the command center's orders, her first reaction was to execute them, and she would think about how to complete the two orders issued by the command center.

Gao Hai suddenly stopped in his tracks.

It wasn't that something happened in front of the cave.

Instead, he suddenly found himself no longer feeling the strange gaze that was watching him.

Has the other party shifted their attention again?

Gao Hai originally thought this way.

But then, through the perspective of the doll on Maki's body, Takami ran to the first floor with the girl on the other side, passed through a quiet research area that seemed to have no area in use, then went through the isolation door into the corridor of the observation area, and then saw something that looked like a white dress flash by at the end of the corridor.

That gaze also flashed by in an instant.

It flashed through the senses on the other side of the doll's side.

"So it was my fault?"

Gao Hai could no longer move forward.

He already knew the source of the problem he was facing.

That gaze, that thing watching over me, established a certain connection with me.

Then, the moment it stepped into the research base, this thing's attention shifted to the base, and it began to focus on it. However, at that time, it seemed to be under some kind of restriction, so no major problems occurred.

Until he entered the quarantine zone as an explorer and began to enter the Red Nut Gray Hole in this timeline.

At that moment, Gao Hai realized that the distance between himself and the thing watching him was weakening, and the barrier between them seemed to be almost disappearing.

But in his perception, the source of that gaze was still some distance away from him.

The reason that gap exists is because... that thing used the connection with him to enter the research base.

At a time he was unaware of, an extremely dangerous and bizarre entity, not listed on the research base's rule list, had already infiltrated the base.

"The blood-stained skirt... its origin lies in the research base's timeline, and that thing's obsessive tendency is..."

Gao Hai didn't have time to say the rest.

Because gravity has already reversed in an instant.

Caught completely off guard, he was sent flying upwards and crashed into the top of the cave.

Boom!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Hehehe, I caught you! Hehehe

"Cough...uh..."

The pain spread throughout my body.

Gao Hai lowered his head and looked at the sharp stalactite piercing his abdomen.

The direction of gravity reversed in an instant, and Gao Hai, caught completely off guard, fell straight down into the spikes.

In a distance of only two or three meters, it's completely impossible to adjust one's posture and find a safe foothold at that height. Moreover, there's nowhere safe to fall in the direction of the fall; it's all surrounded by extremely sharp stalactites.

Ultimately, relying on reaction speed and explosive power beyond human limits, Gao Hai barely managed to twist his body and brace himself with his hands in the gaps between several stalactite tips. Even so, a stalactite still pierced his abdomen. No, not only his abdomen, but also two stalactites pierced his legs, though not very deeply.

"Uh……"

A mouthful of foul blood seeped from the corner of Gao Hai's mouth.

His head felt like it was about to explode with pain.

The doll that Princess Zhenfei always carried with her had lost sight of her and could no longer perceive the specific situation on the other side.

After the white dress appeared and disappeared in a flash, Gao Hai severed his connection with the object of his obsession. The backlash at that moment almost destroyed Gao Hai's nerves, but after taking a deep breath, he gritted his teeth and pulled through, avoiding going insane or brain death on the spot.

Could the sudden disconnection of a sensory connection have such a severe backlash?

This can be considered another lesson learned.

puff-

With a slight effort, Gao Hai propped himself up and pulled the stalactite spike out of his abdomen.

Lying on those sharp rock spikes wasn't a pleasant experience, but Gao Hai, realizing the situation had reached its worst point, couldn't care less. He had to struggle desperately to gather as much intelligence as possible before losing his life, to try and obtain more information—information that was normally unavailable—from places that might hasten his demise.

He didn't look at Fujiwara Chika, who had fallen onto the thorns with him.

Gao Hai didn't hear the other person breathing, so they were probably gone. That's good, it saves him a lot of pain.

Maki, and Kaguya, they've both already...

In the end, the problem actually came from myself.

After being watched from the ground in the world where his security guard identity resided, Gao Hai could no longer travel to the research base area. The thing watching him was actually inside the Red Nut Gray Hole in the research base world. Gao Hai wasn't sure of its exact location within the cave, but it seemed to be under some kind of restriction, unable to directly enter the research base. His identity as an "explorer" provided that thing with a medium, allowing it to remove its restrictions.

The strange thing in the command room could only identify two explorers. Perhaps it was because I was being "watched" that my presence caused confusion for those things.

Stumbling and staggering, Gao Hai made his way through the stalactites, some tens of centimeters long and others a meter long, carefully stepping through the gaps between the spikes, and thus gradually made his way towards the [Plains].

He had already put on the rescue team badge, but for some reason, Gao Hai was unable to summon a complete rescue suit or rescue team members this time. He could only use the power of the badge to heal his injuries.

The effect of the object of obsession was suppressed.

If it were any other obsession, it would probably quickly go out of control if used now. This badge has been modified by the power of blessing, reducing the risk of going out of control to the limit, which is why it is showing signs of being suppressed.

Therefore, the thing that can suppress the obsessive object and cause it to go out of control, which is watching itself, should be the core obsession of the instance.

Although the badge he possessed was slightly different from the true core artifact, with the blessing, it could already be considered a core artifact for Twilight-level dungeons. Only the core artifacts of Red Moon-level or Dark Night-level dungeons could suppress its effect. Since Twilight-level dungeons, no matter how fixed, could never reach Red Moon level, the most serious possibility he faced was a Dark Night-level core artifact.

These are all experiences summarized by players, and this is the only possibility Gao Hai can think of. But... perhaps it's more than that. The information Gao Hai gathered as an explorer and rescue team member had nothing to do with this research base. And based on the various rules he collected, something must have happened between the large slide and the large space, and there should be a core obsession here.

It's difficult to combine the intelligence from both sides, and having only one core obsession would be too divisive.

That is to say...

"Dual core obsessions, top-tier Dark Night level dungeon."

Gao Hai slowly recited, and at this moment he understood his situation and realized just how insane the so-called "two-hour speedrun of the Twilight-level dungeon" had become after it was fixed.

Furthermore, he vaguely understood why, although the ground in the security guard's world was the exit, there was no way to leave.