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

In fact, Gao Hai could roughly deduce why that hideous brat and that big-mouthed flower with 150 suns had targeted him at the start of the game. The reason was simple: he knew the name "Chiyo Hachiya".

One of the key characteristics of strange entities is that they are "sensitive to what they know"—if you know them, they can sense your presence. However, generally only entities with a core obsession possess this property, and the girl named Chiyo Hachiya is likely the core of this instance.

However, this explanation alone is insufficient. After all, the reason the brat gave for attacking him was, "You're not a teacher, you're a liar," and Gao Hai did indeed claim to be a "teacher" to the children in the nap room during his first playthrough, thus acquiring that identity. In other words, the monster learned of his actions during his first playthrough and directly saw through his false identity, which is why it wanted to kill him.

So, is the key issue the **deception** or the **false identity**? After some thought, Gao Hai believed the problem lay in the former, since the strange creature emphasized being a **liar**. Considering that strange creatures wouldn't normally go to such lengths as Alice, their statements are generally repetitions of their past words, containing clear directional clues. Therefore, there's still much to analyze in these statements.

Miss Xiongmi once suggested "thinking from a child's perspective," and the fact that the mysterious entity, [Chiyo Hachiya], who is likely the core of the instance, is obsessed with eliminating Takami, who knows her name and has deceived her, raises many points worthy of analysis. Furthermore, this is likely where the keeper truly made his move in secret.

Something that could grab him by the neck in a phantom memory spanning decades clearly possessed a certain degree of high-dimensional characteristics, a monster beyond the comprehension of common sense. Although Gao Hai believed that thing couldn't confirm the powerful cheat code of the black watch Gao Hai possessed, it could probably deduce from various indirect behaviors that Gao Hai had some kind of ability to rewind time, and thus set up various traps against him. However, perhaps this was also related to his lack of concealment. After all, to outsiders, he inexplicably managed to seize various obsession items and obtain clues that would be impossible to obtain under normal circumstances from the very beginning, and he didn't hide his time-rewinding ability from his companions, making it easy for the Keeper to discover this.

Therefore, Gao Hai deduced that the PK of this instance must have used some means to record his deceptive behavior during the first playthrough and preserved it in the cognition of [Hachiya Chiyo]. Then, by using his knowledge of the name of this strange creature, he caused the other party to trigger the rules and instantly kill him at close range at the start of the game.

As for the memory-erasing mechanism, it's likely that the Keeper secretly made some kind of modification. Takahashi guessed that the original rule of [Chiyo Hachiya] was to erase others' memories of the dead, thus ensuring that the killings she caused wouldn't be noticed by anyone. Then, this bastard Keeper secretly expanded the concept of this rule, including "the murdered dead" within the scope of memory erasure, in order to counter Takahashi's ability to rewind time.

The only thing KP might not have considered or couldn't confirm was whether Gao Hai could maintain continuous memories within the Blood City space, which became Gao Hai's only potential breakthrough. The existence of this place gave Gao Hai the opportunity to discover the problem, and also the opportunity to think and break the deadlock. However, it was certain that if he effectively countered the opponent's secretly prepared opening attack, successfully thwarting their tactics, the opponent would realize he possessed such a method. Then, if Gao Hai were to rewind for some reason, KP would likely continue to secretly intervene, further increasing the difficulty of his new playthrough, potentially raising it from N1 to N15.

In other words, the current challenge is no longer just about the instance itself.

From this moment forward, Gao Hai must realize that he is now engaged in a battle with an opponent he cannot see.

This enemy is incredibly powerful; in fact, he could never defeat him. However, the enemy is severely restricted for some reason he is unaware of, so he can only secretly deal with him by modifying certain details within the instance.

In contrast, Gao Hai was able to recuperate in the Crimson City, reflect on his failures, and then use all available resources to fight against the numerous traps set by his enemies.

To be honest, Gao Hai felt his chances of winning were not high.

He knew virtually nothing about the enemy's strength or the methods they could use. Furthermore, the enemy was a non-human monster, at least several decades, centuries, or even longer, a being lurking behind the sacrificial game. In comparison, he was merely a player who had cleared the dungeon three times. Even with the power of the black watch, he was still far from being a truly top-tier player, and could hardly be considered powerful.

The rollback function, crucial in the first three dungeons and ensuring Gao Hai's absolute dominance, is no longer invincible. Each subsequent playthrough presents him with the possibility of encountering new unknowns. This already unfair contest is now becoming increasingly unfair.

But so what? Hasn't he experienced enough of this kind of situation where the enemy and we are so vastly different in strength?

Isn't it about risking your life, trying, and exchanging pain and setbacks for a final reversal? Haven't you experienced enough of this yourself? Even if the enemy's strength keeps increasing, do you really have to be afraid?

"Alright, let's have some fun then. You third-rate writer of third-rate literary youth scripts, I'm going to smash your depressing masterpiece to pieces today."

Gao Hai took another deep breath, his expression resolute, showing no sign of backing down despite the difficulties that might come his way.

He immediately thought of a way to break the current situation: to make a wish on the watch in exchange for the ability to split his memories. That way, once the dungeon opened, he could split and seal away the memories he had of the name "Chiyo Hachiya," making himself temporarily forget the name and thus avoid the initial attack.

However, Gao Hai did not do that.

The watch's 12 slots represent 12 different abilities. Excluding the placeholder slot with a warning effect that forces him to break through the core obsession of the dungeon, he has 11 slots available. The number of ability slots is finite; even if he can eliminate previously wished abilities, the quantity is still limited. He can rely on them, but not excessively. After all, he doesn't know how many tricks the opponent has up their sleeve, and the number of rollbacks is limited; he can't handle too many wishes.

Moreover, he already had a way to solve the problem without relying on the watch's capabilities.

Gao Hai turned around, walked to Jianzi's side, leaned down, and put his mouth next to Jianzi's ear.

"Tell Maki and Chika to help me obtain a teacher's identity within 5 hours. It doesn't matter what kind of teacher it is, as long as it is an officially recognized identity."

After repeating the sentence three times, Gao Hai stood up, closed his eyes amidst the ringing of the bell, and when he opened them again, blood-red light instantly filled his eyes.

That old, small bedroom has once again come into Gao Hai's view.

A deafening roar instantly engulfed everything.

At the same time, Gao Hai released the three rescue team members. The pistols roared and fired more than 1000 bullets in a second, scattering in all directions.

Three special bullets, mixed in with the regular bullets, struck the pale, filthy child who had appeared in the room. The other three bullets flew upwards and hit the monster with its gaping maw.

Having reviewed his memories and learned the appearance of these two creatures, and deduced their rules, Gao Hai, who was currently being affected by these rules, unleashed the full power of his bullets. Even though these two strange creatures possessed terrifyingly chilling auras and were beyond the comprehension of reason, they remained frozen in place, unable to move for the time being.

Cut open the wrist and sever the artery.

Gao Hai poured his blood on the child and the monster pinned to the ceiling, then retrieved the three—no, two—teammates summoned by the badges. Unfortunately, although the whole process took less than a second, the rescue team member, transformed from Lao Guo, was still killed by the little girl using some unknown method. Anyway, he rushed out of the room, using Hedar's blessing to accelerate his movement speed to the limit, and taking advantage of the pistol's guaranteed hit effect to preemptively hit the doorknobs of every door along the way, opening them prematurely. He sprinted to the small room where Kaguya started within 3 seconds, grabbed the clueless girl, and brought her out.

Without even a moment to breathe, Gao Hai, carrying Kaguya, leaped into the air in the hall and rushed into the dog kennel door, which he had already opened using the special properties of his pistol. Simultaneously, he summoned Alice's room and the firefighters. The firefighters rushed into the depths of the kennel, about to open the door to directly confront the Butcher Monster. Gao Hai himself turned the doorknob of Alice's room with one hand, opened the cage door of Hayasaka Ai with the other, scooped out the half-grown golden retriever, and then hooked his foot around Kaguya, who was about to fall to the ground because he had let go, before tumbling into Alice's room. He even managed to retrieve his wounded teammate just before the Butcher Monster tore him apart, then slammed the door shut.

"call……"

After completing all of this, the blood-red light in Gao Hai's eyes slowly faded.

The entire operation took 7.2 seconds, consuming a total of 6 suppression bombs, 1 use of Alice's room access, and 1 makeshift rescue team member.

Gao Hai originally thought he could keep the time under 6 seconds, but there is indeed a big difference between mentally rehearsing and actually doing it.

"What... happened?"

Kaguya Shinomiya, who had only just come to her senses, stared blankly at Takami and spoke.

"It's nothing, just a little warm-up. The real work is just beginning."

With a smile, Takahashi turned around and gave Kaguya a thumbs-up. Then, he sat down on the floor, stretched, picked up a bag of potato chips from the table, tore open the packaging, and started eating.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Action, Trust, and the Suppression of the Sealed Monster

Yotsuya Miko opened her eyes. Amidst the roaring rain outside the window, she sat up from the sofa, her expression becoming serious.

The television screen continued to display images, but the girl had lost all interest in watching. After all, she had already seen what was happening; she knew what the characters were saying and what the upcoming performance would entail.

It wasn't even the second time, but the third or even the fourth time.

The senior colleague is in danger.

Yotsuya Miko clearly recognized this point.

She could feel her consciousness suddenly stop, and then she vaguely felt that she was in a blood-red world.

Hmm... that also includes the feeling of Gao Hai lying on her stomach. To be honest, it was quite embarrassing, but when she thought about what kind of things her senior had gone through before entering the Crimson City, she understood that he needed a way to relax.

In her previous attempts to rewind, Miko had absolutely no idea what she could do. Even when she tried to contact Chika and the others, she only received the answer that her senior had already entered the instance world and there was no way the outside world could help her.

But this time the situation is different.

Because in that hazy, blood-red space, she heard what her senior had said to her.

"Are you sure? You can get Haijun an official, legal teaching certificate within five hours? Tsk, this is quite troublesome, but I understand, we'll get to it right away. That guy really ran into problems; I knew things wouldn't go so smoothly..."

Upon hearing what Miko said on the phone, Maki quickly took action, contacting Chika and the Shinomiya family to find a way to do something for Takami.

Naturally, she also contacted Xiong Mi. After Gao Hai returned to the real world and obtained Xiong Mi's contact information, he gave it to Zhen Fei and the others, so they could also contact her.

Although it was already evening and many staff members had already left work, special arrangements were made for this case. In just over two hours, Gao Hai obtained the title of honorary physical education teacher at Shuchiin High School. Although this teaching qualification was a special case and he could not actually teach students, nor did he have any professional skills certificates, it was indeed a fully compliant teaching qualification.

"That guy really went into the dungeon, huh? Tsk tsk, this is the first time I've ever seen someone like him. Even though there are mountains of knives and seas of fire ahead, he doesn't even flinch as he charges forward. Or is there something behind him forcing him to move forward?"

After being asked, Xiong Mi's slacking-off gang quickly obtained a third-rate teaching certificate for Gao Hai in China. She told Zhen Fei about this over the phone and said with great emotion during the call.

Empress Zhenfei didn't know what to say, so she simply thanked her sincerely.

After a brief hesitation, Maki decided to contact Goto Ichiri again to try to get her help in finding a way to get into Hayate Elementary School, but unfortunately, she was unsuccessful this time.

“Well… to create a believable character, you need a corresponding ‘vacancy.’ But, but, those two… didn’t leave any such vacancy when they entered Hayatei Elementary School… so, so it’s very difficult to create one… I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”

Even though it was Maki who was asking for help, Goto Ichiri apologized very awkwardly after giving a trembling explanation, as if she was the one who owed a favor.

With no way to get help here, Zhenfei could only continue to wait for news from Gao Hai, and secretly made up her mind that no matter what reason Gao Hai gave for the next mission, she would never back down.

If I can't stay by his side, I can only watch from the sidelines when he's in danger.

This kind of thing... cannot be allowed to continue.

The girl in the real world said this to herself in her heart.

Inside the instance, Gao Hai checked his suppressor pistol, which had only four bullets left, then turned to look at Kaguya, whose expression was slightly tense, before finally shifting his gaze forward to the doorway of the small bedroom.

There's still some time before this small room disappears.

During this time, Takahashi had given Kaguya a general explanation of the situation, detailing what had happened in the previous timeline. He went over everything that needed to be considered in the upcoming operation. After learning that Takahashi had rewound, Kaguya also became serious and quickly set up an "anchor point" for herself to ensure that she could check her status at any time during the operation with Takahashi and avoid getting lost.

Takahashi didn't elaborate much on the existence of the KP (King of the Hill), as it was inherently difficult to explain, and revealing it would only add pressure to his teammates. Knowing what he was dealing with was enough for him. Similarly, Takahashi didn't mention the name "Chiyo Hachiya." He needed to first confirm whether rationalizing his identity would prevent him from being hunted by that strange entity before deciding whether to tell Kaguya this information.

As for whether he could obtain the teacher's status within five hours, Gao Hai believed that Zhen Fei could definitely do it. He trusted that slightly arrogant but very serious girl to complete the task well. Therefore, when the five hours had passed and Gao Hai returned to the instance, he would genuinely believe that he had become a teacher and would never think that his identity was false or deceptive.

Time passed quickly.

When the five hours were up, the surroundings had transformed from a cozy little house into a dark and smelly kennel.

Gao Hai immediately spotted the strange creature, the tall, imposing creature that had been guarding the room and hadn't left.

But he was not transformed into a dog by the other party's power.

Because Gao Hai was wearing that thing's apron, this object of his obsession, which he had plundered with the power of his watch, could help him resist the strange thing's abilities, preventing him from being immediately affected and transformed by the dog-turning rule.

Kaguya Shinomiya hid behind Takami, using his body as cover to avoid being directly observed by that thing.

Then, the gun in Gao Hai's hand exploded with a loud bang.

boom!

The first bullet struck the tall figure, causing its body to freeze for a certain period of time.

The rescue team members dressed as police officers rushed to the creature in the next moment, grabbed it around the waist, lifted it up, and carried it forward. They kicked open the door deep inside the kennel and threw it inside.

Gao Hai, who was following behind the police officer, kept his gun pointed at the object.

bang bang bang-

Three gunshots rang out in succession, and the three final suppressive rounds hit the monster's body.

Gao Hai already knew that this strange creature was a monster that was a mixture of physical and illusory entities, and he knew its form.

Gao Hai has already understood the rules of this strange creature, at least most of them. Whether it's turning into a dog, dismembering, boiling into soup, or being immortal, he has personally experienced and understood them all.

Gao Hai arrived at this small room, which combined a kitchen, slaughterhouse, and dining room, and was extremely closely related to the core rules of this strange creature. This was the most crucial scene of the creature's birth, the source of its rule-based power.

Of course, he was also being affected by the rules of this strange creature. Although the dirty apron helped Gao Hai resist the opponent's power, it did not mean that the rules themselves had no effect on Gao Hai.

With all four rules met, the four bullets fired from the gun received an extremely strong boost at that moment.

The strange creature froze, completely still like a sculpture.

The broth simmering in the small room fell silent. Kaguya turned her head and saw that the boiling water had frozen, as if a pause button had been pressed, and even the steam rising from the pot had frozen in mid-air.

Gao Hai could feel that the eerie atmosphere in the room had completely disappeared, and the strange power that had covered this place had vanished without a trace.

This butcher-like monster who liked to eat dog meat was completely sealed away at this moment, and all the supernatural rules related to it had become invalid and could no longer be activated.

And this seal lasts for... 22 hours.

Almost a whole day?

Four bullets sealed two extremely powerful Red Moon-level monsters—no, it was a composite, so there should be two—for nearly a day. Hmm… considering the first bullet's activation rule was missing one, it might only count as 3.5 or even 3.2 bullets, which is still much better than expected. Without this thing, Zaoli Elementary School has one less troublesome obstacle that can be instantly killed upon encounter, greatly reducing the danger of exploration.

【snort……】