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

"Don't cut it—"

Suddenly, Jianzi's shout reached their ears.

Gao Hai and Xiong Mi were both stunned for a moment, then turned their heads and found that the illusion covering the rooftop had dissipated to some extent. Jian Zi, pale-faced, ran out from the chaotic illusions and called out to the two of them anxiously.

"We can't cut that thing. [Uncle Cat] is a monster that formed before Fujika Middle School was destroyed, and that machete isn't very effective against it. Besides, if it's attacked, especially with a lethal attack, it will trigger its mechanism!"

Gao Hai didn't know whether it was Jianzi herself reminding him or Alice deliberately messing with his mindset.

But those fragments of the monster that he had cut apart, which had originally fallen to the ground, did indeed start moving again at this moment, with cat claws and human hands and legs extending out from them, supporting the broken flesh and blood to stand up again.

Meow~

The cat's meow rang out again.

Meow~ Meow~ Meow~

More and more cat meows echoed across the rooftop.

They were little kittens of different colors, completely unaware of what was happening.

Those were young students who were drawn to the kittens, secretly feeding them and imitating their meows.

In the end, all that remained were fragmented corpses, the endless pain lingering before death, and the resentment born from that pain.

The act of "killing them" is like Sanchez in the Shirakawa Apartment trying to destroy Li Zhaodi's body by soaking it in boiling water. It is a further stimulation of the eeriness itself, a dangerous action that makes the situation develop in a more out-of-control direction.

zizi——

The loudspeakers in the dormitory building started making noise at that moment.

[Discipline Office Report! Discipline Office Report! Following a student report, a student has illegally entered the rooftop. All teachers, please proceed immediately! All teachers, proceed immediately to the rooftop to apprehend the offending student!]

One after another, the auras of strange creatures began to gather.

Gao Hai had fallen to his knees once again, one of his ribs shattered and broken, and a large amount of blood flowed from the numerous wounds on his body.

Images of cats and students dying tragically kept replaying in his mind.

Those intense resentments transformed into tangible mental attacks, assaulting him again and again.

"Huh...hiss..."

Struggling, he stood up again.

Gao Hai, who was almost covered in blood, managed to maintain his body's integrity by relying on the power of the rescue team badge and the berserk blessing, preventing himself from being torn apart immediately. He then turned to look in Jianzi's direction.

The shared will between him and the girl remains connected.

Although his attention was diverted for a while during the attack, Gao Hai was no longer sure if the person on the other side was still her, but at least he could still determine her exact location and was not affected by the power of illusion.

If Alice has already possessed her...

No, given the current situation, making any further arrangements targeting Miko herself is pointless. From the moment Alice seized the opportunity to launch her surprise attack, they were already drawn into the other side's rhythm. Trying to control Miko now would only lead them into the next trap.

The entrance to the dormitory's underground level must be inside the dormitory building. Since the other three areas are now sealed off, it's impossible for a strange area within the dormitory building to connect to a sealed-off area while remaining unconnected to the others. The first floor has already been proven impractical, so the next area to test is the rooftop. The fact that Alice attacked at this particular moment is itself a cause for concern. Furthermore, based on Gao Hai's observations from his first two playthroughs, Alice in the underground area likely cannot leave the corresponding area, at least not before completing the possession.

So, is the rooftop itself part of the "underground area"? It's very likely. The area defined by the rooftop and the "underground area" may be completely the same, or even if they aren't, they are basically only separated by a wall.

There must be some kind of entrance somewhere on this rooftop.

There aren't many areas that can be investigated right now; we can only investigate the area around the signal tower, the power distribution room, and the entrance.

Okay, let's head towards the power distribution room first!

"Miss Xiong Mi, can you still hold on?"

Gritting his teeth, Gao Hai ran forward while shouting to Xiong Mi behind him.

"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up!"

Xiong Mi's bronze eyes shone through, shattering the illusion of the road ahead of Gao Hai and revealing its true form.

Without any specific communication, Xiong Mi understood Gao Hai's plan. She knew that he was relying on the blessing of his body to withstand the strange attack and wanted to buy time to find the entrance.

"cough……"

More blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Xiong Mi could feel that the bronze eyeball he possessed was nearing its limit due to continuous use and was about to go out of control.

We can't let this eyeball get out of control here. It's a Red Moon-level obsession. If it gets out of control on the rooftop and summons something strange, this young man and his girlfriend will definitely not survive.

Tread - Tread -

I can sense that at the entrance to the rooftop behind me, behind that closed door, more and more strange creatures are gathering.

Xiong Mi had already broken the lock, but he wasn't entirely sure if those things would be stopped, since you can't judge ghosts by common sense. While those ghosts weren't a major threat, the level 0 ghost still guarding the door was something the team absolutely couldn't face right now.

Since that's the case, let's do it that way.

"Hey, kid."

Gao Hai heard Xiong Mi's voice behind him.

Calm, composed, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as if he had been prepared for this long ago.

"Live well, cherish your life, and never think of ending it all unless you have no other choice. You saved my life, and now I'm returning it to you. Hang in there, that's how people like us are. We get through each time we can, and if we can't, we just go for it, right?"

She spoke quickly, yet her pace was steady, with a candid smile on her lips. Perhaps she had repeated these words to herself many times, or perhaps she had heard others say the same thing to her before.

"I have witnessed it, and now it is your turn to witness it. And I hope there will never be a day when you need anyone to witness it for you."

As he spoke, Gao Hai realized that he was no longer being locked onto by the strange power.

The strange creatures on the rooftop shifted their attention at that moment, focusing all their gazes on Xiong Mi.

This is the power of her blessing.

It was a blessing from an unknown person. Through this blessing, Xiong Mi could sense the strange locations that had locked onto her, reduce her presence so that she wouldn't become the first target of the strange creatures, or... conversely, strengthen her presence so that she would become the priority target of all the strange creatures.

At this moment, all the monsters in the entire dormitory building only focused on Xiong Mi. Even though there were two pieces of cat meat right next to Gao Hai, they completely ignored him.

Then, Xiong Mi suddenly swung his fist and slammed it hard onto the rooftop.

boom!

Amidst a violent explosion, she shattered and collapsed a section of the ground, falling down into the zero-level area.

The fragments of the cat jumped in, and the strange creatures that opened the rooftop door, including the teachers and the thing that had been guarding the door, all jumped down and fell into the hole in the ground.

Apart from the illusion that still lingered over the rooftop, nothing else bothered Gao Hai at this moment.

"Alice, I'm begging you as your friend, please come and save my life immediately!"

The next second, even the hallucination vanished without a trace, and the rooftop returned to its original state.

Through the hole in the ground, Gao Hai clearly heard the screams of several Alices on the 0th floor as Xiong Mi shouted. They were already in a state of chaos because they wanted to retrieve the dolls from the rescue team members, and Xiong Mi's words obviously caused even greater disruption to their rules and mechanisms. Even the Alice on the rooftop was severely affected, to the point that she could no longer maintain her hallucination.

Takahashi saw Yotsuya Miko lying unconscious on the ground.

"..."

Without a word, he picked up the girl and ran quickly. He first rushed into the power distribution room, searched it without finding anything, and then ran to the signal tower. There he found a very hidden sensor slot. After swiping the magnetic card, the ground next to the signal tower sank down, revealing an elevator platform.

hum-

Amidst the jarring noise of the machine, an operating console sprang up from the platform. Its rugged metal structure carried a touch of science fiction, but Gao Hai simply put away the magnetic card with a blank expression, picked up Jianzi, and started walking without making any comments.

He didn't look back at the crack on the rooftop. He walked directly to the platform, activated the control panel, and let the platform carry him down slowly but gradually faster, plummeting into the darkness below.

What he didn't see was the unconscious Miko Yotsuya, whom he was holding in his arms. In the dark elevator shaft, a slight smile suddenly appeared on his lips, then quickly faded, as if such a scene had never happened before.

Chapter 56: Remnants Beneath the Surface and the Point of Arrival

hum-

The heavy metal door slowly opened.

Gao Hai, along with Yotsuya Miko, who had already woken up and was depressed because of Xiong Mi's death, stepped into the underground research institute area of ​​the dormitory building.

In the darkness, a musty smell permeated the air.

Gao Hai held a candle and shone the flame around him.

He saw that the elevator door he had come from was covered with scratches and various signs of knocking and hitting, as if someone had vandalized the door multiple times.

After taking a few steps forward, Gao Hai saw a considerable number of corpses dressed in researcher's uniforms, most of which were shriveled. Upon closer inspection, Gao Hai discovered that these corpses were not simply dehydrated; some appeared to have died from murder, while others seemed more likely to have starved to death.

To give a specific reason, although these corpses were mostly shriveled up, a considerable number of them had serious mutilation, and most of these cuts looked quite neat, like the result of being cut by a sharp instrument. The remaining, less neat wounds had obvious bite marks, and Gao Hai even found human teeth on some of the wounds.

He could roughly guess what had happened here.

Behind her, Yotsuya Miko's face was a little pale. The desiccated corpses on the ground were obviously quite an impact on her, so much so that she was practically walking close to Takami, trying her best to avoid stepping on the corpses with every step.

Judging from the weapons scattered on the ground, such as clubs and daggers, the various postures of the corpses, and the bloodstains on the walls, these people had probably fought each other. Some died on the spot, while others managed to survive for a while by utilizing the scraps. Then, these survivors, probably due to their severe injuries, gradually became unable to move. Some likely died directly from infected wounds, while others barely managed to hold on for a while longer before starving to death.

Unlike the teaching building, the dormitory building didn't seem to have been invaded by Alice. The researchers' deaths were relatively normal, at least there was no strange force involved.

Speaking of which, the way to enter the research institute in the dormitory building was already quite bizarre. You had to take a hidden elevator down from the top floor. Gao Hai always felt that this research institute was probably different from other areas from the beginning. It might have been a high-risk area from the start where you had to abandon all the people inside if something happened.

Thinking this, Gao Hai continued walking along the corridor where the elevator was located, while secretly glancing at Jianzi beside him and the elevator entrance behind him.

Xiong Mi, upon entering Zone 0, had already dragged three Alices, who were active in the dormitory building, into a complete standstill.

The second veteran player's doll was so difficult to use precisely that time that it had to be abandoned for the time being.

Therefore, he was finally able to free up some of his strength and begin making arrangements.

"..."

The two remained silent throughout the journey.

After advancing some distance, Gao Hai discovered a carefully protected diary beneath a particularly badly damaged corpse:

Day 1

The elevator system has been shut down from the inside; we can't get out of here.

What on earth is happening outside? This is the first time I've heard that our research area can only be sealed off and reopened from the outside. Does that mean we could be locked up here forever at any time? What kind of outrageous rule is this?

Day 4

The research team leader was still saying today that we should trust our superiors, but I feel something is clearly wrong. So many days have passed without any news; have we been forgotten here?

I need to hide some of today's rations; I'm afraid we won't have enough food soon.