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

There seems to be nothing outside?

He turned his head, and with his upper body still outside the window, tried to observe the situation inside from the outside.

What he saw was a completely black, featureless wall structure, resembling simple cubes and glass-colored walls. Like a bugged texture map lacking detail, it was only possible to roughly determine what it was from its color and shape.

Because it is a peripheral region outside of cognition, does that mean there are no details?

Gao Hai suddenly realized that the place where he woke up in the instance seemed to be the outermost edge of the surface instance of Zaoli Elementary School.

The outermost area of ​​this instance is a distorted zone formed by the twisted and disordered perception of the school in the Butcher's own mind, mixed with the memories of intruders who came here and were killed and absorbed.

Because the scene is constructed from memories, the connections between the different rooms are completely illogical, creating a chaotic mess with no discernible pattern.

Because it is a world built from memories, the outer area of ​​the dungeon, which is usually not valued and is not seen by anyone, is naturally in such a messy state.

So, if this is the surface layer, then the hidden inner layer would be located at...

【Gao Jun~】

Kaguya's call suddenly rang out from below.

The gray fog trembled at that moment.

Before Gao Hai could even pull himself back, two delicate white hands reached out from below and wrapped around his shoulders.

A girl with black hair and red eyes then emerged from below the mist with a smile, her fingers resting on Gao Hai's shoulders and slowly moving towards his neck.

[Gao Jun, why did you run away?]

A delicate voice rang in my ears, but the gash on his neck remained strikingly obvious.

"Hayasaka, jump out the window! You'll only survive if you jump!"

Gao Hai's voice was completely flat.

He even spoke first, giving instructions to Hayasaka before Hayasaka could utter a sound.

Then, before Hayasaka could approach, and before the demonized Kaguya could rip off her own head, Takami suddenly lowered his head and kissed Kaguya's gentle smiling face. Then, he kicked off the single bed inside the window, throwing Kaguya out of the window with him. They landed in the darkness below.

"Mr. Gao! Miss!"

Hayasaka rushed forward and stood on the single bed to look down.

Click——

Then the girl heard the sound of the only bedroom door behind her being opened.

Chapter 45: Issues Regarding the Gaming Experience of People with Deafness, Blindness, and High-Risk Status

Without even a moment to breathe, the girl suddenly bent over and fell directly out of the window after Gao Hai.

She could feel the chill coming from behind her.

It was as if something reached out, trying to grab her and drag her into the bottomless darkness. This intense sensation made the girl tremble with fear, but even so, Hayasaka managed to leap over the window at that moment, falling downwards with Takami.

In an instant, the gray-black mist completely enveloped Hayasaka.

A cold wind swept over her skin.

Then, she sensed something.

"This is……"

It came from the deepest part of her consciousness, from the most basic senses, like the basic senses of cold and heat, hunger and satiety, directly into her cognition.

Is that... a thread? Or... intestines? The umbilical cord?

In a daze, I saw a dark and dilapidated school.

And the crimson umbilical cord that stretched upwards toward the sky from the windows and the building.

In what direction did those things extend?

The girl instinctively wanted to look up.

Click!

But a clear cutting sound, and the sound of a severed umbilical cord gushing blood and swaying as it retreated back into the sky, drew Hayasaka's attention away.

Click——click——

The scissors, stained with blood, kept opening and closing.

Hayasaka looked down and saw a girl who looked no more than eleven or twelve years old, wielding a rusty machete, severing the umbilical cord of a researcher in a white lab coat, and then severing the researcher's head.

They're all liars, a bunch of liars!

The girl was covered in wounds, but her eyes were as chilling as a monster's.

One figure after another lay in the corridor, adults and children alike, all of them severed from their heads, and none of them were connected by umbilical cords.

I need nothing more. I can manage on my own. I'm no worse than anyone else, and I'm no weaker than anyone else.

The girl muttered to herself in a low voice, each word growing more ferocious than the last.

I will never be fooled again, no adult will ever lie to me again, and I will never be a stupid child again.

She slowly turned around, revealing her small face, which was clearly beaten and covered with bruises and scars.

The butcher emerged from a classroom, his clothes dripping with blood. He walked up to the girl and gently stroked her head. The gesture was more like petting a puppy than a child, but the girl showed no reaction. She simply continued forward, knife in hand, deeper into the corridor.

What I'm seeing... what exactly is this...?

His hazy consciousness seemed to clear up slightly for a moment.

Then Hayasaka saw the girl who had walked away turn her head 180 degrees, directly behind her head, and stare at her expressionlessly.

The next moment, in the blink of an eye, that face covered in blood and wounds was pressed against Hayasaka's face, almost to the point of zero distance.

A piercing sound rang in my ears.

Hayasaka saw the girl open her mouth and say something to him.

Hayasaka could feel something swirling in her mind, something about to reveal to her.

It was dark, twisted, insane, and chaotic, belonging to this twisted and bizarre creature. It was formed from the seemingly endless resentment, the final crystallization of suffering created by sinful people, surging with the corrupting power of the bizarre tale itself.

But she saw nothing and didn't really feel anything.

Even though Hayasaka could clearly feel what she was touching, and was aware of what she was seeing, hearing, and feeling, she just couldn't feel anything.

To say he felt nothing wouldn't be entirely accurate, as the girl's piercing voice did indeed cause Hayasaka considerable pain. However, this pain stemmed from the burden of information transmission itself, and had nothing to do with the information itself. The mental damage Hayasaka endured at that moment was solely due to the girl's mere presence, and had nothing to do with anything emanating from her that Takami would have immediately sensed if she were present.

In other words, she couldn't understand it.

wink.

Amidst intense pain and tinnitus, Hayasaka could only see the girl in front of him speaking something.

However, she didn't hear a single word; it was just static, not a single useful piece of information.

Blink again.

The corridor itself seemed to have changed, as if it had been twisted by some terrible force.

So, in Hayasaka's view, the entire corridor turned into a mosaic, into fragmented layers that she couldn't comprehend.

Although the girl was under considerable mental strain and felt like she was about to faint at any moment, Hayasaka was still able to stay conscious because of the rigorous training she had undergone and the fact that Takami had just given her a mouthful of surging blood.

That's why she was able to clearly feel the sensation of being like an elementary school student being stuffed into a high-level math class, a kind of innocent beauty where she felt like she had heard and been exposed to a lot of things, but really didn't understand any of them.

What exactly is she saying?

Why do I have this strange feeling that I seem to see something, but at the same time I don't see anything?

What is going on?

hum-

As the piercing sound gradually faded, the face of the girl with the twisted and fierce expression slowly disappeared, along with the blood-soaked corridor.

Hayasaka, who hadn't felt anything until the very end, plopped down on the ground and found himself back in the school building corridor he had passed through earlier. Judging from the classroom numbers, he should be back in the corridor of a school building on the second floor.

After jumping out of the window and falling, did it end up back in the "inner layer" that Mr. Gao mentioned?

Where is Mr. Gao now?

As Hayasaka was thinking this, he heard a sound coming from one of the doors beside him. Turning around, he saw Takami, wearing a butcher's apron, leap out of the door and then slam it shut, as if he were hiding from something terrifying.

"Phew, that should be fine for now. Hey, Hayasaka, you're still alive."

Turning around, Takami smiled and greeted Hayasaka.

There were several obvious hickeys on his neck, and scratches from fingernails on his arms. This made Hayasaka pause for a moment, and she subconsciously imagined some unpleasant scenes. Of course, she immediately dismissed the possibility in her mind. In the current situation, how could Mr. Gao have the time to do such a thing? And even if he wanted to, he couldn't find anyone to cooperate with, right? After all, this place was full of a bunch of brainless freaks.

"Mr. Gao, I'm so glad you're alright."

Feeling a little dizzy, Hayasaka leaned against the wall to stand up, smiled at Takami, and said...

"You're really alright?"

Looking at Hayasaka's reaction, Takami frowned in confusion.

Judging from the girl's condition, she seems perfectly normal. Hmm, the feedback from the blessing is that she's alive; there are no marks on her neck, so she shouldn't be one of those deceptive "pseudo-living" figures. But isn't something a little off? I suffered quite a bit when I passed through that fog before.

During the forced kiss with the distorted Kaguya, taking advantage of her self-perceived existence, Kaguya's simulated personality caused her to let go due to extreme shame. After falling into the fog, Takahashi saw a completely distorted school covered in blood red.

Adults and children alike were all beheaded and killed by that seemingly frail girl.

With each step she took, blood splattered.

Faces of immense pain emerged from the blood, pleading and howling in despair.

Those who survived fled desperately, but could not escape the girl's pursuit. She seemed to know everyone's location; she seemed to possess all the secrets. No one could resist her; they could only be captured and die.

Stepping over the piles of remains, the little girl hummed a song, then stared at Gao Hai almost face to face.

Amidst the piercing buzzing filled with mad, distorted sounds, Gao Hai heard the words the children used to address the girl.

[Shrine maiden]

The children called her that in fear, referring to her as the girl named Chiyo Hachiya.

[She's really a shrine maiden? How could this be...?]