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

"Hoo...hoo...um, hello, Miss Xiong Mi."

The girl could sense the eerie atmosphere around her the whole way. To avoid being exposed, she subconsciously held her breath. So now that she finally relaxed, her breathing was a little disordered, but she still immediately greeted Xiong Mi.

That's wonderful! Miss Xiongmi is alive and well.

Recalling what happened last week, Jianzi looked at Xiongmi with exceptional sincerity.

"Hmm, that's good. It's good that you can stay calm."

Xiong Mi nodded slightly, but inwardly she couldn't help but mutter to herself that Jian Zi's stare at her was as excited as if he were seeing a dead person come back to life.

Uh, it seems like I really am a resurrected dead person?

While the conversation was going on, Gao Hai had already loosened some of the blankets wrapped tightly in the cart, wanting to check on Hirano Sousuke's condition.

Then, after seeing the inside of the bedding, he couldn't help but frown.

"It seems that the body containing that core obsession cannot be brought out."

As he spoke, Gao Hai untied the restraints, revealing empty bedding and sheets that were completely uninhabited.

Chapter 68: The Strategic Meeting on Next Steps is Underway

squeak-

The door opened gently, then quietly closed again a moment later, and then opened again a short while later.

A female caregiver, who was walking down the corridor carrying a small box of medicine, suddenly stiffened and stood motionless. A moment later, two hands grabbed her shoulders from a nearby room and dragged her inside. A short while later, three people, all dressed in caregiver uniforms—Takashi, Kuma, and Miko—calmly emerged from the room, leaving only a still-immobilized, ghostly figure dressed in a patient's gown lying lifeless inside.

After several collaborations, Gao Hai and Xiong Mi have become quite adept at stripping and changing clothes. Xiong Mi even praised Gao Hai for having the feel of a seasoned player, saying that to become a mature and powerful veteran player, one must learn to quickly strip various types of clothes off people and put them on oneself. This is a top-tier skill that players must master if they want to advance to higher levels.

This caused Yotsuya Miko considerable mental shock. The perfect filter she had built up for Takami because of the acquisition of her past memories shattered in part. Moreover, since she was an accomplice in this operation and was currently wearing the clothes that had been taken off, for some reason, the girl had a strange feeling that she seemed to have integrated into this small group.

As for Gao Hai himself, well, he was quite proud to hear this evaluation. He felt a sense of relief that his practice from Chika and Maki was finally coming in handy, and... well, he suddenly missed his girlfriends. If they were there, his first three playthroughs definitely wouldn't have been so difficult, and his mindset would definitely have been much better.

Sigh, I really miss them. To them, they only disappeared for an hour or two, but I've suffered through several cycles in a row. But I guess that's what they mean by "you get what you pay for."

After a brief moment of reflection, Gao Hai suppressed his scattered thoughts and focused his attention on the present matter.

"What should we say next? Let's try to get to the dean's office first?"

After finding an empty little room that looked like no one would come in, Gao Hai carefully checked the room to make sure there were no lyb hiding there. Then, he placed the map that he had torn down from the corridor on the floor in the middle of the room, sat down cross-legged, and pointed to the standalone building on the map.

“That place does look like the kind of place with important clues, but I looked at the floor plan before, and this hospital has a monitoring room. Although there weren't any surveillance cameras in the places we went to before, there definitely are in that special director's office, and there must be some kind of warning system in place. Going there rashly is not a good idea. If we want to find a breakthrough here, we must first confirm what kind of people can enter there. I guess ordinary caregivers probably won't be able to get in.”

Xiong Mi sat casually on the ground, a cigarette dangling from his mouth but not lit, and began to analyze the situation in a relaxed manner.

“That makes sense, since the document Yotsuya brought out didn’t contain any relevant information. If we’re investigating their identities, why not check the staff cafeteria? We should be able to observe who’s qualified to enter the director’s office around the time when hospital staff finish their meals and return to their posts.”

Gao Hai lowered his head and thought for a while, then quickly came up with an idea.

"Hmm, that's a good idea, but if we go into the cafeteria and get noticed, we might get assigned work or something. Besides, I suspect the clues we find in that building might not point to the core obsession. Right now, many things in this instance seem disconnected from the core obsession, especially after hearing the information you gathered earlier. Hmm… how should I put it? I have a feeling this instance can exist normally without that core obsession. That core obsession might have forcibly taken over the core of this instance after some special experience, so to find the core obsession itself, we might have to start from another direction. My idea… is to leave this mental hospital for now and investigate the ruins outside, like the ruins of Fujika Middle School."

Xiong Mi had clearly already organized his thoughts on the way, and now that he had time to discuss tactics, he immediately shared his ideas.

“That makes sense, but if we only investigate one side, it seems like we might not have enough time. According to the hospital staff, Alice will arrive at the hospital tomorrow to begin her performance. Although it's unclear how Alice will escape after all her obsessions are sealed, the situation will likely become quite dire when tomorrow actually arrives, and she might even face certain death. Hmm... Yotsuya, what are your thoughts?”

Gao Hai nodded slightly with a serious expression, his brows furrowed as he looked back and forth between the dean's office and the ruins of Fujika Middle School on the map.

Unable to make up his mind for the time being, Gao Hai simply turned to look at Jianzi, the cute girl who had been kneeling quietly to the side from the beginning and had not said a word, acting as a background figure.

"Huh? Me?"

Seeing that the topic had been suddenly turned to her, Jianzi was momentarily stunned.

"Right now, we're all completely clueless about everything, so it's really difficult to decide on a direction for the investigation. It would be good to have more people share their thoughts. So, young lady, do you prefer to investigate outside the hospital, or do you want to investigate the hospital itself first?"

Xiong Mi yawned and spoke to Jian Zi in a very calm manner. It seemed that although she had brought up an idea, she herself was actually indifferent to it.

Should I speak for myself?

The girl was slightly nervous. In her eyes, both Gao Hai and Xiong Mi were far more powerful than she could possibly be, so she hadn't considered the possibility of needing to offer any suggestions or ideas. This kind of question should have been decided by Gao Hai and Xiong Mi themselves; couldn't she just obediently listen?

However, since we're asking her to say it...

Is it outside or inside?

Seeing Zi lower her head to look at the hospital floor plan on the map, then look up at the window and at the abandoned Fujika Middle School ruins.

"Although I can't put any good ideas into it... I always feel that if I leave here, it won't be easy to come back."

After hesitating for a long time, the girl finally tentatively spoke.

"Alright, then we've decided to investigate the hospital first. But as we said before, since we're now registered as caregivers, it's best not to move around too much. Let's go check it out when someone goes to the staff cafeteria."

The next second, Gao Hai clapped his hands lightly and spoke directly and decisively.

"In that case, I'll use my personality fragments to explore the area for a while, while the rest of us will stay here for the time being."

Xiong Mi nodded in agreement, her words uttered without the slightest hesitation.

Sigh, is that all there is to it?

Yotsuya Miko, who had only tentatively offered her idea, was completely taken aback by the two's decisiveness and stood there for a moment, unsure of how to react.

"Hmm, speaking of which, I saw the previous patients' work schedules. These caregivers were either escorting patients here and there from morning till night, or patrolling various places in the corridor. During breaks, they had to keep an eye on the patients to prevent them from whispering to each other. They also had to patrol in the middle of the night. They were clearly the kind of workaholics who worked themselves to death. I hope we don't run into some kind of boss when we go to the cafeteria later and he comes up to us and gives us orders to do certain things."

Gao Hai had already shifted his attention elsewhere.

"That's right, just like my boss before I became a player. He kept motivating me to work overtime, but he was driving his sports car and chasing after foreign women. And he wanted me to create a model that was rather revealing and shaky, and after it was reported and censored, he actually said it was my fault and wanted to deduct my salary. Damn it."

Xiong Mi nodded earnestly, deeply agreeing, and couldn't help but sigh, revealing her worldly-wise demeanor.

"That's true. When I was writing, people would complain that it was too depressing and tiring when I wrote serious main plots. When I wrote slice-of-life stories, people would complain that it was boring and that I should get to the main plot. Once I got to the main plot, they would ask me why I didn't continue with the slice-of-life stories. When I returned to the slice-of-life stories, they would tell me to get back to the main plot. When I wrote a harem story and collected a few female characters, they would say not to collect too many. When I wrote female supporting characters and it was unclear whether I should collect them, they would tell me to collect more. Ugh, there was never a moment of peace."

Gao Hai sighed along with him, his gangster-like demeanor no less impressive than Xiong Mi's.

Um, shouldn't we be discussing the next steps now?

Miko Yotsuya, still a high school student at heart and with little experience of society, was getting restless. Although she didn't quite understand what Takami and Kumami were talking about, she could tell that the conversation had gone off-topic.

However, you could tell that Mr. Gao seemed much more relaxed than before.

In the previous two cycles, it was always clear that Mr. Gao's nerves were constantly on edge, he was always tired and exhausted, and he was never able to relax. He was always in a state of extreme depression.

But Mr. Gao's mental state has improved a lot now.

Thinking of this, a slight smile unconsciously appeared on Yotsuya Miko's lips.

Gao Hai only glanced at the girl secretly, but was thinking about other things in his heart.

He has already discovered that the child has memories of reincarnation.

After the fusion of body and consciousness was achieved through the flesh-and-blood device, it seems that Miko is now able to retain her memories after death, just like herself.

Was I mistaken for the same person by the Black Watch because of the fusion? If so... as long as I can find an effective way to fuse flesh and spirit with others, I can bring more people back to the save point, and I won't need to use the previous wish. I can strengthen my side's strength without consuming extra save points.

Realizing this, Gao Hai continued chatting casually, but in his mind he couldn't help but think about suitable methods and strategies.

"The caregiver who implanted the fragments of my personality was arrested and taken to the hospital."

Then, Xiong Mi, who had been chatting and laughing, suddenly became serious and spoke up.

She implanted a fragment of personality into the last caregiver who had had her clothes removed, allowing her to remotely monitor her condition. Just now, through the perspective of this former caregiver, she discovered that the person had been subdued by other caregivers as a patient and then dragged back to the hospital area.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Young Girl's Worries, the Veteran Player's Reflections, and the Uninvited Guest

Seeing Zi slightly turn his head, glancing at the window out of the corner of his eye, he then casually looked away.

From this vantage point, one can vaguely see the swaying shadows reflected on the glass of the window.

I'm not entirely sure what those reflected shadows are, but it's very likely that I'm still being watched by those things, so I can't tell Mr. Gao about what I saw here.

But where exactly can we say it?

The girl pondered these thoughts in her mind while observing the actions of the other two.

Gao Hai, who was standing to the side, had his eyes closed and was still resting.

Xiong Mi was flipping through the booklet that Jian Zi had brought. The booklet contained patient records from the hospital, as well as rules for caregivers. Although she had already read through the booklet once upon entering this safe little room, Xiong Mi, out of caution, decided to study it carefully again. While reading, she kept her blessing active, ready to immediately reset her personality should she become mentally corrupted.

[Hospital Staff Record]

[Male Patient Record Sheet]

Patient No. 301

[Length of hospital stay: 17 days]

[Treatment Progress: Initial cognitive therapy has been completed, and in-depth sensory therapy is progressing smoothly]

Patient No. 302

[Length of hospital stay: 48 days]

[Treatment Progress: Both initial cognitive therapy and in-depth sensory therapy have been successfully completed, and idol worship has been established]

Patient No. 304

[Length of hospital stay: 0 days]

[Treatment Progress: Initial cognitive therapy is about to begin. A tendency to avoid treatment has been confirmed; the individual has been brought back to their ward and will require closer monitoring in the near future.]

Patient No. 305

[Length of hospital stay: 14 days]

[Treatment Progress: Initial cognitive therapy failed due to excessive self-awareness; comprehensive sensory therapy program has been approved.]

Patient No. 306

[Length of hospital stay: 135 days]

[Treatment Progress: Idol faith has been established, signs of faith resonance have been successfully detected, and full recovery is confirmed. I will participate in the idol welcoming ceremony tomorrow.]

……

The patient's records were quite detailed.

Although some specific terms were deliberately used to avoid making the content too obvious, Xiong Mi was not fooled by such low-level tricks. She was certain that this "Guangben Mental Hospital" had definitely used the concept of "urban legends" from Yeluoshan Middle School. That is, using people's word of mouth to strengthen the shaping of something that does not exist, and then using some means to create a dead person full of strong resentment, pointing these concepts to this dead person, thereby making the concepts come true and creating a strange object with specific tendencies.

For example, the "Slit-Mouthed Woman" wandering the playground of Yeluoshan Middle School has this kind of origin. Initially, she was just an innocent girl who was deliberately selected and killed by the school, whose mouth was intentionally cut off. However, the school then deliberately spread rumors among the students and killed several more girls, successfully creating the rumor that "if you enter the playground alone after 8 PM, you will be killed and have your mouth cut off by the vengeful spirit of a female student who has become the Slit-Mouthed Woman," and this actually turned the girl who had done nothing wrong into that being.

Furthermore, this was only the initial result of the experiment conducted by Yeluoshan Middle School. In fact, according to what Xiong Mi knew, Yeluoshan Middle School had successfully created the so-called "perfect monster" in the final stage. This monster was a "non-existent" monster that had no actual source and was formed purely through people's perception and deliberate, targeted, and cruel killings.