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

Interlude 1-05: The three-person intelligence meeting and the two-person date

Shijo Maki looked up at the street outside the coffee shop.

She lowered her head again, lightly stomped her feet on the ground twice, shifted her body somewhat irritably, and then looked up at the street again.

"So slow, this guy is way too slow!"

The girl finally couldn't help but complain.

"There's still a full half hour until our agreed meeting time, and you've already repeated that sentence five times."

Kaguya, sitting next to Maki, glanced at Maki and spoke in a cold tone.

"Even so, he's still too slow. We arrived forty minutes early."

Maki, who had her head resting on the table, made a dissatisfied "mmm" sound. Then, she propped her cheeks up with her hands and raised her head, muttering in a very dissatisfied tone.

"...It seems you're really attracted to him, Maki-kun."

Kaguya's expression became somewhat amused.

"Who's attracted to that guy? I don't care about that idiot who's always trying to take advantage and has no manners whatsoever."

The girl, who had taken a big gulp of coffee, spoke through gritted teeth at that moment.

"Oh, really? I'm really hurt by what you're saying."

A voice rang out from behind at that moment.

Zhenfei was slightly taken aback at first, then realized something and turned her head sharply, her gaze quickly locking onto Gao Hai who was walking up from behind.

From hairstyle to clothing, everything is completely different from yesterday.

Although he still had that carefree, nonchalant attitude, he did listen to my advice and take care of his appearance.

Seeing Gao Hai like this, Zhen Fei's mood improved a lot.

"You're too slow. If you're going to meet a girl, you should arrive a little earlier."

Although her mood improved, Maki did not show any happiness on the surface. She just glanced at Gao Hai, then sat down inside and pulled up the curtains to block out the light from the glass.

This is a small private room on the second floor of the coffee shop, where many people come to chat or work, seeking a quiet and comfortable environment.

Maki and Kaguya chose this place to ensure their safety and to ensure that no one would overhear them.

"Let's get down to business first. There are indeed quite a few things we need to discuss this time."

After drawing the curtains, Maki's expression immediately turned serious.

Knowing that what was about to be discussed was important, Gao Hai sat next to Zhen Fei and nodded solemnly, no longer joking around with her at this moment.

"Then, let me explain first. I have indeed obtained some information about the sacrifice game and the players through my own means."

After taking a sip of coffee, Kaguya spoke first.

"The existence of players, or rather, the existence of players on a large scale, has lasted for at least two years."

"I didn't directly investigate the existence of the players themselves. Instead, I tried using the 'Obsession Object' and discovered that it could be used in the real world. Then I had my assistant investigate some of the more bizarre and unsolved death cases in Japan recently. As a result, the frequency of these cases began to rise rapidly starting two years ago, and they have occurred in almost every part of Japan."

"Moreover, the frequency of these types of cases has been increasing in the past six months, but strangely, there is virtually no discussion about them anywhere. If I hadn't specifically asked someone to search, I think I would never have believed that there have been 85 murders in Tokyo this month alone, and the number of murders last year exceeded 8. Such a large-scale heinous crime cannot be suppressed by the Metropolitan Police Department alone, but the fact is that no one knows about these incidents; it seems that they have simply happened and that's it."

As Kaguya spoke, she placed some printed materials on the table.

Gao Hai reviewed some of the documents, including those concerning a family of three who died after being beheaded, only to discover that after their deaths they went to the living room and celebrated a birthday around a table, their throats stuffed with cream cake. Another case involved a man living alone who encountered a young woman offering services late at night, only to wake up the next day to find a blood-soaked human skin in his bed; the autopsy revealed that the skin had been peeled off the previous evening. Yet another case involved cries for help coming from a sewer pipe; knocking open the pipe revealed a mass of human tissue stretching over ten meters, which had crawled for dozens of meters before the person inside died…

It's a horrific case that defies all logic and could never possibly happen in the real world.

None of them could be cracked.

None of these incidents garnered the slightest attention, and almost no one discussed them. Whether on public online platforms or various hidden forums, no one talked about them. Even though Kaguya's accomplice easily hacked into the Metropolitan Police Department's system and found these files, proving that they weren't strictly confidential, they simply failed to attract attention, as if everyone was turning a blind eye to these horrific events.

“My helper, she… also acted strangely about these things.”

After taking a deep breath, Kaguya's voice began to tremble slightly.

"When she first came across this information, she thought it was unbelievable, just like me. She couldn't understand why such a thing could happen, and she couldn't understand why people didn't react after it happened."

"But half an hour after I gave her these materials, when I found her and asked her about them again, she couldn't remember what she had done. No... she remembered, but she suddenly became indifferent. It was as if some force, some unseen force, directly erased these things beyond her comprehension from her consciousness, making her unable to pay attention to them no matter what. Even when I reminded her, she would be very slow to remember. Unless she actually saw the materials again, but as long as she let go of the materials and stopped paying attention to them, she would return to that state within half an hour."

At this point, Kaguya paused slightly, took a sip of coffee, and her expression was extremely complicated.

"After discovering this anomaly, I conducted further experiments."

“I used a blood puppet to trap one of my servants in my manor, which caused panic throughout the entire manor.”

"But after I retrieved the blood puppet, about three or four hours passed before everyone forgot about it. The mansion returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. Even the servant who was attacked was only panicked for about half an hour longer than the others before returning to normal."

Finally, Kaguya let out a long sigh, put down her coffee cup, and summarized in a low voice.

"I think only players can remember these things, these things that are beyond the understanding of ordinary people and beyond the normal. Only players can know and remember them."

"It's like two isolated islands separated from each other. Ordinary people are on one island, while we are on the other, separated from each other. No, this separation is actually one-sided, since we know everything that ordinary people know, but they cannot understand the world as we see it."

Judging from Kaguya's expression, this investigation has clearly had a significant impact on her, perhaps even more so than the life-or-death crisis she experienced in the Shirakawa apartment.

Gao Hai immediately thought of Maeda Miwa.

The woman died a cruel death in a hotel, and as a player, her death was reported in the media. How did this happen?

Was she killed by an ordinary person? Or did the person who killed her do so without using any supernatural powers?

He took out his phone and checked, confirming that the news article was still available.

This made Gao Hai feel a little wary.

"That's about all the information from my great-aunt's investigation. Now it's my turn. I've found the players' gathering place. At least for now, it seems to be a pre-arranged meeting place for the players. The meeting will be in three days, and the location is an underground shopping plaza in an abandoned old town."

Maki calmly took a sip of coffee, and after confirming that Kaguya had nothing to say, she slowly opened her mouth and placed a photograph on the table.

It was a television screen showing a weather forecast advertisement, but the space next to the screen where the presenter should have been was occupied by blood-red lettering, clearly indicating a date and a location, with the word "Market" written in blood at the end.

“This bloody text appears every evening in the weather forecast, but no one else in my family can see it except me. They only see the presenter. I think this is information specifically for players.”

“Organized players use television to broadcast information to other players and organize trading markets. But the specifics there are currently completely unknown. I think we should be careful if we go there to investigate, as there might be traps or something.”

As she said this, Princess Maki took another sip of coffee, and then her expression became slightly more serious.

"Another thing, I think the Shijo family, no, the Shinomiya family, is being manipulated by players behind the scenes. My great-aunt changed her clothes without anyone noticing because she was alone indoors, but many people saw what happened to me. As a result, last night, a guest from the Shinomiya family came to our house. He seemed to be just an ordinary person, but I noticed that his shadow was very abnormal, as if there were two of him."

"My parents rarely entertained members of the Shinomiya family, but they were very welcoming to him. He seemed quite interested in me and asked me a lot of questions. Some were normal, like about my grades and school life, but others were strange, asking if I felt relaxed, if the room felt crowded, or if I felt full of energy. They were all odd questions. I guessed it might be some kind of test, so I tried to act like I knew nothing. As for my clothes, I just said I had accidentally fallen and gotten them dirty in the activity room. I don't know if that worked."

Are there players secretly operating in Shinomiya's house?

This piece of information caused Kaguya to frown deeply.

"If we're going to investigate that underground market, I'm afraid I can't go. I'm under strict control and can't easily leave home, let alone go to such a suspicious place. In other words, if we're going to investigate, only Maki and Taka-kun can go."

After a brief moment of thought, Kaguya sighed and looked at the two of them as she spoke slowly.

“I know, I will go to investigate with Haijun. When we get there, I think we will have the power to fight back even if we encounter danger. Putting everything else aside, just with the physical fitness boosted by this so-called A-level rating, if I were to encounter those two guys I met in the Shirakawa apartment again, I would definitely be able to fight them.”

Princess Zhenfei let out a soft hum, revealing a slightly proud expression at that moment.

Finally, after exchanging information and Gao Hai retrieved the items that were difficult to carry, the three left the private room.

Gao Hai noticed that all the other private rooms around this one were empty and had "Reserved" signs hanging on them. He guessed that this was probably Maki's or Kaguya's idea, to prevent anyone from eavesdropping or something.

The real world, which I thought would be easier, doesn't seem to be so easy after all.

Because her tutoring was very strict, Kaguya ultimately left first and returned to her large villa.

After watching each other leave, Zhenfei stomped her foot slightly, glancing between the sky and the ground, looking somewhat uneasy, yet remaining silent and refusing to speak first.

"Speaking of which, shall we take a walk and chat? This must be the first time we've been together like this, without any worries about survival, right? And, your outfit today is quite pretty."

Then, Gao Hai, who was standing next to her, turned around, smiled at the girl, and said something. His gaze swept over Zhenfei's casual dress, and after thinking for a moment, he gave her a thumbs up and said.

"That way of praising people is so outdated. And instead of thinking about this kind of thing, we should think about what preparations we need to make before we go to investigate that abandoned underground plaza in three days. It's definitely not a place that we can just walk into."

Zhenfei glanced at Gao Hai again, her words still carrying a hint of sharpness, but a smile had unconsciously crept onto her lips, clearly indicating that she was already quite happy.

"That makes sense. Why don't we go to the nearby stores and take a look? We should at least pick out something helpful. Let me think... maybe a flashlight or something?"

After a moment's thought, Gao Hai offered a suggestion.

"If that place really is a gathering place for players, ordinary items without supernatural powers would be of no use at all. However, you did come up with some ideas, so you deserve some praise. Let's go take a look."

Princess Zhenfei nodded slightly and muttered to herself, as if trying to convince herself with those words.

Then, she took a few steps away to the side of the street.

"What are you standing there for? The young lady of the Shijou family is personally accompanying you shopping now, so hurry up, you idiot."

Then she turned around and looked at Gao Hai, who was following behind, and scolded him with some dissatisfaction.

"Hahaha, yes sir, young lady."

Upon hearing this slightly spoiled voice, Gao Hai couldn't help but chuckle and quickened his pace to walk beside Zhenfei.

Interlude 1-06: A Date and a Moment of Honesty with a Tsundere Girl

What kind of situation is it now?

Gao Hai looked at the girl walking quietly beside him.

Those purplish-brown, jewel-like eyes, so bright and captivating, made me feel as if my consciousness was being drawn into them.

Fair skin and a slender, graceful figure. Although the front armor is somewhat lacking, her overall physique is absolutely outstanding.

And, although she often says one thing but means another, she has a charming personality like an angel who treats people with sincerity and truly cares about others.

This is the Shijou Maki who attracted Takami and made him infatuated with her.

Right beside him at this very moment, walking forward with him, was Shijou Maki.

"I said... are you just going to stay quiet and not say anything the whole way?"

Then, those eyes looked over, eyebrows slightly raised, and the voice became unhappy.

"If a girl is walking with you and you just stay silent and quiet, that's really bad behavior."

"Where are you going and what are you going to do? Don't you have any prior plans or last-minute arrangements?"

"You can't expect me to make this kind of decision, can you?"