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

As a player, if you kill ordinary humans, as long as it's not a large-scale disturbance or disruption of order, no one will care. If you're too cruel to other players outside of dungeons, people will question your behavior and exhibit various forms of resistance. However, because it's during the break between dungeons, everyone is struggling to survive, so generally, unless it's extremely excessive, not many people will intervene. But if you commit cruel acts against other players inside the dungeon without any legitimate reason, then the other players on your journey will have to consider whether you're worthy of their lives.

After all, ten out of ten players in the "Sacrifice Game" have mental disorders; it's just that the survivors manage to keep these issues within a reasonable range. That's why everyone is more sensitive to such things, especially in higher-level dungeons. Based solely on Gao Hai's investigation, it's known that "Chen Qiucai" manipulates and brainwashes players, arbitrarily killing Dark Night level players and deliberately leaving behind corpse parts—whether as items or loot—revealing a cold and cruel side to him, raising suspicions that he might cause trouble. If Xiong Mi were in his shoes, he would immediately focus on how to kill, destroy the corpses, and divide the loot without even considering whether action was necessary.

But how could a player who so brazenly displays his abnormal side and still reaches the Red Moon level not understand this principle? How could he not know that players at this level are very wary of such things?

Thinking of this, Cat Brother turned to look at Li Nianyou, who had a long face. This fake Taoist priest hadn't looked good since entering the dungeon, and now her face was almost scrunched up like a bitter gourd.

"What, have you figured out something bad this time?"

Cat Brother looked at the Taoist priest and asked.

"I've calculated it more than ten times, and all I can still predict is that we will all die a horrible death, and no one in the entire village will survive. Sigh, but when I calculate whether we can pass the dungeon, I'm certain we can. Is there a bug in my blessing? Can the power of blessings really have bugs?"

The Taoist priest pondered for a long time, then sighed and said with a troubled expression.

"I'm telling you, even if you get a bad result, you don't have to keep repeating it. We're still in a dungeon, and you keep saying we're going to die every now and then. How can you put that kind of pressure on yourself?"

Xiao Guo held back for a long time, but finally couldn't help but complain.

I really want to punch him...

But we can't beat them.

This fake Taoist priest, while not a top-tier expert in the Lazybones Gang, possessed exceptional resilience and close-quarters combat skills. Every member of the gang, including the boss, had beaten him, forging him into an extraordinary fighter. Xiao Guo, on the other hand, had only entered the Red Moon level dungeon once or twice, a newbie just reaching that level. Without using items of attachment or blessings, and without risking his life, he truly couldn't defeat Li Nianyou.

So why does this guy have to keep saying such annoying things that are so irritating, and yet he's also such a good fighter?!

Xiao Guo was bitter and angry, but he really had no choice.

"Alright, stop worrying about it. You'll get used to it eventually. That's just how fake Taoists are. Alright, fake Taoist, turn on your short-term prediction. We might have to make a move soon. I'll give you a signal, and you can buff us."

Cat Brother shook his head and sighed. He said one last thing to Li Nianyou before opening the door to come out.

Before leaving, however, he paused and looked at a small altar on the side of the house where the incense and candles had burned out, and a small stone on the altar representing the [Little Black Mountain God].

Walk to the altar, take out new incense and candles from beside the altar, light them, and insert them.

After thinking for a moment, Cat Brother ultimately decided not to try worshipping the thing, but instead left the house with his two teammates and headed to the meeting point.

Chapter 56: The Players' Moments of Action and Feelings of the Overflowing Water

Chen Qiucai did not appear among the gathered players.

After the players in the village gathered, Gao Hai discovered that Chen Qiucai had vanished, along with the unfortunate Dark Night-level player he had seen the previous night. The room where Chen Qiucai had stayed the night before had been replaced by two human skin dolls emanating the auras of Chen Qiucai and another player, capable of repeating simple actions, thus deceiving Gao Hai and preventing him from immediately discovering the truth.

So, this guy already realized I was going to make a move against him, so he ran away beforehand?

How come the other party reacted in advance? Did I reveal anything when I contacted him? At that time, I clearly had no intention of doing anything to this guy. Could it be because I mentioned the Slacking Off Gang that he realized what the Slacking Off Gang might say and ran away? Tsk, something feels strange about this. Who exactly is this Chen Qiucai? Why was he completely inactive in the previous two playthroughs?

The unexpected situation made Gao Hai a little irritated, but he was not distracted for long. He quickly focused his attention on communicating with the other players who were also trapped in the dungeon.

The initial communication wasn't particularly smooth. Even with three players from the "Slacking Off Gang" stepping forward, everyone was still in a state of anxiety. Fortunately, these people were genuine players who had experienced at least three dungeons, so no matter how scared they were, they wouldn't deliberately go against Gao Hai like the high school students at Fujika Middle School.

Speaking of which, those high school students are currently in the instance as well. Although the [Market] is looking after them, it's impossible to truly ensure everyone's well-being. I suspect quite a few will enter the Dark Night level instance as ordinary people. It's a truly disheartening thought; I can only hope that as many of them as possible survive.

"If you don't mind, let us help out too."

At this moment, a player stepped forward and spoke in a very friendly manner.

This was a bald, white male, about 1.7 meters tall, with a completely shiny head. He called himself "Jackta" and came from a Red Moon-level player organization known as the "Bald Squad".

Cat Brother had vaguely heard of this player organization. Apparently, a player team had recently cleared a Red Moon-level dungeon and reached the Red Moon level. Their name was something like the Bald Guy Team. As for the specifics of this team, he wasn't very clear. Although Red Moon-level players usually stayed within a certain circle, there were always some who were out of the loop, especially some teams that had just reached this level and didn't yet understand the situation.

The "Bald Squad" is a small player group consisting of three people. It's worth noting that while the leader, Jackta, is indeed 100% bald, his two teammates both have beautiful, flowing hair, making them seem completely unrelated to baldness. Gao Hai doesn't know much about these two members, only noticing that they look almost identical—in height, hair color, body type, and so on—they resemble twin sisters.

No, wait, they don't seem to be twin sisters.

One of the older or younger sisters clearly has an Adam's apple!

Cross-dressing? Or something even more extreme, androgyny?!

Gao Hai was somewhat shocked; it was the first time he had ever seen such a situation in reality.

In short, the player named Jackta and his two companions were relatively friendly, unlike Chen Qiucai, who seemed to have "suspicious" written all over his face. Therefore, they could chat for a bit and try to cooperate.

The historians did not come.

However, it wasn't because they disrespected Gao Hai, but because they were being hunted down.

Gao Hai had always been unsure whether the power was a lingering obsession or a blessing, but the ability to force strange creatures to answer questions had now revealed a significant side effect: after a period of use, it would attract intense attention from the creatures and lead to a highly intense pursuit. Although the village entered "daytime" after the rooster crowed, causing the knocking strange creatures to vanish, the three players from the "Historian" faction had clearly triggered something far more significant. They couldn't even go back to their rooms to pack their belongings and could only flee the village in a sorry state.

Because the power of the land deed only applies to the village itself, Gao Hai didn't know where they had gone.

Unfortunately, without those three, we only have six Red Moon level players willing to help. No, to be precise, only three. Only the "Slacking Off" gang are reliable teammates we know well. The situation with the bald guy's team hasn't been tested yet, so it's unreliable and we need to observe them further.

After all, although these three players claimed to have just reached the Red Moon level, all three possessed methods to shield themselves from mental detection. Gao Hai's blessing did not elicit any positive or negative emotional responses from them. Although this could be explained as self-preservation, or as not wanting others to probe his inner thoughts, Gao Hai still remained cautious.

"Alright, let's roughly divide up the operations. Don't worry, everyone, the frontal assault missions of exploring and gathering intelligence won't be assigned to you. After all, if something unexpected happens, your strength is insufficient to deal with the danger. Therefore, what I need you to do is to protect this village that has now been transformed into a safe zone, and ensure that when the next [Night] comes, we can unite more effectively, instead of being scattered in different houses."

As Gao Hai spoke to the players, he quickly brought up an idea that Qian Hua had mentioned earlier.

In Li Village at night, a crucial rule exists: **stay inside buildings with rooftops.** Therefore, connecting the rooftops of different buildings in some way, and creating more walls and additional roof edges for connection, might broaden the scope of this rule, allowing players to visit each other and coordinate their actions at night. Alternatively, if that doesn't work, digging tunnels to connect different buildings and create pathways is another approach. Considering there are dozens of players here with physical abilities stronger than Captain America and various superpowered gadgets, Gao Hai thinks combining both methods is more appropriate.

"I have a magical artifact that can create rapidly hardening clay; it's a Dark Night-level artifact. However, the clay created by this thing is easily destroyed and doesn't possess any eerie properties. Moreover, rotting corpse parts will slowly grow inside the clay, and it will smell rather unpleasant."

"I have a small rice scoop here that can easily dig through the soil. It's an obsession item I found in a prison instance. However, every 10 minutes while digging, this thing turns the soil it digs out into human excrement. If you want to use this thing, you have to clean up the dug-out soil pile in time."

"Me, me, me, I have a hoe as my obsession. It digs really fast, but players who use it develop masochistic tendencies and become lazy. They have to be whipped or kicked from behind to continue using it after digging for a while. Also, it seems like feeding players who use the hoe watermelon juice and fried chicken works too, but I don't know why."

"I also have a 'Spirit Object' that can generate bricks and concrete, but to use it, a player needs to sign it. It has to be the player's signature. After signing, the 'Spirit Object' can generate building materials out of thin air, but the materials are very weak. They're the kind that will cause buildings with more than three stories to collapse. Also, the player who signs it will have bad luck and will be easily targeted by monsters. So if you don't have a 'Spirit Object' that adds luck, you'd better not use this thing lightly."

"Oh, I also have an item here that can generate planks. The planks are pretty strong, and they even grow delicious ship maggots inside. The only downside is that it might occasionally generate bloody planks when used. In that case, the player closest to the plank will be strangled by an invisible rope and hung up. So only players who aren't afraid of hanging should touch this thing. Anyone want to try it?"

Organizing these players' actions was not difficult. Everyone was smart, and they quickly found a few useful items. Then, they automatically divided the work into groups and began to act.

After these Dark Night-level players started taking action, Gao Hai's side also quickly sprang into action, beginning preparations for the three different exploration directions.

As a first step, Gao Hai decided to retrieve the body from the well in the Li Family Compound and clear the way.

For the tasks of finding the paper figure and going to the [Water Ghost Lake], Goto Ichiri created several clones to search for the former, while Takami first sent the [Teacher] to the lakeside to check if the rescue team could go down to retrieve the paper figure; if not, then they would send people in.

So the three players from the Fishing Gang and the three players from the Bald Squad gathered in the courtyard. Gao Hai walked to the sealed well, reopened it, and revealed the corpse soaking in the water below.

"She looks like a girl; it's quite pitiful that she died like that."

Cat peeked down into the well and casually commented on the situation.

"Mr. Gao, are you sure this is a passageway? I have a feeling that if this corpse is released, it might become a threat."

Jack also peered down into the well and thoughtfully spoke up.

"Regardless of whether that thing is a threat or not, we have to get down here now, at least to clear this path. I didn't touch it before because I was afraid it would survive if we pulled it up. Now that there are so many players here, if it pulls it up and wipes us all out, we can only accept our bad luck."

Gao Hai shrugged, reminding Zhenfei and the others who were observing the situation from behind to be careful via the mental link, while summoning a bundle of red soft rope. At any moment, he threw it, and the rope flew into the well and trapped the corpse as if it had eyes.

The object of obsession is effective in confirming that the other person's biological sex is indeed female.

Gao Hai held one end of the rope and saw that the thing had indeed bound the corpse tightly. He then slowly applied force and began to pull the thing up from below.

Guo, a member of the "Slacking Off Gang," took a step back, slightly hunching over, ready to act. The Taoist priest, Li Nianyou, pulled out a copper coin from somewhere, closed his eyes, pressed it to his forehead, and chanted incantations. Only Cat Brother remained squatting beside Gao Hai in his Asian squatting posture, casually watching the corpse being pulled up.

On the other side, the twins, members of the bald-headed squad, stood not far away, silently watching without making any special moves. Jackta, meanwhile, stood in front of the well, staring at the opening, a gray-black throwing knife clutched in his hand, seemingly ready to hurl it at any moment.

呲——呲——

As the body was slowly pulled toward the well opening, everyone could clearly hear the sound of the body rubbing against the well wall.

The surrounding temperature has dropped considerably.

Although the bound corpse did not move, everyone present could clearly feel the spread of an abnormal aura, which meant that their current act of pulling the corpse would inevitably trigger some kind of strange entity.

Could it be the corpse itself?

Or will something else appear around us?

Gao Hai speculated about the possible scenarios, but his hands never stopped moving.

thump—

A muffled thud was heard as the corpse's head struck a protruding rock on the well wall.

Gao Hai narrowed his eyes slightly. He noticed that after the corpse was hit, its body exhibited some abnormal twisting, especially the torso, which showed signs of slight bulging and contraction. This made him wonder if the thing was coming back to life. But Gao Hai quickly realized that perhaps the commotion wasn't just the corpse's head hitting a rock. Perhaps... something hidden beneath the corpse was also bumped into because of the sudden stop caused by the dragging of the body.

Is this possible?

As we gradually pulled the body out of the water, something was lurking beneath it, silently crawling upwards. Because it was obscured by the body, it remained in my blind spot. If we hadn't suddenly stopped, causing it to bump into the body and react in some way, perhaps no one would have noticed its presence until the body was completely pulled out.

Gao Hai's spiritual power spread out in an instant.

Realizing the potential problem, he directly focused his mental energy on the corpse, peering through it into the darkness below.

Then, what he first felt was a suffocating, icy atmosphere, mixed with bubbles and words.

【don't want……】

The sound of sobbing was drowned out by the darkness.

No... I don't want this... I don't want this...

One after another, corpses floated in the water, bobbing up and down.

【Mountain God, we have offered our sacrifices this year. Please bless us and grant us favorable weather and a bountiful harvest.】

【Mountain God, this is your bride for this year, the most beautiful girl in the village. You must like this offering very much, right? Then please bless us, and while you're at it, curse those fools who believe in fox spirits. Curse them to be childless and die out completely, so that we can take over their land.】

[Mountain God, Mountain God, the offerings for this year have been made. Please bless us, please bless us who are suffering. Please bless us good people so that we may encounter a few more caravans passing by on the nearby mountain roads, so that we can rob a fat sheep, and plunder a lot of grain and women again.]

The devout prayers were carried across the water, making them appear blurry, yet one could still feel the overflowing desire in the heart of the supplicant.

The corpses were piled up in the dark water, filling the water and rising to the surface, their bodies swollen and whitish from the bubbling.

All the wails, all the cries, all the weeping were drowned in the water.

In the end, everything fell silent, all merging into the water.

Water can hold a lot of things.

The water completely submerged those things.

But water will eventually fill up and overflow.

Water overflowing with pain.

Water overflowing with despair.