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

Xiaohua tried hard to build her mental strength, praising herself repeatedly in her heart and imagining Gao Hai praising her. Although she had never actually met Gao Hai and didn't know what he looked like, that didn't stop Xiaohua from imagining him as a tall, majestic deity wearing a mask. Incidentally, in Xiaohua's imagination, Gao Hai was either dressed in magnificent samurai armor or in the battle robes of generals like Guan Yu and Zhao Yun. Mainly, because Gao Hai's voice sounded very authoritative during their only encounter, Xiaohua subconsciously began to imagine him as a god of war.

Okay, okay, stop thinking about this. Let's move on and try to find our way back to the factory so we can see if we can find our phone again.

Having mentally prepared herself, Xiaohua looked up, glanced at the traffic lights ahead, and continued forward.

"..."

The girl stopped in her tracks.

She turned around and looked at the street behind her, which remained unchanged and shrouded in shadow.

Then she looked ahead, at the traffic lights that were no different from the previous times, and the streetlights that were flickering slightly.

Since I stepped into this neighborhood, has the distance between me and that traffic light changed?

Xiao Hua suddenly realized that he had begun to encounter strange tales.

As she walked along this seemingly deserted street, something she couldn't see quietly released its power, causing her to linger in place for a long time, unable to truly leave the street.

Should we continue moving forward?

Looking at the traffic lights ahead, which remained red the entire time, Xiao Hua's unease grew stronger.

Come to think of it, this isn't even a world for the living; it's only inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures. Why would we need traffic lights? There are no strange creatures here, and no vehicles at all. Hmm… But according to Mr. Gao Hai, in a world of ghost stories, you can't judge things by appearances alone. You have to think about the internal workings of the system. Because strange creatures are ultimately rigid, inflexible beings that only follow rules, they can't escape their own inherent patterns. As long as you keep observing, you can definitely analyze them.

Although using my brain isn't exactly my forte, I have no choice but to push through. In short, I seem unable to approach the red light area ahead; according to Mr. Gao Hai, this must be some kind of spatial anomaly. So, in the case of a spatial anomaly, I need to consider its origin, its duration, and its possible source… The source should be that traffic light, right? After all, it's the only thing here that looks abnormal. But that might not be the case; what if it's the streetlights nearby?

Xiaohua frowned, trying to think of something, but couldn't come up with a good idea. She guessed that perhaps when the traffic light ahead turned green, the road would change, allowing her to travel in another direction. Xiaohua thought this was highly likely, but vaguely, she felt there was something she hadn't considered. After all, strange creatures always posed a life-threatening threat, while a traffic light that only prevented people from approaching didn't seem to pose much of a danger.

As Xiaohua was thinking this, she looked at the traffic lights again and then froze.

There are people on the other side of the street.

Under the flickering lights, several blurry figures could be seen on the pedestrian crossing behind the traffic lights.

That seemed to be a man in a suit? Because the streetlights were flashing, Xiaohua couldn't see the man's appearance very clearly, but she could barely make out that he seemed to be wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, like a corporate slave getting ready for work.

Xiao Hua blinked.

There was nothing on the other side of the street; the figure I had just seen had vanished.

Is it an illusion?

The idea was quickly rejected by the girl as soon as it came to mind.

In situations like this, where something is clearly wrong, you absolutely cannot dismiss it as a hallucination. When your life is at stake, you should treat it as the work of a ghost; there really should be a ghost on the other side of the traffic light!

My heart seemed to start beating rapidly again.

Having personally experienced what it feels like to be attacked by a strange creature, Xiaohua really doesn't want to deal with strange creatures again if she could.

But now that I've seen her, she should have seen me too, so why haven't I been attacked? Is some rule not being met, or is there a delay in her actions?

Take a deep breath.

The girl hesitated for a moment, then mustered her courage and looked at the traffic lights again.

Open your eyes, close your eyes, then open your eyes again.

The figure in the suit carrying the briefcase reappeared.

But this time, Xiaohua saw its face.

It has no facial features, only a smile that looks like a child's doodle, staring straight at your face.

The girl instantly felt an extremely strong chill.

It wasn't just the man in the suit.

If you look more closely, you'll notice that behind that thing, there are several figures in children's school uniforms, holding hands. And among these figures holding hands, there is a tall, deformed figure in a white dress, whose shape is so distorted it's hard to tell if it's human or not, watching Xiaohua from afar with its chinless head, which only has half a face remaining, staring at the girl across the traffic light.

"..."

Xiao Hua understood.

When the red light of this traffic light comes on, it's probably impossible to pass through this street; there's no way to get through.

If the green light does indeed illuminate when the light turns green, then the area might indeed become passable. However… that would likely be two-way traffic, meaning you could cross to the other side, and those things on the other side could also come to you.

If they actually come up to me, what will they do to me?

The moment Xiaohua realized the problem, she had the idea of ​​retreating. But she only took one step back before a wave of dizziness hit her head. Due to hunger and weakness, the girl was unable to escape the area quickly; even slightly increasing her pace was already extremely dangerous.

zizi——

The red light started flashing.

Just as Xiaohua realized something was wrong and was about to back away, the red light, which had remained unchanged until now, began to flash.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no...

Realizing she shouldn't have reacted so obviously, Xiaohua panicked even more. She quickly looked around for a place to hide and soon found an open public toilet.

Never mind, let's go in first and talk about it later!

Without time to hesitate, Xiaohua gritted her teeth and stumbled towards the public toilet.

At the same moment she took action, the red light silently went out, and the bright, soft green light illuminated the ethereal figures, casting its light on the girl who had already fled into the public restroom, guiding those who had chosen their targets.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Twisted Object in the Toilet and the Players Who Met Unexpectedly

Xiaohua felt that her decision to hide in the women's restroom was probably a mistake.

After all, it's common knowledge that toilets are often classic scenes in horror movies. Whether it's a face peeking out from a toilet stall, a creepy hand reaching out from a bedpan asking for toilet paper, or a sink dripping with blood, these are all classic settings. So classic that just thinking about those images gives Xiaohua an immediate urge to escape from the toilet.

The problem is that something is already approaching from outside, and she is too weak to chase after the monster. She might even collapse and faint after only a few steps.

"Huff... Huff... Is there no other way?"

In the dimly lit restroom, the girl looked at the rows of stalls ahead and carefully moved forward, frantically searching for a place to escape.

The only good news was that the toilet didn't contain the terrifying monsters she had initially imagined. Although the floor was filthy, looking like it was rotting, and all the stalls were open and empty, the fact remained that she was in a dead end. Xiaohua couldn't find any way out. Of course, it's common knowledge that toilets don't normally have a second entrance or exit.

We can't be trapped here.

Xiao Hua clenched her fists instinctively.

Those strange creatures obviously don't have any rules about not being able to enter the toilet or any occupied stalls. If they were to hide in a stall and pretend they don't exist like characters in horror movies, they might not even know how they died.

Anxiety spread through Xiaohua's heart, but she didn't let herself get too caught up in it. She immediately tried to recall the calm mindset she had when she was protected by the mental fragments, and tried to adjust her emotions. She managed to maintain her composure in this way.

Next, Xiaohua carefully observed her surroundings again, and this time she found a half-open window near the ceiling at the deepest part of the toilet.

Are the windows open? I don't know where they lead, but I have no other choice now. As long as I'm not trapped here, that's all that matters.

Okay, then let's choose to escape from here!

Having found a way out, the girl took a deep breath, her face revealing an expression of undisguised joy.

She stumbled to the window and tried to climb up, but then she realized that she didn't have the strength to jump, and that she couldn't reach the edge of the window even if she did, and even if she did, she couldn't hold on.

How could this be? There's no way to climb up! Couldn't they have designed the window to be lower?!

The girl, who is less than 160cm tall, was almost in tears.

The chilling atmosphere outside the door was getting closer and closer.

The twisted creatures seemed in no hurry, slowly approaching Xiaohua. But it was precisely because of this that the girl felt the terrifying approach of death all the more acutely.

He gritted his teeth and punched his trembling thigh twice with all his might.

Xiaohua turned her head and first looked at the toilet stall next to her. After a brief thought, she reached out and pulled open the stall door. She frowned as she looked at the height of the stall door, compared it with the height of the window and the distance between the stall door and the window, and finally focused her gaze on the toilet in the stall.

If we can climb up there, it shouldn't be a problem... then there's no problem! Let's go!

The girl took another deep breath, enduring the intense hunger in her stomach and the weakness in her limbs, and walked into the stall. She lowered the toilet seat, stepped on it, and then stepped onto the higher water tank behind the toilet.

The process wasn't smooth. Xiaohua was already exhausted; just climbing onto the toilet was enough to leave her utterly drained. Climbing up to the top of the next stall was truly daunting. Although the stall wasn't particularly high, only about 2.2 or 2.3 meters, and there was enough space between it and the ceiling for Xiaohua, the stall itself was made of very thin plastic panels. Her hands offered little support, making the climb extremely difficult for her. She had to grit her teeth and struggle desperately to move herself up, little by little.

However, Xiaohua quickly came up with a solution during this process. She first leaned her chest against the top of the stall, then stood on tiptoe on the toilet, turned her body to the side, wedging her chest against the stall, and then used her strength to climb upwards. Although this process caused her considerable pain, the girl persevered thanks to her built-in stabilizer, eventually climbing to the top of the stall and slowly moving to the edge of the window, reaching out and grabbing the damp, warm exterior wall of the toilet.

No problem, no problem.

Xiao Hua repeatedly told herself this in her heart.

I'm sure I can get out of here, I'm sure I can get out alive.

Tread-

We can already hear footsteps entering the toilet.

Those things have already entered here and are about to seize her.

Xiao Hua could feel the chilling aura coming towards her, as well as the eerie, whispering sounds, like two people talking in secret.

“Hu… Woo…”

The girl, who was holding onto the toilet wall outside the window with one hand and holding onto the toilet stall door with the other, squeezed forward one more step.

At this point, her head was already sticking out of the window. If she moved a little further forward, she could squeeze through the open window and land outside the toilet.

Toilet... go outside...

Xiao Hua suddenly stopped moving.

She looked at the window in front of her, at the half-open, dark red window near the ceiling, and at the pitch-black, unknown space outside that reeked of decay.

You can feel a clear warmth and a hard-to-describe dampness and softness from the hand that's sticking out of the window and resting on the exterior wall.

That definitely wasn't the feel of a wall, it was... the feel of flesh. But why would I feel flesh here? Is this thing really just a window? If I climb out from here, can I really get outside, to a safe place?

A strong feeling of palpitations instantly spread throughout my body.

Xiao Hua almost instinctively pulled her hand back from the outer wall and quickly withdrew her head that had been sticking out.

The next moment, a row of black and yellow teeth snapped shut, and the window-like mouth bit down repeatedly, but it couldn't bite the girl who had already shrunk back.

"what--"

Xiao Hua, who hadn't expected that the window she was planning to climb out of was the mouth of some kind of eerie creature, let out a scream. Her already swaying body immediately lost its balance and slid off the cubicle door, crashing heavily to the ground.

In an instant, the girl, who had fallen face down to the ground, felt a tightness in her chest, then her vision went black, and she could barely breathe.

The escape route is fake.

In the chaos, Xiao Hua desperately tried to get up from the ground again, his only thought being how to escape.