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

Who watches over the three realms and ten directions, where so many sorrowful brows and tearful eyes lie?

All that could be heard was a sob, a forced smile masking a sorrowful heart.

[But when the whole world is filled with fear and joy, everyone's laughter fills the universe~]

With each song, the humanoid flesh and blood swarmed around Gao Hai. In less than a minute, more than 30 humanoid blood flowers had gathered around him. Moreover, apart from the children at the beginning, the adult-shaped blood flowers that appeared later were all carrying farm tools such as sickles and hoes, and they seemed quite afraid of Gao Hai.

Chapter 35: The Crimson Village in a Deadly Cycle and the Next Target

The air was very polluted.

The strong stench of decay and blood mixed in with the already damp air gave one the feeling that mold was about to grow in their lungs.

However, this kind of thing is nothing to Gao Hai.

Compared to the slightly unpleasant smell, Gao Hai felt that the village's artistic style was more worthy of discussion. After all, the blood-red flowers covering the mountains and fields were simply too vibrant and too dazzling.

red.

A crimson red that blots out the sky.

Countless crimson vines and blood flowers spread everywhere, growing continuously on everything Gao Hai could see.

Even the sky took on a dark red hue, with thick clouds completely covering it. An unknown source of dark red light shone through the clouds, adding to the eerie and bizarre atmosphere of the already eerie blood-red village.

Could that thing above the clouds, emitting a red glow, be the red moon that is bound to exist in the Red Moon-level dungeon?

Thinking this, Gao Hai lowered his head and looked at the thing in front of him.

Liu Family Village

On the outskirts of the village, which was covered with blood-red flowers, he found a half-collapsed door plaque that was so blurred that it was almost unrecognizable.

Subsequently, by comparing it with the Liu Family Village in his memory, which was filled with paper figures, Gao Hai finally determined that although the two villages were vastly different in appearance, their overall house layout, road divisions and directions were exactly the same, and could be said to be completely identical.

No, it's not just [Liu Family Village]. In fact, including [Li Family Village], and the village that Goto Ichiri entered—a place filled with a deathly stillness and devoid of any active individuals—every building and every road in the four different villages discovered so far corresponds perfectly to each other. Perhaps there are some differences outside the villages—for example, the signboard outside [Li Family Village], the graves outside the unnamed village, the mountain god temple outside [Liu Family Village] at night, and so on. But only the village areas are completely identical, one-to-one correspondences, without any discrepancies.

Why is this so?

Gao Hai pondered silently, but he couldn't come up with any answer for the time being. He was only certain that the specific area of ​​the [village] probably had an extraordinary significance in the instance, so much so that no matter which space he traveled to, this place could maintain a certain stability and convergence.

Aside from that, disregarding the village which has now changed its appearance four times, it is the villagers of this blood-red village that Gao Hai is more concerned about.

【■■■■……】

Amidst the indistinct murmurs, a twisted and tangled figure walked past Gao Hai.

It was a figure that maintained a basic human shape, and judging from its outline, it was probably an adult male.

The reason for using "probably" is that the thing was essentially just a shape formed by blood-red vines and flowers intertwined together. It was similar to the plant zombie in Resident Evil 2 Remake that Gao Hai had played, or even more advanced, because there was no trace of human tissue or bone left on it, only pure vines and flowers.

As for what this thing is doing, just look at the hoe it carries on its shoulder and the other vine-like humanoids busy at work outside the village not far away, and you'll understand. Yes, that's right, this twisted and bizarre-looking monster is about to do farm work, or rather, it's doing something that "looks like it's doing farm work."

After all, the rice and vegetables in the fields had all turned into blood-red flowers and vines, and there was really nothing worth tending to, let alone anything that could be eaten.

【■■■……■■……】

More sounds began to resound in the village.

Gao Hai looked into the village again and saw several children made of blood-red vines and flowers chasing each other on the dirt road, waving branches and stones, looking very lively and cheerful.

There were also some vine-like people who looked like women washing wriggling vines and flowers by the blood-red river, as if they were washing clothes. If you went inside the house, you could see vine-like people burning vines in a stove covered with vines, cooking vines and flowers in a large pot, just like they were cooking.

When they first arrived, these vine-like beings displayed strong hostility towards Gao Hai, or perhaps… fear? In any case, when they surrounded him with hoes, sickles, and cleavers, he did wonder if he would be beaten to death on the spot by these mutated villagers. But perhaps the blood flowers growing on their bodies attracted their attention, because after surrounding Gao Hai for a while, they suddenly dispersed on their own, completely losing interest in him. No matter what Gao Hai did, they simply continued doing what they were doing, ignoring him completely, even when he barged into their bedroom and ransacked it.

This seems to be a place that has entered a vicious cycle.

After walking around the village for a long time, Gao Hai couldn't help but have this thought.

He repeatedly observed the actions of many villagers and discovered that they were essentially repeating a certain behavior; one could even say that the entire space was in a repetitive cycle. For example, a villager who chopped wood would always pick up an axe in one spot, walk to the woods outside the village, cut some branches, and then walk back. Gao Hai tried to take the axe away from this villager, but the villager didn't react at all, continuing to hold the axe in the same motion, swinging it around in the air, and the branches would actually break as the axe was swung.

Then, without Gao Hai noticing, the axe disappeared from his hand and returned to the villager's. Even if he put the axe into a spatial artifact, it would disappear after a while. Gao Hai then checked the branches the villager had cut and found that they would disappear on their own after the villager returned, put down the axe, and piled them in the corner. The cut branches in the woods would then regenerate, and then the villager would set off again, chopping and collecting once more.

All the villagers are repeating a set of actions, some long and some short, mostly lasting about 5 to 10 minutes. Any object that interacts with these actions will return to its original state after the repetition ends, awaiting the villagers' return. As an observer, no matter how much Gao Hai tries to interfere, he can only cause the villagers to pause their actions, return to the starting point of the loop, and then reset to start a new round of actions.

The crimson flowers and vines that grew by absorbing Gao Hai's flesh and blood exhibited completely different properties on these villagers. They neither killed the villagers outright, turning them into inanimate objects, nor did they transform them into highly aggressive monsters like Miko. They simply repeated the same action over and over again, without any other reaction. Even the initial aggression shown towards Gao Hai was not triggered again, leading Gao Hai to even begin to doubt whether these things had ever shown him any hostility at all.

Furthermore, he did not find any statues of the Fox Queen in the village.

The intelligence reports stated that Liu Family Village worshipped the so-called Fox Goddess, yet the presence of the Fox Goddess could be found in Liu Family Village under the cover of night, while there was nothing in the village covered by blood-red flowers.

Not only the Fox Goddess, but the altar of the Ghost Suppressor is also absent here. The ancestral hall in Li Family Village where the Mountain God statue is placed is also empty in this space.

Following the same route Kaguya and the others took during their first playthrough, Gao Hai went to the location of the mountain god temple in the woods, only to find that there was only a ruin that looked like it had been burned down, with only the foundation and some remaining walls.

No readable or recognizable documents were found.

Even after Gao Hai thoroughly searched the entire village, he couldn't find any documents that provided information or any valuable clues.

There is only a group of villagers trapped in a cycle, and blood-red flowers everywhere in sight.

Just like this space, this world has been completely abandoned and decommissioned, Gao Hai has no way of finding anything meaningful here.

Is this the real Liu Family Village?

Gao Hai reached out and rubbed his forehead, then plucked the flower that had grown on his cheek and let out a long sigh.

He spent nearly half an hour exploring Liu Family Village. By then, large amounts of blood flowers had grown all over his body, and even wearing the rescue team badge couldn't stop the growth of these monstrous things.

Time is running out.

Staying in this village any longer is pointless.

But it doesn't make sense. The scoundrels in Lijia Village are living so well, constantly killing and obtaining flesh and blood under the guidance of the mountain god, so how come Liujia Village is in such a terrible state? According to the intelligence provided by the Red Society, the people of Liujia Village were all living well, weren't they?

Or perhaps I've entered at the wrong time?

Gao Hai frowned, silently recalling what he had said to the Fox Queen.

To be as cautious as possible, he said he wanted to go to "the current Liu Family Village," to "the Liu Family Village area within this instance." If this fox spirit is being overly precise with her words to grant her wish, then the problem might lie in the word "current." After all, the phrase "the Liu Family Village within this instance" isn't entirely accurate; there's never a single identical area within an instance, something Gao Hai already learned in the Red Nut Gray Cave.

"Before, during, and after the system was fixed, aside from the fixed version of the [Infant Cry Village] instance I visited, this place presented a completely different appearance before and during the system was fixed, and it was also different during and after the system was fixed. Some players would enter the abandoned village, some players would enter the village where three different groups of villagers gathered, but what I saw were villages with different surnames that were independent and separated from each other. This may represent the difference in the timeline."

"In other words, each different village is a slice of a past history that has been transformed and altered. And the 'present' Liu Family Village may very well represent the final Liu Family Village, one that will no longer change. In other words, I have arrived at the 'ending' of Liu Family Village?"

Gao Hai muttered to himself, trying to summarize and analyze his current situation.

This interpretation seems much more reasonable.

No, that's not right. That alone probably isn't enough to explain everything.

After all, the villages he had seen so far were all evolved from a single template. They were like reused areas with different textures applied to the same set of map data, with no difference in their overall structure. However, Gao Hai still couldn't find any trace of the space where villagers of different surnames gathered together, which was discovered by players in a fixed phase.

So far, all four discovered spaces use the same village model, meaning that in a sense, these four villages are actually one entity. Therefore, when the Liu clan was wiped out by this strange blood flower, there's no reason why the Li family could have escaped unscathed. Keep in mind that Zhenfei and the others were at least top-tier Dark Night level players, yet they couldn't withstand even a second of that thing, instantly annihilated. Ordinary people simply couldn't have survived.

However, thinking this way seems to overlook the existence of the mountain god. After all, judging from the mountain god's reaction after I was infected by this thing, that thing must have faced the blood flower head-on and was able to deeply understand it.

Ah... it's still a mess. I thought I could unravel the mystery after entering Liu Family Village, but it seems the situation has become even more complicated. Tsk, and not only is it complicated, but if I can't find the Fox Queen here, leaving this place won't be so easy.

After a moment's thought, Gao Hai turned to look outside the village at the trees covered with blood-red flowers and vines.

Well, now that I'm here, I might as well try to go deeper. If I remember correctly, there should be something up here, like the [Ghost Cry Cave], and the [Bottomless Lake] where the river branches out.

Having made up his mind, Gao Hai started running faster towards the road leading up the mountain.

Soon, he arrived at the plaza where he had watched the welcoming ceremony for the gods during his first playthrough. Unlike [Li Family Village], this plaza was completely empty. There were no trees, no platforms, and not even vines or blood flowers growing here. The yellowish-brown ground was clearly visible.

Through the perspective of the "Teacher" lurking in the rescue team's badge, Gao Hai could clearly see that the strange welcoming ceremony for the gods had begun again in the square of "Li Family Village".

Cat-like characters, whom I'd met briefly during my first playthrough, were also in the plaza. They'd had initial contact with the rescue team and were aware of Gao Hai's existence. However, like the other players, they were currently trapped here and unable to take any action.

Speaking of which… villages in different dimensions seem to be connected in some way. For example, an aerial bomb detonated in Liu Family Village under the cover of night would have the same effect in Li Family Village. So, what would happen if an aerial bomb were detonated in this Blood Flower Dimension?

Thinking of this, Gao Hai paused slightly, and his eyes lit up.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Communication with the Fish-Fishing Gang and Further Exploration of the Li Family Village Space

Rewinding to a little over an hour earlier, at the same time Gao Hai entered Liujia Village under the cover of night, the teachers and police officers who had been specially left in Lijia Village were also acting under Gao Hai's command.

Even though Gao Hai's team was wiped out shortly after entering Liujia Village under the cover of night, leaving only Gao Hai, the operation on this side did not stop and remained under Gao Hai's command. However, because they did not know the movement route of the three players from the "Slacking Off Gang" beforehand, Gao Hai, despite ordering "Teacher" and the police officers to move as quickly as possible, was still unable to stop the three players in time before they entered the village.

Despite this, Gao Hai successfully located the three players' route, confirming they were in another woodland approximately 15 kilometers away from where he and his companions entered the instance. Notably, during this observation, Gao Hai discovered many hidden paths he hadn't found in his first playthrough. These inconspicuous paths covered numerous mountains and dense forests within a hundred-kilometer radius of the village, forming a complex and crisscrossing network. Unless a player possessed exceptional spatial awareness, it was virtually impossible to encounter other players along these woodland paths.

During this exploration, Gao Hai discovered that there were more than 30 different notice boards around the [Li Family Village]. By setting the length and path of each road, it was ensured that players entering the instance would almost never meet before entering the village, and that they would definitely see the text information on the notice boards shortly after entering the instance.

Through further observation, Gao Hai also discovered that the villagers who came to guide players into the village were not hiding near the notice board beforehand, but rather "spawned" directly near the notice board after the players had read the contents of the notice board. If it weren't for the fact that the person in charge of the investigation was a [Teacher] with the ability to become invisible, the rescue team members almost bumped into those villagers who appeared out of thin air around the notice board several times.

So, is there some hidden connection between the text on the notice and these villagers? Or did the act of "reading the information" itself trigger some rule?

Could it be that Li Duosun was able to throw Gao Hai into another dimension with just a few words during his first playthrough, and Li Ziyong was able to control the actions of Gao Hai's team members with just a few words, because they had seen the notices on the bulletin board?

Seeing and recognizing the dungeon rules is tantamount to acknowledging certain hidden rules. If this idea is correct, then does it mean that the very act of players entering a dungeon, finding the notice board, and seeing its contents is itself a trap?

Generally, players will quickly obtain a basic rule sheet upon entering a dungeon. This initial rule sheet is usually not very detailed, and its contents cannot guarantee a player's success. It merely provides a perspective on the dungeon, allowing players to understand their current location through the textual information. It can be considered a crucial early-game clue.

Because this has never happened in any of the Twilight, Dark Night, or Red Moon level dungeons, a consensus has formed among players: upon entering a new dungeon, everyone subconsciously assumes they can find a document recording the dungeon rules nearby. This has even been summarized by players as the first of the "Three Basic Rules of the Sacrifice Game," meaning players have developed a habitual way of thinking about it and no longer subconsciously question it. Even if there are initial rules like the "Alice's Game Rules," which do contain pitfalls, at least those are rule tables that can be referenced, and their problems can be discovered with careful examination.

The notice in the [Infant Cry Village] instance, at first glance, seems to have no major problems with its "rules," especially considering the survivor's message in the Liu Family Village Mountain God Temple under the cover of night. However, considering how these villagers exploit the rules, Gao Hai has to consider a possibility: the very act of players obtaining this rule sheet might trigger some hidden rule. Just like that invitation, it unknowingly leads players into a dangerous situation, giving the villagers of Li Family Village an absolute advantage in terms of the rules.

Of course, this is just speculation, and there's no concrete evidence to back it up. But for Gao Hai, having some guesses and inferences is enough for him to take action. After all, as a player, he's not restricted by the requirement of finding 100% accurate evidence before he can act.

Therefore, at the same time that Gao Hai was being embraced by the Fox Queen, the police officers, under his instructions, began searching all the notice boards near the village and relaying their locations to Gao Hai via a link on their badges. The reason for this was simple: he wanted to remotely lock onto all the notice boards with his pistol at the start of the third playthrough and destroy them all. For the Blessed Pistol, which could lock onto targets regardless of spatial distance, this was a relatively simple operation. Of course, such an attack could potentially cause Gao Hai's team a lot of trouble, just like that glance from the Mountain God earlier.

However, he'd leave those things for the next playthrough; he couldn't worry about those issues right now.

So, at the same time that Gao Hai finally arrived at Liujia Village, which was covered with blood-red flowers, the police officers began to walk quickly along the mountains and primeval forests near Lijia Village, searching for and marking the location of each sign.

As for the "teacher," he has already arrived in the village and found the three players from the "Fishing Gang" there.

The man known as "Cat Bro" was currently in a resident's bedroom. Of his two companions, one, who looked quite young, was standing guard at the bedroom door, while the other sat in a corner, staring intently at an old tortoise shell in his hand. The tortoise shell seemed to be an object of obsession, but Gao Hai couldn't figure out how to use it.

Unlike his own teammates, [Teacher], as a monster summoned by the rescue team badge, couldn't directly process Gao Hai's thoughts, nor could he establish a mental link to communicate. Although this thing had been largely rendered harmless, it was still essentially a monster from the Red Moon-level dungeon, and even top players would be courting death if they tried to interact with it mentally.

Furthermore, getting the "teacher" to fully execute the precise instructions given, even through verbal communication, is extremely difficult. The creatures that have become rescue team members still possess their own set of behavioral logic, making it very troublesome to force commands upon them. For example, when giving instructions to police officers, if a situation arises where both fighting an enemy and protecting others are required, Gao Hai finds it difficult to command the officers to act protectively; his creature-like behavioral logic strongly inclines the officers to rush in and eliminate the enemy. However, despite this, after trying for a while, Gao Hai eventually succeeded in finding the correct way to communicate.

[Cat Bro, the following is a listening comprehension question. Please listen carefully. Question 1: You are a member of the "Slacking Off Gang," while I am a friendly ghost summoned by an obsession object. My summoner is Gao Hai, a player you met through your companion Xiong Mi. How many people's networks are involved in establishing contact between you and me?]

[Question 2: A total of 55 players have entered the village, including 10 Red Moon level players and the remaining Dark Night level players. In half an hour, you will all be taken to the central square of Li Family Village to participate in the Welcoming the Gods Festival ceremony. It is possible that 8 players will choose to escape while the villagers are not paying attention. How many players will be present at the square to participate in the Welcoming the Gods Festival ceremony?]

[Question 3: The villagers of Li Family Village worship the mountain god of Xiaoheishan Mountain and are mainly of the Li clan. However, according to the Red Knot Society's earlier information, there should be villagers from three different clans in the "Infant Cry Village" instance. Do you think the other villagers are located in a physically separated area on the map that can be directly reached, or are they separated by some spatial force and can only be reached by specific means?]