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

The electrical room itself appeared normal, but it was now completely without power. The wiring showed clear signs of damage, and the circuit boards had several dents. Because the perpetrator was not tall enough, the damage was concentrated on the lower part of the room.

If that were all, it wouldn't explain why this place would be a safe zone in the deep space. However, Gao Hai quickly noticed a small mat made of dried grass in the corner of the power distribution room, a spot perfectly visible from the window where no one could be seen.

Is it like a refuge?

As Gao Hai gazed at the straw mat, he could vaguely see a little girl sitting there, quietly hiding.

The illusion only lasted for a moment before disappearing without a trace. Then, Gao Hai heard footsteps approaching from afar.

"I...I'm fine..."

Hayasaka then gave a quiet reply. She was so frightened by the fact that something was attached to her that her whole body almost stiffened, and she had to sit there and listen to the conversation between the thing and Takahashi for a while. Even though the conversation indicated that the thing was not a ghost but a person, and a player like Takahashi, Hayasaka still felt extremely uncomfortable and couldn't accept that such a thing had happened to her.

Was "Watanabe" observing the situation through my body when we were in the storage room? No, that's not right. Now that I think about it, it's already quite strange that I was able to find that storage room. Does that mean this thing can guide my thoughts and even see my ideas and memories?

Hayasaka felt extremely fearful and disgusted upon realizing this, and then became even more at a loss because he knew that his emotional reactions would be seen through.

Don't be nervous, don't be nervous.

Watanabe's voice rang in Hayasaka's ears at that moment, but Takami did not react at all, obviously he could not hear the voice.

I'm only temporarily using your body as a medium. I don't control your actions, and I won't manipulate you, so don't worry.

Unlike the distinctly seductive voice she used when speaking to Gao Hai, the voice Hayasaka heard now was very gentle, reminding her of her mother. Her tense emotions gradually relaxed and calmed down.

But why do I have this feeling? I feel like I've been a bit... abrupt?

"It's time to go, that thing is catching up. You're in charge of giving directions to the principal's office."

Gao Hai spoke calmly, glancing casually at Hayasaka before reaching out and lifting her up again, wrapping one arm around her waist.

Without anyone noticing, Takahashi had already activated his willpower sharing ability. That's why Hayasaka felt something was wrong when he heard the voice with obvious mental manipulation, and that's why he didn't say anything, believe anything, or get completely controlled by that voice.

Of course, leave it to me, Mr. Gao.

Without needing to say it explicitly, Watanabe naturally realized what Takami had done, so his tone of voice was noticeably lower, and Hayasaka also recovered from his somewhat dazed state.

Thump—thump—

The girl, who was already quite timid, could now hear her own heartbeat becoming increasingly erratic.

She had come to realize that this entity attached to her could control her at any time, and she understood how Gao Hai had stabilized her consciousness earlier. This so-called veteran player, Watanabe, was probably not someone she could get along with. And her body, her consciousness, would likely become the arena for Gao Hai and Watanabe to test and clash with each other.

Is it because I am so weak that I can only play the role of a chess piece or even a chessboard?

The girl, having figured this out, didn't know how to describe her feelings at that moment.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Haven't I been protecting you well all along?"

Gao Hai's voice reached the girl's ears at that moment.

She looked up and saw the man's usual smile.

As a result, the extremely uneasy feelings in her heart involuntarily eased.

"Ah."

Hayasaka nodded slightly, then fell silent.

Gao Hai opened the door of the power distribution room and returned to the rooftop. He then noticed that the blurry figures of the students who had appeared before had reappeared and jumped off the edge of the rooftop once again. This time, he heard a very clear sound of heavy objects hitting the ground.

step-step-

Of course, there was also the B-Uncle group, who were approaching step by step up the stairs. Gao Hai could already see the red marks on the stairwell door leading to the rooftop.

Going down from the other side, the space here is almost infinitely large, with many places to enter and exit the rooftop.

A hand reached out again, pointing Gao Hai in the right direction.

Gao Hai started running on the rooftop and soon discovered that the place really did stretch out infinitely. Even the visible edge of the rooftop seemed to be infinitely far away, and no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't get any closer.

After spending some time, Gao Hai found another stairwell door. He glanced back and noticed that the crimson figures were approaching much slower than before. Upon closer inspection, Gao Hai saw that the butcher was standing still, while Chiyo Hachiya stood beside him, watching the blurry figures jumping off the building.

thump—

Gao Hai heard again the clear sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, the students' exclamations, and the teacher's calm voice instructing the students to get out of the way.

Perhaps, from a very early age, that girl began to feel that those students who jumped off tall buildings were finding relief rather than death?

Opening the stairwell door, Gao Hai, in silence, no longer paid attention to the girl who was still standing still behind him, but instead turned his gaze back to the stairwell and corridor in front of him, which were covered in black stains.

The erosion had already begun again, starting the moment he left the power distribution room. Even though the rescue team badge could help Gao Hai heal his wounds, the school building would inexplicably transform Gao Hai's flesh into black sludge. This transformation bypassed the "injury" process, so the badge could only work temporarily, forcing Gao Hai to endure the pain and continue to accelerate forward.

[Running aimlessly will never get you out of here, but as long as you have a clear goal in mind and a certain concept of where you're going, you can gradually find your direction and reach your destination while moving forward. Of course, the premise is that the place actually exists within the "teaching building," and you must have sufficient knowledge of the target location to minimize the time it takes to find it. Now turn left, Mr. Gao, you can try it here if you'd like.]

Watanabe pointed out the directions while explaining the rules of this place to Takami.

And just as it said, after Gao Hai mentally imagined and silently repeated "I want to go to the principal's office," he did have a vague idea of ​​which direction to go. However, this feeling was so vague that he couldn't determine the actual direction at all. It seemed that he needed to have a clear idea of ​​wanting to go to a specific room that actually existed in the school building of Zaori Elementary School, and to know the name of that room and have some understanding of its internal structure in order to find that place quickly enough; a vague idea simply wouldn't work.

That's why, when Gao Hai was trying to escape the butcher and Chiyo Hachiya, he kept thinking about finding a safe place, but because he couldn't think of a specific room name, he could only run around the infinitely large school building and couldn't actually reach any place.

Turn left, then left again, go straight, turn right, you're almost there, then turn left again, this is it.

Guided by Watanabe's voice, Takahashi quickly found his destination and realized that his vague premonition was also pointing in that direction.

Unlike the metal classroom doors, the principal's office door is a high-end-looking wooden door with some decorative patterns on it.

Gao Hai opened the door and stepped inside, finding that the room, like the break room the police officers had entered in the underground base, had suffered considerable damage. Tables and chairs were overturned, sofas were slashed, cabinets were lying on the floor, fragments of pens and teacups were mixed in, and there were many black stains in the room, with torn books and exam papers scattered everywhere.

However, there was one difference here: on the overturned table in the middle of the room, there were several stained but untorn pieces of paper scattered about. Just as he had expected, they were all unfilled "Notices of Expulsion from Students".

This is it, Mr. Gao. Please hurry.

Behind Hayasaka, who had been put down by Takami, Watanabe's voice sounded somewhat tense.

This room is not a "safe zone," so the flesh of Takami and Hayasaka, who entered here, is still being transformed. Because they've stayed in the unsafe zone for too long, noticeable black and red areas have appeared on both of their bodies, and more and more of their flesh is being transformed into black sludge.

"I know, don't worry, don't worry."

He righted the table that had tipped over, wiped off the stains, and opened each drawer to search for it. He quickly found what he was looking for: the principal's seal.

Snapped!

Stamping on slightly stained paper, as if someone had tightly squeezed it.

Gao Hai picked up a pen from the ground, and after testing it to make sure it could write, he signed his name in the teacher's signature column without hesitation.

Finally, the name needs to be filled in the column "[After deliberation by the school, it has been decided to expel student ____]".

Mr. Gao, why don't you let Ms. Hayasaka fill this out herself?

Watanabe's voice rang in my ears.

"I told you, don't rush."

But Gao Hai simply waved his hand slightly, then decisively wrote his name on the dismissal notice.

Haeiya Chiyo

Chapter 54: The Bullet's Target and the Same Anchor Point

The paper was so light that you could barely feel it in your hand.

Press the pen tip against the paper and then quickly glide it to depict all the colors and shapes.

【Haeya Chiyo】

Gao Hai wrote the name on the "Expulsion Notice" in less than a second.

According to this so-called "Watanabe," as long as players write their names on this thing and get the required signature, they might be able to successfully leave this place. It sounded quite plausible, but unfortunately, Gao Hai wouldn't fall for it. After all, he already knew the other party's true identity and had guessed the potential problems with the signature.

Simply freeing the players is definitely not the outcome these scumbags from Takamagahara want. 【Campus Ghost Stories】, as a top-tier Red Moon-level dungeon, has been explored and conquered by numerous player teams time and again, with some areas even successfully breached and some core artifacts stolen. In this process, it would be incredibly easy for the people of Takamagahara to possess a player. However, judging from Miko's observations, they still cannot escape, proving that they need other conditions to leave this dungeon.

Then, based on this, let's analyze Kita Ikuyo's situation. The people of Takamagahara believe that once this girl escapes the instance, they can break free of their prison, while Kita Ikuyo is currently in a state of being parasitized and assimilated by the monsters. This might mean that the key to these scumbags returning to the real world is to release players who, after being controlled by the monsters' power, did not die but were transformed into a half-dead, half-alive state.

Therefore, using the signature in the principal's office might not result in a successful escape, but rather in being corrupted by the power of the strange entity, or even being directly possessed by it. Since this thing might be capable of such manipulation, I'll just write down the name of the dungeon's final boss and see who's stronger.

Why—why?!

Takahashi could hear the thing attached to Hayasaka making a sharp cry.

But even clearer than that sound was the chilling laughter of a man, the blood seeping from Gao Hai's own signature on the notification slip, and then he felt something seeping out of the slip and reaching for him, while at the same time he felt that thing reach out another hand, reaching for what another name pointed to—

【■■■■■——！ ！ ？ 】

This was the first time Gao Hai had ever heard the monster make such a sharp cry.

The blood-red color almost instantly filled the entire room.

A girl with a blank expression, carrying a machete, appeared in the office.

Gao Hai could see the man lying on the ground, who had wet his pants in fear, huddled in the corner but still desperately trying to back away, looking utterly ridiculous.

A portrait of the man hangs on the wall; the man in the portrait is wearing a military uniform and has a smug smile on his face.

He seemed to be a friend Sato had met in the military, whom he trusted implicitly. Therefore, he was appointed as the school's nominal principal, overseeing every teacher, researcher, student, and test subject.

Those were days that are beautiful to recall even a little. Men have always enjoyed tormenting these naive little ones, and the expulsion notice in his hand was a lifeline that many suffering children longed for.

But naturally, that wasn't a way out. Students who signed the expulsion notice would only go to the processing furnace in the school's underground with their families. And because of the men's interests, most of those who went in were sober.

So the girl, covered in blood, smiled at him and didn't stab him with the knife.

[Headmaster, why don't you go in and join those you burned to death?]

As the flames burned, the man let out heart-wrenching screams, struggling and desperately pounding on the glass window, just as the victims had done, before finally falling silent like them, and losing his breath.

Blood dripped from the ceiling.

The room grew dimmer, but the stench of blood was so strong it was nauseating.

Gao Hai could sense that the rules that eroded and transformed flesh and blood had ceased to be effective. In their place stood a petite girl, less than 1.2 meters tall, who had been summoned by Gao Hai with the notification slip. This little girl turned her head and stared at him. Her once gentle face was now covered by a distorted smile, and her expression had completely lost the rationality and emotions that a human being should have, leaving only utter madness.

My body is becoming stiff.

It's certain that if I don't do something next, I'm going to die here.

"call……"

With a deep breath, the pistol reappeared in Gao Hai's hand.

This time, however, the gun was not pointed at the twisted monster, but at the blonde girl beside him who was almost kneeling on the ground, stimulated by the monster's aura.

"Hey?"