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

【What's wrong? 】

Kaguya asked with some curiosity.

"It's nothing, you must have misheard."

As Gao Hai spoke, he glanced at Ji Gang, who was sitting in front of the computer; Takai, who was organizing the bookshelf; Miyazawa Hana, who was wandering around the room curiously; Kaguya, who was standing in front of him; and Gao Hai, who had opened the bedroom door and was observing the situation outside.

All seven people were ready to set off.

Taking a step, Gao Hai carefully walked out of the small bedroom, and then, as he reached out to close the door, he noticed the words written on his hand.

I acted alone.

Did I write this myself?

I was acting alone from the start, so what's going on...?

Confused, Gao Hai's brows slowly furrowed.

Chapter 5: Cognitive Blockage Phenomenon and the Exploration of Napping Rooms and Identity

squeak-

Gao Hai opened the door from the small bedroom to the living room.

If the bedroom we just saw had a feel of the 1990s to 2000s, then this small living room looks much older and more dilapidated, as if it has been abandoned for a long time.

However, he could only barely observe the surrounding environment and could not see the specific situation clearly.

After all, Gao Hai has been keeping his head down the whole time.

His gaze remained fixed on his hands, on the words written on them: "I act alone."

As for his surroundings, he observed them using only the corner of his eye, so he could only barely see the environment within a certain range.

Although Gao Hai has not sensed anything unusual so far.

In his view, in his memory, he was indeed acting alone, exploring this strange place by himself in a very normal way from beginning to end.

However, he left this sentence on his hand.

The handwriting was clearly entirely his own style, but he had no recollection of it at all and couldn't remember when he had written such a thing.

Having encountered this situation without experiencing any mental pollution, Gao Hai, after careful consideration, believes that he may be experiencing a condition leaning towards cognitive blockade.

Humans must first receive external information, whether it is visual, auditory, or sensory. First, humans must receive the corresponding information, and then analyze and process the information through their own consciousness in order to understand everything they see, hear, and feel.

The mental pollution caused by this strange force occurs at the point of information processing. It occurs when a person receives polluted information and suffers attack and harm during the process of processing and analyzing it within their own consciousness. Therefore, if one has not been mentally polluted but has lost relevant information and some memories, it means the problem likely lies in the information reception process. In other words, due to the influence of this strange force, my vision, hearing, and perception are unable to receive information from my surroundings, or I receive information, but this information is directly transformed into unprocessable gibberish in my mind, causing me to be unable to understand the current situation and thus "ignore" certain things.

Considering that I can record information such as "I am acting alone," it means that at a certain moment and in a certain state, I am actually able to accept, analyze, and understand the surrounding situation. However, this state cannot be sustained. As long as a certain condition is not met, I will revert to the state of "being unable to understand the true situation around me." Therefore, I can only remind myself by writing on my hand.

In a sense, this seems somewhat similar to the "antime" effect in a certain world-building concept. When you're face-to-face with something, when you're actively observing, thinking about, and analyzing it, you can remember it. But as soon as you look away, as soon as your attention shifts, you immediately forget it and lose all memory of it. To put it more complexly, you can think of it as some kind of specially encrypted, unpredictable file. When I'm actually facing something, the related information in my memory becomes readable, but once I look away, these memories become unreadable gibberish, and therefore I forget the relevant information.

After careful consideration, Gao Hai ultimately chose to keep his head down, staring at his hand and the sentence he had written down, and then use the corner of his eye to observe his surroundings, thus investigating the situation around him.

This was no easy task, and acting in this way was quite awkward. But Gao Hai couldn't think of any better way at the moment, so this was the only option.

There was no one there.

After a brief investigation of the small bedroom, Gao Hai found no one else besides himself.

However, one could vaguely hear someone banging on the glass and shouting something outside the window, which was covered by curtains.

Out of caution, Gao Hai did not try to open the curtains or check the situation outside. Instead, he tried to turn on the computer and left the room after discovering that the computer had no power.

On the table in the small living room outside, Gao Hai saw the admission notice. He thought this should be the first time he had seen it. But now Gao Hai suspected that he had actually read it more than once, but had simply forgotten about it before.

Click—click—

Gao Hai couldn't open the door next to the fireplace in the small living room; it was locked from the inside. He tried to force it open using his superhuman strength, but to no avail. The door looked like an ordinary wooden door, but it strangely possessed an indestructible property. After several attempts, Gao Hai still couldn't leave any mark on the door.

Tsk, another one of those indestructible properties? This is really troublesome...

After a brief moment of thought, Gao Hai walked towards the door located to the side and behind the large sofa. It appeared to be a sturdy metal security door, but Gao Hai could easily open it from his side.

Behind the door was complete darkness, almost pitch black. Gao Hai took out the flashlight he had prepared before entering the dungeon and shone it into the room. He found that there were many small beds inside, which seemed to be a place specifically for children to sleep.

After entering the room, Gao Hai turned around and looked at the sign on the ground next to the door, which read "Nap Room".

He also saw a notice posted on the side of the door.

[Early Morning Elementary School Nap Room Management Regulations:]

[1. The nap room is only available between 12:30 and 13:50 and is open only to supervising teachers and students. Outside of these times, the nap room must be locked. It is not open to any students outside of designated hours, and is not open to anyone other than supervising teachers and students at any time.]

2. During the students' use of the nap room, the supervising teacher must remain awake at all times to check the location of each student and ensure that all students are in the nap room. Students may not leave the nap room for any reason during nap time; if necessary, students may use the spare toilet in the nap room.

3. If the number of students in the nap room decreases, the supervising teacher must immediately contact other supervising teachers to locate the missing students. No student may leave the nap room until the missing student is found.

4. Students are prohibited from whispering during nap time. Any student refusing to nap should be dealt with strictly and required to obey instructions. If necessary, physical punishment may be used for more effective student management.

5. All rumors and gossip about the nap room are false and unrealistic. If students start spreading rumors about the nap room, the supervising teacher should stop them in time and popularize correct scientific concepts.

6. After the nap room is closed, the supervising teacher must leave only after all students have left. If it is past 13:50, and the supervising teacher needs to remain in the nap room, the school will assign another supervising teacher to temporarily take over.

In the blank space of the notice, Gao Hai also saw a line of rather childish, crooked writing.

Why not write about what to do if there are too many people?

What if there are more students than expected? Does this mean that after confirming the number of students, the teacher finds that there are more students than should have been there?

Gao Hai made no comment on this, but carefully continued to keep his gaze aligned with the words in his hand, and slowly walked deeper into the empty nap room.

All the beds were covered in a layer of dust, showing signs of having been abandoned for a long time.

But as Gao Hai ventured deeper into the dark room, he gradually noticed that the beds around him were becoming cleaner, the dust was disappearing, and the room seemed to be slowly returning to its former, functioning state.

Snapped!

Bright lights came on in the next moment, illuminating the dark room completely.

Gao Hai couldn't help but close his eyes in the sudden light, only blinking subconsciously and tilting his head back slightly.

The next moment he opened his eyes.

The next moment he saw dozens of children sitting on the bed, watching him.

There was one on each bed, sitting there, staring blankly at Gao Hai's little boy.

Yes, these children have always stayed in this place.

They were all staring at him curiously, watching him, the adult who had opened the door and was wandering around the room.

Gao Hai lowered his head once again.

Although he didn't think there was anything "abnormal" about what he was seeing, a certain intuition and instinct made him instinctively want to look down at his hands again, at the words written on them. Wait, why do I feel like there are words written on my hands?

But when he looked down, he saw a small child standing next to him, who was reaching out and grabbing his hand, covering his hand.

"Big brother, are you the teacher in charge of our nap room today?"

The little boy grabbed Gao Hai's hand and asked him a question.

A teacher? Me?

At this moment, Gao Hai was slightly taken aback and instinctively wanted to say that he was not a teacher.

"Yes, I am the teacher in charge of your nap room today."

But in the end, what came out of his mouth was a completely different meaning.

The rule that the nap room is not open to anyone other than teachers and students led Gao Hai to make this decision.

For a moment, he seemed to feel that something that had been hidden behind him had disappeared without a trace.

However, when Gao Hai turned around to look, he only saw elementary school students staring at him curiously, and nothing that could be described as unusual.

Chapter Six: The Closed-Loop Victims and the Dark Things the Children Talk About

The door was locked.

Kaguya frowned and looked at the door in front of her.

After waking up in the room, she briefly surveyed it before deciding to go outside to explore, only to find that she couldn't get out.

She only had to try the doorknob briefly before she knew the door was completely locked. Moreover, the door itself seemed to have undergone some kind of abnormal change, so much so that even with all her strength, Kaguya couldn't open it. It was as if the door had become one with the wall, and the wall had transformed into an indestructible state.

If there's no way to open the door, won't I be trapped inside the room?

Kaguya grew anxious. She had even tried activating Hedar's berserk blessing to forcibly destroy the walls and doors, but it still had no effect. She couldn't even leave a mark on the wall.

Don't worry, we'll definitely find a way.

Standing next to Kaguya, Takami spoke earnestly to her.

That's right, don't worry, there's definitely a way to get out of here.

Ji Gang, on the other side, chimed in.

Kaguya turned her head and saw that Miyazawa Hana had already placed her little notebook among the dolls on the bed, and then she picked up one of the dolls and started playing with it by herself while humming a song.

Looking at the four people in front of her, Kaguya's anxiety eased slightly.

In any case, at least I'm not acting alone; I still have teammates around. So don't be nervous, don't panic, calm down, and think carefully about what else you can do.

Kaguya pursed her lips as she pondered, then cast her gaze to both sides of the bed. She then strode towards the window on the right side of the bed, the only place in the room she hadn't yet tried to open.

She has to leave this place.

If I stay trapped in this room, I won't be able to save Hayasaka.

And I don't know how Gao Jun is doing now, but he's so powerful, he should be in a much better situation than me. Hmm, don't overthink it, don't overthink it. Although this situation of acting alone is something I've never experienced before, I've personally experienced several bizarre dungeons before, so I can't panic at a time like this.

To be honest, I hadn't thought about trying to open the windows on either side of the bed before. Well... mainly because the door was right in front of me, so my first instinct was always to go out through the door. But now that I can't go through the door, the window is a viable option.

Reaching out, Kaguya gently pressed the latch on the window and opened it.

There was nothing unusual about the process; she could feel that the window, which had been tightly closed, could now be opened.

Splash—splash—

The dull patter of rain continued to echo outside the window.

Kaguya was already prepared. She took a deep breath and then opened the window.