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

If Gao Hai hadn't noticed the problem and observed carefully, he would never have discovered the thing behind the female corpse. Even after discovering its presence, he dared not reveal it. After facing the two previous attacks from the strange forces, Gao Hai deeply understood that the things in this apartment building were beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. Right now, the corpse was just lying there quietly, motionless. If it got up, the group present might be wiped out.

"Let's go, there's nothing to see here, it's just a corpse. Let's go to 210, maybe we'll find some clues there."

After laying down the sheet to cover the corpse under the bed, Takahashi stood up and, while saying this, turned to look at Kaguya and silently mouthed the three letters "SOS".

Kaguya, understanding the unspoken message, glanced at the seemingly perfectly fine double bed, then looked down at the blonde woman whose mouth was still being held shut by her, her cheeks now red from being pinched. After a moment's thought, she spoke coldly to her:

"I'll let you go now, as long as you don't make any rude noises or get in the way of what we're doing, I have no interest in dealing with you."

As Kaguya spoke, she loosened her restrictions on women's mouths a little.

"What...what do you want to do? My family has no money, I'm very poor, don't kidnap me..."

Princess Kaguya of Ice's intimidation skill was clearly at level 80 or higher. The woman who was released was already in tears of fear, but she didn't even dare to cry out loud. She just weakly pleaded in a low voice, almost kneeling down on the ground.

"Who's interested in kidnapping you? Open your eyes and look carefully. We're just like you, trapped here. Let me make this clear beforehand: we're not leaving you here for any charitable purpose. If you can't prove your worth, that corpse you just saw will be your next fate."

On the other side, Zhenfei was talking as she put some documents she had taken from the bookshelf—documents whose value she didn't know how much—into her backpack. Then she opened the living room door and prepared to leave first.

"What...what exactly are you trying to do? I have no grudge against you..."

Sun Dajun, who had been huddled against the wall, stood up at this moment. He protected the yellow-haired girl who was sobbing softly, and finally, unable to contain his anger, he said something.

What a hassle.

Gao Hai felt genuinely troubled.

He suddenly realized that the reason why Lao Guo chose to fool one person and leave was that he was unwilling to take over this mess.

When first caught up in the bizarre rules of the sacrifice game, I had no idea how dangerous and terrifying this place was. I was still using common sense and concepts from daily life to deal with problems, unable to comprehend the horror of being wiped out on the spot if I took one wrong step.

Gao Hai wasn't a philanthropist. To be honest, he actually wanted to let these guys go and die on their own, just like he did last time.

The problem is, in this apartment building, the dead do not rest in peace. They transform into monsters beyond comprehension, relentlessly pursuing the living and creating immense trouble for their subsequent actions.

Neither managing nor letting go is an option. This seven-day game has only been going on for less than an hour, and Gao Hai has already experienced the immense malice of this instance from all aspects.

"Mr. Green, did you bring a knife?"

Then, he heard Kaguya Shinomiya's indifferent voice.

"Bring it."

The next moment, Green pulled a fifteen-centimeter-long dagger from his waist. It looked specially sharpened, gleaming coldly even in the dim room, and appeared exceptionally sharp.

“Take him away, and if he makes a sound, cut out his tongue.”

Kaguya, who coldly issued the order, didn't even glance at Sun Dajun. She merely gestured to Gao Hai before walking away.

Gao Hai followed closely behind Kaguya, thought for a moment, then gave the blond-haired girl cowering to one side a gentle smile and asked:

"Are you going to come out on your own, or should I come and invite you in person?"

He felt that his tone was still normal.

Although the woman then came out with tears streaming down her face and her mouth covered, as if she had been threatened by a murderer.

As for Sun Dajun, although he really wanted to put up a fight, when the fierce-looking Green plunged the knife into the wall next to his head, less than a centimeter from his ear, he was so scared that he almost wet himself. He had no choice but to obediently follow him out with a mournful face.

"now it's right."

Standing in the corridor, Kaguya indifferently watched the trembling Sun Dajun and the blonde girl, her haughty posture like that of a queen.

"Whether you accept it or not, if you fail to obey me, I will punish you."

"In dangerous situations, the brilliance of humanity is never a necessity for survival; on the contrary, sufficient bestiality is the guarantee of safety. If you can't behave properly now, then I can only say that you only have the most basic value to be used, and you are scum and trash that are even less than dogs. If you have even a little bit of sense, depending on the situation, perhaps I can consider giving you some preferential treatment."

"Mr. Green, I'd like to trouble you now to discipline these two disobedient dogs and keep them out of the way."

Kaguya, having casually given the order, then stopped looking at the two of them.

“My name is Sun Dajun, and I am not a dog.”

The man, feeling insulted, growled angrily.

"My name is Maeda Miwa..."

Although the woman was timid and hesitant, she still felt uncomfortable after Kaguya said those words. Just then, Sun Dajun retorted, so she chimed in with a comment.

Then, when Green, with a sinister grin, stood in front of the two of them holding a knife, and said in a sinister tone, "What you call me is none of my business," the two, who were ultimately just ordinary people with average manners, chose to shut up.

This whole ordeal took about a minute or two before the two of them finally calmed down.

It's just too much trouble.

Gao Hai shook his head slightly, feeling genuinely annoyed by the current difficult situation.

These two need to see the real thing before they can understand their current predicament. Otherwise, even if they are suppressed by force now, these two fools will eventually court death and do all sorts of stupid things like extras in a horror movie. And in order to unravel the various rules and mysteries of this place, they can't keep an eye on these two all the time. Even with Green as a henchman watching them, there will always be times when one person is watching two people.

Then, considering the mechanics of this godforsaken place, these two might turn into some incredibly powerful and invincible entity after they die, immediately hunting them down. If they're forced to use the clock to rewind time again, that would be absolutely terrifying.

However, at least one useful thing about them can be found: they are backups for the person who turns the clock.

Gao Hai, who had personally turned the clock, could still feel the gaze of those human-headed clocks. After touching them, these originally ordinary clocks seemed to have established some strange connection with him. This anomaly was alarming, so he believed that if they encountered a situation where they needed to rely on the power of clocks again, Shinomiya Kaguya and Shijo Maki, as key investigators, should not be the ones to do it. Originally, he thought it would be enough to have Green turn the clock, but now it seemed that having Sun Dajun or Maeda Miwa do it was quite suitable. He believed that after turning the clock, they would understand the current situation.

Although this might seem a bit cruel, no, it's not cruel at all. He was entangled with these strange things because of turning the clock, and to be honest, he already saved these guys' lives. It's not a bad thing to make them pay back some interest.

Gao Hai was somewhat surprised to find that changing his mindset seemed quite easy.

This act of dressing up as a villain with Kaguya Shinomiya, and even actually considering some less-than-harmonious methods, does not arouse his personal moral resentment.

Maybe it's because they're not pretty girls; after all, I'm someone who judges people by their looks.

Thinking this, Gao Hai picked up a wooden stick from the corridor and placed it on the closed door of 205.

He, Kaguya Shinomiya, and Maki Shijou exchanged glances. Then, Takahashi pointed to room 208. After a moment's thought, Kaguya and Maki signaled to Grin to bring the two of them along, and to remain silent.

The claim that he was going to 210 was obviously false. After Lao Guo had already emphasized the advice not to go to 210, Gao Hai wouldn't be foolish enough to risk his life to test the truth of the matter.

Therefore, hiding in room 208, which had been explored once before and had no major hidden dangers (at least Fridge Guy didn't seem to be planning to interact with them during the previous investigation), monitoring the activity in the corridor, and seeing if Bed Guy made any moves to chase after them, is the next action that needs to be taken.

Well, Gao Hai has decided to give these corpses nicknames, just like how horror game players name monsters, such as Chainsaw Bro, Scissors Bro, and Fat Brother. This way, he can at least alleviate some of his mental stress.

Green, who had arrogantly become a lackey and thought he had found a backer, led the dejected Sun Dajun and Maeda Miwa into the living room. Following Gao Hai's orders, the two were placed in the kitchen and instructed to move the refrigerator, placing it against the wall. They were then made to sit and lean against the back of the refrigerator, while Green stood guard at the kitchen door, watching them.

"Keep an eye on those two. If anything in the refrigerator tries to escape, take them to the living room."

When Gao Hai said this to Green, he saw the man's face instantly turn green. It was clear that all his courage came from Gao Hai and the other two. Therefore, Gao Hai had to adopt a more assertive attitude, and Green, trembling with fear, led the two into the kitchen.

Kaguya, with the best hearing, remained in the corridor. She decided to be responsible for verifying the results of this attempt, and if she found anything amiss, she would not hesitate to retreat from the corridor into the living room. She would never call Takami and Maki over again like last time, which almost resulted in the three of them being wiped out.

"Ha... I hope this time it will turn out well."

Maki, who was standing guard at the doorway between the living room and the hallway, sighed and murmured wearily.

She herself didn't like playing the villain, and never thought of doing anything to those poor people who were essentially trapped here like her. Unlike Kaguya Shinomiya, who was raised by a ruthless conglomerate, and Takami, whose morals weren't particularly high to begin with, Maki Shijou was actually always a kind and good girl. She was just smart enough to know that when she couldn't explain the situation clearly and was already being viewed with hostility and fear, she had to maintain enough pressure to ensure temporary stability, so she just went along with the cold-faced act.

Ultimately, the reason that man named Green was willing to listen to these three was simply because he thought they were all "veteran players."

Once this facade is broken, that murderous guy will definitely not be as easy to talk to as he is now.

This is just too troublesome and difficult... Why does this so-called game have to torture people who were just living their lives like this?

The girl's sighs received no response.

Meanwhile, in the corridor, Kaguya, frowning and watching the commotion outside the door, had already heard the sound she wanted to hear, but also didn't want to hear.

pat-

The small wooden stick that stood at the door of room 205 fell down.

Chapter Fourteen: The storyline finally begins to unfold.

After leaving room 205, Takahashi took the opportunity to tell Kaguya and Maki about the second corpse under the bed in room 205.

Therefore, at this moment, when she heard the wooden stick fall and the door slowly open, Kaguya Shinomiya knew very well that what was standing in the corridor now was likely a bizarre male corpse with one side of its body twisted and contorted, as if it had been disassembled and then reassembled.

Was that thing hiding under the bed in room 205, watching them search the room the whole time?

So the key question now is, which way will it go?

Before leaving the house, Gao Hai deliberately mentioned room number 210 to mislead the others. However, this misleading was predicated on the premise that the entity possessed a certain level of cognitive ability and that there were no special tracking methods available.

thump—

Heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor.

The direction the other party is moving is... towards 210.

Kaguya breathed a silent sigh of relief.

For Kaguya Shinomiya, who was always accustomed to viewing problems rationally, what terrified her most was undoubtedly the kind of thing that was completely unpredictable and acted without any rules. And everything she had encountered before had this characteristic.

Now, a bizarre corpse of unknown origin has been successfully misled by Gao Hai's words and has chosen 210 as its direction of progress.

This means that the threats in this apartment are not all irrational. At least, they can be fooled and fall for traps, which allows her to devise more strategies, more potentially effective ones.

squeak-

She heard the sound of the door to room 210 being opened.

The thing that came out of 205 has already entered 210.

Kaguya Shinomiya turned around and looked at Takami, who was standing guard at the junction of the corridor and the living room.

She extended one finger, then three, then two, repeating this gesture several times. Gao Hai, on the other side, also extended his hand and made the same gestures.

This was a way Kaguya and Takami had agreed upon to remind and communicate with each other. Every few minutes, she would turn around and have this silent exchange with Takami. Although it wasn't certain how effective it would be, Takami should be able to detect the anomaly if Kaguya were attacked by something with mental pollution powers again. At that time, he would put on earplugs, rush to Kaguya's side, take her to the living room, close the bedroom door, and isolate the source of the pollution in this way. If that didn't work, they would consider using the wall clock to rewind time.

Given the current lack of intelligence and information, this was the best solution the three could think of on the spot.

Sun Dajun and Maeda Miwa were sitting on the floor in the kitchen, leaning against the refrigerator. Opposite them was Green, who seemed arrogant on the surface, but was so frightened by what he found in the refrigerator that he wanted to run away on the spot.

While waiting in the living room, Princess Zhenfei sorted through the letters and manuscripts she had found, trying to find valuable clues among them.

From these texts, she could tell that they all belonged to a man named Lin Wenfu, who seemed to be a little-known magazine contributor who wrote useless inspirational articles and short essays every day to earn a meager living.

It seems that he fell asleep one night and woke up to find himself in room 205.

According to the notes on these papers, his life here was aided by the survivors. Xu Sheng, from room 309, was the leader of the survivors. From the first to the third floor, there were approximately 20 people living in this apartment building. The longest-serving of them all seemed to be the man named Xu Sheng, who had lived in the Shirakawa Apartment for over five years. It was thanks to Xu Sheng's efforts that this place was transformed from a desperate wasteland into a home where survivors could find joy amidst hardship.

However, this man named Lin Wenbin was melancholic by nature, and after being trapped in the Baichuan Apartment, he was unable to live like a normal person. He had to stay in the Baichuan Apartment every two days, which caused his relationship with his girlfriend to break down. As a result, he resented the place more and more and was less willing to record anything related to the apartment.

"What's going on? We finally found some information, and this guy doesn't want to write it because he's in a bad mood..."

Seeing this, Zhenfei was furious and gritted her teeth, wishing she could rush out the door and beat up that bespectacled male corpse. Well, that was just a thought; she naturally didn't dare to actually do it.