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

Gao Hai glanced at the packaging on the cardboard box, and after realizing he couldn't recognize the brand, he muttered something to himself. Then he moved the box aside and quickly saw a collapsed hole hidden underneath.

As he got closer, he could feel the dampness emanating from the ground.

Underneath the collapsed floor, you could barely make out the structure of what appeared to be a kitchen. It was very dark, and there seemed to be something else on the ground.

Behind them, Maki and Kaguya had already arrived.

Without hesitation, Gao Hai, who was at the very front, took a deep breath and jumped.

call--

A cold wind blew past my ears.

The distance they fell seemed to be slightly longer than expected, and the surrounding light quickly dimmed, followed by a chill that began to spread.

Wow!

The splashing sound was exceptionally clear at that moment.

Gao Hai's feet touched the solid ground.

But before he touched the ground, he felt a cold sensation that seeped into his toes and extended down to his calves.

That's water that's been deposited here.

The water completely submerged the floor, reaching up to half of Gao Hai's calves.

"How's the situation down there? Are you alright?"

Maki's somewhat nervous voice rang out from above. Beside her, Kaguya, holding a wall clock, was ready to turn the clock at any moment.

Unsure of the specifics beneath the cave, the two girls lying near the crevice were extremely cautious. Kaguya even wore earplugs to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened this time.

“I’m fine. There doesn’t seem to be a big problem here, just an area that’s been flooded. One of you go down and guard the kitchen door. I’ll go check the living room and the hallway outside the living room. The water here is cold, so be careful when you go down.”

Gao Hai looked up at the two people above and replied, then slowly walked towards the kitchen door.

Splash—splash—

The cold water that reached his calves rippled with his movements.

The surroundings had become extremely dark. There were no lights, and only a faint light shone through the cracks in the ceiling, which made it difficult to see the dark and gloomy living room outside the half-open kitchen door, as well as something that looked like some kind of altar placed on one side of the living room.

Gao Hai did not see the window.

Although the layout of the house here is similar to that of 206, there are no windows.

The living room floor was also flooded, the sofa and bed were covered in moss, and the cabinet on one side of the room was rotten beyond recognition.

slam-la-

Gao Hai slowly stepped into the living room area.

"Woo..."

After a splash of water behind her, Shijou Maki jumped down, shivering from the cold water, before carefully following.

"This place looks like it was abandoned after a flood."

Zhenfei, who had walked to Gao Hai's side, said in a low voice.

“It looks like that. I’ll go check ahead. You stay here and keep watch. If I don’t come back in 5 minutes, we can prepare for Miss Shinomiya to ring the bell.”

Gao Hai nodded and then set off.

The Empress behind her opened her mouth slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she didn't speak.

She really wanted to know if anything else had happened before the time travel that Gao Hai mentioned, the time before she had no memory of.

When she walked out of 208 and saw Gao Hai without any memory of him, she could clearly feel the complex emotions projected into his eyes.

Even when she and her great-aunt suspected Gao Hai later, he clearly wanted to gain her trust.

He has great faith in himself and trusts himself.

But she knew nothing about him and had no idea why she trusted him so much.

It's really something to worry about... but yes, now is not the time to dwell on this kind of thing.

squeak-

While Maki was trying to calm herself down, Takahashi had already opened the door from the living room to the hallway.

The layout of the corridor outside the door was no different from that of the second floor, but Gao Hai did not see any wall clocks on this floor. Instead, there was a small table by the door with an old, yellowed newspaper on it, which looked like it had been eroded beyond recognition by the humid air.

"I found a newspaper, but I can't read the contents clearly."

Gao Hai whispered to Zhen Fei, who was not far away, and then carefully looked at the extension of the corridor.

It's too dark.

He couldn't see anything in the corridor ahead at all.

The house was basically completely surrounded by darkness, and at this rate, the entire floor was probably like that, in absolute darkness with no light at all, and every room was flooded.

"I understand. I haven't seen anything unusual here. Please be careful."

"It's a little while," said Zhenfei, who was standing guard at the kitchen door.

Gao Hai turned his head and looked towards the living room.

Someone sat on the damp sofa, head bowed as if asleep.

Gao Hai's gaze quickly shifted over, only to see an empty, dilapidated sofa.

slam-la-

He silently began to walk towards the direction of the Empress.

slam-la-

Behind him, something seemed to slowly emerge from the water, like the outline of a person.

Gao Hai turned around again, but saw nothing.

"what happens?"

Not far away, Zhenfei noticed Gao Hai's unusual behavior and immediately asked.

"No... I didn't see anything, but it just felt very uncomfortable. Maybe there are a few shy people here?"

Gao Hai, who had made a not-so-funny joke, quickly returned to the kitchen door.

Using the still-bright light, he picked up the tattered old newspaper and looked at its contents.

The headline in the newspaper was:

[Evacuation Notice for Residents of Older Suburban Apartments Affected by the Major Flood in XX City]

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Hidden Second Rule Table

[Evacuation Notice for Residents of Older Suburban Apartments Affected by the Major Flood in XX City]

[Recently, ■■■■■ (blurred handwriting) Flood control pressure ■extremely high ■■■■■■■■ Announcement related ■■]

[Evacuation of 7 apartment complexes including Qingquan Apartment, Dongshan Apartment, and Shirakawa Apartment in the suburbs ■■■■ Safety of personnel ■■■■■]

[The evacuation of all residents in the area will be organized on [date]. Private return is strictly prohibited.]

[Date]

The damp environment made the text on the newspaper blurry and difficult to read.

Even so, after careful investigation, Gao Hai and Zhen Fei roughly confirmed that this was an evacuation notice during the flood.

Shirakawa Apartments.

This dilapidated apartment, now a place of eeriness, reveals a much older part of its history at this moment.

"This announcement... means that this apartment should exist in at least three different periods. The earliest one is when nothing unusual has happened yet. At that time, the apartment could interact normally with the outside world, and the local government would come here to organize the evacuation of people during disasters such as floods. The second period is a period of anomalies, but relatively stable. It was during this period that the survivor team led by Xu Sheng stabilized, until that man named Sanchez and a group of survivors joined forces to cause sabotage..."

Staring at the stack of damp, old newspapers, Maki spoke softly, her expression grave.

"And the last period is the one we are in now, an extremely dangerous period filled with all sorts of strange and bizarre things."

Gao Hai, who was standing to the side, spoke last, filling in the gaps in what Zhenfei hadn't had time to say.

"Is there any other clue in that newspaper?"

Kaguya, who was sitting next to the hole in the ceiling, then spoke up and asked a question.

“The writing on it is mostly blurred. Gao Hai and I only managed to find some useful information. We’ve already read a lot of the newspaper. If there’s any contamination, we might get infected if we keep reading. Grandma, why don’t you look for it?”

As she said this, Maki threw the stack of old newspapers into the air, and Kaguya above caught them and placed them beside her.

More clues?

Carefully unfold the old newspaper, which was almost stuck together and impossible to turn the pages of.

Because of the dim lighting and the fact that it was difficult to operate while standing in the puddle, Gao Hai and Zhen Fei, who were still downstairs, did not rashly open the newspaper to avoid tearing it. Therefore, one of them read the front of the newspaper and the other read the back.

After a period of silence, Sun Dajun stood up in the living room, seemingly doing something. However, Green, who was keeping watch at the kitchen door, assured her that everything was fine, so Kaguya didn't pay any attention to what Sun Dajun was doing for the time being.

This newspaper... well, it is indeed very damp. The outermost layer is barely usable, but the inner layers are completely stuck together and cannot be read.

Despite being as careful as possible, Kaguya still tore the newspaper, unable to open it smoothly without damaging the pages stuck together.

However, during this process, she quickly noticed that there was actually a small plastic shell wrapped in the middle of the newspaper. After opening the small plastic shell, a white printed paper was revealed inside.

The same printed paper as the rule sheet left by the very first Xu Sheng.

This is specially wrapped up, which is equivalent to unfolding a piece of paper that has been waterproofed.

The first thing Kaguya saw was a line of text at the very top:

[Temporary Survival Rules for the First Floor of Shirakawa Apartment]

A new rule table.

"Green, call Mr. Sun over."

Downstairs, Gao Hai and Zhen Fei had already read the information in the newspaper. For safety reasons, they couldn't be allowed to read any more text in the short term. Although she could read part of it herself, there was a lot of content written on the letter, and it could easily cause problems. After thinking it over, Kaguya decided to let Sun Dajun, who seemed relatively honest, participate in reading the rule sheet.

When Sun Dajun cautiously entered the house, Huiye noticed that the middle-aged man, who was almost fifty years old, had pulled out a small toolbox from somewhere and taken out several small tools such as screwdrivers and pliers, which he then hung on his body.