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

Don't open the door for me!

The girl smiled and spoke to the blurry figure reflected in the glass mirror, then stood motionless in front of the window.

The strange creature from Baidos, which still wanted to approach Yotsuya Miko, was once again stuck and unable to move.

"Kita..."

Goto Ichiri's eyes widened again.

If Kita Ikuyo's previous actions could be explained by the fact that two ghosts had locked onto the same target, then her current behavior of not killing the living players but instead targeting ghosts who are also part of the ghost story is clearly not the behavior pattern expected of ghosts.

Could it be that her presence here, and her blocking the door to obstruct another core obsession, was actually due to her own will, rather than the manipulation of that strange entity?

In other words, she may not be truly dead yet, and there may still be a chance to save her.

Realizing this, the girl's steps trembled slightly.

Despite desperately seeking help from Takami to save Kita Ikuyo, Goto Ichiri knew very well that saving Kita Ikuyo in her current state was virtually impossible—no, based on past cases, it was simply impossible. No player who had ever been possessed by a Red Moon-level core obsession had survived; the hope was far too slim, so slim that even Takami, considered a miracle, standing before her couldn't offer Goto Ichiri much hope. She only chose to plead for help because she refused to give up that sliver of hope.

But now, the extremely incongruous actions of that red-haired girl have given Goto Ichiri real hope. He has seen his friend return to the world, and his band reunite, with the possibility of the four band members living happily together again.

If it's really possible, if there's really hope...

"Whatever you're thinking, we have to leave now. Staying here will only bring us danger."

Reaching out, Xiongmi grabbed Goto Ichiri's shoulder and forcibly turned the girl around to look her in the eye.

Yotsuya Miko had already dragged the unconscious player over. Xiong Mi grabbed the player's shoulder, signaling Goto Ichiri and Yotsuya Miko to follow her. Then they quickly went down the stairs and escaped the building.

As for the police officer, it didn't leave with him. After releasing the player it had captured, it remained in the corridor, standing next to Kita Ikuyo, watching the tall figure reflected in the glass, ready to fire another shot at any moment.

Meanwhile, on the other side, also in the corridor, but unable to see Kita Ikuyo or the police officers, Takami stood silently under the dim red light, observing his surroundings.

This is a dilapidated corridor that has been abandoned for a long time.

The window was mostly shattered, and large and small shards of glass were scattered on the ground.

The walls were covered with bizarre drawings, blank exam papers, and sheets of paper covered with profanities, some of which had been torn up or were mostly torn apart.

The lights are still on.

But it wasn't the color of the incandescent bulbs that should have been in the affiliated teaching building; it was a dark red, a color as deep as blood.

Is this an even deeper layer? Ha, Fujika Middle School has two layers, inner and outer; Hayate Elementary School has multiple inner and outer levels; Baidos Anmiko's intelligence also has two layers, first and last; and now, Yoruyama Middle School… well, at least four layers, no, definitely more than four. That lousy writer really likes to use spatial distortion to hide things.

{Fujiwara Chika: Umi, where do we go next?}

Chika walked to Gao Hai's side and cautiously communicated with him using the mental link, keeping her mouth tightly shut and not making a sound.

{Gao Hai: Take the elevator, and then figure out how to get back to the teaching building.}

Gao Hai, who was also communicating via mental link, glanced at the girl beside him, nodded slightly, and then walked directly towards the elevator on the side.

With the return of the third summoner on the rescue team badge, the [Police Officer], even though its current depth prevents it from meeting Gao Hai directly, it is enough for Gao Hai to roughly figure out the other party's previous route of action through the badge's connection.

After exiting through the rooftop door of the dormitory building, the police officer appeared on the first floor of the abandoned dormitory building.

Yes, that's right, it's the first floor of the abandoned dormitory building in the forest that Takahashi explored during his first playthrough. The police officer opened one of the dormitory room doors and walked out, immediately realizing that the door he came out of could no longer lead back to his original dormitory.

Unable to receive any orders from Gao Hai, the police officers entered automatic mode and began searching for a way back to Gao Hai on their own, encountering the fanatical players along the way.

As the strange creatures summoned by Gao Hai, the police officers' perceptions were naturally based on Gao Hai's own standards. Undoubtedly, these lunatics who had killed Gao Hai once using the object of his obsession were enemies that Gao Hai had to eliminate completely to prevent future troubles. So the police officers opened fire immediately.

With a firing rate of over a hundred bullets per second, bullet power comparable to small rockets, and the strength to repel Red Moon-level monsters, coupled with the fact that he himself was a monster and basically immune to damage from obsession objects, and by taking advantage of the enemy's lack of understanding of him, the outcome of the battle was naturally a foregone conclusion.

Five players attacked the police officers, resulting in three minor injuries and one serious injury. The seriously injured player was apprehended and dragged into an abandoned school building. After confirming that the officers had only arrested one person, the players, presumably believing it was a strange rule of the officers to kill only one person at a time, let the officers escape without giving chase. As a result, the officers dragged the seriously injured player around the abandoned school building, eventually reaching the 10th basement level. At the bottom of the stairs, on the 11th floor, the officers opened the only door on that floor, finding themselves inside an elevator, which they then used to return to the main campus.

Gao Hai felt that if the intricacies of the plot were elaborated upon, it could probably be read in at least tens of thousands of words. However, since the police officer, as a strange creature, only possessed a vague memory function, the memory information Gao Hai obtained from it was very concise. He could only rely on this information to imagine how this guy had managed to find his way back.

Ding-dong-

The elevator doors opened in front of Gao Hai, revealing a blood-red interior space where almost nothing could be seen.

Squinting, Gao Hai took a while to adjust to the light inside, and could roughly see what was going on inside.

Then, very quickly, he discovered a rule chart posted on the wall in the narrow elevator space.

Elevator Usage Rules

Please ensure you can clearly read and understand these guidelines before using the elevator; otherwise, you may find yourself permanently lost.

[Rules created by: Life Club]

[Edited by: Masaki Ebizaka]

Chapter 61: The Rules for Using the Mysterious Elevator and Our Shared Experiences

Elevator Usage Rules

Those who have reached this place and seen these rules undoubtedly possess a deep understanding of the many secrets within this school. You may be in grave danger, desperately seeking survival; or you may have uncovered crucial clues and are trying to trace deeper secrets. In any case, someone completely ignorant of the school's secrets could not possibly have come here and seen these rules.

[For those who have made it this far, I won't offer any advice. Having reached this point, you must have already decided whether to face the danger head-on or seek survival. Therefore, I will only tell you how to use this elevator, some patterns and considerations we have summarized, and some precautions that must be taken with caution.]

[1. The elevators here are different from those you've seen in other similar places. The spatial structure is twisted and hidden deep within the school, and this elevator acts as a link, allowing you to travel to different areas that are normally inaccessible. Each button corresponds to a specific time and space environment, so make sure you know where you want to go before pressing the button.]

Why this elevator in the annex building has such a peculiar function is a question we've investigated multiple times, but haven't reached a definitive conclusion. The only certainty is that it acquired this function suddenly one day. Before that day, this elevator, like other parts of the school, was simply a dangerous area with unusual phenomena. If you discover any possible sources of this change, please fill them in the blank areas of this form. This might help us all figure out what's happening here more quickly and understand the root cause of these anomalies.

[2. There are seven buttons inside the elevator: "1st Floor," "2nd Floor," "3rd Floor," "5th Floor," "Open Door," "Close Door," and "Alarm." Each button corresponds to a specific area; pressing it will take you to that area. Based on our exploration of this elevator, we have summarized the functions of these buttons.]

[(1) After pressing the "1st Floor" button, you will arrive at Yelu Mountain Middle School, a sunny place with many students, which seems normal. Yes, this is the best way back to the "surface". However, please note that the students will chase after you without hesitation once they spot you. And since you already know some things, you won't be able to stay on the "surface" for long. You will soon automatically enter other depths, so you need to think carefully about whether you want to go this way.]

[(2) After pressing the "2nd floor" button, you will arrive at a place with a large number of students, where you will not be able to find the classmates you knew before. It looks similar to a normal Nightfall Mountain Middle School, but the students here are all strangers to you, and they are very aggressive. I believe you will not feel unfamiliar with this place, after all, everyone who comes here initially has a similar experience.]

[(3) After pressing the "3rd floor" button, you will arrive at a strange place where lights are on everywhere, you can hear students making noise, but you can't see a single person. This floor is relatively safe because the most troublesome students usually don't go around here. But at the same time, something else is active on this floor, or rather, only one type of thing is active. I think you may have already seen it, those "ghost stories" in various tales, those absurd and terrifying legends, they are all here.]

[(4) After pressing the "5th floor" button, you will arrive at a place very similar to "3rd floor", but all the lights are dark red, and there will be a slight visual distortion effect in areas without red light. The situation here is very complicated. Sometimes it is extremely dangerous, and sometimes it seems very safe. We have investigated this place several times, but we have not been able to get any results. The only thing that is certain is that the source of danger on this floor does not need to be "announced in advance". You will not get any warning before being attacked, such as picking up a newspaper or seeing some files. So unless you have a reason to come here, try to stay away from this floor.]

[(5) After pressing the "Alarm" button, you will arrive at a ruin, which may be underground or above ground. This will change each time, and we have not yet been able to figure out any pattern. It is relatively safe here during the day, provided that you do not go too far into the forest and stay in the abandoned building area, and you will not be attacked during the day. As for the night, run as far away from here as possible and try not to spend the night in this area if you do not want to be discovered by something very bad.]

[(6) After pressing the "Open Door" button, you will see a blurry, strange place behind the opened door, where everything seems to be covered by a layer of pixels. It looks like it's still Yelu Mountain Middle School, but you can't find anything that looks even slightly clear. We didn't explore this strange place in depth because it was just too eerie. Maybe you'll be interested in investigating it.]

[(7) The person who pressed the "close the door" button never came back. Don't try to do this unless you're at your wit's end. No one knows what kind of ending you'll have.]

3. Generally, this elevator is located within the affiliated teaching building, randomly switching between the two elevators inside. If the elevator you activate does not have a red light, do not enter it under any circumstances. Note that if you are in a ruined area, the elevator's location will be more random; it may be behind any room door from the 10th basement level to the 5th floor above ground. You should locate it in advance and block the door from closing, otherwise you may not have time to escape if an emergency occurs.

4. Occasionally, an announcement will play inside the elevator while it's moving, and the content will almost always be related to a certain "ghost story." If you hear this announcement, you must immediately cover your ears or find something to plug them. Do not listen to it. If you clearly hear the ghost story described in the announcement, there's a very high chance it will be standing outside when the elevator doors open.

5. If the elevator stops on its own before reaching your destination, be extremely vigilant. There's a high probability that another "passenger" has entered. Do not attempt to communicate, do not pay attention, do not stare, whatever it is, and do not concern yourself with it. Make sure the other person has left the elevator before you leave. While inside the elevator, you are generally safe, but if that thing follows you out, what might happen is unpredictable.

6. If the elevator suddenly stops or the power goes out, this is normal and nothing to worry about. Simply stand inside and wait quietly. The elevator will resume normal operation soon, but you must remain completely silent once it is back in operation.

7. On rare occasions, the elevator leads to a completely dark place where nothing can be seen. Those who exit the elevator at this point never return, but their belongings sometimes reappear inside, and sometimes messages appear on the walls. Without exception, these messages urge friends, classmates, and colleagues who know the missing person to go to this dark floor. I don't think this is a good thing, but we truly cannot know what it means, because no one who has gone there has ever returned.

8. Pressing multiple buttons sometimes does nothing. Sometimes the elevator will go through the places in the order the buttons are pressed, but there's a third theory that the elevator will arrive at a completely new place. I don't know when this theory started, but to me, it's undoubtedly risking your life. So please, never do this. Just determine your destination and press only that one button.

9. Some survivors who used the elevator claimed to have seen a "4th floor" button, but they did not press it. At least, none of those who returned alive to report this pressed it. Whether this is true or not is still inconclusive. However, based on the previous points, you need to be cautious in this situation. So if you see any unusual buttons, please do not act rashly.

[If you have anything to add, there are plenty of spaces on this form. Please feel free to write it down. However, please try not to erase any existing text, as reprinting this notice is a lot of trouble.]

[I am Masaki Ebizaka from the Seikatsu Club. Please do not try to find us; we are no longer accepting new members.]

Good luck, stranger.

This rule sheet, or rather, guidance notice, was the longest Gao Hai had seen since entering Nightfall Mountain Middle School. The various situations described in the floor buttons particularly intrigued him. He quickly realized that this eerie elevator was very likely the passageway once used by researchers at Nightfall Mountain Middle School.

It can travel to different depths, ensuring the safety of passengers inside. Furthermore, it's excessively large for a school building elevator, resembling a freight elevator and clearly capable of carrying a considerable amount of cargo. These characteristics combined immediately reminded Gao Hai of the bastards at [Takamagahara] and the countless unscrupulous researchers they led. For those people, wasn't this elevator an ideal experimental observation point?

However, this is just Gao Hai's speculation, and he has no conclusive evidence.

According to the police officer's feedback, the other party seemed to have stumbled upon the elevator by accident and pressed the buttons for four floors: 1, 2, 3, and 5. The officer didn't sense Gao Hai's presence on floors 1 and 2, so he didn't leave. On floor 3, because the space between them shortened, the officer detected Gao Hai's presence and sensed a brewing crisis. Therefore, upon stepping out of the elevator, he shot each of the two core obsessions.

It was thanks to the police officers' actions that Gao Hai, who was in the dark area under the blood-red lights, was able to see the elevator open by itself not far away and enter it.

{Fujiwara Chika: Umi, how's the situation inside?}

For safety reasons, Chika did not come in with them, but instead stood at the elevator door and cautiously inquired through the mental link.

{Gao Hai: So far, there's no problem. There's a rather complex rule table here, which looks like it was compiled by the survivors. Hmm... Anyway, with this elevator, we should be able to go to the "Depth" where Ms. Xiongmi and Ms. Goto are and meet up with them. Hmm, no need to keep watching from outside, you can come in first.}

After briefly explaining his discovery, Gao Hai gestured for Qian Hua to follow him into the elevator.

Before pressing the elevator button, Gao Hai first checked the numbers displayed on the buttons to confirm that they were 1, 2, 3, and 5, and that there was no number 4. Only then did he carefully press the button for 3 and use his mental link to have Yotsuya Miko tell Kumami the situation, indicating that they should wait a little longer.

Meanwhile, Princess Zhenfei was not idle either. Soon, a mental link transmitted some terrible news that was hard to calm down.

{Shijo Maki: Besides Kai-kun and the "corpses" of a few others, nothing else was found in the courtyard. Although we considered trying some more radical methods during the investigation, Ms. Aoyama stopped us from doing so.}

{Shijo Maki: But the problem now is, at first we couldn't see any students through the windows, but now more and more students are gathering around the windows, staring down at us. Their gazes give me a very bad feeling. We probably need to find a way to evacuate the courtyard area, at least to a place where they can't see us.}

Have the strange students in the main teaching building begun to realize that there are intruders in the atrium area?

Escape... Maki said before that the door couldn't be opened anymore, but... maybe we could try flying out from above? It feels like this idea might work, but I don't know which of those players can fly, otherwise climbing out of a height of five or six stories wouldn't be so easy.

hum-

The elevator started running automatically shortly after Gao Hai pressed the button.

Under the dim red light, Gao Hai and Qian Hua stood silently, waiting for the thing to reach its destination.

But just as Gao Hai had guessed when he pressed the button, as the elevator was running, and Gao Hai couldn't tell whether it was going up, down, or left or right, the elevator's announcement suddenly came on.

Welcome to the Ghost Stories Radio Show!

The hoarse voice came from somewhere outside the elevator, becoming muffled by the time it entered.

Today, let's talk about some strange tales about elevators.

Chapter 62: The Strange Events Inside the Elevator and the Arriving "Passengers"

To be honest, Gao Hai felt that the speed at which the broadcast started could be described as "impatient".

From the moment the elevator doors closed, less than a minute after it started running, this thing went off. It was as if something had been watching him and Fujiwara Chika intently in the elevator, and as soon as the conditions were met, it pressed play and started its antics.

Although Gao Hai had anticipated from the moment he saw this rule that he would definitely run into the broadcast because of his special characteristics, wasn't this a bit too fast?

This feeling of being watched by someone... wait, could it be that the broadcast isn't about ghosts or monsters, but a person?

The anomaly occurred so quickly and so unexpectedly that Gao Hai couldn't help but consider a certain possibility.

Since entering Nightfall Mountain Middle School, the players have not encountered anyone from [Takamagahara].