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

{Yotsuya Miko: That's right, although it was only for a short time, I definitely saw that scene. Strange… I should have said something immediately, but why do I have no recollection of it…}

Gao Hai, who had already reached the entrance of the dormitory area, paused slightly at this moment.

A person whose body parts have been drastically removed and who is placed in a container... is that an ammunition pack? What kind of hellish joke is this? If that thing is really a person, and so far only Miko, a girl with abnormal perception, has seen it and even feels that she is "possessed" by it... could it be that that is the real body that the players have in this instance?

If the body that Miko sees is the real one, then everything else is fake.

Therefore, the deaths of players from Nightfall Mountain Middle School and the Bydos Research Institute do not signify the end of the story. Because the identities they acquired within the instance are always placed in a specific area of ​​the research institute, while the players with actual abilities are, according to the rules, avatars created by the power of the supernatural. Therefore, a player will only die if the bodies of the same player in both areas are destroyed.

Although there are still some parts that are not fully explained, this seems to be the most reasonable explanation.

But if this statement is correct, then according to Miko's description of her experience... her "true form" in this instance should be hidden somewhere in Zone 1, right? And my "true form" might be in Zone 3, the place in the Baydos Research Institute where things first went out of control.

crunch--

While he was thinking, Gao Hai quietly opened the door to the dormitory area.

After roughly figuring out these issues, he immediately informed Kumami and Goto Ichiri through Fujiwara Chika about the players' situation upon entering this place, and how he himself had escaped. He asked them if there was any way to gain the ability to move freely within the Baydos Research Institute under these circumstances. He then summoned Howard and Hirano Sosuke to his side, since Kumami had already retrieved the pale white hand, and there was no longer a need to leave the firefighters and police officers there.

At this moment, Xiong Mi and Goto Ichiri were still thinking about how to gain the ability to move so that they wouldn't be killed as soon as they entered Baydos. The two of them might not be able to enter for a while. Gao Hai also didn't rush to act and slowly explored the dormitory area first.

Compared to the recreation area, the dormitory area of ​​this underground base was remarkably clean. All the beds were neatly made, and there were no personal belongings scattered about. No bloodstains, gunshot wounds, or spent bullet casings were found. From this, Gao Hai could confirm that Area 3 of the underground base hadn't fallen during the soldiers' bedtime. Considering the obvious signs of use in the recreation room, he guessed that something might have happened during shift changes, leading to the complete fall of the entire area.

Some dirty footprints, like those left by someone who wasn't wearing shoes, caught Gao Hai's attention.

He followed the footprints and quickly discovered that they led to the bottom of a poster in the room. It was a large, vintage-looking poster depicting the heyday of some crazy empire.

Gao Hai paid little attention to the bearded artist on the poster. He simply compared it to the other posters in the room, confirmed that this was indeed the largest, and then stopped. He didn't intend to go over and lift the poster; instead, he decided to wait for Xiong Mi and Goto Ichiri to confirm the situation before proceeding.

That's what he thought at first, at least.

{Where are you……}

A voice suddenly appeared in the mental link.

{Fujiwara Chika: Huh?}

{Yotani Miko: Huh? }

Unlike the other two girls in the link, one of them hadn't spoken for several hours.

{Consort Zhen? How are you? Are you still in the courtyard? What's the situation there?}

Surprised that Maki would respond, Takami immediately replied via the mental link. Her voice sounded strange, as if there was a poor signal, or perhaps something was wrong with Maki herself. Considering the black watch had never malfunctioned before, Takami guessed that Maki's situation was probably not good.

I...heard...it...

From the muffled and low voice, one could sense that Maki's spirits had improved slightly.

{I heard it clearly...it was actually very close...}

However, as the sound continued, Gao Hai began to have a slightly uneasy feeling.

{Princess Zhenfei, can you still be sure of your exact situation, where you are, what you are doing, and who is with you?}

Gao Hai frowned and asked again.

{Um...I'm here...here...here...}

Her voice sounded somewhat excited, with a noticeable surge of emotion that the real concubine would never normally exhibit.

{Haijun...I see...you...we're...so close...}

It sounded like someone was breathing slightly heavily, as if they were running.

I'm right here...

The voice sounded in Gao Hai's ears, carrying a hint of joy at a long-awaited reunion.

Then--

Gao Hai felt a slight tug on the back of his collar.

Chapter 90: The Third Kind of Being and Shared Perception Through Distortion and Dissolution

【Sea King... Sea King...】

The affectionate call brought a familiar touch, as if our skin were intertwined and pressed tightly together.

I'm here... I'm here...

An unprecedented dizziness surged through my mind, so intense it almost drove me insane. The fragments of my protective instincts began to shatter, unable to withstand the overwhelming force of this mental pollution.

I've finally realized... I've always... been in this place... I've always been here...

The girl's familiar, gentle voice now carried a twisted, crazed quality, accompanied by piercing noise that assaulted the senses.

How is this going?

At this moment, Gao Hai was already kneeling on the ground, supporting himself with his hands to maintain his balance and ensure that he did not fall down immediately.

The mental link remains open to this day, so it is certain that Princess Maki herself did not die.

She is still alive. No matter what state she is in, she should still be alive.

But at this moment, the voice that appeared behind him, a voice that was not something a human could make... a voice full of distortion and pollution, seemed to be exactly the same as Maki herself.

"Cough!"

Gao Hai coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his entire helmet instantly turned crimson.

He suddenly realized that his internal organs and muscles had begun to show signs of decay, and his body's balance was gradually being disrupted from the inside out.

This feeling... is like I'm slowly... melting?

"Cough! Cough cough!!"

The pain was more intense than expected.

Hair was falling out strand by strand.

The skin began to melt, as if it were wax exposed to a flame.

[Gao Jun... is here... is here...]

A second voice sounded beside him; this time it was Kaguya Shinomiya. Like Maki, she seemed to have become a vessel for something, appearing beside Takami through some connection and subjecting him to even stronger erosion and corruption.

The summoned rescue team members were unable to help Gao Hai out of his predicament because, from their perspective, there was no one around Gao Hai and absolutely nothing in sight.

But Gao Hai could sense that the two girls had walked up to him, and he could feel that they were watching him and calling his name.

No, it wasn't them.

Maki and Kaguya have likely been completely corrupted and transformed into something else entirely. The one watching me now is something unrelated to them. I never imagined there could be a way to transform a player while they're still alive, and without the player dying and becoming a monster afterward. Could this… be the product of that third existence that combines ghost stories and humanity, the one that Kenichi Egani and Urian were seeking? Is this method—which neither kills the player nor completely transforms them into a non-human being—hidden in that courtyard?

Plop-plop-

A strange, sticky sound came from inside the protective suit.

That was the sound of Gao Hai's skin and flesh gradually separating, the surface flesh turning into a viscous pulp, as the corrosive force peeled away his entire body's flesh step by step, and as he continued to move, it was like the sound of sloshing liquid.

Blood filled the inside of his protective suit, and the intense pain almost completely overwhelmed Gao Hai's senses. This intense dissolving sensation occurred simultaneously in every part of his body, making it extremely difficult for him to even control his own body.

{Fujiwara Chika: Umi! What happened over there? Your body, your body over here, is dissolving! Ugh, what's going on? I just heard Maki's voice, and her voice sounds so strange...}

{Yotsuya Miko: Senpai? Senpai? What happened again? Senpai, are you still there?!}

Within the mental link, the voices of the two girls were still clearly ringing out, and the information revealed by Chika made Gao Hai force himself to perk up.

Is my body, hidden in Alice's Cottage, also dissolving?

Theoretically, that place shouldn't be able to be affected by external forces. Is it because I stayed in Baidos that a forced contact was established? Even so, Chika died twice in Baidos without any problems, so why do I feel like I'm going to die on both sides now?

No... I can't die like this...

Despite his bones beginning to soften, Gao Hai drew strength from his rescue team badge and began to forcefully climb forward.

The pain was intensifying, but the wound was not healing.

The dissolved flesh did not recover despite the power of the rescue team badges.

According to the power assessment of this obsessive object, Gao Hai is currently completely uninjured and in perfect health. As for phenomena such as flesh dissolution and internal organ dissolution... these phenomena are classified as natural human changes such as hair growth and fingernail growth in the rescue team's badge, and are therefore directly ignored.

No, it wasn't ignored.

This badge can heal my wounds and restore me to a healthy state.

However, the dissolution of my body by this strange corrosive force is a direct rewriting of my own existence. In this state, I no longer possess the "healthy" state as understood by humans, and the rules have already overridden my previous self.

This kind of complete overhaul at the rule level... also happened to Maki and the others, to the people who were studied by Urian and Kenichi Egaya?

Gao Hai continued his arduous crawl, step by step, toward the poster.

It's not time to give up yet.

Although most of the core obsessions have been addressed and a great deal of hidden information within the instance has been unearthed, what we have now is far from enough to truly crack the instance. I must survive as long as possible, I must do everything in my power to gather as much intelligence as possible before I die, and I must use this life, which is destined to end, until the very last moment.

{Takami: Miko, from now on, I will open my spirit, everything I hear and feel, to you. Through Chiyo Hachiya's blessing, I will connect our spiritual worlds via a spiritual link, allowing you to clearly perceive and analyze my situation.}

{Gao Hai: This is extremely dangerous. Right now, you're only acting on a sliver of consciousness. If anything goes wrong, you could die on the spot, or even face a situation worse than death. But you're the one with the strongest perception here. Only you can still see and sense something at this moment.}

{Gao Hai: So, are you ready?}

As Gao Hai approached the poster step by step, he also spoke to Jianzi through their mental link.

【Kai-kun...don't go...stay...】

【Gao Jun... stay here... stay in this place... we're all here... we'll spend this time happily together...】

Maki and Kaguya's voices were getting closer, becoming louder and more distorted than before.

He could almost feel two different footsteps beside him, and he could feel the two women standing beside him with smiles on their faces, looking at him and speaking to him, expressing their deep love and possessiveness.

tear-

Even with the blessing of Hedar's rampage, Gao Hai, whose body was almost completely dissolved, barely had the strength to tear the poster apart.

The stench of decomposing corpses quickly filled the room. Gao Hai didn't know how he could smell it while wearing full protective gear and in a state of complete dissolution. But he could see the body of a person in German or Italian military uniform lying behind the poster in a small hole that had clearly been dug by hand.

His protective suit was torn, revealing clear bullet holes, while his helmet and oxygen cylinder were missing.

{…}

It seemed that Jianzi had given a reply, but Gao Hai couldn't hear what she was saying clearly.