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

"Thank you for spending time with me today, I'm very happy."

At the street corner, near the house of the girl named Miko, the girl stopped and smiled at Gao Hai.

"Yes, I'm very happy today too."

Gao Hai smiled and replied, waving his hand before preparing to say goodbye to Jianzi.

During the date, apart from the last walk together, he barely held hands with Miko, and there was no hugging or kissing.

But for some reason, there was a sense of contentment, a feeling of complete fulfillment. Perhaps this was a quality hidden within this "ordinary girl."

"Oh, right, sir..."

However, just as he was about to leave, Miko, who seemed to be thinking about something, called out to Takahashi again, speaking hesitantly and awkwardly.

"what happened?"

Gao Hai stopped and turned to look at Jian Zi, asking a question.

"It's that... I... um... anyway, don't stay up too late at night, senior."

The girl seemed to want to ask something, but in the end she just lowered her head, said goodbye to him shyly again, and then turned and ran away.

What Yotsuya Miko actually wanted to ask Takami was whether he had been having any strange dreams lately.

However, it's difficult to talk about those things in detail. In addition, I haven't sensed any danger in those strange dreams, and even felt quite at ease with them. Therefore, I couldn't bring myself to ask her and could only keep those things to myself.

"I feel like this is how a normal first date should go."

Watching Jianzi walk away, Gao Hai sighed, then turned to look at his house, which was almost repaired but still needed the cement to dry. He then turned and walked towards the hotel where he was staying.

At this moment, a crescent moon had already appeared in the sky.

As night fell and insects chirped, Gao Hai's shadow shrank, lengthened, and then disappeared under the streetlights.

My first date with Miko Yotsuya is now over.

But Gao Hai's thoughts had not yet shifted away from the girl.

This ordinary date gave Gao Hai a very strange feeling.

He carefully analyzed all of Yotsuya Miko's characteristics, including her personality, appearance, and habits.

Ultimately, Gao Hai came to a conclusion that Yotsuya Miko, who was neither arrogant nor playful, and who was neither particularly clever nor smug, had the most important characteristic of being a lady, also known as a mother or wife.

In other words, Yotsuya Miko is a girl who would make a good wife.

She is the kind of wife who would devote herself to the ordinary life of daily necessities, pick up and drop off the children from school every day, leave food for her husband when he comes home from a hard day's work, and greet her husband with a smile every morning and night.

It feels good.

If it weren't for Miko's reserved personality, Takami might have already planned something to express his affection during their walk. For example, if Fujiwara Chika had been here earlier, he would have carried her on his back and raced against cars on the highway, and Chika would have certainly struck a cowboy pose and shouted something like "Run, Takami Beast!"

...Why did I think of Chika after the date, and why did I imagine such a strange situation?

Gao Hai suspected that he might have been corrupted by Qian Hua's playful nature, which was why he was thinking about such inappropriate things. You know, he has always been a very thin-skinned, serious, sincere and mature man. How could he suddenly imagine such strange and childish things?

As Gao Hai was thinking this, he saw a tree branch lying on the ground.

The branch is about 1.3 meters long, or 1.08 pi. It is almost completely straight, with only one end having a small fork about a quarter of its length, making it look like a sword blade with a guard.

Gao Hai immediately imagined himself holding the tree branch, and Qianhua standing in front of him with a broom, the two of them making martial arts movie moves with "hehe haha".

Yes, in fact, they've done this more than once. Only Fujiwara Chika would cooperate with, or even actively seduce, Takami into playing this game and enjoy it immensely. So much so that Maki, who once saw them playing like this while traveling together, was shocked and suspected that they had been childishized by some obsessive force.

Wait a minute, why am I thinking about this again? It seems I've been infected by Chika quite badly. This kind of meme contamination is truly terrifying.

Stand still.

Gao Hai sighed softly, then looked around. After confirming that no one on the path had seen him, he walked up to the branch and picked it up.

He brandished the branch a few times, then struck a sword-drawing pose, muttering "slay all" under his breath, imitating a certain slayer. Finally, Gao Hai noticed someone approaching from the side of the street and quickly dropped the branch, pretending nothing had happened as he walked away.

Meanwhile, back home, Miko hurriedly washed up and went to her room. She immediately collapsed onto her bed, rolling around on her pillow several times before sitting up, covering her flushed cheeks, shaking her head, and it took her a long time to calm down.

Going on dates with senior colleagues actually makes me feel like I've become their wife, and we're strolling around like an old married couple. It's just awful.

Moreover, when we held hands on the beach later, I immediately remembered what happened in my dream, to the point that I didn't dare to get close to my senior. If I hadn't been good at managing my expressions, my senior might have immediately realized that I wasn't shy, but rather that I was holding back.

It's just too bad.

However, that kind of thing is indeed very difficult to overcome.

After all, I've been having the same dream pattern almost every day lately.

The beginning of a dream is always in danger.

The dream process inevitably involves Gao Hai appearing to protect him and take him away from danger.

The ending of the dream is inevitably a restricted scene, something that cannot even be recorded and will be deleted immediately if posted.

Moreover, initially, the endings of those dreams were relatively short and lacked detail. But recently, the endings have started to grow longer and longer, resembling extended versions of Lord of the Rings, director's cuts, and more, constantly adding various details and increasing the length of the content, thus posing an increasingly serious challenge to the audience.

No, that's completely wrong. Extended movie versions only make viewers feel stifled; if they can't stand it, they can just pause and take a break. My experience, however, was a complete, immersive one, a deep sensory experience like Sword Art Online, a complete immersion in being the protagonist. And for some reason, I'm becoming more and more proactive and natural in my dreams. Sometimes I can even briefly rebel against my seniors. Thinking back on this after waking up is incredibly torturous.

"I still feel like I should ask my seniors..."

Yotsuya Miko sighed, stretching and muttering to herself.

I have a feeling that something is wrong with this kind of thing. I wonder if you also have strange dreams.

Hmm, but this kind of problem... never mind. Since I don't feel any danger, it proves that this strange dream really won't harm me, so I'll just leave it for now.

Thinking this, Miko lowered her head and looked at her slightly tight pajamas.

It seems to have gotten a little bigger.

Although she is far inferior to Xiaohua, her figure has indeed shown a tendency to increase.

In the past, I probably would have just felt that it was in the way and that it was meaningless.

But if it were now... how would he, as a senior, view this?

Speaking of which, Fujiwara-san must have a very close relationship with her senior, right? After all, she directly calls him "Umi," which is definitely not a way of addressing someone you don't know well.

And that guy, Shijou, is obviously very outstanding and comes from a good family.

Compared to those girls, how would the seniors view someone as ordinary and unremarkable as me?

The more I think about it, the more insecure and helpless I feel.

But when she saw the phone charm that Gao Hai had bought for her on their date today, Jianzi became a little happier, and the unease in her heart subsided.

Anyway, it's already very late, so let's go to sleep first.

Thinking this, Miko lay down on the bed, covered herself with the blanket, turned off the light, and then closed her eyes in the darkness.

Previously, she would always think about the strange figures she saw, and she would be terrified because of them. Even in her dreams, she would dream of being chased by those things and would not be able to sleep peacefully.

But now, it's not so scary anymore. At least in my dreams, those things aren't scary anymore.

After all, he had a senior colleague by his side.

"call……"

The girl drifted off to sleep, and a smile unconsciously crept onto her sleeping face.

Meanwhile, inside the abandoned building where the [Market] was stationed, Aoyama Nanami rubbed his eyes, stared at the list in front of him, and took a deep breath.

A few days later, after several discussions, the team investigating the instance has finalized its list of participants.

"The Red Knot Society and the Fishing Gang each sent two people, the Market sent two people, and Mr. Gao's own team of six people made up a total of 12 people, which is quite a number."

Will it go smoothly?

This is a dangerous operation deep into the Red Moon-level dungeon, and there is a high possibility that we will encounter something terrifying that even the investigators who have entered this dungeon before have never truly witnessed.

Feeling uncertain, Aoyama Nanami could only lower his head and sigh, then smile helplessly, and stand up to make himself a cup of coffee.

Then, her gaze lingered at the very top of the list, on the name of the only key figure in this operation, and she hesitated to take another step.

Gao Hai.

Can you continue your legend? Do you truly possess an ability to overcome the impossible, something others lack? Let me see for myself. Even if the final result might be failure together, I'm prepared for that.

As Aoyama Nanami pondered this, he slowly shifted his gaze to the list of personnel dispatched by the [Market] side.

【Aoyama Seven Seas】

【Goto Ichiri】

The dark red characters, highlighted in particular, shone like bright blood at this moment, faintly searing Nanami's pupils.

Interlude 3-33: The Girls of the Fireworks Festival and the List of Personnel

Fireworks Festival.

For Gao Hai, this kind of thing is an old thing that only exists in his childhood memories.

Things like sky rockets, double-bang firecrackers, and slingshots, as well as the simplest and most classic firecrackers like snap pops and sparklers, definitely accompanied Gao Hai for a long time during his childhood. And of course, they also accompanied his mischievous childhood. Many adults probably had headaches and struggles with this, and looking back now, he still feels somewhat sorry for those adults who tolerated his willfulness.

However, those were all things that happened at least ten years ago, and even if I recall them, they don't feel very real anymore.

In comparison, the things right in front of us are more important.

Gao Hai's gaze was fixed on the road ahead.

Kaguya Shinomiya, Princess Shijo, Chika Fujiwara, Miko Yotsuya, and Ai Hayasaka.

Five girls, each with a different style but all exuding youthful energy, walked towards Takami wearing yukatas of various colors.

"Gao Jun, have you been waiting long?"

"What are you doing here, grinning like an idiot, Haijun?"

"Ah Hai, Ah Hai, what do you think? Does it look good?"

"I came here with everyone, senior."

"Hello, Mr. Gao."

Whether with smiles, concealing their attitudes, or offering straightforward greetings, amidst the incomprehensible expressions of the passersby, Gao Hai was surrounded by five girls as they moved forward, as if they had become a special operations team.

I must say, after seeing the outfits the girls had specially changed into, Gao Hai really wanted to say something.