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

A gunshot rang out in an instant.

A rescue team member rushed out to shield Jianzi, but was shot and his body exploded, vanishing instantly.

Even though the gun wasn't pointed directly at Jianzi, after the man pulled the trigger, the bullet seemed to fly out of nowhere and head straight for her head. If Gao Hai hadn't sacrificed himself in time to save rescue team member Lao Guo, she might have been killed instantly.

"It's useless to stop him from aiming. Once he fires, even if you block the muzzle, the bullet will still fly out!"

Gao Hai shouted a warning as he scrambled to his feet. The wound that had almost torn him in half was now mostly healed. It has to be said, the rescue team badge was incredibly useful; unless the injury was fatal on the spot, it could usually heal Gao Hai in no time. But Gao Hai had no time for sentimentality now; he rushed straight towards Hirano Sousuke's location at top speed.

His target was the pistol the man was holding. Gao Hai was absolutely certain that this pistol belonged to Hirano Sousuke, the core artifact of Fujika Middle School's instance. If he could capture this thing and put it into his watch space, even if the instance core wouldn't disappear or be suppressed simply because it lost its artifact, he could at least take something from the other party and add a genuine Red Moon-level artifact to the player's team.

However, it can only be said that the idea was indeed very nice. But in practice, before Gao Hai could even get close to the other party, the man had already easily stood up in a posture that completely ignored gravity, and with a flick of his arm, he flung Xiong Mi away on the spot. Xiong Mi flew dozens of meters away and rolled on the seats below, causing a large number of seats to fly up.

Then, the man turned to look at Gao Hai with a blank expression and raised his pistol.

boom!

After the gunshot rang out, the second rescue team member staggered and fell to the ground, seemingly unable to get up for the time being.

Gao Hai himself did not see the trajectory of the bullet at all.

Even with Hidal's blessing and his visual abilities enhanced to the limit, he still couldn't see the trajectory of the bullet.

If a second rescuer hadn't been called in, Gao Hai probably wouldn't have known which direction the bullet came from until his death.

In other words, no matter what a selected target does, it is impossible for him to dodge a bullet?

After a brief moment of shock, Gao Hai suddenly accelerated, trying to take advantage of the gap in the other party's shooting to get closer to them, but then he heard a second "bang".

No, he didn't pull the trigger at all.

A girl's figure suddenly swept past him and then fell to the ground.

Gao Hai only had time to hear Maki say "Be very careful" in the mental link before he saw "Goto No. 1" lying on the ground, half of his chest and most of his abdomen blown apart.

From the moment this man appeared until now, it has all happened in less than a few seconds.

boom!

The third shot rang out almost immediately after the second.

The man's finger holding the gun didn't even move.

This time, Xiong Mi rushed back in time, and with blood still trickling from the corner of her mouth, she grabbed Gao Hai's arm and dragged him to the side.

"Don't be hostile. Don't try to attack or take anything from it. Any hostility will provoke it to attack!"

Xiong Mi, who didn't look to be in good condition, shouted loudly.

She clearly sensed something through her blessing, and Gao Hai, upon hearing this, also realized something and carefully sensed it with his own blessing. He discovered that this [Hirano Sosuke] had almost no malice; it seemed to be simply acting as an automatic defense against the malice of others.

He raised his pistol, aiming it at Gao Hai and Xiong Mi.

After a brief pause, the man lowered his gun, ignored Gao Hai and Xiong Mi, and ceased his attack.

Once the player stops having any aggressive thoughts, the core of this instance completely ignores them; it can only be said that it is a very unique and special obsession.

The problem is that the death rules triggered by Miko are clearly different from those of Takami and the others. Therefore, after pausing for a moment, the man once again pointed his pistol at Miko Yotsuya, who was sitting on the ground and was completely dumbfounded because everything had happened so fast in just a few seconds and she had no idea what to do.

Oh no, we probably can't save them at this distance...

Gao Hai had already stood up and rushed out with the blessing, but he already had a bad feeling in his heart.

Xiong Mi didn't follow immediately because she sensed something else. Turning her head, she saw caregivers and patients emerging from around the stage and from the edge of the seating area. Her pupils constricted as she realized that the most dangerous moment had arrived.

The strange creatures that had been gathered throughout the hospital had probably all come together by now.

This core obsession had already rendered the group powerless in just a few seconds. With these things added on... should we try overloading this place and causing our eyes to lose control?

In that instant, Xiong Mi began to consider the worst-case scenario.

The man's finger was already lightly on the trigger, about to press it.

"I...I'm not Alice!"

But then, Miko, who had finally come to her senses, shouted first, mustering the courage to speak out prematurely amidst the terror of being shrouded in death.

The man stopped what he was doing.

"I am not Alice! I... I am someone Alice hurt, I am a victim! We are all victims! Everyone here is a victim of Alice! Please protect us, please protect all of us! Officer, only you can help us, only you can protect us!"

The girl screamed desperately at that moment, until her voice became hoarse.

The strange creatures were getting closer and closer. The managers who had been torn apart earlier had been restored and reappeared among the security guards and caregivers, as well as the doctors, the patients who had been completely transformed, including Jianzi's classmates, and the dean with a ferocious expression who was walking at the very front of these things.

The man, who had been aiming the gun at Jianzi, slowly lowered it.

At that moment, the girl saw many scenes.

At this moment, Gao Hai also saw the same scene, a scene from that man's experience that had happened many years ago.

It's okay, leave it to me. Even if I'm all alone, I will help you and protect you.

If she really is Alice, if she really is Alice from Fujika Middle School... perhaps for me, this was always part of fate.

Teacher, you saved my life back then, and now you choose to avoid everything. So let me do it. Anyway, my life should have ended many years ago, so this time, I'll stand up for those who are powerless to protect themselves.

Standing before that man were those who had lost their families, loved ones, and important people, yet suffered even more harm because of the societal craze for Alice, and were unable to obtain justice.

They were already covered in wounds, but no matter who they turned to for help, all they received was hatred, ridicule, and even more devastating harm.

This kind of thing shouldn't have happened.

So the man's voice was soft, yet incredibly firm.

I put on the police uniform that I've worn for over twenty years.

Also bring a handgun, one that I have always carefully maintained and is in very good condition.

Then, he walked alone into the noisy and bustling concert.

He embarked on that solitary journey that seemed to be his destiny.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang——

All the caregivers, security guards, and patients, as well as all the strange creatures that attacked at that moment, were instantly shattered and exploded on the spot.

The man, dressed in a dirty, torn police uniform, put his pistol back in its holster, turned around expressionlessly, and walked away without even glancing at Gao Hai and the others. His body disappeared through the wall behind the stage.

It wasn't until this moment that Yotsuya Miko began to gasp for breath, belatedly realizing the intense sense of detachment, to the point that she collapsed completely into Takami's arms, unable to move an inch.

"Are we safe?"

The girl asked with a blank expression, seemingly a little bewildered.

"It's safe now, it's safe for the time being. You did a great job, very well."

Gao Hai simply chuckled as he helped the girl up, then gave her a thumbs-up in encouragement.

Chapter 80: The Stage That Has Subsided and the Road Ahead

The stage has calmed down; all the restlessness and frantic noises have subsided.

The murmuring things have turned into fragmented pieces of flesh, and the madly howling monsters are now just wriggling, slowly gathering fragments.

For at least a few hours, nothing that could threaten Gao Hai and the others will appear inside the hospital.

The stage itself, which had previously been restricted from leaving, was now unblocked, allowing free access and movement to the edges of the stage. However, to be more precise, the restrictions on the stage completely disappeared the moment Miko's sensory abilities detected [Hirano Sousuke], causing the core obsession to manifest. After all, Xiongmi had recently been thrown off the stage and landed on a chair, and the injuries on her face hadn't fully healed yet.

Is the change on stage caused by the fact that the source of this limiting power points to Alice, and that Hirano Sosuke's existence is able to completely overwhelm Alice?

Gao Hai made this guess in his heart.

Regardless, this adventure has at least brought more in-depth information, making it entirely worthwhile in terms of outcome.

[Hirano Sosuke, the core obsession of this instance, is a survivor of Fujika Junior High School. When Alice destroyed the school, there were survivors. Based on the clues we have gathered so far, we can confirm at least two survivors: one a teacher and the other a student. The teacher was executed by the school for trying to protect the student, but Alice had already lost control before the execution. Perhaps it was under these circumstances that the teacher managed to protect the student and escape successfully.]

Amidst the broken seats below the stage, Gao Hai moved forward while exchanging information with others via telepathic links.

So, were the two people who offered flowers and red candles the same Mr. Hirano and his teacher?

Jianzi's voice rang out in the mental link, her tone sounding somewhat cautious.

[It's possible. And as a survivor of the destruction of Fujika Middle School, I highly suspect that Hirano Sosuke, like Alice, also possesses some special characteristics. Otherwise, it would be a bit too far-fetched for him to single-handedly storm a concert and then chase down a fanatical fan right in front of Alice.]

Gao Hai confirmed Jianzi's guess and then made more guesses.

[The hallucination that Yotsuya just saw—the scene of Hirano Sosuke being burned to death and then reappearing out of nowhere to kill everyone—should be the final moment in the formation of this instance, the moment when Fujika Middle School completely became the instance world and separated from the real world. He became a monster with intense resentment and obsession, then destroyed everything, bringing it into the instance world to create a new realm. However, even so, there are still some inconsistencies. The four fragments of Alice's obsession are completely unexplained here, and according to the information Yotsuya obtained, Hirano Sosuke was completely unaware of Alice, this superstar who swept across Japan, until the victims sought his help?]

While speaking in the mental link, Xiong Mi helped "Goto No. 1," who was still lying on the stage, to his feet.

Although the girl who looked exactly like Goto Ichiri had her chest and abdomen completely pierced, she was not dead. Or rather, as a controllable "shell" created by an obsession, this thing inherently possessed the characteristics of a strange creature and could not be easily killed. Therefore, her injuries had actually healed almost completely. It was just that because her spine had not yet fully healed, she could only lie limply.

Speaking of which, when that Graves guy made his move, Pochi could have tried using that identity-swapping blessing. Was it because he didn't react in time, or did that Graves guy have something special that could break her blessing?

pat-

Thinking this, Gao Hai saw that when "Goto No. 1" was helped up by Xiong Mi, a piece of stone fragment fell from her hand. Judging from the shape of the fragments, it seemed to have been blown up by a bullet. As a result, the girl's palm was also covered with cuts from the broken stone, but the penetrating wounds in her chest and abdomen were too conspicuous to be noticed before.

That stone… it must have been used to transfer someone's identity, but recalling the battle just now, none of the targets Hirano Sosuke aimed at were successfully redirected. So it's very likely that this core obsession, once it targets a target, will target both the person currently holding that identity and the person who previously held that identity. Therefore, even if the identity was transferred using a blessing, it wouldn't work, because once this guy has identified a target, he'll attack regardless of whether that target's identity has changed. This bizarre target selection characteristic… it has a kind of insane, "better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free" kind of feel to it. Could it be that Alice trained him to do this?

After placing the "Goto No. 1" that was being repaired on a chair, Xiong Mi walked around.

Despite having just survived a life-or-death crisis, Xiong Mi has once again taken the lead in reconnaissance without hesitation, walking silently while wiping the blood from his face.

“There’s a way out here, and um, there’s also a hidden little room.”

It didn't take Xiong Mi long to find the entrance to the underground stage. The place wasn't too hard to find, as the door itself was ajar, and a faint light could be seen coming from inside as you approached. However, the other hidden room took a little more effort to find. If he hadn't noticed that a certain wall was too smooth, and then discovered upon touching it that it was a hidden piece of glass, and tried to break it, he might not have been able to find this room at all.

Behind that dimly lit door was a staircase leading upwards, which appeared to lead to the hospital or somewhere nearby.

The hidden little room was very well concealed, seemingly designed to provide an undetectable observation point. In this room, Gao Hai and his team found a layout similar to the dean's office and discovered some documents left behind by the dean.

It is worth mentioning that these documents are quite corrupted, but since the source of the corruption is the dean himself and the various strange things in the hospital, Gao Hai and the others will not face much risk even if they read these documents now, at least they will not attract any attacks.

The majority of the documents are observation records, showing that Hiroshi Fujii was conducting continuous research step by step. He recorded many stage performances. As more and more people were brainwashed and became deeply convinced, strange phenomena did occur on stage, gradually resembling the performance of the idol Alice. However, as the experiment continued, Fujii discovered that no matter how many fans he increased, he could only reproduce Alice's performance more accurately, but he could not truly resurrect Alice.

At the end of his observation log, Hiroshi Fujii left the following entry:

This is the final observation experiment. I've already wasted enough time on it, and... I don't have Alice's power. Even though I've used all my connections and made every effort, the number of people trying to investigate this hospital is still increasing.

My time is running out. Those pathetic fools are slowly forgetting Alice, slowly forgetting her existence. Sooner or later, only the people in this hospital will remember her, and then… I…

This can't go on. This information might have been wrong from the start, and I made a mistake in trusting it.

[Continuing to repeat the observations that have been repeated countless times will yield no results, so this time, I'm going to change the content of the experiment; I'm going to carry out an execution.]