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

After confirming that Jianzi was alright, Gao Hai asked the girl.

"...It's okay, um, I'm fine."

The girl with long, flowing black hair nodded gently in response, her face pale, but her tone had indeed softened.

At this moment, the girl had recovered somewhat from her state of shock. However, due to the shock from being frightened by Gao Hai and the ghost jumping off the building, she was still a little dizzy and would need more time to fully recover.

As for the other girl...

"Thank you for saving my life. Without you, I probably wouldn't have had a good way to escape."

Gao Hai thanked Goto Ichiri in a solemn tone.

As the first supernatural tale I formally encountered at Nightfall Mountain Middle School, the Jumping Ghost's abilities were incredibly troublesome. This strange creature appeared to be just slowly crawling around on the ground, but in reality, it was a teleporting monster with no movement restrictions, able to appear anywhere in the dormitory corridors and stairwells. Furthermore, once it successfully locked onto someone, it could move to that person's side no matter where they fled. Its killing rule was "instant kill upon locking onto a target's gaze"—a completely unreasonable thing that was utterly monstrous in every sense of the word.

However, can we control the rules of that thing by transferring the [locked object] in time?

Thinking of this, Gao Hai glanced thoughtfully at the guitar that Goto Ichiri was holding, a symbol of his obsession. Although he didn't think he had the ability to control this powerful and dangerous object of his obsession, Pochi's actions did provide him with some ideas in a certain sense.

Of course, this is just an idea at the moment; it will probably not be so easy to actually formulate an action plan.

"Um, no, no need for such formalities?"

Goto Ichiri seemed slightly startled by Takahashi's earnest thanks, and cautiously bowed slightly in reply. Indeed, this was evident from her somewhat incoherent response.

Gao Hai himself did not seem to care too much about it. He simply quickly scanned the dormitory room to confirm that it was empty.

Does that mean this dormitory belongs entirely to the four students who are haunted?

This discovery alerted Gao Hai, as he remembered that the dormitory's survival rules specifically mentioned that one could not enter a dormitory without the permission of other dormitory members, especially unoccupied dormitories, which were marked as "absolutely forbidden to enter".

Are you sure it's safe here?

He looked at Goto Ichiri again and asked a question, preparing to flee this place at any moment.

"Yes, no problem. I asked for your consent during the day."

Goto Ichiri nodded slightly. Although she was still very nervous, she still answered Takami's question properly.

After waking up in the dormitory building that morning, Goto Ichiri saw a face under the bed and soon saw the dormitory's survival rules.

After carefully studying the rules, the girl decisively knocked on every dormitory door on the 6th floor, asking each dormitory member if she could bring her friends into their dorms anytime, and received their consent.

As for how she managed to gain the consent of these strange students who clearly had a strong urge to reject outsiders while acting alone... that's easy to figure out. After all, she could use her guitar to create teammates for herself anytime, anywhere. If she could create four or five people standing together at once, those strange students would naturally submit.

So that's how it is. By applying the rules in reverse, she turned the entire sixth-floor dormitory into a "dormitory that is allowed to enter" in advance? Although this child can't quite put her mind to something when communicating with people, she might actually be a genius when dealing with the supernatural.

Even so, we can't stay here any longer.

Gao Hai could sense that the strange creature that had jumped off the building was still wandering around inside. As soon as they left the dormitory, they were very likely to run into it head-on.

However, if he didn't return to his dormitory room for a long time, considering the rule that players cannot leave their beds for an extended period after lights out, Gao Hai suspected that there might be some kind of strange creature similar to a dormitory manager in the building that would open the door in the middle of the night to check if players were sleeping in their beds, and would trigger the rules if it found no one there.

If we combine this with the rule that the female ghost who jumps off the building will open the dormitory door of the player who finds her, it becomes another smooth combo, leaving the player in a situation where they can neither stay nor leave, and either way they may die.

So this is what a Red Moon-level dungeon truly is. Relying solely on thinking and action is no longer enough to survive in such a dungeon. One must possess a comprehensive and abundant array of obsession items and blessed powers to survive against these strange creatures that act according to rules.

“I can summon something like a substitute to return to my dorm room and sleep in my place. You probably did something similar with your guitar, right? So, could you help her solve this problem too? Her room is 508.”

After a brief period of thought and analysis, Gao Hai quickly made a judgment and earnestly sought help from Goto Ichiri.

"Okay, no problem."

Gao Hai didn't need to spell it out clearly for Xiao Boqi to understand his meaning.

As her fingers lightly traced the guitar, accompanied by a burst of music, a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Miko Yotsuya, except whose eyes weren't golden, appeared out of thin air, opened the dormitory door, and walked out.

At this moment, Gao Hai also controlled Howard, whom he had summoned at the beginning, to return to dormitory 203 on the second floor, and lay down in front of the bed where Howard was sleeping.

As for Goto Ichiri herself, she had already created a substitute to lie in bed in her place, so she didn't need to worry about that at all.

Next, it was time for the trio, who were now certain they wouldn't be sleeping tonight, to do what they needed to do.

"Two options: the main teaching building or the annex teaching building."

Gao Hai held up two fingers.

"Currently, my companion and I have each received a [Strange Tales Club Recruitment Poster], corresponding to the main teaching building and the auxiliary teaching building respectively. Since the ghosts in the dormitory building become active after lights out at night, theoretically the ghosts in the main teaching building and the auxiliary teaching building have probably also become active. Correspondingly, the recruitment process mentioned in this recruitment poster may be possible to proceed."

"Perhaps the content in these two recruitment posters is actually a trap, but we haven't gathered enough information yet. Even if it's a trap, we have to try it. However, there is a crucial difference between the main teaching building and the auxiliary teaching building. We already know the survival rules of the main teaching building, but we didn't discover the survival rules of the auxiliary teaching building during the day. In other words, in a sense, we can assume that the three of us haven't yet triggered the strange tales in the auxiliary teaching building."

Why are the three players who are active in the dormitory at night, and who are not completely asleep, the ones who happen to be able to see the dormitory survival rules? Gao Hai feels that there might be some crucial clue hidden in this.

Therefore, he suspected that the main teaching building, where the survival rules had been deciphered, and the annex teaching building, where the survival rules had not been discovered, might pose vastly different levels of danger to the three explorers.

Which side is in greater danger, which side is better able to obtain clues, and even further clarify the current situation, is a question worth considering in depth.

As for the indoor sports fields, swimming pools, and assembly halls, where no clues were found at all, while it's true that something might exist in these places, Gao Hai felt it would be more appropriate to investigate the two teaching buildings, which had relatively more intelligence leads, first, rather than these unfamiliar areas that hadn't been effectively investigated.

"We are the only three players who are still conscious and able to move at this time, so we need to decide what to do next."

Gao Hai looked at the two girls in front of him in a serious tone, presenting them with this choice.

1. Go to the main teaching building to investigate (basic rules have been revealed, survival rules have been triggered).

2. Go to the attached teaching building to investigate (some basic rules are revealed, but the survival rules have not been triggered).

3. Perhaps you have other ideas?

Perhaps, this choice will determine whether the three of us will live to see tomorrow's sunrise.

During the conversation, Gao Hai couldn't help but think this to himself.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Stepping into the Main Teaching Building in the Dead of Night

The question of how to escape the building while dangerous and eerie creatures roamed the corridors and stairwells did not stump the three players present.

First, an avatar created by Goto Ichiri jumped from the 6th floor as a test. After confirming that the avatar was not targeted by any strange force and landed safely, Goto Ichiri and Takami jumped out of the window one after the other. Takami jumped while holding Miko in his arms.

A six-story building would be impossible for an ordinary person to jump down unscathed, but for players like Takami and Goto Ichiri, whose physical abilities surpass those of humans, it was nothing. It was only because Miko's physical enhancements weren't high enough that Takami needed to carry her.

Of course, to avoid triggering the survival rule of "don't look out the window," all three kept their eyes closed during the jump, only opening them after landing.

The soft moonlight shone on the earth.

Unlike his previous visits to Fujika Junior High and Hayate Elementary School, Takami did not see a blood-red moon like the one in Bloodborne. Instead, he saw a perfectly normal moon that looked completely ordinary.

This is not normal.

Blood Moon is a special landscape that can only be found in Red Moon-level dungeons. As long as players are in a Red Moon-level dungeon, they can always find that ominous, blood-red moonlight.

But Gao Hai can't find that moon now.

I am undoubtedly now in the [Campus Ghost Stories] Red Moon level instance; there's no doubt about that, and no matter how many changes that Clown Kingpin makes, it won't change that. So, does my inability to see the Blood Moon mean that the school I'm currently in is actually a [false] existence, a fake like the abandoned campus of Fujika Middle School?

Gazing at the moonlight in the sky, Gao Hai couldn't help but ponder this question in his heart.

However, such thinking will not change their current approach, since the situation they face has remained the same from beginning to end.

"It seems there really isn't one..."

Before entering the teaching building area to conduct the investigation, Gao Hai first went to the back of the campus, to the place in the original Yeluoshan Middle School area that led to the abandoned campus.

Naturally, nothing was found. Just as they hadn't been able to find any underground areas yet, no usable passages were discovered in this place that originally connected to another area of ​​Yelu Mountain Middle School.

The reason why the changes made to this copy were so drastic that the original data was completely rendered useless.

Or is it that they lack some prerequisite, which prevents them from entering those places that once existed in the history of Yeluoshan Middle School, but which are more secluded and mysterious than the normal campus?

Gao Hai didn't know what the correct answer was. All he could do now was use this time to launch an investigation, even if the dangers he faced might cost him his life.

1:01

"The main teaching building at night, well, it is indeed more eerie than expected."

Gao Hai opened the window of Class 9, Grade 1, while muttering to himself.

Just as described in the recruitment notice of the Ghost Stories Club, after the clock struck 1 o'clock, the classroom windows that were originally impossible to open or damage suddenly became operable.

Turning back, Gao Hai surveyed his surroundings once more. The campus under the night sky was just as quiet and still as he had seen before. He couldn't see any figures other than the three of them, and there were no insects chirping or birds singing.

There was nothing but a deathly silence.

Thinking this, Gao Hai turned his head and looked at the open window in front of him, and the chaotic darkness inside.

"I...I'll do it."

As before, Goto Ichiri first used the object of her obsession to create an avatar to enter the school building and test the waters.

Although this girl is very similar to Chika in terms of hair color, eye color, and figure, their personalities are completely different. Now that she has two teammates, Miko and Takami, by her side, she has become much more timid and hesitant, and even her speech has become stammering.

However, unlike her previous encounters with Gao Hai in the real world, where even normal conversation was almost impossible, she didn't feel the same way. Perhaps it was because Gao Hai's previous praise of her had increased her goodwill towards the lonely girl, thus reducing her aversion to the two of them.

This time, Goto Ichiri created an individual dressed in a comedian's comical clothes, wearing star-shaped glasses and sporting an afro.

From the moment this individual appeared, he was shaking uncontrollably all over, then he walked with a moonwalk-like gait towards the open classroom window, climbed in, and then ran to open the door while dancing to Michael Jackson's "Master of Crime".

Does this kid really have to come up with so many weird settings for the cannon fodder he creates?

Takami really wanted to complain, he really wanted to complain, but Goto Ichiri was a socially awkward person who might actually die if he was complained about, so he could only hold it in, and it was very uncomfortable for him.

About 10 minutes later, the entity summoned by Goto Ichiri walked through the first-floor corridor of the main teaching building and confirmed that, apart from the door of Class 9 of Grade 1 who had climbed over, all the other classroom doors were locked, there were no classrooms with lights on, the plants in the corridor were not dead, there were no piles of garbage, and there was nothing strange in the toilets. Overall, it seemed quite safe.

Considering that entering the staircase in the survival rules seems to trigger anomalies, after Goto Ichiri scouted the first floor, Takami decided to climb into the classrooms and begin investigating the main teaching building.

Of course, Gao Hai already had a premonition that this investigation would not go smoothly.

After encountering the "jumping monster" in the dormitory building, he vaguely realized that the dangerous monsters in Nightfall Mountain Middle School likely required players to trigger certain rules and obtain the corresponding rule list before they would act. They might first "break the rules," violating rules that wouldn't immediately trigger attacks from the monsters, thereby gaining the qualification to see deeper rule lists, to see the rules related to these deadly threats. Only then would these things become active and truly harm the corresponding players.

The three people present had already seen the survival rules of the main teaching building. Gao Hai had violated one rule, Miko, with her naturally superior spiritual vision, couldn't be stopped, and Goto Ichiri gained the ability to see the survival rules after her memories were erased. Therefore, all the dangers mentioned in the survival rules should now have been activated for the three of them.

Nevertheless, Gao Hai still abandoned his plan to go to the auxiliary teaching building, which was relatively safer because the survival rules hadn't been activated yet and the dangerous creatures might not have been active. After all, even if the survival rules weren't activated now, Gao Hai estimated that most of the things that needed to be activated would come to life once he entered the auxiliary teaching building, and he wasn't sure if he'd have time to finish reading the survival rules by then. It was better to choose the main teaching building, where at least he already knew where the danger came from.

Anyway... I hope I can get out of this building alive.

In the end, Gao Hai could only say this to himself.

tread--

Even though he had carefully controlled his strength, Gao Hai could still clearly hear the sound of his own footsteps.

Even without any strange creatures appearing in the dark corridor, the extremely oppressive atmosphere made Gao Hai's breathing become much heavier.

The investigation of the first floor did not take too long. None of the three tried to open the locked classrooms. They only searched the flower pots in the corridor and some corner areas to see if the key mentioned in the recruitment notice could be hidden there.