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

The distorted figure had already swept past the spot where Liang had just been standing.

[Good job! Remember this feeling; this emergency response might save your life in a dangerous situation.]

Gao Hai's praise echoed in her mind, but Liang no longer had the energy to listen.

Because she had already seen the monster, which had charged a distance, stop, turn around, and charge again, pouncing towards the spot where she was now lying.

My body couldn't react in time; there was no way to escape.

That quick dodge was the limit of what Liang could do in a short time, and there was no way to continue.

How to do?

Now how to do?

The girl's eyes widened at that moment, but she couldn't think of any new way to break the deadlock. She could only watch helplessly as the terrifying face rapidly enlarged in her field of vision, and as the monster's wooden stick, filled with hatred and pleasure, seemed to want to devour her alive.

bang——

A thick wooden stick struck that face hard the next moment.

The faces that were hit immediately showed a more direct, more intense, and more comical distortion.

The thing's downward lunge became disordered by this attack, and instead of landing directly on Liang, it crashed heavily beside her.

Finally able to react, Liang immediately rolled away from the thing.

Next, Xingge, who had rushed out of the room and thrown a wooden stick at the monster, raised his frying pan and, just as the thing was about to stand up, slammed it down hard on the top of its head.

Boom-! ! !

Chapter Fourteen: The Unknown Curse in the Water and the Moment of Forced Separation

The dark red color splashed and fell in mid-air, landing on the ground, on the wall, and on my cool cheek.

Xingge let out a shout of "Hah!", his eyes wide open, and he forcefully pressed down the bottom of the pot in his hand, striking the monster's head again with force, finally making it stagger and take a step back, spilling more black blood on the ground.

But the next moment, the deformed monster vanished from its spot, disappearing without a trace.

Xingge, who had originally wanted to press her advantage, froze on the spot, subconsciously looking around, but couldn't find the other party at all. The thing appeared as silently as it had appeared, leaving no trace whatsoever. It seemed to have been there or gone in the blink of an eye.

My breathing is rapid and my heart is beating violently.

Ryo Yamada, who had just sat up from the ground, was still in a state of tension and was breathing heavily, with beads of sweat dripping down his body.

Is it over yet?

Have you gotten rid of that thing already?

Gulu gulu——

I heard a strange sound.

It was a sound like some kind of liquid flowing slowly, and for some reason, it was extremely unsettling.

It seemed that neither Hongxia nor Xingge could hear the eerie flowing sound, which only she could perceive.

liquid?

Wait, liquid?!

Ryo suddenly wiped the blood splattered on his face and turned to look at the seemingly dead Torio Mami lying on the ground.

Then she saw Torio Mami staring straight at her, her face deathly pale, with a terrifying smile that resembled that of a monster.

Ijichi Seika's current position... is with her back to Torio Mami!

"It's not over yet—"

Liang had barely opened her mouth when she saw the woman, who had been timid just minutes before, stand up in a way that completely defied the laws of gravity, grin open her mouth and let out a twisted laugh, and then pounce straight towards Xingge.

Not far behind, Hongxia, still standing in the room, shouted, but she didn't have time to warn Xingge either. In the next moment, Liang kicked Xingge in the side, knocking him to the ground and narrowly avoiding the creature's attack.

whoosh-

A foul-smelling wind swept past me, bringing a chilling sensation.

Ryo, who had kicked with all her might, fell to the ground again, her eyes following Torio Mami's movements.

Close your eyes, open your eyes.

Then, Torio Mami disappeared.

Upon realizing this, Liang was stunned for a moment, then rubbed her eyes and found that the other person had indeed disappeared.

No matter how hard they searched, no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find any trace of Torio Mami. Even the bloodstains on the ground and the broken fingernails had disappeared, and everything had returned to its previous state.

She was as if she had been erased from this world, vanished by unseen demons, leaving no trace.

"What on earth are all these things...?"

Clutching her side, Xingge murmured. After recovering from the adrenaline rush of her fierce attack, this older young woman was now trembling and could barely hold the frying pan. It was clear that she was quite frightened.

"They won't suddenly reappear, will they?"

Hongxia quickly rushed forward to help Xingge and Liang up, while anxiously observing the surrounding situation, fearing that the thing might suddenly reappear.

"..."

Liang didn't speak immediately, but silently observed the surrounding situation.

The intense chill was gradually fading, and it seemed that the abnormal situation had ended and nothing would come out to attack for the time being.

But... for some reason, neither Haruka Hondou nor Mami Torio took advantage of the moment when she and the shopkeeper stood up to launch a sneak attack. Could it be that these people who have turned into monsters can only launch one attack at a time? And if the attack fails, they must disappear?

Burying these unanswered questions in her heart, Liang took a deep breath and then thought of another question.

It was a troublesome problem that she should have realized back in the small square, but unfortunately, she only realized it now.

"...There's something wrong with the water."

Liang spoke in a low, cold voice.

"While I'm not entirely sure of the exact reason why they turned out this way, it's definitely related to water."

"The water here is problematic, and when we first encountered them, they were boiling water in a kettle. I think they must have drunk this water, and perhaps from that time on, they were already transformed into monsters to some extent. It's just that there might be some other trigger in this process, and they need to go through a process we don't understand before they undergo a complete transformation and become what they are now."

She recalled the sound of the kettle making a noise when she first met the three survivors, and her expression grew increasingly somber.

Leaving aside the idiot Haruka Hondou, Ryo, like Nijika, actually thinks Shizuko Ogiyama is a very nice person and hopes she can survive. Of course, there's also Torio Mami, a woman even more timid than Nijika who, to be honest, hasn't made any mistakes. Although she was very scared, she still helped find a pen in the lobby. Ryo is genuinely concerned and doesn't want either of them to get hurt.

It's too late to say all this now.

To be honest, Ryo felt that even if she had the superpower to go back in time, even if she could go back to when the three of them had just arrived at 109 and met Shizuko Ogiyama and the others, it would probably be too late. After all, Shizuko Ogiyama and the others had already boiled water and drunk quite a bit of it beforehand. The reason she continued to boil water at that time was to give it to Nijika and the others, but Ryo was preoccupied with the pen issue and didn't end up drinking it.

Should we say it's fortunate we didn't actually drink it?

Or should we say that Shizuko Ogiyama and the others weren't vigilant enough about what was in the dungeon?

Liang's feelings were complicated; she didn't know what to say.

"Is the problem caused by drinking water? But the rules in the lobby don't mention anything like that. If drinking water could cause this, why isn't it mentioned in the rules?"

Hongxia widened her eyes slightly and asked in disbelief.

The kind-hearted girl found it hard to understand this situation.

If those rules in the hall were truly the "survival rules" that everyone needed to follow, why wasn't even such crucial information as "the water is poisonous," which could potentially cause injury or death, marked? We had to investigate and find previous records to learn about this.

The rules clearly state the goal of creating a good apartment environment and encourage everyone to work together, yet they completely omit anything truly life-threatening. Does this mean that those who can't detect anything amiss beforehand are simply unable to avoid the dangers in the instance and are doomed to be killed?

I can't understand it, how could such a thing happen?

"The rules do not represent the entirety of the dungeon. Mr. Gao Hai mentioned this before, do you remember?"

Liang simply shook his head expressionlessly and spoke calmly to Hongxia and Xingge.

"The various rules and survivor records obtained in the dungeon often contain various clues, but these records themselves have the problem of the recorder's perspective and the problem of information lag. So a qualified player will collect and analyze these clue documents, but never believe the contents of them completely, because you can't be sure whether the writer himself will conceal things due to perspective and perspective, not to mention the serious lag or incompleteness of information due to the writer's death... I remember."

Xingge spoke in a low voice. After her foolish mistake that led to the three of them getting into danger not long ago, Xingge is now much more cautious in her actions. As for Gao Hai, who can guide and help the three of them, Xingge is not only fully cooperating with the operation, but also trying her best to remember every word he teaches.

"Yes, so we have to be even more careful if we want to survive. By the way, Hongxia, check the time, see what day it is now—"

Liang nodded, and while speaking, turned his gaze to Hongxia standing at the door of 109, and behind Hongxia, Ogiyama Shizuko, whose face was bluish-purple.

The appearance of this third person was completely unexpected.

There was no sign of an approaching chill, nor any warning from the high seas.

In that instant, Liang subconsciously looked down at the doll hanging around her neck, only to find that the doll was just hanging there motionless, without making any movement.

Clearly, Gao Hai is currently mobilizing resources for survivors elsewhere and cannot monitor Liang's situation constantly. In fact, just maintaining the power of the [Rules of Love] to ensure the three of them are in a heightened state has already put considerable pressure on Gao Hai. Now that a large number of players and survivors have suddenly fallen into an emergency, Gao Hai, in order to race against time to rescue them, doesn't even have the energy to notify the three of Liang's side.

So, it's too late.

whoosh-

The door to room 109 slammed shut without anyone moving it, hitting Hongxia hard on the nose and sending her flying into the shoe cabinet by the door of room 109.

"Hongxia!"

Unable to catch Hongxia in time, Xingge let out a terrified scream and slammed his head against the door, but it was as if he were hitting a wall; he couldn't budge the door at all.

"Woo..."

A mournful cry came from inside the door.

Rubbing her aching back, Hongxia got up from the ground and looked up to see Ogiyama Shizuko standing in front of her, her eyes, nose and mouth covered in dark red blood, giving her an extremely twisted smile.

Snap—Bang!

The next second, the doorknob of the 109 gate was snapped off and fell to the ground.

Hongxia stared blankly at this scene, but Ogiyama Shizuko had already disappeared without a trace in the next second, just like Hondou Haruka and Torio Mami, who vanished into thin air.

dong dong dong-

"Hongxia! Hongxia, how are you!?"

Xingge's banging on the door and shouts could be heard from outside.

"I...I'm fine. Miss Ogiyama has disappeared, but...but the lock on the door is broken, and I can't open it!"

Despite the pain in her back, Hongxia quickly stood up and ran to the door to try to open the door to room 109, but she couldn't open it no matter what she did.

"Hongxia, look at the clock! Quickly, look at the clock! Make sure it's the right time!"