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

I was wrong, Dad.

Several boys on the other side also gathered together after class, talking noisily.

The students primarily speak Japanese, but some of their vocabulary and usage habits sound like Chinese, as if they were a combination of two languages.

Sometimes their discussions involve old Japanese comics from the mid-20th century, but other times they talk about the latest anime and manga releases. One student even seriously shouted out a joke like, "There's not even time to mourn, the next person to arrive on the battlefield is—".

The blessing from the little girl Li Zhaodi kept clearly reminding Gao Hai that all these students were strange creatures, and that none of them were living people.

Combined with the strange behavior of these things, Gao Hai couldn't help but guess that the student monsters in Yeluoshan Middle School were all based on the behavior patterns of the players who entered the instance. They were a product of the players' memories of school life and subconscious fusion. Therefore, these things would generally show the characteristics of Japanese students, but at times they would behave like Chinese students, making it a kind of mixed mess.

"I actually had a class in a dungeon. Hmm, that feels really strange."

As soon as get out of class ended, Fujiwara Chika approached Takami and sat down on his desk without any hesitation, whispering something to him.

"Indeed, at this pace, we're probably really going to have to take classes and do homework in this instance."

Gao Hai nodded in agreement, unsure of what to say next.

"...It's one thing to have to attend classes even after becoming a player, but why do I have to continue attending classes after entering a dungeon? Ugh, and I also have to do homework. I just finished all the homework that had piled up last night. This is too much!"

Fujiwara Chika let out a pained cry like a deflated balloon, and seeing her like that, Takahashi suddenly felt a surge of childhood nostalgia. Well, the feeling Takahashi was experiencing was like "finishing your homework, having it checked and approved by the teacher, and then sitting idly in your seat, watching those whose homework was subpar or incomplete get scolded by the teacher." Come to think of it, did he have a penchant for watching others have fun even when he was very young?

"No matter what, this is a dungeon world after all. We still need to make sure that the tasks assigned here are completed properly. If anything goes wrong, we might get special treatment."

Suppressing the urge to laugh, Gao Hai kept a straight face and spoke as seriously as possible, while glancing at Yotsuya Miko and Hayasaka Ai who had gathered around.

The way they behave so well in class, and then gather in small groups after class, feels really heartwarming.

Gao Hai was at a loss for words to describe the unique features of this instance, but he soon noticed that Qianhua had been staring at him for a while, and the expression on her face gradually took on a teasing tone.

"Master... uh, there were no abnormalities during the entire class. This instance... feels quite different from Hayate Elementary School."

Hayasaka, who had walked up to Takahashi, subconsciously wanted to call out the name that belonged exclusively to Takahashi. However, as soon as she opened her mouth, she remembered the question that Takahashi had raised earlier: that names might have some special meaning in this instance. Therefore, she swallowed the name and continued speaking without changing her expression.

"I haven't found any problems here either. This place feels, well, very similar to the school I used to attend."

Yotsuya Miko also shook her head slightly, but because she had seen her classmates who had died earlier, her expression was still not very good.

It seems everyone got the same result.

Gao Hai rubbed his temples, then inquired about Zhenfei's situation through the mental link, and unsurprisingly received the reply that "everything is normal".

Is it normal?

Gao Hai glanced at the students in the classroom once more, remaining silent, then looked up at the clock in the classroom.

There are so many clocks in this school! Every classroom has one, every dormitory has one, and every corridor in both the teaching and dormitory buildings has one. It's as if someone is worried that people in the school won't be able to tell the exact time, so they've gone to great lengths to provide a place for people to check the time.

Then, Gao Hai mentally recalled the class schedule posted on the classroom door.

[Class Schedule for Yeluoshan Middle School Students]

【morning】

[First class 8:10-8:50]

[Break time between classes 8:50-9:00]

[Second period 9:00-9:40]

[Break time between classes 9:40-10:10]

[Third period 10:10-10:50]

[Break time between classes 10:50-11:00]

[Fourth period 11:00-11:40]

【afternoon】

[Fifth period 14:00-14:40]

[Break time between classes 14:40-14:50]

[Sixth period, 14:50-15:30]

[Break time between classes 15:30-16:00]

[Seventh period, 16:00-16:40]

[Break time between classes 16:40-16:50]

[Eighth period, 16:50-17:30]

Evening class

The school does not organize evening classes; they are only offered to students whose grades are below average upon application by teachers.

Evening class time: 19:00-21:30

[After 21:30 PM, school cleaning staff began cleaning the corridors and checking that the doors and windows of each classroom were closed. They left the school and locked the doors at 22:00 PM.]

Having four afternoon classes in a Japanese school's schedule is quite unusual, but the lack of evening classes is certainly unlike anything in China. Gao Hai wasn't interested in tedious questions like comparing educational policies; he was focused on the timing.

"The break after the second class is 30 minutes, which is enough for us to explore the teaching building further."

Gao Hai spoke earnestly to the three girls in front of him, simultaneously transmitting his words to Zhen Fei via mental link so she and her teammates could discuss it. The paper cup communication artifact given to them by Xiong Mi had also been activated, allowing all three groups to hold a battle meeting.

"Three groups of people, three different goals."

"One of the groups is to verify the existence of the original core obsession [Eriko Asamoto]. According to the information we originally knew about the dungeon, this girl is one of the core obsessions of Yoruyama Middle School, and that guitar is her core obsession object. Hmm, I remember that her class is Senior 3 (10) class."

Aoyama Nanami volunteered to take on this investigation task, suggesting that she go to Goto Ichiri and the two of them work together to confirm whether the core obsession was still in the original class. Considering that these two were the ones who had successfully seized the core obsession, entrusting it to them seemed quite appropriate.

"The second group is responsible for finding the existence of the core obsession [Morihara Koji]. According to the intelligence, he is in Class 3 of the second year of high school and is one of the core obsessions of Yoruyama Middle School. Although theoretically he can no longer appear in the instance now because his core obsession item was taken out of the instance, we still have to confirm it."

After Nanami Aoyama left the group, the remaining three—Maki Shijou, Kaguya Shinomiya, and Ren Nanakawa—took on the mission. Currently, this mission appears to be the least dangerous, so it was assigned to the three remaining members, who are now weaker due to the absence of Nanami Aoyama.

"The third goal is to find the [Life Club]. You may not understand why we need to find this club, but that's okay. Just know that this is very important."

Confirming the last objective was more troublesome than the first two.

Because only Takami and Yotsuya Miko had seen the dormitory's survival rules, the others had no way of knowing about the "Life Club," and because of the bizarre cognitive distortion at Yoruyama Middle School, the others would not believe any clues related to it.

After much hesitation, Xiong Mi decided to investigate the atrium on the first floor. She couldn't trust Gao Hai's judgment and therefore couldn't take the initiative to explore, so the last task fell to Gao Hai and his group.

The location of the [Life Club] is not yet confirmed, but Gao Hai has seen the floor plan and knows that only the 5th floor of the main teaching building has a few club classrooms, while the rest of the club activity classrooms are all concentrated in the auxiliary teaching building. This means that if they cannot find their target in the main teaching building, Gao Hai and the others will have to find a way to get to the auxiliary teaching building.

ding dong -- ding dong --

The 10-minute break wasn't long, and the new class started quickly.

Gao Hai raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the balding old man who had stepped into the classroom, and then looking at the clock hanging on the blackboard.

9:01

Chapter 8: The Hidden Unknowns and the Figure Sitting Behind You

I could feel the sunlight streaming through the window and the warmth of it on my skin.

The teacher smiled as she explained the text to the students. After a basic analysis of the text, she gradually revealed deeper meanings by elaborating on the author's life, occasionally adding a few jokes to ensure that the students' attention remained focused on the lesson.

This is a good teacher.

Yotsuya Miko had to admit that she found this teacher's class quite good. In terms of teaching quality alone, this teacher was comparable to the renowned teachers she had encountered after entering Shuchiin Academy.

The problem is, she didn't come here to take classes.

"..."

In silence, the girl looked around, but couldn't find anything unusual.

Even after seeing the filthy rulebook in the dormitory, so out of place with the clean and tidy campus environment, and even after arriving at the teaching building, where she saw another tattered rulebook that no one else could see—not even Gao Hai this time—she didn't actually encounter any malicious spirits besides the rulebook. Even those things that resembled her deceased classmates were merely talking to themselves.

Compared to the place in front of her, Jianzi even felt that the eerie phantoms she had seen in the real world were more terrifying.

What exactly is going on in this place?

Seeing Zi made me feel very uneasy.

Even though she didn't see anything terrifying, and no scary monsters were lurking in front of her, she felt even more uneasy and terrified.

Perhaps it was because she was in this place that she knew for certain that there would be terrifying monsters in this instance. But knowing this fact, she still couldn't see where those things were, which made her increasingly anxious and unable to calm down.

Where exactly are those things hidden?

When will they finally show up?

藏？

Jianzi suddenly froze.

She didn't know why she thought that way; she just subconsciously had a premonition that all the terrifying creatures that should have appeared were now hiding.

She can't see those things now because they're not actually in her sight. Unlike the situation in the Fujika Middle School instance, those terrifying things she feared are now truly all hidden, and... perhaps still secretly watching her, waiting for the most opportune moment to appear before her.

When would that be?

[Yotsugu-kun, please stand up and answer this question.]

The teacher's calm voice rang out from the front.

"Huh? Okay, okay!"

An unexpected situation occurred at this point.

None of the four players in the classroom could have imagined that the teacher would not only lecture, but would also pay attention to which students were daydreaming and call on them to answer questions.

Concentrating on her thoughts about the strange object, Yotsuya Miko naturally couldn't answer the teacher's question. After all, it was a math class, and Gao Hai felt dizzy just from glancing at the formulas and problems on the blackboard. Things like f(x) = x(1-ln x)-1, or finding the area enclosed by the graph of f(x) across the x-axis, were simply incomprehensible to Gao Hai, who had been away from the classroom for many years. Even the university knowledge he had acquired from Lin Xusheng didn't include much mathematics.

And is this really high school math material? I don't think I learned this stuff back in high school. Or is it something from the sciences? Well, I chose humanities back then... Ugh, no way I can solve this right away, I'll have to find someone else to help me.

Realizing the situation was dire, Gao Hai quickly turned his gaze to Fujiwara Chika.

"...Choose C."

Then, after staring at the question for a while, the energetic pink-haired girl whispered a hint to Miko.

As players, everyone present, except for Hayasaka Ai, had enhanced their basic physical attributes through empowerment or blessing, so none of them had poor hearing. Although Miko herself didn't like cheating, the current mission was clearly not the time to dwell on such issues, so she quickly answered "C".

Even if you can solve it, you still need to pay attention in class from now on. We're learning a crucial part now; if you fall behind even slightly, you could fall behind. Don't let me catch you daydreaming in class again, Yotsuya-kun, sit down.