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

The other person's mental state recovered very quickly, it seems that Aoyama Nanami or Nanakawa Ren used the power of some kind of obsession to help her wake up quickly.

And her tone... was the thing that was discovered something special?

{Gao Hai: What did you discover?}

Fujiwara Chika, nestled in her arms, curiously raised her head and noticed the unusual tone in Maki's voice through the mental link.

{Shijo Maki: I found your body, Kai-kun. I found your body in the courtyard.}

Lush grass and shrubs, blooming dark red flowers, and dug-out soil.

Having transmitted the message through the mental link, Maki lowered her head, her face expressionless, and looked at the body lying in the soil—a body with a bluish-purple face, no longer breathing.

Gao Hai.

Chapter 57: Discoveries in the Courtyard Area and the Players' Different Styles

My...corpse?

Since entering this instance, Gao Hai has asked himself if he has experienced enough strange things.

But now, listening to what Maki told him, and knowing that after finally entering the atrium area of ​​the main teaching building, she found Takami's body inside, he had to admit that his knowledge might still be a bit lacking.

{Gao Hai: Are you sure the corpse you're seeing is "me"?}

{Shijo Maki: I'm not so bad as to not recognize you, Kai-kun. Hmm, Yotsuya-san's body is here too, though she was buried a little shallower than you. Ah, Fujiwara-san's body is here too, buried about the same depth as you. Hmm... you used a teleportation blessing on her, didn't you? Is she right beside you now?}

{Fujiwara Chika: Hehehe, that's true. Without Umi, I'd probably be dead by now.}

During their mental connection, Shijou Maki crouched down, looking at the two corpses lying side by side in the excavated mud, her emotions unable to calm down.

Maki was mentally prepared for what she might see in the courtyard area, but the fact that she dug a hole and found her boyfriend's "corpse" made the girl realize that her mental preparation might not have been sufficient.

Kaguya, standing to the side, also wore an expression of undisguised shock. However, unlike Maki, who retained her knowledge through the mental link, Kaguya was affected by the cognitive blocking effect of the Nightfall Mountain Middle School instance. She only remembered Takahashi's existence after seeing his "corpse." At this moment, she was experiencing some mental confusion due to the conflict between her memory and cognition, and even shattered a mental fragment as a result. It would probably take her a while to recover.

Now that her head has grown back, Nanakawa Ren is patting her new head. If you look closely at her now, you will find that there is a big difference in skin color from her neck up to her head. Her entire face is as white and tender as a newborn baby's, and she doesn't have much hair, almost like she has a buzz cut.

Aoyama Nanami remained silent, cautiously observing her surroundings and guarding against any potential danger.

As for why the four of them were here, the reason is simple: Qi Chuanlian brought them here.

“I’m certain that the main teaching building underwent an extremely dangerous transformation as I explored the atrium. In that state, the chances of escaping the building were slim, especially after I discovered that the building seemed to be enveloped by something transparent. I was worried that if I tried to escape the building in that situation, I might trigger some kind of mechanism, so I simply pulled everyone into the atrium. I’m sorry, this might be a little risky, but I think it was the best option.”

At that time, Qi Chuanlian waved her hand and explained the situation to Zhenfei and the others with an innocent look on her face.

Incidentally, the entrance to the courtyard is now locked. The door closed quickly after the mysterious person opened it. Qi Chuanlian was able to bring the others in using some kind of spatial teleportation artifact. However, although they are inside, none of the four can get out, meaning the four players present are now trapped in this place.

Considering that the courtyard is likely a place of sacrifice, staying there for an extended period of time is probably not a good choice.

Well, compared to the main teaching building, which was fraught with danger and where players had likely already perished, this lush, green courtyard, which seemed quite nice, wasn't so bad. Especially after searching the area and finding no rule charts or signs of strange tales, making it a safe zone for temporary rest, it felt even better.

Well, at least before the body was dug out of the mud in the center of the courtyard, Maki thought this place was actually quite nice.

Takakai, Yotsuya Miko, Fujiwara Chika.

These are the three bodies that have been found so far in the muddy ground of the courtyard.

The reason for digging this muddy ground was naturally because Takami and Maki had exchanged some information. After all, if Asamoto Eriko's body was really in this place, then with the two Red Moon level players, Aoyama Nanami and Nanakawa Ren, working together, it was entirely possible to control the body itself. Then, Takami could work with Maki to thoroughly confirm the root of the obsession and find a way to let her rest in peace.

However, instead of finding the body of the person they were obsessed with, they found the body of their teammate.

Maki found it hard to describe the utter shock she felt when she saw Gao Hai buried in the mud. However, the girl wasn't stupid; after only a brief moment of stunned silence, she determined that the corpse in the mud wasn't the "real deal," considering that Gao Hai's mental link had never been severed.

"is fake."

The girl spoke earnestly to the three people beside her.

"These three corpses can't be real, I'm certain of that, and the people the corpses correspond to must still be alive."

Because of the cognitive block, Maki couldn't quite explain which specific person could still communicate or how they could communicate. However, as soon as she spoke, she could tell from the reactions of Aoyama Nanami and Nanakawa Ren that they had probably regained their memories to some extent and knew what they were saying.

"It's really...quite uncomfortable, this feeling of being blocked in one's self-awareness..."

Nanami sighed softly, looking at the three corpses on the ground with a complicated expression.

After seeing Gao Hai's "corpse" with her own eyes, the originally extremely powerful cognitive blocking effect could no longer obscure her perception. Or rather, now that she had discovered enough secrets and entered a sufficiently deep area, Gao Hai's location was no longer incomprehensible. She herself had broken down the information barrier between them to a certain extent, so she could recall some things.

Honestly... If I had known this mechanism was so terrifying, even if it meant suffering extremely severe mental torment, I would have gone to the area around Hayate Elementary School beforehand.

Aoyama Nanami rubbed her temples, recalling Gao Hai's presence. She remembered that he had entered the [Campus Ghost Stories] instance with her group, and that he was, in a sense, the core of the mission team. Without Gao Hai, the mission probably wouldn't have even happened; no one would be willing to send so many people into such a high-risk instance to do something with an uncertain success rate.

To forget such a crucial person, and to think it's perfectly normal to enter the instance under these circumstances, without any suspicion about the absence of this key figure—that's truly chilling. Have I remembered everything yet? Is there anything I've forgotten that I can't recall even now?

Thinking this, Aoyama Nanami felt a little uneasy, and then she thought of Goto Ichiri, and couldn't help but worry about whether the other party could escape safely.

It should be fine, right? That kid is always very lucky; she always manages to survive, no matter how dangerous the situation. Hmm... it'll be alright. Let's focus on ourselves first.

As Nanami calmed herself down, she turned around and saw that Shijou Maki had already stepped into the shallow pit that had just been dug, and was reaching her fingers toward the [corpse] whose body was still mostly buried in the soil, seemingly intending to touch it.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop it!"

Nanami reached out and grabbed Maki's arm, pulling her out of the shallow pit.

"Hey, no, I told you this [corpse] isn't real. I just want to find out what this thing is all about."

Maki, who was actually following Takami's instructions to check the condition of the corpse, was momentarily confused by Nanami's actions before quickly explaining. Nanami's companion, Ren, nodded in agreement. Maki had asked her to keep an eye on things while she checked, and to intervene immediately if anything went wrong. Maki herself was quite cautious and didn't intend to touch the corpse without proper precautions.

"No, we can't do that. The [corpses] may be fake, but their presence here means that their existence might be hiding something. Without a firm grasp of the situation, we should never try to actively contact anything of this kind."

Nanami shook her head, still firmly pulling Maki further away, and resolutely preventing anyone from touching the corpse.

"There's no need to be this cautious. What player doesn't take risks? We need to figure out what this is all about."

Before Shin-hime could say anything, Nanakawa Ren spoke up with some doubt. She had heard before that Aoyama Nanami was very cautious in her actions, and even when the situation was very urgent, she was unwilling to choose relatively risky methods, and would rather miss some key opportunities in order to ensure safety.

If it were just her acting alone, it wouldn't be so bad, but even in team operations, Nanami's characteristic didn't change. She would often actively stop her companions from taking risks, striving to ensure that the entire team maintained a cautious, even "cowardly" behavior.

Qi Chuanlian, a member of the Red Society, felt there was no need to be so vigilant. After all, the corpses didn't exhibit any unusual characteristics, and the four players' senses didn't show any distortion. Under these circumstances, a little probing wouldn't be a problem at all.

“Let’s search this place again, all four of us together, and we absolutely cannot separate during the process. After all, this is one of the key areas in Nightfall Mountain Middle School, and it’s impossible for it to be completely without any danger. We have to be prepared to be attacked by powerful monsters.”

Nanami rejected Nanakawa Ren's opinion without hesitation and took the initiative to lead the team to take action.

Although Maki still wanted to try again, seeing Nanami's firm attitude, she thought for a moment and said nothing more. Takami, who had learned of Nanami's actions through the mental link, also didn't know what to say, so he tacitly agreed to Maki's accompanying mission and didn't interrupt.

The shallow pit where the body was dug out was not filled in again. Instead, Nanami and Nanakawa Ren each placed a sensory object to monitor the situation.

While the four on this side began investigating the atrium area, Xiong Mi had already brought Goto Ichiri to the entrance of the affiliated teaching building.

"Tsk, this looks pretty bad."

Xiong Mi, with a cigarette butt dangling from his lips but not lit, stared at the brightly lit, noisy auxiliary teaching building and stopped in his tracks.

In her perception, the affiliated teaching building remained in a state of "tranquility," with no signs of human activity. Although the aura of the eerie creature was strong, she could not sense any particularly obvious activity, as if it were in a state of sleep.

However, her hearing led to a completely different conclusion from her perception. At this moment, Xiong Mi could hear the sounds of students talking and walking around in the affiliated teaching building, as well as the sound of videos playing in the multimedia classroom and the voices of teachers talking.

"Inside here..."

Goto Ichiri gripped her guitar nervously. Through the window, she could see that the brightly lit annex building was actually empty, but the sounds constantly coming from inside made her extremely uneasy. She felt as if countless unseen people were moving through the building, perhaps even watching her from outside.

I have a really bad feeling about this place, maybe we shouldn't go in?

Little Pochi is already considering backing out.

"walk into."

However, Xiong Mi didn't think so. After carefully sensing the area with a frown, she finally confirmed that there was the presence of a living person in a room on the second floor. She then took decisive action and strode towards the main entrance of the affiliated teaching building.

"Huh? Huh? Okay, okay."

As for Goto Ichiri, since her teammates had already made their decision, she had no way to object. So she could only carefully follow behind Xiong Mi, and the two of them entered the affiliated teaching building one after the other.

【…】

All the noise vanished in an instant.

One by one, the lights inside the building went out, and darkness gradually spread.

A chilling atmosphere began to spread, as if the air was freezing, making the cold feel even more intense.

Goto Ichiri instinctively shivered and summoned two clones to stand on either side of him without hesitation.

As Xiong Mi silently watched the darkness envelop the entire building once more, a slow, wide smile spread across his face.

"That's right, that's how it should be, that's how it should be. It's clearly a dungeon where a lot of people died, why pretend it's lively? A more ghostly atmosphere would suit it better."

As she said this, she quickened her pace and headed towards the second floor.

Goto Ichiri, who was following behind Xiongmi, subconsciously tilted his head as they moved forward.

I think... I just heard the elevator doors open?

Chapter 58: What the Great Success of Yotsuya Miko's Perception Means

"Well……"

I feel dizzy and have a noticeable dull pain in the back of my neck.

The senior must have knocked me unconscious again.

Yotsuya Miko had just regained some consciousness when she immediately recalled being knocked unconscious by Takami and falling to the ground.

I feel like I'm almost used to this kind of thing—being knocked unconscious, being carried around like an object, slung over my shoulder, or carried on my back. Ugh, it's mainly because the senior's physical abilities are too strong, while I, as a player, am a complete novice. There's no comparison in terms of either ability or skill level...

After a brief moment of reflection, Miko got up from the ground and quickly realized that Gao Hai was not beside her.

Senior... isn't here?

The moment I realized this, my heart started racing, and beads of sweat appeared on my forehead.

No, that's not right. This feeling... her memories seem to be getting blurry. She can't quite remember how she entered the affiliated teaching building with Gao Hai, how she got to this archives room, or what happened after that.

Something is influencing my perception.

After truly experiencing the mechanism of [cognitive blocking] and feeling the distortion of her own cognition, Yotsuya Miko's overly powerful perceptual talent began to operate in a completely uncontrollable way, making the girl immediately realize that something was wrong in her head.

That's right, the source of this influence is inside one's own brain.

Reach out and touch your forehead, then slowly stroke towards the side of your head.