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

However, unlike before, perhaps because it was daytime, this chaotic area was no longer dark. Instead, light from an unknown source illuminated the surrounding twisted corridors and various pieces of furniture.

"Such a place actually exists..."

Kaguya's tone wavered slightly. Even though she had already seen the corpses summoned by the blood puppet, the impact of this nightmarish and chaotic space was clearly stronger.

Despite being shocked, Kaguya quickly composed herself and returned to a calm and collected state.

She wasn't here to stroll around and enjoy the scenery; she was going to team up with the incredibly mysterious man beside her to uncover the secrets hidden in this chaotic place, and find a way to escape and leave alive.

"Let's go."

Gao Hai had already taken a step forward.

"Um……"

Kaguya nodded gently, said nothing more, and carefully walked beside Takahashi, passing through the twisted corridor, and took a step forward.

What awaits her next?

The girl couldn't help but think this to herself.

"what……"

Then her hair got stuck in a gap in a messy wooden wall, and she stopped abruptly in her tracks.

Gao Hai quickly noticed Kaguya's situation, stopped, and helped her free her stuck hair.

"The terrain here is too complicated. Your hair will easily get stuck if you leave it down like this. Tie it up."

As he said this, Gao Hai looked around but couldn't find anything suitable, so he tore off a long strip from his t-shirt and handed it to Kaguya.

"…Thank you very much."

Kaguya, somewhat embarrassed by the unexpected turn of events at the start, thanked him quietly, took the strip of cloth, ignored the suspicious red and white stains on it, and immediately tied it up with her hair to ensure it wouldn't affect her next move.

"fine."

Gao Hai didn't notice the stains on the cloth until the other person took it, but it was too late to say anything, so he could only pretend nothing was wrong and casually reply.

Why do I feel like I've tied my brain to Kaguya? Hmm, that sounds weird. Maybe it's better not to think about it too much.

"Sorry for the trouble, everything is fine now."

A moment later, Kaguya, having tied her hair up, turned around and calmly spoke to Takahashi.

But then she realized that the other person wasn't looking at her, but at a certain place in the corridor.

Kaguya's gaze followed, and she saw several doll-like objects, each about a meter tall, approaching while laughing and chuckling, their footsteps making no sound at all.

"What? It's that damn thing again! Let's get out of here!"

Lowering his voice, Takayuki patted Kaguya on the shoulder, then quickly turned and ran away. Kaguya, realizing something was wrong, started running after him, only to hear the children's laughter behind them rapidly growing louder and approaching at an impossible speed.

The sound... the child...

No...no, they're not children. This thing...is influencing my thinking?

In the end, Takahashi and Kaguya managed to climb onto a tall cabinet in time, avoiding these things that, regardless of their appearance or sound, possessed the characteristics of mental pollution.

Being forced to lie close to a person of the opposite sex on a cabinet is not a pleasant experience, but when faced with the attack of the strange creature, Kaguya can only choose to endure it and try to maintain a blank expression and pretend that she doesn't care.

As for Gao Hai, he had no particular thoughts. He was carefully guarding against the children, ignoring the physical contact between Shinomiya Kaguya and himself, and constantly on guard against other monsters that might appear from other places. He didn't care about the petite girl's physical contact with him, and was prepared to rewind time at any time. He was completely oblivious to the fact that the girl's soft body was pressed against his.

Her body seems firmer and more elastic than that of Princess Zhenfei.

Gao Hai pondered the subtle differences in how the two girls' bodies felt when touched.

A few minutes later, the items gradually disappeared, and the two were finally able to get down from the cabinet.

"Is this the third floor of the Shirakawa Apartments?"

Recalling her unconscious mental lapse when she heard those strange sounds, Kaguya frowned and whispered.

"This is just the beginning."

Gao Hai, whose expression remained unchanged throughout, simply spoke calmly and continued taking steps forward.

Ahead in the dark corridor, the chaotic architectural structure led nowhere.

The only thing that can be confirmed now is that we cannot stop moving forward, and we cannot stand still.

Chapter 46: Fragments of the Past Gleaned Through Connections

The twisted road and bizarre furniture that could never exist in reality piled up in layers, obscuring the view and making it almost impossible to discern the road ahead.

Unseen footsteps echoed down the corridor, one after another.

The children, as delicate as porcelain dolls, laughed and played, appearing and disappearing from various places.

And those open windows, and the stars and moon inside... or perhaps the floating corpses in the water?

The situation here is far more dangerous than anticipated.

Even though Takami and Kaguya were very careful to conceal their whereabouts, they were still nearly discovered several times. This was especially true of those seemingly adorable children, who appeared to be porcelain dolls or rag dolls. If these things didn't make any noise, Takami and Kaguya would have no way of noticing their approach. And once these children got close enough, they would quickly fall into a state of delirium, making escape extremely difficult.

Fortunately, Gao Hai had already experienced being caught by these dolls and boiled to death once, so he now had a certain degree of resistance to them. Therefore, every time he encountered a situation, he was able to break free, escape the encirclement of these things with Kaguya, and find a tall cabinet that they couldn't reach to hide in time.

Kaguya Shinomiya's calm expression at the beginning of her exploration quickly became less composed as she encountered various strange things again and again.

After escaping from five or six children once again, she, huddled on top of a tall cabinet with Gao Hai, couldn't help but turn around and ask, her face pale:

"Don't you feel any psychological pressure dealing with this kind of thing?"

Such a bizarre and terrifying thing, beyond description.

Especially that eerie laughter that seems to pollute one's consciousness; every time I hear it, I fall into a state of mental confusion.

But every time, this man was able to react in time, break free, and quickly escape with her.

At that moment, Kaguya Shinomiya felt a sense of defeat that words could not describe.

She seemed to understand why Maki had such strong confidence in this man, even showing an expression that said, "Takami will definitely be fine leading the team," when deciding that she and Takami would be on the mission. The abilities this man displayed when facing bizarre beings beyond the realm of human understanding were worlds apart from her own inexperience.

"Of course there's pressure, how could there not be? But even with pressure, you still have to keep moving, right?"

Gao Hai smiled at Kaguya, a relaxed expression on his face, and then continued walking forward.

At this moment, he wasn't thinking about so much; he was just contemplating the differences he felt upon arriving on the third floor compared to the previous two times.

To put it simply, the number of monsters has increased significantly.

When he first entered the third floor, he and Maki were trapped in a room, then contaminated by the information of the fake Kaguya and her group, and finally, there was the huge explosion caused by Lao Guo. Although Gao Hai noticed that there were obviously a lot of strange things on the third floor, he didn't actually encounter many. In the second time, when he entered, he was directly contaminated by the core of the apartment. When he came out, he was almost completely transformed into part of the rescue team's strange things. Perhaps because he was no longer completely human at that time, he was not targeted by those things.

This time, when I arrived at the apartment, I wasn't contaminated or transformed by anything, nor was anything used to distract me. I entered as a normal person, and the biggest difference I felt compared to the previous two times was the eeriness that I encountered every few steps.

Hehehehe—

The children were running around again.

They kept laughing, laughing loudly and unrestrainedly.

They had new clothes to wear, toys to play with, clean faces, and no wounds on their bodies.

Hahaha--

The children were laughing wildly.

They were laughing at a child.

A child who was different from them, always dirty, with bruises all over his face and body.

No, why am I seeing these things?

Gao Hai frowned, trying his best to ignore the sounds and mentally conjure up various images to distract himself. He persisted until the sounds faded away, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Thirteen minutes have passed since we entered the third floor.

He and Kaguya have encountered the "child" four times and the "footsteps" three times so far.

Avoiding footsteps wasn't difficult; although the footsteps couldn't be clearly seen, the sound was very distinct, allowing them to hear from afar and take cover. The problem lay with the children; their vision seemed incredibly sharp. Basically, when Takami and Kaguya spotted them, the children would also spot them, resulting in a chase where they were eventually forced to hide in places like cabinets that the children couldn't reach.

Just like in the apartment, once those kids found her, she would become their target for teasing. No matter where she hid, it was no use. Only by climbing a tree or other tall cabinets that they couldn't reach could she avoid being bullied.

Gao Hai frowned and rubbed his temples.

"Is there anything wrong?"

Kaguya noticed that something seemed amiss with Takami, so she stopped, frowned, and asked.

"It's like some kind of hallucination, and the kind that makes people unconsciously project their own emotions onto it. For now, it's not enough to affect our actions. Anyway, let's be careful. If I show any obvious abnormalities, we might need to rewind earlier."

Gao Hai shook his head as he said this, and then continued walking forward.

The roads ahead crisscrossed, and a refrigerator, inexplicably twisted 180 degrees in the middle, stood wide open, revealing rotting, maggot-infested food inside.

All sorts of clothes for adults and children are hanging out to dry on the hands of people extending from the wall, and it seems that something like eyes can be seen blinking in some of the cracks in the wall.

Footsteps sounded again.

The sound of footsteps heading towards 304 echoed.

Gao Hai and Kaguya hid in a corner, holding their breath and pretending not to hear the footsteps.

Like everyone else living in the apartment, they pretended not to notice the footsteps, filled with disgust.

That damn gambler.

It's because of him that these debt collectors keep coming to the apartment, banging on the door day and night, disrupting the entire apartment's routine.

His wife is annoying too, always bringing up this rule or that rule, just wanting an excuse to control people, right? The problem is, she can't control anyone. Her husband beats her like a dog. Only her stupid daughter listens to her and is under her control. She doesn't even dare to discipline her son, because her husband cherishes their two-year-old son, so she doesn't dare to discipline him.

That daughter was also annoying. I don't know if it was because she was beaten, but she would often leak urine. She would just stand there blankly and not move. If anyone asked her a question or two, she would start to hide.

Does she never shower? She smells terrible, and there are fleas in her hair.

So disgusting.

That's disgusting.

If it weren't for this family, why would everyone suffer these troubles? Many children have been frightened to tears by those fierce debt collectors. All they know is causing trouble for others, all they do is cause trouble for others all day long. This family should just die out.

"..."

Gao Hai opened his eyes and looked at his side.

On the wall beside him hung a family photo, which looked like a happy family of five.