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

It's practically like... a confession...

Maki's cheeks were almost as red as apples. After feeling the power of the blessing coming from Takahashi, she knew that her pride and refusal to express her feelings to Takahashi had now been conveyed to him without reservation, just like the warmth he was sending to her.

Such a feeling...

This feeling that belongs only to Haijun and me...

With a slight tremor, Princess Zhenfei raised her head, as if to say something.

Then she sensed a second connection, which at that moment transcended the distance of space, connecting Gao Hai with someone who was not here.

Hey?

Consort Zhen was stunned.

Gao Hai remained silent.

The power of the blessing seemed to pause for a moment, as if it didn't quite understand why this was happening. But soon, the power of the blessing dutifully continued to operate, connecting Gao Hai's heart with that of another girl he loved, granting them the extraordinary power to move to each other's side.

"What's wrong with you two?"

Kaguya, who felt nothing at all, first showed a joyful expression when she saw Takami and Maki. Then, the joy on Maki's face suddenly turned into a shy and hesitant look. Then, the two of them froze and stared blankly. Maki seemed to be petrified. The series of drastic changes in her expression was really very puzzling.

Then, Maki turned her head expressionlessly and looked at Takahashi, whose forehead was starting to sweat.

"Hey, Haijun, is there anything you want to say?"

The girl's aura was like a blazing flame at this moment.

"This, this is me..."

Gao Hai took a step back, retreating to one side of the private room, his back against the wall, and for a moment he was completely at a loss for what to say.

Hey, what kind of blessing is this? A harem blessing? A wing blessing? Isn't it a bit too early to have this kind of ability now? I haven't even managed to get one yet.

Seeing the extremely unfriendly expression on the girl's face, Gao Hai opened his mouth, his mind racing as he tried to find a way to break the current situation.

hum-

Then, before he could think of a solution, a white light suddenly appeared, and a girl fell into Gao Hai's arms.

"Hey, found you, Ahai~"

Fujiwara Chika, also disheveled, reached out and put her arm around Takami's neck, resting her head on his chest and letting out a happy laugh.

The power of blessings has been mobilized.

Gao Hai never expected that this new blessing, which belonged only to him, could be taken over by the woman with strong desires, and the blessing was directly transmitted to Gao Hai, instantly making the situation even more chaotic.

"What are you doing? Get off Gao Jun right now!"

As expected, after a two-second pause, Maki pounced on Chika and grabbed her shoulder to pull her down.

"Waaah, stop pulling! Your clothes will rip!"

"I don't care about any of that, get down here, you bastard!"

"No way! It was you, Shijou-kun, who said you and Akai weren't boyfriend and girlfriend!"

"I...I...I...I don't care anymore! Get down! Don't you dare hug Kai-kun!"

confusion.

Two women and one man were entangled together, making a chaotic commotion.

Gao Hai's expression was complicated; he didn't know whether he should be overjoyed or feel troubled.

Maki was so angry that tears streamed down her face. She clung tightly to Chika and refused to let go, not even noticing that she had fallen into Takahashi's arms.

As for Kaguya...

Kaguya did nothing.

She simply sat there without moving.

The brain, when faced with an illogical situation, freezes up.

Who am I? Where am I? Why did I have to witness such a shameless scene? Moreover, the three people in this scene are my distant relatives and my only friend from school.

There must be something wrong with how this is unfolded, right?

Interlude 2-02: There are differences between girls.

A massive upheaval is sweeping through player communities around the world.

As a fairly well-known low-difficulty, high-survivability dungeon, the Red Nut Gray Hole dungeon has always been in high demand. Many player groups deliberately collect these dungeon tickets to use on experienced players or promising new players. In a sense, the dungeon tickets even have a certain strategic significance, which is why Xiaoheshu, who was optimistic about Gao Hai's group, traded them these dungeon tickets.

However, this so-called "Tourist-level Beginner Twilight Dungeon" no longer exists.

More than 20 players entered the instance, the vast majority of whom were either survivors of the first instance or experienced players who had played a certain number of instances but were not particularly strong. In the end, almost all of these players were wiped out, with only a few surviving. These included Shelby and Ed from the Americas, and Wang Gui, a new player from Asia. It is said that some players from the Japanese region also survived, but no one has yet reported to have done so.

If that were all, it wouldn't have caused much of a stir. After all, it's rare for an unfixed Twilight-level dungeon to suddenly become fixed, but it does happen. People can only lament how unlucky the players who unfortunately entered it were, and that's about it.

The problem is that, according to surviving players, the Red Nut Gray Hole instance was already in ruins and on the verge of complete collapse when they escaped. And what this phenomenon means is clear to many players.

A player, newly entered the fixed Red Nut Gray Hole without any prior information, and driven by an unwavering determination to break the instance, destroyed the entire dungeon!?

Is this really possible?

Many players couldn't help but have this thought immediately.

A completely unknown instance, drastically different from the preliminary information available before entering, where everything is almost entirely in the dark—dodging various deadly threats from the rules and mysteries, successfully confronting the core obsession, identifying its regrets, and rectifying them—is this really possible? Confronting the core obsession is the most dangerous and deadly aspect of any instance; few players without sufficient experience and powerful obsession artifacts would attempt such a direct confrontation.

What kind of powerful expert must be to do something like this?

It's worth inquiring about, and worth trying to win them over.

Many players began to take action, some driven by curiosity, others by profit, and still others for other reasons. Regardless, with the destruction of the Red Nut Gray Hole dungeon and the invalidation of related tickets, Gao Hai and his group were already being drawn into the undercurrents.

"I won't announce to anyone that I gave you the tickets. If anyone asks, just say I gave you tickets to [Yamazaki Amusement Park]. Believe me, it won't be as good as it seems. Once it's revealed that you destroyed the Red Nut Gray Hole instance, many people will have designs on you. Some might just try to recruit you, but others might pose a very serious threat, such as using mind control artifacts to turn you into obedient puppets."

The day after they finished the game, Aoyama Nanami, a veteran player, called and very seriously informed Takami and his group about the matter.

From the tone of her voice, it was clear that Aoyama Nanami was quite tired after clearing a dungeon yesterday, but she still called as soon as she learned about it, which showed how much she valued Gao Hai and his group.

"By the way, how did you know we were the ones who got a perfect score?"

Gao Hai was still somewhat puzzled at the time.

"The number of surviving players is very small, and your existence has been repeatedly mentioned by the survivors. If you pay a little attention to what those surviving players are posting, you'll know what's going on. In short, try to keep a low profile during this period. Mr. Xiaohe and I will try our best to cover it up. You yourself should not show up in the player market for this month."

Aoyama Nanami answered somewhat helplessly, and then gave a detailed warning.

Gao Hai looked back at the forum for the Amélie Kingdom on the player forum and found a thank-you post from Ed, who had survived the dungeon. Ed's attitude in the post was very good. He kept praising Gao Hai and describing his general appearance. Ed expressed his hope to find Gao Hai and meet him to express his gratitude.

After clearing the first dungeon, I was confronted by the Female Mask Gang. It looks like there will be a lot of trouble after clearing the second dungeon.

A bit of a headache.

However, this is not the most troublesome thing.

Gao Hai looked to the left.

"Humph!"

Shijo Maki immediately turned her face away, her cheeks puffed out like a ruffled kitten.

Gao Hai looked to his right.

"Hey hey hey~"

Fujiwara Chika gave a slightly silly smile and looked at her with a blush.

The next moment, a hand reached out from beside him and grabbed Gao Hai's hand that was on the table.

"What are you looking at and laughing at? We haven't finished talking yet."

Empress Zhenfei's displeased voice rang out.

Can not accept.

The girl's brownish-purple eyes swept over Gao Hai and Qian Hua repeatedly.

I simply cannot accept this.

Kai-kun has actually developed feelings for another woman? What's going on? And now that I think about it, this fat woman named Fujiwara Chika, despite being a newcomer, handled the ghost stories and supernatural events with such skill—she clearly has memories from previous lives. Does that mean she was already involved with Kai-kun in the second playthrough? Has this vixen already taken action and bewitched Kai-kun?!

It even made Haijun use up one of her save points to retain her memories... This kind of thing... This kind of thing...

Princess Zhenfei's other hand, which was under the table, was already clenched into a fist.

"Yes, we should make things clear. We should make things clear about our current situation and what we should be doing now, shouldn't we?"

Fujiwara Chika paid no attention to Maki's grip on Takami's arm, merely smiling slightly, her expression as calm as a queen in control of the entire situation.

Gao Hai remained silent, because he genuinely didn't know what to say. Although he had talked about having a harem and being a BL protagonist, how could he possibly have any experience dealing with two girls who liked him at the same time? Saying things like "you are both my wings" was one thing as a joke, but he couldn't actually say it now. And abandoning one of them was even more impossible for him.

Ultimately… from the day they became players and started acting together, the development of normal interpersonal relationships had already completely diverged from their own lives. In real life, how could someone like him, transmigrated into an unknown, introverted guy, possibly have the chance to simultaneously meet the daughters of an international tycoon and a top political family, and then embark on life-or-death adventures with both of them, developing feelings for each other?

Gao Hai, on one side, didn't know how to start the conversation and resolve the current problem. Meanwhile, the woman sitting opposite Gao Hai, facing the scene of the three of them acting out a drama, was equally at a loss for words, her whole body stiff and her mind in complete chaos.

It's now the second day after the mission ended.

After a relaxing afternoon and evening of reflection, Kaguya thought she had adjusted her mindset and there wouldn't be any major problems anymore.

But after the four of them reunited in the small private room, and after Chika and Maki sat on either side of Takami in perfect unison and immediately began to clash, Kaguya had to admit that her mind started to get confused again.

It's impossible to persuade the two of them not to compete. Their family backgrounds dictate that they are not the type to back down easily, and they would never give up on someone they've set their sights on. Trying to persuade them on this matter is simply a waste of time.

Helping one side win and ending the dispute directly is unrealistic, and it's difficult to take sides. More importantly, doing so would inevitably lead to the team splitting up. Right now, to improve their chances of survival in the high-stakes dungeon, the team absolutely cannot split; she can't do that.

But just sitting there and ignoring it doesn't seem right either. Judging from the way these two are acting, it's impossible for them to have a proper conversation.

They had previously said they were meeting to discuss their next course of action.

Kaguya's mind became even more confused.

Especially when she recalled the time in the Red Nut Gray Hole instance, when she pondered her and Maki's importance in Takahashi's heart, and whether she should try to increase her own importance in Takahashi's heart, Kaguya even had a hallucination. She had a feeling that if she did something, one day she would replace Chika or Maki who was sitting here now, and be at odds with another woman, fighting each other for Takahashi.

That would look awful, but thinking about it carefully, it doesn't seem entirely impossible...

"What exactly did you and Haijun do in the dungeon?"

At the same time that Kaguya was becoming increasingly confused, Maki had already launched a fierce attack on Chika.

"I sacrificed myself to save Ah Hai, and died in front of him."