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

Chapter 153: Granting Civilization the Light of Ascension, and the First Cry of the God of Birth

The city under the sun was just as bustling as it was yesterday.

Amidst the bustling traffic, pedestrians stroll by, some hurrying, some leisurely, passing through another ordinary day of life.

Meanwhile, the other players had already cleared the dungeon and returned to the real world. Those who had finally escaped death were either overjoyed at their survival or grieving for their fallen companions. Some, unable to contain themselves any longer, began seeking ways to release the psychological pressure that had built up after their second chance at life. Of course, for those players who didn't return alive, everything in the real world was irrelevant to them. Even if some of their companions might still remember their existence, all traces they had left in the real world had been completely forgotten, vanished without a trace.

The future that was devastated by the aftershocks of Gao Hai's casual strike has vanished with the black watch's rewind. The ordinary people and players of this world are naturally unaware that in a dungeon that has broken down the barriers of time and space and connects to the real world, an avatar of an Outer God and a player wielding the essence of a planetary deity can intrude into the real world at any moment and unleash a catastrophe that could easily wipe out humanity.

Gao Hai stopped in his tracks.

He looked up and glanced around.

The surrounding space was a distorted, blurry mass, with chaotic colors constantly combining and dissipating, unable to coalesce into any tangible form. The swirling vortex formed a passage that wasn't too large, and Gao Hai himself floated within this color, as if he were in a dazzling dream.

Occasionally, from these distorted colors, one can see structures resembling Lijia Village in Xiaoheishan; sometimes, these colors form the shape of Tokyo, or other cities around the world, as well as famous landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, and London Bridge. But these things, after coalescing, will immediately shatter in no more than half a second, turning into colorful bubbles and sinking back into the floating colors.

This is a gap between two spacetimes, a passage forcibly opened by Gao Hai using the power of [Essence] between the real world and the dungeon world—a passage that could vanish at any moment. Because of this, this space simultaneously presents illusory scenes of two different worlds.

For Gao Hai, who has now absorbed two portions of the [Form of Origin] and possesses the cheat-level item [Essence], this scene means that the barriers of the [Sacrifice Game] instance can no longer restrain him. If Gao Hai wants, he can even forcibly go to other instance worlds and sever all the links between the [Sacrifice Game] and the real world.

Of course, he wouldn't do that, and he didn't have the time right now. Although he could return to the real world by taking just one step forward, he had to act quickly at this crucial moment in order to complete the task that needed to be done next.

But speaking of which, why are all these landmark buildings that often appear in disaster movies and get destroyed? Isn't that a bit unlucky?

"call……"

Taking a deep breath, Gao Hai, standing at the entrance to the real world, slowly raised his hand.

In the city revealed through the floating colors before him, the unsuspecting people continued their daily lives.

If Gao Hai turned to look back, he could see that the road back to [Infant Cry Village] was now completely submerged by endless crimson vines.

No, I won't run away from my mother again...

...Mom can give you everything you want...

...Let's stay together with Mom forever...

The gentle, yet cruelly alluring, whispers of crimson flowers were closing in on him. The flowers, chasing him, were accelerating, seemingly determined to completely engulf him before slowing their pace. No, even if they caught him, Gao Hai was certain they wouldn't stop; after all, their purpose was all life on Earth.

Since you care so much about the creatures on this planet and want to bless them and transform them into higher beings, I'll lend you a hand.

Gao Hai turned around and looked again at the floating bubbles at the boundary of space in front of him, his expression filled with determination.

Many planetary deities, unable to find a way to combat the unknown darkness, perished due to the wounds inflicted by their battle with the Blood Flower, leaving only a few remnants lingering in some corner of the world.

While the [Essence] they ultimately created did indeed give humanity the opportunity to ascend to godhood, its power was too immense. It incorporated the power of all the remaining gods, to the point that even a player like Gao Hai, whose combat power far exceeded that of a Red Moon-level player, would experience physical collapse after absorbing it. He had to endure the pain of repeated destruction and repair of his body in order to barely adapt to this power.

It is conceivable that without Gao Hai, an ordinary Red Moon-level player, or even a top-tier Red Moon-level player, would only face certain death upon encountering the [Essence], and would never be able to truly complete the ascension.

Of course, this cannot be blamed on the native gods. After all, they were the original victims of the malicious schemes within the chaos. Without knowing who the enemy was or having enough time to manipulate and modify their own power, delivering the answer of "Essence" was their limit. Therefore, Gao Hai harbored no negative feelings towards these departed ancient gods; he felt only respect and gratitude. After all, achieving his current goals would be impossible without the relics of these ancient gods.

"The essence of ascension is the improvement of cognitive abilities and one's own soul status. Relatively speaking, changes in the external physical body are secondary. However, essence is essence after all. Even if diluted billions of times, its power will not change. Therefore, even if one obtains an essence so faint as to be almost imperceptible, it is enough to make progress possible."

Click!

Amidst his calm words, Gao Hai crushed the invisible object that was wrapped around his hand.

hum-

The unexpected change caused the blood-red vines to slow their movements slightly.

Gao Hai has already unhesitatingly activated the power of the Root Form and, through his connection with the [Essence], further shattered it.

Click——click——

Faint points of light seemed to appear and slowly drift outwards.

In the gap outside this world, unseen by anyone except an Outer God avatar, Gao Hai closed his eyes and devoted all his mental energy to repeatedly cutting and tearing apart the [essence], utterly shattering this power to ascend to godhood into almost endless dust.

Then, in that real world, someone stopped in their tracks.

"Is it raining?"

A passerby carrying a briefcase, on his way to work, noticed a point of light flashing past him. Somewhat puzzled, he looked up and saw a series of twinkling lights falling from the sky.

"What is this? It's quite pretty."

On the school's rooftop, students were shouting and taking out their phones to take pictures of the rain-like rays of light falling from the sky.

"Holy crap, what is that? Damn, I can't even dodge it!"

Some high-level players who had just left the instance and were still on guard tried to avoid the light, only to find that it could pass through walls at an extremely fast speed. Even if they increased their speed to the limit, they could not avoid it at all. In the end, they could only be hit by the light and merged into their bodies and souls.

More and more people saw the rain of light falling from the sky.

Whether it was day or night, whether it was a plain, a desert, a city, or a village, even explorers who ventured deep into uninhabited areas and polar researchers saw almost an endless array of dazzling lights. They saw those lights sweep across the sky, and they saw a tiny ray of light split off from the rain of light and fly towards them, merging into their bodies.

Even the astronauts on missions on the space station saw points of light flying out of the windows, and saw these points of light passing directly through the walls of the space station and rushing up towards them.

Some people were amazed and filmed videos and livestreamed the event, while others were gripped by fear and confusion, even conjuring up ideas that aliens were coming to rule the Earth. However, how the people of this planet reacted or dealt with such a thing was none of Gao Hai's concern.

Buzz-buzz-

This spatial passage, which was only temporarily created by the power of [essence], can no longer be maintained.

Gao Hai himself had exhausted all his mental energy, and even the power of the Root Form he had just absorbed was completely depleted, so much so that he had no energy left to think and immediately fell into a coma.

The essence has disappeared; it no longer exists.

Or rather, the essence already exists in the entire world, within every person on Earth, bringing an elevation to each and every one of them. This elevation, seemingly insignificant and almost imperceptible to the individual, has in fact utterly transformed the cognitive abilities and spiritual strength of everyone in the world.

From now on, even if the crimson flower vines appear before an ordinary human, they will not break the spirit of that person.

Even if the other party deliberately comes into contact with the power of the blood flower and is willing to die, they will still be shattered and become an empty shell. However, for all members of human civilization, they have gained the most basic right to look directly at the gods and have the qualification to go from being a lowly insect that has no right to come into contact with divine power to standing beside the gods in the universe.

In the hundreds or thousands of years to come, and even longer, how many people will truly reach that point through the grace of this departed god? When that day truly arrives, how many people will remain in human civilization, and whether it will even continue to exist—these are all unknowns, things that cannot be answered in the present. Once the power of [Essence] has truly permeated every individual of this civilization, even attempting to seek their future through the power of time will be futile. After all, even if this power is not currently apparent, once [Essence] is released by Gao Hai, human civilization as a whole can be regarded as a god, a god as newborn as an infant, capable of resisting all kinds of malice in the universe.

One person after another spoke, trying to understand what was happening under various emotional reactions.

The voices of those originally powerless mortals, through the fusion of [essence], acquired a faint power they themselves were unaware of, and resonated with others, constructing the words of a new god that could be observed by other deities.

The sound was so chaotic and disordered that it could not form a unified will at all, and it was full of self-contradictory and self-divided parts. It was simply a nagging noise that made the listener feel extremely irritated.

Like the cry of a newborn baby, it was piercing and sharp, and it wouldn't stop for a long time, making a constant, incessant noise.

Gao Hai himself did not witness this scene.

Even if one were to use the power of their own [essence] to split this divine power into billions of parts and distribute them to everyone in the world, it would still be an extremely presumptuous act. Therefore, as the price for making such a move, Gao Hai, having exhausted all his strength, lost consciousness and collapsed straight down, about to shatter into nothingness along with the spatial channel that had lost its power.

A blood-red vine gently reached out and supported Gao Hai's shoulder.

Then, it gently rolled up Gao Hai's body, carrying him away from a dark void.

A gentle power flowed into Gao Hai's body and spirit, nourishing his withered body and mind, which had become parched from exhaustion, and restoring him to his peak condition.

Then, amidst that refreshing fragrance, Gao Hai's consciousness gradually awoke from the darkness, and he looked at where he was.

here it is……

No wriggling, blood-red vines were seen.

I didn't sense any eerie, cold aura.

Looking around, one is surrounded by a magnificent sea of ​​flowers, a beautiful garden.

The warm, soft touch was coming from behind me, and the comforting fragrance that seemed to make all my troubles disappear was also coming from behind me.

"Are you awake? Did you sleep well?"

A gentle voice was asking itself.

"……Um."

Gao Hai nodded slightly in response and looked up at the figure holding him in his arms.

It is the seeds of the four grains.

No, that's not right.

Although the body embracing him was indeed Miko herself, Gao Hai could tell from those dark red eyes and the writhing creature lurking deep within the pupils that what was inside the body of the girl [Yotsuya Miko] at this moment was not herself, but an enemy so powerful that he was simply unable to fight back, who had directly or indirectly killed him several times.

Right now, I am in His embrace!

Chapter 154: A Mother's Haven Will Always Remain for You

To be honest, after realizing that what was holding him was Blood Flower, Gao Hai immediately became alert, and his first reaction was to activate the power of the black watch to commit suicide.

However, when he realized that the black watch was not responding to him at all, Gao Hai's eyes cleared up.

So, I'm doomed, right?

Bloodflower has captured me; I can't escape now. They've entered the stage of finishing off the culprits and counting the spoils. And I'm the hardest spoils to catch, so Bloodflower is using Miko's body to settle accounts with me now, right?

Looking at Yotsuya Miko's face, so close yet displaying a tenderness far beyond what one would expect from someone her age, Takahashi felt a chill run through him. His previous desperate decision to spread the power of [Essence] throughout human civilization was actually just an attempt to use the evolution of the soul and cognition brought about by the ascension to hinder the Blood Flower's assimilation and absorption abilities, hoping to temporarily force the Blood Flower to retreat.

After all, the idea of ​​elevating all of humanity to a higher level sounds grand, but after splitting the "essence" into billions of parts, it actually has very little practical effect. Unless something like Cthulhu appears to broaden humanity's horizons and unleash its potential, the performance of ordinary humans who have absorbed essence fragments in recent decades will likely only result in an overall increase in intelligence, a slight improvement in reaction speed and muscle strength, and better physical health and the ability to work overtime and compete—nothing decisively different. It's just that, because it is still an elevation, this race has become slightly more difficult to deal with compared to beings that were originally superior to humans.

In other words, Gao Hai transformed humanity from something that Blood Flower could easily devour and digest into something difficult to swallow and digest. Of course, if other gods emerged intending to corrupt or devour humanity, they would experience the same feeling. Gao Hai deliberately used his "essence" to strengthen humanity's own status and used this to construct a significant network of human subconsciousness, making human civilization, as a whole, something akin to gods yet not gods. This made it difficult for higher beings to properly analyze and digest the human species. If it weren't for Blood Flower, a top-tier external god incarnation, it might have even resulted in a situation where a single bite would cause the little people to collapse.

Well, in a sense, it could be said that under Gao Hai's manipulation, human civilization was transformed from a delicate cake into a gruesome soup in the eyes of those higher beings. Of course, because Gao Hai's understanding of these higher beings is incomplete—the only ones he has had close contact with so far are the remnants of a native god like the Fox Queen and an outer god of excessively high status like the Blood Flower—he is not certain whether his methods will work on all higher beings.

But these are not the main points right now.

The key point is that Gao Hai is now 100% or even 90% certain that he has been completely captured by the Blood Flower. His entire being, from body to soul, has been dragged into the Blood Flower's domain. He is now effectively inside the Blood Flower, completely at the mercy of its manipulations, unable to resist.

Although he dared to show off in front of the other party before, it didn't mean that Gao Hai was truly unafraid of the Blood Flower. If possible, Gao Hai still hoped to maintain a distance of more than 10 billion light-years from the Blood Flower. However, now that it had embraced Gao Hai through Jian Zi's body, he felt extremely uneasy.

This thing borrowed Miko's body to kiss me before, and even ripped out all my internal organs. What is it trying to do now? Is it finding it too troublesome to pack up the whole world, and has decided to pack only me? No way!

"I'm sorry."

While Gao Hai was still pondering what to do next, Jian Zi, or rather Xue Hua, spoke softly.

"Ok?"

The first formal conversation with the enemy's big boss turned out to be a private conversation about Marseille, which confused Gao Hai even more. For a moment, he didn't know what to say in a polite way.

"I'm sincerely apologizing, Mom. I never meant to hurt you, or anyone else."

Then, He reached out and bent down to embrace Gao Hai, who was already lying on His lap.