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

He was cursing someone, he was hating someone, he made a sound, but dared not make a loud sound, he just cursed in a low voice.

what else……

Is there anything else I haven't seen yet...?

Before I completely lose consciousness... I must...

I……

……

Everything sank into darkness.

For a moment, Gao Hai felt his body become light and airy, as if he were about to float in some direction.

But the next moment he felt a cold touch from below, the leather straps binding him, and the cold light shining down from above.

"Well……"

When Gao Hai opened his eyes, he found himself tied to a metal bed frame.

The cold lights flickered slightly, and a suspicious dark red liquid gathered on the cold cement floor. On both sides of the corridor were heavy metal doors, with numbers painted in red, such as 1107 and 1108.

There seemed to be people behind those doors. Gao Hai heard whispers, suppressed sobs, and the sound of someone forcefully knocking on the iron gate.

Many people are trapped in this place.

There's been no way to escape.

crunch - crunch -

Amidst the trembling of the stretcher, Gao Hai could feel himself being pushed somewhere.

He turned his head with some difficulty to look at his side, and saw two tall figures wearing gas masks and heavy protective suits, fully armed so that not a single inch of their skin was exposed.

The two figures silently pushed the stretcher with Gao Hai bound to it, slowly moving it forward along the corridor filled with prison cells.

Gao Hai craned his neck again and saw two silent figures following further behind. These two were also completely covered in protective suits, but unlike the others, they weren't pushing the stretcher; instead, they each carried a submachine gun that looked quite old.

Gao Hai did not hear any footsteps.

These four figures were clearly wearing heavy shoes, yet their footsteps made no sound at all.

At this moment, apart from the noises from the cells on both sides and the creaking sound of the stretcher itself as it moved, Gao Hai heard no other sounds.

Where am I being pushed?

Gao Hai frowned slightly. He tried to recall the process from being cursed to death by the black cat to waking up on the stretcher, but he couldn't remember anything. Instead, he felt a strong headache, as if some kind of change had occurred in his head.

No, it seems that some kind of change has indeed occurred within me.

Although he couldn't feel it very clearly, Gao Hai vaguely sensed that there seemed to be a wound on his head, encircling his entire skull, similar to a craniotomy incision. Incidentally, his hair had also been shaved off, and Gao Hai was now bald.

He looked down at his body again. Only then did Gao Hai notice that he was wearing something that looked like striped clothing, like pajamas or a hospital gown. Furthermore, the clothes were stained with blood and dirt, making them look quite filthy.

This is how the same thing?

Shouldn't I already be dead and back in the blood-soaked city?

Why did I find myself in this place after waking up? Where am I? Where am I being taken?

As he pondered, something familiar seemed to begin to enter Gao Hai's senses.

He seemed to have some recollection of this place.

Although he wasn't exactly familiar with the place, Gao Hai had a somewhat uncertain feeling that he might have been here before.

crunch - crunch -

The stretcher had moved through the corridor and reached a larger passageway.

More fully armed people passed by, hurrying along, some carrying documents, others holding something, but none of them turned to look at Gao Hai, and none of them seemed to want to stop even for a moment.

The air seemed to have become colder and more humid.

Gao Hai turned his head to the side and saw more cells behind a half-open, heavy door.

Unlike the corridor he had just passed through, the cells behind this door were all surrounded by iron frames, making them more like cages than the fully enclosed cages separated only by iron doors he had seen before.

Some figures were locked in cages.

They... or were they? At least from their appearance, they looked human, with their hair mostly shaved off. Their bald heads had cuts and stitches on them, and some wounds even showed signs of cracking or decay, with some kind of liquid seeping out.

These people, whether standing or sitting, mostly had blank, lifeless eyes, as if they had lost the ability to think and had become nothing more than empty shells.

Some people stood outside the cages, writing something in a notebook, seemingly observing the people inside. Other observers were talking to each other, seemingly discussing some issues concerning the people in the cages.

"Well……"

Gao Hai's eyes suddenly widened.

As the stretcher was pushed along, he saw the scene behind another door.

He saw Shijo Maki, who had closed her eyes and seemed to have lost consciousness, being pushed out on a stretcher and escorted in another direction by four figures in protective suits.

He saw Kaguya and Hayasaka sitting in the cage, their eyes glazed over, along with the others who should have remained at the main campus of Yoruyama Middle School. They had all had their heads shaved, and each of them bore the scars of craniotomy.

He also saw an empty cage, and on the opposite side of that cage, an old man leaning against the iron bars, smiling at him.

This is Baydos.

At this moment, Gao Hai finally understood this vague sense of familiarity.

This place was one he had visited in his dream, a place called "Baydos".

He had clearly died at Nightfall Mountain Middle School, yet he returned to Baidos and saw other people. Whether they were those who theoretically died with him or those who should still be alive, Gao Hai saw them all here.

what is happening? !

Could it be that... the players who entered the instance this time actually existed in both the [Nightfall Mountain Middle School] and [Baydos] instance areas at the same time?

When we are awake, we are at Nightfall Mountain High School; when we are asleep, we are in Baidos. The only difference is that we may not be aware of this. So, although I remember my experience of entering Baidos in my dream for some unknown reason, others cannot do so.

If that's the case, does it mean that when a player dies in one area of ​​this instance, it doesn't necessarily mean that the player is truly dead, but rather that—

[Identity confirmed. Test subject 2212, now obsolete. Captain Schmidt, please review this document.]

The stretcher suddenly stopped.

One of the figures pushing the bed took out a document and handed it to a figure that had appeared beside Gao Hai at some point.

This person was also wearing protective clothing, but had distinctly different rank insignia on his shoulders, though Gao Hai couldn't understand what they were.

[Confirmation complete, discard this.]

Then, the stretcher suddenly tilted, the restraints came off in an instant, and Gao Hai's body fell down.

"Well!?"

The body cannot move.

For some reason, I couldn't move my body at all and could only plummet into the darkness below.

Neither blessings nor objects of obsession are usable at this moment. It seems that I have been deprived of the ability to act, and am just a consciousness remaining in this body.

Upon realizing this, Gao Hai saw what was revealed at the end of the darkness below.

It is a rapidly spinning wheel with thick and sharp blades.

Click!

The feet that were first caught in the wheel were crushed.

The falling body was then pierced, torn apart, and ripped apart.

A spinning knife, as thick as a finger, pierced Gao Hai's cheek, gouged out his eyeball, and then shredded his teeth.

He then fell even lower, into the layer of even thinner, sharper, and faster spinning blades below.

Whizzing--

The incredibly fast blade left afterimages and the sound of wind.

Gao Hai's shattered body was torn apart, then torn apart again, falling layer by layer until only fragments remained, a pool of minced meat.

Red and white pieces, mixed with minced meat and bone fragments, fell into the garbage pit at the bottom of the passage, merging with countless pieces of rotten flesh, indistinguishable from one another.

The last thing to fall was a black watch. Despite looking tattered, it passed unharmed through the spinning blades, which were clearly not meant to accommodate a watch, and landed on Gao Hai's remaining debris.

Click——

Once again, the hands began to spin.

The slightly slender pointer, roughly the size of a minute hand, slowly moved from position [0] to the position [1].

Then, everything began anew.

Chapter 42: Integration with the Crimson City, the Writer's Judgment Moment

"You're back...?"

As he muttered to himself, Gao Hai opened his eyes.

The sky was still the familiar blood-red color.

The city remained utterly silent, devoid of any sound except for his own. Well, that wasn't quite accurate, considering the collapsed area of ​​the square behind him was filled with eternally burning, screaming figures. Although one had to get closer to hear them, it was clear that his voice wasn't the only one present in this place now.

Everything felt so familiar. With each return to this place, Gao Hai found himself becoming more and more attached to it, more and more accustomed to it.

If he had previously jokingly said that this blood-red city felt like his home, now Gao Hai truly felt at ease only after arriving in this place, having completely adapted to the feeling of this desolate city.

It's as if he's gradually integrating into this place, becoming a part of this city.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination or if something was really going to happen... But whatever, he didn't have the time to pay attention to such things right now.

"We held on until the morning of the second day... No, that's not quite accurate. We didn't encounter any danger throughout the entire first day. In fact, the dungeon only started to get tougher after we tried it on the first night. And even then, the difficulty didn't really do anything to anyone. The biggest problem was the first-time kill by another group of players."

As he muttered to himself, Gao Hai rubbed his temples and slowly sat up.

The two painful death experiences in a short period of time did not change Gao Hai's expression in the slightest. Although he had just recovered from the pain and returned to normal, his mental state had already calmed down and returned to almost the same as usual.

Stand up.

Gao Hai strolled through the central square of the city, the place where he always first met after waking up. He quickly reached the collapsed area of ​​the square and looked down at the figures still struggling and burning in the flames.