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

With some confusion, Liang looked up at the shattered sky and saw the invisible thing spreading in the darkness, already obscuring a considerable area.

So that's what this thing does.

Ryo finally understood that the invisible force chasing them was some kind of power released by the [Hospital]. That power seemed capable of disrupting spatial stability. While its spread within the enclosed space of the subway station hadn't been particularly rapid and appeared relatively harmless, in the real world, it had actually formed a highly influential area, significantly diminishing Gao Hai's control over the area. In short, as long as they remained in this place, and as long as the situation didn't improve, Ryo would never be able to re-establish contact with Gao Hai.

So why does things have to be made so complicated? Can't things be made a little simpler?

The girl sighed deeply, but the movement aggravated the wound on her stomach, causing her to tremble a few times.

Yamada Ryo is actually a girl who is very afraid of pain.

Before all these experiences, even something as simple as learning to drive would have instilled in her a profound fear of accidentally hitting something, leading her to give up on learning and never attempt to drive again. But now, in this terrifying world where all common sense is obsolete, she has abandoned many principles she once thought were indestructible, yet it seems all in vain. She remains in this wretched state, struggling for so long only to meet her inevitable death.

But it's okay, there's one last chance to revive. If you die this time, you can come back to life.

The thought of this coolness in her heart gave her a little motivation. So she looked at Hongxia and Xingge, who had been thrown into the air and were now struggling to get up, and decided to try again to stand up and join them.

hum-

Then, the surgeon who was fiercely fighting above looked down and found that Ryo was not dead and had even stood up, so he casually gave her another blow.

"..."

wink.

Yamada Ryo, completely unharmed and healthy, with even his clothes restored, stood amidst the ruins littered with pieces of flesh and rubble.

Her last resurrection was used up. She thought she could hold on for a little longer, but the [Surgeon's] strength and observational abilities seemed to be much stronger than she had imagined. She had only struggled to her feet when that thing, several kilometers away, blew her head off with a single blow and continued fighting Kita Ikuyo.

Speaking of which, did Kita know that the monster she was fighting against had casually killed her senior?

Ryo really wanted to find Kita and ask him about this, but considering that Kita would definitely feel very guilty if she said it, she could only put the thought aside and instead quickly pulled Nijika and Hoshika up, signaling them to leave with her. As for how shocked Nijika and Hoshika were to see Ryo, who had been on the verge of death not long ago, now so lively and energetic, Ryo didn't care about such trivial matters.

"Is this your superpower?"

Hongxia didn't think too much about it; she was just surprised and curious about Liang's recovery.

"You were able to recover completely, so why did you make me carry you?"

However, Xingge's reaction was rather problematic, so it seems we need to explain things to them.

"This ability can only be used if you actually die, and the number of times is very limited. It should definitely not be used unless absolutely necessary."

Liang shook his head at Xingge and then looked up at the broken hole above. He ran while looking up, trying to find a way up.

Because the "Surgeon" destroyed almost all the monsters in the subway station, the original balance here was completely disrupted. Therefore, the space around them hasn't returned to its pristine white corridor state; instead, it remains in a fragmented state. Ryo estimates that this place won't return to its original state until most of the monsters have recovered. Until then, it's their time to escape.

Hopefully, their recovery time will be as long as possible. This opportunity is too rare. If another one happens, there's no telling if the surgeon will take the opportunity to wipe out all three of them.

"Hurry, we must take this opportunity to escape."

As Liang spoke, she quickened her pace and soon passed through the destroyed mirror room, arriving at the outside area.

"This place..."

Xingge, who followed Liang, frowned slightly.

"It's probably a mixture of some kind of memories. If there's no threat, then ignore it. Finding a way out is the most important thing right now."

Liang didn't pay attention to what she saw. She knew that these scenes, including the mirror room from before, were probably manifestations of the memories of some strange creature from its previous life. These scenes could be considered real, or they could be considered remnants of memories, or even false. But in any case, they couldn't help the living escape, nor could they help their master, or help those strange creatures that no longer had feelings or thoughts to recall their past. Therefore, it was best not to pay attention to them.

She passed a nursery, a workshop, a classroom, a chapel, and even a room that looked like Hogwarts Great Hall. Each one was severely damaged, each one reduced to ruins. Liang wasn't sure if this was because their source, those strange creatures, had been blown to pieces, and she didn't care. At this moment, she simply continued searching for a way out, looking for a path that could reach the collapsed area above, and get closer to the ground.

"Huh...huh..."

As she walked, Ryo felt her body regain its vitality and the ease with which the deathly aura gradually faded. She slowly adjusted her breathing, and some information that had been overlooked before was recalled during this process. As she delved deeper into her memories and thoughts, it gradually became clearer, allowing Ryo to gradually realize the reason behind it.

During their first meeting, the monster didn't attack her at all. It had only recently resurrected then, so its condition should have been similar to hers now. But that time, she wasn't attacked; instead, this time, the thing killed her in two quick moves. Its main strength was speed, ruthlessness, and precision. This huge difference clearly indicated something was wrong, and the biggest difference Ryo could think of was the change in her own condition.

When I first encountered the "Surgeon," I had just used up my resurrection ability. At that time, I still carried the aura of death. Under the influence of supernatural and otherworldly powers, it was difficult for those non-human beings to distinguish whether I was alive or something else. Therefore, if the "Surgeon's" judgment mechanism wasn't particularly accurate, or if there were flaws in its target identification process, it might not have been able to correctly identify her at that moment. Perhaps the real reason she wasn't attacked during her first encounter with the "Surgeon" lies in this.

If that's the case, then Yamada Ryo can confirm that she has already exploited one of the weaknesses of the [Surgeon]'s rules.

That's not all; during the second encounter, the thing's act of destroying the mirror was also very problematic.

Ryo carefully recalled the Surgeon's swift and devastating destruction of all the strange creatures present, smashing all the mirrors in the house and rendering them unable to reflect. She felt this unusual behavior must have some special meaning behind it. For example, the Surgeon's all-encompassing rule meant it saw reflections in the mirrors as targets. Or perhaps the reflection itself was something the Surgeon couldn't accept; maybe it saw its own reflection and tried to attack it. As for other possibilities, Ryo didn't dwell on them at the moment. Having confirmed the mirror's importance, she simply remembered this information and planned to hand it over to Takami.

Now that I think about it carefully, I've already obtained a considerable amount of important intelligence. If I had died before telling Mr. Gao, I would probably have died in a very depressed and frustrated state, perhaps even becoming a ghost filled with regret and self-pity.

Just thinking about that possibility made Liang feel a chill run through her body, and she started moving faster.

"The way up... the way up... let's try from here, we need to hurry, we have to be faster..."

After searching for a while, Ryo finally decided to climb up an old exterior wall in an attempt to get closer to the broken ceiling above.

This path was clearly not a safe choice. Due to the damage caused by the [Surgeon], the entire wall was riddled with cracks and looked like it could collapse at any moment, making it extremely dangerous. But with no other suitable path to be found, Liang couldn't worry about that now; she just had to climb up a certain distance first. She herself didn't feel anything, but Hongxia and Xingge, who were moving with her, were exhausted. Their physical enhancements weren't strong enough, so they couldn't climb the wall as fast as Liang, and maintaining their balance was also more difficult. Hongxia was barely managing, but Xingge, after inadvertently looking down twice, was now trembling due to a fear of heights, and was only able to persevere through sheer willpower.

"Hang in there a little longer, we'll get out of here."

Seeing that her two companions were not in ideal condition, Liang glanced at them a few times to make sure that nothing bad would happen immediately, then shouted a couple of times to them before continuing to climb.

There's no time to waste now; we must hurry and seize the opportunity.

She could already feel the gathering, chilling aura.

In this now pitch-black, distorted space, the undead creatures that hadn't been attacked by the [Surgeon] were on their way. Those that had lurked in the depths of darkness, those that hadn't attacked the three of them along with the majority of the undead, were now quickly arriving after escaping their initial attack, and were about to converge into the second wave of assault.

In fact, after climbing to a certain height, Ryo had already spotted a stray fish. It was the subway train emitting bright lights, the very train itself that had absorbed countless resentments and transformed into some kind of monstrous entity. This thing emerged from the ruins and quickly spotted the three people climbing upwards, speeding towards them. Currently, the thing was still quite a distance from Ryo's location, but judging by its speed, Ryo estimated that the train would catch up before they even reached the top. She didn't know whether it would simply crash through the wall or climb up with them. Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that neither scenario was acceptable, so Ryo could only climb upwards as quickly as possible with all her might.

Besides these, some things lurking in the darkness were approaching. These were usually small, twisted monsters that, for various reasons, had missed the first wave of attacks, but now, gathered together, they posed a considerable threat. In particular, Liang had discovered four or five fleshy monsters. These creatures showed no ill will at the fact that one of their companions had been casually killed by the [Surgeon]; they simply charged forward with great excitement. It seemed that their minds were only capable of tearing apart the three living people in front of them.

"Phew...please, please, no more accidents, let's get some good news..."

Amidst the increasingly chaotic situation, Ryo could only pray quietly like this.

"It feels like something is coming, I have a very bad feeling."

Not long after she finished speaking, the voice that came from Xingge's side made Liang's expression turn helpless.

She turned her head to look at Xingge, then at the direction Xingge had indicated. There, Liang saw the pervasive crimson glow, and beneath the blood-red hue, the ruins gradually decaying and transforming into some kind of abnormal area. It seemed to be a place completely occupied by something invisible. It appeared that within the chaotic space-disrupting power released by the [Hospital], something deeper was being released as the power converged and intensified, attempting to achieve a deeper impact.

So, what's going on here...?

Rumble, rumble——

Liang silently complained about the situation in her heart. Then, feeling a violent tremor, she quickly grabbed the protruding crack in the stone to avoid being thrown off the wall by the unknown earthquake.

"A building above collapsed."

This time, Hongxia discovered the source of the commotion. In one corner of the ruins of the city above, a building more than ten stories high had finally collapsed due to multiple injuries. Amidst the rumbling sounds, it was reduced to ruins, with large amounts of smoke and dust flying everywhere.

For Yamada Ryo and her companions, who were still essentially within the distorted space, the smoke and dust couldn't truly approach them; the distortion of space itself would quickly disorient them. However, for those players rushing in from all directions around this distorted space, the extremely obstructive smoke and dust posed a significant challenge. Some player teams even temporarily lost their sense of direction due to the lingering auras of high-level players and the [Surgeon] carried within the smoke and dust, potentially wandering into dangerous territory from their original defensive perimeter.

Xiaoheshu, who is temporarily in charge from the [Market], is very suspicious that many teams will get lost in the sandstorm. Even with scanning capabilities, and the premise that there is no possibility of problems as long as you are careful, such situations will still occur.

However, that was no longer a situation he could decide. The enemy was already within arm's reach, and his immediate priority was to mobilize all available player forces to fight and stop those flesh-and-blood monsters.

"Feel the power within you. It all comes from Mr. Gao Hai, the power he bestowed upon you. This battle that will determine the survival of humanity has reached a critical moment. We have secured the final victory, but the enemy is still struggling desperately to fight back. To completely annihilate the enemy and extinguish their last counterattack, it is time to give everything. Everyone, prepare yourselves and let those monsters know who truly rules this world now!"

Amidst the roaring sounds, countless insects flew out from the small river tree, forming an overwhelming swarm that rushed forward.

The players, having undergone a comprehensive power boost from Gao Hai, unleashed their individual abilities, employing various extraordinary powers or even specially enhanced bullets, to confront the charging flesh-and-blood monsters.

boom!

The explosions from the first impact reverberated throughout the city, undiminished even by the howling rain.

Rumble, rumble——

The second, third, and even more violent shocks continued to reverberate amidst the fierce battle between the players and these monsters. Although their scale was far smaller than the confrontation between the three girls and the [Surgeon] inside the arena, it far exceeded the scale of urban street fighting in modern warfare. Several blocks around the battle zone, along with countless buildings, were basically destroyed within a minute of the battle starting, and this was under the premise that the battle had just begun and many players were still holding back and had not used their full strength.

Rumble—rumble—

Sacrifices soon began to occur, but the dead and wounded could not deter these people from taking a single step back.

To prevent these monsters from interfering with the control over the [Surgeon], and to ensure victory remained firmly in their grasp, the players who had gathered from all directions constructed a seemingly weak yet incredibly tenacious defensive line, fiercely clashing with the ever-growing number of flesh-and-blood monsters being rapidly created by the [Hospital] in its desperation. The color of blood quickly soaked the earth, dyed the sky red, and formed dense patches of blood mist.

Watching all this from behind the scenes, Gao Hai could only unleash his power more and more, trying his best to strengthen the players and recover the souls of the victims. He was so busy with this that he was almost unconscious and had no energy left to pay attention to anything else.

This is the end; the final outcome of this battlefield will be the end of the entire Battle of Tokyo.

Both Gao Hai and the hospital have clearly come to a profound understanding of this. Even though this was initially chosen as a temporary battlefield to limit the indiscriminate killing of surgeons, its significance has completely changed as both sides have invested more and more resources. Other places are no longer important; this ruin has become the crucial node.

Rumbling--

More areas were destroyed as the intensity of the firefights between players increased.

The number of flesh-and-blood monsters quickly exceeded one thousand, then ten thousand, and then reached tens of thousands, and it continues to increase.

No matter how many flesh-and-blood monsters were thrown into the battlefield, the players were still able to hold their ground and withstand their intense attacks. In some areas, players were even able to push back to a certain extent and assist their allies in strengthening their defenses.

This back-and-forth is expected to continue for a long time, at least several hours, and Gao Hai estimates that there is no possibility of a clear winner.

However, it was at this moment that he vaguely sensed that after confirming that the flesh-and-blood monsters could not quickly break through the defenses, the [Hospital] had begun to seek unorthodox methods to break the deadlock. Judging from the distribution of spatial turbulence, Gao Hai suspected that the [Hospital] was trying to manipulate the enclosed space that was still trapping Cat Brother, Sun Dajun, and others. It seemed that they intended to move that space to the edge of the battlefield and use it to absorb the players in the defenses, and even try to capture his girls with this thing.

[Having come this far, are we still going to hold out? Will we never have a day of peace unless we completely eliminate you?]

Gao Hai murmured to himself on the throne, completely absorbed in his work and no longer having any energy to spare for anything else.

Amidst the city ruins and the constant roaring explosions from all directions, a dilapidated bus slowly moved forward through the swirling dust. The expressions on the faces of the players inside had recently shifted from serious to utterly bewildered.

"Wait, where did we end up?"

After seeing the same sign for the third time and confirming that they had not encountered any strange occurrences such as being trapped in a wall, Li Ling, the vice-captain of the Sunflower Squad, finally couldn't help but complain.

"The spatial disorder here severely hinders the use of communication and navigation tools, and the dust kicked up by the ruins of the destroyed buildings has indeed obscured the roads. We can only rely on our intuition to find our way forward, and it is normal that we cannot find it."

Captain Yu Qingshan sighed before speaking slowly, and it was clear that the man was also somewhat troubled.

How much longer will it take to escape this dusty area and finally reach the players' defensive zone? This question is now plaguing the members of the Sunflower Squad, making them increasingly frustrated.

However, for the passengers on the team, and for Yurikawa Hana, who was also on the bus at that moment, all she could feel was a sense of novelty. Although she had ridden the Sunflower Squad's bus in the residential area about a day ago, she still found it very interesting to experience the convenience, speed, and magical power of the obsession vehicle again. She even studied the power system of this magical car for quite a while.

"Which direction are we heading in now? Where are we going next?"

"How about we try this direction? Maybe we can get out?"

"I feel like we've already been here. Oh well, there's no better option right now. Damn it, are we going to be going around in circles after everyone else has finished fighting? That would be so embarrassing..."

The players gathered at the front of the vehicle were still discussing their route.

Xiao Hua, sitting by the window, watched the dust for a while, yawned, and stretched. The girl's voluptuous figure trembled slightly with her movements, but no player's gaze fell on her at the moment, and no one appreciated the beautiful scenery of this youthful age.

Rumble, rumble——

The thunderous tremors continued, but in the gray fog, everyone was no longer sure which battlefield was experiencing the tremors. So, to avoid accidentally stumbling into the inner area where the gods were fighting, the vehicles could only slow down repeatedly and proceed cautiously, not daring to approach directly in the direction from which the explosions were coming.

How long it would take to reach their destination was a question that none of the people in the car could answer.