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

Then Gao Hai saw Dennis, a mangled mess who had fallen hard somewhere. The man was slowly crawling out of the hole, using his broken fingers to crawl on the ground. He raised his head and looked at Gao Hai with his bloodied, mangled face.

"Oh, it's you! Have you seen my friends? Miss Shelby, Mr. Kawano, and Mr. Ed. I've been looking everywhere for them."

Dennis grinned as he spoke, his mouth torn from the severe injuries to his face, blood seeping from the numerous wounds, making the already foul-smelling underground cave even more unbearable and nauseating.

"I don't see him. Could you please move aside? You're blocking our way."

Gao Hai's expression remained unchanged; he simply pulled Chika aside and spoke calmly.

He could feel three gazes directed at him from behind, and three intense expressions of malice.

No, that shouldn't be described as malicious.

Human malice is the thought of harming or exploiting someone, but these non-human things no longer have such thoughts; they only imitate the behavior before death, repeat some habitual patterns, and hide a strange power of killing and transformation beneath it.

How come I couldn't see anything while we were walking along just now, but after stopping here and meeting other players, these things started showing up in less than a minute?

Could it be that too many living people have stayed in one place, causing these things to be attracted here?

It's such a shame, I've always wanted to find them; they're all such wonderful people. By the way, would you mind if I joined you? I'd also really like to go see the heart specialist.

Dennis crawled out of the cave, his legs, worn down to the bone, dragging bloody marks on the ground. Even so, he still raised his head and spoke to Gao Hai in a very friendly manner.

"No, the two of us are enough."

Gao Hai spoke with an unchanged expression, and pressed down on Qian Hua's shoulder slightly to remind her to keep a straight face and not show any weakness.

The three things behind them were almost touching them, and Gao Hai could hear the gurgling sound of their trachea breathing right behind him.

Why? Is there something strange about me? Why can't I be with you?

Dennis tilted his head and asked with great curiosity.

Can we join you? It would be nice to have more people, why are you all reacting so strongly?

The man's sunken half-face peeked out from beside Gao Hai's shoulder, turning around in a position impossible for a human neck to achieve, staring at Gao Hai almost face to face as he asked.

[Hiss... gurgle...]

The woman had appeared beside him at some point. From behind his shattered face, the air she exhaled from her trachea rushed onto Gao Hai's cheek, along with a few drops of blood.

Sister, aren't you cold? Are you scared? Am I scary?

The bluish-purple boy appeared in front of Chika at some point, looked up, and stared at the girl as he asked a question.

These four things have completely surrounded us.

A bone-chilling cold was spreading, and even though Gao Hai's physique had already surpassed human limits under the blessing and empowerment, he still felt an unbearable sensation.

A slight dizziness seemed to gradually creep into my head.

The expressions of these "people" have begun to change from their initial lively and cheerful demeanor to the stiff, lifeless appearance of the dead.

Do we look strange? Why are we reacting so strongly?

Why aren't you speaking? Are you afraid?

[Speaking of where this is, I feel like I've walked around here several times already. Do you know why?]

The corpse opened its mouth.

The whispering sounds were like something crawling and whispering inside the ear canal.

tick-

A drop of water fell from the stalactite and landed on the floor of the cave, making a crisp sound.

The four corpses had completely lost their color and were all in a state of decay.

Gao Hai slowly took a breath, reached out and grabbed Fujiwara Chika's arm, pulling the girl, who was about to break down, directly into his arms.

"I don't need to act with anyone else, I only need her."

Gao Hai spoke to the four things with a blank expression.

"I came here to explore in order to experience the time my girlfriend and I can spend working together."

"I don't need the other people, and I have no interest in having a few third wheels in my way."

"You fucking go wherever you want, get out of the way and don't block our way."

Gao Hai, who deliberately spoke in a harsh tone, pushed his way forward in the next moment, squeezing past the man, woman, child and Dennis who were blocking his way, and even stepped on Dennis's back.

Qianhua was practically being dragged along by Gao Hai. At this point, she was really unable to hold on any longer, and it was only because Gao Hai held her that she didn't reveal her expression.

It wasn't until Gao Hai and Qian Hua reached the cave, until Gao Hai squatted down and helped Qian Hua, whose legs were a little weak, crawl into the cave, that he followed her in.

The four things behind them made no further sound, simply watching them leave in silence.

Chapter 8: The Twisting Nature of This Game May Be Greater Than Expected

"What the hell is going on here? Are they all social butterflies who want to team up all the time...?"

After leaving those things far behind and reaching a place about one meter high and wide enough for two people to rest, Gao Hai and Fujiwara Chika finally stopped and sat down to rest for a while in the narrow cave with safety ropes hanging from it.

Gao Hai's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and he cursed under his breath before he calmed down.

As for Fujiwara Chika, she had been lying on the ground panting for a while, her pretty face deathly pale, and she trembled for a long time before she recovered.

"No, you didn't follow, did you?"

Even though they had been away from those things for a while, Chika's voice was still trembling.

"Probably not. As long as you properly refuse and end the conversation, those things won't follow. Didn't we encounter them before? So next time you encounter them, you must stay calm, tell them we are 'explorers,' and refuse their request to join you. Don't answer any other questions. It's okay to be rude and aggressive. You see, they didn't do anything even if I swore."

Gao Hai let out a long sigh and gave Qian Hua a good talking-to.

To be honest, the reason those things were able to entangle them was because Qianhua wasn't able to hide her expression well, which made them notice something was wrong.

However, to be honest, expecting a girl from a peaceful era to remain calm in front of four bloodied, persistent, and inquisitive monsters seems rather difficult. He can only hope this situation doesn't recur; Gao Hai doesn't think he can handle it every time.

"I'm sorry, I'll try to stay calm next time... Hmm, it seems like calm conversation is still a bit difficult, maybe I can only manage to stay silent at best..."

Chika rubbed her cheeks with some distress and sighed as she spoke.

The man and woman who came out earlier were alright, and although Dennis who came out later was also terrifying, at least there was some distance between them.

However, the bluish-purple boy moved directly up to Chika. From Gao Hai's perspective, the boy was just looking up at Chika, but from Chika's perspective, she saw the boy's head extending upwards until it was almost touching her face before stopping. Then, the boy kept talking to her and asking her all sorts of questions.

The horrific face of someone suffocating to death, the pungent stench, the hoarse and eerie voice, coupled with the corrosive effect of the eeriness itself on the mind—the girl could only do her best to remain calm and still; even uttering a single word in response could have led to an immediate mental breakdown.

If Gao Hai hadn't pulled her into his arms and pressed her face against his chest to keep her from facing those things any longer, Qianhua doubted she would have been able to leave that place alive.

But speaking of which, the excuse he used back then was... his girlfriend?

Although I can understand that this was a reason that Gao Hai came up with on the spot in the emergency, it still felt a little strange. And this should be the first time that I have been held in the arms of a man other than my father.

Isn't he Maki's boyfriend? When he hugged her just now, his movements and tone seemed so natural.

Perhaps because she was finally away from danger and able to relax for a while, Fujiwara Chika couldn't control her train of thought and subconsciously started thinking about a bunch of random things.

"Have you rested?"

At this moment, Gao Hai, who was standing next to him, asked a question.

"Hmm...that's about it."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, clearing her mind of all unnecessary distractions. She nodded earnestly to Gao Hai beside her and gave him a thumbs up.

"If there's nothing else, we should continue on. Our destination is the [Heart]. Although we don't know what it will be like there, as [Explorers], we must go there no matter what, right?"

Gao Hai smiled at Qian Hua, indicating that she could set off.

"Yes, yes, the Thousand Flowers Explorers Team is setting off."

The girl nodded seriously once again, smiled at Gao Hai, and then took the lead in crawling towards the front of the cave.

Incidentally, this time, after Takami and Fujiwara Chika entered this passage, they did not encounter any more forks in the road.

The chaotic and twisted cave from before seemed to never have existed, and their arduous exploration experience in that cave seemed to have been nothing more than an illusion.

But the adventure suit the girl was wearing was undeniably real.

Gao Hai couldn't help but think to himself, just like how the bizarre mechanism of the virtual life-resistance system in Shirakawa Apartment tried to leave behind rules and supply boxes that allowed survivors to live. Perhaps in this dark cave where the sun never shines, there were also people who held on until the end, and even after becoming part of this strange tale, they still used their own methods to help those who came after them.

Although the power of ghost stories easily destroys countless lives, have the defenders never truly disappeared?

I hope so...

Lost in thought, Gao Hai watched Chika crawling ahead of him, then, without thinking further, he too began to crawl forward.

The cave has begun to narrow again.

We followed the broken safety rope, heading into complete darkness.

The destination remains unknown.

At this point, the only thing we can do is move forward.

Zhenfei, how are you now?

Gao Hai couldn't easily let go of the worries in his heart.

……

"Gao Hai..."

With a soft sigh, Princess Zhenfei turned her head and looked at the corridor ahead.

The girl wore a slightly ill-fitting white lab coat and carried a stack of documents filled with unrecognizable gibberish. She walked slowly down the white corridor under the pale lights.

There appeared to be dark red bloodstains on the wall, but upon closer inspection, it was found to be completely empty.

In the quiet corridor, only the girl's breathing and footsteps could be heard, but as she walked, it seemed as if she could vaguely hear something following behind her.

Princess Zhenfei's gaze swept over the white wall beside her.

A simple map labeled "Cave Research Base" hangs on the wall, roughly indicating the functions of each room in this small laboratory.

This is not the entrance to the Red Nut Gray Hole where she was supposed to be.

In all the information we had gathered from players in the past, the existence of this base was completely unheard of.

However, this place is indeed closely related to the Red Nut Gray Hole.

After retrieving the rule sheet from the dormitory where she woke up and identifying several identifiable experimental documents, Shijou Maki was able to confirm that this strange research base was built directly above the Red Nut Gray Hole. The area around the entrance to the entire cave had been filled in, leaving only one entrance that was completely covered inside the building—a tightly controlled entrance located within the [isolation zone].