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

In her fear, the girl could only look at Gao Hai, the only person she could trust and rely on.

"There's a high chance it won't work. I'd better be prepared to die here and become sworn brothers with these people."

Then, upon hearing Gao Hai's honest reply, the girl's expression froze, and she suddenly didn't know how to respond.

What she didn't know was that Gao Hai had already learned another piece of information from Zhen Fei: the location of his home had been observed by more than one player as the blood-red full moon rose into the sky.

In other words, the invasion of the real world by the power of the instance is nearing its end. Theoretically, Gao Hai has at most an hour left to escape the house he has lived in for over a month. Otherwise, he and Jianzi will be directly teleported to the [Fujika Middle School] instance, and during the non-instance period, they will have to endure inside for more than ten days until the instance opens.

My month-long vacation as a gamer has only been going on for about ten days!

It hasn't even been half a month or fifteen days yet, and this has already happened. Is my life really that bad?!

Despite wanting to roar, Gao Hai maintained a calm expression and led Jianzi step by step down the corridor until they reached the stairwell.

Gao Hai saw the staircase extending upwards, through which the rays of the setting sun shone down.

And another staircase, which he had never seen before today, extending downstairs, down into the darkness.

Interlude 2-34: The Crimson Dark World of Sensory Distortion

In the pitch-black corridor, the staircase leading underground was clearly displayed before the two of them.

Gao Hai was certain that before today, he had never seen any staircase leading to the underground area in his own home. Moreover, this staircase was a completely bare concrete staircase, unlike the stone-brick staircase in his house, and it was clearly not what this house was originally supposed to look like.

"Go upstairs."

After glancing at the stairs, Gao Hai pulled Jianzi upstairs.

This house is establishing an increasingly deeper connection with that instanced world, as evidenced by the fact that the view from the living room window had turned into a corridor. If they continue to linger, the entire building will likely be completely sealed off, making escape impossible.

We must leave before it's too late.

tread--

The sound of footsteps on the stairs was exceptionally clear.

The sound was so clear that both Gao Hai and Jian Zi could hear it clearly; it was obviously not just one person's footsteps, but a continuous clamor that began at that moment.

Gao Hai looked ahead and saw students walking up the stairs at the corner. He saw their old-fashioned school uniforms, the mottled bloodstains on them, and their smiling faces toward him.

thump--

A student's head fell to the ground.

The head, almost completely smashed, covered in blood, and shattered, rolled down the stairs and bounced all the way to Gao Hai's feet.

Thump—thump thump—

More heads rolled down from above.

Along with the dark red blood, which rolled down the stairs.

It landed at Takahashi and Miko's feet, rolled around them, and continued to fall down the stairs.

We can't go any further upstairs.

Because above the stairs was not the familiar second floor of Gao Hai's own house, but a school corridor, where headless students and strange creatures stood silently in the light of the setting sun.

The lighting was deceptive, leading Gao Hai to believe that the second floor was normal, and he almost walked right in.

Fortunately, even knowing the situation was extremely urgent, he still maintained basic vigilance and caution. Therefore, after taking the first step, he realized something was wrong and stopped, which led him to witness the scene just now.

Jianzi, standing beside him, was speechless, her whole body stiff, and she was simply following Gao Hai instinctively.

The once dark first-floor corridor had changed again. The walls were almost entirely covered with blood-red graffiti. Gao Hai could barely make out phrases like "Play with me," "Believe in her," "My guardian angel," "You are my goddess," and "She is pure," but most of the graffiti had lost all meaning and were just random smears of blood.

The headless students who had been following them were gone.

But the number of corpses in the corridor increased even more than before.

A boy hanging upside down from the ceiling, his head shredded by wire, blood dripping from his body.

The girl lying on the ground had her hands and feet cut off, her eyes gouged out and filled with erasers, and her mouth open with a stapler attached to her tongue.

A man nailed to the wall, his belly ripped open, his stomach stuffed with a skinned humanoid object.

A woman with a hook piercing the back of her head, protruding from her nostrils, and hanging from her neck, her entire skeleton still covered in blood.

……

The smell of blood was spreading.

When you step down, you'll inevitably step on chunks of meat or internal organs.

Flies swarmed about, and black and yellow maggots rolled around in the rotting flesh.

Seeing that Zi wanted to vomit, he found that he could no longer vomit.

The hellish drawing shattered her mental defenses, almost causing her to completely break down. After that, Miko found herself unable to properly express her physiological reaction to the disgusting and terrifying scene before her.

She was completely numb as Gao Hai led her forward, step by step, through the blood-red corridor.

【Do you like it? 】

Suddenly, it seemed like someone behind me asked a question.

However, Miko was completely dazed and did not notice the voice at all. Therefore, she did not respond at all, nor did she pay any attention to the voice asking her from behind.

tread--

The clear sound of footsteps on the wooden floor made Miko open her eyes slightly.

All the corpses and all the blood disappeared in the next moment.

The corridor was spotless, completely empty, just as it had been when she first entered Gao Hai's house and passed through the corridor.

what happened?

Just a moment ago it was full of those terrifying things, how come it suddenly went back to normal?

Jianzi felt her mind getting increasingly confused, and she was no longer able to analyze or think about what was happening in front of her in a normal way.

Gao Hai remained silent, completely unfazed by the current situation, and continued to move forward.

He quickly led Miko to the other side of the corridor, opened the door, and then dim sunlight shone out from behind the door.

Outside the door is Gao Hai's backyard.

At least for now, the entire backyard looks normal, with nothing strange about it.

But Gao Hai did not step out of that door.

He lowered his head, looking down at his feet and at the crack in the door.

Bright sunlight was streaming in from outside the window.

But the area beneath the crack in the door was pitch black, with not a single ray of light visible.

The next moment, Gao Hai raised his hand and fired a shot. The dim sunlight vanished instantly, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. Everything outside the door changed abruptly. There was no backyard, no sunlight, only a gloomy room, a completely bare and empty room made of concrete, with rows of corpses covered in white sheets on the floor.

The broken incandescent bulb fell to the ground.

In the instant the light disappeared, Gao Hai saw a small, thin figure flash by in the room.

The torches were still burning silently.

Gao Hai turned around and looked behind him, only to see a dilapidated corridor covered in cobwebs and dust, with various odds and ends scattered around.

On one side of the corridor wall, there are the words "-1" painted in bright red paint.

"We've come down to the basement level."

Gao Hai spoke softly to Jian Zi.

"Hey?"

The girl was slightly taken aback, then turned to look at the writing on the wall, but couldn't understand what it meant.

“I think I understand now. From the very beginning, our senses are affected, and what we see is a mixture of reality and illusion. When we go upstairs, we are actually going downstairs. Then, when we realize that going upstairs will lead us to encounter those things, we start going downstairs again, and that's when we really start going downstairs.”

So the headless students who were originally following behind them would suddenly run up on top of them.

At that time, he and Jianzi were already standing on the stairs leading downstairs.

After that, the disgusting corridor that he and Miko saw was actually the place where their senses were most strongly affected, to the point that they could no longer distinguish that they were going downstairs step by step, and then there was the fake first floor, the fake scene that tried to lead him into the room.

Gao Hai shook his head slightly. Having figured out what had happened, he had nothing to say except "mmp" in his heart.

{Sea King! Sea King! Are you still there?}

Zhenfei's voice was transmitted to my mind through the mental link. Judging from the panic in her voice, she had probably been shouting for quite a while.

{I'm still here. I almost got infected just now. How much time do I have left?}

While replying to Maki, Gao Hai led Miko forward, heading towards the front of the dark corridor.

{There are 12 minutes left. You've been out of contact for over half an hour. We've found Xiaohe Shu and Qingshan Nanami, but neither of them has experience with the [Campus Ghost Stories] instance. Now, Mr. Xiaohe is asking if you're still at home and if you've entered any unusual places.}

Princess Zhenfei asked anxiously, and Gao Hai could almost picture her current state.

{Unfortunately, I've entered an unfamiliar environment. This looks like it's been abandoned for some time. Ask him if there's any way to return. By the way, teleportation isn't working anymore, right? Otherwise, given your personality, you wouldn't have come here without trying.}

Gao Hai continued replying as he moved forward, and by then he could see the stairs not far away.

{...Yes, the power of blessing cannot be used because we are now...separated into different instances. This is the response I received when I tried to use the blessing. But Mr. Xiaohe said you can still return. As long as you find the place you came in from and make sure you don't bring out anything you shouldn't, you can leave normally. Time is running out; you have to hurry.}

Just as Zhenfei finished speaking, Gao Hai arrived at the stairs.

{I understand, don't worry, I'm very capable, I won't give up because of this kind of difficulty, trust me.}

After saying this, Gao Hai looked at the corridor in front of him, which stretched downwards into the darkness, and felt a headache coming on.

Turning around, Takahiro looked at Yotsuya Miko, who hadn't uttered a single scream or cry throughout the journey, only her eyes were red. He looked at her hand, tightly gripping his from her sleeve, and at her almost curled-up body. After a moment of hesitation, Takahiro finally asked her:

"Now, in your eyes, is there anything around me?"

Interlude 2-35: Some things are too late by the time you realize them.

Mr. Gao's...side?

When Gao Hai asked her the question, Jian Zi was stunned for a moment, and then realized that although she hadn't said anything in the living room, Gao Hai had already sensed something was wrong from her gaze.

Did he realize the problem but not speak up, and wait until now to ask it?