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

As she said this, Xiong Mi walked into the women's changing room, closed the door, turned off the lights, and then turned off her flashlight, plunging herself into darkness.

The reason for choosing this location was that, at the very beginning, Xiong Mi was certain that the chill originated from here.

However, after the other party left the locker room, for some reason, their exact location could no longer be pinpointed. Therefore, Xiong Mi decided to return here and try to lure out the enemy by acting alone.

What's going on inside?

"Cat asked from outside."

"It hasn't appeared yet, don't worry, let me take another look."

Xiong Mi replied, and then slowly began to walk in the darkness.

Even without sight, Xiong Mi could roughly tell what the locker room looked like.

She could sense the rows of lockers on both sides of the changing room, the chairs in the middle, and the sink in the corner.

Everything here is covered in dust.

Long, long ago, no one had set foot in this place before the players arrived.

The passage of time has left this place dilapidated, causing the cabinets to rust, the paint to peel off, and mold to grow in the corners.

Nobody remembers this place.

Nobody cares about this place.

When everything is forgotten, when no one cares anymore, the so-called meaning ceases to exist.

But no, that's not entirely true; it should be more than that.

If everything has been forgotten, and no one cares anymore, then what is it that lingers here, refusing to leave?

Xiong Mi stopped in his tracks.

She could sense that, in the darkness, she was still the only one present.

The strange creature still hasn't appeared, and hasn't left any trace.

But if we look at it another way, maybe we just haven't found the right path, or our approach is simply incorrect.

A cigarette appeared in Xiong Mi's hand.

She put the cigarette in her mouth, then took out a lighter from somewhere, held it to her mouth and in front of the cigarette butt, and gently pressed the switch.

A flame flickered for a moment, then went out.

In the locker room, the brief moment of light illuminated Xiong Mi's calm face.

And the figure standing beside her, gently blowing on the lighter.

"It's not that they didn't show themselves, but that they've been here all along?"

Xiong Mi turned around, but there was no trace of the thing left.

But she knew the other party was right there; that unknown, eerie creature was standing right in front of her, within her reach.

The fleeting flame just now didn't illuminate this thing; it seems quite unusual. This thing isn't entirely in the same space as the players, nor can it interact with them, but it can affect inanimate objects, like the lighter from before, and can directly blow them out.

For a moment, Xiong Mi thought of Gao Hai's blessing of nothingness, and his powerful ability to transfer himself to another dimension to avoid harm.

In any case, they have indeed found out something here.

So, it's about time we went back to meet up and discuss how to find this thing.

Thinking this, Xiong Mi walked to the locker room door, reached out and grasped the doorknob, preparing to open it.

"..."

Then, she stopped moving again.

It was quiet outside.

Without realizing it, I could no longer sense my companions' presence.

squeak-

Opening the door, the dilapidated corridor, bathed in the pale light, exuded a sense of decay.

Xiong Mi walked out of the locker room and into the empty corridor, silently looking around. As expected, she found no trace of other players. Even the damaged electronic lock door had been restored to its original, intact state.

Is spacetime disordered?

Not knowing the specific reason, Xiong Mi turned around again. Behind her, the women's changing room she had just left was now brightly lit again. The door was even slowly closing right in front of Xiong Mi, as if someone inside was closing it.

Click!

After a soft sound, Xiong Mi sensed another cold aura silently passing by her side.

Chapter Twenty-Two: A Strange Strange Arrival, A Terrifying Attack, and Then, a Single Move Kills Them.

Xiong Mi is missing.

Opening the locker room door and looking at the empty room ahead, Cat Brother's brows furrowed involuntarily.

They had no idea when she disappeared; they could still sense her presence until the very last second before opening the door. If they hadn't noticed Xiong Mi's lack of response during their routine communication and promptly opened the door to check on her, it would probably have taken even longer for everyone to realize she was gone.

The ability to deceive and manipulate the senses of a Red Moon-level player is no simple feat. To achieve such an effect, it must be an extremely powerful monster. Even if it's not a core-level monster, it's certainly not far off.

"It simply vanished without a sound..."

After discovering that Xiong Mi had disappeared, Jianbing immediately began operating his computer, but clearly, he was unable to confirm Xiong Mi's whereabouts; the power of the obsessive object was completely unable to find any trace of her.

"No footprints, and the scent has vanished. This is quite unusual. Maybe we've caught a big fish this time."

As he spoke, Cat Bro walked into the locker room. After confirming that the aura of Xiong Mi that he could still sense had disappeared without a trace, he shrugged and sighed.

Cat Brother wasn't worried about Xiong Mi's personal safety. The other party wasn't a clueless new player. With her strength growing and Gao Hai's assistance, even a powerful Abyss-level monster, which was still a huge threat to top players, couldn't possibly eliminate Xiong Mi in a short time, let alone take her away silently.

It should be a kind of spatial isolation concept.

I never expected to run into them here; there was absolutely no warning. This lousy mixed instance has all sorts of broken rules and missing information, which means that most of the time they have to figure out the supernatural mechanics in complete darkness, which is really troublesome.

Hopefully, we can find a loophole in the spatial isolation to bring people back, although things probably won't go that smoothly.

While pondering this in his mind, Cat Brother squatted down, placed his hand on the floor of the women's changing room, closed his eyes, and carefully felt the airflow in the room.

Jianbing and the other players did not rush into the room. Instead, they stood guard outside and made sure the locker room door was not closed. They observed Cat Brother's situation, hoping to find useful clues and figure out how Xiong Mi disappeared.

They can vaguely sense the other person's presence.

Cat Brother's mind became increasingly focused, fully mobilizing his spiritual power and blessing power.

The blessing from the Mother of All Things granted Cat Bro three abilities. One ability reduces the consumption of obsessive objects and enhances the power of specific obsessive objects. Another ability significantly increases Cat Bro's own vitality and grants him the ability to absorb surrounding life force to accelerate self-healing. The last ability is the ability to find targets. As long as he has a clear concept of the target he is looking for, such as knowing the approximate location of the other party or what the other party looks like, he will gradually perceive the method to find the other party and know the correct path to find them.

Now, he is using this ability to try to find Xiong Mi, who has disappeared for some unknown reason, and to try to build a path to Xiong Mi's location across the spatial gap.

Hmm, the perception is very blurry; it seems the spatial barrier is very strong.

Without finding a direct way to reach it, the power of blessing is not invincible, and it is only natural that it will fail when conditions are insufficient.

Therefore, the next step is either to rely on the power of spatial obsession objects, or to find a solution that corresponds to the rules.

However, at least one thing is certain: the other person is still in the locker room. This is consistent with Xiong Mi's usual style. Without a definite threat to her safety, she certainly wouldn't rashly leave her current location to head in another direction. Instead, she would first investigate the area, try to find a way back, and also give her teammates a chance to search for her.

So the next step is to find it here...

"Wait a minute, where did Brother Jianbing go?"

Suddenly, Kenta Hayashibe, who had been quietly observing, spoke up.

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Cat turned around and discovered that Jianbing, who was supposed to be standing at the locker room door with his laptop, had vanished without a trace.

"I didn't notice his disappearance. It seems like... my senses were blocked?"

The lawyer, who should have been standing next to Jianbing, turned to look at the empty seat beside him, a rare hint of surprise appearing on his usually indifferent face.

"I didn't notice it at first. I was just looking around when I suddenly felt that my vision had changed. I felt that there should have been someone standing in front of me blocking part of my view. Then I realized that Brother Jianbing was gone."

As he spoke, Lin Bujian scratched his head, his expression becoming tense. Although he was also a Red Moon-level player, he had not reached the strength level of team leaders like Mao Ge and Xiong Mi. Therefore, when he realized that an unpredictable anomaly was occurring, he became somewhat worried, fearing that he would be the next one to run into trouble.

An unexpected situation occurred once again.

Cat Bro initially thought the trigger point would be in the changing room, but now it seems that's probably not the case. It's possible that the entire area where medical staff are active falls under the trigger zone for this unknown spatial isolation rule.

"The two disappearances occurred twice. The first time, Xiong Mi entered the women's changing room, closed the door, and acted alone. We lost sight of Xiong Mi herself and could only confirm the situation by sensing her presence and conversation. The second time, Jian Bing was standing at the door. The lawyer standing next to him was completely unaware of his disappearance, while Lin Bu, standing behind him, was someone you could directly observe visually. Therefore, you were the first to notice his disappearance, and the lawyer, because he was standing nearby, had some of his view unobstructed, perhaps..."

As he spoke, Cat stood up, pondering the commonalities between the two disappearances, trying to find the underlying rules. However, before he could figure it out, a sense of unease quickly washed over him as he looked again at the lawyer and Hayashi Kenta standing outside the door.

There are only the two of them left outside the door now, but shouldn't there be more than just the two of them?

They came from the Red Knot Society, right? There should be two of them, right? But there's only Lin Bu here, and there should be another one... Yes, Qi Chuan Lian, I remember now, it's her. Where did Qi Chuan go? When did she disappear?

"Another person has disappeared. Lin Bu, where was Qi Chuan standing?"

Realizing that the situation was unusual, Cat Brother walked forward while talking, and was about to walk out the door.

"Huh? Qi Chuan is missing?!"

Lin Bujian was taken aback and turned to look behind him, becoming noticeably more nervous.

"Not only that, we also don't know where that rescue team member went."

The lawyer, speaking calmly, closed the book in his hand and recounted yet another missing person who had gone unnoticed by the players present.

tread--

Cat Brother took a step forward.

A cold wind blew in from who-knows-where, and in the next moment, it made Cat Brother's hair stand on end, and a strong sense of crisis instantly assaulted his senses.

He whirled around, holding a blood-stained playing card in a defensive stance.

But behind him was just an empty locker room, devoid of anyone or anything that could move.

Click——

The locker room door was already locked behind Cat Brother.

"Kenta Hayashibe has disappeared, and I believe I will disappear soon as well, so I will leave a message first."

“During the series of disappearances just now, I caught some traces of strange things. I am quite certain that the spatial division phenomenon we encountered is not completely separating us into individuals, but rather grouping us into groups in some unknown way.”

"I think you'll be the first to be attacked after the groups are formed. You'll be separated and then targeted. So don't immediately eliminate your opponents. I believe the anomalies we're encountering here point to our objective, and then—"