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

Throughout both playthroughs, the player found no trace of the "umbilical cord," nor any connection between this instance and those other entities. Nothing approached the player seeking a trade, and no strange, random objects appeared. It's fair to say that compared to the previous two investigations, the people of "Takamagahara" have vanished without a trace.

But they couldn't simply do nothing and stand idly by while the players ran around in the dungeon. After all, those scum who had managed to survive now depended on the [Campus Ghost Stories] dungeon to maintain their existence. Unless they found a way to escape the dungeon and continue living, their lives were intertwined with this hellish place. Therefore, they couldn't possibly just watch a large group of players frolicking around in the dungeon, especially with Gao Hai among them, a player who had entered for the third time and had destroyed both the Fujika Middle School and Hayate Elementary School dungeon areas.

Ultimately, the fact that these parasites have managed to survive until now proves just how afraid they are of death. They've already witnessed twice what happens to the instance after its core obsession is broken. They should have some fear of Gao Hai's watch, which can absorb all sinful souls.

However, back then, the people from Takamagahara at Fujika Junior High could only observe from the inner mental hospital using objects like mirrors, and basically had no way to interfere with the players' actions. Although the guys at Hayate Elementary School managed to talk to Takami, and the fact that the crazed Toyama Akira was brought in was very likely related to them, that was all; they had absolutely no control over what happened next.

In other words, these guys weren't particularly capable of interfering within the instance, and with the drastic changes to the instance, their ability to interfere might have decreased even further. Therefore, it's understandable that I hadn't discovered any trace of them since entering Nightfall Mountain Middle School. But now that I've ventured deep into the instance's innermost areas, reaching depths inaccessible to ordinary players, the possibility of the people from [Takamagahara] interfering with my side is indeed much greater.

The elevator was invented in 1853, which was the time when the world's first safety elevator appeared. Of course, if we broaden the standard to include vertical lifting machinery, we can trace it back to very ancient times.

However, that's not the issue we're discussing. The focus of ghost stories lies in their bizarre and uncanny aspects, not in delving into the underlying principles of a thing. Ultimately, terror always stems from the unknown. Once something changes from the unknown to the known, it loses its original sense of horror and eeriness...

The hoarse voice on the radio spoke as if it were truly telling a story.

Gao Hai almost immediately covered his ears, and Fujiwara Chika beside him did the same. Neither of them had any intention of listening to what the thing was saying. However, the broadcast sound remained clear. Covering their ears did nothing to stop the sound from reaching their ears; in fact, it became even clearer.

Is it really not that easy?

The reason elevators have become a setting for ghost stories is closely related to the unique characteristics of elevators themselves...

The voice on the radio seemed to gradually become clearer, and it could be roughly identified as a young man's voice. The background noise in the voice gradually decreased, as if it were undergoing some unknown change as the broadcast time continued to extend.

Simply blocking sound from reaching the ear through physical means is not enough, so...

The unexpected situation didn't faze Takahashi. He quickly reached out and pulled Chika into his arms, causing the girl to instinctively look up and meet his gaze. Then, Chiyo's blessing activated swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, Takahashi completely erased the part of the broadcast content from his mind, causing him to lose all memory of it.

Snapped!

Then came the hand chop, which had been tested multiple times on Miko Yotsuya and could induce a baby-like sleep. Because Chika's physical abilities had been enhanced beyond the human limit through repeated enhancements, and because she was also cooperating, Takami knocked Chika unconscious with little effort.

[Electricity...zzzz...elevator...]

The broadcast started to malfunction, and the noise that had subsided began to pick up again.

That's quite an easy mechanism to deal with.

With one arm around Chika and the other holding a pistol, Gao Hai took a step back, leaning against the wall on one side of the elevator, silently waiting for it to reach its destination.

Every minute or two, he would erase his memory, a permanent and irreversible deletion, to ensure that he could not remember even a single word of the broadcast.

This tactic made the broadcast sound increasingly distorted, and soon it became completely unrecognizable, leaving only continuous static and sounds mixed in, like the howls and roars of some inhuman monster.

Although using the power of blessings had somehow cracked the mechanism of this thing, as time went on, the broadcast, which had no known source of sound, had become a source of noise pollution, causing Gao Hai, who was in the elevator, to gradually become irritable.

How long is this thing going to keep calling?

Gao Hai frowned, not acting rashly, but simply continued to stand silently by the side of the elevator, holding Qianhua.

He vaguely sensed that some kind of malicious emotion was brewing and gathering within those noisy sounds, waiting in the shadows for the moment to erupt.

What's going on? I clearly cracked this broadcast by erasing memories. But why didn't it break down like it did when Xiongmi dealt with that imageless ghost story in the first playthrough? Instead, it's undergoing new changes.

The unpleasant noises grew louder and louder, and the speaking speed seemed to be increasing. Although I couldn't understand a word of it, well... um?

wrong.

Gao Hai suddenly realized the problem.

Those loud noises are not entirely incomprehensible.

His pupils suddenly turned blood red at that moment. The rampaging blessing greatly enhanced Gao Hai's senses in an instant, and the originally incomprehensible noise began to become clear as Gao Hai's hearing was amplified.

The enclosed and isolated nature of the elevator naturally places those inside in a state of information blockage. What one sees before the elevator doors open is unpredictable, and the sudden stop of the elevator itself is also a source of terror.

That was definitely not noise.

It was a voice speaking at an extreme speed, exceeding the limits of human hearing. Because the speech was so fast, Gao Hai could only hear pure noise and could not understand the content.

The reason for this is incomprehensible. The speaking speed is so fast that even if the broadcast finished telling a ghost story, the player inside the elevator wouldn't understand it at all and wouldn't be able to comprehend what they heard. This practice clearly contradicts the rules governing the effectiveness of ghost stories.

However, even if this is indeed the case, what if this approach leads to something else, or causes other consequences?

Broadcast content always requires an audience. Broadcasts that are too fast for the human ear to hear cannot be effective on humans, which means that humans are excluded as both the audience and the target.

what……

Gao Hai understood what the broadcast meant.

Just as he realized something was wrong, the elevator suddenly stopped, and then the elevator doors began to open slowly.

He looked at the button area inside the elevator; at this moment, none of the buttons were lit up. This meant that the elevator had arrived at a location outside the area summarized in the rule table.

hum-

The elevator doors were fully open, but the loud announcements continued unabated.

Gao Hai looked up and gazed out of the elevator under the dim red light from the top, only to see pure darkness, as if nothing existed outside the elevator.

Then, that thing came in.

A pale, deformed, and completely distorted woman's face emerged from the darkness in an instant, and in less than a blink of an eye, it was almost touching Gao Hai's face, right up against him.

A chilling aura spread outwards, while the distorted human face, with its eyeballs and sockets mostly black, stared at Gao Hai, its mouth gaping open as if it were laughing.

Other things also came into the elevator.

Gao Hai lowered his head slightly and saw dark red high heels standing not far from him.

The lights inside the elevator began to flicker, and its operation seemed to be affected, as if it were about to lose power. The elevator doors also remained open for a long time, as if waiting for more and more important "passengers" to join them.

[Sizzle... sizzle...]

Only the broadcast sound remained clear, still emitting unpleasant, jarring noise.

As far as Gao Hai is now concerned, unless he uses the Berserk Blessing to enhance his senses, he will have no way of understanding what the broadcast is saying.

But for some "passengers" who are not human, the situation may be different. After all, they are not even human, so things that humans cannot understand may appear differently to their senses.

But this still doesn't make much sense. While this thing is incredibly fast at attacking, the fact that neither I nor Chika were instantly killed shows that players are generally immune to attacks inside the elevator. Unless this thing goes looking for other… players later?

hum-

After something clearly ominous had entered, the elevator doors finally closed once again.

At that moment, Gao Hai realized where these things that were now sitting peacefully in the elevator were going next.

Chapter 63: The Time to Get Closer to Ghost Stories and How to Use the Investigator Friend

A strong sense of malice and a chilling atmosphere permeated the narrow elevator.

Gao Hai subconsciously wanted to take a step back, but as soon as he made a move, he noticed that there was something standing behind him, so he had to stay still.

After shifting his gaze slightly, he saw long, black hair, seemingly wet, trailing on the ground behind him.

The pale face in front of him was still pressed tightly together, close enough to be kissing if they took one more step.

Standing beside him was a figure wearing dark red high heels. Because the large face directly in front of him was obstructing his view, Gao Hai couldn't make out what the figure in high heels looked like.

In addition, there was a black umbrella in the elevator, and there were also blood-red handprints on the wall, like those left by a child.

At least five or more strange and supernatural creatures were crammed into the elevator at that moment, even though Gao Hai's view was almost completely blocked, and he could only barely see his surroundings. Who knows, there might be even more strange creatures hiding somewhere he couldn't see.

The broadcast had stopped at that moment, and no more noise was emitted.

In addition, Fujiwara Chika has also woken up, but she doesn't move. She just continues to lie in Takami's arms as before she woke up, but she slightly adjusted her position to reduce the burden on Takami.

The elevator is now extremely cold and damp, with the temperature undoubtedly below zero.

And Gao Hai could also vaguely sense that something extremely disgusting had appeared in the air, so much so that every time he breathed, he felt as if he had swallowed a slug in his throat, and he could strongly feel something twisting and turning in his trachea.

Gao Hai could sense the presence of three strange entities locking onto him: the round-faced figure in front of him, the one with the Head & Shoulders behind him, and the one with the red dancing shoes beside him. These three entities had clearly triggered the rules upon entering, intending to kill him. However, due to some unique characteristic of the elevator itself, they merely stood around Gao Hai without actually launching an attack.

In other words, at least for now, he doesn't need to worry about his life.

However, this does not mean that everything is fine. After realizing that the deeper areas of Yelu Mountain Middle School might be affected by the people of [Takamagahara], Gao Hai had no doubt that these strange creatures that squeezed into the elevator would go to [3rd floor] to cause trouble for Xiong Mi and the others who had just met up.

Although these strange creatures should theoretically still be the supernatural tales originating from Yelu Mountain Middle School itself, and therefore the prerequisite of being "recognized" should still exist for them to truly trigger the murder rule, Gao Hai really has no idea what the outcome will be once these things gather in such large numbers and all run to the "3rd floor".

We need to find a way to keep them here.

Gao Hai took a deep breath, maintaining a calm mindset, and slowly took a step to his side.

That round face was still pressed tightly against Gao Hai, moving along with him.

tick-

The sound of water droplets falling to the ground came from the wet hair behind him, and it was obvious that the thing was moving as well.

The red shoes didn't move, but the toes of the shoes were always pointing towards Gao Hai, maintaining an absolutely locked position.

{Fujiwara Chika: Umi, what should we do now?}

Fujiwara Chika, who still appeared to be unconscious, cautiously asked Takami through the mental link.

{Gao Hai: These things might be heading towards Miko's direction. If the elevator arrives at a certain place, and it's not in a different "depth" than where others are, we'll have to find a way to lure them out. If it is in a different "depth" than where others are, we'll have to find a way to keep them there.}

Gao Hai's expression remained calm as he quickly explained the situation via mental link.

{Yotsuya Miko: Huh? Did you encounter a ghost in the elevator, senpai? Um, do you need us to come back and help? There aren't any ghosts at this school we're in, so it's relatively safe. Coming back to help shouldn't be a problem.}

{Takami: No, absolutely not, especially you, Miko. You absolutely cannot come back here now. This might be related to Takamagahara.}

{Fujiwara Chika: But without anyone else's help, it will probably be very difficult for Akai and me to contain these things on our own.}

Gao Hai: Do you have any ideas?

{Fujiwara Chika: Hmm, it's hard to say what the approach is without testing it. However, based on the information Akai has gathered over two rounds, the ghosts in this school seem to be a combination of man-made tales and real-life victims, and they need to be identified before they can attack living people. In other words, we must first understand what kind of tales these ghosts in the elevator are before we can come up with a way to deal with them.}

{Gao Hai: That's true, but this path won't work. The rules inside the elevator are very clear: once I understand the rules of these strange creatures, a connection will be established between me and them. They might follow me and then attack me when I leave the elevator.}

{Fujiwara Chika: So this is a dead end created using the rules, a trap set for players trying to solve this dungeon. And if you want to break through this trap, Ahai, you need to find a way to restrict the movement of these monsters without knowing the relevant rules.}

{Gao Hai: Very good, Qianhua, your analysis has successfully given me a headache.}

Surrounded by a host of monsters and with no end in sight, Gao Hai and Qian Hua started chatting through their mental link.

Clearly, both Gao Hai and Qian Hua were in a very calm state of mind at this moment, and their emotions were not shaken at all because of the dangerous situation they were in.

think.

As humans, our greatest advantage over mechanical creatures is our ability to think.