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

Recently, this socially awkward girl has become a permanent resident at Gao Hai's place. Gao Hai even specially prepared a small room for her to use as a music room. At first, Ichiri was a little reluctant, but later she moved a lot of her things in and gradually transformed the room into something quite extraordinary.

Slowly, Gao Hai sat up from the ground, stretched, and then his expression became somewhat displeased again.

Even though I haven't entered the instance yet, it feels like I have. I'm just constantly uncomfortable, and I can't even have any good dreams at night, only unpleasant ones.

But, well, since we haven't entered the instance yet and are still living our lives in the real world, let's just keep going like this.

Thinking this, Gao Hai got out of bed, stretched his body, then walked to the small cabinet on the side of the bedroom, picked up a pen, and marked a mark on the calendar on the cabinet.

There are 9 days left.

There are only nine days left until the new round of dungeons begins.

After returning from the Little River Tree area, Gao Hai contacted some player teams through the contact information provided by Xiong Mi, making contact with some decent players with whom he could cooperate. However, unlike the [Slacking Off Gang] and [Red Society], he hadn't had direct contact with them in dungeons, so the specifics would have to wait until they actually encountered them in a dungeon. Hmm... at least he wouldn't encounter these people in the next dungeon.

Whether by coincidence or some other reason, all the player teams Xiong Mi provided to Gao Hai had never explored the undefined stage of the [Infant Cry Village] dungeon. Based on Gao Hai's conversations with them, these player teams from around the world each had their own preferred dungeons. Therefore, if a certain number of Red Moon-level player teams were already focusing on a particular dungeon, other player teams would proactively exclude that dungeon and instead focus on other dungeons.

For example, a player team called "Amino Clan," with whom I had a fairly good chat with Gao Hai a couple of days ago, is currently focused on a Red Moon-level dungeon that no player has actually seen yet, but which is speculated to exist. According to the team leader of "Amino Clan," whose online name is "I am a Kitten," they tracked down seven players who, after reaching the Red Moon level, did not use tickets but instead entered the dungeon through the random entry feature of the "Sacrifice Game," and then disappeared without a trace. From this, they discovered the possibility of the existence of a mysterious dungeon.

The reason why these seven players would engage in such an unwise behavior as randomly entering a dungeon during a Red Moon-level quest remains unknown. However, based on the existing clues, all the players who made this strange move received a phone call within 10 minutes before the dungeon opened.

The source of that phone call was untraceable, and no clues could be found through any means. Aside from surveillance footage left by some players showing the call, neither hacking into the phone's internal messages nor using artifacts for investigation yielded any trace. Therefore, the players of the [Amino Clan] believe that this is likely the work of an extremely mysterious, undiscovered force from the Red Moon-level dungeon.

The user "I am a kitten" didn't provide any details about this mysterious dungeon, and Gao Hai didn't ask. He was afraid that if he asked, he would immediately establish some inexplicable connection with the dungeon, and then his next challenge would be two powerful Red Moon-level dungeons joining forces to fight against him.

Ah... Although that's what I say, I've actually heard quite a bit of information. Could it be that we've already established some kind of connection?

Thinking this, Gao Hai felt uncomfortable all over, and had the urge to go back to sleep and just let himself go for the whole day.

Although that's what I thought in my heart, I still can't do that. If I let my condition drop, things will only get worse when we actually enter the dungeon, so I still need to work out a bit.

Speaking of which, I wonder how well they're adapting to those obsessive items that were distributed.

While brushing his teeth in the bathroom, Gao Hai couldn't help but recall how, after Miko helped identify the obsession items of those fanatics, he called over Maki Kaguya and the others, giving each of them a few obsession items and spatial equipment to help them get used to it.

Concentrating these numerous items of obsession on Gao Hai alone would be a waste in his eyes. After all, with his own blessing and the power granted by the watch, many of these items wouldn't be of much use to him. In contrast, the girls, whose survivability and overall strength were much weaker, would experience a significant boost after obtaining these items. Because of this, the girls had recently been spending their rest time learning how to adapt to and use these items, thus reducing their time spent with Gao Hai.

No, I can't say that. It's because of the dungeon stuff lately that I haven't been able to relax or enjoy my daily life. Sigh, I don't know when this will end. The previous "Campus Ghost Stories" already touched on the seemingly very profound "Form of the Root." I hope we can go further and uncover some kind of truth next.

Why do you seem so preoccupied today?

Kita Ikuyo, who was floating beside him yawning, looked at Takami's face and asked with some doubt.

"Haven't I been preoccupied with worries these past few days? I've gathered a ton of information about the [Infant Cry Village] instance, but I still don't understand what's going on there. Just thinking about what kind of amazing skills they'll show me there makes it impossible for me to relax, okay?"

Gao Hai was too lazy to communicate via mental link, so he spat out the mouthwash and then spoke directly.

{Really? I thought that after you cleared all the major areas of [Campus Ghost Stories] and truly conquered this extremely difficult Red Moon-level dungeon, you had already looked down on dungeons of that level...}

As Kita spoke, he idly performed an astronaut-style spin next to Takami.

Because her avatar was wearing a neon school uniform, as she rolled over, a little bit of the color above her thighs was revealed, which Gao Hai caught a glimpse of.

However, before Takami could admire it for long, Kita covered her skirt warily and glared at Takami.

{What are you looking at?!}

The wary Kita was like a victim who had encountered a creepy old man.

"What's there to see? Don't worry, I won't look at you on my own initiative. Haha, don't overthink it."

Gao Hai, however, showed no reaction whatsoever, completely disregarding Kita's wariness, and even scoffed.

{What do you mean "what's there to see"?! You're being really unreasonable! How could Pochi-chan have fallen for a guy like you? And you've done all sorts of things with other girls, but you show absolutely no interest in Pochi-chan. Are you deliberately stringing Pochi-chan along?}

Kita was clearly angered by Takami's reaction and immediately started shouting back, eventually bringing up the topic of Goto Ichiri again.

However, there was nothing that could be done about it, since Kita found the relationship between Takami and Goto Ichiri to be too strange.

They weren't exactly friends, but the man and woman slept together on the floor every day, often embracing the moment they opened their eyes. They weren't exactly lovers either, but there were no sweet words, no dates, no kissing, and certainly no intimacy. They were like an old married couple, showing absolutely no romantic feelings for each other.

This is really confusing.

Kita Ikuyo couldn't understand this kind of relationship between a man and a woman. In her opinion, one of Takami and Goto Ichiri must have a problem... no, maybe both of them have a problem?

"I can't really give you a good answer to this kind of thing. After all... well... how should I put it? I think I can be considered a comrade-in-arms who have gone through thick and thin together, and a fellow traveler who fights together with a common goal. The romantic feelings you mentioned are not very obvious from my perspective."

This question stumped Gao Hai somewhat. He thought about it for a while before giving a rough answer, and then walked towards the bathroom while talking.

"Alright, I'm going to take a shower now, you should leave too."

Out of politeness, Gao Hai also reminded Kita.

{It's not like I haven't seen it before, and I'm not interested in seeing your body anyway, sob... I want to practice guitar, I haven't practiced for so many days and I feel like I've almost forgotten my fingering, but unfortunately, I don't have a body to look at...}

As Kita spoke, he drifted away a bit, passing through the wall of the washroom and into the outer corridor.

Gao Hai noticed that she was muttering to herself about things related to guitar and singing. It seemed that although the girl had to leave the band, she still missed her past life and wanted to go back to that time.

Unfortunately, I can't easily do something like that, but... maybe when Ichiri comes back, I can let Kita practice with her through my body? Although I'm not really interested in playing instruments or singing, maybe that could alleviate some of the girl's loneliness?

While he was thinking, Gao Hai had already turned on the shower.

Amidst the rushing water, the first thing to hit Gao Hai was the icy cold water, followed by the warm water a little while later.

While taking a shower, listening to Kita's faint humming outside, Takami couldn't help but recall what happened when he and Goto Ichiri traveled through time to change the past.

If I remember correctly... well, that should have been when he and Yili had just started cooperating, when they had just traveled to the earliest period of the establishment of Yeluoshan Middle School, and they were still a little unsure of how to proceed, and there was not much tacit understanding between them.

"I...I will risk my life and my soul to do it well, Mr. Gao Hai!"

Because she was in a confined space and had no way to avoid Takami's gaze, Goto Ichiri, with tears in her eyes, made a vow to Takami, her mind filled with unspoken thoughts.

"We don't need to go that far. Our priority should be self-preservation. We can't act recklessly. There's no experience to draw upon regarding how time works and how to change the future without altering the past. So we must be extremely careful and conduct some preliminary tests first. Come on, don't be nervous. I'll handle the operation. You can use the guitar as cover."

Well, back then, Gao Hai was kind of like a parent trying to comfort a child. Basically, whenever something went slightly wrong, Goto Ichiri would anxiously take the blame, then suddenly become self-destructive. Hmm, if I remember correctly, once during a personnel transfer, she was so exhausted she couldn't breathe properly, and to avoid revealing her problem, she held her breath and endured it for a while until the transfer was complete before finally fainting.

Ah, speaking of which, it was that time that I unzipped her tracksuit because I was having some difficulty breathing.

In Gao Hai's view, the scene at that time was a famous scene comparable to the breast-wrapping seal of Fujiwara Chika.

It didn't look anything special when she was wearing sportswear, but as soon as she took it off, you could immediately see the clear curves. It's really amazing.

The so-called "anime and manga" world is truly incredible in many ways, and perhaps this is one aspect of the end times.

Recalling the girl's strange reaction—as if she were both frightened and prepared—when she mistakenly thought she was about to be assaulted, Gao Hai couldn't help but laugh.

After showering, I dried myself off and changed my clothes.

When Takami arrived at the dining room, Hayasaka hadn't prepared breakfast today. She had contacted Takami yesterday to say she couldn't come this morning because of something else. However, even so, Takami still got to eat breakfast made by Hayasaka herself, or rather, she got to eat the breakfast Hayasaka made yesterday using some special object of her obsession.

【The Copy Magic Box】—that's the name Gao Hai gave to this Dark Night-level obsession. This obsession consists of two iron boxes welded together, each 40 centimeters long and 30 centimeters wide and high. The boxes are decorated with ornate patterns, and both have opening and closing mechanisms.

This peculiar object of obsession possesses the ability to [copy]. Simply open one of the boxes, place an item no larger than the box itself inside, and then close the box. When you open the box again, an identical copy will appear in the previously empty box. Using this object, Takami copied all the breakfast Hayasaka made for her yesterday, so today she only needs to heat it up.

Of course, since it's an object of obsession possessing the power of replication, trying to put other objects of obsession into the box is a perfectly normal experiment. Unfortunately, according to the test results, no matter what level of obsession was placed inside, this thing could only replicate superficially impressive fakes without any extraordinary characteristics. However, based on Jianzi's judgment, although the extraordinary items replicated by this thing are essentially fake, they are very similar in aura. If used properly, they might produce unexpected results.

Furthermore, according to Miko's observation, the source of this obsession seems to be a down-on-his-luck and disrespected magician. Therefore, if one does something such as putting things in two boxes at the same time, deliberately damaging or dirtying the boxes, or doing anything else that is disrespectful to the magic performance, this obsession will quickly go out of control and can also curse the user. It is an obsession that needs to be handled with care.

However, judging from the fact that Gao Hai was not attacked when he copied the food with this thing, the situation of "disrespecting magic performance" should be quite limited, and it is not the kind of sensitive thing that would trigger a judgment if something is slightly wrong in normal times.

After eating and drinking to our hearts' content, it was time to head out.

It's the weekend, and even if he went to school, there probably wouldn't be anyone there. So Gao Hai decided to go find his girls and see if he could have a nice day.

Just as he was about to leave, a message suddenly came through the mental link.

"Hmm? You guys are with Kaguya."

The message came from Maki. She and Chika were at Kaguya's residence, training together with Kaguya and Hayasaka on controlling obsessive objects.

The purpose of this communication that reached Gao Hai was to ask for help.

It seems that something happened to Kaguya during training.

hum-

Andres's teleportation blessing was activated swiftly.

Realizing that it might be a troublesome issue, Gao Hai did not hesitate and immediately rushed to the Shinomiya residence in the most efficient way.

Opening his eyes, Takahashi saw a somewhat flustered Maki, Chika and Hayasaka who were clearly trying to suppress their laughter, and Kaguya herself, who paused for a second after seeing Takahashi, then retreated without saying a word.

"What happened?"

Gao Hai looked at Kaguya and asked.

"..."

The girl didn't answer, she just shook her head.

Then, as if she could no longer hold it in, Kaguya's body suddenly trembled slightly.

The next moment, a pair of fluffy cat ears suddenly appeared on either side of her head.

Interlude 3-71: A proposal for a candy and maid game featuring a catgirl transformation.

[Animal Candy Box] This is a very interesting obsession item that was confirmed after the child's appraisal. It is not very practical.

In terms of appearance, this Dark Night-level obsession item is a vintage-looking candy box. Opening it reveals many hard candies wrapped in paper. Notably, all the hard candies are cut into different shapes, and the paper wrapping them is decorated with cartoon images of various small animals.

This extraordinary item, which looks like it's made from a child's obsession, is quite complicated to use. It can only be opened once per hour, and only three different shaped candies can be taken out at a time. After the user eats the candy, they will gain a special ability for the next half hour.

For example, after eating a dog-shaped hard candy, Hayasaka's sense of smell increased more than a hundredfold, and she clearly felt her energy levels rise, making her want to run around uncontrollably. Meanwhile, after eating a fox-shaped hard candy, Chika's face immediately turned crimson, her voice softened involuntarily, and she became incredibly clingy, dragging Takami to the bedroom without a care for others...

In short, every candy extracted from this thing has a completely different effect. The strangest thing is that even candies of the same shape produce different effects on different people. Afterwards, Miko tried eating a dog-shaped hard candy, the same kind that Hayasaka had eaten. As a result, Miko didn't experience any improvement in her sensory abilities or energy. Instead, she became extremely hungry, so hungry that she almost stole a little girl's takoyaki on the street. Takami had to buy her a lot of snacks because of this, but before she could even open them, Miko pounced on them.

As an object of obsession with significant limitations, bizarre and outrageous effects with no discernible pattern, it was simply treated as a toy. Of course, given its immense unpredictability, no one could imagine what use it would have in dungeons.

Incidentally, this thing is not only ridiculously effective, but also highly punitive. If the interval between opening the candy box is less than an hour, or if more than three candies are taken out at once, the user will be cursed with intellectual impairment, easily entering a state of mental deterioration and unable to correctly judge situations and think. For players who need to operate in extremely dangerous dungeons, this side effect is obviously extremely fatal.

Why this object of obsession possesses such strange characteristics remains unclear to Miko herself. She can only roughly determine that the source of its obsession is not a single strange object, but rather the result of a mixture of the wills of many deceased individuals. Furthermore, the effect of this object of obsession can change depending on the user, making it an extremely rare object of obsession with no fixed effect.

Unfortunately, rarity and usefulness are not entirely synonymous when it comes to extraordinary items like Omens of Obsession. Furthermore, according to Miko's own testing, besides the special function that is always triggered after consuming the candy, this strange Omen of Obsession seems to have some hidden effect—not exactly bad, but difficult to determine if it has any benefits. As for what that effect is and how to trigger it, Miko couldn't find the answer. While her extraordinary perception is powerful, it's not a magical tool that guarantees the desired result, and there's nothing she can do about it.

However, Gao Hai now knows what the hidden function of this thing is.

"Ugh... No, stop staring at me, meow."

Kaguya's face was full of embarrassment and anger. She stretched out her hands and covered her head with force, trying to cover her black cat ears.