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

Gao Hai sensed the overlap between the human and the eerie. From Jianzi's perspective, the place where the girl was standing seemed to be repelling her and was constantly distorting. As for Xiong Mi, she simply took the cigarette butt out of her mouth, crushed it against the wall beside her to extinguish it, and then took a step forward to the front of the group.

Regardless, it was necessary to try and make contact with this suddenly appearing girl. In Xiongmi's opinion, Gao Hai and Jianzi's abilities were still somewhat lacking, so as the strongest person present, it was necessary for him to step forward and face this potential trouble.

Xiong Mi herself didn't see anything wrong with this and had no intention of letting Gao Hai and Jian Zi go first to ensure her safety. After all, before she reached her current level of strength, she had been protected in this way by players stronger than her. Now, this was just repeating what she had seen before, and it was simply a matter of course.

"You're Kita Ikuyo, right?"

Xiong Mi's human eyes and bronze eyes both stared at the red-haired girl, and he slowly asked a question.

"Kita... um, I'm Kita... you... oh... you are... Miss Kumami?"

The girl, who seemed dazed, blinked and then answered with a happy shake of her head. Her long red hair swayed as she moved, adding to her adorable appearance.

Do you remember why you came here?

While keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings, keeping an eye out for Alice's return, Xiongmi continued to communicate cautiously with Kita Yuyo, all the while guarding against the girl, whose behavior seemed very strange, suddenly attacking someone.

"I came here...wait...what am I here for...here...wait..."

This question, however, made Kita Ikuyo, who had just been smiling, freeze in place, her expression instantly turning bewildered.

"I came here... Ichiri-chan... I..."

"It's dangerous...it's very dangerous here...we need to leave..."

"I...wait...I'm here...I..."

In the hazy sound, the girl's figure suddenly faded, flickering like a poor signal, gradually changing from clear to blurry.

"We... took the wrong turn..."

The blurry, distorted figure seemed to transform for a moment into a ghastly white, eerie shadow.

"We can't...go to that place..."

The red-haired girl appeared again, then blurred again, her expression completely disappearing, leaving her as stiff as a dead person.

"This...this isn't the place...the card...identity..."

At the last moment, she seemed to reach out and point at Gao Hai, or rather, at the identity card held by Gao Hai.

As if she had never existed, Kita Ikuyo vanished without a trace, disappearing right before the three of them.

What is going on?

The way things are unfolding now is somewhat beyond Gao Hai's expectations.

He had considered the possibility that the girl might transform into a ferocious monster and hunt them down, or that she might become an ally to strengthen the team, or that they might simply part ways due to disagreements. But what was this sudden transformation? They hadn't exchanged any useful information at all; she was gone after just one question?

Is this what they mean by "Kita Kita, hello everyone, Ikuyo Ikuyo"?

"I remember that she and her team were in charge of investigating the classrooms on the 3rd to 6th basement floors of Nightfall Mountain Middle School. It seems that the job didn't go very smoothly."

Xiong Mi sighed, pulled out another cigarette from somewhere, lit it, took a deep drag, and then looked sentimental.

"She's the player in charge of [Nightfall Mountain Middle School]? Miss Xiong Mi, do you know her current situation?"

Seeing Xiong Mi's wistful expression, Gao Hai realized that the other party had figured something out and asked him about it.

"I don't know about the situation at [Nightfall Mountain Middle School]. The information from the Red Moon-level dungeon is highly contagious, so once we determine our area of ​​responsibility, we try to minimize communication with other groups to avoid a tragedy where everyone is wiped out if problems arise. As for her current state, she's probably possessed by a strange entity, and... she was probably already dead when it possessed her, or in a near-death state. Judging from her condition, her brain and bodily functions had been damaged to a certain extent. She should have been certain to die, but the strange power possessed her at that moment, saving her life, but only turning her into this inhuman and strange state."

While Xiongmi couldn't perceive the supernatural with the same extraordinary sensitivity as Miko, she was exceptionally skilled at observing people. The brief appearance of Kita Ikuyo was enough for her to determine that the girl's heartbeat had stopped, her blood flow had ceased, and all her organs and muscles were in the process of necrosis. This death process was forcibly terminated halfway, preventing the girl from truly dying, but also rendering her unable to come back to life. As a result, she became a zombie-like being, forever wandering in the dungeon world.

"In the internal forums of Red Moon-level players, this is ranked #8 on the list of the 10 most undesirable ways to die. We speculate that in this situation, the player retains some degree of consciousness, but due to the eerie corruption and physical trauma, they remain in a dazed state, unable to fully awaken, and will forever wander in the dungeon, unable to die. Hmm... actually, this way of dying isn't particularly painful, but if this kind of 'zombie-like' player has a high level of eerie corruption, it often poses a huge threat to other players, and is especially disgusting. Therefore, many players who have been attacked by their companions particularly loathe this way of dying."

Xiong Mi concluded with a serious-sounding assessment.

Can't you even die?

I feel like I've seen this situation before, and experienced it many times in my own life.

Gao Hai didn't say anything more, but just looked at the stairs not far away. Xiong Mi herself had already started walking downstairs.

A beat slow to react, Jianzi was grabbed by Gao Hai's hand before she came to her senses and quickly followed him. The three of them quickly went downstairs to the first floor of the dormitory building and headed towards their target, the underground floor.

No matter what happens, no matter what they encounter, those who survive must do everything in their power to survive and find ways to continue living.

Therefore, no one present paid much attention to the incident that just happened.

……

at the same time.

Inside the swimming pool, shrouded in darkness.

squeak-

A girl pushed open the door and cautiously stepped into the corridor in front of her.

From behind came Ishino Rika's anxious shouts, but the girl ignored them and continued forward on her own.

Hmph, saying it's dangerous here and we shouldn't run around, what a joke! Are we just going to let that crazy lunatic kidnap us? She's already figured out that the lunatic has probably already left and won't be coming back for a while. In that case, she can find a chance to escape from this place!

With this thought in mind, the girl revealed a confident look, quickly ran to the end of the corridor, and arrived at the half-open fire door at the stairwell, about to push the door open.

It's dangerous outside... Don't go out...

"Waaaah!"

The girl's voice coming from inside the door startled the girl who pushed the door open.

She took several steps back and, using the light of one of the candles Gao Hai had left for the students, carefully shone her light through the crack of the half-open stairwell door.

Kita Ikuyo stood behind the door, pressed herself against it, and watched the girl with a smile.

"You...you're human? Are you a student from another school?"

Seeing that the other person looked presentable, the girl breathed a sigh of relief, and then nervously asked.

[It's dangerous here... Let's go back quickly...]

Kita Ikuyo beckoned the girl over, but said the exact opposite.

"What do you mean by danger? You, you get out of my way! I need to get out of here!"

Although it was strange to suddenly encounter a young girl blocking her way in this dilapidated swimming pool, the girl, eager to leave, didn't care about that. When Kita Ikuyo and Ichino Rika tried to persuade her to go back, her rebellious spirit couldn't help but surface.

It's dangerous... Go back quickly... Go back...

But Kita Ikuyo just pressed herself completely against the door, continuing to smile and wave.

"You...you're just pretending! Get away!"

Feeling a bit uneasy, the girl took a step back, then, feeling embarrassed and angry at being frightened by someone her own age, she charged directly towards Kita Ikuyo.

call--

At that moment, she seemed to feel a chilling wind suddenly blowing in front of her.

The girl instinctively closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she found that Kita Ikuyo was gone.

"Huh, what about people?"

I opened the fire door and stepped into the dark stairwell.

In the candlelight, the place was deserted, with no trace of Kita Ikuyo's presence.

Running so fast? Humph, all you do is play tricks and scare people. She's not afraid at all; she's leaving right now!

Thinking this, the girl took a step downstairs, then felt something pull her from behind, and at the same time felt a breath on her neck.

"Varied--"

Click!

Amidst the sound of bones shattering, a deep indentation appeared in the center of the face, embedding itself deep into the head and extending all the way down to almost the back of the skull.

Amidst the flying blood, a girl whose head was almost cleaved in two fell down the stairs and rolled into a corner, her wide-open eyes still holding the terror and despair of her last moments.

Honestly...

The door to the stairwell slowly opened at that moment.

"No... I already said... it's dangerous here...!"

With a soft click, the stairwell door slowly closed.

On the other side of the corridor, Rika Ichino, who was in a small classroom with other students, heard a knock on the door.

Is that the classmate who left earlier back?

Rihanna picked up a candle and quickly went to the door. Looking through the glass window, she saw two figures standing outside.

One was the girl who had just left, and the other was a strange red-haired girl standing behind her.

At that moment, they both looked at Rihanna, reached out and gently knocked on the door, and smiled at her.

It's dangerous outside... Don't open the door...

The two voices overlapped at that moment.

Click——

Then the lock was turned, and the door was gently opened.

Chapter 52: The Problem of Possessiveness Between a Young Girl and the Verification of the Underground Floor

Xiong Mi cautiously peeked out from the stairwell, and after confirming that the first floor was still relatively safe in the darkness, she gestured for the two people behind her to come down the stairs. She herself took the lead and stepped directly into the hall, quickly approaching the area where Gao Hai had damaged the door. She only breathed a slight sigh of relief after confirming that the walls in that area had been restored to their original state.

"Actually, I could have easily handled this kind of thing."

Gao Hai, who was walking behind, tried to suggest something to Jian Zi, but Xiong Mi just shook her head and calmly pointed towards the corridor.

"Alright, let's not waste any more time, we need to hurry up."

As they were talking, Xiong Mi pulled out another cigarette from somewhere, lit it, and strode into the first-floor corridor.

At this moment, the dark corridor remained completely silent. Takahashi and Miko, who had entered, did not sense the presence of any students. The students who were everywhere during the daytime seemed to have all disappeared, leaving only dilapidated bathrooms and various pieces of clothing scattered on the ground.

Seeing that the child's clothes were lying on the floor of the corridor.

When Gao Hai was grabbed by the thing on the 0th floor, he didn't forget what he was holding in his hands in the midst of the crisis, and kept tightly gripping his clothes, so he didn't encounter any too embarrassing situations. But Jianzi didn't have Gao Hai's ability to not make mistakes even in the midst of a busy situation, because her own clothes fell to the ground and were scattered messily in the corridor.

Now, Miko was forced to wear Takami's clothes, which made the girl, who was going commando, feel extremely awkward, especially since Takami was only wearing boxer shorts beside her. This made it even harder for Miko to calm down. If it weren't for the dangerous situation that didn't allow for any distracting thoughts, Miko suspected that she would have already found a place to hide and shut herself off.

Hmm, that's strange. Why did I subconsciously think of this method? It's like I got this information from someone and therefore consider it a good strategy for relieving stress.