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

{So, this is the real experience of death regression that you, Miss Kita, know about. Starting over after death—that's what it's like after you actually experience it. Whether you like it or not, it will continue to operate this way. I'm used to it. To be honest, I'm not sure if I want you to get used to it, but given the current situation, as long as you can't separate yourself from me, this is bound to happen sooner or later.}

As he spoke, Gao Hai had already taken out a blood-stained pencil and swept the ground next to the corpse, clearing a relatively flat area.

{I've... gotten used to it...but is there really such a thing as getting used to it? That blood-red flower, I...I don't know how to describe that feeling. I felt like I was torn to pieces the instant I was eroded by its power. I felt like I died in an instant, but my consciousness was stretched, stretched so long that I could clearly feel my soul, my thoughts, everything about me being torn apart, broken apart. All my senses were in chaos in an instant. That...that pain...the pain that filled all my perceptions...Am I supposed to get used to this?}

The girl's voice was filled with fear.

Death, consumed by blood, is something that can be accomplished in an instant.

After all, it would be too much to ask Bloodflower to specifically discern the existence of a person hidden within Gao Hai's consciousness. Therefore, during Gao Hai's encounters with Bloodflower in the second and third playthroughs, Bloodflower's mental erosion effects were suppressed as much as possible to prevent them from instantly killing Gao Hai. In the second playthrough, she even failed to suppress it completely. Obviously, mental erosion that could barely prevent someone with Gao Hai's willpower from being killed was something terrifying beyond measure for Kita Ikuyo. Therefore, in both playthroughs, she died before Gao Hai, and both times her soul was completely scattered.

Normally, given the severity of the situation—"soul annihilated"—Kita shouldn't be able to be resurrected. However, under the power of the Black Watch, even after Kita was reduced to the atomic or even quark level, the watch forcibly brought her back. Furthermore, due to its deep fusion with Takami, the watch could precisely restore Kita's memories to the moment she completely lost consciousness. As a result, she experienced the feeling of her soul shattering and dissipating twice. In those extremely brief moments, stretched to an almost infinite distance by her senses, all the nightmares she experienced were forced back to her by the power of the Black Watch, making it impossible for her to forget.

She didn't want to remember this.

Even as a Red Moon-level player who had already experienced countless painful things, there was one thing she absolutely never wanted to go through or feel again. To be easily killed by an existence she couldn't possibly contend with, to experience the excruciating mental torture of being slowly sliced ​​to death, and then, upon finally regaining consciousness, to find herself going through it all again, to discover that she still couldn't escape this nightmare. Realizing this, Kita was practically driven mad on the spot; she simply couldn't remain calm under such circumstances.

I'd rather just die.

If you really have to adapt to this kind of thing over and over again, you might as well just die!

This ability is nothing short of a curse! She doesn't want to experience this power anymore, she doesn't want to learn to adapt to it! No! Absolutely not!!!

You'll adapt eventually, just like I did, as long as you remain integrated with me.

But Gao Hai's calm voice still echoed in the thought link.

{you……}

Kita initially wanted to retort with something like, "What do you know?", but she wasn't a brainless woman, and she immediately dismissed the thought. After being nearly killed by the Blood Flower twice, she had come to a profound understanding of the predicaments this man, who possessed near-invincible time-travel abilities in her eyes, had faced.

{...Can I really adapt? Adapting to something like that, I think, is worse than death.}

Therefore, in the end, the girl simply spoke with a sense of self-abandonment.

{That's not true. Such thoughts are pointless. Don't let yourself get caught up in those emotions. Of course, if you want to cry, I don't mind. While I might not be able to offer many comforting words, I can certainly be a quiet listener. After all, I've been through what you're going through.}

Gao Hai's voice remained calm as he responded to Kita while scribbling on the ground, appearing quite relaxed.

Have you experienced all this pain? Have you endured all of this and still managed to maintain this mental state? Are you even human?

Now that things have come to this, Kita doesn't know what to say anymore. However, Takami's calm demeanor is still hard for her to accept. She can't believe that someone in this world can still maintain a relatively normal state after experiencing so much suffering.

{Humans are such amazing creatures, Miss Kita. When faced with something beyond one's limits, death is inevitable. But as long as there's even a tiny bit of distance from those limits, there will always be those who stubbornly persevere and survive. And the black watch, in essence, simply transforms something that exceeds the limit into something just a little bit closer to it. After all, after the death rewind, we are still alive, and as long as one lives, there will always be a day when one successfully adapts. So, like I said, if you really can't hold it in anymore, you can cry here with me; I'll be a quiet listener.}

Gao Hai's voice remained calm and composed throughout, without much fluctuation.

In this state, Kita's originally manic emotions were somewhat relieved, and his self-destructive thoughts gradually disappeared.

{I won't cry, why are you asking me twice about whether I'll cry or not? I'm not that fragile, okay? What, have you cried before?}

However, as she calmed down, she began to notice other things.

{Yes, I cried.}

Gao Hai's answer was very frank.

{Huh? Boys actually admit to crying?!}

Kita was shocked to receive such an answer.

Generally speaking, men are proud and won't say it, but you're a bit different from the others. While Kaguya and the others have gained a deeper connection with me and understand the hardships of Return by Death, you're currently the only one who truly feels a close connection to dying alongside me. So, telling you isn't a bad thing.

Gao Hai stopped painting, and the voice in the thought link remained relatively calm.

{Oh, I see. It must have been very difficult at that time... I'm sorry...}

Kita didn't know what to say, and his voice became much more subdued.

{I wasn't actually that sad, but the urge to die was real. Being crushed alive under the rocks, my body reduced to rotten flesh yet still not dying—that feeling is unbearable. So I could only pray in my heart that someone would kill me, someone would save me. When I couldn't bear it anymore, I cried. Well, no one actually heard me cry. I've never broken down in front of anyone. All my most painful and desperate moments, I endured alone, waiting for it to end.}

The calm voice concealed a bloodshed and torment that left Kita completely silent, utterly at a loss for words.

She finally understood completely, and finally realized what kind of man was in front of her.

His decadent behavior and flirtatious frivolity in daily life seem insignificant now. Rather, after experiencing so much, the fact that he can still maintain such an optimistic and open-minded attitude towards life leaves Kita speechless.

That's why I said it's okay to cry.

But then she heard Gao Hai say something to her in a very serious tone.

{Because I've been through it too, I understand how you feel.}

{In the past, when I cried, no one heard my voice, and no one truly saw me break down.}

So if you want to cry, I'll listen carefully. I'll always be here, whenever you want to talk or express yourself, it's okay.

That calm and sincere attitude silenced Kita once again.

She still didn't know what to say, nor could she cry out loud.

She finally understood what kind of pain the man in front of her had endured, and how difficult it had been for him to get to where he was today.

What are you doing?

He's clearly a pervert, but he insists on showing off in front of me.

Although, he really is very handsome.

Even though he no longer had a body, at that moment, Kita felt his heart seem to tremble slightly.

Bang!

Then, she saw Gao Hai kick the wedding dress-like monster into the lake, stretch, and walk back.

{Yoshi, time to wrap up and head home}

He also said this in the thought link.

{Wait, wait, wait, weren't we here to find the core artifact? You searched me for ages and found nothing, and you're going back already?!}

Realizing there was still important business to attend to, Kita quickly asked.

{I've located the core object of my obsession. I just used the [Obsessive's Pen] to depict the creature's appearance and confirmed its possible hiding place through empathy. Now we just need to go and retrieve it.}

Gao Hai's answer was very calm.

{Oh, I see.}

Kita was relieved after hearing this.

No way, don't be so sure!

You said you were just gathering intelligence and engaging in empathy?

You were talking and chatting with me the whole time, okay?!

She wasn't unaware of the "Pen of the Obsessive," after all, the previous person to possess it was the renowned "Red Society," and other Red Moon-level players in Japan had naturally heard of this intelligence-gathering artifact to varying degrees.

The problem is that this thing will bring the user a strong sense of empathy and hallucination after use, making people feel information and emotions related to the ghost. It is the kind of obsessive object that causes particularly serious mental pollution, right?

So this man was chatting with me to calm me down, using his own blood to draw and trigger the obsessive object to obtain information, all while enduring the mental erosion from the obsessive object at the Crimson Moon level and the emotional backlash from the Crimson Moon Core level monster he was investigating?!

Are you even human?

You're chatting with people while experiencing hallucinations and backlash, your voice completely devoid of emotion, and you haven't even missed any crucial clues revealed by the hallucinations. How many brains do you have?!

Regardless, although his opinion of Takahashi had indeed changed considerably, there was one thing that Kita's thoughts remained unchanged: this man was not so strong as to be human, but rather something terrifying in human skin.

After all, if she didn't think this way, she would find it hard to accept that there could be a player like Gao Hai with such overpowered stats.

Chapter 108: The Origin of the Wedding Dress Mystery and the Ethereal Overlapping Words

I felt strong emotions.

Pain, sorrow, despair, and a burning rage, a hatred as deep as if tearing out one's bones and heart.

That was the fury of betrayal, the anger of realizing at the very end that it was all a deception, the rage after discovering the ugly truth at the end.

Therefore, even after being submerged in the lake and imprisoned in endless darkness as a sacrifice, she did not give up. She persevered with all her might, gritting her teeth and stubbornly holding on for a long time, even attempting to crawl out from the bottom of the lake despite broken limbs and blindness. Unfortunately, for those who had orchestrated all of this behind the scenes and had already performed numerous sacrifices, this possibility had long been considered. Therefore, when she was submerged, she was deliberately bound with heavy stones to ensure that no matter how she tried to climb, she could not escape the deep lakebed.

Just like those people have done countless times, they tie people to stones and sink them, over and over again, for ten years, a hundred years, or even longer.

Ultimately, her consciousness dissipated into the endless darkness.

No single person can defy time, but as the most unique sacrifice, her pain and resentment merged with those of others who were also submerged in the water and unable to find peace, ultimately forming the monstrous creature dressed in a dark red wedding gown that relentlessly hunts down anyone who steps into the lake.

No, her key target wasn't the people who entered the lake, but rather the people from [Li Family Village].

The reason this monster will attack me on my third playthrough is that Gao Hai acquired ownership of [Li Family Village] through a land deed, and therefore the monster mistook him for one of the villagers, which is why he was relentlessly hunted down.

Well, it's not really accurate to say they were chasing each other. They only chased each other for a short while before Gao Hai chased them back.

Perhaps because it failed to fight back while alive and was successfully controlled by the eerie paper doll after death, even though this wedding dress-clad monster possessed a Red Moon Core-level rule level and combat power, it still couldn't enter [Li Family Village]. Furthermore, when chasing people outside, it could only move via rivers and lakes. Therefore, as long as players stayed away from rivers and lakes, this thing was helpless against them. Of course, as a Red Moon-level monster, the wedding dress-clad woman could indeed use mental manipulation on players who were far from rivers and lakes, causing them to unknowingly return to the lakeside. But, to be honest, this tactic was completely ineffective against Gao Hai, so in the end, it was all for naught.

It can only be said that as long as you are strong enough, whether the rules take effect or not depends on who decides. In the previous dungeons, Gao Hai was not strong enough and had no choice but to run away when he encountered monsters of this level, but now that he is strong and powerful, he naturally has no chance of being defeated by these things again.

Hmm... well, it's just that they get thwarted by something even more powerful.

In short, while talking to and comforting Kita, Takami is also using the "Persistent Pen" to feel the obsession and pain of the wedding dress ghost, searching for valuable clues.

To be honest, multitasking like this is quite difficult, mainly because maintaining focus on several information sources simultaneously is particularly troublesome. Of course, while there are difficulties, it's not impossible overall, and occasionally experiencing this kind of meticulous operation can be quite interesting.

But, were they betrayed?

After gaining a state of empathy for the monster's pain through the object of his obsession, Gao Hai immediately noticed this detail.

The reason this wedding dress-clad monster harbors such resentment and deep hatred for the villagers of Li Family Village is because she believes they betrayed her. In fact, this pain of betrayal constitutes the largest part of the monster's obsession and is the most crucial cause.

She didn't seem to be a local; she came from somewhere else to help the villagers, to accomplish something, or to complete a mission.

Instead of being grateful, the villagers killed her in the end.

Given the anthropomorphic nature of those villagers, this action isn't surprising. However, the problem lies in the fact that the core of their resentment is "betrayal," which means the Li family had at least publicly cooperated with this woman for a period of time. Considering the historical context of ancient times and the isolated mountain village environment, would a group of villagers, who are already highly anthropomorphic and could easily be mistaken for bandits, be willing to establish a cooperative relationship with an outsider woman?

Or is it that the main person involved in the collaboration wasn't this girl, but rather she came to this place with a group of other people and collaborated with the villagers on something?

Well, in any case, the direction of this clue can be determined.

Thinking this, Gao Hai lowered his head and looked at the pattern of a small jade pendant drawn in blood on the ground.

This jade pendant should be the object of the wedding dress monster's obsession; at least its shape and structure should be roughly the same. Since Gao Hai drew the picture with the monster next to him, the effect of the "Obsessive's Pen" was maximized, and he drew what he wanted very smoothly.

However, it only marks the object; to find where it is, you have to rely on the side effect of the object of obsession, namely the [empathy] property.