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

After passing through the 10th floor and arriving at the 11th floor, nothing unusual happened during the process.

Despite the eerie atmosphere throughout Fujika Middle School, the "outstanding students" who serve as key sacrifices generally do not become eerie. In this instance, they exist merely as complete corpses. Therefore, Gao Hai and his companions do not encounter any obstacles in the area where the outstanding students live.

Of course, it's not entirely without its problems. For example, this thing lying on the ground is quite an eyesore, even if you can go around it.

"these are……"

Jianzi's face turned slightly pale. After seeing the inconspicuous thing lying on the ground, the girl was still somewhat shocked.

"This must be the 'Pencil Brother' from the rules, right? So that's what it means?"

Gao Hai did not approach rashly, but observed the thing on the ground from a distance.

The thing was barely moving, but it seemed to be barely breathing. It had no hands or feet, and was a bloody mess, yet it didn't seem to smell of blood. What was certain was that this thing had indeed been a person, and... it really had been used as a pencil.

"Never touch it. If you touch it, your limbs will fall off. The curse on this thing will harm anyone who comes into contact with it, forcing them to suffer what it once went through."

Xiong Mi, standing to the side, gave a serious warning to the two people walking behind her, while she herself headed towards the area further ahead.

Alice has not appeared yet.

Gao Hai could sense that the rescue team member on floor 0 hadn't been eliminated yet, so it seemed he had successfully stalled the movements of those strange creatures. Of course, this was only for now, and only for the three incorporeal Alices. Gao Hai hadn't forgotten that the fourth one was very likely the embodiment of obsession, [Alice], who hadn't shown herself yet.

As for the thing that chased them up from floor 0, Xiong Mi discovered through his own blessing power that it wasn't moving very fast; it was more like it was taking a stroll than chasing them. Of course, even so, the three of them couldn't slow down too much, since no one knew the thing's killing mechanism or rules of action. Who knew if it would suddenly teleport and rush in after getting close enough?

"Cheer up, everyone. We're almost at the top floor. Now we only have the 12th floor left."

As the group reached the staircase from the 11th to the 12th floor, Xiong Mi's expression became increasingly serious as they drew closer to their destination.

"I'm fine. Jianzi, did you see or feel anything?"

Gao Hai quickly responded, while keeping an eye on the black-haired girl who had been cautiously following him.

"I'm fine, it's very quiet here. I could only vaguely hear some sounds coming from far away."

Seeing that Zi was answering quickly, she was still very nervous, but because she was back in her original clothes, she felt a little more at ease.

Incidentally, because they had been in the bath, both Takami and Miko's clothes were soaked. Miko's school uniform, after being soaked,... well, it was slightly revealing the color of her underwear underneath. How should I put it? Takami actually felt it was even more revealing than if she had taken her clothes off.

After passing the several pencils lying on the floor in the 11th-floor corridor, cross the stairs to reach the 12th floor.

As the top floor of the dormitory building, the scene here is completely different from that below. It is filled with a pungent smell of blood. There are black and red marks everywhere on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, as if the entire floor has been stained with blood.

In the very middle of the corridor on this floor, a tall, blood-red stone pillar stands, almost completely obscuring the entire corridor, leaving only a small section that can only be traversed horizontally.

"It looks like we've found the creative area of ​​those outstanding students."

Xiong Mi compared the width of the bloodstains with her eyes and quickly confirmed that these marks were drawn with the pencil downstairs.

"Here are some inspiration notes, Miss Kumagami. Is that thing still far away from us? If it is, I'll investigate here for a while and see if I can find any useful information. Uh... Yotsuya, maybe you shouldn't look at it?"

Gao Hai found a small room with an open door, where a table was piled high with various documents and notes. After discussing it briefly with Xiong Mi, he went over to investigate. Unsurprisingly, the contents were mostly the kind of outrageous stuff that shouldn't be shown to children. As Gao Hai flipped through this stuff that could make an ordinary person lose their mind, Jianzi joined in, seemingly intending to help.

"No, it's okay."

The girl shook her head slightly, her face still pale, but her attitude was very firm.

“I also want to help in any way I can, instead of always being protected, so let me see what happens.”

As she said this, Miko took a deep breath and reached out to pick up one of the record sheets.

What she received was the creation record of a stone sculpture, which depicted a brother and sister, and the way the sculpture was filled was...

After reading less than two paragraphs, I felt like vomiting just looking at the screen.

“You’ve helped us a lot of times already. Honestly, you don’t need to force yourself to look at this kind of garbage. Besides, I’m looking at these things to find out if there’s any valuable information. Don’t just focus on those strange records about the riverbank.”

Seeing that the girl was already fed up but was still persisting, Gao Hai couldn't help but remind her again, and then quickly flipped through the record sheets on the table.

He planned to look for any information about the "0th floor" here. That strange floor gave him a bad feeling, and he could vaguely sense that the "students" should know about that floor, so there should be relevant records in Fujika Middle School.

Seeing that Gao Hai was investigating, Xiong Mi searched the other unlocked rooms. From one of them, she found a three-meter-long, blood-stained iron chain, which she wrapped around her wrist as a makeshift brace. Next, she found some rope and tied it to the corridor, blocking the stairs they had come up with. She dripped her own blood onto the rope, creating a makeshift security measure.

And it was at this moment that Gao Hai found what he was looking for.

[Random Thoughts: ■Year■Month■Day]

The school leaders from Yeluoshan Middle School came to visit today, and they insisted that we, the students of Class 1, go to greet them. How ridiculous! Couldn't they let students from other classes go?

My inspiration was interrupted, it's so frustrating! The graduation projects from Class 1 of the other two grades are probably almost finished. What if they beat me to it? No way, I can't let them be the first to enter this "new world." I'm the best, I won't lose to anyone!

I need to find a way to further improve my work; there must be something I've overlooked.

Speaking of which, it seems like this afternoon, those "raw materials" started spreading rumors that there's a non-existent floor in the dormitory building? It's really absurd. How come those trashy people who don't even know how long they'll live have time to care about such pointless rumors?

Could it be that the school and Nightfall Mountain have pulled something...? I hope it doesn't affect my graduation project. We don't have many "raw materials" left, and I don't want to end up competing with other students for them. Sigh, I should have been more careful with what I used.

This is a notebook, and as the name suggests, it is clearly a diary entry left by a student in Class 1 at the time.

Yeluoshan Middle School... This school's name has appeared again.

Sure enough, he felt that the "non-existent 0th floor" had a strong urban legend feel to it, and was quite similar to the research project at Yelu Mountain Middle School.

Hayate Elementary School, Fujika Junior High School, and Yoruyama Junior High School—it seems these three schools aren't just competitors; they're also collaborating. Yoruyama Junior High's research projects are even being showcased to some extent at Fujika Junior High. Could this be related to the reason the strange entity possessing Kita Ikuyo could wander into Fujika Junior High? The connection between the three schools is closer than I expected. I wonder if the strangeness in the Hayate Elementary School area is also manifesting to some extent here…

"So, did you find what you were looking for?"

Xiong Mi, who had removed the room door, noticed early on that Gao Hai stopped after picking up a document. After waiting a moment, she asked him a question, while slightly bending her knees, ready to kick Gao Hai on the head if things went wrong.

Investigating clues and gathering intelligence in Red Moon-level dungeons is an extremely dangerous activity. One wrong move could lead to contamination and a complete reversal of events. Therefore, knowing how to quickly bring intelligence gatherers back to their senses is essential knowledge for every Red Moon-level player. Xiong Mi has almost run out of items that trigger her obsession, so all she can use is the most basic "physical wake-up method." Xiong Mi is very proud of her control over the force used in this method; she can precisely control the intensity to wake someone up rather than knock them unconscious or kill them.

However, this time, the situation she encountered was obviously different. Although reading those information did bring Gao Hai a considerable mental burden, after reading the contents of the paper, Gao Hai himself did not show any abnormal reaction. Moreover, he was very cautious and did not read the last line of the note, "[I, as an excellent student, order you who are reading this text to gouge out your own eyes]". He even had time to share the mental erosion with Jianzi, who was also reading the materials next to him. When the girl accidentally read the dangerous notes, he reached out to cover the girl's eyes.

This guy's mental strength... Is he really not some top-tier player pretending to be weak while actually being strong?

Xiong Mi, watching Gao Hai's nonchalant demeanor, couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

"The connection between Teng Hua Middle School and Ye Luo Shan Middle School is probably quite close. The zero floor that appeared in this dormitory building was actually a project researched by Ye Luo Shan Middle School. The reason why that strange floor has the rules of 'breaking the wall or taking the wrong path will lead to it' and 'living people who enter will be locked by the strange thing inside, and will almost certainly die once they come into contact with it' is because that floor was deliberately constructed in this way when it was first formed."

As Gao Hai spoke, he picked out the most dangerous note among the scattered documents on the table. Even just holding it without looking at it, one could feel the overwhelming malice emanating from it. He couldn't help but marvel at the girl's luck, and at the same time, he pulled her out of the room.

Xiong Mi's expression suddenly changed at that moment.

"That thing is here. It just passed through the trap I set with blood and rope. It should hold out for a while. Hurry, to room 1207!"

As Xiong Mi spoke, she rushed to Gao Hai and placed the dormitory door she had taken down on the wall.

"trap?"

Gao Hai paused for a moment, but his hands moved quickly, and he immediately took out the blood key and inserted it into the lock of the door that Xiong Mi had moved over.

"Players who clear the Red Moon-level dungeon, regardless of whether they receive the Red Moon-level buff, will undergo a physical change, making them more attractive to the supernatural. Therefore, combining a suitable amount of blood with items possessing supernatural properties can create traps to attract these creatures. It's like we become more delicious, making them want to kill and eat us. However, these traps shouldn't be used too often, because the supernatural power might have a special effect on us through the blood. Okay, the door's open, holy crap—"

While Xiong Mi was explaining, Gao Hai had already successfully opened the door. But the opposite side of the door wasn't the expected location; instead, it was the interior of a dormitory, where seven or eight strange students, their clothes disheveled, were huddled together and turned to look at them.

"Don't worry about it, you can continue."

bump!

Gao Hai slammed the door shut, pulled out the key, inserted it again, and opened the door.

This time, a stairwell appeared behind the door, and Gao Hai could hear the sound of a door opening in the corridor.

It seems that Xiong Mi dismantled two doors while he and Jianzi were investigating the information. She placed one door in front of the stairs leading to the rooftop on the 12th floor, and kept the other door in her hand in case she was unable to escape in time in case of an accident.

Wow, that's really reliable. Damn, why didn't I encounter such a super reliable senior in the first and second rounds of tasks?

Without uttering a single unnecessary word, the three of them passed through the door and ran straight up the stairs.

The footsteps of the thing that had come up from the 0th floor echoed "tap-tap," slow yet catching up at an extremely fast speed.

But even faster than that thing were Gao Hai and Xiong Mi, who crossed the stairs in less than two seconds and arrived at the rooftop entrance on the spot, and Jian Zi, who was being pulled by the two of them and flew in the air like a kite for a second.

The rooftop door is locked, but in addition to the key, it can also be opened with an access card.

drip-

He took out his magnetic card and slapped it on the sensor area. With a piercing beep, the door slowly opened, revealing the concrete floor outside and a corner of the red moon in the sky.

Gao Hai stepped onto the rooftop first, followed by Jian Zi, whom he was protecting, and finally Xiong Mi, who closed the door and pierced the heavy iron door with his finger, directly damaging the internal structure and rendering the door unusable.

Chapter 54: The Broken Mystery on the Rooftop and Alice's Appearance

Rooftop.

It didn't seem much different from a normal school rooftop, except that it was covered in a layer of dust.

If you disregard the blood-red moon in the sky, there might not be any problem. But from the moment he entered this place, Gao Hai felt a strong, chilling unease, as if he were being watched by something. Clearly, this rooftop was not as wonderful as it seemed.

"Be careful."

As he spoke, Gao Hai cautiously looked around, but saw nothing unusual.

Wasn't there supposed to be a "Cat Uncle" on this floor? I can't find him anywhere.

The feeling of being watched had become even stronger than before, but there was nothing unusual in sight. It was empty except for a signal tower and the roof of the power distribution room, which was completely bare. Nothing could be found.

"The thing that came out of the 0th floor has stopped... We have indeed entered some kind of strange territory, and it's the kind of strange territory that rejects other creatures of the same kind. As for why that thing hasn't shown itself yet, it's probably because the conditions for it to show itself haven't been met."

Xiong Mi faced the entrance to the rooftop. She stood there for a while, sensing the eerie and terrifying aura of the zero floor behind the door. After a short while, she finally spoke.

"I really don't know if this is good news or bad news..."

As he said this, Takahashi shook his head and looked at Yotsuya Miko beside him, only to find that the girl was frowning and listening to something.

"It sounds like... a cat is meowing, and it's meowing from far away."

Seeing that Zi was somewhat uncertain, he spoke up.

Is the cat meowing?

Gao Hai guessed that what Jianzi heard was the "Uncle Cat" mentioned in the rules, but he didn't expect that "Uncle Cat" was not the kind of eerie creature that would appear immediately, but instead played hide-and-seek with them after they came in.

By the way, the rule states that the rooftop is **no entry**, and Uncle Cat dislikes **those who break the rules**, and **making him angry** is a bad thing. You can try **bribing him with dried fish**. The rule mentions four situations in total. Analyzing the text, you can understand the meaning coherently: those who enter the prohibited rooftop will anger Uncle Cat. However… you can also assume that these four points are actually unrelated.

The rooftop is off-limits, the rule-breaker is disliked by Uncle Cat, is the "he" in "he angered by Uncle Cat" Uncle or the rule-breaker, not to mention whether the result of bribing with dried fish is good or bad, all of these are potential plot points.

"Seeing my son, calm down and carefully sense what's happening. I'm here, you'll be fine."

Gao Hai's calm voice reached the girl's ears, causing Jianzi's tense emotions to calm down slightly at that moment.

She turned her head, looked at Gao Hai seriously, and said, "I will try my best." Then she closed her eyes and earnestly used her perception.

This peculiar talent, which she had always loathed since she possessed it, was now being actively used by Miko to help her perceive this gloomy and empty rooftop.

Meow~