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

While the people in the city were carrying out their respective activities, in the instance world, the player teams were also slowly making their way forward.

"The mixing of different instances may be more serious than we anticipated, and if this continues, it could lead to major problems."

In the corridor of a clinic, Xiong Mi looked at the commemorative photo of the swimming pool hanging on the wall, shook his head and exhaled a puff of smoke.

“There seems to be a new discovery here. The traces in this room are fresh, and someone may have been active just a few hours ago.”

The lawyer's voice came from a room at the end of the corridor. Hearing what the other party said, Xiong Mi strode forward and rushed to the door of the room. She found that it was a very small isolation ward with only a hospital bed, a table and a stack of dirty books, as well as some garbage and debris scattered on the floor.

"The water cup is still hot."

The lawyer standing on one side of the room pointed to the cup on the table.

"..."

Shao Ye didn't speak, but simply wiped the stool next to the table with her hand. Xiong Mi understood that she meant the stool was still warm, meaning the person in the room was likely there not long ago, but had simply disappeared for some unknown reason.

Walk to the table.

Xiong Mi first looked at the books piled on the table, and to her surprise, she found that these books were all about voice training and care, basic skills practice for voice actors, and that these books were all worn out from being read so many times. It was hard to imagine how many times they had been read to achieve such results.

Next, she looked at the unopened diary on the table. After a brief moment of mental preparation, Xiong Mi opened it without hesitation, revealing the first page to the three people present.

Today is the first day of closed training.

I must work hard for my dream...

Chapter Nine: From yesterday's diary and the path sought in the darkness.

Today is the first day of closed training.

For my dream, I must work hard, strive, and succeed!

But the teacher's lectures are so hard to understand! I feel like everyone else is completely different from me. Could it be that everyone else already has a pretty good foundation, and I'm the only complete beginner?

Should I ask the teacher about today's lesson separately? But she said not to waste her time with overly simple questions, and no one has asked any. If I ask the teacher, will she think I lack basic skills...?

No, I'd better figure out a way myself. I need to study even harder and work even harder in my spare time from now on!

I understand that the road to realizing dreams is never smooth. I've already put in so much effort just to get on this path, to take that first step. So I need to work even harder and give it my all.

Keep going! If you persevere, you will definitely succeed in the end!

The first page of the diary appears to be a record left by a young person chasing their dreams. However, it's unclear what exactly those dreams were, as the pages seem to be incomplete, with some content deliberately obscured.

“I’ll read it, lawyer, you watch me, and Shao Ye will keep watch.”

Xiong Mi spoke calmly, quickly flipping through the diary, her eyes fixed on the words, trying to memorize them.

Keeping up with the course was more difficult than I expected. Even though I spent a lot of time practicing, I still couldn't keep up with my peers, and even those younger than me who were new to the industry performed better than me.

[Could it be that I'm not actually suited for this line of work? Perhaps I lack the talent, and I shouldn't have chosen this as my career?]

No, we can't give up; it's not time to give up yet.

The doctor also said I can do it, that my dream is achievable, and that I will definitely succeed!

In the later part of the diary entry following the first entry, it's clear that the writer seems to be caught in a deep sense of confusion. Despite this confusion, the writer ultimately strengthens their resolve and continues to strive. However, this information is not particularly relevant to Xiong Mi, so she doesn't pay much attention to it and quickly turns her attention to the "doctor" mentioned at the end of the entry—a figure whose appearance is quite abrupt.

Why would a "doctor" be here encouraging the writer? A doctor? Does that mean this writer can be considered a "patient" in some sense? Could he be an unfortunate survivor, or a hapless player?

Regardless, since relevant information was found in the instance, the person in question must have been dead for a long time. Therefore, all these later arrivals can do is try to find any useful information based on the remaining clues.

Thinking this, Xiong Mi first exchanged a quick glance with the lawyer, did a simple temporary psychological test, and then lowered her head to continue flipping through the document. As Xiong Mi flipped through it, the missing pages in the diary became more and more serious, and the information on it was heavily scribbled and damaged, seemingly indicating that the writer was consciously erasing parts of the content, though the reason for doing so was unknown.

I can't quite remember how many days I spent in this training course. It's strange, I feel like I've become less sensitive to time.

I feel like I've forgotten something, but I can't quite remember what it is. It's like someone was once by my side, and we did something together.

But I'm clearly alone. No matter how I try to recall, I'm always alone. When did I ever have companions?

The doctor told me I'm working very hard and I'm close to success. Am I going to succeed?

It feels like I had a very long dream, a dream of a world with no way out, where I wandered around again and again until I forgot everything.

Can my dream really come true? I've tried so hard for so long, but it still doesn't work...

But the doctor told me I was close to succeeding.

Where am I? What kind of place have I come to? I can't remember my name, I can't remember what I'm pursuing.

What is my dream? Why can't I remember these things? Why am I still sitting here indifferently in this classroom? Where am I? I need...

I need... I need...

I need to see a doctor.

The doctor told me I had succeeded, and my dream had come true.

Next, I should help others, I should help those who don't have beautiful dreams.

We need to convince everyone that the world of dreams is more beautiful than reality, and that everyone can understand that illusion is no worse than reality, and that true happiness can only be pursued in dreams.

I am very happy.

I have achieved my dream.

Where am I now? I remember I had something I wanted to accomplish.

I saw a hole, a very, very deep hole. It should be here. Where did it go?

But the doctor told me, the doctor told me, that I am very happy.

This cage no longer needs me.

It's time to put everyone else in their own cages.

For everyone's happiness, for everyone to have sweet dreams.

Jump, no matter how absurd it may seem, jump.

【I】

【must】

【Finish】

As I flipped through the diary to the end, the writing had become frantic, distorted to the point of being illegible. Sometimes an entire page might contain only a single sentence or word, and that sentence would be written with such force that it would completely soak through several pages in a row.

I didn't sense any erosion in the text; it seemed to be just a diary, just pure words.

And Xiong Mi had a strange premonition that the diary entry must have been completed not too long ago, perhaps just a few days ago, maybe even just a few hours ago.

"It's as if someone was sitting here, writing something, just a second before we pushed the door open."

Xiong Mi said softly at the end, and closed the tattered diary.

"The fact that there is no mental corruption, as readable material in a Red Moon-level dungeon, is quite unbelievable."

After confirming several times that Xiong Mi had indeed not suffered any mental corruption, the lawyer raised an eyebrow slightly, revealing a surprised expression.

"This means that the diary was indeed written by a living person, or at least for now, until we observe something crucial, the other party will exist in the form of a living person, and therefore will not exert the corrupting power that only strange creatures possess. Let's check the other rooms; I suspect there's more than just this one with problems."

He tucked the tattered diary into his bosom.

As Xiong Mi spoke, she glanced at Shao Ye, who was in charge of keeping watch around the area. Seeing that he shook his head slightly, Xiong Mi, confirming that nothing unusual had happened, left the room and returned to the corridor.

This is a corridor inside a clinic.

The lighting was somewhat dim, as the only light sources were the crack in the door at the end of the corridor and the windowpane covered by newspapers, allowing only a little light to filter through.

Scattered on the ground were many syringes, broken glass containers that had contained unknown contents, and dried cotton and toilet paper, covered in various dirty colors and stuck to the floor or walls.

Some wall tiles and ceilings had broken and collapsed, mixing with the debris on the ground and making the floor look even dirtier and messier. And the dirty beds and scattered tables and chairs in the doors on both sides of the corridor didn't look much better than the corridor.

It was a clinic that looked abandoned some time ago, and the abandonment process didn't seem peaceful; it felt more like everyone had hurriedly evacuated or even fled.

squeak-

Push open yet another door.

The lawyer picked up the wreckage of the diary from the ground—an old, tattered diary that looked like it had been soaked in water for a long time, its pages yellowed. Xiong Mi then took out the diary she had shown earlier, and after comparing the two, they confirmed they were the same model.

"The two diaries are basically the same in shape and structure, but they don't look like they're from the same era. Mine looks like it's been through at least ten years more than Miss Xiong Mi's, and there's not much readable content left."

As the lawyer spoke, he flipped through the diary. As expected, there were almost no readable or recognizable words in the diary. He struggled to read it for a while and finally managed to find only a few sentences that he could make out. In the process, he accidentally tore the diary into several small pieces.

The only way to escape is to die.

You should die; living here is no different from being dead.

Doctors can't save you, and they can't even save themselves.

Things that are dead may come back to life, but whatever that comes back to life, it's no longer who we are.

There's no point in continuing to dream; accept reality, it's time to die.

Find the hole and jump in. I don't want to waste any more time. I'm going to die now.

Compared to Xiong Mi's diary, the entries here are less coherent, and the meaning of the words is more difficult to understand. Of course, when reading this kind of information, it's not always necessary to focus on the literal meaning of the words. Sometimes, more than the content the words intend to express, the writer's emotional changes and mental state revealed in the text itself are also a form of intelligence, and can reveal certain information to some extent.

"Dreaming, jumping down, a hole... Interesting information, this seems more like some kind of brainwashing base?"

The lawyer spoke in a low voice, opened the thick book, and casually wrote down some information on it.

"These clues alone don't prove anything, and given the current situation, it's not even certain whether these two diaries came from the same copy. Let's go and see if there are any other clues here."

After confirming that the lawyer had not been mentally corrupted, Xiong Mi turned around and went back into the corridor.

slam-la-

The syringe needle, which Xiong Mi had casually kicked, flew out and hit the wall not far away, rolling into a pile of broken glass.

The golden sunlight streaming in from behind the dense newspapers pasted on the window seemed to announce the approach of dusk, but if one approached and tried to see the outside scene clearly, all one could see was a fog, only a blur, nothing could be seen, and even the source of the light could not be found.

The team's next objective is the large door at the end of the corridor.

In fact, it was the only door in the room that had not yet been opened. Unlike the other rooms in the corridor, only this door was perceived by the players as having a distinct eerie aura when they approached it. Therefore, the three of them did not investigate this place first, but waited until they had looked at all the other places before coming here.

Shao Ye stepped forward and went straight to the door, silently examining it.

She stood quietly for a while before reaching out and grabbing the doorknob, slowly turning the door open.

Behind Shao Ye, Xiong Mi and the lawyer were responsible for keeping watch over Shao Ye's surroundings and observing the changes in the entire corridor. The moment the door opened, they both noticed that the already dim light in the room became even dimmer, as if the light source itself was being weakened.

In fact, the light source did become weaker.