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

A few thoughts crossed her mind, but Kaguya maintained a calm expression on the surface and began to formally engage with the distorted and chaotic corridor that, in her perception, concealed an unknown number of corpses.

Here are the pictures, which can be viewed after the updated version.

Chapter 40: Gao Hai and the girls' different perspectives and the hidden sacrificial ritual.

The smell of blood became even stronger.

The rooms and corridors went through a cycle of decay, each one rotting and falling deeper into the darkness.

But what should have been found quickly has yet to reveal even the slightest trace.

"The situation here is probably more complicated than it appears."

Princess Zhenfei, who had initially thought that working together would allow them to quickly find their target, now wore a much more serious expression.

"Gao Jun, what's the situation on your end? Are you still unable to determine the edge area?"

Standing beside her, Kaguya, with an equally serious expression, once again asked Takahashi through the mental link, hoping to get a different answer.

"...It still doesn't work. The hospital's power is concentrated here, causing severe disruption to my senses. Right now, using you two as anchor points, I can only vaguely perceive the surrounding situation and cannot fully analyze the area you are in."

Unfortunately, Gao Hai was unable to provide Kaguya with a satisfactory answer, which made her realize that the current situation might be more troublesome than expected. It seemed that the two of them would have to go deeper into the current area to find out what exactly had happened.

How strange.

It's just an office building; according to the rescue team's data, there are at most one or two hundred people inside. Even if all of them were killed and sacrificed, the changes shouldn't be too significant. Why is the space here so severely distorted?

If it were solely due to the hospital's own power, it shouldn't have produced such an effect under any circumstances.

Could it be that some other force is at work, intervening in the anomalies of this place?

Something is coming from ahead.

Maki, who was walking beside Kaguya, suddenly raised her head, her voice filled with strong vigilance.

"..."

Kaguya did not speak.

She also sensed something unusual the instant Princess Zhenfei warned her, feeling something coming from the front of the corridor.

It doesn't have the eerie, cold aura that a ghostly creature would possess.

Although they might not feel much different and it would be difficult to really distinguish them, both Maki and Kaguya present were genuine players who were close to ascending to godhood. Their perception was far superior to that of normal players, so they could more or less detect the subtle differences in their auras.

Then, they saw something appearing from in front of them.

Was that a black shadow?

Was that a blurry halo?

Is something whose shape is indescribable walking towards us from the front of the straight corridor, or is it floating towards us?

It appears to be a human, walking with steps, wearing a suit.

But it also resembles a kitten or a puppy, a common small animal in life.

No, no, no, it's not that kind of thing. It's nothing at all. Its blurry shape merely reflects something. It's just like a mirror, reflecting something else and revealing it to the observer's view.

There's no way to confirm whether it's a ghost or something else.

The only certainty is that this thing is extremely dangerous, and you must never let the other party come into contact with it.

"Down!"

Kaguya was the first to launch an attack. She suddenly spoke, and the power of the [Disturbing Words] transformed the girl's words into tangible force, slowing down the thing in front of her in the corridor.

No, it's still moving forward.

But Maki immediately called out, because in her vision, the thing was not hindered at all by Kaguya's power and continued to walk towards the two of them.

At this moment, the senses of both parties produced conflicting observations.

Then golden light shone down the corridor.

Faced with an incomprehensible and bizarre enemy, Maki did not hesitate to immediately use Takami's power, instantly pinning the thing to the ground.

What are you using your power against?

Gao Hai's voice rang out from the mental link.

"I still can't determine what it is. This monster gives me a very strange feeling. It doesn't seem like a ghost, but the danger it exudes far exceeds that of a ghost. And I don't know why, even though my great-aunt had suppressed it, this monster immediately broke free and continued to come towards us!"

Maki quickly spoke up, unaware that from Kaguya's perspective, the thing hadn't resisted her at all, nor did she know that Kaguya hadn't seen the strange creature suppressed by the golden light. From beginning to end, this scene only existed in her own eyes.

In fact, the anomalies we see right now are far from the limit here.

I did not see any enemies.

Gao Hai's reply carried a hint of seriousness.

"Hey?"

Princess Zhenfei was stunned, as she was not prepared for such an answer.

"Mahime, Kaguya, in my perception, you two are merely applying your power to an empty space where there's nothing. There's nothing there—no monsters, no unusual aura, all the indicators are perfectly normal. Are you really sure the enemy exists right in front of you?"

Without any intention of concealing anything, Gao Hai quickly shared the information he had gathered.

"..."

Unsurprisingly, both Maki and Kaguya showed extreme shock upon hearing this.

Did Hai Jun (Gao Jun) not see that thing?

That aura was so strange, that thing that seemed to change depending on the observer's perspective for some reason, yet it didn't exist in the eyes of Gao Hai, whose power far surpassed that of the two of them.

"Disappeared……"

Kaguya has relaxed her use of the blessing power.

After Gao Hai, connected in the mental link, stated that he couldn't see anything, the thing truly vanished before the two girls' eyes, disappearing without a trace in an instant, as if reduced to ashes. Even the crater that had been smashed into the corridor floor had disappeared without a trace.

This made Kaguya and Maki realize that the thing had not "disappeared," but rather that the fact that it had "come before them" had been erased.

"There was no cognitive blockage, and my memory doesn't seem to have changed either, so what exactly is it?"

Empress Zhen quickly performed a self-examination, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were no abnormal changes in her body. Then she frowned and asked.

"...It doesn't seem like a ghost. I can't be sure about other things, but that thing shouldn't be a ghost. It didn't seem to have any emotional reaction to us...unlike a ghost that would leave behind some degree of human emotion. It just wanted to destroy us, and the reason for this didn't matter. It seemed to be just a natural instinctive reaction."

Kaguya walked forward to the spot where the thing had stood, pondering and analyzing as she looked at the cracks and pits that should have been on the ground.

Why do the marks disappear?

It seems that the cost I incurred from using Blessing has also been refunded.

So, this really is the power to manipulate time, isn't it? Only such a power could produce such an effect, right?

This is so strange, what is it?

"keep going."

She hadn't come to an answer from her thoughts, but Kaguya didn't intend to stop. Instead, she made a decisive decision and then moved forward into the corridor.

"If we continue, we'll probably leave the real world. We're probably already close to another dimension."

Maki quickly caught up with Kaguya, but compared to Kaguya's resolute attitude, she was now more worried about the success or failure of their mission. After all, the appearance and disappearance of that strange, seemingly unsettling monster had instilled a strong sense of unease in her. This thing, seemingly outside her comprehension, sent chills down Maki's spine; she instinctively felt she had to find a way to deal with it before continuing their mission.

Don't worry, I've prepared some supplies here. Feel free to use them if you encounter any problems.

However, after Takahashi sent something to Maki's storage space via a mental link, Maki was relieved to know what it was and continued to move forward with Kaguya without worry.

The corridor ahead continued to twist and turn.

Rooms, some normal and some twisted, are arranged in a row. Some require a door to enter from the corridor, while others have no obstacles at all, with the walls between them disappearing and allowing free entry and exit. In fact, the rooms and corridors seem to merge with each other, with the colors of the floor tiles and wall tiles mixed together.

The smell of blood was getting stronger.

The decaying areas were increasing, sometimes tables and chairs, office computers, wall paintings, or even the doors themselves. At these times, the materials of these once-normal objects began to change. The structures of metal and wood transformed into a combination of bone and flesh, mere shells of their former selves, utterly filthy. At other times, large swaths of blood and excrement were smeared directly across the corridors and rooms, evenly or unevenly distributed in areas visible and accessible to the two girls, emitting an unbearable stench.

Navigating these areas is no easy feat. The filth and stench aren't the main issue; the two girls have plenty of ways to avoid them. However, the decreasing stability of the space itself is a real concern for them. Even seemingly harmless areas could lead to them being thrown out of the office building and back to where they started, or simply being dumped somewhere in Tokyo.

Only Takami, providing remote support, could clearly see the anomalous nodes in space. Even with his guidance, Maki and Kaguya nearly got into trouble several times. This was because the nodes weren't completely fixed; they moved slowly. Occasionally, some broken nodes would spread rapidly, requiring Takami's precise manipulation to help the two avoid them—making it virtually impossible to defend against.

However, why are all those spatial rifts leading to the external region?

These things look like they formed naturally. If that's the case, there should be a greater degree of randomness, right?

Gao Hai vaguely sensed that something was amiss, but couldn't quite grasp the deeper meaning behind it.

For the two girls who had already ventured into unknown depths, there was one question that had been troubling them.

The body still hasn't appeared.

The body, which should have been discovered long ago, had not yet appeared before the two men.

If the corpses had been directly destroyed, there shouldn't have been such a strong and fresh smell of blood. The flesh and blood from the past manifested in the instance differed in aura from the flesh and blood of the humans who had been given ascension fragments by Takahashi. It was precisely because they noticed this that Maki and Kaguya continued forward, searching for the employees' corpses.

If distance were judged by the strength of their auras, the two women should have remained constantly near the corpses, keeping a very close distance between them. However, no matter how deep they ventured into the area, no matter how they searched for new paths—even breaking through the ceiling or floor to find a way—they could never truly reach the location of the corpses.

Something's not right.

On the throne of torture instruments in the darkness, Gao Hai opened his eyes, his gaze transcending the barrier of space to look at the location of Maki and Kaguya, and the ever-present mist surrounding them.

This strange feeling is not something that can be easily dealt with.

The situation in other areas isn't too bad right now, so I guess I should go and see for myself.

Thanks to the domain established by Maki and Kaguya, it was much easier for Takahashi to project his avatar into that area. Therefore, it didn't take long for Takahashi to gather his power and directly manifest a golden, shimmering body beside the two girls.

As an avatar infused with immense divine power and directly controlled by Gao Hai's will, devoid of any so-called clone consciousness, its appearance instantly triggered a powerful reaction within this distorted space. The surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling warped in a flash, as if transforming into some terrifying entity to attack Gao Hai directly. But then, as Gao Hai controlled the avatar to take a step forward, all the distortion vanished in the blink of an eye, and everything returned to normal.

"Sea King?"

Consort Zhenfei was taken aback by Gao Hai's sudden appearance.

"And what's that in front of us...?"

Kaguya, who was more concerned about the truth of this area, quickly noticed something new that appeared in front of the corridor after the abnormal suppression of Takami.

squeak-

The dilapidated door opened gently.

An even stronger stench of blood spread at this moment.