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

Gao Hai knew that complete darkness was not far away.

"According to the layout of the house, this window should actually lead to the corridor of 205."

After much deliberation, Gao Hai decided to say something before the time came when he could no longer speak, hoping to improve their relationship in some way.

"You mentioned the distortion of space; you said that the third floor has become an infinitely large, chaotic space."

Kaguya spoke in a cool voice, standing quite a distance away from Takahashi.

“That’s right. Besides that, there’s something else that I’m concerned about,” Gao Hai hesitated for a moment before continuing, “Shijo Maki, Sun Dajun, and Green each have a corpse in their room. All three of them have their own rooms, which forms a common pattern that can be followed.”

"However, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, in our room, there are two people in one room, which is unprecedented."

"In addition, the situation in 205 is also very strange. There are two corpses and the kitchen door is sealed. These are all abnormal situations. Also, I think there should be something abnormal about Lao Guo's room 210. He once warned me about the danger of the corpses, but if he is the owner of room 210, the corpses inside should not have attacked him during the day."

"Strange tales about rules must ultimately be followed. Even exceptions should have corresponding reasons and logic. But I still can't figure out what the reasons are for the exceptions of 204, 205 and 210."

"Do you have any thoughts, Miss Shinomiya?"

As Gao Hai finished speaking, the light outside the window vanished completely.

"Who knows? Even I can't draw conclusions without enough information. Besides, I'm more curious about something else than this unanswerable question. I'll ask you about that tomorrow."

Kaguya's voice rang out in the darkness, then fell silent.

Silence spread through the unrelated room.

Gao Hai sat down against the wall, quietly waiting for the night to end.

silent.

A dark and silent place.

Gao Hai suddenly remembered a story he had heard before: two people made a bet that one of them would live in a haunted house for three days, and if he emerged unscathed, he would receive a large reward. So this person moved into the haunted house. Of course, there was no real haunted house; it was just the other person playing tricks on the occupants. On the first day, the person hiding inside made all sorts of eerie noises, but failed to frighten the occupants. On the second day, the person hiding inside created even more terrifying noises and various supernatural events, but still couldn't do anything to the occupants.

Then, on the third day, the person hiding there did nothing, and nothing unusual happened in the haunted house. As a result, the person who had moved in couldn't stand the silence and escaped the haunted house prematurely, failing to fulfill the bet.

Fear doesn't necessarily require the appearance of a terrifying monster or some eerie noise.

In fact, just sitting in the dark, with limited vision and such silence, is enough to make one's nerves tense and unbearable.

It's really tough.

Gao Hai couldn't fall asleep or maintain a relaxed state of mind.

I wonder what's going on with Kaguya on the other side. Haha, maybe she's been replaced by some weird thing right now and is standing in front of me staring at me.

With his vivid imagination, Gao Hai couldn't help but conjure up that image.

Close your eyes.

Gao Hai leaned against the wall and waited quietly.

Gradually, the urge to let my mind wander seemed to dissipate considerably.

Gradually, it seemed like I could hear something, and see something...

what is it then?

That sound... it rang out so intensely, repeating itself almost every few days...

Gao Hai opened his eyes in a daze.

Let's row our oars!

Is that children singing in the hallway?

Gao Hai slowly stood up, turned his head, and looked at the bed next to him.

He saw Kaguya lying on the bed, sleeping peacefully.

He saw himself lying in bed, watching him.

My head was crushed in the middle, one side of my torso was almost flattened, and my body was covered in red and white stains.

He saw his own eyeball hanging on one side of the shattered skull, and in that eyeball, he saw the reflection of the mangled body standing in the living room.

"So this is ah……"

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Illusions and Realities from the Distant Past

I am in a dream.

In a moment of confusion, Gao Hai inexplicably came to understand this fact.

Everything around him was tinged with a dreamlike, hazy color, and inside the dilapidated 204, he saw Kaguya Shinomiya resting on the bed, and next to her, he saw himself with his head crushed by a truck.

It turned out to be the case.

In a daze, Gao Hai finally understood his identity.

204 doesn't mean there's no corpse; rather, it means someone has taken the place of the corpse—that person is himself.

His identity on the second floor was not that of a resident, but that of a corpse.

Even though he is actually a living person with breathing, a heartbeat, and body temperature, in the apartment's judgment mechanism, he is actually identified as a "corpse in the room".

why?

He wasn't a corpse; he was a living person.

The invisible knocking ghost stories can affect him, the monsters that steal the appearance of living people can identify and track him, the open windows will pollute his mind, and the doll-like children he encountered on the third floor directly soaked him in boiling water and drowned him.

All of this perfectly illustrates the fact that Gao Hai is a completely living, breathing human being.

Of course, his willpower is extraordinary, so he can struggle and resist all but the "child" who is killed off by plot at the end, but this does not conflict with the fact that he is a living human being who can get hurt, starve, and die.

In other words, I've simply changed my "identity"?

Like exploiting a bug, he will be hunted by the supernatural forces just like any other player, constantly needing to be careful and vigilant, and fulfilling his needs when hungry, thirsty, or needing to relieve himself. But besides that, he possesses an identity that normal players don't have, an identity that fits the apartment's rules even better than "player," an identity that is partially recognized by the apartment, and in this instance, his identity is "corpse."

This identity was useless when he directly faced the various threats within the apartment, because he was ultimately a living person and would be easily exposed. However, he did manage to infiltrate the unspoken rules of the apartment, masquerading as one of the identities.

The advantage of this is that if they were to operate at night, he and Kaguya would not be tracked by the corpses. Although the dangers of nighttime still exist, the most troublesome and inescapable problem of being tracked by corpses is something he and Kaguya do not need to worry about.

Although it's not very significant, it is still somewhat useful.

Just, why?

Why was he able to obtain such a status?

Gao Hai slowly squatted down and looked at the mutilated corpse lying on the bed.

He knew the source of the image of the corpse.

That was his imagined image of himself after death in his previous life. Based on the last thing he saw before losing consciousness, he deduced that the truck's tires would run over his head and then half his chest. Considering it was an overloaded heavy truck, Gao Hai felt his image after death wouldn't be pleasant, hence this imagined scene.

And now, in this lucid dream, what he sees is a corpse exactly as he imagined.

Is it because of you?

Gao Hai lowered his head and looked at the watch he was wearing.

This strange thing, of unknown origin, full of secrets and hidden dangers, yet it truly gave him a chance to be reborn.

It connects to a huge city.

A city that has long since died, yet the corpses within it continue to repeat the scenes of their lives; everything is repeating the final moments before its destruction—a shattered city.

Could this be the thing that changed his original player identity, causing him to get stuck in this bug?

If that's the case, does it mean that to complete this game, he must act at night? To find the real truth and the right path to survival, there are some things he must investigate before nightfall to get the correct answers?

And what does this lucid dream I'm having right now mean? Why am I caught in this strange dream at this moment, seeing my disguised identity in this instance? Is this dream my own, or is it the dream of something else?

Gao Hai turned around and looked at the living room door of 204.

The corpse and Kaguya on the bed remained motionless.

He had already reached the doorway.

Reach out and grasp the doorknob.

squeak-

Behind the slowly opening door was a dark corridor.

Gao Hai could see every piece of furniture in the corridor, every floor tile, and every crack in the wall.

At this moment, darkness no longer seemed to obstruct his vision.

So he stepped into the corridor, closed the door, and then walked towards the main entrance, arriving at the security door that Sun Dajun had repaired.

There seemed to be someone's voice outside the door.

Gao Hai took a step closer and pressed his ear against the crack in the door.

[Team 1 reports: All 25 residents on the first floor have been evacuated.]

[Team 2 reports: The 27 residents on the second floor have been basically evacuated. We are now escorting the residents of apartment 204 to leave; this is the last group of residents on the second floor.]

[This is the command post. Where is Team 3? The weather is deteriorating rapidly, and the flood peak is expected to arrive early. What's the situation on your end, Team 3?]

The young man's voice, full of energy, was accompanied by the sound coming from the walkie-talkie.

In the distance, one could almost hear the sound of a radio broadcast outside, accompanied by car horns and the sound of extremely heavy rain.

There's been a problem at 304; this family refuses to open the door and is unwilling to evacuate.

What's going on? What's wrong with that family? The water's flooded almost halfway up the first floor and they still won't leave.

[Sir, something seems off about this family. Requesting permission to break down the door. Also, could the guys from Teams 1 and 2 who haven't left yet come up here...]

Amidst the noise, Gao Hai heard footsteps rushing past in the stairwell outside the door.

This seems to be an echo left from some moment in the past.

When did this happen?

304... What exactly happened there...?

Click——

When I realized it, my fingers were already unconsciously on the doorknob.

The sound of the torrential rain outside had vanished without a trace.