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

"Slacking off at work will result in a pay deduction, you got caught!"

The pink-haired girl outside the window winked at Gao Hai and made a shooting gesture by extending one finger as if it were a gun.

"Chika?"

Gao Hai was surprised that the other person would return to school at this time, so he quickly stood up.

The other two security guards in the booth showed no unusual reaction, remaining obediently seated in their positions as if they couldn't see Gao Hai and Qian Hua. Seeing this, Gao Hai didn't say anything more, simply putting away his phone and leaving the booth.

"Are you alright now?"

Gao Hai walked out of the security booth and looked at Fujiwara Chika, who was standing not far away and looked rather unwell. He couldn't help but ask her what was wrong.

"Walking is basically no problem anymore. It seems to be because of the physical boost from the A-level rating. My body is recovering much faster than before."

Fujiwara Chika nodded in response and walked naturally beside Takami, walking alongside him.

The two walked a short distance until they reached a small pavilion in the school, where they went inside and sat down. The students were still in class, so the area around the pavilion was quiet, with only Gao Hai and Qian Hua sitting there.

As he walked over and sat down, Takahashi tried to hold Chika's hand, but the girl refused without hesitation. She said that she wanted to spend as much time as possible with Maki during the day, and that it was best for the two of them not to be too intimate in places like school where they could easily be seen, to avoid causing gossip. Seeing her firm attitude, Takahashi had no choice but to give up.

"How is Little Consort Zhen?"

The moment she sat down in the pavilion, Chika looked at Gao Hai with great curiosity and asked him a question.

"I'm fine, I feel like there's nothing wrong. But are you really okay? It's probably best not to push yourself too hard."

As Gao Hai spoke, he carefully observed Qian Hua's reaction. He knew that he had gone a bit too far yesterday. He originally thought that the girl would rest for about a day, but he did not expect that she would only sleep for a morning and then run back to school in the afternoon.

I've heard that girls' walking habits change slightly after going through a coming-of-age ceremony. Will other people notice that?

Thinking of this, Gao Hai's gaze involuntarily turned to Chika's legs. He hadn't paid much attention to Chika's walking posture just now, but it did seem to be slightly different from yesterday.

"When I said I was fine, I really meant it. Don't underestimate me. Well, anyway, I still feel a little bad for Princess Zhen, so I'll leave her with the daytime hours for now. It's better if I don't do anything to upset her."

The pink-haired girl frowned, thought for a moment, and then shook her head.

At least for now, we need to give the other party more time.

As for the future, Chika couldn't think too far ahead yet, but she did have plans for a two-day trip to a hot spring hotel next weekend. If things went smoothly, it should help to improve the relationship between the three of them.

Come to think of it, shouldn't the man be the one to take the initiative in this kind of thing? Ah Hai is really lame.

Thinking this, Chika looked up at Takahashi with a somewhat resentful expression, only to be pulled into his arms by his waist.

"Don't worry, I know what to do, don't overthink it."

She lowered her head and buried it in her long, soft, pink hair.

Gao Hai took a deep breath of the delicate fragrance emanating from Qian Hua's hair before releasing her, his face flushed.

"Idiot Ahai, that's a foul..."

The girl muttered softly and pinched Gao Hai's arm.

Just then, the bell rang in the teaching building, signaling the end of get out of class. Chika said goodbye to Takahashi and headed towards the building. She moved with a rather proud and confident air, perhaps because she wasn't there for class but to play games in the board game club she belonged to.

This time, Gao Hai carefully observed Qian Hua's walking posture and confirmed that her legs were indeed a bit uncoordinated when she took a step, and the area from her thighs to her hips was obviously a bit stiff.

She ended up like this because of me. I transmigrated to another world of anime and manga, was forced to participate in a death game, and ended up with a beautiful woman in my harem. I've basically completed this process that only protagonists in web novels go through. All that's left is to completely end the "sacrifice game" and find a way to return to the real world with this extraordinary power.

But does that method really exist?

Gao Hai had looked up various rumors among the players, including methods on how to escape this terrifying world.

This information is largely from dubious sources, as players themselves don't know how to truly escape this monthly death trap. Among all the speculations, the most likely answer is to achieve an A-rank rating in two Red Moon-level dungeons, thus qualifying for higher-difficulty dungeons beyond the Red Moon level.

Many players believe that the legendary game instance contains the true way to escape this hell.

However, in the two years since the [Sacrifice Game] was created, no player has ever met this condition. Even the top Red Moon level players have never successfully obtained an A-level completion rating twice.

Thinking of this, Gao Hai returned to the security booth, took out his phone, and logged into the player forum again.

Even now, many people on the forums are still discussing the mysterious players who cleared and destroyed the Red Nut Gray Hole dungeon. Although Ed has released some information about Gao Hai himself, most players still believe that this dungeon couldn't have been solved by Gao Hai alone; he must have had a powerful team assisting him. Some players even speculate that it was a top-tier player team about to reach the Red Moon level who carried out the dungeon's breakthrough.

Some players' guesses were quite accurate, but Gao Hai wasn't interested in paying attention to the thoughts of players from all over the country for the time being. He simply found a few posts that the forum administrator had specially highlighted and saved, and from them, he found the "Campus Ghost Stories" section.

Instead of worrying about getting caught up in this high-difficulty dungeon, it's better to understand the relevant information first. That way, even if the terrible situation he predicted happens, at least he won't be completely clueless and have to start investigating from scratch.

After clicking on the section, Gao Hai quickly saw five different posts that were specially pinned to the top of the section.

The first four posts are titled "[Early Rising Elementary School]", "[Fujika Middle School]", "[Nightfall Mountain Middle School]", and "[Baidos Academy]", which are the names of four different schools discovered in the "Campus Ghost Stories" instance, compiled by players who successfully survived the instance. As the name suggests, Early Rising Elementary School is an extremely eerie elementary school; Fujika Middle School is an abandoned middle school; Nightfall Mountain Middle School is a high school; and Baidos Academy is a university.

According to players, these four schools are both independent and interconnected within the instance, and players can freely visit any of them. There are two types of rules within the instance: [Public Rules] and [Area Rules]. The rules that players must follow vary depending on their environment, making the situation extremely complex and impossible to explain in just a few words.

Among these schools, Nightfall Mountain Middle School is believed to contain three distinct core obsessions, making it the area with the most core obsessions discovered so far. Two of these core obsession items have already been taken by players, rendering Nightfall Mountain Middle School semi-locked down, with virtually no way to enter the school area. Wisteria Middle School is the only school in the instance that appears abandoned; its interior is a ruin, and spatial distortions have occurred. It is said that some surviving players are still lost within it and unable to escape. Early Ridge Elementary School is an extremely mysterious place, with almost no useful information emanating from it. For some reason, almost no players who survived there are willing to share information, and many have developed severe self-destructive tendencies. The only player team willing to share information only stated, "Under no circumstances should we enter here," and refused to discuss anything further.

Among the four schools discovered so far, Bydos Academy is an anomaly. While the previous four schools all appear to be Japanese based on various characteristics, Bydos Academy is a Western-style university with a vast area and extremely high building density. This academy seems to exist in multiple temporal and spatial distortions. According to players who successfully conquered the area and obtained a core artifact, the academy likely existed in three main periods. Two of these periods were when it functioned as a school, seemingly normal times. The remaining period, however, occurred during wartime, serving as a concentration camp and execution ground.

According to the Red Moon-level player team that specialized in conquering this academy, they believe that at least 160 million people were transported there and ultimately executed during the academy's existence, from its founding to its disappearance, and from the real world to its entanglement in the world of ghost stories. In the world of "Campus Ghost Stories," only Baydos Academy is filled with almost endless eeriness, a place of despair where players can hardly survive even without breaking the rules.

The Bydos Academy has been confirmed to have two cores. The Red Moon-level player team took one core and never attempted to return to the instance. And after losing one core artifact, no player who entered Bydos Academy has ever left the area alive. Before this, while the academy was fraught with danger, there were still ways to escape or temporarily survive. But now, this academy area has become a 100% death trap in the [Campus Ghost Stories].

And, besides these four colleges, the last college.

Player teams who have explored this instance firmly believe it exists, but to this day there are no clues, and its name and location remain unknown—an academy area that exists only in legend.

Many players have said they have seen the school in the darkness, in the dim night, when they look into the distance and see the school located in the far distance, shrouded in mist.

These players claim to have seen the school lights on and even heard bells and the sound of students reading aloud. However, the search and investigation so far has yielded no results. The school seems to exist only in the players' imaginations; no one has ever actually touched it, or rather… touched it and left the instance alive, successfully recording any information related to it.

Gao Hai casually clicked on the post about [Teng Hua Middle School] and carefully examined the situation.

This post summarizes 12 different game prompts that players in the Fujiwara Middle School area heard at the start of the [Campus Ghost Stories] event. Yes, unlike the Twilight and Dark Night dungeons, the opening prompts for the Red Moon dungeon change almost every time. Even though this dungeon has now been downgraded to Dark Night, players entering it will still hear completely different prompts depending on their starting location.

In addition, Fujika Middle School has four different areas, which can be roughly divided into the [teaching building], [dormitory], [playground] and [swimming pool]. Each of these four areas has completely independent rules and independent game rules.

"Alice's Game? It sounds like a game where you collect figurines."

Upon seeing the uniform title format on four different rule tables, Gao Hai couldn't help but complain.

Interlude 2-13: The distinctly different characteristics of the Red Moon-level dungeon.

Alice's Great Adventure Game!

Welcome to Alice's school! This is where Alice studies. We'll play games here and become good friends!

Alice loves making friends, and she wants to be friends with everyone. So let's all play a game together! After we play, everyone will be Alice's friend! Best friends for life!

The goal of the game is very simple: just find what Alice has hidden in the school building. It's an extremely easy and relaxing game, so everyone should come and play with Alice!

However, it's essential to follow the rules when playing games, so please remember them and don't forget them!

[Rule 1: Everyone must protect the candle on their table. Do NOT let the candle go out! If the candle goes out, a very, very bad big bad wolf will come and cause you trouble, howling "Gaw gaw!"]

[Rule 2: When you're in the hallway, please, please, please don't run around! Otherwise, Mama Sheep will be angry. She hates people who make noise, so walk slowly and carefully!]

[Rule 3: Naughty kids love playing pranks. They'll always sneak up on you and blow out your candles when you're not looking. But don't worry, just shine the candle in their face, and they'll run away immediately. Naughty kids are terrified of fire!]

[Rule 4: The turtle teacher at the stairwell always walks very, very slowly to class. If you see him, please help him! A child who helps the teacher is a good child!]

[Rule 5: Teacher Duck has always had trouble sleeping and is easily woken up, so please don't make any noise. We need to play the game quietly and not bother others.]

[Rule 6: Uncle Statue always likes to run around and is extremely enthusiastic, wanting to hug everyone he sees. If possible, please persuade him to go back to the biology classroom, okay? It wouldn't be good if Teacher Turtle couldn't find him during class!]

[Rule 7: The Flashlight Sister patrols every night. She doesn't like kids staying in the school building at night, so if you see her, you must run away quickly, otherwise you'll get scolded if she catches you!]

[Rule 8: During class, you must stay in the classroom and read. You cannot stay in the hallway or skip morning reading. Mama Sheep has excellent hearing; she will definitely hear you if you're not reading attentively!]

[Rule 9: Lights may only be turned on after the morning bell rings, and must be turned off when the evening bell rings. Everyone should conserve electricity and not cause trouble for Principal Elephant and Inspector Giraffe. This is a very good virtue, and good children must abide by it!]

Rule 10: You can only leave the school building after you've found Alice's things. You have to play the game to the very end, so don't leave early!

[Rule 11: Cheating and spoiling the game is absolutely forbidden! Don't let kids who haven't played the game yet know how to play beforehand. Alice will be angry, and an angry Alice won't be your friend!]

Those are all the rules! Good luck everyone, let's play with Alice together!

Once we've played the game, we're all good friends!

……

Gao Hai swiped his finger continuously and finished reading the rule table in a short time.

According to players who successfully survived the Fujiwara Middle School incident, this is a rule sheet that all players entering the school building will receive at the beginning. Once players have read the contents of this rule sheet, the school building will change and enter the "Game Start" state.

However, the post didn't explain how to play the game, what specific situations these rules corresponded to, or how to deal with them. Based on the comments below, it seems that once something related to this is written down and posted, and seen by someone who hasn't yet played the Alice game at Fujiwara Middle School, it immediately triggers some rule of Fujiwara Middle School. This causes the player who wrote this "cannot be revealed" information to be immediately pulled back to Fujiwara Middle School, and the next mission for those who saw this information will be forcibly locked to "School Ghost Stories," and the game will inevitably start at Fujiwara Middle School.

To be honest, Gao Hai was stunned for a long time when he saw this. Then he looked at the information in the replies more carefully and went to the forum to find some posts introducing the Red Moon dungeon before he finally understood.

Once you reach the [Red Moon Level] game instance, its rules can take effect directly in the real world. Even if you are not within the instance's scope, as long as you meet the instance's rules, the supernatural forces within this type of instance can still kill you or drag you into an extremely dangerous situation.

"Holy crap, is this for real...?"

Although Gao Hai knew that the [Red Moon] level must have its unique features, he really did not expect that this level of dungeon would have the power to directly interfere with reality.

The only good news is that so far, the rules for the Red Moon-level dungeons in the "Sacrifice Game" have all been based on the premise of "knowing of its existence." Therefore, even if ordinary people and players in the real world do something that meets the conditions, they will be fine because they do not know that this is related to a certain dungeon.

Just like the rules of the game at Fujika Middle School, if Gao Hai had no idea about the "Campus Ghost Stories" instance, even if someone spoiled the whole game for him, it would only be the other person who would suffer, and Gao Hai himself would not encounter any problems. It was only after he learned some information from a certain channel that he realized that the person who had spoken to him earlier had actually told him about the "Campus Ghost Stories" instance, and only then would he be locked onto by the power of the instance's rules.

This is one of the differences between the [Red Moon Level] dungeon and the other two levels of dungeons.

In addition to the above, this level of dungeon has a second difference from normal dungeons: it occasionally experiences a "descent" phenomenon. The post doesn't provide a particularly detailed explanation of this phenomenon, but it's said that the "descent" manifestation is different for each Red Moon-level dungeon. However, there is one common feature: a red moon, visible only to the player, appears near the descent location. Whenever this occurs, nearby players, regardless of whether they see the red moon or not, will have a strong urge to flee the area. Therefore, unless someone is deliberately seeking death, virtually no player will be harmed by the "descent" dungeon.

The warning signs of the descent usually last for about half an hour to an hour, enough time for players within the affected area to escape. Once the descent occurs, it typically lasts for less than a minute, after which everything ends. Usually, dozens to hundreds of people disappear near the descent site, taken away by the descent's power. Where these people go and what their fate will be is practically predetermined. However, this doesn't matter much, because it's caused by a mysterious force, so no one will notice their disappearance. The families and friends of these vanished individuals will continue their ordinary lives after forgetting about them.

"This is really unsettling..."

After reading these things, Gao Hai couldn't help but make his own judgments.

【Campus Ghost Stories】has now been downgraded to a Dark Night-level dungeon by the Sacrifice Game, but it still retains the ability to 【take effect outside the dungeon】and 【appear at random times】. The forum has recorded a total of 3 appearances of 【Campus Ghost Stories】, each of which occurred in a middle school or university. After the appearance, all students in a class will disappear. So far, the number of people who have disappeared is recorded as 85.

He continued to browse through the recorded intelligence information in this copy, and soon came to the 12 opening game hints for Fujika Middle School.

Based on his experience playing the Shirakawa Apartment and Red Nut Gray Hole games, Gao Hai understood that the opening hints often touched upon the core obsessions within the dungeon, containing crucial and hidden information. For Gao Hai, who needed to achieve a perfect clear, this information was extremely important.

However, before Gao Hai could carefully read these prompts, a text message popped up. He opened the message and found that it was from Kaguya Shinomiya.

It seems that the other party has finally made time to respond to his previous invitation to meet with her regarding her brother.

After Hayasaka Ai left, Takami immediately informed Kaguya of the incident via text message. Of course, he didn't reveal Hayasaka's existence, only saying that a strange man had contacted him and extended an invitation. Kaguya's reply was very concise, simply asking if he was available to answer the phone.

It seems that this matter has made Kaguya somewhat anxious?

So Gao Hai temporarily closed the forum page, brought up his contacts, and called Kaguya directly.

Kaguya answered the call within a second of it being connected.