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

The next moment, after hearing his mother's words, Jianzi took a deep breath, knowing that it was finally time to take action.

Chapter Nine: Changes Over Several Playthroughs and the Girl's Journey

As to the extent of the confrontation between Gao Hai and the being from the [hospital], Miko herself did not know. The only thing she was certain of was that this was the fourth time she had rewound, which was also known as the fifth time loop.

Prior to this, Gao Hai had failed four times. The specific reasons for those failures weren't entirely clear to Jianzi, but it was certain that the more than 30 million residents of Tokyo seemed to have become a special "anchor point" in some sense. Therefore, if as many residents as possible couldn't be saved, the more people were transformed by the strange phenomenon, the stronger the power gained by the "hospital" would become. Ultimately, by transforming the entire city's population, they could achieve a sacrifice of all humanity in a mystical ritual.

It's roughly equivalent to giving all the residents of the city a special mark, making them symbolic representations of the entire civilization. In any case, the key to this struggle lies in how many ordinary people can be saved. According to Miko's own memories, her predecessor in the first playthrough was basically completely defeated, rewinding in less than 10 minutes. The second playthrough was much longer, Miko estimated it lasted about two or three days, but ultimately failed again. Miko knew somewhat about the reason for this failure, since at the end of the second playthrough, she personally witnessed the entire city's living people gathering in mid-air, transforming into a polymer of flesh and blood, then forming staircases and a throne to welcome something.

Then came the third loop, which lasted about half a day. It was from this loop that Jianzi noticed all the city's cell phones, televisions, and other communication devices began broadcasting various announcements, explaining the rules of the supernatural tales throughout the city. Jianzi wasn't sure if this had any positive effects, because this loop seemed to have been initiated by Gao Hai's suicide, so Jianzi didn't notice any obvious anomalies appearing in the city.

By the fourth time loop, Miko discovered that the red light emanating from the electronic device had begun to possess the power of a crimson domain blessing, providing some protection to ordinary people. This loop was also very short, she estimated it would last at most two or three hours. She suspected that her predecessor had once again chosen to commit suicide and rewind prematurely. She guessed that Takahashi was trying every means to expand their advantage and use repeated rewinds to disrupt the opponent's rhythm, thereby creating a more favorable situation for them.

Now, in the fifth playthrough, Miko could even faintly sense the spread of spiritual power, as if Gao Hai had somehow projected his spiritual energy into the electronic devices. Whether this would bring good results, Miko didn't know. She only knew that this time Gao Hai was probably planning to completely turn the tide, otherwise he wouldn't have sent her such a message.

Yes, although Miko and Takami can still feel the deep connection established by the black watch, they can no longer communicate over long distances.

Something very dangerous is preventing the link from working properly.

The thing saw that it had confirmed it had tried to sense and obtained the answer. It was that answer that brought her immense danger, causing her to be severely targeted from the start. Even after several restarts, she was unable to save her friend Xiaohua, at best only managing to change the outcome from immediate death to being separated from her and disappearing.

Even now, after five playthroughs, Miko still struggles to shake off the side effects of that spying incident. Of course, based on the information her senior shared in the Crimson City during the reload, even without her spying, she remains a prime target for the enemy. The hospital has made her their primary elimination target from the start, and no matter what she does, she's unlikely to escape their pursuit. That's why she's now forced to hide in the small house with her mother.

Fortunately, the girl is not without options. After sealing her senses and erasing some of her memories, the enemies searching for her could not find her exact location and never managed to capture her even once again.

But this alone is far from enough.

After all, the senior's current situation is probably quite bad.

Although Gao Hai didn't reveal the specifics to Miko, judging from the changes in his aura sensed during the time travel, each time travel seemed to have placed a severe mental burden on him. If his will hadn't already reached the realm of the gods, these time travels would have already worn him down. Meanwhile, although the power of the black watch was interfered with and couldn't be fully utilized, and the teleportation blessing was unusable due to the spatial distortion within the city, Miko could still sense Gao Hai's location through this link. That location, since the third playthrough, had remained locked in the same spot, essentially refusing to move.

To protect the people of this city, the predecessor must have paid a heavy price, but this time, the enemy is probably... not something that can be dealt with simply by rewinding. Each time the predecessor rewinds and restarts, their actions change, but according to the information they reveal, the enemy's actions also constantly change. The entity hidden in the [hospital] is probably impossible to completely rewind; it knows what the predecessor did and can always adjust its response in time. It is for this reason that, even with various methods employed and the player teams the predecessor managed to send to rescue them, not a single team has successfully arrived by now, even after five playthroughs.

We can't wait any longer.

Jianzi could sense that the other girls, who were also connected through the black watch, were all busy running around.

They must be fighting hard for their predecessors and trying to save more people.

Even though the power of the black watch has been weakened, with the double blessing and protection, these girls, closely connected to Gao Hai, can still wield power stronger than Red Moon-level players. With such power, they shouldn't just stay put waiting for rescue. Although previous attempts went awry, they still provided experience; it's time to try again.

"Mom, carry me on your back, let's get out of here."

While still blind, Yotsuya Miko turned her face toward her mother and spoke earnestly.

"What are you talking about, Jianzi? You're in this state, and you still want to go outside?"

Unsurprisingly, the mother refused to see her son. Although she still didn't quite understand the situation, she knew that there was danger outside and that her daughter was being targeted by some terrifying monster, so she immediately refused to see him.

“I have to get out, Mom. I know it’s hard for you to understand what’s going on, but we can’t keep hiding. My phone just showed Xiaohua’s location, and we have to go meet her. I know you’re worried about me, but I’m actually pretty strong right now. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you.”

As she spoke, Jianzi ignored what her mother was saying, extended her finger, and conjured a sharp spiritual cone, gently pricking her mother's finger. The mother felt pain and was also shocked and stunned by the power the girl had casually displayed.

"I possess power, although I cannot fully reveal it now in order to avoid the enemy, but I do indeed possess power."

"So in this situation, others can hide, but I absolutely cannot hide forever. The thing that created this disaster fears some kind of power I possess, which is why it has begun to hunt me down, so I can't hide forever."

"So next, Mom, please carry me out. I'll pretend to be an injured ordinary person and disguise our presence so that the things wandering the streets will temporarily mistake us for ordinary people fleeing for refuge. And what you need to do, Mom, is to find a way to get to this coordinate on the phone before we're exposed."

Seeing that her daughter was calmly asking her mother for help, her fearless demeanor, coupled with the power she had previously displayed, all revealed the extraordinary nature of the young girl. Thus, Touko Yotsuya, this ordinary single mother, finally understood that her seemingly ordinary daughter had unknowingly entered a world beyond her comprehension and possessed a powerful force that she could not comprehend.

How much suffering and hardship did her daughter endure to obtain this power?

As a mother, I knew nothing. Now, facing disaster, all I could do was helplessly hide with my daughter. What could I possibly do for my child?

"……I see."

After realizing that her child was completely different from the one she remembered, Touko Yotsuya remained silent for a moment before finally nodding gently.

"Thank you, Mom. I know you must have a lot of questions. If we survive, I will answer all the questions you want to know."

Jianzi reached out and gently embraced his mother.

Toruko Yotsuya herself just sighed slightly. Although she reached out and hugged her daughter, she didn't know how to speak and ultimately remained silent.

Splash—splash—

The torrential rain under the cover of darkness had already formed shallow streams along the edges of the streets, flowing along the road and into the sewers.

squeak-

In the dim red light, Touko Yotsuya carried Miko on her back and held her daughter in her arms, while Miko herself held a cell phone emitting red light to illuminate the way for her mother.

I didn't sense any imminent threat.

It seems that hiding in the neighboring house was indeed a useful tactic. The truly troublesome enemy is no longer active in the vicinity.

"It seems like I haven't seen anything strange."

Touko Yotsuya took careful steps, pausing after each step to make sure there was no danger in her line of sight before continuing.

"That's for the best. Let's keep going. If anything really scary happens, I'll protect Mom."

On the surface, Miko seemed very weak, but she spoke seriously. To this, Touko Yotsuya simply nodded, glanced at the address displayed on her phone, and then continued forward, braving the heavy rain to approach the house where Yurikawa Hana was hiding.

What Miko didn't say was that, in a desperate situation, Takahashi could actually forcefully unleash his power through the blessing of the Blood Flower. At that time, as the vessel for the blessing's power, Miko could easily recover from any injury. However, considering that Takahashi's current condition was already quite bad, Miko abandoned this plan.

slam-la-

The icy rain quickly soaked them both completely. As the chill permeated the air, Touko Yotsuya shivered slightly. Miko, on the other hand, was not afraid of the low temperature at all; she was just pretending to be afraid of the cold.

We're almost there.

Seeing that Zi could sense the general situation around her, she was certain that she was about to arrive at Xiao Hua's place.

If you continue along this road for a while longer, everything will be fine, and then you can...

"Hey?"

The mother suddenly stopped, her voice still carrying a hint of confusion.

Realizing something was wrong, Miko quickly activated her senses, and the next second, she saw the road ahead, looking at the broken cliff that had appeared on the road surface at some unknown time, cutting the street horizontally and separating the two sides.

Chapter Ten: The Gradually Deepening Erosion and the Unknown Land of Decay

"What...what are all these things? I don't remember this place looking like this."

With Miko on her back, Touko Yotsuya's voice trembled slightly. Clearly, for this middle-aged woman who had never experienced supernatural phenomena, the situation on the street ahead was completely beyond her comprehension.

"A hallucination? No...no, this isn't a hallucination, if that's the case..."

Miko, who sensed that this scene was real, was also stunned for a moment, and immediately understood what had happened.

Based on the investigations of previous cycles, the basic ability of the various strange creatures released into the real world by the [Hospital] through unknown means is to create illusions. Through this power, the strange creatures can deceive the senses of the living, making victims mistakenly believe they are in danger and thus flee their homes. They are then captured and transformed by the strange creatures hiding outside, turning them into those inhuman, ghostly beings.

Because this ability seemed so familiar, Gao Hai even jokingly called them a bunch of mentally challenged little Alices, only to be rebuked by his own personal Alice. Perhaps because these strange creatures weren't exactly beautiful, Alice got angry at being compared to them; thinking about it carefully, this seems to be the first time this Alice, created by the god, had ever been angry. Unfortunately, Miko herself only heard about it from Gao Hai and didn't actually witness the ghostly little thing getting angry.

However, that's not the focus right now.

The key point is that all the ghosts in the [Hospital] possess the ability to hallucinate, which is actually illogical.

Ghostly creatures are formed from human emotions and pain, and since everyone in this world is different, there are no two people who are exactly alike. Therefore, there shouldn't be any ghostly creatures with completely identical abilities. In fact, according to the information Gao Hai has investigated so far, the individual differences between these ghostly creatures from the "hospital" are actually very large. Although most of them clearly have the identity of "patients," they have little in common beyond this common identity. So, in theory, their abilities should also be different, or even if they have the same abilities, they should at least have different powers beyond that.

Takahashi was unable to find the answer to this question, and Miko, who obtained the relevant information from him, also did not know the reason because she had not participated much in the operation.

But now, she feels she may have found the right answer.

"The ground has indeed collapsed, and... I can't sense the end of the collapsed area. The spatial structure is changing, and the connection between this city and the [duplicate world] is gradually deepening. I see, that's the reason. So it wasn't an illusion after all?"

As she muttered to herself, Miko finally realized a mistake that no one else had noticed before.

These strange creatures from the hospital do not all possess the ability to create hallucinations in a unified way.

In fact, the commonality among these things is the modification of humans into derivatives.

The strange ability to create illusions is actually the individualized power possessed by these strange creatures. However, because there is a certain gap between the real world and the instance world, this power cannot truly affect ordinary people. Therefore, the one in the [Hospital] deliberately disguises this power as an illusion ability to mislead players.

But now, those so-called "hallucinations" are probably no longer entirely hallucinations.

While the Black Watch's multiple rollbacks changed the fate of some people killed and modified by the monsters, this rewind also seemed to have accumulated something for the enemy. Unlike the previous four playthroughs, in the current fifth playthrough, the [Hospital]'s ability to project into the real world has been enhanced. It now possesses the ability to modify the city's real-world rules to a certain extent and project more elements belonging to the instance into it.

Just like this inexplicably collapsed section of road that has appeared in the real world, the abilities of those strange creatures must have also changed in some way.

"Quickly, take a detour, Mom! Xiaohua is in danger! The intelligence is outdated!"

Realizing the situation was extremely urgent, Miko anxiously spoke to her mother. After taking several deep breaths to calm down, Yotsuya Touko no longer hesitated and carried Miko on her back, quickly running around the cracks in the street.

slam-la-

The torrential rain continued to fall.

This frigid downpour seemed to have no end in sight, only accumulating and accumulating until the water overflowed and turned into a raging flood.

Splash—splash—

But at least for now, at this very moment, the rain is simply continuing its monotonous repetition.

I think I heard something.

It sounded like it was coming from a very, very far place.

I couldn't make out exactly what the sound was, but I could barely make out that it sounded like children playing games.

drop--

Mixed with some strange, unnatural sounds were the sounds of children playing happily.

Drip—drip—

One sound after another, cold as the sound of a machine running, mingled with the children's laughter.

What exactly was that sound?

Why am I hearing such strange sounds?

Where am I right now? Where am I? What am I doing?

My muddled mind gradually cleared up.