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

The girl's smile vanished without a trace in Gao Hai's gaze.

Within the shattered rock wall, Gao Hai, whose body had been twisted into a jumbled mass of flesh and blood, finally broke free from the shackles of his obsessive power. His body began to disintegrate, turning into dust and disappearing forever.

The black watch fell down and rolled among a circle of pebbles.

The hands on the watch trembled slightly in this unseen corner, then slowly moved from the 4 mark to the 5 mark.

Chapter 55: What is revealed for the first time and the hands that hold each other

A city stained blood red.

It felt as safe and secure as coming home.

Cough, that was a joke. Actually, if he could, Gao Hai wouldn't want to come back to this godforsaken place. After all, every time he comes here, it means he's one step closer to real death.

But this time was an exception. Only this time did Gao Hai truly experience what it meant to be worse than dead. The feeling of being imprisoned in a dark cave, tormented by hunger and dehydration, and having his entire body squeezed and twisted little by little, was simply too terrifying and desperate.

Even after entering this blood-red city, Gao Hai lay on the ground for quite some time before struggling to sit up slowly and gradually regaining consciousness.

He spent far too long in that godforsaken place, so long that Gao Hai felt his mind was about to go haywire.

If the Shirakawa Apartment in the first game made Gao Hai somewhat dislike the sound of knocking on the door, then now he was truly developing claustrophobia. He'd spent a full thirty days trapped in a cramped cave… no, time in the real world seemed to stand still during the instance's activation, meaning he'd actually been trapped for a full forty-five days…

Being imprisoned in a dark cave for such a long time, enduring maddening pain and the horror of one's body gradually breaking apart, is unbearable, truly unbearable.

"Phew... Fujiwara Chika, I'm really indebted to her now..."

The thought of the girl smiling at him at the last moment, and the words she spoke to him with such sincerity, made Gao Hai's heart beat erratically.

He couldn't help but think of the moments he had spent with Fujiwara Chika during his first playthrough, and the times when this girl had always been by his side.

Unlike Shijou Maki, who is very opinionated and always puts on a proud demeanor, Chika's personality is much softer. When faced with the unknowns in the Rule-Based Mystery Dungeon, she tends to assist herself and help Takahashi with various tasks. However, when she needs to act alone, this girl can come up with all sorts of ideas and try various approaches. For example, when trapped in the Land of Regret, she secretly obtained a promotional poster, allowing Takahashi to confirm the identity of the senator—a member of the Bush family, one of the four major families of the Kingdom of America.

It has to be said that this person's status is truly high enough. No wonder that even when Pei Di realized something was wrong and began to consider shutting down the scenic area, he couldn't stop. With such a powerful figure above, let alone Pei Di, even Superman Clark might be helpless, unless he changed his skin to something unjust.

Of course, in the ghost story game, these identities are meaningless. Judging from Senator Bush's appearance in the Land of Regret, he was clearly also pulled into the cave and suffered the cruel fate of drowning alive there. Well, Gao Hai thinks that guy deserved it, and if he could suck that guy into his watch to use as firewood, he wouldn't have any qualms about it.

hum-

Gao Hai heard the sound at that moment.

He looked up and saw several things slowly falling from the sky.

A necklace that doesn't look particularly eye-catching.

A bottle containing sleeping pills.

And a silver ring.

All three items that Gao Hai had been obsessed with were thus placed in front of him.

The first two items belonged to that guy named Kawano. Probably because of the fight in the water, Takami's blood was everywhere, and it ended up getting on his items.

The necklace's function is to exert a psychological suggestion, subtly swaying a person's thinking towards their expectations. However, this object's inductive power is not strong; it's only effective in situations that don't violate the other person's principles. For example, if someone likes both apples and oranges and is hesitant between the two, you can use the object's power, through verbal communication, to persuade them to choose either apple or orange. But if they choose oranges, which they like, or durian, which they strongly dislike, no matter how you use the object's power or communicate, you can at most get them to not choose apples; you can never persuade them to choose durian.

The second obsession item, the bottle of sleeping pills, has a rather simple and brutal effect: restoring stamina. Taking one pill allows wounds to heal rapidly, and for the next ten minutes or so, any injury sustained will heal at an extremely fast pace as long as the inflicted injury is not fatal. However, this obsession item is almost out of control. Once the first pill is taken, it's practically impossible to take a second one for the entire dungeon, as taking a second pill almost certainly results in possession by the supernatural entity.

Kawano probably encountered something while crawling through the [blood vessels]. However, unlike Gao Hai, he wasn't directly locked in by the core obsession to enjoy the members-only high-end restaurant treatment. Instead, he probably encountered something else and was injured, failing to pass through the [blood vessels] within 10 minutes. As a result, he had to take a second pill and risk it all, successfully getting possessed by the strange entity, which caused great trouble for Gao Hai and Chika.

Should I take this guy's object of obsession? Thinking about it carefully, although he did attack me, it wasn't his intention. So, as for conscience... he doesn't have that kind of conscience. Gao Hai clearly remembers that during that battle, Kawano's residual consciousness also wanted to attack him. Gao Hai was very unhappy about that guy's self-destructive attempt to drag others down with him. Taking his object of obsession would give Gao Hai no psychological burden whatsoever.

And then, there's that ring.

Gao Hai looked at the last object of obsession, one of the two core objects of obsession in the Red Nut Gray Hole, and Andres's wedding ring.

The function of this ring is very simple, just two words: [Immortality].

By activating the power of this object of obsession, the user can gain immortality during the period of its activation.

Whether their head is chopped off or their body is cut into pieces, as long as the power of the object of their obsession continues to exert its influence, the player remains immortal.

Such a simple, brutal, and incredibly powerful function left Gao Hai speechless. If he had this artifact in his possession back at the Baichuan Apartment, he could have easily moved around while enduring boiling water and needles and thread, and he could even treat the execution by the core artifact as a mere massage. It just goes to show that the higher the level of the dungeon, the more powerful the loot it produces; Gao Hai couldn't even imagine how powerful the core artifact of a Red Moon-level dungeon could be.

Unfortunately, Gao Hai couldn't take this object out of the instance; he could only use it in subsequent playthroughs.

The reason, if you ask me, is because he has realized what this watch demands of him, and what he has to do.

when!

The first bell rang.

Gao Hai learned of the watch's sixth function, or rather, its first form of punishment.

He must achieve a perfect score.

Break free from your obsession and destroy the instance; this is the only way for Gao Hai to clear the game.

Any other method of passage is not permitted, and if he does so and succeeds, the watch will take his life, and he will have to start all over again.

This was the first time Gao Hai had sensed that the watch itself possessed a certain tendency, a certain appeal, a certain desire.

It wants to devour the obsessions within these instances.

It will destroy the copy and then devour the obsession that lingers within it.

It gave Gao Hai the strength to start over, so Gao Hai had to fulfill its wish.

Otherwise, you will die.

In the final moment of the second playthrough, if Gao Hai hadn't been pulled into a side path by the core obsession Andres, and if he had escaped the instance in his true form, the black watch that had been helping him all along would have killed him on the spot and then rewound time to the beginning of the second instance.

Avoiding challenges is absolutely unacceptable.

Gao Hai understood this at that moment.

"...So, this thing isn't so easy to obtain after all?"

Softly, Gao Hai sighed, genuinely feeling a sense of trouble and exhaustion.

Although the watch didn't provide any other information, he could roughly guess that the drastic change in the second game was likely related to it. This also meant that every game he played from now on would probably be incredibly difficult.

Based on the fact that obtaining an S-rank rating by destroying a dungeon, and that the difficulty of the next game increases after obtaining two ratings, Gao Hai strongly suspects that his third and fourth games will be filled with two pseudo-Red Moon level dungeons by this watch. If he survives these two games, the fifth and sixth games will definitely be true Red Moon level dungeons. Just thinking about what level of Red Moon level dungeon this broken watch will select for him makes Gao Hai shudder.

"Thank you so much."

Gao Hai's lips twitched for a long time, unsure of what to say, before he could only say this.

when! !

The second chime rang out immediately afterward.

Gao Hai turned his head to look at Li Youcai and Xu Jiazhen, who were still suffering in the flames, then shook his head and turned away.

The watch has unlocked its seventh function.

This function is equally simple and brutal: suicide.

The activation process requires Gao Hai to concentrate fully, make a request to the watch, and then wait for about a minute. If Gao Hai does not change his mind after the allotted time, his body will explode on the spot, instantly dying from the power that binds him to his obsession, and then a new cycle will begin.

It is important to emphasize that this method of death will not cause any pain. Gao Hai will not feel anything during the process of dying and can greet a new beginning as if he were asleep, which can be described as quite humane.

Using this function consumes no resources, which is clearly a response from the watch to Gao Hai's strong desire when he was trapped in the rock wall. And such a desire is exactly the kind of simple wish that does not consume any rollback attempts.

First, they gave a penalty warning, and then they introduced a new feature.

Is this watch trying to manipulate me? Is it giving me a hard time followed by a sweet treat? Why do I suddenly have this feeling?

when! ! !

As I pondered, the third chime of the bell rang.

In Gao Hai's perception, he saw the girl standing with her back to him, proudly holding her head high, and her stubbornly outstretched little hand, waiting for him to hold it.

"..."

After a brief silence, Gao Hai turned his head away.

He saw the second girl.

Facing her was a pink-haired girl, blushing slightly but with a cute smile, reaching out her hand.

Before his death, the other person held him and poured out their heart, words overflowing with genuine emotion, and their smiling face disappearing in the firelight. Even now, Gao Hai can't forget it.

I've really won this girl's heart...

He seems like a total jerk, but... so what if he's a jerk? Saying things like "this girl who likes you will disappear" is just wishful thinking. Does he think he's Kaori Miyazono? The story of a lost love doesn't work for me. I'm determined to keep you here!

Take a step forward.

The next moment, Gao Hai tightly grasped the pink-haired girl's small hand.

Click!

With a crisp click, the watch hands moved from the 5 mark to the 6 mark, completing half of the watch's timeline.

The next moment, as the world plunged back into darkness, the memories that should have faded away were reawakened along with a certain girl.

Gao Hai has already opened his eyes.

tick-

With the clear sound of dripping water, he slowly stood up from the ground.

It's still that same chaotic grotto.

This is the third time I've seen it; it's the same place I first visited.

But this time, it will definitely be different from the last time.

"It's time to go."

Muttering to himself, Gao Hai took a step and walked towards the direction of the light.

There, he saw the girl, dressed in her adventure clothes, waiting for him.

Their eyes met, and then the same smile spread across their faces.

Chapter 56: The Beginning of the New Cycle and New Circumstances

embrace.

Without the slightest hesitation, Fujiwara Chika immediately opened her arms and embraced Takami.

Such a close embrace, filled with the fresh scent of a young girl and the soft touch of her skin.