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

Finally, we have gained a further grasp of this power.

Someone spoke up in ecstasy.

The power of this mountain god is now truly in our hands.

[Heh, those fools in the Liu family, their so-called immortality only turns them into beasts. The immortality of the Li family is true immortality!]

Next, distribute these statues to those who want to leave the village. Since they want to go, let them make one last contribution to the Li family. There's no such thing as eating the Li family's food and then not entrusting your life to them.

Someone arrogantly made a conclusion, their eyes brimming with greed.

A strong sense of malice permeated the interior of the statue, altering its original form like putrid filth.

It is connected to the power of the mountain god, but it cannot be the object of wishes or prayers, nor can it bring any benefit to those who believe in it. On the contrary, the twisted malice existing within the statue will amplify the malice in the hearts of those who come into contact with it, making them more cruel, more insane, and more without any moral bottom line.

If someone is originally upright and kind, they might be more likely to shrink back and retreat due to the corrosive power of this statue; if someone is just an ordinary person who wants to live their own life, they might be more likely to turn a blind eye to ugliness due to the malice emanating from this statue; if someone is a wicked person with no moral bottom line, they are very likely to do something even more irreversible after coming into contact with this statue, thereby causing death, creating tragedy, and feeding back some kind of distorted power onto the statue and onto the villagers of Lijia Village.

I don't know how such a statue was made, but I can vaguely sense something struggling and writhing inside it, emitting mournful cries.

At least one thing is certain: one of the materials used in its creation was living people. More than one living person was stuffed inside this statue. Although it is only a small statue less than half a meter tall, there must have been more than one living person inside it, squeezed and broken apart until they finally died.

Contact has been lost.

It is impossible to determine what state this thing was originally in. Perhaps some kind of change happened to the people of Lijia Village later. In any case, the power of this statue has now been severed from the Li family and can no longer feed back any power to the villagers of Lijia Village.

However, the twisted force within them remained unchanged, though its effects had been greatly weakened over time. But... it was still possible to make a gambling addict who was already an abusive domestic abuser even more ruthless, and a mean-spirited mother who couldn't bear to see her daughter doing well even more vicious, and to slightly amplify their behavior at times, making them even more insane and out of control.

While it is not the true cause of evil—only truly wicked people are affected by it—it does act as a catalyst, bringing forward events that might otherwise have occurred later and allowing some terrible situations to happen sooner.

"Did they connect in this way? Sometimes, it's really hard to imagine how such people could exist in this world..."

After a soft sigh, Gao Hai slowly stood up and continued walking forward.

After passing through these meticulously carved statues filled with the dead, Gao Hai finally saw what he was looking for further ahead in this underground passage.

The grayish-yellow talisman was covered with cracks.

Behind the broken door, a dark red color spread across the black wall, like bloodied hands smearing it.

Gao Hai stopped and looked at the twisted paper figures inside the door, dressed as various characters from the bride's procession, and behind them, the cursed entity silently staring back at him. After a brief pause, Gao Hai stepped forward, grabbed the dilapidated wooden door covered in talismans, tore it off, and stepped inside.

Chapter 111: The Form of a Counterfeit, the Deepest Prison, and the Words of Pleading

The smell of blood was so strong it made you want to vomit.

The ground and walls were covered in a pitch-black color, but it was not the color of the black stones that represented the mountain god. Instead, it was the stench accumulated over at least several hundred years, caused by blood that had dried and been splashed with new blood, then dried again and was splashed with blood once more.

Just how many people have lost their lives here?

Over the course of at least several hundred years, how many people have died tragically at the hands of these villagers who abused the power of the mountain god?

It can only be said that, regardless of level, the Ghost Story dungeons remain essentially the same, filled with desire, sin, and ugliness. Beautiful things are always destroyed, innocent people are always harmed, and even in death they cannot rest in peace, but are still forced to become accomplices to evil, continuing to harm more people.

That's disgusting.

No matter how many times I see it, I still feel disgusted.

tread--

Taking a step, Gao Hai walked into the group of paper figures that emitted a foul stench.

At this moment, these paper figures pose no threat. Although they reek of a strong stench of decay, no evil spirits reside within them; they are merely empty shells. It's certain that when the villagers appeared last week and fought the players to the death, they were using these paper figures to summon evil spirits to possess them and gain combat power.

I have no idea how they control the paper figures. To be honest, I'm a bit confused about the specific process. Hmm... wait, this feeling is...

Gao Hai lowered his head and looked at one of the dirty and somewhat damaged paper figures.

The aura emanating from this thing seems to be some kind of obsession.

He reached out and gently tore a small opening in the paper figure's chest, revealing the hay used to stuff the figure's body, as well as a large, rotten-looking flatbread covered in blackish-green mold.

Yes, it is indeed an object of obsession.

The stale cake inside the paper figure's body is indeed an object of obsession.

Although he didn't quite understand why such a coveted object would exist, Gao Hai felt that something else was more important. After all, the unusual aura emanating from this object was quite intriguing.

Why did you suddenly stop looking at this? Weren't you looking for the core object of your obsession?

Kita clearly couldn't sense the same things as Takami, so she was very confused and didn't understand what Takami was doing at all.

{The aura of the object of my obsession is strange, too ethereal. This feeling... how should I put it? I think I'm starting to understand something.}

While answering Kita in his mind, Takami reached out and took out the spoiled bread, then crushed it directly.

The shattered object of obsession scattered into specks of ashes, vanishing without a trace before it even hit the ground, leaving no trace behind.

That's right, this isn't a true object of obsession. A true object of obsession, even the weakest of the Twilight level, possesses strong indestructibility; even a Crimson Moon level monster can only suppress it, not completely destroy it.

In the initial, undefined phase of [Infant Cry Village], a time when it was deserted and almost every house contained an item of obsession. Gao Hai remembered that time vividly; after all, when he was trapped in the Red Nut Gray Cave, Qianhua had bought an obsession from a player to teleport him to her location. Therefore, Gao Hai had a deep impression of this. He clearly remembered that the obsessions found in that village were all very strange—either incomplete with significant flaws, or they would break and disappear after only one or two uses, completely unlike normal obsessions.

Now he knows exactly what happened.

The existence of the paper doll sealed the evil spirit within, while the true object of obsession was suppressed in a specific area. This created a special connection between the two, causing a false object of obsession to form within the paper doll. This false object was actually the result of the evil spirit's power gathering within the paper doll; however, because this gathering was ultimately temporary, its effect was far inferior to the true object of obsession—a mere imitation that would become useless after a few uses.

Gao Hai took a step forward, slowly walking past the paper figures that stood motionless, and began to explain in his mind.

{In the abandoned village before the "Infant Cry Village" instance was fixed, the problematic obsession items that players obtained actually originated from these special paper dolls.}

{These were most likely placed intentionally by the villagers, traps set from the beginning so that players would take and use them.}

{Because these objects of obsession were created by the villagers themselves, players who use them establish a causal connection with the villagers. This allows the villagers to summon them into the instance using the power of the mountain god, making them sacrifices to the villagers. This is a series of interconnected tricks, a death trap designed to exploit people's survival instincts and greed.}

In the end, Gao Hai slightly curled his lip, feeling somewhat that those villagers had died too easily.

However, despite having devised such ingenious traps, the villagers did not expect that when they actually used these traps to begin harvesting, they would run into Gao Hai's team.

Hmm, so Chika did use those fake obsession objects back then too. But because I rewound and restarted after being rescued, what happened during that time is now considered as if it never happened. After all, most of the things that were released were just Dark Night-level obsession objects; this level of connection couldn't possibly counteract the Black Watch's rewound, and the Mountain God's power was unlikely to have much effect on such subtle changes.

So, I actually encountered clues about this level back in the second instance. It's just that at the time I couldn't think that far ahead, much less realize how significant this instance was.

{Hmm, that's certainly a sinister intention. Even a Red Moon-level player would be tempted by the sheer number of coveted items available in the dungeon. After all, the more survival items the better, even if their effects are minimal; you can accumulate them little by little. But that shouldn't be relevant to what we're doing now, right? Or have you made any other discoveries, Mr. Gao?}

Kita quickly gave her evaluation, but she was still a little confused and didn't quite understand why Takami would say that.

{Yes, that's right, I have indeed made some discoveries, or rather, some unique ideas.}

Gao Hai's gaze swept over the paper figures around him.

There are more than a hundred paper figures piled up here.

With his mental power now enhanced to its limit, he could confirm that every paper figure here contained a counterfeit object of obsession.

Using the objects of attachment here will establish a causal connection with the villagers.

{This idea can actually be expanded upon. It should be said that by using the artifacts here, the user establishes a connection with the mountain god. After all, the villagers themselves don't possess any power; they're merely using the mountain god's name to intimidate others.}

{Now, the villagers of Lijia Village have disappeared and no longer exist. Therefore, my using these objects of my lingering attachment under these circumstances will only further deepen my connection with the mountain god of Xiaoheishan, and no villager will come out to do anything to me.}

The weakening of the mountain god is inevitable, and the rate of weakening will accelerate with each playthrough.

In this situation, if a sufficiently deep connection could be established, Gao Hai guessed that he might be able to interfere with the mountain god to some extent, thereby delaying the mountain god's decline as much as possible, or obtaining power and clues from the mountain god.

After all, it seems impossible to bypass the Mountain God in order to truly pass this dungeon. The sealer of the Crimson Flower is none other than the Mountain God of Little Black Mountain, and its state is of paramount importance to the safety of Gao Hai and the players.

Thud—thud thud thud thud—

A powerful mental force quickly spread out, causing the chests of the paper figures to cave in as Gao Hai crushed the counterfeit obsessions inside them out of thin air.

The connection is rapidly becoming deeper.

I can feel my own presence growing ever deeper within the mountain god's presence.

Although his mental strength also felt a considerable degree of pressure, and even his breathing became somewhat unsteady, it wasn't a big problem. This level of pressure was far from enough to trouble Gao Hai.

Wow, the teacher is really amazing! Right now, the teacher is essentially replacing over fifty villagers in ritual interactions with the mountain god. For the mountain god, whose very existence is crumbling, this should extend His/Her life by at least a few more days. That means Alice can spend even more time with the teacher in this loop. Will the teacher fall in love with Alice during this time?

From that link, Gao Hai heard Alice's voice, which he didn't really want to hear, and immediately clenched his fists.

I could like Tiger tanks but I could never like Alice!

Gao Hai made a conclusion in his heart with displeasure.

[Hehe, really? Alice wasn't entirely convinced. After all, the teacher wasn't exactly a person of her word; she was the type to lie and deceive, sometimes even lying to herself. You can't completely believe everything a teacher says!]

[Maybe the teacher has already fallen for Alice. After all, someone with Alice's personality is always very popular, isn't she?]

But such thoughts are obviously meaningless for Alice's personality template. As long as the communication continues, she will relentlessly provoke and tease Gao Hai on various topics, not for any other reason than to make him unhappy.

Forget it, I'd better just ignore her.

Ultimately, she's just an electronic ghost cybernetic personality, not the real Alice at all. There's no need to overthink it.

This thing is just a tool I use to deepen my connection with the mountain god of Xiaoheishan; I don't need to care too much about what she said.

Sigh, have we already reached the point of self-deception?

If I catch you, I'll give you a good slap, and then you'll know whether I'm just fooling myself.

[Can the teacher do it? Can she? Alice really wants to see if the teacher can actually do it, hehehehe. What will the teacher do if she can't?]

Forget it, I won't stoop to the level of a little brat.

Don't worry about what it says; just ignore it.

Gao Hai took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and continued forward.

Alice's laughter still faintly echoed in his mind, while Gao Hai's footsteps had already passed over these paper figures and entered a deeper place.

Behind him, the old woman standing outside the entrance to the deeper area remained motionless and did not react further.

Ahead of him, after advancing a certain distance, Gao Hai finally saw what the end of this gloomy cave looked like.

The originally nauseating smell of blood was somewhat less intense here.

But instead, there was a mountain god aura that was at least several times stronger, directly manifested here, firmly suppressing something that was placed here and constantly struggling.

The white jade pendant was inside one of the small cages.

Next to the jade pendant, Gao Hai also saw a rotten human head with its eyes and mouth nailed shut, a maimed bear paw that looked like it had been chopped off, and a wooden plaque that looked like some kind of special talisman with the words "Suppressor of Evil" written on it.

That bear paw was clearly an object of obsession, and although it wasn't a core object of obsession, it was certainly a very powerful Red Moon-level object of obsession.

The head itself isn't the object of my obsession, but this feeling... the consciousness that this head originally corresponded to should still be alive. Even though it has completely died spiritually and no longer has the ability to think, the head is still in a very healthy state at the cellular level; it is a piece of "fresh meat."