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

I ran past a quiet street corner and crossed the pedestrian crossing.

The girl sensed something was amiss: the streets were unusually quiet today, so quiet that she hadn't encountered many pedestrians or vehicles along the way.

It was as if the entire city had fallen silent, leaving her alone as she ran forward.

So Jianzi sped up even more, running almost at full speed to her own doorstep. After resting for a while, leaning against the wall to catch her breath, she continued on, crossing her own door and heading towards the house next door.

She walked to the door of the only person she could think of to ask for help.

Ding-dong-

The girl reached out and rang the doorbell of Gao Hai's house.

Then, after a tense moment of waiting, she heard a response from the doorbell.

"Which one?"

In the lazy, languid voice, Jianzi could also hear the other person yawning, as if they had just woken up.

"It's me, Yotsuya Miko. Um, hello. You...you told me before that you could see things like me, right? I...I have something I'd like to ask you for help with. Could you please open the door and let me in?"

Having not spoken much with men, Miko spoke with a little nervousness.

"Oh, come in then."

As for Gao Hai, he had just finished his trip to the hot spring hotel and was very relaxed at the moment. He didn't think too much about it and casually replied with that sentence before unlocking the door to let Jianzi into his house.

Interlude 2-31: Something has already come in with your footsteps.

For Gao Hai, the two-day, two-night hot spring hotel trip was probably a very pleasant experience.

The fire that had been burning within him for days, kept burning within him by Chika, was now being released. He even went so far as to discuss the meaning of life with Chika and Maki. It could be said that everything was in its most beautiful and joyful phase, so much so that Takahashi could describe it as happiness.

So much so that when he returned home to his somewhat deserted little house, Gao Hai felt a little out of place and quite listless.

I really want to stay with Chika and the others longer...

Sitting on the sofa, Gao Hai couldn't help but sigh softly. Then, with a helpless expression, he sat up and picked up a printed map from the table.

Naturally, this map is of the middle school of Fujika Middle School, or more accurately, a rough layout of Fujika Middle School.

It is said that the interior of the buildings in this area changes every time the game starts, resulting in a chaotic shape that does not match the exterior at all. Therefore, the only permanently valid map is this rough distribution map.

Using this map, Gao Hai was able to identify the basic features of various areas such as the teaching buildings, dormitories, swimming pool, and playground. For example, the teaching buildings have three entrances, one of which connects to the dormitory buildings and is obscured by a green belt. The playground is mainly divided into two areas: a basketball court and a soccer field. The main entrance of the dormitory buildings connects to the basketball court. The swimming pool is an isolated building located on one side of the soccer field. There is also a pedestrian path that encircles the entire campus, and so on.

Although it's unlikely that Gao Hai will be able to enter the [Campus Ghost Stories] pseudo-Red Moon level super difficult dungeon at the moment, and even if he does, he might not be able to start in the [Wisteria Middle School] area, since he has already carefully collected and studied so much related information, Gao Hai might as well read through the rest of the relevant information as well.

"It would be terrible if I was pulled into the instance precisely because I read so much intelligence information."

Gao Hai looked at the map in his hand and couldn't help but complain.

Ding-dong-

Doorbell rang.

Who will come looking for me at this time?

Gao Hai pondered with some doubt, stood up, quickly slipped to the window and peeked out. After seeing that it was Yotsuya Miko, he went to the door to answer the doorbell and opened the door to let her in.

For Gao Hai, it wasn't entirely unexpected that this girl would come looking for him.

However, I thought she would come looking for me after some time.

After all, these strange things that appear every night are quite different from the monsters in the original "The Girl Who Can See". These things are unaware and will not do anything to the observer even if they are seen. Therefore, the pressure that Miko needs to bear is far less than that in the original work. She can completely adapt to the existence of these things with her own willpower.

But now she's rushing to me, which means something has changed that forced her to start looking for help?

Gao Hai, who did not know the specifics of what happened, did not make wild guesses. He simply led Jianzi to the living room and sat down, waiting for her to tell the story herself.

However, something seems rather strange.

It was a strange, incongruous feeling that was hard to describe in words.

It was as if it wasn't just Yotsuya Miko who walked into her house, but something else that came in with her.

This feeling is indeed uncomfortable, but there's no need to worry about it too much...

Why shouldn't we care too much about this kind of thing?

"Yotsuya-kun, do you mean that some of our classmates are performing some kind of supernatural ritual?"

In the living room, Gao Hai looked at the girl sitting opposite him, who looked quite haggard, and slowly asked.

"Yes, I don't know how to say it... I always feel like everyone around me is being controlled by something. They've become unable to think about the consequences of their actions, nor do they care about the potential dangers behind something. They just throw themselves into it with great enthusiasm and wholeheartedness. This scares me, it terrifies me. There are far fewer people in my class, but no one seems to notice. It's as if those people have disappeared from everyone's memory, and I can't even remember their names anymore..."

Seeing that Zi had been under tremendous psychological pressure during this period, she finally had a chance to confide in Gao Hai and poured out everything in one go.

This feeling is truly wonderful.

She had barely met this man, and their only interaction was the second time. Yet, she seemed to instinctively trust him, feeling that he belonged to the same world as her, and thus could say things without hesitation that she would never dare to say before.

Perhaps this is what is meant by "a sense of security".

Just like now, after hearing her say these incredibly bizarre things, this man named Gao Hai would never say things like "You're too nervous" or "These are just coincidences, don't worry about them" like others would. Instead, he would listen very carefully to what she said, think about it, and analyze it, just like she did, treating these things as a harbinger of some kind of bizarre event and analyzing them.

"That does sound quite ominous. By the way, do you know the name of that ritual? What's it called?"

Gao Hai's expression had become serious. From Jianzi's words, he could deduce that either a player had used a coveted object to carry out some kind of action at that school, or the power of the instance had manifested in the real world. The latter possibility made his unease more and more intense.

Is such a possibility really possible?

He couldn't help but look down at the black watch that he couldn't take off.

I realized the problem and tried to take action to minimize the potential dangers I might encounter.

So the watch, following its own actions, threw the question directly at him after he had collected all the clues he could.

Are you kidding me?!

"Yes, I remember, the name of that ceremony was the Alice Game."

Then, all the expressions on Gao Hai's face froze after Yotsuya Miko's next sentence.

It really is true.

Gao Hai couldn't help but sigh softly at that moment.

"Mr. Gao, do you... know what exactly happened?"

Seeing that Zi was still cautiously watching Gao Hai, she asked him in a low voice.

"Yes, I know, I really do know."

Gao Hai nodded heavily in response, while a sense of vigilance gradually rose in his heart.

The manifestation of the power of the copy is bizarre. As someone affected by this power, Yotsuya Miko shouldn't remember the abnormal situation at school.

Not only did she realize the existence of the missing students, but she also discovered her own anomaly in forgetting their names and attempted to seek external help. This process definitely exceeded the three or four-hour forgetting limit tested by Kaguya, which meant that the Yotsuya Miko in this world possessed a powerful perception capable of breaking through the cognitive shield of the strange power. And just today, on the very day she returned, she came to her house and told her about the strange things, while she herself had sensed something amiss earlier…

A girl wearing the same sailor uniform as Miko, but for some reason dirty, passed by the hallway outside the living room in Gao Hai's peripheral vision.

The power of the blessing trembled intensely at that moment.

Every hair on his body stood on end; every inch of his skin and every nerve trembled at this moment, threatened by death.

Something did come in.

After he opened the door for Yotsuya Miko to come in, something followed her and entered his house with the girl.

Gao Hai stood up and looked at the half-open living room door and the hallway outside.

At this moment, apart from the area illuminated by the living room lights, the rest of the corridor in Gao Hai's view had become pitch black, so dark that he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

Was the corridor originally that dark?

And that figure that suddenly appeared just now, that could be considered a strange thing openly announcing its existence, right?

"Mr. Gao?"

Seeing that Gao Hai's expression had suddenly changed, Jian Zi realized that something bad might have happened. She followed Gao Hai's gaze and turned to look at the living room door, and then noticed the gloomy darkness in the hallway.

It looks just like the toilet I saw in my dream during the day.

Jianzi's body trembled violently, and the fear on her face was almost uncontrollable.

"Come here, don't go near that side."

After Gao Hai repeatedly confirmed Jianzi's condition with the power of his blessing, he then spoke to her, gesturing for her to come over.

The little girl trembled and cautiously approached Gao Hai's side, looking at the door with great fear. Although she hadn't seen anything unusual inside yet, in Jianzi's eyes, it was already a hiding place for something terrifying.

Encountering something strange in his own home, especially on the afternoon of the day his vacation ended, was a truly troublesome situation for Gao Hai, one that was anything but funny. However, this level of anomaly wasn't enough to throw him off balance; rather, the current strange phenomenon was enough to keep Gao Hai on high alert, bringing him back to the serious state he was in while playing a dungeon game.

The first thing to confirm is whether communication is still working properly.

Gao Hai picked up his phone and sent a text message to Zhen Fei, asking her if she wanted to go out for dinner together that evening.

About two minutes later, the other party replied, saying that she could come out for dinner and asked Gao Hai if there was anything she wanted to eat, and that she could find a restaurant and make a reservation in advance.

Everything seems to be normal.

However, Gao Hai had already simultaneously initiated a communication with Zhen Fei through the mental link to inquire about her situation.

{I just sent you a text message, did you receive it?}

{Huh? What text message? I don't have one here.}

Very well, communication has been cut off, and there's something else impersonating someone to send and receive text messages.

Having confirmed this, Gao Hai slowly exhaled, then looked down at the few new text messages "Zhen Fei" had sent him, deleted them without even reading them, and immediately received a call from her. In the next moment, Gao Hai crushed his phone, smashed it into pieces, and threw it into the trash can.

At that moment, Miko, who was standing next to her, also received a phone call. The caller ID showed that it was her mother calling.

Don't answer.

Gao Hai pressed down on the hand that was holding the phone and spoke to her earnestly.

"From now on, until we are absolutely certain we are out of danger, do not answer any phone calls, no matter who is calling you. The same goes for messages; don't read them. Sometimes it's because we read things we shouldn't have that we end up in danger."

Takahashi, who was admonishing Miko, helped her hang up the phone and then took the phone from her hand and turned it off.

Seeing that Zi didn't speak, and after seeing Gao Hai crush his phone without hesitation after sending a text message, she realized what Gao Hai wanted to say, and realized that the person who would call or text her now was probably no longer human.

"what should we do?"

The girl, her body trembling slightly, could only look at Gao Hai and ask in a low voice.