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

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Final Act is Beginning Amidst a Dazzling Variety of Colors

【Butcher】

This is the name he has been called ever since he came to this school.

He had no idea that he was essentially sold off as a commodity by his parents, and that from the moment he arrived at Hayate Elementary School, no one would care whether he lived or died; he was merely a human-shaped experimental subject.

From being initially given high hopes, to being abandoned, and then being kept on because he could still play a somewhat managerial role. The first year was filled with favoritism and a distorted self-image shaped by malicious guidance, while the second year was marked by disdain, restrictions, and punishment. He had no idea what was happening, why he could eat "dog meat" freely one moment and then be restricted in his eating habits the next, often going hungry.

However, he remembered what he was supposed to do, knew he needed to patrol the teaching building every day, and knew he had to keep an eye on the "dogs" (referring to children) and prevent them from being disturbed by people outside the school. He wasn't very intelligent; he couldn't understand complicated things, so he just did what he was supposed to do, without ever doubting it.

Then one day, he was struck up a conversation with a "puppy".

By then, he had been restricted from eating dog meat for a long time, so long that he had started to crave it.

Are you hungry? I have some multigrain buns that Auntie made left over, would you like some?

However, the "puppy" was not only unafraid of him, but also dared to approach him and even gave him food.

It tastes like the food my mom makes.

If you want to eat "dog meat," there are plenty of opportunities, but this will only lead you to his "puppy," which seems like it's okay to raise it a little.

He vaguely remembered that he didn't used to eat dog meat much. It seemed that when he was younger, he actually liked to hold puppies in his arms and pet them, liked the way they chased after him on the road, and liked the feeling of them gently licking his fingers.

But later, his father, a butcher, started teaching him how to kill dogs, chickens, ducks, and all sorts of animals. Gradually, he stopped actually petting the puppy.

The other "puppies" he saw at school were just scared and barked, but this "puppy" wasn't afraid of him. It would even bring him food and be affectionate. He suddenly felt a desire to keep this "puppy" as a pet and didn't want to kill it.

Well then, I'll just keep it as a pet for a while. After all, no one forbids me from keeping a dog.

The beginning of their encounter was so simple: an innocent child curiously approached, and a man with a sudden inspiration abandoned his cruel practices. And so, the two became more and more familiar with each other and more and more accustomed to one another.

He witnessed the girl being bullied and considered whether he should stop the bad dogs from bullying his own puppy, but he wasn't allowed to do so, so he could only watch as it continued to happen.

The girl was silent in the classroom, silent in the hallway, only showing a slightly happy expression when she went home, and a smile when she found herself. Although the other dogs seemed to dislike and fear her more because of her closeness to her.

Then one day, a girl whose clothes were noticeably dirtier found him and told him that she wanted to change everything.

He didn't know what she was talking about, but he heard that her house seemed to have been emptied out and that she would be living at school from today onwards and wouldn't be able to leave the school regularly.

Just a few days later, he saw her kill a bad dog that had bullied her many times.

Uncle, I'll leave this to you.

She still had a smile on her face as she spoke to him. That smile seemed no different from usual, yet he felt a deep unease about it.

It's alright. Don't they think I'm a shrine maiden from a monster? Since they're willing to think that way, then I'll really become a shrine maiden.

Anyway, no one can escape from this school.

So if I were to do it, at least everyone wouldn't be in so much pain, wouldn't that be a good thing?

It seems that from that time on, everything began to change.

He simply watched these things happen as always.

Until that day comes.

[Huff... Huff...]

The butcher's rotting, foul-smelling corpse, dripping yellowish-red bodily fluids, slowly rose to its feet.

His belly began to swell and burst, then sprouted skinned dog heads that barked and howled madly, crowding around his chest.

Thick, dense dog hair grew on his body, and his teeth became sharp and arranged haphazardly like a monster's.

The impressions of the "Butcher" held by the three generations of students who had lived at Zaoli Elementary School were all reflected on it at this moment, turning this strange creature into a deformed monster that was almost completely losing its human form.

Open your mouth.

The maddened monster was about to let out a roar.

boom!

But gunshots rang out even earlier.

Gao Hai realized something was wrong the moment this thing started to fuse and transform. Without hesitation, he launched a preemptive attack, bombarding the monster relentlessly with a barrage of bullets until it was forcefully knocked to the ground.

【Roar! 】

Amidst its frenzied howls, the monster rolled over and stood up again.

But Gao Hai had already followed closely past it, and as he moved into its blind spot, a series of heavy bullets struck it again, causing the monster to stagger once more, and its gaze still could not find Gao Hai's true location.

By this time, Gao Hai had roughly figured out the possible reason for the monster's transformation: he had sealed Hachiya Chiyo with his pistol, causing the eerie power on the Butcher's corpse, one of Hachiya Chiyo's obsessions, to begin to weaken. As a result, with the merging and collision of different dimensions within the instance, the mutated Butcher was attracted to its own corpse, returning to the corpse and reverting to its complete ghost story form. The cognitive distortions of the students it had been subjected to also fully manifested, causing it to transform into a werewolf-like monster with a ruptured belly and a bunch of dog heads protruding from it.

How could those students imagine a living person as such a monster? Isn't their imagination a little too good?

Police officers and firefighters have been summoned from their rescue team badges.

The former whispered, "Mission begins," while the latter, like the rescue team members, said, "Rescue mission begins." They then rushed forward together, pinning the struggling butcher to the ground once more. Next, the firefighter was thrown into a classroom, while the police officer and the monster tumbled down the platform, landing in the partially collapsed orphanage hall below.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Gao Hai kept himself out of the butcher's sight, carefully avoiding the bizarre rule that forced the creature to turn into a dog.

Then he rushed towards the two puppies. The incredibly enthusiastic golden retriever jumped up and into Gao Hai's arms, licking his face wildly, which completely bewildered Gao Hai. The husky, however, calmly came to Gao Hai's side and showed him what it had been carrying in its mouth.

It was an old black and white photograph, and it looked quite old.

"You found it right away?!"

Gao Hai was shocked. He never expected that Kaguya would be even more reliable in her dog form than in her human form, and she found the key item that he had been searching for.

Without a doubt, this photograph is an object of obsession, a vessel for the obsession of everyone in the orphanage except for Chiyo Hachiya, and a carrier of the unfulfilled wish of this tragic family to reunite and rest in peace.

If we get this, we'll have a way to break Chiyo Hachiya's core obsession.

Thinking this, Takahashi turned to look at Chiyo Hachiya not far away, and then at the little girl lying on the ground, unable to move, after being hit by the suppression bullet.

Well, speaking of which, she's sealed away. Even if she gets the corresponding object of her obsession now, she can't do sit-ups to resolve it while she's sealed.

I finally got the item to clear the level, but I'm stuck here... The problem is, if I don't seal her away, she could chop my head off right away. Okay, enough of this nonsense, let's think about how to solve this problem. The image I drew with that pen before is very similar to this photo, only the person is different. So, if I could find a way to draw Chiyo Hachiya's image onto this photo, would that be able to dispel her obsession?

Gao Hai frowned, pressing down on the golden retriever's head to prevent it from rushing up and licking him again, while staring at the photo and thinking about the right way to handle the situation.

Then he felt a strong chill that enveloped his entire body in an instant.

Boom!

Amidst the deafening explosion, Gao Hai tossed the golden retriever aside and swiftly rolled away to dodge a massive monster with blood-red teeth and a pitch-black body.

That was the same giant mouth flower that Chiyo Hachiya could summon at any time, the one that Takahashi had stuffed with a bunch of out-of-control Twilight-level monsters. This thing, which the researchers at Hayate Elementary School named "Supreme Ruler" (though Takahashi didn't know its more accurate name was "Supreme Ruler - Second Stage"), crawled out from the shadows of this broken platform, opening its blood-red maw to face Takahashi.

Beside it, you can see a blurry figure that looks a lot like Chiyo Hachiya.

"Since it is essentially a derivative of the students' collective thinking, can this thing continue to operate autonomously even if its controller, Chiyo Hachiya, is sealed away?"

As he muttered to himself, Gao Hai could sense that the thing had locked onto him and regarded him as a target that had to be destroyed.

Click——click——

As the distorted and chaotic colors from all directions grew increasingly frenzied, the collapse and disintegration of the entire complex became more and more severe.

time is limited.

Gao Hai slowly exhaled, looked at the gaping maw of the giant beak flower that was poised to pounce, slowly moved his wrists and ankles, and then turned and ran.

Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Unspoken Regrets and the Final Showdown of the Losers

Rumble— Rumble—

The distorted and chaotic colors became even more distorted at this moment. And the already fragmented copy space was self-destructing at an increasingly rapid and severe rate.

Gao Hai leaped, rolled, and dodged constantly in this shattered world. Howard's obsession-formed firefighter, having lost its initial confrontation with the butcher, quickly arrived at Gao Hai's side, pounced on the giant peacock's body, and held it tightly. He even took out a safety rope and wrapped it around the creature to prevent it from disappearing back into the shadows.

Even so, the crazed monster remained fixated on Gao Hai's location, relentlessly closing in, seemingly determined to tear him to pieces on the spot.

What to do now?

Gao Hai rolled on the spot once again to dodge another attack from the strange creature, then looked down at the photo in his hand and quickly thought.

Chiyo Hachiya, the core obsession, is currently sealed and unable to interact with the outside world. Takami previously tried to stick this photo on Chiyo's face while she was lying motionless on the ground, but there was no reaction, and she almost got bitten to death by the giant salvia that chased after her.

Perhaps we could try summoning Alice's cabin and using its five-hour safety period to get through that time, and then try to break Chiyo's obsession after the seal is broken.

Thinking this, Gao Hai sped up to dodge the enormous monster, the flesh-and-blood armored core ice worm, while glancing at the increasingly crumbling and twisted buildings around him, and beyond those buildings, the terrifying colors that covered the entire world.

An ominous, chilling, chaotic color, as if everything had been utterly shattered.

We must break free from this core obsession now.

Gao Hai abandoned his previous idea without hesitation.

We can't afford to delay. If we delay until these distorted colors really spread and completely cover the entire instance, everything will be over.

Moreover, even if Chiyo Hachiya's strange powers have been sealed, this world was ultimately shaped by her obsession. Even if interaction is restricted, there must be a way to make her consciousness interact with this thing and let her obsession feel the existence of this photograph.

Wait, if that's the case...

Gao Hai suddenly lowered his head, and a pen appeared in his hand.

The pen given to him by Akira Toyama, capable of drawing monsters with blood. Although it appears to be just drawing, it actually establishes a connection between the user and the monster based on the user's understanding of the monster.

This thing is a Red Moon-level object of obsession; it can penetrate the seal of the suppression bomb and connect Takami's side with Chiyo Hachiya's obsession.

So, how about trying to draw on a photograph? How about drawing Chiyo Hachiya on this photograph?

Rumble, rumble——

With a heavy, jarring sound, the firefighter's safety rope snapped, and his body was flung into the air before being bitten and swallowed whole by the giant beaked flower.

Thanks to the few minutes the firefighters bought him, Gao Hai finally came up with a way to break the deadlock, but judging from the current state of the thing, it seemed that getting rid of it and painting quietly wouldn't be so easy.

"Woof woof—woof—"

A loud, clear bark rang out from not far away.

Takahashi turned around and saw that it was Kaguya Shinomiya, who had transformed into a husky, barking at him. Then he turned and slipped into a classroom.

Without hesitation, Gao Hai accelerated and sprinted towards Kaguya, then rushed into the classroom.