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

I couldn't quite understand the specifics before, but now I think I can understand them, albeit with some difficulty.

It was spoken from that thing's mouth... that thing was saying...

{Yotsuya Miko: Senpai! Hayasaka and I cut off part of the power to Zone 1, so we're temporarily without power here, but I can hear the alarm going off. How's the situation on your end? Has anything changed? Hayasaka has pried open the elevator door, and we'll be down the elevator shaft soon.}

You could sense the girl's anxiety from the conversation.

She was genuinely afraid something might happen to her. They'd only known each other for less than two weeks, yet their relationship had grown so close without her even realizing it. However, given the current situation here, she couldn't be allowed to come.

{Gao Hai: Don't come down yet. A strange creature with highly polluting mental properties has appeared here. If you come down, something bad will definitely happen. Stay in Zone 1. You've already helped me a lot. Continue to gather intelligence in Zone 1. I'll try to escape on my own.}

{Yotsuya Miko: Huh? Oh, but, senpai…}

{Gao Hai: Okay, this is an order. The thing I encountered here is something that pollutes the mental world upon visual contact and gradually grows in a person's consciousness like a parasite. My willpower can resist this thing, but if you come over, things will definitely get serious, so leave it to me. Don't forget, we're carrying more than one life right now, so don't try to be reckless at this time.}

{Yotsuya Miko: ...I understand.}

I don't know whether the other party truly understands or is just pretending.

However, at least Gao Hai has figured out why those researchers in white coats are so dangerous and are listed as "must be shot on sight" in the rule list.

[Join us...]

A distorted murmur echoed in my mind.

[Boundless...merging into one...stepping into the abyss...]

Even with conscious effort, I couldn't stop the voice from continuing to echo in my mind.

Gradually, I've been able to perceive more things.

With just a slight effort of breathing, one could smell the blood in the air.

The stench of blood, like something emanating from some dark and deep world, gradually filled this underground space.

There was something in that blood.

Something alive, dormant, beyond reason.

The initial researchers did not wear protective suits, at least not the full-body protective suits that soldiers wear now.

Upon close contact with the blood and its components, changes began to occur in the researchers, leading to the initial experimental accident.

Something had taken root in them, growing from their flesh and slowly crawling out of them.

It's unclear how Urian managed to suppress the crisis back then, but at least now, Gao Hai has experienced firsthand the terror of having his body parasitized by something, the feeling of something burrowing into his flesh, slowly and methodically gnawing at his tissues, and gradually replacing him.

It is extremely difficult to resist this kind of infection and parasitism.

But Gao Hai wasn't actually resisting this thing. In fact, he had already opened up his senses to a certain extent, trying to speed up the process of this thing infecting him.

The reason for doing so is simple: Gao Hai could feel that as this thing gradually eroded his body, his mobility was also gradually recovering.

This weird thing, whose exact nature I don't know, seems capable of controlling my body after it takes over, judging from its abilities. Since I'm currently immobilized and unable to control my own body due to my "feigned death," I might be able to seize this opportunity to regain control and gain the ability to move freely within this underground laboratory.

So, we really need to hold on for now.

Gao Hai's consciousness became increasingly focused and concentrated.

The sounds in his ears were becoming clearer, and whether he wanted to hear them or not, he was now forced to accept the impact these things had on his mind.

[He is in...a deeper place...but that's not enough...]

Let's open the passage... Yes... Yes... Let's connect the two worlds...

[Open the passage to the abyss... Come deeper... Come on... Come together...]

As the whispers faded, the image gradually came into focus.

It was in a rudimentary underground laboratory, where people dressed in researcher's uniforms were conducting various tests and discussing their next steps. Everything seemed fine, and there appeared to be no problems to worry about.

Then, the crimson light surged up suddenly, instantly crossing the safety boundary of the laboratory and engulfing the researchers who were still confused about the situation.

The alarm sounded quickly. This heavily guarded base already had many soldiers, and when an unexpected situation arose, they all rushed forward. They quickly forced open the laboratory door that had been sealed off from the inside when the alarm went off.

But the soldiers at the time did not see anything strange or eerie.

When the first batch of soldiers entered, they found the laboratory to be exactly as they had always been. Researchers were conducting various tests or discussing upcoming experimental plans, and everyone appeared perfectly calm; there wasn't a single person who seemed amiss.

Perhaps it was just a false alarm?

The soldiers couldn't help but have this thought.

"Sir, we heard the alarm. Is there a problem here?"

A soldier approached a researcher and asked him a question. His biggest mistake was not pointing his gun at the researcher.

Of course, there were absolutely no problems...

The researcher laughed as he answered, then opened his mouth and swallowed the soldier's head.

The scene reminded Gao Hai of a fairly famous manga called "Parasyte." It was like a scene from the beginning of that manga, where the man whose head had been replaced by a parasite had his head completely split open and ripped off the head of the woman next to him.

Fresh blood gushed out in the next moment.

Then came gasps, the roar of gunfire, screams, and laughter all mingling together.

The glaring red color gradually spread.

Those researchers, those who were no longer researchers, did indeed fall to the guns.

But those things are still here.

With each breath, with each step, a dense, inescapable mass of things swarmed together.

"call……"

Gao Hai's footsteps landed on the ground.

It landed among the blood-red figures crowding the corridor.

"call……"

We haven't been able to truly arrive yet.

It's still a very long way from there.

Even though you can sense it, you still can't take the step to go there.

Open it.

It needs to be opened.

Open the road to Baidos.

Open the path to the Bythos.

This isn't even the deepest part yet...

That's right, this isn't even the deepest part yet...

To get to that place, we must go even further... much deeper...

……

The rescue team badge emerged from the black watch, was grasped by trembling fingers, and then landed on Gao Hai's chest.

A strong chill swept through Gao Hai's consciousness in an instant, a feeling as refreshing as when a waterlogged ear is cleared.

"Ha...uh..."

The feeling of being controlled quickly disappeared, followed by intense fatigue and pain.

Gao Hai gasped for breath and stumbled as he fell, managing to stay upright by bracing himself with his hands on the ground.

The dense, blood-red figures all around gradually became blurry, no longer as clear as before, as if they could be touched.

"The originally scarce divine blood has been proliferating... has it ended up establishing a connection with the gods?"

Muttering to himself, Gao Hai summoned a police officer to help him slowly stand up.

Just now, at least two-thirds of his blood had been completely drained. If it weren't for his superhuman physical abilities and the protection of his badge, Gao Hai estimated that he would have died on the spot and been transformed into something else.

No, even now, that thing hasn't left.

Although I temporarily drove away the thing by using the rescue team badge, after it parasitized my body and briefly controlled it, I had already established a connection with it, which I couldn't easily sever.

"Huh...huh..."

Amidst a severe wave of dizziness, Gao Hai turned around, leaning against the wall, to look behind him, but Fujiwara Chika was nowhere to be seen. The other iron bunk bed that should have been behind him had mysteriously vanished, its whereabouts unknown.

Is there a spatial disorder, or something else?

Gao Hai cautiously activated the mental link, only to find that Fujiwara Chika's mental link had gone offline. She had temporarily lost consciousness, and it was unclear whether she was unconscious or had encountered some misfortune.

Buzz-buzz-

The alarm was still going off, but it sounded a little off.

The empty corridor was devoid of any living creatures except Gao Hai.

But he knew that these things were actually everywhere here, things that grew out of the [divine blood].

They are definitely not human beings. Their way of existence is completely different from any life form in human cognition. These ethereal things seem to have no physical form. Only those who are corrupted and polluted by them can see them and become their carriers.

They... seem to be malleable, changeable depending on those who see them, and altered by those they parasitize, those who become their vessels. They adapt, their forms change.

Their essence, however, cannot be changed. They will destroy, they will wreak havoc, they will construct rules and create disasters in incomprehensible ways. They will transform into mad beings along with their carriers, into terrifying and bizarre things devoid of humanity and emotion.

"prototype……"

Gao Hai now knew what those things were.

They are invisible blood.

They are the prototypes of ghost stories.

The products of human beings merging with them, and then twisting and going mad, are the strange tales and the bizarre.

If we analyze the monsters from all the instances we've encountered so far, and if we divide the entities that gave rise to them, and if we consider one half to originate from humanity, then these things constitute the other half. Their existence is what makes humanity a part of the supernatural tales, and from which these monsters are born.

They originate from blood.

At the Bydos Institute, a place dedicated to the inhuman study of supernatural beings, these things, combined with the researchers' obsessions, pointed to [the truth].

Baydos...

Bythos...