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

If one person can't come up with a solution, two people should work together; if two people can't, three or more should work together to solve the problem. At any time, letting emotions control you is pointless; thinking is the solution, the essential thing for finding a way out.

{Chika Fujiwara: No matter what, they're still just "school ghost stories," right?}

Chika, who was nestled in Gao Hai's arms, suddenly spoke in the mental link.

{Gao Hai: That's right, that's how it is.}

{Fujiwara Chika: Ghost tales only work after they are recognized. In another sense, could this be interpreted as these things actively seeking to reveal themselves, trying every means to make the living aware of their existence, to learn about their experiences and stories, in order to meet the conditions for an attack? Just like what you said before, Ahai, about something actively trying to talk to you from behind during class in your first playthrough—[revealing their own information] is precisely the basic operational logic of these ghostly creatures.}

The girl in his arms uttered a single, light sentence, which was enough to enlighten Gao Hai.

{Gao Hai: In other words, if there are beings who want to understand them, and if a few people appear looking for these strange creatures, their attention is likely to be diverted, and they will no longer focus on you and me standing in the elevator, or on the players elsewhere?}

For a ghost story to be considered real, it must be recognized to trigger the rules.

Therefore, ghost story societies yearn to spread their stories and want more people to know about their existence.

Although the evidence for this inference may be insufficient and there are still many assumptions, considering the strange creature that chatted with someone in the background during the first playthrough and the two recruitment posters for the Ghost Story Club that were found, it is certain that there is indeed a force within the school spreading and disseminating ghost story information, and this behavior is very likely part of the rules of these things.

{Takashi: Miko, could you please have Ms. Goto use her guitar cart to bring a few curious, one-off investigators? Have them use the strange creatures I described as targets for investigation, and have them all go to the main teaching building… uh, that's not quite right, let's go to the library on the first floor then. Anyway, once those clones are inside, have them keep searching for information. Remember to tell her to sever the memory links after the strange creatures leave, to avoid any trouble later.}

{Yotsuya Miko: No problem, received.}

The powerful mental link perfectly solved the communication and cooperation problem between teammates. At this moment, the elevator showed signs of slowing down again, as if it was about to stop on a certain floor.

Thinking this, Gao Hai slightly turned his head to avoid the big, round face that was pressing against him, and turned his gaze to the elevator buttons.

This time, he saw that the button that had lit up was the "open door button".

Chapter 64: The Crude Hierarchy and Possible Connections Between Schools

hum-

With a dull thud, the elevator doors slowly opened.

A sliver of light shone in from outside the elevator doors, making it appear as if it were morning outside.

The strange creatures standing inside the elevator showed no intention of leaving, remaining motionless in their positions. Head & Shoulders, leaning against Gao Hai, continued to drip water, and the round face pressed against him from the front showed no sign of moving away. The pair of red shoes visible out of the corner of his eye also remained unmoved.

Tsk, the view ahead is almost completely blocked, so I can't see what's going on outside the elevator doors at all.

Gao Hai subconsciously clenched his fist, wanting to punch that ugly, round face flat on the spot. But for a lifeless and mindless creature, such an action wouldn't harm it, nor would it evoke emotions like humiliation or anger. Moreover, considering the rules and characteristics of the elevator, to ensure his own safety, Gao Hai had to ignore this thing as much as possible and avoid any form of interaction with it.

But wait, it's because Chika and I can't interact with these things. If other things interact with them, will they be unaffected?

Thinking of a certain possibility, Gao Hai reached out and gently pressed his hand on the rescue team badge he was wearing.

The rescue mission has begun.

As a deep, steady male voice rang out, Howard appeared in the elevator the next moment.

The auras of those strange creatures and their targets remained unchanged. Clearly, Howard, whose aura was also that of a strange creature, did not arouse their hostility. At least until Howard showed hostility, these creatures would not shift their focus to him.

The next moment, Gao Hai looked out of the elevator through Howard's perspective.

That is……

Just like the elevator rules describe.

What appeared before Gao Hai was a very "rough" and blurry world.

Like a game screen with a modeling error, although the connection between this place and the scenery of Yelu Mountain Middle School was still visible, everything was indistinguishable. This scene reminded Gao Hai of Zaoli Elementary School. In that instance, once you stepped outside the map, you would see the same scene, the same rough and incomplete scenery, as if some kind of bug had occurred.

Is there any connection between these two?

Gao Hai directed Howard to the elevator door, blocked the door from closing, and then continued to observe the surroundings while thinking.

The map for Fujika Middle School doesn't have this problem; it's similar to the dungeons I've experienced before, exactly as it appears. However, both Hayate Elementary School and the current Yoruyama Middle School seem to have these blurry, rough areas. The only difference is that the rough areas in Hayate Elementary School are all outside the map, untouchable virtual scenery, while the rough area in Yoruyama Middle School appears to be explorable.

So, what is special about Yoroyama Junior High School and Hayate Elementary School that they both have, but Fujika Junior High School does not?

【■■Hotel】

Gao Hai quickly recalled the thing whose name he couldn't clearly identify for some reason.

Sato escaped the hotel with someone and brought out some kind of peculiar obsession. The researchers from Baydos also knew about the hotel and likely brought something out of it as well.

Both Hayate Elementary School and Yoruyama Junior High School used the obsessive item brought from the hotel in their research projects, while Fujika Junior High School conducted its experiments without external assistance. This is the biggest commonality between Hayate Elementary School and Yoruyama Junior High School. Or rather, it's a commonality shared by the remaining four districts except for Fujika Junior High School.

Could this be the reason for the formation of these rough areas? If so, what do these areas actually mean?

Gao Hai, lost in thought, stood there motionless, holding Chika in his arms.

The elevator doors clearly showed signs of closing several times during the journey, but because Howard blocked the doors, they couldn't actually close, so the elevator remained stuck on that floor.

Clearly, Gao Hai was trying to stall for time.

He would wait until Maki made a move, and until Goto Ichiri created a clone that could help him escape, before deciding on his next move based on the reactions of these strange creatures.

Of course, during this process, he did not forget to have Howard carefully observe the situation outside, striving not to miss any details.

Soon, through Howard's gaze, Gao Hai discovered something.

It appeared to be some kind of mark, like words written with a marker, roughly in the shape of an X. It was located on the left side of the indistinct corridor, about twenty meters away from the elevator.

After careful examination, Gao Hai recognized the words written on it.

The location indicated by this mark represents the maximum safe distance.

Once this distance is exceeded, the explorers will no longer respond to the personnel remaining behind them and will continue moving forward involuntarily until they disappear from the sight of the personnel remaining behind them.

Even if the personnel remaining behind tried to pull the explorer using ropes or similar objects, they would only pull back empty ropes.

No one knows where the explorers who crossed this distance went; they never returned.

【——Life Club】

The brief written record of the failed exploration also led Gao Hai to quickly abandon the idea of ​​personally setting foot in the place to investigate.

This life club… judging from the information from the first playthrough, this club was probably established when Nightfall Mountain Middle School was still operating normally, and it continued to exist for a long time even after Nightfall Mountain Middle School was destroyed by an aerial bomb and began to function as a dungeon. These people not only had the time and ability to leave rule sheets in various parts of the school, but they also explored different depths within the school. If these guys were just ordinary people without supernatural powers, Gao Hai felt it was a bit too unbelievable.

However, considering that there were traces of survivors in the previous instances I'd encountered, it wasn't entirely impossible. But based on my current investigation of Nightfall Mountain Middle School, this instance area seems to be the least suitable place for long-term survival. How did those survivors manage to survive?

{Yotsuya Miko: Senpai, Ichiri-san has created three clones with a strong tendency to investigate ghost stories and has placed them in the attached school building.}

{Yotsuya Miko: We're all currently hiding inside the swimming pool building. Even in the deeper parts, it seems unlikely that any strange creatures will appear. However, there's an unusual aura emanating from the pool area, but we haven't gone to investigate rashly. Also, we discovered that the door leading from the building to the pool is completely blocked by various debris, as if someone had previously hidden here and sealed off the path for safety.}

Soon, a communication came from Jianzi, who told Gao Hai the good news he had been waiting for.

Gao Hai: Be extremely careful. If you sense anything is even slightly wrong, immediately tell Xiong Mi to lead everyone out of the swimming pool. We still know too little about this place; we must treat it with the utmost caution.

After replying to Jianzi and giving her a careful warning, Gao Hai's attention returned to the round face in front of him and the strange creatures gathered around him.

After a moment's thought, Gao Hai still let Howard return to the elevator, not treating this rescue team member as a disposable item.

The elevator doors closed quickly after being unobstructed, and with Howard's perspective, Gao Hai was able to observe the situation inside the elevator more comprehensively and immediately confirmed more strange objects.

There was a porcelain doll standing in the corner that looked quite old.

There was something wearing a suit, but you couldn't see its head, and its sleeves were also empty, like an invisible person wearing clothes.

There was also a blurry, mosaic-like humanoid figure that appeared, possibly after the elevator stopped at this indistinct floor.

Adding to the things they'd seen before, this small elevator now contained a total of eight strange tales. Although these things were all currently in a state of inactivity and appeared harmless, Gao Hai was certain that if they were to actually activate, he and Qianhua would have no chance of leaving the elevator alive.

Buzz-buzz-

The elevator is running again.

In the deathly silent elevator, bathed in dim red light, only the clear sounds of Gao Hai and Qian Hua's breathing and heartbeats could be heard.

The inhuman creatures remained silent, emanating a deathly and chilling aura that made the already oppressive and cramped elevator even more eerie. The heavy pressure made it difficult for Chika, who was leaning against Gao Hai, to breathe, but the girl gritted her teeth and did not make any unusual noise.

It seems... things are starting to change.

In the deathly silence, Gao Hai noticed the changes in these strange creatures.

The pale, white face that had been staring at him seemed to tremble briefly, as if it had been drawn to something.

The dripping wet hair behind him stopped, and there were faint signs that the hair was starting to curl.

The red shoes reacted most noticeably. They had been pointing their toes at Gao Hai, but now the toes were pointing in another direction. And if you blinked or looked away every now and then, you would see that the direction the shoes were pointing was constantly changing, as if they were searching for some target.

However, if observed from Howard's perspective, Gao Hai could more clearly discern the restlessness of these things. Regardless of whether their original targets were Gao Hai or Qian Hua, at this moment, these things had been drawn to something new, and the target of their supernatural rules had begun to shift.

hum-

The elevator stopped again.

This time, the eerie elevator finally arrived at the place Gao Hai wanted it to go, which is the area where the [3rd floor] is located.

The elevator doors, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, opened silently.

The next moment, all the strange objects inside the elevator began to move. Except for the one that was almost pressed against Gao Hai's face, the others either disappeared completely or stepped out of the elevator like living people. Then, after more than ten seconds, the round face seemed to feel an even stronger attraction and finally "reluctantly" moved away from Gao Hai, then floated out of the elevator like a balloon.

"call……"

The crisis was finally averted at this moment, and Gao Hai rushed out of the elevator with Qian Hua without hesitation.

It was the same familiar corridor, exactly the same as when he and Miko had arrived together, except that the corridor without the eerie red light was gone.

Faint, unusual noises were already coming from downstairs. It seemed that the "friends" that Goto Ichiri had created had been contacted. I wondered what those things would do to the cannon fodder who had worked so hard to sift through the information.

As for the fact that the first floor is currently occupied by those things and escape is unlikely, this is never a problem for Gao Hai. He only needs to take out the blood key and then find any door on the second floor to insert the key into.

{Shijou Maki: Kai-kun... something's not right...}

At this moment, Zhenfei's somewhat unusual voice rang out, and the weariness in her voice was clearly audible.

{Shijo Maki: The "corpses" we dug out of the mud earlier are gone. Even though we placed some kind of sensory object beforehand, nothing seemed amiss. We only discovered they were missing after we investigated the area and returned…}

{Shijo Maki: And I have this strange... really bad feeling here. I feel like I keep hearing someone talking to me, but when I listen carefully, I can't really hear whose voice it is... It's not just me, other people have this feeling too, including those people who keep looking down from the windows... My aunt said she thinks she saw Hayasaka-san...}

{Shijo Maki: If anything unexpected happens, I will transmit everything I see, hear, and feel while I can still transmit information... I can already vaguely sense that the rules operating in this [courtyard] are different from those in the teaching building. We might have come to the wrong place... I don't know how to say it, this is indeed a [courtyard], but it seems... not to be the [courtyard] we should be looking for. We've come to the wrong place...}

Gao Hai: Understood, hang in there.

{Fujiwara Chika: Maki-san, and Kaguya-san... please try your best to protect yourselves. We are also doing our best to investigate the situation.}

The girl's confused and pained voice reached Gao Hai's ears one by one.

In silence, he had already used the blood key to open the door, revealing a dark lobby on the first floor of the swimming pool behind it.

The Blood Key cannot open the courtyard door, and attempting to jump into the courtyard from the classroom window is undoubtedly suicidal; the number of active monsters in the main teaching building is already too large for players to enter.