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

Unlike rescue workers and firefighters with a clear obsession with "rescue," this police officer's lingering obsession was not very obvious. When Gao Hai commanded him, he didn't need to add any preconditions to his orders; the officer could execute them perfectly. This was perhaps because the officer had spent most of his life in the police force and was used to receiving orders and acting accordingly. However, even so, Gao Hai could still vaguely sense the lingering obsession in his third summoned person and noticed that obsession was gradually revealing itself.

[Help the innocent who are unable to help themselves, and seek justice for those who have been persecuted]

This is the core obsession of Fujika Middle School, the only obsession left in the lingering ghostly shadow that the police officer named Hirano Sousuke gave to Takami after he disappeared.

This thing's obsession is usually hidden and won't be easily activated. But when the police officer that Gao Hai summoned starts to come into contact with various related information and begins to see and witness the persecution of various innocent people, this obsession will gradually be activated and gradually affect the police officer's behavioral logic.

After reviewing the autopsy report and the contents of the freezer, the officer's obsession began to surface, though it was still subtle. However, Gao Hai suspected that if he witnessed more monstrous behavior, the creature would start trying to find and kill the researchers.

Please don't let things get out of control, this is the only summoner I have left.

Oh, wait, there's one more. The rescuer that Lao Guo transformed into was so weak that it recovered very quickly after being torn apart, taking almost a day to fully repair and cool down. Gao Hai can summon it now, although given the difficulty of this dungeon, it's pointless for it to appear; at most, it can just sacrifice itself to block some damage or shift aggro.

"Mr. Gao, Mr. Gao, um, outside..."

Hayasaka suddenly spoke up, whispering a reminder to Takami.

Of course, it wouldn't matter even if she didn't remind her, because Gao Hai had already noticed that something was moving in the corridor.

step-step-

The sound of steady, slowly approaching footsteps.

For Gao Hai, it was enough to immediately recognize the voice that had taken his first blood.

Butcher.

That thing has ventured into the deeper areas.

Chapter 51: The Deep Crimson Illusion and the Foreseen Scene

step-step-

The heavy footsteps were still getting closer.

Hayasaka instinctively backed away out of fear, while Takami was already standing by the door, frowning as he pondered his next move.

You could choose to close the door and try to use it to block the other person, pretending that no one is in the house.

They could choose to leave the storage room and confront the other party head-on, or find another place to hide.

Gao Hai didn't hesitate for long between the two options. He reached for a pistol, ready to seal it away on the spot.

"Just kidding," Gao Hai thought. "A defeated foe I've already subdued once has no reason to run away. Besides, the police officers have already entered the research base's corridor area and begun further exploration. Right now, Gao Hai must focus all his attention on the summoned officer; any other interference must be dealt with immediately. Even if targeting the Butcher might trigger a chain reaction from Chiyo Hachiya, Gao Hai can't worry about that now. He's already prepared for a rollback, so he's not afraid of anything."

tread--

The footsteps grew closer.

Gao Hai was already able to sense that extremely ominous aura.

There seems to be a certain difference compared to the surface space; there's a more unsettling and eerie feeling. What's going on? Is it because we're in a deeper space that the way the eerie creatures manifest themselves has changed?

tread--

With increasingly clear footsteps, the police officers in the underground base had already advanced quite a distance along the corridor covered in black silt.

As a research base for studying the power of ghost stories, the experimental area underground at Hayate Elementary School was incredibly rudimentary in Gao Hai's eyes, completely lacking the sci-fi feel of the underground bases at Fujika Middle School.

The entire research base appears to have been converted from an air-raid shelter. The deep, cold concrete passageways seem to stretch endlessly, and most of the obviously modified rooms are sealed with heavy metal doors, as if to prevent anything from escaping from inside, completely welded shut and impossible to open.

Gao Hai instructed the officers to try opening the doors, but almost none of them could be opened. Some doors, when approached, emitted sounds like children crying, people reading, or other strange noises. A few large doors even made a loud banging sound, and there were even sounds of something trying to communicate with the officers. Most terrifyingly, a voice from one of the metal doors directly called out "Gao Hai," and after the officers heard that voice through their empathy, Gao Hai subconsciously thought, "The person inside is someone I know; I have to rescue him." However, due to his strong willpower, he quickly came to his senses.

The underground base seemed to contain many failed experiments, which were more dangerous and uncontrollable than the contents of the sealed classroom. So much so that the remnants brought into the laboratory caused serious accidents, forcing the base to be sealed off.

This is getting more and more outrageous. It's one thing that Fujika Middle School created Alice's father, but how many out-of-control things has Hayate Elementary School produced? I'm afraid that any one of those things locked behind the gate could become a mini-boss.

tread--

As the footsteps drew closer, Gao Hai could vaguely sense that the corridor itself was beginning to tremble, as if some kind of change was taking place.

The officers in the underground base had already started running at his command, ignoring the sealed doors and focusing on finding places that weren't completely sealed off and that were still accessible.

Gao Hai, who was in the storeroom, stepped out and headed towards the butcher who was gradually approaching from the side of the corridor.

what……

No, it's a little girl sitting on his shoulder, shirtless and all muscle, looking like he's cosplaying as Butcher and Chiyo Hachiya from the anime "B-Men and Illya".

Why are there two of them?

"go!"

He reached out and pulled Hayasaka Ai close, expertly lifting her up and wrapping his arms around her waist. Hayasaka also cooperated by wrapping her arms around Takami's waist. Then, Takami dashed down the corridor.

He was confident in dealing with a single butcher, but with Chiyo Hachiya added to the mix, Gao Hai wasn't so sure. Even though he now knew the girl to some extent, this thing was, after all, a Red Moon-level core obsession, and aside from the strange rule of "forgetting after death"—which seemed to have been forcibly added by the Keeper—Gao Hai wasn't really sure about its specific rules of action. So, unless absolutely necessary, he felt it was best to avoid confronting it head-on.

step-step-

The black corridor was gradually turning blood red.

Centered on the butcher carrying Chiyo Hachiya, the entire space was gradually distorting.

The ground, which was originally covered with black silt, now revealed a mangled corpse. The stains on the walls turned into bloody handprints, and blood began to drip from the ceiling.

Faintly, one could hear the sound of children humming a song.

There were also sounds of pleas for mercy, cries, and the last gasps of the dying.

Please stop crying, everyone. Don't be so scared and sad.

It seemed as if the girl spoke with a soft laugh.

[You were all doomed from the start. This school looks beautiful and impressive on the surface, but it's actually a breeding ground for monsters, and we're their food. We'll all be completely digested. Oh, maybe a little bit of undigested waste? Hehe, it's pretty much the same thing.]

So, the reason I killed you was actually for your own good. Since none of us could survive anyway, ending your suffering early is a good thing, isn't it? Dying without any torment is a very happy thing at Hayatei Elementary School.

Come on, come on, give me a smile! Dying while crying is really no fun.

Amidst the blood-soaked ground, the little girl smiled and spoke, then swung her knife, severing a struggling figure in two.

That's the butcher's knife, the knife the butcher uses to kill puppies and cut open their skin and flesh.

For Chiyo Hachiya, the knife was actually a bit too big, making it inconvenient to wield. But she still loved the knife, so in the end she decided to use it to send goodnight to everyone and end everyone's suffering.

[If everyone dies, there will be no more separations, no more being used, and no more suffering.]

The little girl said with emotion.

The more Gao Hai ran forward, the more he seemed to be moving backward.

The black corridor had almost completely twisted into a blood-red shape, nearly covered by surging blood and corpses.

This place has become like a legendary hellish place. With every step you take, you can see mutilated corpses, and these broken things struggle to reach out their hands and make indistinct cries for help.

A missing arm grabbed Gao Hai's ankle, but he then flung it away.

One hand after another reached out from all directions, but Gao Hai quickly dodged them.

More and more foul blood dripped from above.

No matter how hard I ran, the heavy footsteps behind me kept getting closer.

There's no way to get rid of those two things behind you.

Gao Hai's breathing began to become heavy. He could feel some kind of force grabbing his body, an invisible yet real arm, tightly gripping his body and dragging him toward the two things behind him.

boom!

A bullet flew toward the butcher's location.

It hit... no, that's not right, it didn't hit the butcher himself.

Gao Hai could sense the feedback from the suppressor bullet he fired; the girl sitting on the butcher's shoulder reached out and blocked the bullet for the butcher.

The distortion in the corridor eased somewhat at this moment, and the crimson color temporarily stopped expanding due to the effect of the suppression bomb. Even the core obsession of the Crimson Moon level obviously couldn't ignore the effect of Takami's suppression bomb. In addition, Takami had already investigated and obtained a lot of clues about Chiyo Hachiya herself, and her ghost story rules were not entirely unknown. Therefore, the effect of the suppression bomb hitting her was much stronger than at the beginning of this cycle, and it could now hinder her for at least a few seconds.

whoosh-

Reaching out to protect Hayasaka's head, Takami, under the activation of the Berserk Blessing, shot out like an arrow in the next moment, rushing out of the school building that had turned into a blood-red area, and returning to the area covered with black stains.

The stinging sensation of their bodies being transformed began immediately; the building's assimilation of Takami and Hayasaka had begun. Even though they had successfully escaped a deadly threat, the current situation remained extremely precarious. If they couldn't find a place to avoid the corrosive effects in time, the final outcome would be the same.

What should I do?

Gao Hai's gaze swept across the classroom doors one after another.

Every door looked exactly the same, and there was no difference between any of the forks in the road.

This seems to be a cyclical world constructed from endless corridors and endless classrooms, with nothing else existing besides it.

But it shouldn't be like this; there should be something, something that can be utilized—

"there."

Hayasaka's voice reached my ears.

A hand reached out and pointed to a fork in the road ahead.

Gao Hai turned and followed the direction indicated by the hand, and then found the stairwell on one side of the corridor.

"Up there."

Hayasaka's voice continued to ring out.

Gao Hai ran upwards in silence, and then discovered that the stairs led to the school rooftop.

bang——

He burst through the rooftop door, and amidst gusts of cold wind, Gao Hai walked onto a pitch-black rooftop.

The blood-red moon hung in the sky, but it couldn't illuminate the rooftop at all.

Thanks to his enhanced eyesight, which came with his improved physical abilities, Gao Hai could vaguely see several figures dressed in student uniforms standing on the edge of the rooftop. They quickly jumped off and disappeared after he entered.

"Over there, over there."

The direction the finger was pointing was the power distribution room on the rooftop. The structure of Hayatei Elementary School and Fujika Junior High School were somewhat similar, with the power distribution room located on the rooftop.

Upon entering the electrical room, Gao Hai immediately felt the stinging pain subside. His clothes were stained with many black grime, and as he stepped into the room, red stains seeped from them. This time, due to spending too much time outside, Gao Hai had numerous wounds, with much of his skin turning into black sludge.

However, because of the rescue team badge, the injury was not too serious and healed quickly.

"..."