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

The next moment, a violent explosion blasted the entire waste chute and the adjacent chemical pool to smithereens. Large amounts of shattered human tissue fell like rain, and sticky, rotten flesh and bone fragments were scattered all over the ground, dripping and covering the area around the players.

{Suppression complete, Lake. Check the surroundings. If there are no other monsters active, you can continue.}

Smoke-blackened bodies, Yan Hui and Qin Shou emerged from the collapsed rubble pit. Qin Shou's arms were shattered and twisted into horribly contorted shapes from the shockwave. Neither of them showed any emotion, remaining remarkably calm… well, that's not quite right; Qin Shou's expression was beginning to turn ominous.

I will take charge of the treatment.

Cui Qiushui walked up, holding a bottle of spray.

laugh--

The white spray fell, instantly bringing Yan Hui excruciating pain as if her body were being torn apart.

But she stood there silently, enduring the pain. As a result, her burned flesh healed rapidly, and she was fully recovered in the blink of an eye.

{Oh, no, wait a minute, let's wait a minute, my treatment can wait—}

Qin Shou was terrified and turned to run away, but Cui Qiushui grabbed his broken arm and then yanked it hard. With a clear "crack" sound, Qin Shou's shattered bones immediately healed, and Qin Shou's cheeks puffed out from Cui Qiushui's touch, looking like he was about to vomit.

Click!

Cui Qiushui, the team's medic, didn't care about Qin Shou's reaction. She skillfully went around behind him to avoid being vomited on, then activated her blessing [Orthopedic Surgeon's Blessing], healing his other hand with extremely rough movements. She immediately used the [Veterinary Emergency Spray], a healing item, on Qin Shou as well.

Qin Shou, who had just finished suppressing the monster, vomited and wailed, rolling miserably on the ground.

Honestly, I think we really need to find a way to cure this weird habit of his. Vomiting like this after just a little contact with a woman is really unsightly.

Lin Sen, who was watching this scene from the side, shook his head helplessly and finally couldn't help but sigh.

{Piglets aren't so easy to cure, but at least he doesn't flare up when he's in contact with female supernatural objects, that's enough. Alright, it's about time to move on. Although we destroyed this chemical pool, it can self-repair, so we can't wait for it to recover.}

Yan Hui shone her flashlight on the blasted debris and, after confirming that the damaged areas were slowly repairing themselves, and knowing that her and Qin Shou's seemingly devastating attack had only temporarily suppressed the thing, Yan Hui immediately spoke in the temporary mental link and took half of the twisted skeleton.

{No other threats at the moment, let's go.}

After silently inspecting the surroundings for a while, Lake gave his reply, and the player team immediately took action, leaving the area without any hesitation.

Next, they headed to a freight elevator in an industrial area not far away, which appeared to be out of service after the power outage.

It's called a freight elevator, but it's actually a massive platform, large enough for several trucks to drive into. The players stepped inside, appearing as tiny as specks of dust on the platform. It's unclear whether the unusually large size of the elevator is also due to some kind of supernatural force at play.

Yan Hui carried the corpse, which had been a test subject in life, into the elevator, and then felt a certain aura pass by her.

She stood there silently for a short while.

Then suddenly, the huge elevator, which had been pitch black, lit up with a dark red light. Then, amidst a series of humming sounds, the massive elevator began to descend slowly, heading towards the underground second floor, which did not exist on the map.

{So, once you unravel it, you're confronting your core obsession?}

Lin Sen spoke with slight nervousness in the temporary mental link.

{Don't worry, don't worry. We've dealt with Dark Night-level core obsession-level things before, it'll be fine.}

Qin Shou was quite confident at this moment, and even moved his body around on the platform, doing a few aerobic exercises.

Yan Hui remained silent, simply standing there.

She could sense that she was now venturing deep into the core area of ​​this instance.

There, a dark aura lurked, awaiting the arrival of their small team.

Chapter Fifty-Eight: A Phantom Deep Within, the Core Revealed, and the First to Exit.

Saw something.

From the depths of darkness, indistinct phantoms emerge from the past.

Who is pursuing the secret, pursuing the unpredictable, and committing sins and creating one tragic event after another?

What are they looking for?

What are they yearning for?

I saw something gradually rising from the deepest part of the darkness.

They have been watching them all along, observing the existence of these people captured by desire, silently waiting for the right moment, waiting for the opportunity to arrive.

No matter how the world changes, greedy people always flock to their destined dead end. They always think they can escape disaster, they always think they can be the ones laughing last. They don't understand how ridiculous it is to harbor wishful thinking in such matters. These things, which lie beyond the realm of humanity, have never been truly mastered. In the end, what they are so proud of holding in their hands is nothing more than a predetermined reward, not a free gift.

But there are indeed people who manage to survive.

Even so, there were indeed those who survived to the end, and those who were different.

Those are people who never harbored any illusions from the beginning, people who, after understanding what they were doing and knowing what kind of ending they might face, were still able to walk calmly down this evil path.

Such a person is not bound by morality, nor troubled by legal principles. No amount of accusation or punishment can shake his mind. Even if he is shattered to pieces, he will never repent. He can even easily place his own life on the scales of exchange and use it as a bargaining chip.

Perhaps only people like this have the potential to make it to the end.

But can someone who can do such a thing really be called a human being?

Even if they wear the same human skin, in the end, their inner selves are no longer what ordinary people should be like, right?

If the arrogant who are consumed by greed are merely destined fodder, then how should we deal with these extraordinary individuals who hide among ordinary people?

In the depths of darkness, the prying gaze simply watched all of this silently.

Meanwhile, amidst the clinking of glasses and the revelry of those who had gathered, the banquets of those who considered themselves noble had not yet come to an end.

It's not harvest time yet.

There's still a slight mishap before the moment when the price should be paid.

But everything was already destined.

The ending here has already been written and will not change.

The only difference is who should be chosen.

"..."

A splitting headache.

The immense pressure was almost tearing my nerves apart.

I haven't experienced this kind of pain in a long time.

Fortunately, I can still bear it for now, after all, I've experienced similar trauma before. Now, experiencing it again, there's a touch of nostalgia in it.

But now is not the time to think about such things.

Danger could strike at any moment, and everything ahead is still unknown. We must recover as soon as possible and get back into the right mindset.

"Everyone... are you alright? If you can still make a sound, please say something..."

Yan Hui struggled to make a sound.

She was not defeated by the pain; she struggled and tried to keep going.

She is not like those greedy people; they are completely different beings, like opposite ends of a scale.

Such people harbor a certain belief in their hearts; they genuinely believe in something, and for that thing, they are willing to sacrifice their lives without hesitation.

They are easy to die, much easier to die than those who are inherently greedy. Because such people will actively go to dangerous places, even knowing that it is likely to be fatal, they will still go forward one after another, as if they do not cherish their own lives at all.

But for some reason, such people never truly die; they always reappear after death, again and again, with new people constantly inheriting their obsessions and striving to accomplish the same thing. Even if they don't see their ideals realized until the very end, they remain without regret.

However, such people generally do not pose a significant threat.

Because they always arrive after things have happened, they always enter the scene after everything is over, and by then, no matter what they want to do, they can only make some minor repairs, but cannot change the tragedy that has already occurred.

Yes, such people are always precious and always praised. But they can't change anything; by the time they actually appear, things have already reached a point of no return.

Therefore, they cannot truly cure the world.

Therefore, they cannot completely cure any problems; they cannot.

Therefore, they cannot be true hope; they are obstacles, problems that need to be eliminated.

"……Who is speaking?"

Yan Hui spoke, her breath coming in short gasps.

She couldn't be sure where she was.

The last memory is of pure darkness covering the entire elevator, where he and his team members were enveloped in this darkness and drawn into an unknown world.

The images that followed seemed to become fragmented.

...In other words, I am currently in some kind of mental space?

...It's probably like this: this feeling, this discontinuity in memory and thought, the ability to see and feel various images and sounds, the understanding of things that seem to have happened a long time ago, a feeling as if one is traveling through time—it must have triggered some kind of special inspirational effect. If we want to obtain information, now might be a crucial moment.

...Concentrate, you must concentrate! We've come this far, we have to persevere no matter what.

Therefore, such people are truly frustrating.

Does she feel like she's rebelling against something?

Did she think she was saving something?

If things continue like this, nothing will be cured in the slightest. The world will remain the same as yesterday, all ugliness will remain ugly, and the inevitable end will not change.

The world is sick.

Why can't you understand?

You are all sick.

This disease is yourself, the name of the disease is "humanity", it is "human civilization", it is everything to you.

I will definitely heal you.

I will find a suitable doctor.

One day, I will cure you of all the ailments you suffer from, and even your very existence.

"I saw it... I saw it..."

From that voice of unknown origin, Yan Hui's eyes widened, and under the protection of the crimson light surrounding her, she finally projected her consciousness deeper into the darkness.

The fragmented image gradually becomes complete.

Distorted things revert to their former form.

In the darkness, she saw a venue, a venue hidden underground, like a stage theater, and sitting below the venue, those cold masks.