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

Whether his afternoon date with Kaguya could be considered a success was a question that Takahashi pondered for a long time, but he still couldn't come to a conclusion.

The main problem was that she ran away so decisively that Gao Hai didn't even have a chance to observe her to see if she was shy or what.

However, after that, Hayasaka sent Takami a video in which Kaguya was rolling around on the bed with a pillow in her arms. It was clear that the girl was just feeling embarrassed, so in the end, the date could still be considered a successful one.

Afterwards, back at the hotel, Gao Hai received news from the construction team that the repairs were progressing smoothly and could be completed ahead of schedule. He sat back down in his chair, took out his phone, and saw a bunch of messages from Zhen Fei.

All the information about [Yeluoshan Middle School] that could be found on the forum has now been compiled by Zhenfei and sent to Gao Hai's phone after being categorized.

Maki compiled all the information, including details about the two instance cores whose core artifacts had been removed, as well as the only remaining information within the instance. Some of the information even included Maki's own messages, and some even included Chika's, suggesting that the data was compiled collaboratively by the two girls.

He's really a very reliable partner; he's saved me a lot of trouble.

After expressing his sincere admiration for Maki's efficiency, Gao Hai connected his phone to his computer, transferred all the documents Maki had sent to his computer, and then clicked to view them.

Nightfall Mountain Middle School, one of the four dungeon areas in [Campus Ghost Stories], is also the dungeon area with the most core obsessions, the largest and most complex scenes, but also the one with the highest player operability. Although this school is fraught with danger as a Red Moon-level dungeon area, compared to the Fujikasa Middle School area where Alice is in charge of relentlessly pursuing players, and the Hayatei Elementary School area where cognitive blocking, regression, and dog-turning mechanisms attack players' minds in various ways, this school can be considered "simple" in a sense.

One of the most obvious examples is that two of the three core objects of obsession at Nightfall Mountain Middle School were taken away by Red Moon-level players, which caused a huge change in the entire dungeon area.

As a dungeon area based on a high school, Nightfall High School covers a vast area, including two teaching buildings and an abandoned old teaching building, a school building and an abandoned school building, an indoor gymnasium and outdoor courts, an outdoor swimming pool, a large auditorium, a back mountain and a wind farm on the mountaintop, as well as a tunnel left over from wartime. It can be said that the size of the map area, the height of the area, and the complexity of the crisscrossing map are comparable to the horizontal comparison of Dark Souls 3 and Elden's Circle.

However, it is precisely because this place is so vast and its internal rules are extremely complex and varied that players can constantly adjust their strategies by utilizing the different rules in different areas, thus successfully bringing out the two core obsession items.

Well... and then this remaining core obsession dominates, raising the difficulty level of this dungeon area several times over. While it won't become a complete death zone like [Baidos Academy], it's basically no longer a place where players can survive for long.

The first core obsession is a little girl who plays the guitar.

That guitar is now on Goto Ichiri's person, a terrifying object of obsession capable of directly influencing time itself. If used properly, it can easily be used to insert non-existent figures into history to record and search for various clues or obtain key items; its power to manipulate is terrifying.

As for why the source of this core obsession is a seemingly ordinary little girl, according to the information compiled by Zhenfei, this girl herself seems to be a rare patient with dissociative identity disorder. She has split into five different personalities and has been in a state of near-mental derangement. As a result, the school secretly arranged for her to be transferred from the mental hospital where she was supposed to be admitted to this school.

The ghost stories at Yoruyama Middle School are often related to the students' imaginations. This girl was drawn into a ghost story rumored to allow her to travel through time. After some developments, she began to use her guitar to create non-existent people and things. Ultimately, she became completely trapped in endless fantasy and inner turmoil, causing the second teaching building to become an extremely distorted area. At that time, Goto Ichiri, Kita Ikuyo, and Aoyama Nanami, along with another Red Moon-level player team, entered this area. Ultimately, Goto Ichiri and Kita Ikuyo successfully retrieved the core artifact through their combined efforts.

Now that Goto Ichiri has taken this object of obsession out, the area within Yoruyama Middle School related to this core obsession has been sealed off. However, in order to restore the instance to a state where it can be explored normally and to a relatively safe level, Miss Pochi has decided to take the object of obsession back and reopen the area related to this core obsession.

The second core obsession was about a seemingly unremarkable young boy who detonated a bomb on campus, killing more than half of the teachers and students.

This core obsession is actually the direct cause of Nightfall Mountain Middle School's collapse from normal operation to its fall into the alternate world. According to the clues investigated by Zhenfei, the boy was very shy and introverted. As a result, after entering the first year of high school, he began to be bullied and constantly harassed by other students, with no one making friends with him.

If it were just that, it wouldn't have been so bad. But somehow, the boy also became associated with a fictional ghost story. His classmates and teachers began to believe that the boy represented one aspect of the eerie forces within the school, and that the more he endured suffering, the less likely others would be to encounter the ghost story's threat. In other words, tormenting the boy was equivalent to making him suffer the torment of those strange entities on behalf of everyone else in the school.

The duration of this ordeal, whether anyone was aware of what was happening, and whether anyone helped the boy remain unknown. However, it is certain that the boy eventually stole a missile from an abandoned military base behind the school. Somehow, he successfully detonated it inside the school auditorium, instantly killing most of the teachers and students present. The Nightfall Mountain Middle School area subsequently began to undergo malignant changes, disappearing from the real world and entering a dungeon world.

"Is this some kind of bizarre version of Angolan Newman?"

After reading the information about this core obsession, Gao Hai couldn't help but complain.

However, this story structure feels very familiar. It selects a victim to suffer, and then says that everything this victim suffers is on behalf of everyone else, so that everyone can justifiably watch him suffer, or even actively harm him.

Anyway, Gao Hai doesn't like this kind of story.

The core object of this obsession was stolen by a Red Moon-level player team from the United States. According to observations by players from the [Red Guild] who were with them at the time, the object appeared to be a lame kitten, an extremely rare living creature-type obsession. As for its specific effects, because the player team is very mysterious and no one has ever witnessed them using the object, it remains completely unknown to this day.

Of course, Gao Hai wasn't worried at all. He was 1000% certain that the object of his obsession would return to the instance in some "reasonable" way. After all, since this mysterious black watch required him to solve the instance, it certainly wouldn't let him enter an instance with an incomplete core obsession that couldn't be completely solved. Just like how Alice's fourth object of obsession resonated and forcibly returned to the instance after Gao Hai collected the other three, this kind of thing was bound to happen.

The only question is whether this operation will encounter any unexpected twists and turns. After all, two of the three core obsessions of Yeluoshan Middle School have been basically solved, or at least the methods to solve them have been basically solved. In other words, in terms of the actual difficulty of the dungeon, Yeluoshan Middle School is now inferior to Fujika Middle School and Hayate Elementary School.

Keeping this question in mind, Gao Hai continued to review the materials and soon came across the third core obsession of Yeluoshan Middle School, which is also the only core obsession in Yeluoshan Middle School that has not been cracked and whose core obsession object has not been found.

The foundation of "Tales Come True" is a terrifying thing entirely constructed of imagination, believed to have no origin.

It is highly likely that the "writer" created this by exploiting some kind of vulnerability, and guided the researchers step by step to ensure that Yeluoshan Middle School could not be hacked, creating the core obsession that it had no weaknesses and could not be hacked.

A portion of that thing's power is now attached to Kita Ikuyo. Back when Takami was at Fujika Junior High, this thing almost chopped off his head. Speaking of which, those students were also killed and controlled by that thing once; it's still a bit of a pity to think about it now. It just goes to show that my power isn't strong enough. Protecting myself and those around me is already difficult enough; I simply don't have the capacity to care for ordinary people.

Even if they survive, they would be forcibly classified as Dark Night level players by the [Sacrifice Game] for clearing a pseudo-Red Moon level dungeon, meaning they would start their next official dungeon run at Dark Night level, essentially eliminating any chance of survival. After all, ordinary players don't have the "market" to invest in like Gao Hai, who can easily obtain tickets to Twilight level dungeons.

Forget it, why think so much? If someone dies, they're dead. It has nothing to do with me.

Gao Hai shook his head slightly, banishing those chaotic thoughts from his mind. He then flipped through the remaining materials and some related rule tables. When he felt a little sleepy, he turned off the computer, went to the bathroom to wash up quickly, and then went to bed.

Close your eyes.

Sleepiness gradually began to creep in.

In a daze, I seemed to hear a jumble of noises.

I also saw a figure scratching his head, dressed in a clown-like, brightly colored, comical outfit, sitting in a classroom, constantly sighing.

Sigh...sigh...

The man's voice sounded very dejected.

Such a terrible work...

It was muttering under its breath, its voice filled with barely suppressed anger and displeasure.

Such vulgar taste, such disgusting tactics, such a self-absorbed fool!

Why does it have to be me who picks up this mess? Why can't I design the scenario myself to welcome the chosen challenger?

To present such a clichéd script to the great challenger is an act of blasphemy I cannot accept!

It stood up, grabbed a desk, and slammed it to the ground.

Then it pondered deeply, pacing around the classroom repeatedly, and then sighed repeatedly.

Finally, it suddenly turned its head, and on that blurry face, Gao Hai felt a gaze, and they stared at each other.

Well, that's the only way.

The man, who looked like a clown, bowed his head to Gao Hai in a humble manner.

A terrible story that doesn't give you a chance to solve it from the start doesn't deserve to be called a story.

Therefore, you are about to enter a time when everything can still be salvaged and we have not yet reached a dead end.

May your great light illuminate this vile and corrupt land, and may you truly approach and embark on the path of truth.

As he spoke, the clown took a step back.

A stage curtain, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, slowly moved, obscuring the classroom and completely blocking Gao Hai's view.

The clown's worried voice lingered in Gao Hai's ears, as indistinct as if it were a hallucination.

May you eventually see and understand everything.

After all, your time... and all of your time, are running out.

Interlude 3-29: The Problem of Love Fools and Miko Yotsuya's Expectations

slam-la-

Warm water splashed onto the tiled floor.

Long, black hair cascaded down.

His dark red, jewel-like eyes lowered, looking at the ground with a hint of dejection.

Kaguya Shinomiya lay in the luxurious fish tank, seemingly calm, but actually in a dejected state.

It was a complete disaster.

My first date with Gao Hai, my very first date, was ruined.

The atmosphere was pretty good throughout the process. Although I might have lost my composure a little, been a little flustered and at a bit lost, at least we were on a proper date. Overall, it was a pretty good development.

In the end, however, it all went completely wrong.

Kaguya felt an urge to disappear into the ground just thinking about how embarrassing she had run away after being confessed to.

Ugh, why did I do such a thing? Damn it, so damn it…

Finally, unable to control her emotions, Kaguya's expression failed her. She waved her little fists several times with a resentful look, and finally sulked on the edge of the bathtub.

"..."

Hayasaka Ai, who was watching all of this, could only remain silent.

It's unimaginable, truly incomprehensible.

She actually ran away immediately after being confessed to.

When did this young lady turn into such an idiot?

Sigh, but I guess this is what love is all about.

It's easy to see from the young lady's reaction that she genuinely likes her master. Presumably, in times I'm unaware, she and her master have had some very pleasant interactions.

However, that alone is definitely not enough.

Hayasaka's gaze sharpened.

After becoming a player, she was added to a group chat by Fujiwara Chika, a group chat currently consisting of Shinomiya Kaguya, Shijou Maki, Fujiwara Chika, and Yotsuya Miko (Kaguya is almost never online because she's a bit of a tech idiot and doesn't know how to log in). It has to be said that having three girls whose names start with "four" in the group is a bit strange, but Hayasaka Ai is very clear about what this group chat is really about.

The girls gathered around their powerful master... Heh, if you think about it that way, the master is like the lion king of the grasslands.

Hayasaka drifted off into thought, his mind drifting to the image of Takami, with his lion-like, robust physique, and himself lying before him, and what was to come…

No, I can't let that lead me to this conclusion. Now is not the time to think about such things.

For now, I should focus on assisting Kaguya-sama. I've been far too negligent; I never imagined that the seemingly intelligent Kaguya would act like a child when it comes to matters of love. If this continues, her relationship with her master might develop very slowly.

"Kaguya-sama, have you made any plans for the fireworks festival in two days? Mr. Takashi has decided to go with everyone to watch the fireworks. If you take the initiative a little, you should be able to find a way to spend some time alone with Mr. Takashi."

Thinking this through, Hayasaka took a step forward, walked up to Kaguya, and earnestly offered his advice.

"Fireworks Festival? Oh, right... there is a fireworks festival, after all. It's not time to be discouraged yet (whispering). There's still time to adjust the battle plan..."

Kaguya, who had been extremely frustrated, suddenly brightened up and immediately began to think about her next strategy.

However, judging from her expression, Hayasaka felt that she was probably thinking about something like [getting Takami to ask her out to the fireworks festival alone through various hints], so he felt uneasy and felt that he had to do something.

I'll just send a message to my master in a bit. Honestly, Kaguya is such an idiot. Why does she have to bother her master like this? Can't she learn from me and take the initiative to throw herself into his arms? She has physical enhancements, unlike me, whose physical abilities are still within the human range, forcing my master to suppress his desires. It's so awkward.

Thinking of this, Hayasaka felt a surge of restless heat coursing through his body once again.

Unfortunately, I can't go to my master's place tonight.

Her master had specifically sent her a message beforehand, asking her to get a good night's sleep and not to stay up late, and not to go to his hotel in the middle of the night. She clearly wanted to sleep next to her master, but now she had to endure it... However, this seemed to be quite nice. She seemed to feel a little happy when she listened to her master, which was probably a side effect.

Two girls with different thoughts spent their nights like this.

As the next day arrived, Gao Hai got up early, studied for a while the information that Zhenfei had collected and summarized the night before, and then quickly left the hotel and headed towards Shuchiin.