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

Puzzled, Gao Hai put the black umbrella back into his watch's storage space, then turned to look at Jianzi, who was sitting in front of the toilet stall door.

The other person has been very quiet since just now, probably because they are too tired.

"How was your rest?"

Gao Hai asked.

pat!

The lights in the restroom went out at that moment, and all the light in the entire teaching building disappeared, returning everything to darkness.

"I'm fine, I just wanted to rest for a bit. Shall we continue?"

Jianzi stood up in the dim candlelight, looked at Gao Hai and said with a smile.

"That's good. Let's go. We'll try to go back to the classroom and see what's going on."

Gao Hai nodded slightly, turned around, and walked out of the restroom.

"Yes, I understand, teacher."

Jianzi's voice sounded softly behind Gao Hai, followed by her footsteps, one step after another, gently following behind him.

tread--

Chapter Sixteen: The Last Lucky Dice Roll for the Survivors

It is true that Satomi Ito is still alive.

Even now, he remains mentally alert and alive.

Although this way of surviving was not comfortable for her and brought her a lot of pressure.

"Huh...huh..."

The heaviness in my breathing was uncontrollable.

Her heart was pounding so hard that Rihanna felt like it was going to jump out of her mouth.

Those things were standing right in front of me.

If you just look down, you can see their feet, covered in mottled bloodstains, standing right in front of you, completely surrounding you without leaving a single gap.

They have discovered her presence.

They had blocked all her escape routes.

However, they did not kill her.

These strange creatures did nothing to Iteno Rihana; they simply surrounded her, kept her in place, and then remained motionless.

As for why Ichino Rika can only see the feet of those things now, the reason is simple: she put the trash can on herself.

For a while, after Takami left with Miko, Ichino Rika and her classmates cautiously left the classroom to explore the school building. Soon after, one of the girls opened a classroom door, revealing a group of students covered in blood, their jaws and chests ripped open.

In the chaos, several students died, and the survivors ran to the other side of the corridor. After entering a hall and finding a staircase on one side of the hall, the girls ignored Kono Rika's advice and rushed towards the staircase. Then, something emerged from the staircase and took them all away.

After another arduous escape, the last few surviving girls arrived in the area where the four classes of Grade 8 (Classes 5, 6, 7, and 8) were located.

It was a very strange area, one that made one feel uncomfortable just looking at it. The four classrooms were next to each other, and all the walls of the classrooms were made of glass, and they were one-way transparent. You could only see into the classrooms from the corridor that surrounded the four classrooms, and from inside the classrooms, you could only see a series of mirrors. It was as if the students in these classrooms were monkeys in a zoo for people to watch, and just looking at such a scene made one feel uncomfortable.

How could such a place exist?

At that moment, Itono Rika couldn't help but have this thought.

However, despite their reluctance to enter the classroom, the girls had no choice but to go inside. The reason was simple: their candles were almost burned out, and without Gao Hai's help to take them, they couldn't possibly snatch them from the strange creature. Fortunately, every desk in these classrooms had candles, and there were no strange students in sight, making these classrooms seem like safe houses specifically for resupplying.

Driven by this idea, the group went inside and took some lit candles to connect with their own. Then, one of the girls, out of curiosity, walked to the edge of the classroom wall to see if the glass walls inside could see into the corridor outside. However, when she shone her candle on them, she discovered that the glass walls were mirrors inside the classroom, only reflecting the interior. She then saw that the classroom was actually filled with pale-faced students whose hands and feet had been cut off and placed on chairs, and all the students were turning their heads to stare at her.

In the end, only Rika Ichino managed to escape from that classroom.

There was no way around it; she was the only one who noticed her companion's reckless behavior and ran over to try and stop her, but it was too late. However, because of this action, Itono Rika happened to be the closest to the door and successfully escaped.

When she turned around, she was horrified to find the classroom, which had been empty just moments before, now filled with people. The students whose candles had been removed were now each holding a girl and sawing off their hands and feet. Meanwhile, another student with a saw was walking towards the door, his eyes fixed on her.

Terrified, the girl could only flee in a panic, only to find herself back in the corridor where the classroom she had initially left was located. She then discovered that strange students were closing in from all directions. In her despair, the bell suddenly rang, and after the lights came on, all the students vanished. Realizing she had to return to her original classroom, Rika Ichino hurried back and sat down to read.

At this point, none of the girls sitting around Rihana Ichino were still alive.

She read her books among her dead classmates, her voices flat and monotone, and the fear in her heart grew stronger with each reading.

Soon, when the bell rang again and the lights went out, the students who had been running for their lives with her just a little over an hour ago, and who had been chatting and laughing with her, all stood up and turned their gazes toward the only living person left in the classroom.

She ran toward the classroom door, but the two girls who had merged together, resembling fleshy monsters, were already blocking the way.

She ran towards the back door of the classroom, but was blocked there by a headless girl as well.

More and more monsters gathered there.

Figures began to move outside the window, and people from other classrooms started to come over.

In the end, in despair, Kono Rika could only run to the corner of the classroom. However, she tripped and fell to the ground because she was moving too fast. She bumped into the large trash can that was more than a meter tall at the back of the classroom and was hit by the falling trash can.

Her former classmates have blocked all her escape routes.

With no other options, Rika Iteno shrank into a trash can in despair, trying to use it as a last stand.

Strangely, after the students gathered around, they actually stopped and stood motionless around her.

To be honest, Rika Ito had no idea why they had stopped moving. But recalling what she had done, the girl quickly realized that it was probably her act of putting the trash can over herself that had stopped these things from going any further.

In that case, could we try using this trash can to move it?

Thinking this, Rika Ichino tried to move her body, but found that the trash can had become incredibly heavy. At most, she could only lift it slightly to make sure that air could come in so she wouldn't suffocate. She couldn't do anything else.

As a result, she was trapped here.

Even after the bell rang and the lights came on again, and the students returned to their seats, Rikka Ichino was still unable to move, completely trapped in the trash can.

As a result, she stayed in that stinking garbage can for several tens of minutes, surrounded by scraps of paper, fruit peels, and toilet paper, until darkness fell again and the things surrounded her once more. She still couldn't find a way out.

So she finally chose to give up and obediently stayed where she was, waiting for a glimmer of hope to arrive.

tread--

As it turns out, it seems that hope has finally arrived.

"All students, yes, I'm talking to you, no one is allowed to stay in the classroom. Go out and stretch your legs in the corridor."

Gao Hai's voice rang out in the darkness.

The students who had been surrounding Rihanna slowly backed away, actually obeying Takami's order and walking out of the classroom.

Are you saved?

Rika Ichino, who was on the verge of despair once again, took a deep breath and almost burst into tears on the spot.

"Hiding in a trash can, how come you won't get attacked?"

Gao Hai's voice rang out with a hint of surprise.

Perhaps it's some kind of unwritten rule among students.

Miko Yotsuya's voice also rang out. Although she didn't know why, she felt that Miko's voice had changed slightly from what she remembered. But now that she could hear her voice again, Rika Itono felt really good.

Just as the girl finally breathed a sigh of relief, the two people who were gradually approaching continued their conversation.

"Unwritten rules? What does that mean?"

[This is just speculation, but perhaps locking herself in the trash can means she's admitted to being useless trash, a hopeless bad student. Therefore, other students no longer need to compete with her, no longer see her as a competitor, and thus she's safe.]

"It sounds really strange, but if a student really gives up on themselves and becomes a bad student, shouldn't they be killed instead?"

While this is the proper course of action, and other students could indeed handle the situation according to student rules, the school's strict hierarchical system means that deciding the fate of a "bad" student likely requires the intervention of high-achieving or good students. Lower-ranking students dare not overstep their authority; doing so might be seen as a violation of hierarchical order by higher-ranking students, leading to retaliation. Therefore, the student locked in the trash can actually gain a degree of safety in this situation.

"Is that so? This kind of thing is really hard to understand. But I didn't realize you had such good thinking skills. You're quite clever."

Hey, thanks for the compliment, teacher!

As they spoke, the two of them arrived in front of Ichino Rika.

Through the gap in the trash can, Itono Rihana could see three pairs of feet standing in front of her.

One pair was noticeably older, clearly Takahashi. The other pair was much smaller, probably Miko. The last pair was practically standing right behind Miko, on tiptoe... wait? Weren't there only two voices just now? When did a third person appear?

Rika Ito's eyes widened slightly, and she opened her mouth as if to say something, still confused.

But before that, she heard a sound first—a barely perceptible chuckle, and the voice of a very pleasant girl.

[The student is a wildflower, already a bad kid, let's stick to the old rules.]

Then, someone blew a breath into the trash can, which landed on the candle that Itono Rika had placed next to her.

The faint candlelight went out the next moment.

Chapter Seventeen: The First Encounter with a Being Named Alice

Everything happened in less than two seconds.

Rihanna only had time to let out a desperate scream before she and the trash can were thrown into the air and flung away by Takahashi, rolling to the side of the classroom.

A bone-chilling cold followed immediately. Even though it was dark and Rika Itono couldn't see anything yet, the intense premonition of death told her that the "bad wolf" hiding in the darkness had appeared and was moving towards her to take her life.

Am I going to die?

In mid-air, the girl's eyes widened, and she saw only the man wearing a strange sheep's head who looked extremely terrifying, and Yotsuya Miko with an innocent face, smiling at her.

Is she smiling at me?

At this moment, Itono Rika was slightly dazed.

Boom!

A blood-red light emanated from the ram's head's eyes.

Amidst the deafening explosion, the goat-headed man stomped his foot on the ground, causing the entire classroom floor to collapse.

Amidst the roar, large shards of gravel flew up along with the classroom desks and chairs before falling back down.

In the dim candlelight, Gao Hai could already see the shadow of the huge wolf moving among the rubble, and he could see that thing approaching the direction of Itono Rika.

I can only see the shadow, but I can see the shape of that thing. So, could it be that this thing is just "invisible"? Although it has no specific shape, it can actually be touched and even restricted or harmed?

Gao Hai took a step forward.