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

However, in the photo, all five people are showing expressions of disgust, looking in a certain direction with expressions of extreme aversion.

That direction was the direction from which those footsteps were moving.

That direction is where 304 is located.

"……Well."

Having heard footsteps and children's laughter too many times, Kaguya, whose mental state was also not good, held her forehead and let out a low breath.

Gao Hai remained silent, not uttering a sound, simply enduring the discomfort.

By now, they have spent half an hour.

One-sixth of the agreed exploration time has passed, and in that time, Takami and Kaguya have only been walking through the chaotic corridors, unable to actually find the location of 304.

"There seems to be a relatively intact room here."

At this moment, Kaguya, with her better eyesight, found a house whose distortion did not seem to be too severe.

The two walked up to the house and found that the door had the number 305 on it. They decided to go inside and hide for a while to rest.

squeak-

Upon opening the door, a dark corridor came into view.

[It seems those debt collectors came again last night?]

They splashed paint on our 304 toilet! Ugh, it's even on our front door! What a jerk! It's not like we owe them any money.

What can you do? Do you dare go to Li Youcai? That bastard is just looking for an excuse to beat someone up and then spend a few days in detention, which will also help him avoid those debt collectors.

[That bastard is disgusting. By the way, did you hear? The young man who just moved into 309 seems to have left.]

Ah, this whole thing... well, that kid's too young. He actually tried to get involved in this scumbag's business. Don't worry about it, it's none of our business.

The auditory hallucinations were even clearer than before, as if they were ringing right next to my ears.

Gao Hai could almost see the people gathered in the house, eating and chatting at the dining table.

But when Kaguya fully opened the door, he looked over and saw only an empty, abandoned house, with no one in sight.

"The structure of this room is different from the second floor. Could this be the original normal structure of the Shirakawa Apartments?"

Kaguya frowned and whispered, noticing something amiss.

Gao Hai, who was behind him, covered his forehead once again.

strangeness.

Why do I see more and more of these things after I go up to the 3rd floor?

It was as if one's gaze was no longer entirely focused on the Shirakawa Apartment at this moment, but rather connected to other places.

Why did this change occur?

While thinking, Gao Hai reached out and grabbed the door frame, intending to close the door.

During this process, he subconsciously raised his head and looked towards the door.

Then he saw the dirty little child, dressed in tattered clothes, appearing and disappearing amidst the chaotic architectural structure, vanishing without a trace.

"..."

Then Gao Hai understood.

He has been discovered by that thing and has begun to re-establish contact with it.

Chapter 47: The Rules of Clearing the Level Are Now in My Hands

After learning about his ability to rewind, Gao Hai had actually thought about this question: for those strange rules involving memory and cognition, those troublesome things where "knowing is cognition," the ability to rewind might not be able to eliminate the influence of such things.

Regardless, Gao Hai already knew about the "taboo" of Shirakawa Apartments.

Knowing the taboo means fulfilling the rules for triggering the taboo, and thus becoming a target that "that thing" can observe.

However, perhaps due to the rollback, within the operating logic of this strange rule, I have an extra forbidden memory out of nowhere. Therefore, triggering this rule requires a certain amount of time to slowly activate. But now that I can see that thing, it means that the triggering speed is not slow. Considering this, perhaps... the 7 days for escaping the Shirakawa Apartment mission is less than half, or even less, for me.

To be on the bright side, he might trigger the forbidden curse power of the Shirakawa Apartment core in about 3 days, and be pulled back into that twisted and chaotic 304, where he would be tortured to death by having his mouth sewn shut with needles and thread and being doused with boiling water.

I really don't want to do it again.

This kind of torture to death is enough to drive anyone to despair if they experience it even once. He even had it twice. If it were to happen a third time, Gao Hai really didn't know if he could survive it.

“Mr. Gao Hai, you seem a little uneasy.”

Kaguya, who was resting on one side of the room, watched Takami's changing expression and slowly spoke.

"I was just thinking about some very unsettling things."

Knowing that his expression had given him away, Takahashi let out a long sigh of relief, then looked up and met Kaguya's gaze.

Red eyes.

They radiate a dazzling light like rubies. You probably couldn't find eyes like that in the real world. Is this really an anime/manga world?

It's a bit of a shame, though, that the look in those eyes now is like that of someone on the verge of death; you can't find a trace of normal human emotion in them. Princess Kaguya of Ice, this girl who grew up under the twisted, absolutely selfish education of the Shinomiya family, a "girl in a box," is now somehow in the same eerie and terrifying ghost story area as me, risking our lives to investigate. It's quite a strange situation, to say the least.

"Anything to say?"

Kaguya, who was staring at Takahashi, had no idea what he was thinking. She only asked again when she saw the man fall silent.

"...Say something, say something. Hmm, Ms. Shinomiya, do you remember those four hints about this game? The words of those who came before, the happiness of dust, the door to reopening, and the places we can't go. What are your thoughts on these things?"

With his eyes closed, Gao Hai leaned against the wall and slowly spoke, his voice tinged with hesitation.

"Thoughts..."

Kaguya wasn't quite sure why Takami had suddenly asked this question, but she calmed down and thought about it for a while before slowly speaking.

"The messages left by our predecessors are actually quite clear. Whether it's Xu Sheng's messages, Sanchez's investigation records, or the records left by other survivors who lived here in the past, they all contain various clues. The basis for our exploration so far lies in these deceased predecessors. They left us a path to survival and guided us forward."

"The happiness of dust, perhaps this line of thinking is not necessarily accurate, but in my guess, maybe it refers to a toy? Although I may not know much about the normal childhood of children, isn't it said that children like toys? As for the places that can't be gone, I think you should also know in your heart that the place is very likely inside one of the walls of 304."

“You and Maki brought back quite a lot of information from the last, well, the last cycle. It’s basically enough for us to piece together what happened in this apartment. Most of the clues match up, and only some details need to be investigated further.”

Perhaps in an attempt to regain some of her pride and self-esteem, Kaguya spoke at length and in great detail.

Regarding the situation of the family in room 304, Gao Hai had already discussed it with Kaguya before heading to the third floor. Now, Gao Hai didn't say anything, simply sitting and listening to Kaguya's analysis. At the same time, he was silently pondering, of course, trying to avoid thinking about that crucial taboo, limiting his perspective to those awful parents, and using various methods of reference to all content related to that thing, hoping to delay the curse as much as possible.

The manner of death was gagging and being doused with boiling water. Before that, it was likely just a beating, since a child's physical condition wouldn't allow them to survive being gagging and doused with boiling water. After that, was they bricked into a wall? But the rescue team smelled an unusual odor; perhaps it was from a hastily erected mud wall? Or was it a case of digging a hole in the wall, stuffing them in, and then filling it in – a hasty and perfunctory solution?

This family had a second child, a son. He was sent away before the Shirakawa Apartment went haywire. Perhaps because of that incident, the parents knew they would be arrested if exposed, so they sent their child away. Then, according to Sanchez's investigation records, this sent-away child, like the other apartment residents, should have died mysteriously within a year of the apartment's disappearance. Perhaps he was brought back to the apartment after his death?

Perhaps the turning point comes after the birth of the second child. The man has fulfilled his desire for a son, and the first child becomes even less valued and more of a hindrance. Therefore, when it comes to having another child, these parents' standards tend to drop even lower.

The neighbors must have offered help, but that must have provoked the parents' revenge. For these two people, who have completely lost their humanity, the prospect of someone showing kindness and assistance to a child they so utterly despise is absolutely unacceptable. 309… perhaps it's the resident of 309. The resident of this room had a conflict with 304 and likely left the apartment afterward.

So, the door has been reopened...

"Perhaps it's room 309. If we open room 309, we might gain something very important. I think the door that's been reopened might refer to room 309."

As Gao Hai was thinking about these things, Kaguya, who was sitting opposite him, calmly expressed Gao Hai's inner thoughts.

"Indeed, it's a pity that this place is too chaotic. Apart from room 304, which has some clues, finding the other rooms is like finding a needle in a haystack."

Gao Hai sighed softly and slowly got up from the ground.

Now, unlike in the previous cycle, he no longer feels that thing's gaze at him at any time.

But this situation will not last long. As the curse deepens, he will inevitably face death sooner than others.

However, it should still be enough.

There should be enough time to verify my ideas.

What ideas do you already have?

Seeing the change in Takahashi's expression, Kaguya realized that he must have come up with an idea, so she asked him a question.

“I once went through the process of being gradually transformed into a member of the rescue team, and having my self-awareness destroyed by that badge.”

“That process was worse than death, but after surviving, I realized some things. I think I have figured out the essence of some of these strange characteristics to a certain extent, but I just didn’t have any ideas to summarize them before.”

Gao Hai nodded slightly, cautiously peering through the crack in the door as he answered Kaguya.

"The key to the operation of these inhuman monsters lies in [obsession], while the specific way they operate lies in [memory]."

“The rescue teams are repeating rescue operations and will block people who try to return to their rooms from the stairwell, because ‘rescue’ is their obsession. And the strange places where the rescue teams are present show scenes of flooding, which is a repetition of their past memories.”

"I'm not saying anything about them still having feelings or anything like that. Although I admire these rescue team members, I can confirm that after becoming one of them, the rescue team no longer has any kind of 'feelings'. They are just a lingering echo that keeps repeating the past in a distorted way under the influence of 'obsession' and 'memory,' unable to move towards the future."

Finally, Takahashi, who had been watching a figure that seemed to be faintly visible in the corridor outside, withdrew his gaze and slowly spoke to Kaguya.

"But this does not mean they are unsolvable tragedies. Because the foundation of these rescue teams lies in their [obsession]."

"The rescue team, trapped in a vicious cycle, is unable to fulfill their obsession and will remain on the first floor indefinitely. But if there were a way to allow them to fulfill their obsession and rescue the people of Shirakawa Apartments when everything repeats itself, they could be freed from the cycle, stop this meaningless repetition, and find true peace."

"I believe that this same principle applies to the most fundamental taboo of this apartment."

Drawing upon his own experience of becoming assimilated with ghost stories, Gao Hai at this moment summarizes the true method for completely ending the eeriness of ghost stories, a method ultimately learned by countless players at the cost of their lives.

The bizarre workings of ghost stories always lie in two things: memory and obsession.

For those who are no longer human and have no emotions, memories only become more distorted with each repetition, just like the deformed distortion of the Shirakawa Apartment, which expanded from room 304 to the entire third floor.

However, the "obsession" is etched into the very foundation upon which these things were born; it is the most fundamental and original rule governing their existence. If one can find the key to a breakthrough within the constantly distorted "memories" of the ghost stories, and allow the "obsession" that was previously impossible to complete or realize to be fulfilled, then the ghost stories can collapse from their very foundation.

This is not the way to clear the dungeon.

For players who only need to survive the dungeon, all they need to do is find the "way out" within the legends.

This is actually a way to destroy a dungeon, to eliminate a fully formed supernatural tale, a supernatural tale that would continue to devour more and more lives and create countless tragedies, so that everything can return to silence and find peace.

For Gao Hai, who couldn't find reliable experienced players and had to rely on his own guesswork, the method he inadvertently came up with led to an even more difficult path.

However, it is precisely because of this ignorance that he is able to be so confident at this moment.

"In that case, the rules for passing the level may already be in our hands."

After confirming once again that there was no figure outside, Gao Hai pushed open the door, turned back to Kaguya and said this before continuing to move forward.

"I hope you're right."

Kaguya, who did not have such memories, was naturally unaware of Takami's feelings, so she could only nod slightly in agreement, while feeling a slight sense of frustration in her heart.

I feel like an apprentice being led by him.