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

The dead reappeared before her, looking exhausted and working overtime. This absurd scene left Hongxia completely bewildered, her mind a complete blank.

Why did Miss Birdtail reappear? Wasn't she supposed to have died and become a monster after drinking water?

Moreover, in the morgue in the basement, her body had already been recovered by Mr. Gao Hai. Logically speaking, even if something was left, it could only be that her soul, which had turned into a monster, might still remain in the dungeon world.

So what exactly am I seeing now?

If I speak, if I attract its attention, will this thing immediately reveal its monstrous form and attack me?

This is something that neither humans nor ghosts know. It merely presents what Miss Birdtail looked like in her previous life, or is it just a disguise for hunting, or is it just a video, or has Miss Birdtail really returned in some way? I just can't understand the reason behind it.

Ichi Nijika didn't know the correct answer to this question.

However, having already experienced several crises, Nijika had learned her lesson and wouldn't be foolish enough to immediately call out to the obviously abnormal Torio Mami. After a brief moment of thought, she concluded that she should leave the office as quietly as possible, trying to escape without disturbing this strange being and find a way to leave this bizarre and distorted area.

However, just as she was thinking this, Hongxia heard Xingge beside her let out a confused "Huh?" Although the latter immediately realized the problem after her confusion and covered her mouth to stop herself from saying anything more, Torio Mami, who had been keeping her head down, raised her head and looked ahead with a puzzled expression.

She saw nothing; the office was empty except for her.

Did I hear that right?

The young female office worker muttered under her breath, lowered her head, and continued to bury herself in the piles of documents that obscured her view.

On the floor in front of the desk, Hongxia, already sprawled on the floor, looked helplessly at Xingge beside her. Xingge shook his head awkwardly and mouthed a promise to Hongxia that he wouldn't make the same mistake again. Then, the two of them carefully crawled forward, retreating back to the still-open door of the room they had just entered through, and out into the hallway.

This time, Nijika and Hoshika were careful not to make any loud noises, so they were not noticed by Torio Mami.

She just kept her head down, continuing to process the documents in her hands, doing the same monotonous and repetitive work over and over again, as if she had lost interest in her surroundings and didn't care about anything anymore.

After retreating a considerable distance, Hongxia looked in the other person's direction again, only to see a blurry figure buried in a pile of documents.

I don't know what's going on with that bird tail beauty.

Hongxia had many doubts and speculations in her heart, but for the sake of her own and her sister's safety, she really didn't dare to test which possibility was true.

"What exactly happened to this place? Why did it suddenly become like this? I have absolutely no idea."

Xingge, sitting on the ground, took a few breaths, wiped her sweat, and then spoke with a hint of helplessness.

“I don’t know either. Maybe the earthquake had some unknown impact, which is why this happened and why the apartment has changed like this. Hmm… but in the current state, it will probably be difficult for us to return to the safe house. We can’t even be sure which floor or area we are on, and we’re not even sure if the curfew is still in effect.”

After carefully observing her surroundings, Hongxia sat down as well, stretching her body to rest and recover her strength.

The two were in an unusually long corridor with opaque floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, which appeared grayish-white under the lights on the ceiling.

To be honest, Hongxia wasn't really sure if this corridor was the one she and Xingge had passed through during their escape. Even though it looked the same, in her memory, when the two of them ran over here before, this corridor was definitely not this long, not so long that you couldn't see the end of it.

The spatial anomaly that Mr. Gao Hai mentioned? It really is quite bizarre, and the underlying principles are completely incomprehensible.

Even now, despite encountering such bizarre events, I have absolutely no time to appreciate them. Just being chased by the mysterious monster and witnessing the reappearance of the dead is already exhausting enough. All I want now is to get back to the safe house, or at least find a relatively safe place to stay until rescue arrives. Ah, but in this godforsaken place, such good fortune is unlikely to befall me.

"Let's rest for a bit and then continue. This corridor is too spacious. Although the enemy can spot us from a great distance, we also have nowhere to hide. The enemy can spot us from a great distance as well."

After catching her breath, Hongxia thought for a moment and then offered her suggestion to her older sister, Xingge.

"That's true. Sigh... Who knows when the monster that was chasing us will come back? Or like just now, people who were clearly dead suddenly appear in front of us. Honestly, I have no idea what's going on."

Xingge sighed heavily, and as she spoke, she gently tapped her still slightly trembling knees.

She hadn't actually been able to calm down the fear in her heart.

After enduring a physically demanding chase and witnessing the death of a person, Xingge still had goosebumps all over her body. She was genuinely terrified of these things, but now that she was in such a dangerous situation, she had no choice but to keep putting on a brave front while praying that she wouldn't encounter any more strange events.

[Sizzle... sizzle...]

At that moment, the two sisters suddenly heard a piercing electrical noise coming from the laptop that Xingge was carrying.

A new situation has arisen!?

Knowing what the sound meant, Hongxia and Xingge perked up and quickly turned on their computers to look at the screen. As expected, some text appeared on the blood-red screen, accompanied by the voice of a girl who sounded no older than a high school student.

I am Fujiwara Chika, and I have come to rescue you.

The Zhenyang Apartment complex you have entered is now in a peculiar, distorted state, and those who are reading this message are likely already aware of this.

Here I will summarize the new rules I have discovered about this apartment building. Survivors, please try your best to remember what I am about to say. This is crucial for your survival and for holding out until rescue arrives.

[Rule 1: Believe what you see of this apartment building as it is now, no matter how strange or illogical it may seem; it is real now.]

[Rule 2: Do not drink water, and do not drink any clear, colorless, or odorless liquid. Under no circumstances should you do this.]

[Rule 3: Stay away from people who are engrossed in their own activities. They usually don't care about what others are doing, so please don't disturb them.]

[Rule 4: Please avoid injury as much as possible. If the fluid coming from your wound is not dark red, it may be due to some force of the apartment itself. Don't panic.]

[Rule 5: When you are being chased by something you cannot describe that makes sounds like a baby crying or laughing, quickly look for people who are doing something on their own. You will not be attacked if you are around them.]

[Rule 6: The color of light can reflect the safety of the surroundings to some extent. Please choose well-lit areas whenever possible. People should not be active in dark environments.]

[Rule 7: Don't work. People shouldn't consider work the most important thing. You shouldn't prioritize work when you're struggling to survive.]

[Rule 8: You may encounter people in your apartment who will discuss absurd topics with you. Do not directly deny these people or try to remind them of their current situation. Keep your conversations with them as brief as possible and do not reveal your personal information. You should never try to escape from them or attack them.]

[Rule 9: A clean environment reflects the safety of your surroundings to some extent, and trash doesn't follow you. Don't go near overly dirty or messy areas, and don't let trash follow you.]

Rule 10: Staying in the same area for too long is not the right choice. Things change; this place is not static. Please move around as much as possible, and try to go to places you haven't been before.

The above rules are a preliminary summary of action guidelines to help survivors improve their survival rate. Survivors are encouraged to memorize these guidelines and act accordingly. If I discover any new or important information, I will update these guidelines on the local network.

Amidst a slight electrical buzzing, lines of text appeared in Hongxia and Xingge's vision.

Hongxia and Xingge carefully watched the content displayed on the screen, and only after memorizing it all did they close the screen.

"If I just remember these rules, will everything be fine? I can't believe I still have to memorize things after being away from school for so long. But what about the case we encountered before? I didn't see it mentioned in these rules."

Xingge no longer questions the rules themselves and can follow them smoothly. However, she still has some doubts and is not yet able to fully grasp the hidden meanings behind the rules based on their wording.

"...The person mentioned, the one who was doing something on her own, isn't that the same person we saw with Bird Tail before? Even though it was such a strange place, she could sit in an office and work as if nothing was wrong. This is very abnormal. Sister, it seems that our decision not to alert her was the right one. If we had really attracted her attention, something terrible might have happened."

Hongxia was clearly thinking more than Xingge, and she also noticed some things that were not written down.

Fujiwara Chika… Mr. Takami seemed to have mentioned her among the people around him before. He didn't go into specifics, only mentioning that she had long pink hair like Pochi-chan, but her personality was the opposite. Wait, wasn't that family that came into the safe house also surnamed Fujiwara?

Forget it, that's not the focus right now. The real issue is this rather strange set of rules. If these rules were indeed hastily created by Mr. Gao Hai's people, then their content is far too rudimentary. Why are these rules so brief, without any explanation, simply listing information and demanding that everyone who sees them follow them?

This style doesn't really seem like Mr. Takami's style, does it? If it were him, wouldn't he prefer to explain the specifics clearly? If Ms. Fujiwara were to work with Mr. Takami for a long time, their styles should be similar, right?

Just as a band needs to achieve lasting success for its members to have a unified musical style, Nijika, who is now able to seriously consider and analyze various matters related to ghost stories and supernatural objects, feels a little awkward about this rule.

I always feel that these rules... seem to be trying to tell the person who sees them some kind of information, but they deliberately don't explain it clearly, and they deliberately hide something in them.

Is the hope that those who see it can deduce it using their own abilities?

Or is it because...not all those who can see these rules are survivors? Is it possible that something else can also see these words and the contents of the rules, and therefore has no choice but to do this?

Recalling the phenomenon of the dead coming back to life that she and Xingge had witnessed not long ago, Hongxia's eyes widened slightly, and she had a bad feeling in her heart.

Speaking of which, the rules mentioned not to stay in one place for too long. My sister and I have been resting in this corridor for quite some time now, so it's about time we left and continued on our way. I wonder when we'll encounter rescuers; hopefully soon.

Thinking this, Hongxia looked up and observed the lights in the corridor. After confirming that the lights had not dimmed significantly, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, were those bags of trash already there?"

Then, Hongxia heard Xingge's somewhat puzzled voice coming from the side.

He turned his head and looked in the direction Xingge was gazing.

Several large, black, already full garbage bags appeared on one side of the corridor at some point, and then came into Hongxia's view.

Along with this, there was also a faint sense of coldness.

"...Sister, it's time to go."

Immediately realizing that something was wrong, Hongxia whispered and stood up first.

"oh oh……"

Upon hearing this, Xingge also stood up. Although she hadn't fully recovered her strength, she and Hongxia headed away from the garbage bags.

The surrounding environment seems to have undergone some subtle changes compared to before.

The office where Torio Mami appeared earlier is now nowhere to be found. In its place is a noticeably longer corridor, with heavy doors on both sides.

The number of garbage bags behind them increased silently.

Even though I've deliberately kept my distance, I can still find those garbage bags not far away when I turn around.

It seems that when they are out of sight, these things will move and silently approach living people.

No one knows what's inside those garbage bags, or what caused these supposedly inanimate objects to come alive. What is certain, however, is that as the amount of these things increases, the surroundings gradually become colder, and along with the drop in temperature, a distinctly unsettling atmosphere is spreading.

Click—click—

Hongxia walked along the corridor door by door, trying to open every door she encountered.

The operation did not go smoothly. She tried many doors, most of which could not be opened. The few doors that could be opened were either completely dark behind them, or there was a wall behind them, making it impossible to pass through.

The lights gradually dimmed.

Although it wasn't very obvious, Hongxia was certain that the lights in this corridor weren't as bright as they used to be.

Sometime during the day, some dirty marks appeared on the wall, as if something had been smeared on it.

More and more garbage bags appeared around them, as if something was gradually gathering together, and they began to emit a foul, rotting smell. Faintly, it seemed that a few garbage bags were still trembling slightly, but neither Hongxia nor Xingge dared to look closely, so they couldn't be sure if it was just their imagination.

Click——

Hongxia opened a door, and bright light shone through it.

The girl, relieved, did not hesitate. She opened the door, glanced inside, and then gestured for Xingge to go in. Hongxia followed her in and immediately closed the door.

Just before the door closed, Nijika thought she heard Torio Mami sobbing, and also the rustling sound of the garbage bags moving around. This made the girl wonder what those things looked like, but she didn't dare to think about it too much and quickly turned her attention back to this new area.

"here it is……"

It looks like a school classroom, and a large multimedia classroom that can accommodate hundreds of people.

Hongxia and Xingge observed the situation in the classroom and, after confirming that there was no danger, cautiously moved forward. They walked out of the classroom and into the corridor of the teaching building outside, and began to look for paths or doors leading to other areas, so that they would have an escape route if they encountered any problems later.

As the two were walking, Hongxia suddenly heard voices coming from ahead. They were very familiar, and she was certain that she had heard them a few hours earlier.

"Ah, it's you, Hongxia, and Xingge too."

With a calm yet slightly surprised voice, Shizuko Ogiyama, wearing glasses, appeared at the front of the corridor, right in front of the two of them.

She did not appear alone; several young men and women followed behind her, their expressions ranging from terrified to cautious, all seemingly living people.

The empty corridor offered no cover, and without warning, Hongxia and Xingge bumped right into Ogiyama Shizuko, a person they thought was already dead, and were immediately noticed by her.