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

I wonder where Fujiwara Chika is now.

If these scenes are remnants of memories left by people who died in the cave, then she should be in a scene constructed from some memory now. It's just a matter of not knowing her exact location or how far away she is from her.

He couldn't help but think of the last time he played through the game, the moment when Chika, who had been with him, died.

Gao Hai didn't dare turn around to look at her, but he knew very well that Qianhua's death was her own fault. Although it wasn't his intention, this still made Gao Hai very unhappy. Now that girl had gotten lost along the way, he didn't know if he could find her again—well, he meant find her still alive.

Forget about these problems that can't be solved right now. Let's see what intelligence clues are hidden here first.

After calming himself down, Gao Hai carefully observed the office again to make sure there was nothing suspicious hidden before cautiously approaching the bookshelf and taking out the documents one by one to examine them.

These documents... are all detailed records of the facility replacement and maintenance at the Red Nut Gray Hole. Surprisingly, every single one contains detailed and specific information. Normally, most documents in the Echoes are blurry and unclear; only things involving crucial memories should remain clear, right?

Realizing something, Gao Hai put the document back and then picked up a repair reference book of at least three or four hundred pages to browse through. He found that although some of the content was blurry, a considerable amount of it was still identifiable.

It's as if I can see this scene.

The man diligently led his subordinates through the cave again and again, checking the safety of various equipment and facilities day after day, and never stopped learning. He maintained a serious and conscientious attitude every day.

Put the books back in the bookcase.

After confirming that there was nothing hidden on the bookshelf, Gao Hai turned around and went to his desk, reaching out to pick up the two documents on it.

The former is a letter that looks like it has just been written and hasn't been mailed yet.

[To Howard:]

It's me, Wilbo.

You may not have a strong impression of me; after all, you're a rising star in the city's fire brigade, while I'm just a marginalized nobody.

But now you and I are both caught in the same turmoil, unable to escape it all. You are the most qualified to speak about what happened in the Red Nut Grotto after the tragedy in Andres; you went in three times and came out three times. Many of your teammates, however, remained there forever, and more will surely perish in that damned cave. As long as it continues to operate, nothing will change.

I never imagined I'd come to this, turning against my best friend and even trying to ruin his future. But there have been too many pointless sacrifices, too many innocent deaths. I can't let this continue; I have to find a way to shut down that damn tourist attraction.

You are the only person I can turn to for help. We must expose all of this and bring this disaster and these tragedies to an end.

This can't go on any longer. If you received my letter, please reply as soon as possible. I've already found a reporter to expose this. As long as you're willing to speak out, we can definitely generate enough public opinion to shut down the scenic area.

[—Wilbo]

The letter was simple and rather disorganized, suggesting that Wilbur was not in a good mental state when he wrote it.

Howard, this name has never appeared before. But Wilbur called him the fire brigade's rising star, so perhaps clues can be found in the rain-soaked cave world where the rescue team exists. Maybe the echo he just heard in the warehouse was Howard's, which would make the timeline of this instance clearer.

Thinking this through, Gao Hai then picked up the second document.

It was the same letter.

However, unlike the handwritten letter just now, this is printed text, and the format is not very rigorous, so it seems to have been written in a hurry.

The letter you sent to Mr. Smith was intercepted. You are not dead because I pleaded with Mr. Anthony Towan.

What do you think you're doing? Do you think you can change anything by exposing some dubious facts and making a fuss?

Do you think that if everyone knew there were dangers inside the Red Nut Grotto, everyone would happily sit down, shut down the tourist attraction, and work together to find a solution?

I don't remember you being this stupid, Wilbur. I've known you for so many years, and I've never thought of you as such an idiot.

【This matter is no longer something you or I can decide, don't you understand? The Red Nut Grotto was selected as a new national scenic spot this year, and this year also happens to be the last year of the mayor's term. Don't you really understand what this means?】

Why do you think Mr. Anthony Towan, a senator, keeps showing up at our scenic spot? Why is our scenic spot, which is clearly very simple, featured on the front page of an international travel magazine for seven or eight pages? Why have so many experts and celebrities visited our scenic spot in the past two years? Why has our park suddenly won so many awards? The mayor is his grandson-in-law, and now that the mayor's term is about to end, the Red Nut Grotto, which the mayor personally promoted, is just a reflection of their image.

【You think you can just ruin all of this? Oh, you think if you find some third-rate, low-budget TV show, go on there and yell that dozens of people have gone missing in this scenic area, so we have to shut it down, things will suddenly improve?】

[Do you really think nobody knows about all the little tricks you've been up to with something this important? The reason you're still sitting here reading this document I wrote for you, instead of dying in some wild river, is because I'm doing everything I can to plead for you.]

Stop your irrational behavior and stop randomly sending out your "charity." If you're so kind, go help the slums instead of focusing on this place.

You are my most important friend, Wilbur.

Please don't lose your life over something like this, okay?

"I'll find a way to shut down the Red Nut Grotto, but only after the mayor's term ends. Even with all the problems this place has now, it must be kept in place. Please, I'm begging you, Wilbur, don't push yourself to the brink. You're a billionaire now, aren't you? We've made so much money and gained so much fame from this tourist attraction, why risk your life for something neither of us can control?"

Don't forget, you still have your mother to support. Do you want her to see the news of your death?

[— Pei Di]

At the end of each line of cold, printed text was a grotesque, handwritten phrase: "fuxkyou".

It was clear that the letter Pei Di wrote to Wilbo was quite malicious, and Gao Hai could almost imagine what Wilbo's expression would be when he saw it.

No, it seems there's no need to imagine.

Because Gao Hai could already hear the incredibly heavy breathing beside him, and the nauseating smell of blood seeping into his nostrils.

【call……】

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Secret Passage and the Operation to Rescue Fujiwara Chika

Quietly, Gao Hai stood motionless beside the desk, listening to the heavy breathing passing by him.

The footsteps of that thing slowly passed by, each step exceptionally heavy, each stomping forcefully on the ground.

A sigh sounded in my ear, followed by the sound of a fist slamming hard on the table.

It was as if someone was pacing back and forth in the room, muttering something under their breath, revealing an unpleasant mood that anyone could sense.

"..."

Gao Hai simply remained silent.

After a while, the footsteps reached the door, creaked open the office door, and then slammed it shut with a loud bang. Everything fell silent.

"..."

But Gao Hai remained silent and motionless, maintaining the same posture as a statue, his breathing almost completely stopped.

A few minutes later, Gao Hai heard the sound of the door opening a second time, followed by footsteps stepping out of the room, and then the sound of the door closing softly.

This time, Gao Hai turned his head to look around.

The ground was covered in blood.

Bloody footprints circled around him several times, and the walls were covered with dark red handprints and bloodstains that looked like they were dug out by fingernails. The office doorway was even worse, as if a bucket of red paint had been overturned, with almost the entire wall stained with a gruesome bloody color.

Gao Hai silently stepped back a few paces, then bent down in front of the desk and quickly opened the only unlocked drawer after a few tries.

Inside the drawer was a key, next to which was a brief document explaining that this key was for the area containing the power relay system inside the Red Nut Grotto. This key could open the gate to the relay area, thus switching the power supply inside the Red Nut Grotto on and off.

Does this key have any special function?

Gao Hai picked up the unassuming little key, twirled it a couple of times in his hand, then put it in his pocket and zipped it up to avoid the bizarre scenario of accidentally dropping something important.

Next, Gao Hai searched the house again, but this time he didn't find anything of value.

Is that all?

The office, which was specifically highlighted in the rules, ended up with just two documents related to the truth of the accident and a key whose purpose was temporarily unknown, and that was it?

I always felt it couldn't be that simple.

Gao Hai stood there, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Speaking of which, Wilbur is the security chief, responsible for the infrastructure construction of the entire Red Nut Grey Hole. In a sense, you could consider him a technician, right? So, could he have left some kind of trap in this room?

Thinking this, Gao Hai walked to the desk, tried to lift it, but found nothing unusual, so he put the desk down again.

After thinking for a moment, he walked to the large bookcase where the files were kept and tried to move it. This process took a bit of effort, as it was clearly not something one or two people could move. But in the end, Gao Hai managed to move the solid wooden bookcase, which was two meters high and one and a half meters wide and filled with six layers of files and books, from its original position, thanks to his enhanced physical abilities. He then looked at the back of the bookcase.

Well, it's just a wall; there doesn't seem to be anything hidden there.

Feeling somewhat disappointed, Gao Haihai went inside and patted the wall, but could only regretfully confirm that there was indeed no hidden door or anything like that.

There should be such a place.

Although there was no evidence, Gao Hai instinctively felt that something was still hidden here.

He tried opening the window, only to find that what appeared outside wasn't the Red Nut Gray Hole ground area, but rather a place that looked like a storage room. Although this place seemed like a destination, Gao Hai felt that it was a scene formed by the eerie echoes of other obsessions, not a place where there was a way out.

In the end, only a small cabinet by the wall remained untouched. Originally, Gao Hai hadn't considered it because it was too small and didn't seem like a suitable place for a secret passage. But now that he had tried other places, he had no choice but to try this place again. Of course, the result was as expected: behind the small cabinet was nothing but a solid, hard wall.

"Did I make a mistake?"

With a furrowed brow, Gao Hai looked up at the large chandelier hanging in the center of the ceiling.

above?

At that moment, Gao Hai suddenly recalled the corpses he had seen lying on the cave ceiling along the way.

Climbing onto the desk, Gao Hai examined the chandelier from the side and then noticed some strange marks that were not very noticeable on the edge of the chandelier.

Then, Gao Hai put on the explorer's cut-resistant gloves, leaped up suddenly, grabbed the chandelier with one hand, and with the other hand holding the sharp scalpel, he slashed it down. The next moment, Gao Hai landed silently on the ground with the chandelier in his hand.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Hai jumped again. This time, he removed a round wooden board that had been painted and disguised.

Looking up again, all he saw was a pitch-black void. Through the flashlight on his helmet, Gao Hai could see that it was an extremely narrow rock cave, so narrow that only one person could pass through at his size. The cave quickly turned, changing from a vertical downward direction to one that seemed to lead in a certain direction, but where it led was not something Gao Hai could easily verify at the moment.

Could this be the entrance to the next area, one of the areas that explorers must pass through to escape the Red Nut Gray Hole, and also the narrowest place in the entire cave, a dark place that brings great pressure and fear to explorers, apart from the Great Crack, which is impossible for humans to pass through. [Vascular], could this be its entrance?

While thinking, Gao Hai was already preparing to leap up and climb into the cave.

But soon, he turned to look at the office door, which had turned blood red, and the storage room connected to the open window on the other side.

Fujiwara Chika is likely still trapped somewhere in this land of regret.

If I leave now, the child will probably be trapped here and die. After all, she's Kaguya's good friend; if it's not too difficult, I can help her.

"This is really a headache. I just said I would abandon her if she held me back. It seems like I have a compulsion to have happy endings."

Gao Hai shook his head slightly and sighed, then climbed over the window and went to the storage room opposite the office.

The temperature here has dropped significantly compared to the previous office, and has even fallen below zero, to the point that Gao Hai exhales white mist with every breath.

The shelves in the storage room were filled with frozen pieces of meat and animal parts. Gao Hai could recognize different things such as pork, pork leg, beef, lamb leg, and whole chicken, but he couldn't quite identify some of the other meats.

This storage room was huge, incredibly huge, even larger than the entire floor of Gao Hai's house. Gao Hai wandered around the place for a while before finding the exit. Within minutes, he was covered in a layer of white frost and was shivering from the cold.

Is this a storage room in some food factory?

Thinking this, Gao Hai tried to open the storage room door, only to find that it was locked and could not be opened without a key.

So Gao Hai took out the blood key, inserted it into the lock, and with a gentle twist, successfully opened the door.

Then a bloodied and mangled ghost-like creature dressed in a waiter's uniform poked its head in, staring at the chilling storage room.