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

Interlude 1-15: A Conflict, Several Dead, and a Conjecture

They came looking for us much faster than expected.

To be honest, Gao Hai was quite impressed with the efficiency of the "Women's Gang".

Upon discovering their companion's death, they immediately killed a surviving player from the Shirakawa Apartment. They then hired players to scout out any new players in the market. Whether they took any other actions is unknown, but it's conceivable that these guys went to great lengths to search.

I don't quite understand.

Do these people really have to go to such lengths?

Can such a ruthless villain who kills others with impunity really be so devoted to his companions, even going to great lengths to avenge them after their death?

Gao Hai's gaze swept over the woman's face in front of him, a face that seemed to be constantly writhing, as if something was hidden inside.

Boiling malice is spreading.

For the first time, Gao Hai experienced firsthand the power that the girl's blessing brought him.

Without even a conversation, he could tell that the woman in front of him would kill him. Whether he was a new player who had cleared the Shirakawa Apartment or not, she was determined to kill him.

It was precisely because Gao Hai understood this that he adopted a hostile attitude from the very beginning and bluntly replied with "Guess." He knew very well that the other party would never let him go.

"Such a tone and attitude is rare for a newcomer. As expected, you are a newcomer from [Shirakawa Apartment]."

In response to Gao Hai's answer, the woman just chuckled lightly, seemingly quite pleased.

"Can you tell me, sister, what's the name of the player who helped you beat Shirakawa Apartment?"

"Don't worry, don't worry, as long as you tell me your name, I won't make things difficult for you. We can even spend a pleasant night together. Want to try?"

The woman chuckled softly as she spoke, even giving a flirtatious wink. Her facial skin twitched slightly, as if centipedes were crawling beneath it.

Before you say that, could you take a look in the mirror and see your ugly face? My taste isn't so bad that I can accept someone like you.

Gao Hai was genuinely disgusted. Seeing such an ugly woman trying to seduce him was far more terrifying to him than anything like old cesspools or meat sauce of beautiful girls. This was one of the most unacceptable categories of extreme tastes for him.

"Oh, so you can see what I really look like. You seem to have a very strong mentality."

This time, it was the woman's turn to be slightly taken aback, somewhat surprised by Gao Hai's reaction.

It wasn't until the woman revealed this attitude that Gao Hai vaguely sensed that something was influencing his thinking. However, the effect was extremely subtle, so subtle that Gao Hai not only wasn't affected, but he also found it difficult to pinpoint its source.

Then, in the next instant, the woman's figure disappeared from Gao Hai's sight.

One second they were talking peacefully, and the next second, accompanied by a strong chill, a deadly attack had already reached Gao Hai.

Bang!

As Fujiwara Chika stood up in confusion, trying to open the door of the noodle shop, she heard a loud bang. Then, through the semi-transparent door, she saw a figure crash into it, quickly get up, and then a suppressed female scream came from outside.

"Hey, hey, what's going on? What's going on?"

The girl was completely bewildered by what had happened, while Gao Hai, who was in the alley, was being suspended in mid-air by a smiling human head balloon. The face printed on the balloon was gradually transforming into Gao Hai's own appearance.

"I already told you, as long as you tell me the name of the veteran player who helped you clear the game, I won't hurt you. Why do you have to hurt my feelings?"

The woman standing in the alley laughed at Gao Hai in mid-air.

Already struggling to breathe, Gao Hai could only stretch out his hands and raise his middle finger at the woman.

"You ungrateful wretch, it seems I'll have to cut off your little one first, and then cut you open little by little along your belly."

The woman's face contorted even more violently at that moment.

She pulled a small pair of blood-stained scissors from her pocket, seemingly intending to step forward and do something.

But before the woman could actually make a move, a strong hand reached out from behind and grabbed her shoulder.

[Rescue operations have begun; please refrain from irrational actions.]

A cold voice rang out from behind.

"Rescue team? You got the medal? Wait, the instance has been destroyed, so why didn't the artifacts inside expire?!"

Furthermore, given the corrosive effect of that medal, even a player with a strong will would have lost themselves by the time they could summon a rescue team, and would have been sent to the Shirakawa Apartments along with the out-of-control obsession. How could they possibly—

There was no more time for this woman to think.

Because she had been forcibly pulled around by that big hand, and then she was punched in the face.

Click!

The result of the first punch was a shattered nose and a cracked facial bone.

Perhaps because of the flesh-and-blood obsession, the woman's head was much more vulnerable than a normal person's. This punch almost dented her face, and dark red blood splattered around her, making her look extremely horrific for a moment.

Wearing the rescue team uniform, Gao Hai had broken free from the balloon. He looked up and watched it soar into the sky before disappearing in mid-air, feeling a pang of regret for not being able to obtain his coveted item. But then he acted swiftly, charging straight at the woman, his scalpel flashing out and piercing her skull through the back of her head.

Player-versus-player battles often begin and end quickly. This is because when an object of obsession is pointed at a player, its effects, once activated, almost always result in instant death or an inescapable state. Objects of obsession like the rescue team badge, which enhance a player's physical abilities and repel other strange forces, are extremely rare, and they also have severe side effects. If Gao Hai had been carrying some other kind of object of obsession, he would already be hanging by that head-shaped balloon.

The power of his obsession that he displayed at this moment was clearly beyond the information the other party knew, and as a price, the woman would die here.

However, it seems unlikely that it will end so soon.

Gao Hai saw the woman whose head he had pierced suddenly become illusory, then slowly dissipate, transforming into what appeared to be a working woman on her way home from get off work, looking very tired before completely disappearing.

He already knew what was going on.

Before arriving here, the woman had randomly killed another woman on the road, activating the effect of her possession to seize the other woman's existence. Therefore, at this moment, the existence of the person she killed has replaced the woman, becoming the person [whose head was pierced by Gao Hai].

"How do you have a scalpel?! Did Mei Du die at your hands? You're not a newbie? My lovely little Mei Du died at your hands?!"

The woman, who had appeared disheveled in a nearby alley, stared wide-eyed and roared at Gao Hai.

Rescue operations have begun.

The figure in the rescue team uniform next to Gao Hai quickly went to meet him.

At that moment, the woman gritted her teeth, but showed no fear. Instead, she rushed towards the rescue team, then vanished into thin air, and reappeared in front of Gao Hai, bringing the small scissors toward Gao Hai's neck.

If you get hurt by these scissors, something terrible seems to happen.

Despite being wearing a rescue team badge, Gao Hai instinctively felt that if this woman succeeded, something terrible would likely happen next.

Take a step back.

Gao Hai turned to the side as if trying to dodge the attack.

At that moment, a black, rotten hand reached out from behind him, grabbed the badge he was wearing, and ripped it off.

The physical enhancements provided by the badge disappeared the next moment.

Gao Hai turned his head slightly to look back and saw a woman standing by the wall, holding a black paper umbrella.

Another member of the "Female Face Gang" is a woman who never showed herself from the beginning, always hiding in the shadows waiting for her chance.

The black umbrella seemed to conceal her presence, allowing her to enter the alley silently. The rotting black hand emerged from behind the woman, appearing to have grown directly onto her body.

Turning his gaze slightly back, Gao Hai could see the smug expression on the woman's face in front of him, as if she were saying, "You didn't expect that, did you? There are two of us."

whoosh-

A flowerpot, pushed off the windowsill by a blood-red doll, hit the girl standing in the corner on the head the next moment.

In the next instant, Gao Hai dodged with superhuman speed, avoiding the scissors in the woman's hand. The woman, her eyes wide, tried to react quickly, but found that her enhanced speed and reaction time were far inferior to Gao Hai's. He easily dodged her and then kicked her in the leg, forcing her to her knees. Before she could even stand up, a scalpel slashed down, severing the woman's hand holding the scissors.

"No, my peaches—"

The woman with the severed hand wailed, not for her own injury, but for the woman who had been knocked unconscious. But Gao Hai didn't give her a chance to speak. Before the woman could even open her mouth, the scalpel had already pierced through the back of her head again, and Gao Hai grabbed the woman's severed hand, easily taking the bloody scissors with a smile.

He pulled out the scalpel and kicked the woman away.

Gao Hai did not search the woman's body, because her face had begun to change drastically, as if something hidden inside her had been stimulated.

He simply turned around and quickly walked to the unconscious woman by the wall. It seemed that although the [Substitute Flesh and Blood] had the terrifying effect of giving these people a second life, being unconscious or similar situations couldn't activate this obsessive object.

Take that black umbrella.

Get your rescue team badge back.

The severed hand growing on the woman's back made Gao Hai hesitate for a while, but he finally cut it off and decided to try to sell it in a few days.

A thorough search revealed no further objects of obsession; no wonder this guy was plotting against people behind their backs.

Then came a swift and decisive plunge into her temple, giving the woman a quick mental shake.

The reappearing phantom showed the woman killing a high school girl on her way home from school and taking her existence. The woman who reappeared had barely opened her eyes when Gao Hai plunged a knife into her forehead again, pulled it out, and left. Then, the flesh-and-blood entity rapidly went out of control due to the death of its host.

When Gao Hai returned to the entrance of the ramen shop, the two women had already disappeared.

It seems that the loss of control over the obsessive object was not as terrible as imagined. The flesh and blood were merely squeezed out of the two women's faces, gushing out from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears like pimples being popped, then devouring their entire bodies before disappearing.

However, this may also be related to the fact that Gao Hai ran away quickly after killing the person, without going to watch the excitement.

“I knew there were two of you from the beginning. My blessing is for you old idiots.”

Gao Hai, who had casually cursed, walked to the side of the alley, reached out and caught the blood puppet that had been quietly thrown away by him while he was entangled in the human head balloon. He then slowly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling fortunate that he had been able to successfully deal with the two players.

Pick up your phone and call Princess Zhenfei.

Before the call connected, Gao Hai leaned against the wall and took a breath; his heartbeat had returned to normal.

This "Female Mask Gang" doesn't seem to be very strong in direct combat. Their obsessions are relatively ordinary, unlike Old Guo who has all sorts of gadgets. Gao Hai guesses that this group of players is actually just average in strength; they're only unpopular and feared because they've gathered together and their style might be a bit perverse.

However, their attitude towards each other seems like that of a family who truly love each other.

Gao Hai recalled the expression and tone of the woman he had just confronted and sensed something was amiss.

Could it be that the [substitute flesh and blood] brought them closer, making them treat each other like family? If so, it would explain their reckless and irrational revenge. Thinking about it that way, this object of their flesh-and-blood obsession becomes even more unsettling.

Moreover, if that's really the case, what about other obsessions that have this effect of "unconsciously changing a person," or even completely transforming a person into another person, without anyone else, including the person themselves, being able to detect it?

beep--

The call was connected at that moment.

Gao Hai quickly picked up the phone and then heard a girl's voice coming from the other end.

"Are you OK?"

These words came simultaneously from Gao Hai and Zhen Fei on the other end of the phone.

"I'm fine. Two of my men came and have already taken care of everything. How about you?"

Completely relieved, Gao Hai slowly explained his situation.

"I also have two here. They caused a lot of damage, but we managed to take care of them."