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

The mutilated, charred corpse in Sun Dajun's room burst in just as the three people in the kitchen were trapped in a deadly situation.

It's unclear how the two anomalies clashed, but judging from the current situation, the charred corpse in room 206 clearly overpowered the thing on the first floor, knocking down the thing that had followed Gao Hai up.

"Phew... Burnt Bro is awesome..."

Having finally vomited all the mud and water out of his stomach, Gao Hai recovered and wiped his mouth, giving a thumbs-up to the charred corpse standing in the kitchen.

"Just now, I was outside the door, thinking of making some kind of warning device with a wire and a bell, when I heard a loud bang from inside the room (the sound of Maki hitting the ceiling). As soon as I entered, I heard some noise coming from the living room, and then when I went to the kitchen, I saw you all like this..."

Pale-faced Sun Dajun briefly explained the situation. It seemed the charred corpse in the living room only started moving to drive away the things in the kitchen after Sun Dajun entered the house. From this, it appears the charred corpse moved because it needed to protect Sun Dajun from being harmed by anything coming from the kitchen, as per its own rules of conduct.

In any case, I was saved, and by an extraordinary means at that.

"Consort Zhen, are you alright? Quickly treat your wound."

Once he had recovered, Gao Hai walked towards Zhen Fei, but the girl simply shook her head to indicate that she was alright. She wiped the blood from her forehead and then collapsed to the ground, too exhausted to care about the dirty water all over the ground.

Suddenly remembering something, she turned to look at the wooden plank covering her, thought for a moment, then reached out and lifted the plank slightly to look down.

Looking at the countless pale faces standing in the kitchen, all looking up at her, Maki silently covered the wooden board again, then put on another board, before finally letting out a long sigh and wiping away the tears that were about to spill from her eyes.

"..."

Kaguya, who had also recovered, stepped out of the kitchen and went straight to Grin in the living room.

In that crucial moment, Green, who should have pressed the buzzer in time, did nothing.

The man huddled in a corner of the living room, looking terrified. Although he hadn't been attacked by any strange force, he had clearly heard the sounds coming from the kitchen, and he knew something extremely bad must have happened there. Of course, he had also heard Kaguya's shouts, knew he needed to turn the clock, and knew that this was the moment he had to make a sacrifice.

However, after turning the clock, it seems that something unpleasant will happen.

The man named Gao Hai didn't mention anything unusual after turning the clock, but Sun Dajun was hesitant to approach it, a trait he hadn't shown before the time travel. Therefore, Green couldn't help but wonder if the clock, with its strange power, might bring harm to its user. He wondered if he might be cursed by something for using it, so that even though he had found a way to escape, he couldn't leave and would die there.

With this in mind, Green ultimately did not make the move to turn the clock.

He quietly walked towards the living room door, intending to escape and find Maeda Miwa, who was locked in room 205, so that she could turn the clock.

Furthermore, Green deliberately stalled for time. After learning that the clock could rewind time, Green speculated that Gao Hai might have already rewinded time and wondered if people who died before the rewind might not retain their memories. This can be seen from the behavior of the black guy and Maeda Miwa before and after the rewind.

So, if he waited until Kaguya Takami, Maki, and the other two were mysteriously killed before having Miwa Maeda turn the clock, wouldn't he be able to conceal his disobedience? Anyway, that woman who just screams and is obviously brain-damaged from taking too many hallucinogens wouldn't attract any attention.

Green was pleased with his idea.

Then he was blocked by Sun Dajun, who rushed in from outside.

Although Sun Dajun, who was nearly fifty years old, was not very strong in combat, he was certainly wide enough. Green himself was a tall man, over 1.9 meters, so he was blocked in the corridor and couldn't rush out for a while. Instead, he was pushed back a bit by Sun Dajun.

If he had been more aggressive and directly knocked down Sun Dajun before rushing out, Green's plan would have had room to work. However, he first heard a loud noise in the living room, realizing that the charred corpse was starting to move. Also, because of his petty thieving nature, Green instinctively panicked and became helpless when caught while plotting these shady schemes. As a result, he was pushed back into the living room by Sun Dajun, dumbfounded as he rushed into the kitchen. A moment later, Kaguya emerged from the kitchen with a cold expression.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I was so scared! I was so scared!"

Realizing that his plans had completely failed, Green immediately knelt on the ground and apologized desperately.

He reached out and grabbed Green's collar.

Despite her petite appearance, Kaguya, whose physical strength as a two-dimensional being is unreasonable, suddenly exerted her strength and flung the 1.9-meter-tall Grin into the air, slamming him hard onto the floor.

Amid Green's screams, she twisted his right hand, pinning the man face down on the ground. With her left hand, she drew the knife from Green's waist and stabbed him in the side of his face, slashing a bloody gash.

"Ah... ah ah..."

Terrified, Green thought the knife would kill him. He trembled and tried to scream, but just as he opened his mouth, Kaguya punched him in the head, knocking out a tooth instead of letting out a sound.

"Um, what exactly is this...?"

Sun Dajun was at a loss as he watched Kaguya's anger, completely bewildered by what was happening.

At this moment, Gao Hai, supporting Zhen Fei, also came out of the kitchen. After seeing this scene, he simply shook his head, then helped Zhen Fei to sit down on the sofa before looking at his fingers, which had been clenched since earlier.

As he tried to push away the thing that was grabbing him, Gao Hai tore a small object off the other person.

I didn't have time to check it before, but now I can see what it is.

Spread your hands.

One of them had faded and looked brownish-yellow; Gao Hai guessed it might have originally been a small, bright red cloth badge.

Because the writing was embroidered, it is still legible even after being soaked for a long time.

And that line of text reads:

[XX Major Flood Relief Team]

Chapter 33: Once trust is betrayed, it's not so easy to regain.

The exploration of the first floor can only be temporarily suspended for a period of time.

The reason is simple: once the wooden board is lifted, everyone present can clearly see the pale-faced figures standing downstairs, looking up and staring at people.

Those things stood silently in the kitchen downstairs, and even after several hours, they still hadn't disappeared.

The investigation on the first floor had to be temporarily suspended, and the group had to put their actions on hold and deal with some discord within the team.

After all, the reason we were in such a dangerous situation and left behind potential problems was largely due to a disobedient fellow.

"Please...please...I was just so scared, I was wrong, I was really just so scared...please don't do this..."

Trembling, Green pleaded in a low voice, but Kaguya just stared at him expressionlessly. Beside her, Sun Dajun, with a complicated expression, handed the disassembled lock of the 209 door to Maki, and then left the room to avoid seeing it.

Greene was well aware of what losing the door lock in this terrifying apartment meant.

He was also well aware of the betrayal he had committed against Kaguya and the others.

As a 30-year-old downtrodden individual who had accomplished nothing, Green possessed some survival skills and cleverness, but like his unchangeable status as a member of the lower class, his cleverness was ultimately base and unremarkable. He knew he was useless, so he tried to curry favor with powerful figures, but he lacked the awareness to put in the effort to survive. Therefore, when the situation truly became critical, he didn't realize what the right thing to do was, and as before, he refused to act decisively at the crucial moment and even tried to run away, leading to his current predicament.

Just like when he was young, he finally managed to infiltrate a gang and become a low-level manager, but he couldn't resist stealing a portion of the protection money that was supposed to be handed over. He knew that he would definitely get a share of the profits after handing it over, but he just couldn't resist when he saw the money. As a result, he was beaten half to death and expelled from the gang. If it weren't for a friend he knew who couldn't stand by and secretly protected him, he might have been beaten to death on the spot.

After that, Green never managed to get a good position again, and he originally thought that the lesson he learned that time was enough. But the reality was that at another critical moment, and this time when his life was in danger, he still couldn't make the right choice, and instead made an even bigger mistake.

At this moment, the wire that Grimm used to pick the lock had been confiscated, and the imposing-looking knife was now in Kaguya's possession.

The man's pride and strength were easily crushed by the overwhelming power of Kaguya Shinomiya, the unreasonable two-dimensional muscle queen.

At this moment, he knelt on the ground in utter disarray, no longer daring to resist.

"I thought you were a clever person with some wits, someone who knew how to survive. But now it seems that your cleverness is just that—cleverness. When it comes to crucial moments, you can't distinguish between what's important and what's not, and you act on your own initiative in a self-righteous way. It's really disappointing."

Kaguya, after toying with the knife in her hand for a moment, looked at Grin with a chilling gaze.

"Sorry, I……"

Green, who didn't even dare to raise his head, spoke in a trembling voice, wanting to defend himself again.

Did I ask you to speak?

However, he was terrified by Kaguya's next words and could only lie on the ground trembling.

Her aura is truly terrifying; this is the so-called Ice Princess Kaguya.

Sitting to the side, Gao Hai couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

If Gao Hai hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that a 17-year-old girl could have such an aura.

However, considering that the other party is a genius who is one in a million, and that the other party comes from the extremely twisted Shinomiya Zaibatsu, it is understandable that Kaguya would be raised to have such a personality, although it still seems very twisted to look at.

"Mr. Gao Hai, although you are not from Japan, judging from what you said before, you have settled in Japan. So, I am very curious, are you familiar with the Japanese underworld culture, and do you know how a subordinate should apologize for failing to complete a task assigned by a superior?"

Kaguya then turned her head and looked at Takami beside her.

Why did you specifically ask me this? Is it because Princess Zhenfei is too gentle to respond to such questions?

Gao Hai, who thought he only needed to observe, paused for a moment, then gave his answer after thinking for a while.

"Put it in a bucket, fill it with cement, and then sink it in Tokyo Bay?"

This answer terrified Green almost immediately. Feeling like he was about to be killed, he nearly collapsed to the ground.

"Just kidding, I remember it was cutting off a finger, specifically the little finger, right?"

However, Gao Hai's next words made Green breathe a slight sigh of relief, but after realizing what he meant, he couldn't help but feel fear again.

"Very well, then let's do it this way. Mr. Green, you know we can't kill you; the dead turn into bizarre monsters in this place. But you've made a grave mistake. This mistake makes us unable to trust you, so now you have two choices. Either you go into your room alone, and we'll break the lock so that even if you know how to pick locks, you won't be able to open the door. For the rest of the time, you either stay in the room, or you'll have to break your own door. Of course, no one will help you repair it."

As Kaguya spoke, she stood up and walked to Grimm's side.

"Either you prove to me that you won't make the same mistake again. This proof can't be done with words; it has to be done with actions. So, extend your left hand and offer your little finger. If you can do it without making a sound, then I'll believe you still have some guts and are still qualified to be used by me."

By the end, Kaguya's cold voice had taken on a suffocatingly dangerous quality.

Knowing what was about to happen, Zhenfei frowned, covered the gauze on her head, turned and left the living room, just like Sun Dajun, to avoid seeing it from afar.

Meanwhile, Gao Hai, whose tastes leaned more towards the extreme, was inwardly admiring Kaguya's queenly aura while regretting not having popcorn. He thought it would be wonderful to eat dessert while watching yakuza chop off fingers. Of course, Gao Hai wasn't some kind of pervert who enjoyed gore and violence; in fact, he always chose pure romance movies when browsing the riverbank. It was just that the thought of this guy's previous antics almost leading to everyone's annihilation made Gao Hai feel good seeing him in trouble.

What follows needs no further explanation.

Knowing there was no third way, Green, his face ashen, stretched out his left hand.

The sharp knife swung down suddenly, cleanly severing Green's left little finger.

Of course, although the man tried to suppress his screams, he still opened his mouth wide in agony and was about to let out a wail.

But before he could even cry out, Kaguya had already kicked the man in the neck with such force that it almost cracked his bones, choking Green's screams back into his throat.

"I have bandages and iodine. Bandage yourself. The next exploration will be in an hour. This time you must stand guard at the kitchen door. If you need to turn the clock again, you better not disappoint me."

After saying those words, Kaguya turned and left, walking out of the living room of room 206.

Gao Hai, who had been watching the whole thing, left because he was disgusted by the smell of blood and Green's sobbing.

"She really did cut her finger. My great-aunt would definitely do that..."

Seeing Kaguya's expression when she came out, Maki already guessed what had been discovered inside, and couldn't help but shake her head and sigh.

"Consort Zhen, are you sure your injury is alright?"

Gao Hai, who followed behind, asked about Zhenfei's injuries again, and received the same answer again: "No problem."

Gao Hai walked to the gate again. At this moment, Sun Dajun came out of the toilet. Judging from his appearance, he had just released a wave of pressure, but his expression was still gloomy. Perhaps it was really hard to release the pressure these days.

"That foreign devil, has he really taken action?"

Somewhat frightened, Sun Dajun held back for a while, but finally asked Gao Hai in a low voice.

"Yes, they've done such stupid things. It would be a big problem to let them off lightly."

Gao Hai made no attempt to hide anything. Lacking any moral fastidiousness, he felt no discomfort whatsoever about Green cutting off his hand to apologize. He even vaguely felt that he hadn't cut enough and should have added two more.