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

"I'm done washing, Mr. Gao... Oh, you cleaned yourself in a second with your mental power, that's quite an amazing ability."

While she was thinking, Kita came out of the bathroom, drying her still slightly damp red hair as she spoke. However, before she could finish her sentence, she noticed the change in Takami, so she changed her tone halfway through and whispered with a hint of envy.

"Actually, if you just say the word, I can help you."

Gao Hai said jokingly, and got up from the bed. The bed, which had been a little messy, was now spotless as Gao Hai got up. The bedding was neatly folded, and Kita's clothes were all folded and placed next to the pillow. There was nothing else that needed to be tidied up.

"Forget about helping me. I don't want to experience being touched all over my body by mental energy again. Besides, you were the one who gave up last night. If you wanted to touch me, you could have done it yesterday. You chose to give up on yourself. Once you give up, you won't get another chance so easily!"

Kita walked to Takami's side, her tone slightly agitated, but she still obediently stuck her head out.

"That's why I've said before that I won't force anyone. Don't underestimate me; I can have emotions too."

Takami casually responded to Kita and gently stroked the girl's long hair. The moisture in her hair disappeared automatically with Takami's casual movement, and the wet red hair returned to a smooth and dry state in less than a second.

"So, regarding Miss Aoyama's situation, is there anything we can investigate at the moment?"

After drying the girl's hair, Gao Hai looked at her and asked her seriously.

"There are indeed some clues. There's an abandoned player trading station. Sister Qihai went there once, and perhaps that blood-obsessed item was traded there. I'd like to go there and investigate; maybe I can find some clues."

Seeing that Takami was getting serious, Kita's expression quickly turned serious as well, and he reiterated his thoughts to Takami.

"Alright, then I'll call Yili, and the three of us will go there together to investigate. Hopefully, we'll find something this time."

Without wasting any words, Gao Hai sent a message to Goto Ichiri via the mental link while grabbing Kita's hand and using the power of etherealization to make her disappear directly from the house, quickly moving through the city.

At the same time that Gao Hai was taking action, a large passenger plane was slowly landing at Tokyo's international airport.

"Last time we came to solve the [Campus Ghost Stories], and this time it's a crisis that threatens the destruction of the world. It's never an easy situation."

Sitting in first class, Xiong Mi looked out the window at the city, then turned her gaze back, sighing as she tossed two Queens onto the table.

"If we can successfully help Mr. Gao overcome this difficulty, perhaps the hope for this world will truly arrive."

Jianbing, who was sitting opposite Xiongmi, nodded slightly and then tossed two Aces onto the table.

"No, it's better to handle the things we need to do later than to think about these unrealistic things. We're not just representing the [Slacking Off Gang] this time; there's a lot we need to accomplish in advance."

Sitting next to the two players on a small stool was a cold-looking man in a suit and glasses, holding a book that was over forty centimeters thick with metal covers on the corners, and which had the word "Law" written on it.

The plane has gradually stabilized.

The number of people traveling from afar to this place is gradually increasing.

Meanwhile, the dark clouds above the city seemed to be slowly gathering, brewing a storm of unknown scale.

Interlude 4-52: The Hidden Players and the "Lawyer" of the "Slacking Off Gang"

The sky over Tokyo is gradually being covered by dark clouds.

According to the weather forecast, a hurricane that was not originally going to pass through Tokyo seems to have changed its course and is heading towards the city. Of course, according to television reports, the hurricane should only pass by Tokyo and not actually enter the city.

Therefore, in the next few days, the worst-case scenario is just a few torrential rainstorms, and there is nothing to worry about.

"The weather is terrible. It seems the airport will be closed in two days, and the highways and railways were closed yesterday. At this rate, it's almost certain that the channels for entering Tokyo by regular vehicles will be completely cut off within the next two days."

On the rooftop of a building at the airport, Xiaoheshu watched the large passenger plane slowly landing in the distance and spoke.

"If the rain is too heavy, the subway will likely be suspended, and some low-lying areas may be flooded. Recently, there have been sewer blockages in various areas of Tokyo, and if it really develops into a major flood, the city's transportation will be severely disrupted."

Standing next to the swaying tree is Akira Toyama, the current president of the Tokyo-based Red Moon-level player team, [Red Guild]. After experiencing the near-total collapse of the entire team, followed by the rescue of some members by Takami's successful dungeon clearing, Akira Toyama himself has become a veteran among the remaining players of [Red Guild], and was recently elected as the president.

As the plane landed and came to a stop, the cabin door opened, and a group of people who, to ordinary people, would at most be considered strangely dressed, but to Yuanshan Ming, all exuded the aura of players, disembarked and began to walk, some loosely and some in neat rows.

After the "Moyu Gang" confirmed through their prophetic abilities that Tokyo would become a key area, these players who came to support them arrived almost every day. Today's group was the Chinese player alliance organized by the "Moyu Gang" itself, and it was the largest support the Tokyo area had received.

"This batch of support players from China should be the last large-scale aid. With this, the number of players in the entire Tokyo area officially exceeds ten thousand. Although the vast majority are only average-level Twilight players, if they can maintain their organization, they can be considered an extraordinary force. However, China is indeed too terrifying; they actually hid so many players..."

Akira Toyama's words carried a hint of emotion.

If we calculate based on that global player network driven by the power of supernatural tales, the number of active players worldwide is only around two thousand.

Originally, Akira Toyama thought that even if there were many players who didn't even know about the website, the total number of users should still be fairly accurate. After all, there was so much useful information in the player forum, so everyone should be willing to register an account there, right?

As a result, the Chinese region mobilized a pure player team of over 6,000 people to support Tokyo, while over 1,000 players from Europe and America also came to provide support. In addition, dozens of player organizations from various parts of Japan that had never appeared on player forums before arrived, giving Toyama Akira a huge shock with their massive troop deployment.

Undoubtedly, these suddenly appearing players all knew the information on the player forums, but their registration records couldn't be found there. This means they all had ways to bypass login authentication and obtain information. These players, capable of bypassing authentication and hiding themselves, are likely the wealth accumulated by human civilization over the two and a half years of the [Sacrifice Game]'s operation. And now, as the real crisis gradually emerges, they are finally revealing themselves.

So, the two thousand or so players who usually log in to that forum are actually just two thousand honest people, right?

The vast majority of truly organized large player groups have never appeared on that forum. Only those foolish people who have no access to the real secret organizations are active on that crappy forum, thinking they are extremely lucky and have very few companions.

Moreover, although player organizations like the "Slacking Off Gang" are out in the open, they are actually in constant contact with players hiding in the shadows. They just act like everyone else, putting on an act, right?

We, the Red Knot Society, worked so hard to build our reputation, thinking we had already joined the ranks of top experts. But in the end, were we kept in the dark the whole time?

Thinking about this made Akira Toyama feel very bad.

He realized that although there was a strong information shield between players and ordinary people, the power of the state was likely still at play. Many players had either used or directly joined the state system, thus enabling deeper and more covert planning of player organizations. Especially in China, when the several thousand player teams were deployed, Touyama Akira was honestly stunned. These were players sent to support Tokyo; the main force remained within China, dispersed to various cities to monitor and prevent danger. If they could deploy over six thousand people under these circumstances, it was hard to say how many were still hidden domestically.

How many players are hiding over there? With the right obsession items, a player of that size could easily wipe out most countries in the world, right?

However, there's no need to worry too much.

If there are only a few thousand players hiding in China, Yuanshan Ming thinks it's necessary to worry about whether these players plan to conquer neighboring countries and turn several regions, including Japan, into their own backyard.

But now it seems the total number of players in the China region is probably in the tens of thousands, so Akira Toyama thinks Japan definitely can't be China's target. So many people can do whatever they want; they're definitely not coming to attack him, that would be a waste.

"Mr. Gao has arrived."

Little River Tree suddenly spoke up at this moment.

"Oh, he's here. So, if the [Slacking Off Gang] comes, he'll still personally greet them, right?"

Akira Toyama quickly noticed the three figures heading towards the passenger plane and locked onto the man who was yawning and seemed very casual.

Gao Hai.

Akira Toyama is certain that he will never forget this person in his entire life.

With the strength to clear two of the highest difficulty Dark Night dungeons, he directly entered the top-tier Red Moon dungeon, not only achieving a perfect clear and becoming the world's first player to destroy a Red Moon dungeon, but also saving almost all the players who died in the dungeon; even Toyama Akira himself was one of those saved. To Toyama Akira considered this almost a miracle. As for the little river tree beside him, although its words seemed harmless, Toyama Akira knew that this person had, to some extent, come to worship Gao Hai as a god.

Perhaps Tokyo will be the key, precisely because this man chose this place.

Suddenly, Akira Toyama had this absurd idea in his mind, and subconsciously felt that this conjecture might actually be correct, so he couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

At the same time, Takahashi, walking in the airport, yawned again and looked down at the two girls, Ichiri and Kita, who were walking beside him.

"Okay, stop looking so gloomy."

As he said this, he reached out and ruffled the heads of the two girls.

"Although we haven't found any valuable clues yet, at least Miss Aoyama hasn't been forgotten. The problem hasn't gotten to the point of being truly serious yet, so don't put more pressure on yourself."

After he finished speaking, Ichiri nodded earnestly, while Kita didn't react much, only letting out a soft sigh.

As for Gao Hai himself, his expression wasn't exactly pleasant either. After all, he had spent the entire morning investigating Aoyama Nanami with Ichiriki and the other two, but after visiting several places, they hadn't found any clues and had to return empty-handed to greet the Chinese assistants, including the "Slacking Off Gang."

This is really a headache. Where did she go? Could she really be in the hospital? If so, the only way to save her is to find a way to enter the realm of that self-proclaimed god.

For some reason, Gao Hai had a vague sense of foreboding.

Although the information obscuring phenomenon can currently confirm that Aoyama Nanami is still "alive," the complete lack of information and the suspicious points pointing to the [hospital] still make Takahashi very uneasy, giving him a vague feeling that something terrible might happen.

Unfortunately, we can only take it one step at a time.

While I was thinking, the mature woman in the coat in front of me walked up.

"Hey, you're in good shape."

Xiong Mi spoke casually, taking the cigarette out of her mouth and stubbing it out before walking up to Gao Hai and exhaling the smoke.

"It's clear that things aren't bad on your end either; quite a few people have come here."

Gao Hai greeted Xiong Mi casually, then looked at the people following behind her.

"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Gao."

The second person to greet Gao Hai was Xiong Mi's deputy, a man known as Jianbing. This man was carrying a slightly worn-out laptop in one hand, and while walking, he was also using his other hand to operate the keyboard, it was unclear what he was doing.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Gao, and your two girlfriends. You may call me 'Lawyer,' that's my code name."

The third person to appear was a stern-faced man in a suit. Just seeing him gave Gao Hai a heavy feeling, as if he were seeing a serious teacher.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, lawyer."

Gao Hai didn't say much about the powerful aura this person possessed, but simply greeted him with a smile while mentally recalling information about him.

The lawyer, who joined the Lazybones gang from its inception, is arguably one of the most senior members. Aside from the gang's elusive leader, Xiong Mi, Cat Brother, and the lawyer are the three pillars that support the organization. In fact, after Xiong Mi and Cat Brother perished in the [Campus Ghost Stories] instance, it was precisely the lawyer's efforts that prevented the severely weakened Lazybones gang from collapsing.

As for this person's real name, it no longer exists. Through some kind of occult ritual, the lawyer erased his real name in exchange for a significant enhancement of his "Actor's Blessing." This blessing can be considered one of the lawyer's core abilities, and Gao Hai only learned about it after collaborating with the "Slacker Gang" multiple times.

The first effect of this blessing is that it allows the lawyer to assimilate living people through direct physical contact. The assimilated person's appearance will be transformed to resemble the lawyer, and their memories and thoughts will also be assimilated by the lawyer, becoming a copy of him, thus allowing him to completely control their actions.

In terms of its effects, this blessing is quite similar to the viral assimilation ability of the villain Smith in The Matrix. However, there's a significant difference: as long as the assimilation period doesn't exceed six hours, the lawyer can cancel the ability, restoring the assimilated individual to normalcy. Furthermore, regardless of the severity of the damage suffered during assimilation, as long as the individual remains alive, they will recover completely. Of course, actual testing shows that perfect recovery is impossible; only an ordinary person without any special abilities can achieve 100% recovery.

But that's precisely why this ability is so useful in the current situation. After all, a lawyer's ability might produce miraculous results in protecting the millions of people in this city.

Furthermore, since the source of the blessing is an actor, it naturally possesses a similar effect. By activating the blessing's second ability, the lawyer can impersonate a ghost by contacting and preserving its aura. While impersonating, regardless of the accuracy of her performance, those around her and the ghosts will temporarily accept her identity. Moreover, this effect is expanded to include others within a certain radius, allowing them to join in the impersonation and thus create a group of ghosts acting as a unit.

The lawyer himself only possesses this one blessing, which is at the Dark Night level. To be honest, it's quite rare to see a player like Xiong Mi who has multiple blessings. Only Gao Hai happened to encounter a powerful yet easily appeased Red Moon level player like Yi Li.

However, compared to the blessing from a powerful player, Gao Hai was actually more concerned about the thing the lawyer was carrying.

So... it must be a book, right?

At least the book cover has the words "Law" on it.

But why are there metal rams on all four sides of this book? And why is there a long iron chain connecting it to the side of the book? Is this thing really a book? It looks more like a flail or something. Are you really not here to cosplay as the Stone Pillar?

Gao Hai really wanted to say something.

But before he could say anything more, he felt the gazes of the players behind him, turned his eyes, and found that he actually saw a familiar face.

"Sun Dajun? Hmm, and Wang Gui too?"

Somewhat surprised Gao Hai, he discovered that among the Twilight-level player team that came to provide support, there happened to be someone he had met in Shirakawa Apartment and Red Nut Gray Hole.

Interlude 4-53: The Approaching Shadows Under the Rain and the Investigation of the Throne of Thought