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

Gao Hai was taken aback when the other party brought up this matter.

{That's right, the tickets for the [Sacrifice Game] give each instance a name. The Shirakawa Apartment instance is named [House of Corpses], and we did indeed see talking corpses inside, and the information we obtained was indeed left by the dead. The Red Nut Gray Hole is named [Claudication], and well, I have to say, after leaving that instance, I'm actually a bit afraid of deep caves and similar places now. Finally, there's [School Ghost Stories], which is unremarkable, but at least the name matches the instance's setting.}

So this is the key issue: the names given to dungeons in the previous "Sacrifice Game," whether meaningful or not, at least had some connection to the dungeon itself and possessed special significance. But what's the point of the dungeon name "Infant Cry Village"? Even if Ahai did discover the homonym "Nightingale Village," was the dungeon's name merely a play on homophones?

{Although I've never met the Keeper (KP) and don't know what these non-humans are thinking, based on your description of the KP "Doll," Ahai, it seems to be someone on the side of human civilization who hopes for our ultimate victory, right? If that's the case, would it give the dungeon a meaningless name? I think only that "writer" you mentioned would do something like that, Ahai. I think the dungeon name "Infant Cry Village" might actually be a riddle given by them. Ahai, do you think that's a possibility?}

As she spoke, Chika walked up to Gao Hai, raised her head, and looked him in the eye seriously.

If "Infant Cry Village" is a puzzle with special significance, then the key to this puzzle must be the two words "infant cry."

{The baby's crying might seem to connect to the history of female infanticide that occurred within this instance, but I think that's too simplistic.}

{I'm thinking, Ahai, do you think this "baby crying" might actually represent some kind of action that needs to be completed but hasn't been actually done yet? Could it be an abstract "baby" that we need to figure out how to make "cry"?}

Chapter 106: Reflections on the "Infant Crying" and the People Who Begin to Take Action

How to make a "baby" cry?

Upon hearing Qianhua's guess, Gao Hai was slightly taken aback. Although he had previously considered whether the name of the dungeon, "Infant Cry Village," might have any special meaning, he had never actually thought of it in that direction.

After all, having already learned the name "Yingti Village" from the dungeon, Gao Hai would naturally be more inclined to believe that there was a connection between the two names "Yingti Village" and "Yingti Village". However, he did not expect that this was just a superficial appearance, and that the words "Yingti" might actually have another meaning.

Of course, if we're talking about exhaustive possibilities, Chika's idea isn't exactly unique. Frankly, since there's no particularly clear or defined strategy yet, it's normal to think outside the box and consider all the possibilities and doubts. However, Chika's main argument for this idea isn't based on the dungeon name "Infant Cry Village," but rather on the Keeper (KP) who had contact with Gao Hai twice and is now practically confirmed dead.

Gao Hai believes Qianhua's line of thinking is likely correct: as the only KP currently confirmed to be on the side of human civilization, the actions of [Doll] must be deeply meaningful. Its stance differs from other KPs, which determines that its underlying behavioral logic will have subtle differences. Combining this with the naming of the previous dungeons, it's almost certain that the name [Infant Cry Village] carries a special meaning.

However, this can't be entirely certain, since Chika's idea rests on the premise that the dungeon's naming is determined by the Keeper (KP). If a new setting suddenly appears stating that dungeon naming is unrelated to the KP and handled by something else, Chika's idea would completely lose its basis. But Gao Hai believes this possibility is highly unlikely. First, he's encountered two KPs, [Writer] and [Clown], in the Campus Ghost Stories dungeon and confirmed that the KP's interference in dungeons can reach terrifying levels. Second, judging from the current state of the unknown entity, [Sacrifice Game], its structure is very crude, with dungeon levels often exhibiting various chaotic phenomena, suggesting that its management is inevitably very disorganized and unlikely to be well-organized or structured.

Therefore, compared to fabricating a random namer out of thin air, it is more likely that the KP would be fully responsible for all aspects of a dungeon, from level and range to naming, taking on all the hard and tiring work and signing off on it.

So, returning to the question itself, what exactly does the term "making a baby cry" imply?

An infant… well, this probably doesn't refer to a real infant, but rather to some abstract concept. Something new, something unprecedented, something no one has ever achieved before. Perhaps, this instance can awaken a god? Or is it about creating a god? Creating a new god using the remains of several dead gods?

No matter how you look at it, this "baby" should be a concept related to God, it's just that no relevant traces have been found yet.

Well, returning to the second word in the title, regarding the issue of "crying," it probably doesn't actually refer to something making a crying sound. After all, "the cry of a baby" can be used as a metaphorical image. The cry of a newborn upon entering the world is the first sound of a new life. From this perspective, the original meaning of the name "baby crying" might be to find a way to awaken or create something of divine level within this instance, and to make it emit a sound audible as a newborn life.

If this idea is indeed feasible, who would this message be for?

A baby's cry is to let its parents know that the child has been born.

So, who is this special voice meant to hear and understand?

Wait, let’s put it this way…

Gao Hai's eyes widened as he realized a certain possibility.

If that's the case, well, although we don't know the specifics of how to do it yet, it can certainly serve as a reference path. This gives us a new direction for the investigation; I wonder if the clue from the flesh and blood stone statue also points to this path. If these two directions eventually converge, then we can be absolutely certain that this is the correct answer.

{As expected of you, Chika, you really are my little genius!}

Feeling that the previously foggy road ahead now had a new guiding light, Gao Hai was filled with emotion and simply picked up Qian Hua and kissed her.

{Hehe, who told me to be the great detective? Ah Hai, don't be too proud of me~}

Unlike Kaguya Maki, who is more reserved, Chika, upon hearing Takami's praise and joy, put her hands on her hips and openly displayed a proud and smug expression, looking extremely pleased with herself. This gave Takami the illusion that if she had a tail, it would definitely be held high in the sky.

However, it must be admitted that, unlike other girls whose thinking is always conventional, Chika, who is skilled in games, does have a more imaginative and unconventional way of thinking, thus providing Takami with breakthroughs in her thinking more than once. If one had to choose the person with the best reasoning ability in Takami's harem, it would definitely be Chika, with Takami herself having to take a backseat. Sometimes, Takami even couldn't help but wonder if Chika, with her or Miko's level of perception, could easily deduce all the clues in the dungeon on her own.

Hmm... Considering her personality, if she were to possess extraordinary perception, she might actually die faster than Jianzi if something were to happen.

{You two, what time is it and you're still playing around here? Hurry up and get ready for the next move!}

Because Gao Hai and Chika communicated through a private channel, Maki, who had finished supervising and confirmed that the Dark Night-level players had completed the roof construction and returned, only saw Gao Hai pick up Chika and kiss her twice from afar. Therefore, she couldn't help but speak up in the mental link with an annoyed tone.

{Hmm, is Little Zhenfei a little jealous? How about we let Ah Hai kiss you too?}

Chika blinked, gave Maki a mischievous smile, and deliberately spoke in the mental link.

{Who wants a kiss? I've already said we need to focus on important matters now. Hayasaka and Yotsuya have both disappeared; we can't let this continue. We need to concentrate on finding a solution. We can worry about this after we survive.}

However, Maki's attitude was very firm. Although her expression showed that she was indeed somewhat displeased, the girl's will was clearly not affected by Sesser's thoughts, and she remained focused on the important matter.

So Gao Hai took the initiative to step forward, lowered his head, and kissed Zhenfei.

{Um... what are you doing? Honestly, you should be more serious at a time like this.}

Got stared at.

But you could tell that her mood had improved a lot.

That's just how arrogant people are.

{Don't worry, I haven't let my guard down. Qianhua and I just discussed a new lead. However, it's just a guess for now, so our current plan won't change. Next, I'll go to [Water Ghost Lake] to look for the object of the Wedding Dress Ghost's obsession. I'll leave the well area to you guys to scout. If you find anything important, like finding [Liu Family Village], I'll use a teleportation blessing to get there.}

After exchanging a few words, Gao Hai left the village with a clone created by Goto Ichiri and headed towards the direction of the [Water Ghost Lake].

Not far away, Cat Brother of the Slacking-Off Gang silently watched Gao Hai leave, then looked at Maki Kaguya and the other two who were arranging their action plan, and showed a thoughtful expression.

"Brother Cat, what's wrong?"

Seeing that his boss's expression was rather serious, Xiao Guo asked curiously.

"It's nothing, I'm just a little worried about the difficulty of this dungeon."

Cat Brother shook his head, not explaining much to Xiao Guo.

Compared to the previous three playthroughs, Takahashi found the Slacker Gang much faster this time. From entering the village to arranging the plan to bringing over the Historian, who originally intended to act alone, Takahashi basically led the entire operation, with Maki handling the vast majority of the actions. During this process, the Slacker Gang and Historian players did consider helping out, but Kaguya and Chika had already done most of the support work, and if necessary, Ichiri could simply summon clones to do the work. As a result, since the start of this fourth playthrough, both the Slacker Gang and Historian players have been stuck waiting, absorbing the massive amount of information provided by Takahashi's team, and then simply waiting for the mission to begin.

To be honest, I'm a little confused.

Cat Brother could tell that in Gao Hai's player team, only Gao Hai and Goto Ichiri were truly at the Red Moon level. The other players were slightly weaker than proper Red Moon level players, barely qualifying as near-Red Moon level. Yet, these guys entered the dungeon like they were at home, incredibly proficient in every aspect, to the point that Cat Brother didn't even know what to say to offer advice, which was truly baffling.

However, considering Xiong Mi's description of Gao Hai before, it's somewhat understandable what's going on. It's just... since this situation has indeed arisen, does it mean that this is no longer in the "just beginning" stage?

"Taoist priest, according to your calculations, is there any chance we'll survive?"

Thinking of this, Cat Brother turned around and took the initiative to ask his teammates.

"Oh no, do we really need to ask him? When has he ever said we're doomed?"

Xiao Guo couldn't understand what Cat Brother was doing. In his opinion, asking this Taoist priest, who usually liked to put pressure on him, was simply courting death. Who knew what he was going to say next?

"We're all going to die here, no matter how you calculate it, the result is the same, we're all going to die in this instance... But this feeling is strange, I calculated that we're all doomed, but then I calculated that we're still alive, um, it's really strange, really strange, it's like we can't die, living a life worse than death..."

The Taoist priest answered solemnly, his expression somber and grave.

Hearing these words, Xiao Guo looked very unhappy and wanted to beat up this Taoist priest who only knew how to announce bad news, but Brother Cat just nodded slightly and didn't say anything more.

He knew that the historians nearby, also waiting for the operation to begin, must have the same doubts. However, unlike him, they didn't have Xiong Mi's spoilers to guess the possible scenarios. They were probably starting to wonder if Gao Hai's team was full of prophetic players.

In any case, it's about time to take action.

At least Gao Hai himself had taken the lead and launched an attack. In less than half a minute, he flew down from the mountain and plunged directly into the still lake without any ripples.

Collecting the four different Crimson Moon-level Core Obsessions within the instance and installing them on the pre-reserved space on the divine flesh and stone statue—frankly, Gao Hai found this process quite Japanese, reminiscent of collecting four Lords of Cinder and then running off to link the Fire. Of course, things would be much simpler if it were that easy. To be honest, Gao Hai had a feeling that even if he collected all four Core Obsessions, it might only yield a new clue. After all, compared to the Blood Blossom Vine, an Outer God, piling up Crimson Moon-level Core Obsessions was utterly meaningless. Even if he found a hundred Crimson Moon Core Mysteries, they would be useless against the Blood Blossom Vine.

Even now, with his strength greatly enhanced, the Red Moon-level core monsters are no longer a deadly threat to Gao Hai. Although he still lacks the ability to directly kill or destroy the monsters and can only find a way to eliminate them through the mystery mechanics, he no longer needs to fear them in direct confrontation.

Gulu gulu——

The lurking creature in the water has become active and is approaching Gao Hai, who jumped into it.

The core obsession of the Red Moon level, this chilling aura, is actually strangely familiar.

After a moment of quiet reflection, Gao Hai summoned his rescue team badge, then his police officers, drew his pistol, and finally summoned an aerial bomb.

boom--

After a blinding flash of light, Gao Hai and the police officers dragged a stiff corpse dressed in a wedding gown from the water onto the shore. To subdue the creature, Gao Hai used three suppression rounds and also used aerial bombs to scoop up a lot of silt to cover it. Because Gao Hai had discovered last week that the strange creatures in the lake were suppressed by the silt at the bottom of the lake, he had managed to bring up quite a bit of that mud this time.

We had already searched the bottom of the lake but found no trace of the object of our obsession, so the focus now is to determine if this thing has it on its body.

"Alright, so where is the item?"

So after placing the filthy, wedding-dress-clad corpse on the ground, Gao Hai immediately stepped forward without hesitation and began to rummage through it, searching the thing for the object of his obsession.

Chapter 107: If you want to cry, I will listen carefully.

It is a regrettable fact that the object of this strange wedding dress is not actually itself.

Gao Hai suppressed his nausea and examined the thing's swollen body from head to toe, inside and out. He discovered that the thing did not carry any obsession objects, and for a moment he felt very unhappy that he had been tricked.

However, this situation is quite normal, as there is no such thing as a possessive object necessarily being on a ghost. For example, the core possessive object of Hayate Elementary School was hidden inside a door in the underground test area, while Chiyo Hachiya, the core possessive object, was running around with a machete. This is a very clear example.

Is this considered sexual harassment?

Kita's somewhat muffled voice echoed in Takami's mind.

{Oh? You can talk now? Looks like you're recovering quickly this time. You're adapting well, that's great!}

From the girl's voice, Gao Hai could tell that she wasn't in a very good state. However, considering what she had gone through with him, it was already quite incredible that she still had the energy to complain. Therefore, Gao Hai replied to her in a relaxed tone.

However, Kita himself clearly had a different opinion regarding Takami's attitude.

{adapt?}

The voice in my mind carried a hint of resentment, as if it were about to go mad.

{Throughout this instance, all these experiences... do you think I'm gradually adapting?}

Do you even know how I feel right now?

{This feeling, as if my soul were being torn apart, my whole being shattered into pieces. Even the most terrifying nightmares I've ever had pale in comparison. I... I've had enough. I don't want to experience this anymore, this painful death followed by rebirth, and then going through it all again... Do you know what I'm saying...?}

Her voice was trembling.

The girl, who Gao Hai always remembered as incredibly cheerful, was now trembling uncontrollably, as if she had reached her limit.

So it really is like this? It's not that hard to understand, after all, he's long past that stage. Seeing her reaction now, how should I put it, Gao Hai found himself actually feeling a sense of satisfaction, like watching a junior grow up.

{Of course I know exactly what that feels like}

As he answered Kita in his mind, he looked again at the corpse of the wedding dress-clad monster that he had pinned to the ground.

{To experience a painful death and then return to the very beginning is like waking from a nightmare only to find oneself unable to escape and forced to confront the terrifying things that killed one.}

I've experienced this feeling more than ten times. The longest one lasted a full month and a half. During that time, I struggled desperately, to the point where I almost forgot who I was, before my teammates finally managed to free me.