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

It's time to end all of this.

when! ! !

The third chime rang out.

The blood-red city gradually melted away.

Everything around us has gradually returned to darkness.

Gao Hai stood still, waiting for the rollback to complete.

But at that moment, he suddenly felt a subtle sensation coming from his arm, as if something was pulling his left hand toward someone.

This feeling is hard to describe in words.

He suddenly recalled all the things he had experienced with Shijou Maki, whether it was when they were in a dark room together and writing words on the back of each other's hands, or when he carried her on his back and ran through the twisted third floor after she was injured, or their conversations during the second playthrough, her smug smile as she hummed a song and brought him the cooked noodles, or the kiss he couldn't feel when he was lying in her arms at the end.

These memories were incredibly important to Takami, who had endured two cycles of suffering over four days at the Shirakawa Apartment. Without this girl, he thought he probably wouldn't have had the willpower to move forward, or the ability to gather so many clues and accomplish so much.

Yes, this is an incredibly important and unforgettable memory.

If possible, I hope there will never be a moment when I forget these memories.

Reach out your hand and grasp the hand that draws you in with those warm memories.

In a hazy state, Gao Hai felt as if he were holding someone's hand, the hand of a petite yet domineering and proud girl.

Click——

The hands of the black watch abruptly moved from 2 to 3. It was as if it had expended a portion of its power to fulfill someone's wish. Only this time, the sound was so subtle that Gao Hai, lost in his memories, failed to notice it.

The next moment, the darkness in Gao Hai's eyes completely dissipated, replaced by the familiar layout of room 204.

Yes, of course, there's the scent of Kaguya Shinomiya's shampoo beside him, but that's not important, since it doesn't smell as good as Maki's. For Takami right now, compared to the always cold-faced Kaguya, the angelic Maki is definitely more worthy of his devoted fandom. Yes, that's right, Takami has liked Shijou Maki since before he was born. Of course, this isn't to say Kaguya is unreliable; her rescue during the exploration of the first floor was very helpful, and as a teammate, Kaguya is very trustworthy. It's just that, well, Takami isn't the student council president, and he doesn't have a whole year to slowly melt her iceberg, so for now, let's leave her out of the romantic storyline.

"Hello, my name is Gao Hai. I'm a veteran player who's participated in the game twice, right? Are you a newbie?"

Getting out of bed, Gao Hai took a few steps back, then turned to look at Shinomiya Kaguya, who was sitting up on the bed with a wary expression. He smiled and asked, his expression completely flawless, a stark contrast to his reaction during the second playthrough.

"you……"

Kaguya Shinomiya observed Takami and the room with some confusion and wariness. Unable to figure out the specific situation, she remained silent, sitting on the bed without taking any action.

"I know you're confused right now. Anyway, here's the rule sheet. It might not be entirely accurate, but it should still be helpful. You can take a look. As for the rest, we'll talk about it once we get out of here. Each round of the sacrifice game will involve a certain number of players. Let's regroup with the others and then figure out what to do."

Gao Hai reached out and patted the rule sheet on the bedside table, then pretended to look at it. He then turned around, opened the living room door, went out, picked up the wall clock, walked to the front door, turned it on, and went up to the hallway.

It was the same familiar second-floor hallway, so familiar it was almost etched into Gao Hai's DNA.

Sun Dajun stood in the stairwell, looking around fearfully. Green, expressionless, leaned against the door, observing the people coming out. Just then, Gao Hai walked out and their eyes met. Gao Hai gave him a friendly smile, which startled Green. The black man was trying to communicate with Sun Dajun, speaking in a strange mix of Chinese and American English.

Lao Guo didn't come out?

Could it be that this magical watch took away his obsession, causing him to be afraid to leave the house?

While Gao Hai was still pondering what was going on, the doors of 208 slowly opened.

With a somewhat dazed expression on her face, Zhenfei carefully walked out of the house while holding the wall clock, and then her gaze instantly locked onto Gao Hai.

"hello."

Looking at the girl who was so familiar to him, Gao Hai frowned slightly, but managed to control his expression and greeted Maki with a smile.

"Haijun, are you... are you alright? You're alright?"

But then Maki's shocked voice completely stunned Gao Hai.

fine?

She asked me if I was alright?

What's going on? Why is she calling me by the same terms she uses in the second playthrough?!

"You retained your memories...you retained your memories this time?"

This overwhelming fact caused Gao Hai to completely lose control of his facial expressions, and for a moment his expression even frightened the other people in the corridor.

Could it be that the last things I felt before the rollback connected Maki and me, granting her the ability to retain my memories and rollback together?!

Is there really such a good thing? With someone like me, I'm sure I can do it this time around—

Boom!

The powerful explosion destroyed the door and walls of room 210.

Before Gao Hai could recover from the shock, Old Guo, covered in wounds, scrambled out of the destroyed gate of Room 210, his face contorted with grief and indignation more vivid than any expression he had shown in his previous two playthroughs.

Chapter 43: Solving the Most Disgusting Thing in the Shortest Time

why?

Why did this happen?!

Old Guo desperately wanted to roar and shout, to cry out against the incomprehensible things he was facing.

What happened to his obsession? What happened to such a huge obsession of his?!

How come it disappeared as soon as I entered?

Why has his obsession disappeared?!

Old Guo was well aware that many high-difficulty game instances strictly limited players' obsession items. For example, if a player in a Red Moon-level game brought a non-core obsession item from a Twilight-level game into the instance, the obsession item would inevitably go out of control the moment they entered. This was because the level of the supernatural tales in Red Moon-level games was too high, directly causing obsession items from lower-level games to go out of control. Therefore, once a player decided to participate in a Red Moon-level game, they had to clear all their Twilight-level obsession items, or at least bring Dark Night-level or Twilight-level core obsession items before daring to participate.

The problem is, even the most dangerous and terrifying Red Moon-level game only causes the object of obsession to go out of control, rather than directly stealing it!

Moreover, this is clearly just a game that's about to be fixed at the Twilight level, and at most it can only reach the highest difficulty level, Dark Night. Why was his object of obsession stolen directly? Why is that?

Boom!

With a heavy thud, Lao Guo slammed into the wall and coughed up blood. Then, a headless male corpse in the living room grabbed him by the neck, lifted him up, and threw him out. He flew through most of the room and rolled on the ground, his elbows and cheek scraping against the floor, bleeding profusely.

It shouldn't be like this.

Having painstakingly gathered information from various sources about this soon-to-be-fixed Twilight-level game, and confirming that no one had yet made a bid for this instance, Lao Guo had already made thorough preparations.

He acquired some information about this instance, learning that the Shirakawa Apartment was once managed by a man named Xusheng who led survivors to summarize many rules and left various items within the instance to help later survivors. For example, the cabinets placed in the corridors were said to have saved many lives, as were the supply boxes inside the rooms. He also knew that the main dangers of the Shirakawa Apartment came from the [debt collectors] roaming the corridors and the [rescue team] that would appear on the first floor on the 7th day, as well as the dolls [children] that appeared at night.

For games that haven't yet reached a "fixed" state, it can be understood that the core origins of this mystery are still evolving and changing. Therefore, the game's difficulty will be much simpler because many elements related to the core mystery cannot yet be fully developed in this stage of the game. Once the mystery is "fixed," it can be understood that the core of the mystery is basically completely finalized. Typically, the difficulty of dungeons will increase to some extent, and in some cases, there may even be instances where players can cross level barriers.

For example, in the Shirakawa Apartment game, which is a Twilight-level game, the actual difficulty during the "Fixed" phase might reach the Dark Night level. However, that damned Sacrifice game doesn't change the difficulty display at this time; instead, it only changes the level after the "Fixed" phase is completed.

The downside is that experienced players might fail when trying to farm resources, as the Dark Night level dungeon is already extremely dangerous and terrifying. However, Lao Guo is very confident. He believes he has extensive survival experience and will be able to easily clear the Shirakawa Apartment and obtain the core item within. In his view, this is the best opportunity because once the [Fixed] phase is completed, the dungeon will be open to all experienced players, and the competition will be fierce.

Ultimately, due to insufficient funds, Lao Guo couldn't keep the intelligence for himself and had to share the dungeon entry ticket and related information with another anonymous player. This resulted in them each only having half the information. However, Lao Guo remained unfazed. Having survived numerous Twilight-level missions and successfully escaped a Night-level mission, he believed that with his experience, solving a fixed Twilight-level mission would be a piece of cake. As for the other buyer, if they dared to come, he would let them know why his nickname was "Old Ghost."

He was well aware that entering this instance with an admission ticket would present him with many difficulties due to the lack of an "official identity." For example, his first step would be to confront the corpse of 210, which, which was supposed to protect the homeowner, mistook him for an intruder and launched a direct attack.

For Lao Guo, who possesses multiple obsessions, dealing with this kind of thing is quite simple. He just needs to take away his blood puppet, which has a strong restrictive effect on physical ghost stories... Wait, where's my blood puppet? Where's my huge blood puppet?!

The most crucial thing that ensured I wouldn't run into problems at the start, the thing I should have carefully kept hidden away, is now... gone!

Bang!

With a dull thud, Lao Guo was sent flying high into the air, his entire body slamming against the ceiling before crashing to the ground, covered in dust and blood.

He struggled to his feet, wanting to see if he had any other obsessions, and then he discovered...

Where is my faceless skull-devouring creature?

My most precious item, the one I used specifically to deal with players and kill humans, capable of precisely devouring humans without harming my obsession target in the slightest, is gone! How could it just disappear?

Before Lao Guo could figure out where his treasures had gone, the headless male corpse pinned him to the ground and then picked up a filthy wood-cutter's knife, intending to chop it off his neck.

In the critical moment, Lao Guo had no choice but to throw out the ashes, using them to barely stop the male corpse's movements.

This thing was originally meant to prevent living people from becoming supernatural, and it wasn't very effective against things that were close to the nature of ghost stories, especially male corpses, which had become an integral part of the rules of ghost stories. As a result, Lao Guo scattered a large handful of ashes and almost used them all up, but it only barely stopped the other party for a second. Before he could even reach the living room door, the male corpse caught up with him and slashed him on the back, cutting open the protective suit he was wearing underneath his clothes and leaving a bloody gash.

"asshole!"

Realizing he might lose his life there, Lao Guo reluctantly chose to use a bomb as a weapon. He detonated the explosives to collapse the old and unstable wall, thus finding an opportunity to escape the room covered in dust.

While Lao Guo was struggling, the two women in room 205 were also staring at each other.

"What...what are you doing? I don't have any money, kidnapping me won't help..."

Maeda Miwa huddled in the corner, trembling with fear, too scared to move.

The woman standing before her had a cold expression, gritting her teeth and remaining motionless. Unlike the previous two cycles, she did not kill the woman before her, nor did she use the obsessive object hidden within her body to strip her of her existence, turning her into a "second life" that she could impersonate at any time and discard as a target of the ghost story at crucial moments.

The reason she didn't do much was quite simple: after checking her equipment, she suddenly discovered that one of her scalpels was missing, and her most crucial stealth doll, which she used to eavesdrop, was also gone.

what happened?

What is going on? !

Why are my things gone? My cherished possessions, the things I worked so hard to acquire, how could they just disappear?!

As soon as the game started, things spiraled out of control. The woman became increasingly hesitant to act rashly, and her expression grew more and more ferocious and terrifying. Her entire face even writhed like a centipede, scaring Maeda Miwa, who was in the corner, to the point of almost fainting.

Click!

Then, the sound of the living room door lock being opened was heard.

The woman looked up and saw a tall, muscular white man carefully opening the door. Then, a handsome young man from East Asia stepped into the room and smiled at her.

"I was thinking that if you can't find what you're obsessed with, someone like you who likes to sit back and reap the benefits shouldn't dare to act immediately. After all, someone like Sword Tomb who only knows how to sneak around and observe others' actions before looking for an opportunity to steal the fruits of their labor will always be flustered when he finds himself in danger."

The other party's words were quite impolite.

The woman, having understood what the other person meant, grew increasingly fierce, and a scalpel silently fell into her hand.

It's obvious that this was all the other party's doing, but she's not someone to be trifled with. She actually dared to get close to her. Does she really think she's so easy to manipulate?

"Sigh, it seems I've really messed up this time. But I'm just a newcomer, so please forgive my rudeness. We can totally—ahhhhhh!"

The woman feigned weakness, but she had only uttered half of her deliberately weak words when she screamed and collapsed to the ground.

A severed human head opened its gaping maw and bit off the woman's thigh in one gulp, swallowing the entire leg like a bottomless pit.

While she was still thinking about how to feign weakness to find an opportunity, her opponent didn't hesitate at all and took the initiative to kill her right away.

"Ah ah ah ah ah--"

An astonishing amount of blood gushed from the severed thigh.

The woman screamed in agony, struggling and waving her scalpel-wielding hand as if trying to do something. The next moment, the young man approached and swiftly severed her scalpel-wielding hand. Cleanly, it was cut off at the wrist, just as this woman had severed his wrist in the previous encounter.